Unsplash is a website that provides high-quality stock photos to use for free, even for commercial purposes (public domain). Post 10 new photos every 10 days. It serves up 600 million images a month and even helped launch its parent company. Here’s how to create your own Unsplash-like website.
Today we’ll create a website just like Unsplash using the popular WordPress content management system (CMS).
The BasicsUnsplash is a website that allows you to download free, high-quality, high-resolution photos using a blog-like format. New photos are posted every 10 days.
Why would you want to build a website like Unsplash?If you want to make money online through advertising or affiliate marketing (CanvasWorld: has a great program at CJ Affiliate: 10-12% commission on all sales with a 60 day tracking cookie), then giving away free photos is a great way to do it.
What What You’ll Need
WordPress CMS Website Hosting and Domain Name (and a few additional plugins I’ll mention later) Expose Theme from StudioPress
How to build your own website like Unsplash
1. Register your domain name and hosting. I like to use Namecheap for Media Temple domains to host larger sites. (They also have a WordPress plan.)
2. Once your domain and hosting are set up, download and install WordPress (or use one-click install if you have option in your control panel).
3. Set your WordPress site name and tagline, as well as permalink structure. I also like to uncheck “Organize my uploads into folders based on months and years” in Settings > Media. This means WordPress will save my photos to a single folder like www.example.com/wp-content/uploads/photoname.jpg instead of http://www.example.com/wp-content/uploads/[year]/ [ month]/photo name.jpg
4. Purchase, upload and activate the StudioPress Expose Pro theme (you will need the child theme and the genesis framework that is included) . I like to rename the theme with screenshot and my site details before uploading and activating it.
5. You will make your website even better with the following plugins :Exifography – Displays the EXIF data of uploaded images.WP-Force Images Download – Adds a download button to the image.Lightbox Gallery strong> – This is the sample gallery Genesis Simple Edits – Allows you to edit the three most frequently changed areas of any Genesis theme: the post info, the meta meta, and the area of footer.Simple Social Icons – Simple social media icons for your website Uber Login Logo – This changes the logo on the login page from WordPress to a logo of your choice.
Add, activate and configure the plugins mentioned above by going to Plugins > Ag water new and find the plugins you need and click the “Install Now” button.
6. Design your logo and add it via Appearance > Customize > Header Image Keep the logo simple, maybe a flat icon. I am using a camera and location icon that I had designed. Change the color scheme to whatever colors you like as well.
7. Once you have all the cosmetics sorted out, you can start adding your photos. All photos are added as posts; to add a photo, go to Posts > Add New
8. When adding a photo, be sure to set “Link to” to “Media File”. this will allow people to access the high-resolution version simply by clicking on it. Also, don’t forget to configure the “WP-Force Image Downloader” plugin, this will allow people to download the photo using a button:
The button is added to the photo by adding the shortcode [wpfid] to the charge To add the gray button like me, add the color to the shortcode like this: [wpfid color=”grey”]. There are 8 color combinations available: Green, Red, Blue, Orange, Pink, Grey, Dark Blue, and Purple.
Just to recap: When someone clicks on the photo, the version will open. high resolution. in the browser where they can save it. When they click the button, the photo will be saved to their computer.
9. Next, we’ll add the Exif data to the photo. Here is information on how to set it up. It will look like this:
You can also add more details about the photo and the photographer if you prefer. Especially if you will be posting other people’s photos to give them credit. Don’t forget to add advertising to your site. I’ve just added a simple “Print this photo to canvas” link in my example.
10. To add a nice finishing touch, I’ve also added examples of how photos are used. inspired by “Made with Unsplash”. They are added as separate galleries under each photo:
Opening in a lightbox:
Business model There are several ways to make money with this site, the most popular among being advertising (CPC and CPM) as well as affiliate marketing.
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