Red Dog News Market Wise Photographics Blog series #5: The next thing you need to be aware of when you decide to find a “home” on the Internet.
So, you are now ready to make a big splash on the Internet, the World Wide Web. At last! You’ve got your URL. You have your images ready to upload. You may now ask yourself, “What’s next?” I’m glad you asked that, because this post is about that, exactly.
Before you leap onto the ‘Net you need to ask your self these questions:
• What is the purpose?
• What do I want to say?
• Do I need a blog?
• How many images should I display?
• How many pages do I need?
The purpose of your presence on the Internet should the first question you answer. If you are just starting out in the creative realm, no matter if you are a photographer, painter, sculptor, etc., you need to have some kind of map for what you want to achieve.
If this whole process is to simply to put some images of your work on the Web for display to your friends and family, then you don’t need much. A small gallery and an “About” page to tell people who you are and what you want the site to achieve is about all you really need. You’re good to go.
If, however, you plan to use the site as a display for your work in order to show it to gallerists, curators, publishers, and the like, then you will need a bit more. We don’t need to make it overwhelming, though, we just need to make easily accessible and that it can be navigated smoothly. In the illustration below, we can see how the artist, Ann Hart Marquis, has displayed the “Portfolio” section of her site, www.annhartmarquis.com.
The important thing to remember is that no matter what you may think your end product may be, sites should be flexible enough so that change and upgrades can be easily completed by none other than YOU! If you choose to pay someone to do this work, you will need to make sure that you can upload images, sweat-free, and that you will not have to call your tech every time you need to make a small revision to the site.
That said, it is time to make some decisions. Come on, I know you can do it. Don’t be afraid. At this point, take some time to answer the questions listed, above. In the next post we will work together and create a map, a sketch of what your site will be. I can also tell you that even when you get your site “published,” it won’t be long before you want to do so much more with it.
The best way for you to see, graphically, what you may want in a site is to do some “surfing.” Take some time to visit the sites of other artists you admire. See how their site is designed. How many pages do they have? How many images (and how) are displayed?
Are your palms sweaty, yet? They should be. See you next time!
