Help from IT whizzkids please!

[missyburd]

I need to make a website for my drawings and I have no idea how to go about it really. I have a facebook group but it's not very professional. I've had a few pointers from people but that was a few months ago and I've been too busy to make it happen. I need nice EASY language please!

I need a site that I can update regularly.

I want to be able to copyright my work and make sure people can't steal my pictures.

I have made a website before at uni but I used Dreamweaver which apparently is a big no-no. And it was some time ago so as a result I remember nothing!

Thankyou so much in advance.

MYC :D

[sarah]

You don't need to do anything to copyright your pictures.

[Bibio]

joomla. http://www.joomla.org/

there are loads of free templates out there.

[fizzwheel]

Do you need your own website, what about using a photo hosting site like Flickr, I Know a professional photographer that uses flickr and sells his photos via it... might be worth looking at.

Failing that why not speak to Samnooshka and ask her advice as I think she built her own site to sell her photos via.

[missyburd]

You don't need to do anything to copyright your pictures.
Sorry, what I meant by that was I already watermark any photos I put up on the facebook group manually, I wondered if there was a way I could have it done automatically whenever I upload them to the site? I seem to recall someone telling me it was possible but not sure.

Thanks Bibio, will look into that :-)

And Fizz will do :)

I forgot to mention I have a domain name already paid for but just no site to go with it.

[Luckypants]

Lowri used to do website design / building to supplement her student income. Her flatmate does the 'unofficial' Aber Uni graduation photos and he did his own website. You could try emailing Lowri for some pointers / help.

[christopher]

Yes you can watermark images automagically on upload, pretty simple to do in all fairness, but knowledge of a programming language (PHP or .NET amongst others) or the ability/want to learn is needed.

There is nothing wrong with Dreamweaver if used as a code editor, the current versions' WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor is not great but an improvement on previous ones, most of which were diere.

The simplest way to get a site up, is to use a platform like WordPress (http://wordpress.org/) and then choose a free theme to enable the photoblogging aspect of it. There are loads out there, as an example here are 26 Free WordPress Photo Gallery Themes (http://www.reencoded.com/2009/04/05/26-free-wordpress-photo-gallery-themes/).

If you want to sell items such as prints directly online, then it gets slightly more complicated. As depending on what method of payment you'd be looking to take, you will need to ensure the PCI compliance etc.

I'm too busy currently to take on any extra work/projects but will gladly help with questions and/or small requests if I'm around.

Hope that was "easy" enough language for you :p

[timwilky]

http://awesomephotography.co/

Then follow link to photomerchant

[hindle8907]

net objects is good novice package for building your own site, then you just need some web space to upload it to.
I can send you a copy of the software if you like to see how you get on with it.

HTH
ant.

[missyburd]

If you want to sell items such as prints directly online, then it gets slightly more complicated. As depending on what method of payment you'd be looking to take, you will need to ensure the PCI compliance etc.

Hope that was "easy" enough language for you :p

I don't want to sell items from the site, just really want the space to show my work and then contact details. But I don't just want a flicker album really, again it doesn't look like I've put much effort in although its a good idea.

As for easy language, anything involving computers gives me a headache but thank you for making the effort :-)



On a different note, how much do people charge these days just to do it for you? Not because I'm lazy but more to do with the fact I want the site up pretty quickly (and I'm pretty hopeless :() as I'm hoping to get an article in a magazine soon and want the site for advertising. People shy away from going near facebook, for obvious reasons!

I will sit down tomorrow and have a good look through what everyone has suggested and see if it's doable.

[beabert]

Like the rest have said, use picasa or flickr for now until you sort it out, loads of photographers us them. Its not as hard as you may think creating a basic webpage, no difficult scripting needed, just html. depends on what you want to do :-)

[timwilky]

Look for a hosting provider that can support Gallery (http://gallery.menalto.com/) such as http://www.westhost.com/.

Gallery allows you to upload and display albums of photos, auto watermark, add comments, multiple resolutions and to inferface with online print services etc. You can upload using a web browser, webdav or windows publish to web etc.

Or if you want a really cheap provision, give me a day or two and I can provide you with gallery on one of my web servers for your use.

[flymo]

There's a magazine out at the moment called Essential Web Site Creator, by Taylor Made Publishing (ISBN 978-0-9564605-3-0). Its a little steep at £10 (for us northerners anyway) but its crammed full of useful info on pulling together your own websites.

Mike