What are the benefits of having a personal website for your photography?

Having a personal website allows for a greater reach for your audience, and uses technology to display images like never before.

I always approach everything from a marketing perspective. You can market your website on search engines and directories, thereby increasing your marketing channels for people to find your services. On a website, you have much more control over the EXPERIENCE which your prospect has as they browse through your work. Additionally, a website can be a handy tool to create a sense of desire in your prospect to want to book your services, not only through the way in which your work is laid out, but also through the way in which your overall website and flow is laid out. The user experience is everything nowadays, and a website which can trigger a client's desire to buy, is a website which is successfully keeping you in business.

First and foremost it shows professionalism and can give your potential clients a feel of your brand. It gives you a place to showcase some of your best work via hand picked galleries as well as mentioning any places that you've been published. I also use specific landing pages for different projects and when that project is done I leave the page there but make it not visible in my header or footer which helps with Google ranking. Speaking of Google, having a website allows you to use Google ads to go to specific pages where the relevant information for whatever type of photograohy you're advertising for can be found. Long story short, if you're a true professional, you should have a professional website.

I believe every photographer is unique in their own way and having an online presence allows the world to see you, your work, your talent. It's a way for others to understand more about your expertise, style and vision.

While you can control your online presence, at the same time it takes a lot of dedication to build that presence and brand up, so you shouldn’t go into the decision lightly.

With a personal website, you can provide visitors with a guided experience. This is only possible because you have full control of the environment you have created and for that, you have predicted outcomes. This in turn can be integrated with your social media presence and vice versa to create a win-win situation.

Having your personal website is the epitome of autonomy. It is a way to express yourself and your art in a way that allows you to be and show your true self and your art. You can change your gallery around at any time to showcase different pieces or events or holidays. There are thousands of ways to be creative just administering it. It is also a good way to be in the market place and create a brand. Using all the tools at our disposal , you can create a lucrative online business and expand as much as you want. And if you choose, it is also a way to keep yourself exclusive to a certain population that gravitates towards your creativity. The world is open to you and at such a low cost. Just the hard work of marketing yourself.

It doesn’t matter where the visitors come from, deciding to visit your website, takes the relationship a notch higher. Your personal website is therefore your own piece of digital real estate and so you set the tone of your first impression and welcome your visitors. This, would determine the final action they will make.

Not only will you be showcasing your work and style - but highlighting your flexibility or specialization. Even simple design elements like fonts, layouts, or terminology can reveal who you are as an artist/designer. This is another chance to show who YOU are, outside of school and the field.

Driving traffic to a personal website can be overcome with assistance from social media where your photographic samples are displayed. The difficulty with personal websites is anonymity from the greater audiences like on Facebook, Etsy, or art websites like DeviantArt. I am a member of all of them and no publisher will look your way without a social media presence.