Today’s #AskScottWyden is a really interesting one, and one that I wind up answering on nearly a daily basis. So I’m delighted to share this answer publicly for the world to see.
Kevin asked, “I am an amateur photographer. I am recently semi-retired and want to pursue a more focused approach to photography. I want to attempt to sell my work. I am curious if you have any tips on where to start. I know you like WordPress. I looked into them for my web presence, but it appears to be a more technical set up than I have experience. I Google searched top websites to sell photos. Some are SmugMug, iStock Photo, Alamy, Flickr, Fotolia and many more which appear to be a turnkey web set up requiring little Website design. Would you recommend this approach to one of these or another avenue? I know you are extremely busy. I do appreciate any brief reply you have time for.”
As I stated in the video, the options I recommend are either WordPress or SmugMug.
WordPress
- SiteGround Hosting
- Hover for Domain Name
- NextGEN Pro for gallery management and e-commerce
SmugMug
- Portfolio or Business Account
- Hover for Domain Name
Either way you go with be fine for you to sell photos. Which to choose is 100% personal preference based on how much customization and control you want.
Eric Seale
30 Nov 2015Scott,
I just stumbled across this post, and thought I’d give NextGEN Pro a quick try based on your recommendation. My big concern about the software is that it doesn’t seem to protect against gallery image downloads — I could just right-click on any of the images and download a fairly sizable jpg file (1920×1280, for example) and it wouldn’t even have a watermark.
Given this, I have trouble seeing the software as a credible eCommerce solution — particularly for digital downloads. Why pay money for a 400 pixel wide or 800 pixel wide image, when the full size image can be easily downloaded for free?
Are your Photocrati software counterparts working to improve on this situation?
Scott
30 Nov 2015NextGEN Pro does offer image protection. Both watermarking, right click protection, drag protection and original image protection. I’m not sure where your comment is based off, but please do your research before commenting.
Josh Sullivan
1 Aug 2016Hi Scott, what was the turn key solution you mentioned that worked in conjunction with NextGEN Pro? I think you said “pricelist” but couldn’t find anything. Thanks for your time!
Scott
1 Aug 2016Imagely Hosting, Josh.
Jeff Golenski
14 Oct 2016Interesting take here Scott. I’ve used NextGen in my younger days, but haven’t given NextGen Pro a shot. I’m super partial to WooCommerce and manually fulfilling orders via Mpix drop shipping. Granted, my volume is super super low in regards to sales, but since I’m a designer / front-end dev, I find Woo really easy to work with and customize, especially when I use one of their free themes that are made to work with the commerce plugin.
Scott
17 Oct 2016WooCommerce can definitely work well with low volume print sales. But if that ever picked up for you, you might find it too overwhelming to work with.
Greg
1 Apr 2019Hi Scott, I just found the article. It seems it’s been 3 years since that post. What’s changed for you regarding your opinions and recommendations? I found Imagely hosting is currently closed and the link to be notified of future openings doesn’t work. It’s been over four days since I requested information or help from them and I did get a ticket and option to signup for support. No response, yet.
Scott
2 Apr 2019Imagely Hosting will be reopening to new customers soon. Imagely is working hard at ensuring the platform is better than everything else out there, with everything a photographer needs in a website.