Creating a Photography Website that Works for You

1
We are Zenfolio. We have been powering the websites of tens-of-thousands
of professional photographers since 2006. Photography websites and photo
hosting are what we live and breathe. We’ve accumulated a wealth of
knowledge in this field and we’d like to share our expertise with you. With
must-haves, best practices, and do’s and don’ts, this book will guide you
through the process of creating a photography website that really works.

While we’ve included pointers for building an amazing site with Zenfolio,
the general guidelines apply to any photography website. As you go through
the process of building a new website or evaluating your existing site, use
this book as a guide to help you get the most effective presence online.

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 INTRO
You need a website for many reasons. If you’re a professional
photographer, your website is your essential tool to promote
your business, acquire new clients, and provide your existing
clients with online proofing and ordering. If you’re a student or
hobbyist, your website helps you present your work in the best
possible way, and can pave the way for turning your passion
into a business.

Typically a professional photography website

includes the following essential components:
■ Online Portfolio
■ Client Proofing
■ Shopping Cart
■ Management Backend

Your main portfolio website is like your online window display,

artfully highlighting your work as well as elements such as your
blog, online scheduling, social media, and client ordering. It
also has a backend component for running your business:
post-processing, file backup, sales and reports, and marketing.

There are many ways to build your website. Your options include
everything from buying a pre-made Flash or HTML template,
do-it-yourself web hosting solutions for running your own web
server, software packages for exporting pre-made websites,
consulting companies that can build a complete website for you,
and hosting services that take on the burden of setting up and
running your entire photography business.

3
Zenfolio as a web-based service has been powering professional
photography websites since 2006. The service provides you with
a website that can do it all: secure unlimited photo and video
storage, flexible access control, a stunning professional portfolio,
and powerful selling platform. With simple point-and-click tools
you can design a unique website without any coding involved.
The idea is to allow you to focus on what you do best –
take great photos.

Zenfolio Account Features

Fully-featured portfolio website with unlimited storage,
professional layouts, intuitive organization tools, and
flexible image protection
Order fulfillment by professional labs with more than
500 products and mounting solutions, backed by a quality
guarantee you can count on
Shopping cart and online proofing tools for selling your
work online
Marketing tools to promote your business
At Zenfolio we believe that a beautiful photograph deserves an
equally impressive viewing experience. Creating a photo that
captures the essence of its subject is what makes you thrive. We
feel the same way. And because every photo tells a story, we’ve
made it our business to display them with the same precision
and attention to detail that went into making them.

4
CONTENTS
1
Define your Photography Business 6

8
Shopping Cart 27-29

2
Your Branding Elements 7-8

9
Marketing Tools 30-31

3
Your Website’s Look and Feel 9-14
10
Protecting your Work 32-33

4
Your Homepage 15-18

11
Writing your text 34-35

5
Organizing Photo Galleries 19-20
12
Using Video 36-37

6
Presenting Photo Galleries 21-22

13
Search Engine Optimization 38-44

7
Your Other Website Pages 23-26
1
Your Photography Style Is You
Your unique photography style sets you
apart from other photographers. It shows
your personality and it is why customers
want to hire you and buy your work.
Identifying your style in words is a helpful
Define Your first step in determining the creative direction
of your website design. Look over your
Photography Business portfolio and see if you can identify common
aesthetics. You could also ask your family
and friends to give you feedback.

What’s your Style?

■ Soft ■ Humorous ■ Classic

A personal portfolio website is all about ■ Romantic ■ Edgy ■ Poignant

promoting you and your photography ■ Grungy ■ Dark ■ Powerful
style. You are a brand, and your name ■ Urban ■ Sleek ■ Subtle
is a brand name. No one is going to
know about your brand unless you get ■ Quirky ■ Traditional ■ Modern
it out there; and if you’re serious about Once you have a good
photography, it is essential that you have sense for the style of your
a good portfolio website. photography, it’s time to
develop a brand around it.

6
 2
Choose Your Domain Name
Your website address is an integral component
of your brand. Hosting companies often
let you use your name as a prefix, such as
“hummingbirdphotos.myhost.com”. However,
using your own domain name helps you appear
much more professional and gives you your
Your Branding Elements own unique address on the Web, like
www.hummingbirdphotos.com.

In addition to setting up and managing domain

names, domain registration companies may
also provide hosting services and email.
A brand identifies and distinguishes you Here are a few popular registrars:
and your business from the rest. Branding
includes your business name, logo, and
website address as well as all details of your
style such as colors, fonts, design treatments, GoDaddy www.godaddy.com
writing tone, etc. Your brand should be in
sync with your photography style. It is also
very important to keep all elements of your Yahoo www.smallbusiness.yahoo.com
brand present and consistent throughout
everything that pertains to your photography.
1and1 www.1and1.com/domain-name
This isn’t limited to your website and
business cards; everthing from your marketing
materials and social media pages down to Network Solutions www.networksolutions.com
the tone of your emails to customers should
reflect and represent your brand.
Register.com www.register.com
Once your domain name is registered, you can
point it to your homepage which can be hosted
with another company.

7

You can upload your logo in
several sizes and it will appear
throughout your Zenfolio
website for consistent branding.
You can also upload your logo
or any other watermark as a
PNG image with transparency,
apply it as a default to all your
uploaded photos, as well as
show the watermark on the
images you export to social
networks.
Create Your Logo
Having a well-designed custom logo graphic
is essential to establishing your brand as a
professional photography business. To a
potential client, a logo tells in an instant the
essence of who you are, that you are serious
about your business and can help you stand
out from your competition. It also can increase
your business’ recognition and develop
repeat customers.
Designing a professional logo is an art unto
itself. A successful logo is made up of a
carefully thought out graphic and color
scheme, has a skillful use of typography and
is professionally executed. Be sure that your
logo is sending the right message about your
business and your level of professionalism.
While you may have the software tools to
create a logo graphic, you should consider if
you have the necessary skills and talent to create
a successful logo for yourself. If you feel you
are a better photographer than graphic designer,
hire a pro to brainstorm with and design the
perfect logo for you.
Your logo can and usually should be applied to
your photos as a watermark. A logo used as a
watermark is also a great opportunity to further
promote your brand. Some photographers also
include their website URL in their watermark
to increase the chances of a return visit from a
viewer. One thing to consider about applying
a watermark is making it visible, but subtle.
If a watermark is too big or too strong it may
take away from the photo presentation.
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 3
Theme
Website themes are comprised of coordinating
colors, backgrounds, and design elements that
have been carefully picked to work together and
achieve a pleasing and professional presentation
for your photos. Some themes are simple, minimal,
and clean and can be appropriate for most
types of photography. The more decorative and
stylized themes can enhance your photographic
Your Website’s style, giving your website a bit more personality
Look and Feel for visitors to remember.

Your website needs to strike a chord with

Like a gallery, your professional website
should be a beautiful showcase for your
photography. The design, colors, typography
and any graphical elements should comple-
ment your photographic style and specialty.
Most photography web hosting services will
have a selection of design themes that will
be a good start to find the best match for
your type of photography.
your target customer. For example, a wedding
photographer’s website might reflect the colors
and graphics usually associated with the typical
wedding: the decorative fabric of the wedding
dress, beautiful flowers or the essence of the
surroundings where the vows are said. If you
primarily shoot fashion photography, chances
are you shoot hip, trendy clothing and models.
Have your portfolio theme reflect that.

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9
Every Zenfolio account comes
with a selection of professionally
designed themes that you can
freely apply to your website
pages.

Zenfolio Theme Designer is a

powerful tool for customizing
all elements of your website
without any CSS or HTML
coding. You can automatically
generate a color palette, change
colors, upload background
images and other decorations,
adjust fonts and sizes, and more.
Create as many themes as you
want, apply them to your pages,
as well as export and import
them to share with other
photographers.

10
Color Palette
You know how the color in your photos can evoke a mood, emotion and sense
of wonder. Just like framing and matting a photo, your choices of color in your
website should complement your photography. Pick a color palette of 3-4 distinct
colors and use these colors (or their shades) consistently throughout your site.
Proper usage of color is a large element of your website’s usability. Does your
text color have enough contrast with your background? Can your visitors clearly
distinguish links from text? Have you tried looking at your website on a variety
of monitors?

Zenfolio’s Theme Designer

A cool color palette taken from the train photo
emphasises the bright colors of the machinery.
suggests colors that are
aesthetically designed to
work together based on a
professional color model for
a more attractive presentation.
This allows you to customize
your site theme while being
certain that the color palette
of your pages only enhances
the viewers’ experience.

An earthy color palette taken from the grape

photo provides a warm, calming scheme for
the Home Page.

11
Using Background
Graphics and Decorations
Enhance your branding further by creating
and applying custom background graphics and
decorations. Use them strategically to give your
website a unique, handcrafted look that accents
your photography.

Using a custom background image, pattern

or texture can really give your website a new
personality and attitude. Let your creative
expression flow and experiment with different
images such as the textures of metal or wood,
a hand painted canvas or even a piece of soft
fabric. The possibilities are endless! Whatever
image you use, make sure it is not too busy so
you can read your text easily and it does not
compete with your photos for attention.

You can further embellish your design with

coordinating graphics and decorations for the
header and footer areas, uniquely stylized
folders, photo mat backgrounds and borders.

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There are many ways to plan your layouts; some people
write and sketch their ideas on paper, use index cards,
write on post-it notes, or go right to the computer
using their favorite software program.
Layout and Navigation
Think about the high-level organization of your
website. Put together a plan for all the content
you want to include and then assign that
content to the appropriate main pages and
subpages. Doing this first will help you figure
out the flow of your website and will define
what else you need to do, such as determining
and categorizing photos and videos, writing your
text, creating graphics for a logo, watermark,
and decorative elements for backgrounds and
other areas.

When thinking about layout, keep website

usability in mind. It is easy get so caught up
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back to your home page. At any point, it
should be clear where they came from,
and how to find what they are looking for.

Looking at your real website or a website

With Zenfolio you can easily
design a consistent site menu
with drop-down selections. You
can link menu items to your
galleries, external web pages,
PDF documents, or other pages.
The menu will consistently
appear on your site to ensure
the easiest possible navigation
for your visitors.
prototype, spend time asking yourself some
simple questions. Is it easy to find my recent
work? Is it easy to find my pricing? Is it easy to
find a way to contact me? As you go through
this exercise, promote the most important
elements of your site using placement, size,
or color, to make sure that simple oversights
do not put off potential clients.
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Typography
Typefaces come in many different styles, with
each one having it’s own personality. Most
typefaces are classified as either a “serif”
(serifs being the little feet at the ends of the
letterforms), such as Times or Georgia, or a
“sans-serif” such as Arial, Lucida, or Tahoma.
Just like choosing the right colors, choose fonts
for your website that are easy to read and
capture the personality and emotion of your
photography. Like colors, fonts may look
different across different computers and mobile
devices, so remember to check your website
at a variety of places to make sure it looks
and functions as you intended.
Typography Tips
 Limit the variety of fonts used on your website.
Pick 1-2 fonts and use them consistently
throughout your pages. Make sure you use the
same typefaces in your headers and paragraphs
on all your webpages for consistency.
 Use larger font sizes with ample line spacing
for easy reading.
 Headers should clearly stand out from the
paragraphs to help visitors scan your content
and find the section they are interested in.
 Text color should have good contrast with the
background color to be easily readable on all
displays under varying lighting conditions.

This Is Your Header  The color for links should be different from
the text color, so that your visitors can clearly
This is your paragraph text that is wonderfully written identify links and use them for navigation.
and easy to read. Contact me for more information.

This Is Your Header

This is your paragraph text that is wonderfully
written and easy to read. Contact me for more
information.

Consider Using a Professional Designer

A lot of websites can benefit from the help of a professional
designer. With the large variety of options and short attention
spans on the web, you often have only one chance to win over a
potential customer. A professional designer can help you deliver
a lasting impression by putting together key elements of your
design – branding, layout, and color – into a winning combination.

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 4
Select Your Best Images
for Your Portfolio
Your homepage should include a careful
selection of your best images. Although you
may have a large collection of images you
want to show in your portfolio, limiting your
selection to the stronger pieces is beneficial.
Too many images in your portfolio can increase
load times and provide the viewer with too
Your Homepage many options. It can make your portfolio feel
like it is dragging on and on.

If you limit your selection to a curated sample

Your homepage is your best opportunity to
create a great impression and “capture”
your visitor. Visitors will decide within
seconds whether to stay on your site based
on the quality of your work and the design.
of your very best work, the viewer will get a
better sense of your style and what you’re
capable of. It will make your portfolio feel
more defined and structured, and visitors
will be more likely to contact you if they
like what they see.

Your homepage is the primary place to

introduce your portfolio. People will want
to see your previous work to decide if you’re
the photographer they’re looking for.
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15
Slideshow
Your portfolio should be clearly accessible to your visitors. Some people prefer to
enjoy a well-paced slideshow with a soundtrack, while others want to immediately
jump to a certain photo that has caught their attention. A good homepage
accommodates all kinds of visitors by providing a slideshow as well as links
to the sections of your portfolio.

Think about sequencing your

portfolio images in a strategic
order. If you place your stron-
gest images at the beginning
and the end of the portfolio,
you’ll hit the viewer the
hardest. Grab their attention
right from the beginning and
leave them something to
remember at the end.

When using Zenfolio you

can select from professionally
designed homepage layouts and
configure them to your needs.
You can easily put together a
professional slideshow with
music and transitions to
include on your homepage.
Zenfolio accounts also come
with 50 free professional
soundtracks from Triple Scoop
Music for use in your slide-
shows.

16
Logo
Your logo is usually the first thing a visitor sees
when your website opens in a web browser. It
should be clearly visible on your homepage so
that users can immediately identify who owns
the website.

Save your logo as a PNG file with transparency

(or alpha channel), which allows it to be
displayed nicely over different backgrounds.
Use it prominently on your home page and as
a header for your other website pages; it can
also be used as a watermark over your images.

Tagline or Welcome Message

Once the visitor sees who owns the website,
they’ll want to know what kind of photography
you do. In part, it will be immediately apparent
by the images you present on your homepage.
However, it never hurts to explicitly tell your
visitors about what you do in words. The tagline
can be a part of your logo, or you can write a
longer description of the photography services
that you provide. Ask yourself: What kind of
photographer am I? A nature photographer?
A commercial photographer? A fine art photog-
rapher? A photojournalist? Are you a freelancer
or do you work for a studio? Are you looking
for commissioned work? The text that appears
on your homepage is very important for search
engines to index and categorize your website
properly. It’s worth spending time on crafting
the perfect message that will speak to your
visitors and help make your site discoverable.

17
Menu Navigation
Your menu navigation is the main tool for
viewers to easily find and view your pages.
Keep your wording short to give you flexibility
in the placement of the menu navigation on
your pages. Try to keep your menu items limited
for a cleaner design, and put any sub-pages in
a drop down menu.
Navigation Checklist
 Make the labels for navigation
straightforward and predictable
 Use menu titles to clearly describe linked
content
 Limit the number of top-level menu items to
no more than 5 or 6 items
 Make menu titles and ordering consistent on
all pages
 Link all menu items to corresponding webpages
 Make the menu location consistent on all pages,
either at the top, left or right hand side
 For text, use a large enough font size and
a contrasting color for easy reading
 Always provide an easy way to get back
to the home page
Zenfolio allows you to quickly
design your navigation menu
with drop-downs, link menu
items to site or external pages,
or to your galleries, and
customize the look and feel
of the menu by changing
colors and fonts.
Link to Contact Information
Be sure to include your contact information on
your site, phone number, email address, and a
mailing address. This can be on a contact page,
or in the header or footer area of every page.
Call to Action
What you want to get out of your website? Do
you want to be hired? Attract more visitors? The
homepage should have a call to action, a “Next
step.” Put a “call to action” link in the menu or
a button on a page that is clear and stands out
from the rest of the page.
18
 5
Organizing Strategies
■ Date
■ Topic
■ Category
■ Location
■ Event

Select a method that works best for you.

A wedding photographer, for example, you
Organizing Photo Galleries can organize your photos by events for each
client. A nature photographer could present
their work by location.

One of the biggest challenges for any

photographer is setting up well-organized
photo galleries. The goal is to create
categories that are easy to understand
and make it easy for your visitors to find
the images they are looking for. You can
accomplish this by providing multiple
ways for navigating your library of photos.

Cover Photo Thumbnail

Select a cover photo thumbnail that visually
represents the rest of the photos within a
particular gallery. When showing multiple
galleries on a page, using cover photos with
the same aspect ratio makes for a cleaner design.

19
Descriptions
Every photo and gallery should have a description including
title, caption, category, and keywords. This makes it easier for
viewers to search on your site. It also helps search engines to index
your site and to provide relevant and accurate search results.

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Search
Include a search field on every page of your website making
it easy for your visitors to explore your digital images library When you upload your photos
simply by typing a keyword, a location, or a last name. to your Zenfolio account, titles,
descriptions, and keywords are
automatically imported. You
can also edit them as a batch.
Your Zenfolio account comes
with a Client Access page. Use
it from your Zenfolio website,
or linked from an external
Client Access website. It will prompt your
clients for a code and take them
You can provide each client with a special client access code.
directly to the appropriate
When clients type their access code they will be immediately gallery.
taken to their gallery, without the need to search by name or
to browse through your entire archive.

20
6 Presenting Photo Galleries

Photographers put enormous amount

of effort into getting that perfect
shot lined up, spend endless hours re-
touching and perfecting their work, and
make a significant investment into
researching and buying the right
equipment. Unfortunately, poor online
presentation ruins all of these efforts.
Preparing Your Photos
The online presentation of your photos deserves
the same careful attention that was put into
taking them. Your photos should be sharp, true
in color, take center stage, and be displayed as
large as possible, maximizing the available
viewing area. Loading speed and the
convenience of navigation are also two very
important factors in delivering a delightful
viewing experience to your visitors.

Presentation Checklist

 Show large images that take advantage of large

monitors, but also fit on smaller screens, such
as tablet and mobile devices.

 Do not compress your photos too much.

We’ve all seen photos surrounded by
tasteless ads, displayed on cramped
pages, resized and compressed resulting
in images that are far from the beautiful
originals that came from your incredibly
advanced digital camera.
While strong compression reduces file sizes
and allows faster uploading, it often results in
serious degradation of image quality.
 Use the JPEG format, the best for presenting
your photos online – it is supported by all web
browsers, supports color profiles, and the file
size is much smaller than when using the TIFF
format, which does not provide any advantages
in quality.
 Calibrate your monitor to soft-proof your photos
before uploading to the web to achieve the best
color reproduction across most display devices.

 Protect your photos with watermarks to

prevent unauthorized usage of your images.

21
 Zenfolio delivers the best
possible presentation of photos
online. Your uploaded originals
are automatically resized and
prepared for optimized display
presentation. Your photos
utilize all available screen space
on clean professional layouts
with rapid loading and simple
keyboard navigation.
See how the low-resolution non-
calibrated photo presents a jagged
and non-impressive image.

Now that same photo really shines

when displayed in high-resolution
and color calibrated.

22
7
Your Other Website Pages
There’s more to a professional website
than elegant pages of beautiful images.
We’ve already discussed the importance
of a contact page, but in the age of the
Internet your visitors will want to get all
their questions answered right away. So
you’ll need to provide them with easy
access to pertinent information.
Details about your background, awards
and accolades, pricing and packages,
schedule availability and general informa-
tion should all be easy to find, read and
understand. These pages are also a further
opportunity to promote your brand and
allow your potential customers to identify
with you more personally.
About Page
This page is all about you. Let people see the
face behind the website. Share your background,
where you came from, how many years you’ve
been in the business, etc. The more details you
give, the better your potential clients can form
a bond and build trust with you.
Use this opportunity to tell customers who
you are as a person, your passions and your
qualifications as a photographer. Your emphasis
should be “why people want to work with you.”
People looking to hire a photographer want
to know that you are the right person for the
job, rather than hear your life story. Keep your
wording down to 2 to 3 paragraphs. Make your
about page personal by writing your copy in the
1st person rather than the 3rd person.
Talking Points to Interest Customers
■ The creative vision you bring to
your photography
■ Any relevant personal information that
makes you “unique” as a photographer
■ Specialty, area of focus, niche
■ Where you live and work
■ Years of experience
■ Education, work experience and expertise
■ Awards, special accomplishments,
professional recognitions
■ Contact information and a link to your
blog and social media pages such as
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
23
Show Your Photo
Create a trusting impression with a welcoming
photo or video of yourself. Customers want
to see and connect with you as a person and
as someone they are considering having a
professional relationship with. Your photo
could be more than just a headshot. Show
yourself in a wonderful setting, on a shoot in
your studio, or at a customer location. This is
a creative way to show off your personality!

Zenfolio allows you to create

any number of your own
Custom Pages and link to them
from the Site Menu. Create any
content you want as well as
embed objects such as buttons,
banners, photos, slideshows
and videos. Each page gets its
own URL and you can edit the
Title and META description
fields for better search
engine indexing.

24
Guestbook
Having a guestbook for comments and
customer testimonials can further increase
your photographic and professional credibility.
It also allows your customers to interact and
be a part of your website. Be sure to regulate
who is allowed to comment, as well as monitor
comments before publishing to weed out spam.

Custom Pages
Price Lists, Booking Instructions,
Calendar, Client Proofing, and PDFs
To further enhance the running of your photography business
online, consider adding custom pages such as price lists,
With Zenfolio you can create
booking instructions, an online interactive calendar, tear sheets any number of free-form pages
for customers to download and print. You could even create or upload PDF documents. You
video pages with your own tutorials or live shoots. can link to these pages from
your main menu, drop-down
menu, or from other pages on
your website.

25
Pricing Page
Displaying pricing information is a good
practice when you are working in the area
of consumer photography, such as wedding
or events and portraits. “How much?” is the
most common follow-up question after visiting
a website, and being straightforward about
pricing will help you funnel the right clients.
You don’t have to show a very detailed breakdown
of all the services you offer. Something as simple
as your range, or your starting price will provide
instant gratification and remove the element of
sales pressure on your website visitors. If you
have been in the business for some time, you
know the minimum price point for your services
and feel comfortable with that price. You can
show the pricing information on its own page,
linked from the main site menu, making it easy
for potential clients to find.
Of course displaying pricing is not appropriate
for all types of photography. Most commercial
photographers quote each project individually
based on the clients’ needs. Stock photographers
may set the price based on the planned usage
of the purchased images. Keep in mind,
commercial photographers deal with
educated buyers who aren’t necessarily
shopping based on price.
Blog
Having a blog linked to your website is a great
enhancement for your business and gives you
an additional opportunity for exposure. A blog
is always a good idea. Write about your area of
expertise and show you know what you’re
talking about.
Blog Benefits
■ Lets you easily showcase current projects
or techniques
■ Builds a following of visitors, who might
become clients
■ Helps establish your photographic expertise
■ Gives you free publicity through search
engine results
■ Brings more web traffic to your website
■ Makes your website more lively and friendly
Let people follow you by subscribing to an RSS feed, and
show off your most popular blog posts to new readers.
Be sure to enable comments and make it easy for visitors
to leave feedback.
26
 8
Essential E-commerce Functionality
1. Online proofing process to help clients
review and select photos
2. A customizable list of products offered
for sale with prices, options, detailed
descriptions, and categorization
3. A secure and easy-to-understand checkout
process with the ability to accept all major
Shopping Cart credit cards or PayPal payments from your
customers, capture shipping information,
issue refunds, and keep detailed records
of every transaction
4. Customer service tools that allow your
clients to communicate with you about
As a professional photographer you will order status and any issues
likely want to go beyond just beautifully
displaying your photography online. Visitors
find your site, love your work, maybe even
contact you for a booking. Now what?
Zenfolio has partnered with
An online store that allows your visitors to the best vendors in the industry,
including One Vision Imaging.
make purchases should be a fully integrated One Vision Imaging carries an
part of your site. The second your visitors award winning Finished Product
have an impulse to own an image, a “Buy” range - the most comprehensive
to be found anywhere in the
or “Purchase” button should be just a UK. Using the finest materials
mouse move away. The smoother and easier crafted into works of visual
the flow for a purchase the more your sales art, each and every product is
finished to perfection. All you
you will make. Make your shopping cart do is take great photos, select
and checkout process seamless and easy to use products, and set your pricing
for your customers. structure. Zenfolio will take
care of the rest: taking orders,
forwarding them to labs for
fulfillment, payment processing,
and customer support.

27
Order Fulfillment
Products and prices are the first items to decide
on when setting up an online store. You can have
orders routed to you and fulfill them yourself,
working with a local lab of your choice. You
describe the products you sell, enter them
into your online store catalog, and take care
of delivering these orders to your clients. This
option is often referred to as “self-fulfillment”.
Fulfilling your own orders may give you more
control and an opportunity to provide a
personalized service for every customer.
However, this option does not scale well
with the growth of your business and the
number of customers.
Order Approval
In order to deliver exceptional customer
experience, it is a good practice to review
every order before it is sent to the lab. For
example, poor cropping choices made by
customers is a frequent reason for reprints,
or a simple typo in the address form can
result in delayed orders and aggravation.
Such unpleasant surprises can be easily avoided
if your website facilitates the order approval
process, giving you full control to upload
retouched photos, change cropping, update
shipping options or addresses, and add
promotional items.

Another option is to have your orders be

automatically fulfilled by a professional lab,
fully integrated with your website. The lab
takes care of order fulfillment, including
delivery and customer service, freeing up
your time and allowing you to spend more
time shooting. Choosing a high quality
reputable lab to work with and knowing
their products is an important aspect of
your business. After all, it is their products
and craftsmanship that is going to your
clients with your photos, and that reflects
on your business.

28
Client Proofing and
Favorites Selection
The online client proofing process starts with
a professional presentation of photographs
online. When customers like what they see,
they buy more.
After initially browsing through photos, clients
need to select which photos to purchase.
Often times, a buying decision involves several
people looking through photos together and
deciding which ones need to be ordered.
Product selection is another step where clients
can spend some time going back and forth
between the options. A good online store will
simplify this process by offering the ability for
clients to share their favorites and collaborate
with the photographer on putting together
an order that will fully match the client’s
expectations.
Selling Digital Downloads
Don’t be surprised if your clients request
digital images in addition to traditional printed
products. From low-resolution Facebook
images to highly valued original files, if you
decide to sell digital downloads use a system
that can automatically generate them to save
you time. A sale of a digital file is accompanied
by a licensing agreement that specifies the
acceptable usage terms. Upon accepting the
terms a client can download all purchased files.
Managing Your Online Store
Your online store should allow you to put
together price lists and assign them to galleries
offered for sale. Most likely you will need more
than one price list, and in some cases, you may
even need to provide prices in more than one
currency.
Managing long price lists with many paper
types, color options, framing and mounting
can get cumbersome, so look for a system with
modern and powerful tools such as batch price
editing, formula-based pricing, and convenient
tools for reassigning your price lists any time
you want.
Online Store Must-Haves
■ Collecting sales tax or VAT, which may be
required by your local tax authorities
■ Providing detailed reports that you can use for
record keeping, sales analysis, and exporting
your transactions to accounting software
■ Facilitating client communications and
support throughout the entire shopping
experience
29
 9
Marketing Tools
Your online store cannot be fully success-
ful without a clever marketing strategy.
Turn visitors into loyal customers with
common marketing tools like discounts,
product packages, expiring galleries, email
and social media marketing.
Discounts
Who doesn’t like a good deal? People respond
well to value-based offerings. A good e-commerce
solution will give you the ability to find a key to
every customer by using coupons. In addition
to the simplest discount, coupons can discount
by a specified percentage, have an expiration
date, or be limited to a certain product or a
gallery. A discount can also be given in a form
of a gift certificate, or a print credit bundled
together with a session fee.
Product Packages
Bundling products into packages is common
practice in the photography business. Make
sure your online store supports putting together
packages, pricing them, and giving your clients
simple drag-and-drop package configuration
and purchasing experience.
Expiring Galleries
Most orders are placed within a short period of
time after the photos have been taken; adding
some time pressure could be a strong driver of
sales. Photographers can use time pressure by
limiting the amount of time an online gallery
is available for ordering, following up with a
notification email to clients, possibly with
a special offer.
30
Email Marketing
Your website and your online store can help
you grow a list of clients that you make into
repeat buyers and an excellent source of
referrals. Ongoing communication with
your clients is key to maximizing your profits.
Basic Email Marketing Requirements
■ Ability to capture customer email
addresses
■ Scheduled periodic email campaigns to your
clients list with promotions, specials, news,
and so on
■ Separated customer lists by events or galleries
■ View of client’s activities and tracking results
of your marketing efforts
There are many robust customer relationship
management and e-mail marketing systems
available online, such as MailChimp, iContact,
ConstantContact, Bronto, and others. You
should be able to export your list of customer
emails into these systems if you want to get
into more sophisticated online marketing.
Social Media Marketing
Social media platforms allow photographers
to authentically and emotionally connect to a
worldwide audience in ways that just a few years
ago were both unimaginable and impossible.
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube,
blogs and cell phones all regularly and repeatedly
connecting photographers with their targeted
audiences. Your website should support this
growing trend by making it easy to engage
your customers right from the photo viewing
experience.
Social Media Marketing Tips
 Give your clients have the ability to share
photos on Facebook, Like or Tweet about them,
making your name spread virally through
clients’ social circles
 Make your website linked with your business
pages on Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+,
which brings more visitors to your portfolio
 Keep your Facebook audience engaged by
publishing your best photos, up-coming project
announcements, posting polls and even notes
(much like posting a story in a personal blog)
 Add fans to your business page by displaying
the Like or +1 button on your homepage
31
10
Watermark Your Photos
It is good practice to use a watermark on each
photo you post online. A watermark is a faint
image or text that is superimposed on top of
your photo and shows that you are the creator
and owner of that image. In other words, you
are telling the world “do not steal my work”.
You can create your own watermark using
graphics software, such as Adobe Photoshop.
Protecting Your Work Watermarks are shown in different percentages
of transparency over the photo located at the
top, middle or bottom of the image.

Putting your photography portfolio online is

essential to gaining exposure and customers.
But this additional exposure comes with
certain risks and you should take the security
of your photos very seriously. Anyone who
is somewhat computer savvy can copy your
photos and use those images for their own
purposes without your permission or payment.
That’s why it is extremely important to protect
your images.

Most people believe that right-click protection

is sufficient to detract potential theft of
online images. However, with the modern
operating systems and large monitors, it is
very easy for someone to take a screenshot
of a large photo and obtain decent prints, or
use your photo online without your permission. You want to show ownership with your watermark,
but don’t overpower the beauty of your photos.

32
Copyright Your Photos
From the minute you shoot a photo, you are the creator and
owner of that image. You own the “copyright” giving you full
legal rights to publish, license or sell that image whether for
commercial purposes or for a private client. For your own legal
protection you should present and copyright your work properly,
register your work and know your rights. When writing your
copyright notice include the copyright symbol ©, the year of
your photo’s publication, and your name or business name.
© 2011 Lightmasters Studio

Register your photos with the U.S. Copyright Office. This is Include your copyright notice with
particularly important in case you find out that your work has each photo as text or within an
overlaid watermark on your photo.
been stolen or infringed and you need to pursue legal action in
court. You can learn more about your rights and how to register
your work at: http://www.copyright.gov

Control Access to Specific Photos

You may have client photos that you want to keep private and
are only for them to view, such as, wedding, maternity, children’s Zenfolio has powerful access
control features that allow you
portraits or boudoir photos. Features like password protection, to fine tune the security of your
restricted the access to original files, and making your images galleries down to the individual
completely private are a must for a secure website. photo level. You can make your
albums public, private, protected
with password, or open only to
Secure Storage a list of clients. You can restrict
If you’re shooting or recording regularly, it’s likely you’re access to original files, as well
as limit the largest size that can
accumulating many gigabytes of photographs and videos a
be displayed on the screen.
month. You need a solid backup strategy to be able to restore
A Zenfolio account provides
your files in case a disaster strikes. Your web hosting service can you with unlimited storage for
be a part of this by allowing you to store your originals online your photos and videos. These
and allowing you to download them back to your computer are stored in state-of-the-art
secure geo-distributed data
if needed. centers. You can rest assured
you have a back up of full-size
original photos for download
available any time.

33
11
Writing your Text
The text
Needon your an
to write website is equally as
intro paragraph
important as the design. Your content
should communicate your branding message,
speak directly to your target audience, be
professional with proper grammar and
spelling and be well crafted with keywords
for search engine optimization. If writing
is not your strong suite, consider enlisting
the help of a friend or colleague with strong
writing skills or hiring a professional writer.
Find Your “Tone of Voice”
How do you want to be perceived by your
potential customers? Your written “tone of
voice” is the personality of you and your
business. Communicating your message with
the right tone will give your audience the
confidence to believe that you are sincere,
honest and passionate about your photography
business as well as strengthening your
branding message.
If you sell or license your photos to businesses,
you might have a more straightforward “to the
point” approach. For wedding, portraits or pet
photography your tone might be more friendly
and personable. Take into consideration how
you talk to a potential customer in person and
translate your personality into your writing.
Once you decide on the right tone for you,
be consistent in all your writing throughout
your website.
Which of These Tones Best
Describe Your Personality?
■ Formal and Serious
■ Professional and
“To the Point”
■ Chatty and Fun
■ Warm and Passionate
■ Humorous and Wacky
■ Laid Back and
Conversational
34
Keep Your Text Short
When people visit a website, they want to
quickly decide whether to stay or leave. Grab
a visitor’s attention by keeping your writing
short and succinct. Make your communications
professional by leaving out any “fluff”
sentences that don’t add information or value.
Make Your Text Easy to Scan
Mobile Devices
Many of your visitors will open your website
from a mobile device and will expect it to function
properly. A great website will provide users with
an excellent viewing experience on any device.
Mobile Browsing Requirements
Website layout is automatically optimized
■

for small screens

Online visitors tend to scan your text rather
than read every word. When you have a lot of
content, such as booking instructions or price
lists, present your text in digestible chunks.
Use bold fonts to emphasize important points
or keywords, headers, sub-headers and lists
where appropriate.
■ Pages support touch navigation and gestures
such as swiping for navigation and pinching
for zooming
■ Images load fast and scale dynamically for
a variety of screen sizes
■ Slideshows can play without Flash.

Grammar, Spelling and Proofreading

Your writing should be as flawless as your
photography. It is a good idea to first write your
text in a word processing program to catch any
obvious errors. Enlist the help of your family
and friends to review your website. A fresh pair
of eyes can catch mistakes or offer new
suggestions.

Proofreading Checklist
 Consistency in wording and design theme
 Working links and forms
 Proper functionality in common browsers, such
as Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer

 No grammatical or spelling errors

35
12
Using Video
VideoNeed
is particularly
to write useful forparagraph
an intro photographers,
because their clients make purchases based
on emotion. Including video in your presen-
tation enriches your clients’ experience and
engages them more than still images alone.
There are many ways for photographers to
use this medium to their advantage.
Connect with Your Clients
Using videos can help develop an instant
bond with your potential clients. With video
you could post a short introduction to your
photography style, tell a story, or show how
you interact with clients on your about page.
The goal of these videos is to highlight the
sides of your personality that are impossible
to showcase with photography or text.
Deliver New Product
Combining photo and video coverage of events
is known as photo fusion. This concept is meant
to enhance and augment still imagery, and not
replace a professional videography. Most fusion
photographers deliver their final product as a
multimedia slideshow that can be burned to
a DVD and sold as an add-on or as a part of a
package. This is a great product to add an extra
dimension to your work.
Educate
Educate your clients by showing them what
to expect when working with a photographer.
You can introduce common poses, offer tips on
lighting, tell about key moments in a wedding,
and even provide style tips. Teach clients how
the ordering process works, explain concepts
of cropping and paper selection, even album
design workflow.
36
Video Tips
■ Apply the same rules of composition
and lighting as in photography
■ Try moving the camera by panning and
zooming to emphasize tension or create
intense focus on a subject
■ Capture different angles, for example, a wide
shot to introduce a setting, or a tight close-up
for visual variety
■ Tell a story in your video to engage the
viewer for a longer period of time
■ Consider drawing out a storyboard to figure
out which shots you’ll need, and how to
accomplish them
■ Consider keeping your camera on a tripod
(or monopod), or a full steadicam rig that will
enable you to make smooth and controlled
camera movements
■ Use a music overlay or a voice-over to
accompany your video (Triple Scoop Music 
is a great resource of royalty-free music for
photographers)
■ Record around 5 seconds of video before
and after each scene to give you enough
time to fade in and out
■ Always shoot more angles than you
think you’ll need
■ Keep it short when you are telling a story
and not just recording events of the day
(like a wedding)
37
13
Search Engine Optimization
If visitors don’t know your URL, they will
open their favorite search engine and type
in some keywords or a phrase. The search
results may show the link to your website.
Search engines crawl the web trying to
reach every page through following links.
As they do, they parse, index, and store
information about every page they encoun-
ter. When a person searches for something
online, search engines use sophisticated
algorithms to present relevant results and
present them in the order of importance.
Obviously, if your website does not come
up on top of the search results, you are
missing out on great opportunities to show
your website to potential clients.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
While search engines are constantly optimizing
their algorithms to better understand the
content of pages to return better search
results, there is always a limit to how search
engines can operate. That’s why in order for
your website to be visible to search engines,
you need to get familiar with Search Engine
Optimization(SEO). SEO is a proactive
practice of optimizing a website for increased
traffic from search engines. The optimization
includes internal factors, such as website
content and its positioning, as well as external
ones, such as the number of sites linking to
the website.
Currently there are two major search engines:
Google and Bing (Yahoo’s search is powered
by Bing). To avoid being cheated by spammers,
search engines are not very forthcoming with
how they determine relevance and that’s why
they constantly tweak their search algorithms
to make sure that “spammy” pages do not
overtake search results.
38
Search Engine Friendly Websites
Search engine friendly sites are easy to use and
navigate. They provide actionable information
and are accessible on current browsers.

Tips for a Search Engine Friendly Site

■ Write pages for users, not for search engines
■ Don’t present different content to search
engines than to users
■ Make sure that your website has a clear
logical hierarchy and text links
HTML format allows the content of your website
■ Create a useful site; write copy that clearly to be indexable. Images, Flash, Java applets
and accurately describes your content are invisible to search engines. A beautifully
■ Include words that visitors might use to find designed Flash website will look like a blank
the information on your site (keywords) page and will not be indexed or ranked.

Search engines will never find pages that can’t

All Zenfolio websites are
HTML-based making sure that
everything from your captions
and keywords to the site menu
is indexable and crawlable by
search engines. You will not
miss completing an important
field because on Zenfolio
editing dashboard highlights
these fields with a special
green SEO icon.
be accessed by following links from your home
page. Be sure to link together all pages of your
website.
Carefully craft the text on your pages with
keywords that describe your website content.
Search engines know which pages to retrieve
based on the words entered into the search box.
Their interpretation of the text used on your
site helps determine its relevance. One of the
best ways to optimize rankings is to ensure
that keywords are prominently used in titles,
text, and metadata.

39
Using Keywords
Keywords are just one of the parameters used
by search engines to determine the relevance
of the page to a search query. There are specific
recommendations on how to optimize the
placement of keywords.

Keywords Placement
■ As close as possible to the beginning of
the title tag of your page
■ In the body of your page at least 3 times
■ In bold, at least 3 times, for your most
important keywords
■ In titles and descriptions of images Using Title Tag
■ In the link (URL) at least once The title element of a page is what appears
in the web browser’s title bar. It is essential
Know which Keywords to Use for search engine optimization and is meant
Useful online tools, like Google Adwords, can to be an accurate, concise description of a
help you discover and fine-tune the keywords page’s content.
that will work for you. The primary purpose of
Adwords is for advertising on Google’s network Search result pages will display about 70
by bidding on keywords of phrases. However characters per result, so keep your title tag
the Keyword Tool under Google Adwords can short and place important keywords in front.
also be used to research keywords. There are Start every title tag with a name of your business
numerous and exhaustive online guides and to leverage your branding. Create a compelling
videos available to help you learn how to message to generate more visits to your site,
take the most from the Keyword Tool. Invest since the title tag appears in search results.
time into learning how to use it and you will
develop a much better understanding of
which keywords will increase the exposure
of your website.

40
 Using the Meta Description Tag
The meta description tag is not visible on
the page itself. It lives in the page code as a
short description of a page’s content. Meta
descriptions are the primary source for the
snippet of text displayed beneath a listing
in the search results.

Crafting a readable, compelling description

using important keywords can be used to
draw readers to your site from the results.
It is a general practice to keep meta descriptions
text under 160 characters long.

This is where your meta descrption tag

shows on a search result page.

Using Friendly URL’s

A friendly URL makes it easy for readers to predict the content of the page
by the text that is displayed in the browser bar.

Shorter is better. Shorter URL’s are easier

to copy/paste and share and are fully
visible in search results.
If your page is targeting a specific term or
phrase, make sure to include it in the URL.
It is also recommended to use hyphens to
separate words.

41
Growing Popularity
By analyzing links between pages and how visitors follow these links, search
engines evaluate websites and rank their relevance and trustworthiness. When
a visitor clicks a link in search results, he or she “votes” for the page and search
engines record this vote for calculating page rankings.

Search engines also use the following factors to measure the rank of a website.

Global Popularity Topic-Specific Popularity Link Neighborhood

Having your site linked
from prominent and popular
websites will be very helpful
for moving your site up in
search results.
Links from sites that have
narrow focus are also a factor.
They provide pages that are the
best match to what a person is
trying to find.
Be selective about the sites with
which you share links. If a site
in your “link neighborhood”
appears spammy to search
engines, your site ranking
may suffer.

42
Link Building Strategies
Natural
As you grow your business, other sites and pages will notice it and will want to
reference your pages. You can monitor these by using free webmaster tools.

http://www.google.com/webmasters

http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

Proactive
Proactively seek for opportunities to generate
links to your site by emailing articles or news
releases to bloggers, submitting your site to
online directories, or paying for placement in
these directories.

Many websites offer visitors opportunities to

create links through guestbook signings, forum
signatures, blog comments, or user profiles.

Ask your clients to link to your site from Facebook,

a blog post, forums post, or an article and
reward them for doing so.

Create valuable content that your clients will

be compelled to distribute virally. Share funny
stories from your photo engagements, add
videos, review a product in your blog, help
beginning photographers with advice.

Paid
There are websites and blogs that will publish links to your
website for compensation. Take a look at directories of wedding
photographers, bloggers with pay-per-post program, and simply
paid search engine advertising.

43
Hiding from Search Engines
While it is important for your website to be
discovered by search engines, there are times
when you want some photos to stay invisible.
There are special attributes you can insert
into your pages to make them invisible
to search engines.

Zenfolio gives you all the tools

for SEO of your website. All
Zenfolio gives you all the tools for
pages of Zenfolio websites
SEO of your website. All pages of
are built with HTML, so they
Zenfolio websites are built with
are easily indexed by search
HTML, so they are easily indexed
engines.
by search engines.
Zenfolio allows you to build a
Zenfolio allows you to build a
site navigation menu, which is
site navigation menu, which is
very effective in helping search
very effective in helping search
engines to move through your
engines to move through your
website to find and rank
website to find and rank your
your pages.
pages.
You are always in control of
You are always in control of your
your website with Zenfolio,
website with Zenfolio, because
because your site is integrated
your site is integrated with web-
with webmaster tools from
master tools from leading search
leading search engines. You
engines. You can get detailed
can get detailed reports on Resources for SEO Strategy
reports on how search engines
how search engines see your Use these online resources to help you with your
see your site and make necessary
site and make necessary
tweaks. Zenfolio also offers in- search engine optimization strategy:
tweaks. Zenfolio also offers
tegration with Google Analytics,
integration with Google
which gives you insight to your
Analytics, which gives you
Google Analytics Forums.digitalpoint.com
website’s traffic, showing you
insight to your website’s traffic, Google Webmaster tools Wordpot.com
reports on the number of visitors,
showing you reports on the
where they are coming from, how
number of visitors, where they Google Adwords tool Webmasterworld.com
long they spend on your site, and
are coming from, how long
much more.
they spend on your site, and
Websitegrader.com Searchengineland.com
much more. Browsershots.com

44
Whether you are an established photographer
or an enthusiast, your photography website
is more than just a place for displaying your
photos online. It is a reflection of your
brand, a key marketing tool, an engagement
point with your clients, and could also
serve as a foundation for your entire
photography business.

A website that works well must:

■ Be well-designed and provide
fresh and relevant content
■ Allowyour visitors to enjoy your
photos in a clean and elegant
viewing experience
■ Effectively
communicate your
unique brand
■ Be search-engine friendly
■ Facilitate
your business workflows,
such as ordering and client favorites
■ Be easy to update and modify

We welcome you to try Zenfolio, the

ultimate website solution for photographers
like you, and we guarantee that you will
immediately start receiving compliments
on your work. A Zenfolio website is easy to
setup, a breeze to customize and configure,
and is very cost effective.
THANKS
Zenfolio extends a deep appreciation to these wonderful photographers for
letting us show their images as inspiration and examples throughout this book.
http://lightmasters.zenfolio.com
http://9mphoto.com
http://www.sevenonephoto.com
http://store.jesskoehler.com
http://store.liznessstudio.com/photos
http://www.kevinpipher.ca
http://pieceofmephotography.com
http://photos.ericshemtovphotography.com
http://mikewendelphotography.com
http://www.davidsboray.com
http://www.rebeccadanzenbaker.com
http://catchlightonline.com
http://www.photosbyjulio.com
http://www.duncangrove.com
http://www.schochphoto.com
http://images.markarcegaphotography.com
http://www.pasqualis.com
http://kvincentphotography.ca
http://tinyglimpsephotography.com
http://www.ellishumphres.com
http://www.toddphilip.com
http://www.naturaphoto.com
http://www.brosepix.com
http://www.projectninefive.com
http://www.adogslifephoto.com
http://www.cwdalyphotography.com
http://fbiv.zenfolio.com
http://aprilelizabeth.net
http://eyeshuttertothink.com
http://danielludwigphotography.zenfolio.com
http://www.dhostphotography.com
http://www.squeakdogphoto.com
http://sabrinaeutonphotography.com
http://englishelectric.zenfolio.com
http://www.mcanphotography.com
http://robinchun.zenfolio.com
http://oscardean.com
http://www.karenengel.com
http://spotnphoto.com
http://www.theresahudson.com
http://www.rkphoto.org
http://natureslens.zenfolio.com
http://www.wirralpix.com
http://verlaat-fotografie.nl
http://www.martins-photography.com
46
www.zenfolio.com