So why do we have websites? Well, a lot of it has to do with being basically the front of your store or the way to contact the outside world. We have social media and we have all these other aspects. We have facebook and all these things, but having a website is really ownership by you and it's your front facing is the first front facing thing you have to your client, whether that be them finding you, them hiring you them finding out who you are and what you're about so that they feel comfortable and they trust you for them to hire you. The website is also for you to be able to control what you share, you're gonna be able to control your business as far as the types of photography you do, how people can contact you. Um your pricing, maybe basically your entire branding is based off of your website. So part of doing this is picking a platform on how to do this. Now there are basically two different ways to build a website as its own. And there's another way of using a photo centric webs...

ite. So let's start with fully constructing a website. Now you can use a company like squarespace or Wix where you can kind of plug in play, you pick a template that a lot of other photographers use. This is very good and very easy for someone who doesn't want to go into the depths of coding and building out different ways of like constructing their site if you want to do that, you need to use something like Wordpress or you can actually learn html and actually build your own website between these two. I would honestly go with the plug in place. Squarespace Wix sort of style of website. Um squarespace I know cost a little bit of money, which you can find different sort of levels of how much you want to pay as far as tears and templates like that. These sites also construct ways that will build your mobile site when someone's looking on on a phone or a tablet versus your actual desktop. You can really, it's really easy for you to implement portfolios. They have different styles of portfolios that you can show. It will compress and change your photos to really fit and run well on a website. A website that looks professionally made. Um and that's kind of the big deal about a website to is that you're able to present a professional looking front. Like you've taken time, money and effort into what you're doing. One quick option is that Wicks will offer you a site for free. They'll show advertisements and stuff for them. Um, but if you want to start right away, Wicks is the way to get started. You can eventually pay to make those go away. So photography centric websites or websites like zen folio smugmug 500 picks and these websites and platforms are actually created for photographers specifically. And that means that a lot of their templates and a lot of ways you build their website is meant for photography. Also they allow access for clients or sharing photos or hosting your photos. We're actually even printing through their website. Now you can do several different tiers on all these different websites. Um Usually there's a free tier where there's advertisements. You can't do much. Also your website, U. R. L. Is your name or your company slash zen folio or slash uh smugmug or something like that. And as you pay you get things opened up for you. So we'll talk more about this in the case study. But I personally use N. Folio and I pay for the top tier which means that I can apply my own U. R. L. With my own name that I bought from Go Daddy. And now I have access to everything that they provide. And for me a lot of that has to do with having clients be able to access their photos and their galleries with a password. I can decide to put on watermarks through the site. I can also lock downloadable links or unlock damnable links. I can create online galleries for my clients. I can create links to Pinterest. There's a million things you can do that are already built into the hosting. Um A lot of people end up using this as a way for client access but then they'll use Wordpress or squarespace as their front facing website. So you can have a marriage between the two. Or you can just use one or the other. The goal of this is to just get you started. We want you to get your website up and running because that's how you're going to start to get clients. Now, if that's a free option for you to get going now take it and go for it. Unless you're ready to spend some money and start building it, it's very easy to transfer hosts in different websites and it's also very easy just to rebuild your site. Once you've created one, you're going to see what works for you, what doesn't work for you. As you start to shoot more clients, you're gonna have more content to put on your websites. And then also you'll start to see how you're going to share photos with your clients, which we'll get more into later. Do you like just downloading or sending them a thumb drive or do you want a site that will allow them to come in and have a password and stuff like that? The big thing is to just get going and get started

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Will Carnahan

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Why You Need a Website and Platform Options

Why You Need a Website and Platform Options

Lesson Info

31. Why You Need a Website and Platform Options

Lessons

Welcome

Why Do You Want to Start a Photography Business

What Kind of Photography Business Do You Want to Start

Important Personal Note from Instructor Will

Case Study Starting a Photography Business

Quiz - Chapter 1

Introduction to Basics of Starting a Photography Business

Choose Your Business Name

Choose Your Business Structure

Register Your Business Name

Get Your Federal Tax ID

Get Your Business License

Get Your Business Bank Account

Register Your Online Accounts

Branding Your Business

Set Your Prices

The Photography Gear You Need to Start a Business

Case Study - Business Basics

Case Study - Equipment

Quiz - Chapter 2

Intro to Getting Your First Paying Clients

You Need to Prove Yourself

The Best Place to Find Your First Clients

What to Charge for Your First Clients

On Set - Partnering with Other Creatives

On Set - Getting Work in a Competitive Environment

Use Your First Shoot Wisely

Case Study - Getting Your First Clients

Quiz - Chapter 3

Introduction to Create Your Photography Business Website

Why You Need a Website and Platform Options

What Needs to Be On Your Website

Design the Perfect Portfolio

Case Study - Looking at Photography Websites

Quiz - Chapter 4

Introduction to Expanding Your Online Presence

Use Instagram to Grow Your Business

Use Facebook to Grow Your Business

Get Listed on Google

Get Listed on Yelp

Get Listed on Review Sites

Using Craigslist to Get Work

Case Study - Expanding Your Online Presence

Quiz - Chapter 5

Introduction to the Photography Business Workflow

Step 1 - Meeting Your Client

Step 2 - Booking Your Client

Step 3 - The Shoot

Step 4 - Editing Your Photos

Step 5 - Delivering Your Photos

Case Study - Business Workflow

On Set - the Shoot

On Set - Backdrop Placement

On Set - Paper Backdrop Rolls

On Set - The Back Light

On Set - Interacting with Clients

Quiz - Chapter 6

Intro to Business Infrastructure and Continued Growth

Productivity Tools to Make Your More Efficient

Get Business Insurance

Accounting Tools & Tips

Business Tax Tips

Scaling Your Prices Up

Use Conventions and Meet Ups to Grow Your Business

Case Study - Business Growth

Quiz - Chapter 7

Intro to the Selling Prints Section

Why Should You Sell Your Prints

Choose a Printer

How to Price Your Prints

Selling Your Prints Online

Selling Your Prints in Person

Wrapping up This Section

Quiz - Chapter 8