What if you decided to go beyond posting your photos on Flickr, 500Px, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus, etc., and take some time to create your own photographer's website?
Contrary to what you might think, it is now very simple to create your own photographer's website without tearing your hair out and without it costing you too much.
Before going any further, in this article we will talk about blogs, portfolios and websites interchangeably. Nowadays, it is useless to consider creating a website without a blog section where you can share your news, the latest shoots, your favourites, etc. And conversely, a blog and a portfolio are technically websites since they are websites presented in a particular form.
Why create your website / blog?
Today, you surely have a Flickr account, a Facebook page and an Instagram account on which you share your most beautiful photos with your subscribers.
Why create a website since people already know you on these social networks and it is on these same networks that they come to see your photos?
There are many reasons why it is interesting to create your website NOW, it could be the occasion for another article.
To make a long story short, by creating your website you take control. You take control of your content. You take control of your identity and style (instead of being just another page among many, with the same sanitized style). You are no longer dependent on a social network like Facebook where it is increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. With your website, you are professionalizing yourself and showing a facet of yourself as an active photographer.
By creating your website, you will also improve various skills: writing, storytelling, photo layout, and many other important skills in our ever-changing world.
Instead of investing time (and a little money) on a social network profile that you don't own, you will be able to capitalise on your website and your audience. Yes, the people who visit your website are your audience, not [insert name of the social network you use].
But when you create your website, you should not stop communicating on social networks to put everything on your website and wait for people to come and see your pictures. No, creating your website should be a way for you to create a photographic 'hub' where your readers can discover your work in depth and learn more about you, your story, your photos, your passion for photography and your achievements (if you are a professional photographer).
A website or blog is also a good way to get your photos out of your hard drives and "expose" them, a bit like a virtual exhibition. Here, no prints, no frames hanging on the walls, but you show your photos to the world, it's even better! This makes it a good alternative to photo printing, although we do recommend that you print your photos.
Finally, by creating your website or blog you will inevitably meet new people, online, but also in real life, because there is still a beautiful community of bloggers and photographers who appreciate helping each other. By the way, if you publish an article that could be of interest to Phototrend readers, send us a message.
WordPress, the most used solution
Today there are many solutions for creating a website. Some are free, others require payment, others work on the basis of a monthly subscription. To create your blog or portfolio, we recommend using the WordPress blog engine.
WordPress is probably the most popular blog engine in the world. In November 2015, a study by W3Techs indicated that 25% of the world's websites are powered by WordPress. Open source and free, WordPress benefits from numerous themes and plug-ins that allow you to create a blog in your own image without touching a line of code.
WordPress is installed on a server, but also works directly by creating an account on WordPress.com. Unfortunately, the services offered by WordPress.com are for the moment quite reduced compared to what WordPress offers when it is installed on a server, and you are moreover dependent on WordPress.com.
Now that you have understood the benefits of creating your website, here are the 6 steps you need to follow to get you up and running.
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