Websites for Photographers

Why SmugMug and WordPress are Best

Before we get into the part about the image gallery plugin, at least some time should be spent on the question, “Why have a WordPress page when there are many much simpler solutions for photographers?” In one word…customization. I have been a Smugmug user for several years and built a fairly functional photography website on their platform for the first 3-4 years. They had some great features that made things very easy. I am sure the others like Zenfolio, Squarespace, etc also all work great. At some point though, I decided I wanted my site to do something additional and more often than not the answer was either upgrade to a higher cost plan to do that OR no you can’t do that.

If you decide to create your photography website on WordPress, I highly recommend this getting started tutorial for self-hosted WordPress that will help you avoid a ton of easily-made mistakes that you could make with setting up your WordPress website.

So I decided to integrate my Smugmug with a WordPress site where there is a plugin for almost every solution.

Which leads to the main point of this article. You have a WordPress website, you are a photographer, and you want an elegant solution for displaying your photos…so how do you do that?  Like most WordPress solutions…you use a plugin.

Websites for photographers are like the modern business cards. They’re among the best ways to generate leads and gain new clients, but choosing the best website platform for your needs can be confusing. So in today’s world of endless options, what is the best way to create a professional photography website? In this blog post, I will show you how both WordPress and SmugMug have helped me build a profitable photography business and how these tools can also help you. As an added bonus, there’s a SmugMug affiliate link below that will give you a 20% discount as well as provide me with a commission if you choose to sign up.

Building a Website with WordPress

Traditionally, website design was all about complex coding and you typically had to hire a professional. In recent times, website design has moved almost entirely away from coding. It is easier than ever to create a website by simply clicking and dragging design elements together and hitting a Publish button.

One of these “easy” ways of creating a website is by using WordPress. This site you’re looking at here is made with WordPress, as is my resume portfolio website. I built each website myself using pre-built templates, along with modifying the code and less than $100 per website. So yes, WordPress is easy to use, and I wrote a blog post talking about exactly how to start up a WordPress photography website for yourself. But before you jump on that train, read on to find out how building a website has gotten even easier without using WordPress.

The Rise of Photo Sharing Websites

As photography has become more accessible and popular, so have photo sharing websites such as SmugMug and 500px, to name a few. These websites are in a state of constant evolution to keep up the competitive pace. But they have in common the fact that you can:

• Upload, keyword and share your photos to be viewed by others
• Sell your uploaded photos
• Create your own photography portfolio website

Why You Should Use a Photo Sharing Website

There are a ton of photo sharing websites out there, but not all of them allow you to build a portfolio page. Some exist purely for social networking, such as Instagram and Flickr. Two photo sharing websites in particular that do offer portfolio websites are SmugMug and 500px. I use use Smugmug and have been using it for nearly 20 years now.

Use a photo sharing website to build your portfolio is best if you:

• Don’t need a super customized website
• Are not planning to blog regularly on your website
• Have a limited web design budget
• Want to spend as little time as possible maintaining your website design in the future

Why Use WordPress?

The bottom line is that WordPress is like PhotoShop. It offers an endless possibility in terms of designs and increasing functionality. However, you have to either learn to do this yourself or hire someone to do it for you. But the main advantage of WordPress is the ability to write and publish blogs. This is the number one way to increase your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so that your website shows up higher in search rankings. Blogging is how I elevated my WordPress photography portfolio website to be the number one listing on Google for the search term “Seattle event photographer.” This positioning in Google is extremely valuable and it drives a large chunk of my new client lead generation. Photo sharing website services typically do not include blogging platforms, so it is very difficult to improve your SEO through them.

Using WordPress to build your portfolio is best if you:

• Want a super customized website design that stands out from the crowd
• Aspire to increase your website’s SEO ranking through blogging
• Plan to publish blogs or forms of content other than photo galleries
• Have a more flexible web design budget OR desire to learn how to build and maintain a website yourself

Why I Use Both WordPress and SmugMug

If you can’t choose between one or another, consider using both a WordPress website and a photo sharing site. I use WordPress because I want to create a custom website design for my portfolio to make it stand out. However, WordPress websites don’t come with a built in solution to sell my photos or provide online proofing galleries for my clients. I could try to build this into my WordPress website, but why re-invent the wheel? This is when I turn to SmugMug.

What is SmugMug?

One of the longest-standing photo sharing sites is SmugMug. This family-owned business has made huge strides since it debuted in 2002 and has proved to be incredibly useful for a majority of reasons. But the main advantage that SmugMug offers is unlimited photo storage. Even though it’s not sold as a photo backup solution, SmugMug is great for uploading and storing high-resolution JPG copies of your photos. Once the photos are uploaded to SmugMug, you can either set them to be public or private, and you can access them from anywhere. Another highlight is the SmugMug mobile app that I use for sharing photos to Instagram.

SmugMug App: for iOS | for Android

Main SmugMug Features

• Delivering online photo galleries to clients (with the option to password-protect each photo gallery)
• Sell online copies or prints of photos to clients
• Store high-resolution JPG photos as a form of an online photo backup
• Functional and intuitive SmugMug mobile app

SmugMug Pricing

While it’s not free, SmugMug is pretty affordable, especially considering the unlimited photo storage. Plans are as low as $5 per month (or $3.34 per month if billed annually), all the way up to $35 per month ($25 per month if billed annually) for their top-tier Business plan. Looking for a deal? Use this SmugMug coupon link to sign up and you’ll get 20% off your paid subscription.

WordPress = a public-facing website that showcases more design to entice prospective clients I want to hire me
SmugMug = a client-facing website to deliver photos to those I’m already working with