Photography Business on a Budget

Photography

Building a photography business on a budget is challenging but achievable. If you are just starting out, you have to realize that photography is just like any other business, it takes dedication, focus and at least a small amount of capital. Let's take a look at some of the options available. There are of course branches of photography like medicine, forensics and other specialist areas where you don't need a website per say, but you may still like a photo blog for social reasons.

Let's assume that you are a competent photographer and you have enough of a portfolio to at least set up a basic website suitable for your chosen niche. Portraiture, fashion, advertising, public relations, photo-art; the list is long, but no matter which discipline you've chosen you must have a web presence. A free option is to use WordPress.org. The dot com version will be fine at a very basic level but does not support the plugins you'll need if you're serious about your work. This is a practical solution that will allow you to showcase your work and there's great support from within the WordPress community to help you get started.

Don't be intimidated by the prospect of building your own site. There is a learning curve, but your efforts will be well rewarded by making you independent of a webmaster and in total control of the site. An early word of advice is to avoid 'Flash' at all costs. There are several of these styles available to WordPress users but you'll find that flash will do you no favours when it comes to optimising your site for search engines. Register with WordPress forums and you'll find a wealth of information that will help you decide if this is the way to go. The WordPress community is full of wonderful people, but you must remember that this is not a business; it's run by people dedicated to keeping everything 'Open Source'. All the support you receive comes from volunteers, so be polite and patient. It won't be long before you get the hang of things and enjoying a sense of being part of a large family.

A major concern can obviously be about getting things up and running, but never fear, these days its a fairly simple task. There are good solid web hosting companies out there like 'Bluehost', who can show you how to perform a simple install with a few clicks of your mouse through what is called CPanel. You'll find they offer unlimited space, transfer and domains, and most importantly, first class support around the clock, all for less than seven dollars a month. This means that should you decide you need another website for whatever reason you'll be able to host it yourself for no extra charge. Something to remember is that in order for you to build your photography business successfully you're going to be interacting with social media like Facebook and Twitter, and having the capacity to be adding regular posts is a huge asset. You've got that with WordPress and it's much more important than an all singing all dancing website that you've little control over or having to rely on others to upload for you.

There are various options within WordPress to set up photo galleries which some people may find a little intimidating especially if you don't feel comfortable about setting up an e-store. Don't let that be an obstacle. Firstly try the forums and listen to the experiences of others, but if you're still not happy, there are exterior alternatives that are easy and affordable. One UK based company that has an excellent system, including a two week free trial, is Clikpic.com. They offer beautiful classy websites with built in E commerce for only £35 per year, and a US company well worth taking a look at is PhotoReflect.com. You can now have the best of both worlds by linking your personal photo blog to your commercial site which is already set up for business. So let's do a quick recap. You have unlimited web hosting, a photography blog, as many WordPress sites as you wish, and a commercial photography outlet for your work, all for about £10 a month.

I have been a professional photographer for more than thirty years. I enjoy success in photojournalism and photo-art and I've worked for top society magazines in Spain. Keep you photography at the cutting edge, enjoy free trials, discount and great tips in using video with stills. http://www.mybestphototips.com and drop by my photo blog http://jlynn2.com. By John A Lynn