[LadyStardust]

Hi there,

Well, the time has nearly come for me to take the big step of putting together a modest site for my photographs and force myself to 'go public'!

I don't want to spend a lot of money on it and I'd like it to be simple. I am quite happy to use one of the sites that gives you templates and hosts it all for you. I am looking for my own domain name (which I can sort out separately of course if need be), the ability for any potential customers to pay with Paypal, Guestbook facility, slideshow, that sort of thing. Oh and I probably won't want the ability to put thousands of pictures up, just a few hundred max.

Another consideration would perhaps be password protected areas of the site.

Can anyone recommend such a company/site/facility?

The ones I have seen so far that have appealed at all are Clikpic.com and PhotoGalaxy.com.

Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

Lucy

[Dabhand16]

There was a very recent thread on this very topic. If i can find it, I'll give you a link.

[Dabhand16]

OK - not so recent!

Here is one.

Here is another.

And another

And finally another.

[LadyStardust]

Hi Dabhand. Thanks so much for putting the links together for me. I've taken some time today reviewing the threads and have a shortlist of sites to look at now. It's been very helpful.

Cheers!

Lucy

[Dabhand16]

My pleasure! Don't forget to keep us informed of your choice and reasons - other members might well benefit from your research.

Also, when you are up and running, you can add your site to the members web-site section.

[LadyStardust]

Good points. Well made!

Will do that.

Thanks again.

Lucy

[Whipspeed]

Photium is very good. I've just renewed my website for another year. Will who runs it sorts out everything.

[fionaB]

have to agree with Sarah, having ut started my site with photium, i have found them very good and extremely quick to resolve any issues.

Fi

[LadyStardust]

Thanks a lot for your comments. I have to say that Photium is looking particularly strong and having looked at some of the existing customer sites, I really like them.

Thanks!

[Whipspeed]

It's also a doddle to use, I'm not at all web savvy and managed to set my site up in 15 mins originally.

[LadyStardust]

Thanks Sarah. That's encouraging!

I won't have time this weekend to do anything (in-laws are here) but will probably make my decision and go head first into webdom sometime next week. It's an exciting prospect!

Thanks again for everyone's advice; very helpful.

Lucy

[360 Photography]

I don't know how the start up costs compare but I found theimagefile.com to be a great company to work with. Very easy to set up, I had an option where I could have up to 20,000 photos on the site, and the UK help desk was very quick and helpful. When I used them a year ago there was a no obligation one month free trial (which I guess they still offer). I called them at the outset to check that there were no catches, and said that I was likely only to use them for the one month to which they said this was not a problem and were still a delight to deal with. I ended up using them for 6 months as it took longer than I had hoped to sort out the new website!

Re the domain name, the cheapest that I have found are from Lycos.co.uk at £3.98 for 2 years. You have to go to the web hosting page, enter the domain that you want and then purchase it without a web hosting package. You then have a control panel that allows you to point the domain wherever you choose.

[LadyStardust]

Thanks very much, 360. I still haven't quite decided which one to go for yet. All good advice though. I like the idea of of it being easy to set up and with a UK Helpdesk. Having the option of up to 20,000 images is also great, although my portfolio is only a fraction of that at the moment. Mind you, no harm in aiming big!!!

Thanks again. I will update this thread when I make my decision and go ahead.

Cheers all.

Lucy