What bar-room napkin was this silly dot-bomb idea written on? Someone should save it for posterity to remind future "brilliant-idea" purveyors of how miserable these types of failures can be. I mean, come on - a free photographer's website where the hosting company's profits come from advertisers on the photographers' sites? Really?(Continued after the Jump)
There are solutions that are viable - BluDomain, Clickbooq, and liveBooks are among those that you have to pay for (tho I'm not sure how BluDomain's current pricing model for some of it's potential customers jibes with prudent plans for longevity). There are others too like Rob Haggart's APhotoFolio service that are also well worth looking into. Again, I direct you to Robert Benson's blog where he compares the main website providers - Photographer template websites compared, for his review of the many options available to you.
Yet I was perplexed last December when Uber was announced (and I pre-cogged that thud as the sound of it's future (and now realized) failure as it was launched) and PDN suggested that Uber was a competitor of liveBooks. That's like calling public transportation competition for the Bentley's of the world.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen - getting a website and starting a relationship is the single most important marketing effort you can undertake. It's not like buying a can of soup. You want a company that provides customer service and followup, and stays current.
I know that APhotoFolio is a top-shelf offering, and so too is liveBooks. Clickbooq seemed to me to be engaged and active during the discussion about SERP's on the Search Engines, so that's a good sign from them. I think something like Fluid Galleries isn't on par with these choices, nor other off-the-shelf software packages you might consider. Don't cheap-out on your website. Make the investment, and it will provide 10-fold returns, and be an Uber-success, not an uber-flop like Uber.com was.
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