In my article Two Basic Steps to Promote Yourself as a Photographer I talk about the importance of having your own website and provide some suggestions to how you can get up and running with your own website with some good and easy solutions like Zenfolio, phanfare, Kodak Gallery, SmugMug or Shutterfly Pro Gallery.
Another way to get your images in front of potential buyers, curators, fellow photographers, friends and family and just people in general is by starting your own blog.
Blogging is becoming increasing popular among photographers and in recent years we have seen the development of some really cool blog soloutions for photographers.
If you haven’t already started your own blog here are four great blog solutions for photographers which are worth considering.
Each of these solutions provide you with a professional WordPress theme which will help make your photography blog stand out from the crowd.
PhotoPressPro
Starting at just $49.00 PhotoPressPro offers three solutions; Classic, Platinum and The Works where Platimum (at $99.00) is probably the most popular.
PhotoPressPro was developed in close cooperation with professional photographers to create some great WordPress themes available for pro photo blogs. A single-column, wide layout allows for huge images, and the widget-ready header menu and footer enable ultimate control over navigation.
PhotoPressPro’s blogs also feature a powerful, easy-to-use Control Panel which empowers you to completely customize the look of your blog, and save “Snapshots” for dozens of design configurations. Built-in inline comments and a JavaScript slideshow masthead help polish off a clean, high-end look, all for a very affordable price.
WooThemes
WooThemes is what I use for my Photography 24/7 blog, so I’m a little biased here. However there is of course a reason why I decided to use WooThemes as a professional theme for my blog.
The two main reasons were quality and support.
Supreme Quality
WooThemes are all built on a solid code framework which has been fine tuned over some time now. WooThemes also include a new backend solution to let you easily control the theme options and multiple theme styles to every theme, it won’t take you long to get up and running. In addition to the solid foundation, WooThemes simply offer some really cool designs.
Incredible Support
The support offered by WooThemes is simply unparalleled to anything I have seen. The Woo Ninja’s go out of their way to help you tweak and customize things which many, many other companies would simply not help you with stating something along the lines of ‘that goes beyond the scope of our support’. Not so with WooThemes! You get access to theme documentation, tutorials, knowledgebase and probably the best support forum anywhere!
WooThemes prices start at $70.00 and they offer a permanent 3-for-1 offer on any of their WordPress themes. This means you get to choose two free bonus themes in addition to the main theme you want. This gives you the option to have several blogs with different themes, or the option to change your theme to another theme if you get tired of the theme you chose to start with.
For specific photography themes take a look at Aperture, Groovy Photo, Exposure or FreshFolio.
I’m using the Fresh News theme for the Photography 24/7 blog.
DIYthemes
Over 15,000 webmasters rely on the Thesis Framework promoted by DIYthemes which is another popular WordPress blog solution on the market today. The Thesis Theme for WordPress is a high-quality template system that you can use to improve your site immediately.
One of the advantages of Thesis is that they boast one of the strongest SEO of any theme on the market today as result of its coded HTML + CSS + PHP framework. Thesis also contains additional options that will allow you to fine-tune each and every page of your site.
You don’t have to be a coder to use Thesis as it includes option panels which allow you to command your site with ease, while Thesis does all of the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
Photocrati
Starting at just $59.00 Photocrati specializes in WordPress themes for photographers and offer a great little selection of stylish themes for photographers. Photocrati really puts the emphasis on photography but also provides you with a traditional blog and several other cool frontend and backend features.
Photocrati also offers you the option to buy five themes for just $99.00 which provides you with the choice to change your design if you grow tired of a particular theme over time.
The Importance of Good Design
Why choose a professional theme when there are so many free themes available you might ask?
Personally I think the importance of good, functional design should never be underestimated. A good looking website will present your photographs in the best possible light (so to speak) and will enhance the viewer’s experience and encourage them to explore your website further.
In addition to the design a professional blog solution will usually also provide you with the necessary support to get up and running smoothly and quickly.
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Sat, Jan 16, 2010
The Photographic Life