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A Website (Part 1) - Why Should I Bother? - part 2 of 1 2

by Tom Lee Published 01/05/2000

A Website (Part 2) - First Steps

Where To Start

I am a frugal photographer, I like most of you am not a millionaire and don't like giving money away. I went into business to take it off other people! So lets assume you own a small computer, and I can convince you it won't cost anything except a little bit of your time, we'll examine the cheapest way of getting a website up and running.

What Do I Need

You don't need sophisticated equipment to create web pages (but it does help). Most photographers have some form of computer, perhaps for doing digital manipulation, or just for typing letters. There are many software packages available for making what is commonly called WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) pages. Claris Homepage, Dreamweaver, Frontpage Express, to name a few. Microsoft Word and Lotus Smartsuite will also allow you to make and publish web pages easily and quickly, the list is almost endless. I chose Claris Homepage because it came free on the front of a computer magazine, so I didn't pay for it. How cheap is that! It also works much the same as an ordinary word processor. So if you can type a letter and put pictures next to the words, you've done it.

The rest is down to your imagination. Think of how you sell yourself when talking to prospective clients, its not all that different. Tell them how good you are, what you can provide for them, and shown them some samples.

A basic site will consist of four pages:

·The 'Homepage' sometimes referred to as a 'Splash Page' - This introduces the viewer to your studio. The aim is to give it impact so people will want to look at your other pages and stop people from going to someone else's site.
·The 'Information Page' - There is no point of having a website unless you can give them a good reason why they should choose you, and let them know what services you can provide.
·The 'Samples Page' - Show them what you can do! If this is your first site, don't go overboard. It doesn't have to be big to catch the eye.
·The 'Contact Page' - Give them a telephone number, address and of course e-mail so they can get in touch.

We now have a simple four-page website, which we can build on and expand into a real attention grabber!

Which ISP?

Now we have our site, what do we do with it. Those of you with internet connections already, will already be connected to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). There are many to choose from with varying rates of membership, some with no charges other than local telephone call rates when connected.

If your computer already has a modem installed, and most new machines come internet ready, you're all set to connect in minutes. Freeserve, AOL and Virgin Net are some of the most popular ISP's which are all free (except for calls) and it only takes about 10 minutes to complete the connection. I have found a very useful provider in www.freenetname.co.uk, firstly because its free to join and secondly because they will provide you with a free 'Domain Name' of your choice. There are a lot of companies offering Domain Names but most of them will charge you for the privilege. This gives your site a truly professional looking feel without the very long site names usually associated with ISP's.

Uploading

This operation is the way you put your website on the world wide web for everyone to see. Your ISP site will have a help page telling you how to do this. If you are using a bought web program to make your web pages, there may be a part which helps you do this. If not, it can be done from the cut down edition of Frontpage Express which accompanies your Windows 95/98 operating system.

Although this can be done for free, I chose to buy a package called Terrapin for under £20. You can visit their website at www.terra-net.com and download it in minutes. This works just like windows explorer and you can drag and drop files between the ISP and your computer and vice-versa.

Once you are uploaded, everyone can see your website in seconds.

Finding www.yoursite.co.uk

Its no good having a website if people don't know its there. One option is to submit the site to several search engines like 'Yahoo' and 'Alta Vista'. There are even companies that will do this for you (again for a fee), but beware, many of them will say they guarantee 'X' hits in your first week. No one, no matter how good they are can do this.

I have chosen the cheaper approach to informing people! Print it on all your stationary, letterheads, wedding albums, price lists, flyers, in fact anything that anyone is likely to be looking at. Don't forget the Yellow Pages advert and tell anyone making a telephone enquiry who may have asked for your number from someone else. Its surprising how many people will visit your site in such a short space of time. You are unlikely to be snowed under with enquiries, but if you're not out there you won't get any at all.

And that's all there is to it. A simple website that should take you no more than a week-end to get right. Good Luck.

Tom Lee

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1st Published 01/05/2000
last update 09/12/2022 15:00:12

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