This isn’t gong to be Earth shattering news: You need a website if you want to be taken seriously as a fashion photographer. You need a website along with a portfolio if you’re going to promote yourself as a fashion photographer. I am lucky enough to have a husband who knows how to design and build flash websites. However, lately I have been wanting to have the freedom and nowadays, the luxury of being able to manage my own site. I am tired of having to ask someone else (even my husband!) to upload new content when I want to update my site. Well, I have some good news…..there are now websites that offer photographers just that: the freedom and luxury of managing their own websites. The day has arrived where we don’t have to take the BS anymore from these overpriced, and sometimes difficult website designers. I swear to God, at this exact moment, 150 photographers around the globe are complaining about their website designer. But I won’t go on about that right now. We all know the complaints. I’m just happy that finally we can take the power out of their hands and update our sites whenever and however we please. If the mood strikes you at 4 AM to upload those new beauty pics to your site, by all means, you now have the power and ability to do it.
There are a couple of newer companies that have come on the horizon who offer photographers a place to house their on line galleries (a website) for a small annual fee. It’s now cheaper and easier than ever to have a beautiful flash website. Hey, we deserve a few luxuries thrown our way. With everything costing an arm and a leg in our industry, isn’t it nice to now have our website pricing come down quite a bit? Depending on the company you decide to go with, you can choose from a bunch of great looking templates or upload your own design. Some sites charge a small one-time fee to help you through the designing process and then charge an annual fee to be on their site; like $90 a year. Isn’t that great news?
Example of Viewbook‘s Workflow
One company I really like is Viewbook. Viewbook.com is a new remarkably dynamic online service that allows you to present, promote and deliver your images with uncompromising flexibility and quality. It’s designed to empower photographers with their self-promotion and workflow acceleration. On your own web address you create beautiful customized image galleries and multiple portfolio sites in a few clicks. Viewbook is your online image archive and allows you to create promotional widgets and deliver your hi-res images to clients as well. Starting at $9 a month Viewbook is a quality subscription service that doesn’t cost the earth. Also, the guys that run the site, Alrik and his brother, Rien, are just great people. Rien helps with tech support and both of them are super easy to get a hold of and to communicate with. I am going to switch over to them when David and I can find the time to do it. When I asked Alrik what sets Viewbook apart he said: “We’ve designed Viewbook to make it possible to organize large amounts of images, manage multiple portfolio sites and to make quick selections. Dynamic and flexible, so you can just go creative with it. Plus practical features like client delivery and online promotion tools”. I have to agree, their site really rocks.
9 Examples of Viewbook Photography Portfolios
Example of Viewbook’s back end for uploading images (you can also choose to upload from lightroom!)
I tried out Clickbooq and for the most part, I liked them and their customer service, but I felt like I wanted more design options. I went for their 5 day trial but I was also in the middle of a big production and I just couldn’t set the time aside to learn the functionality behind editing my own design. I’m sure that if I had more time to learn how to do this, I would’ve been happy with Clickbooq.
Two other good website companies to look into are Dripbook and Livebooks. Livebooks cost a little more than the others but they do offer payment plans and different packages to choose from. From what I’ve heard they design the site for you and their most basic package cost a one time fee of $800.00 + $90.00 a year for hosting. Dripbook is a little more reasonably priced but I don’t think they offer as many custom features as Livebooks or Viewbook. They also leave their logo on the loading page, which looks a bit unprofessional.
Whatever site you choose to go with or are currently with, I just am really happy that us photographers finally have our websites in our control, where it should be. And I’m really grateful to these companies for offering low priced, aesthetically beautiful websites for us to show off our hard work! If you have input or another company you’d like to tell us about, by all means leave it in the comment section. Let’s help each other out and spread the word!
UPDATE: The Contest is now CLOSED, winner’s have been announced. Thank you for participating!
The Contest
Viewbook has been kind enough to offer a contest to all my loyal FP Blog readers. Here is the breakdown:
Please leave a comment with a link to your portfolio (whatever website it may be) and I will check out your work and pick the person who I feel as though will benefit the most/is ready to put their work on a Viewbook account. Good luck!
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hello!! we’ve been thru this before.. haha
still having trouble with a website. this account would be sweet.
xxx
ben
Haha funny i just did my website a few days ago myself
they got some decent customizing tools and the prices are more comfortable and since im starting out i didnt wanna go all the way with it 
need to make some changes still and organize my photos a bit better but your blog has helped alot, i finally did the logo and decided to go with a graphic line for my printed material.
I was exploring viewbook as you recommended but i find its a bit pricey for me so i went with wix
But yea there’s nothing like managing your site yourself, designers (one speaking actually) are hard to get a hold of sometimes and well it saves you the stress of dealing with em lol
What a fantastic opportunity for all of us.
I know many great photographer’s names, but Melissa is not a Legend of a good unknown photographer but a live goddess that look down to all of us beginners.
Here goes nothing, and best wishes to everyone else!!
http://www.modelmayhem.com/800182
I hope everything its going great down there, can’t wait to travel down there again!
thank you for sharing this with us, Melissa!
The funny thing about getting this blog was being told just today that I need to have my website completed and up to date so that a client could view my portfolio.
Managing my own site was always a must for me.
Thanks for all the info!
Amazing opportunity again from you, you amaze me every time I come to this blog!!! And huh, God I need a website – I need it BADLY
Thanks for the opportunity Melissa. Here is the site:
http://www.modelmayhem.com/pics.php?id=156820
Rich
Your site is great – and I’m not even a fashion photographer. Incredible images though and great advice. Viewbook sounds like exactly what I am looking for, gonna have to check it out.
Thanks so much for the opportunity!
http://avalonskyphotography.com
Great post, just like all of your others. ^^
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aydensgrace
What a Great opportunity …… As Always……..Thanks for all the info!
Well, I wouldn’t really call my flickr a “website” but that is all I currently have. Thanks for offering this contest to your blog readers!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lfbphotography/
Your posts are always great and amazingly timely. The past few weeks I have been struggling with what to do with my site. I need a focused professional site for my portfolio and my current site has become too large and lacks the focus I need for a professional site. I would love to win, thanks for the contest.
Link to my current portfolio gallery:
http://www.dreamhatphotography.com/gallery/4280667_UYWji
Thanks fo such great information.I enjoy your post all of the time. Ilook forward to your advice on my website. Thanks again
I will definitely be checking out Viewbook! I just finished my trial period on Dripbook (http://www.dripbook.com/martinbielecki) and I’m not sure if I will get a subscription yet.
Thanks Melissa!
This is a wonderful contest! I’m looking forward to seeing more behind the scenes work from you, Melissa.
Here’s me:
http://www.modelmayhem.com/chrisnaidu
Hi Melissa,
Thank you Mellisa & viewbook.com ! You guys are so awesome to allow us to enter such COOL contest!!!!
This is an awesome and informational post about the portfolio website. I have NO official website set up yet, only a flickr pro account. Even though my flickr user name is “FashionDiva” but my flickr site does not allow me to customize any of the album layout to showcase my fashion senses. PLEASE PICK ME!!!!!!!I want a viewbook account so BADLY!!!! You will not be disappointed for picking me! I’ll showcase the “fashiondiva” me & my works using viewbook.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fashiondiva/
Best wishes to you in making ENDLESS STRIKING FASHION PHOTOS!!!!!
I tried a new solution of combining blog/website. It’s only days old, so I still don’t know how I feel about it. It sure would be great to get a site like the Viewbooks site.
Thanks so much Melissa. Love what your doing.
Here goes:
http://www.modelmayhem.com/286709
Thanks,
Jeff
Thanks for the chance Melisa!
Great, helpful blog Melissa; on my bookmark.
best,
_rush
I really love what you are doing here for new photographers. This whole blog is just awesome..
Thanku
anyway here’s my link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tintin_the_great/
Hey Melissa,
Thanks again for the info! Really informative. Thats what I love about your posts, and why I keep coming back
I dont have an official site for my work, but I am on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveshiel/
Take it easy,
Cheers,
Dave.
Not fasion but with three kids and the possibily to change careers I thought I’d give it a go
Hi Mellisa,
A usefull presentation as always
.
For my web site I use “imagin gallery” (http://imagin.ro), the gallery itself its free and customizable, but in the near future an admin application will be available for a small fee from what I understood.
Regards,
Claudiu
Thanks for the shot at a website! My current web site is at http://www.davidnusbaum.com.
hi! i don’t have a website.
and i haven’t been updating my flickr.
so here’s a facebook link:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=48819&id=719151294
designing a web site is not as difficult as it might seem and it allows greater flexibility for customizing it. the think i don’t like about sites like livebooks, etc is that it has that livebooks look and all of them start to look the same.
i do like dripbook though.
not really into flash web sites. prefer good old html for many many many reasons including accessibility and image search engines, etc.
ok, i already have a viewbook account, just wanted to say i think its great. I just started building my portfolio about 5 weeks ago, and wanted a way to show people. I didn’t want a web site from a web designer because it would be a waste of money, cause I only have two test shoots done so far.( its a work in progress) So I went to viewbook………. absolutely perfect!
http://fredriklee.viewbook.com/
This is a great opportunity.
Good luck choosing the winners.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/livelove/
Sorry if this is a repost, not sure if the web link worked before.
Great opportunity, can’t resist; sure could use a site!
http://www.modelmayhem.com/1009010
Hi!
Thanks for the contest. I wanna join. You can check my website at erikdupont.carbonmade.com.
Cheers,
Erik
PS: I love your blog.
I never win anything, so I’m trying harder.
Awesome post. I’ve been browsing for a website builder recently.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leftyasian
I’ve been looking into sites like these. Very helpful post.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leftyasian
interesting material, where such topics do you find? I will often go
Melissa,
I have been pulling my hair out for months attempting to put together the “right” images for my website. As well as deciding which site to go with. This is a wonderful opportunity,thank you for sharing it with all of us. You are always on point!
J.D.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106745&id=618075387&l=c86df17318
Hi Melissa,
I read your blog religiously and i thought you’re an amazing photographer. here’s my website
please check it out when you get a chance. thanks!
-Renie Saliba
I’ve been wanting to get a website set up for a while, but didn’t feel that I was ready to tackle the complexity and expense of the process. Having access to a service such as Viewbook would be such a boost.
Thank you Melissa.I’d love to try.
http://karsonau.blogbus.com
What a great blog post! Thank you for all the website tips, I will definitely check them out
Currently I use a site called The Big Picture Library. I like it a lot, but I do miss the opportunity to customize the design and layout.
Here is my portfolio: http://www.thebigpicturelibrary.com/benteisefjaer
You can find the most amazing and unique photos from google earth
http://caughtfromabove.com
I hope you enjoy
My Url take you to my Facebook Fanpage here is a link to the photography section on facebook fanpage. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/McKinney-TX/GTS-Photography/47447263489?v=photos&sb=4
I do plan t get a website soon. I stuck between ViewBook and LiveBooks.
Hi Melissa,
Wonderful post as usual. Here is the URL to a site I have been using as an on-line portfolio:
http://pixyst.carbonmade.com
Hi Melissa,
thank you for your blog! what i like the most are your videos and the 3 parts article of the business side of fashion photo.
As a beginner, i’m using a blog at this time to expose pictures.
Vincent
Hi Melissa,
Thanks is a great opportunity for your readers! I emailed you a link to my work, thanks for taking the time to look at it!
ok, yes i want to scream at my web designer, so this post was awesome to me. i decided to build mine at viewbook, and standby for the results! i will post a link when i am done! thanks for the cool opportunity, and for the option to keep some of my hair (i have been pulling it out over here!)
x
I’ve just recently tried viewbook, and love it so far! My 30 day trial is up on the 23rd.
http://fallenrosemedia.carbonmade.com/ that’s me!
i LOVE viewbook! the folios on there look so amazing and well presented.
viewbook rocks! nothing would beat a pro account
http://wdwalsh.viewbook.com/portfolio#/1/
This is fantastic! Thank you!
sorry, heres my link.
kayaberne.blogspot.com
I currently use livebooks’ edu program for my website: http://www.karenwadephotos.com
While I love how easy the Livebooks suite to manage my site, I’m about to graduate so they require once not a student anymore to upgrade to the pro site… which I can’t quite afford just yet.
Viewbook for a year would be awesome as I’ve been conidering it!
Melissa
I can say that I use Viewbook and love it! I am actually a web/graphic designer professionally but I hate having to go into the code to update my photos and it makes updating the portfolio sooooo much easier. I do miss my music player from my other portfolio tool since music and imagery work so well with each other but I can add that myself. My next step is actually to stop being lazy and embed viewbook into my actual site instead of linking to it from my splash page.
Great contest. Very useful tools you have here.
well I started my viewbook! thanks for getting us that 60 day deal!
http://martinbielecki.viewbook.com/
http://www.modelmayhem.com/ojofoto
A site would be outta sight!!!
http://www.modelmayhem.com/ojofoto
This is my trial version of viewbook. adampuzach.viewbook.com
This would be absolutely amazing. I designed a website for myself, but it costs so much, and it’s not even a flash-based site. I’d love to be able to make it look more up-to-date with flash, and I think that I would be taken more seriously.
Ah I hope I am not too late!
I only just saw this post and was really excited as I have been looking at viewbooks as I really need to get a website up and happening.
Thanks again for sharing such a great blog
x h
Posting your photos online in a directory is fine; but a website allows you to run your business and market it. Good, SEO friendly web design is a must. The money is not a waste, IMHO.
I just wanted to thank you very much for this insightful article. I have already bookmarked your site, when I have more free time I am going to have to do some further browsing.