FIELD GUIDE NO 02

Taking Control of Your Website & Domain

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Part 6

Choosing the Best Website Platform

For many creatives and entrepreneurs getting a website can be both an overwhelming and frustrating process. I see questions in Facebook groups almost every day about websites and everything related to them.

Since my experience has been mainly working with photographers the question I get asked about and see most often is this:

"Which website builder or service is best for photographers?"

The answer, of course, is "It depends." Because it’s not something that’s simple to answer. It’s a BIG question.

From my experience, people run into problems with their websites because:

  • They choose a site based on cost rather than a site that has the tools they need
  • They have unrealistic expectations about how much time it will take to learn and setup
  • They aren't clear on what they need or want to accomplish
  • They are getting bad advice

Far too often I come across sites that are poorly designed, don't perform, are low quality and out of date.

Sadly, some are the sites of some 'big names' in the photography industry. Often times industry leaders - despite good intentions - are misinformed as to what businesses need to be doing when it comes to digital marketing in today’s market.

Having spent a fair amount of time helping photographers fix their websites as a result of really bad advice they received from so-called experts, this is something I feel strongly about.

Much of the 'advice' I see given in Facebook groups is not good.

Getting recommendations from colleagues is a good place to start, especially because they have experience using tools in a business that is similar to yours.

However, it also means having to figure out how to separate the good advice from the bad.

Asking the right questions and being armed with the right knowledge will help you weed out the bad advice.

Which is why I’m writing this.

First, though, there are a couple of things to note before we get started.

I work almost exclusively with WordPress to build custom sites, and all of our sites are built on top of WordPress.

With that said, I do not necessarily recommend that photographers use WordPress. Sometimes I even tell people that WordPress might not be a good choice for them even though I personally think it's amazing.

My goal is to help you choose the best solution for you based on your specific business needs and budget.

I’m not here to evangelize a particular web builder or tool simply because I’m enamored with it or because I use it myself.

It’s more important to share why it is we’ve chosen these tools, rather than just telling you which ones you should use. There are a lot of choices out there when it comes to websites and everyone's needs are different.

How to use this guide

You’ll want to bookmark this page so you can come back to it as needed.

This is a pretty big guide, and it can be overwhelming to tackle all at once. We've broken it down into  a 9 point checklist with a list of criteria to consider when choosing your own solution choosing a site. That way when you do get recommendations and are looking for a service, you can make an informed decision.

Click any item for more detailed information.

 

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