Building A Photo Web Site?

I wish to build my own Photo web site as I can't afford to have someone build it for me. I know there are many sites on the web that you can go to accomplish this but I was wondering what was most popular. I know there's Go Daddy which I was impressed with but I wanted to get your feedback. I know absolutely no HTML. Thanks for your suggestions...

Greg
Nevada

Hey Greg,
I've been very happy with Photium. I've used GoDaddy to register domains, but their website interface is klunky to say the least. Photium is designed for photographers and is very easy to use... no HTML necessary. For about $12 a month you can set up a website with images and shopping cart. They also have a 30 day free trail so you can start risk free. Hope that helps and good luck...

Try WebPlus, no html required to build a really nice site. I only use Go Daddy for domain name purchase and some hosting.

Thanks Marc and Carl, I'll check those sites out.

Greg
Nevada

I use Link Sky for both work and personal sites. It's cheap a nd easy to use.

Hi Greg,

I've used Shozam and I really like it...it's a one time fee. Drag and drop photos into a layout that you choose. Good luck.

Kate

Greg,
You might want to check out Smugmug. A number of people on this site use them.
Larry

I use Smugmug and would recommend it. It's $60/year for a power user account, they have lots of themes, and your site can be further customized easily by cutting & pasting code. Their user forums are very helpful. Although I don't use it, you can set up a shopping cart and use Smugmug's printing partner for your prints. I know absolutely nothing about HTML, but I've been able to make many changes to a standard template and add a lot of features to my site using their forums. They have also partnered with GoDaddy so you can register your domain name with them (which I did). You can also integrate a blog. I know there are a number of NPNers who use Smugmug. A good resource would be to visit the "links" section here on NPN to browse through member web sites. If you see a web site look you really like, you can contact that member to get more info. Good luck.

Yes, I've heard a lot of good about Smugmug too. I will check-in to them as well.

Thanks everyone for your help. Everyday I'm more and more thankful that I became a member on this site, it sure beats the flaming, trolling, and gear site I used to frequent by far.

I will extend the original question: the sites you recommended offer everything: hosting, templates, etc.. I am not looking for anything like that. I am rather looking for an engine that I can run on my own host.
I know that Lightroom offers some templates that you can use to build a site and then upload to your host, but they are very non-customizable. Their templates are based on Flash and they don't allow to make custom layouts or menus. Unless there is a Lightroom Web Template development kit, but I never heard of any.
I was so unable to find a nice engine that I started studying HTML and CSS myself, but I am still far away from making it useful for me.
I heard of one engine: WildRange Galleries, but, excuse me, I have no intention to pay $6000.00 To me, the prices for Wild Range is simply an insult...
If anybody knows where to find a gallery engine, easy to customize, but still within affordable price, it would be awesome!

Cezar - the guys from Wild Range are NPN members so I would probably edit that comment if I were you....

One thing no one has mentioned is that you can dig through a vast archive of Wordpress templates and see if one suits your needs. Not all are standard blog formats so I'm sure you can find something there and they are quite easy to add content to.

Thank you Richard for the warning. I edited my post... :)
Well, it looks I have to finish studying HTML and CSS...

P.S. The problem with Word Press is that it is a blog. It can be customized, true, but your home page on your blog shows all your sub-blogs in a loooong sequence, so if you have many sub-blogs with images, the home page can be very loooooong...

Why are you creating a website? For a blog? A portfolio? Making online sales? Something else?
Your answer to that will suggest what sort of investment you should be putting into this.

There are a few Wordpress themes that are suitable for a gallery-type website. True, most Wordpress themes are only moderately adjusted from the standard blog-based layout and aren't a good idea, but there are a few themes that don't resemble the standard Wordpress at all.

If I didn't have any HTML knowledge, a Wordpress theme would be among my top choices. I'd definitely go with a template-based option at the very least (eg. SmugMug). WYSIWYG drag-and-drop type website editors that try to dumb-down website creation are the devil and create ungodly code that rarely is fully compatible with multiple browsers. In general, templates have much better quality control.

Czar,
Webplus is a web design program, that allows you do create any type of site you want and upload it to whom ever is hosting your site. It is the best you can get without learning code.

> Webplus is a web design program, that allows you do create any type of site you want
> and upload it to whom ever is hosting your site. It is the best you can get without learning
> code.

Wow, I didn't know this one. From their website presentation it looks very promising. I wonder if anyone here is using this product and has hands-on experience...

There are many affordable options to displaying and having your own photography website. I have tired and used Smugmug, Zenfolio, Betterphoto and am currently using Pbase. Each has it own pricing and options and I know many professional photographers currently use some of these for the ease in displaying their work. It just depends on how fancy you want your website to work.

Two sites to look into ... photoshelter and simpleviewer...
I use simpleviewer on my site and for free, it's fantastic. I've heard very good things about photoshelter...but don't use it...

Thanks again to everyone, you've given me many options to look at and choose from.

Greg
Nevada

Photobiz charges more for over 600 photos?! Glad I am with Smugmug since I have over 6000 (!) images with them for the same cost as when I started (pro account).
Troup

Dont trust everything Cezar Mart to be true,,,,,,
'I heard of one engine: WildRange Galleries, but, excuse me, I have no intention to pay $6000.00 To me, the prices for Wild Range is simply an insult... '

Do your own research, prices actuallly start at $2000 not $6000.

allwebco.com sell gallery templates which are easy to use and complete with cart facility. Many under $100 and then you can host cheaply