Want to create your own photography website?
A website serves as a central place to showcase your work to clients, gain exposure, and share it with the world. Not to mention, a website also gives you a professional appearance.
Most photographers take a long time to set up their website because it’s a technical issue and, to be honest, who has the time?
To make it easier, we’ve stripped away all the details and boiled it down to 5 simple steps you need to follow to set up your website in no time.
By the end of this guide, you’ll have an impressive photography website to call your own.
Types of Photography Websites You Can Create
There are different types of photography websites you can create. Here are some of the most popular ones:
Portfolio website: Create a website where you can display a gallery of your photos in carousels or lightboxes. This will give you a professional space to showcase your photos to clients and the world.
A website like this will also give you more exposure and allow interested people to find you.
Membership site: Set up a platform where photographers can sign up as members to contribute their photos to a public gallery or sell them for a price. You can create a free space for photographs or even charge a membership fee or a commission on each photo.
Membership sites also allow you to create a community of photographers interested in getting hired. Photographers can then register based on the type of photography they specialize in. Potential clients can then search by style and location to find the right photographer for them.
Online Photography Store: Put your photos and art up for sale online on your own website. You can avoid the hefty fees and commissions that would be charged if you went through the popular stock sites. For this, you would need an e-commerce setup or a payment gateway on your website to sell your photos.
Online course website: If you want to share your expertise, an online course website is perfect for you. You can add course materials, e-books, quizzes, tools, and more. You can also allow members to chat in forums to ask questions and discuss topics.
No matter what type of photography website you want to create, this tutorial will help you achieve it.
Getting Started with a Photography Website
There are many ways to set up a website, but algeria phone number library we won’t overwhelm you with too many options. Instead, we’ll say right off the bat that our number one recommendation is WordPress.
It’s the most flexible and affordable platform that allows you to customize and scale your business the way you want at a low cost. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s easy for anyone to use.
We highly recommend WordPress.org because you’ll maintain control over your site. Not to mention, there are over 10,000 beautiful themes to choose from. You can even import demo sites and change the content and photos to make them your own.
Additionally, there are over 55,000 tools and plugins built for WordPress. This allows you to add all sorts of features and functionality to your website. You’ll be able to set up any type of photography website you want.
So, for example, if you want to build a membership platform, we recommend using MemberPress on your WordPress site . It’s the #1 membership plugin for WordPress that lets you set up tiered membership plans and grant access based on membership level. The platform also lets you set up one-time or recurring payments.
Next, if you want to sell your prints online, we recommend using WordPress and the Easy Digital Downloads plugin . It allows you to sell any type of digital file, such as photos, videos, music, PDFs, and so on.
To emphasize, with WordPress, you won’t be short of anything. Whatever you want to do with your website, if the feature isn’t already built in, you’ll find a third-party tool to get the job done.
With that said, let’s take a look at what you need to create your photography website with WordPress.
What you need to set up your photography website
To set up any type of website, you will need two things:
- The web hosting plan gives you access to a server where your website will be hosted. All your files and database will be stored here.
- The domain name is the address of your website, such as www.isitwp.com.
The best deal is Bluehost’s plan, which will bob morrow president, houston and southeast texas get you reliable web hosting service + free domain registration for a year, starting at just $2.75 per month . You’ll also get a free SSL certificate to secure your site and a free CDN (content delivery network) to make your site fast.
The best part is that with this plan, you can install WordPress with just one click, so you won’t have to do anything technical to get started.
Click here to get the exclusive BlueHost offer
If you want to explore other options, check out our list of the 11 best web hosting companies . Our top picks are Hostinger and SiteGround .
Next, we’ll show you how to sign up for a web hosting plan and set up your website.
How to set up your photography website
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a complete website with stunning photos. And since photos tend to be large files, we’ll pay special attention to ensuring that your website loads at lightning speed to provide the best user experience. Here are the steps you’ll need to follow:
- Register with BlueHost
- Setting up the basics
- Customize your website
- Add useful WordPress plugins
- Optimize speed and performance
Step 1: Sign up with Bluehost
The first thing you need to do is sign up phone number list for a Bluehost plan. If you want the cheapest web hosting plan, visit our Exclusive Bluehost Deal page , which allows you to get started with the plan for $2.75 per month.