blog

June 11, 2018

Abby B Photography… a custom Pro Photo design

I just adored working with Abby. When we first spoke she told me her goal in her photography business is to create a fun enjoyable session experience for each of her clients. I love this! I really dig her approach and philosophy as a photographer.

It was so important that her warmth come across in her website. A little bit of flair, lots of creativity, and a bubbly friendly personality that can make anyone feel at ease… that is how I would describe Abby and hope this project does that justice. (I think it does and she loved it too!)

We did a logo, branding, and full custom design using Pro Photo 6. Check out some of the screenshots below and head over to see her full site at abbybphotography.com.

Abby’s galleries have quick links and a feminine touch with script titles. We kept to delicate colors for the main parts of the site but added pops of bright, including her pink on pink logo.

We incorporated a long home page with a scroll down to give a flowing feel to the site. The menu bar sticks to the top of the screen so viewers can easily find what they needed, wherever they are on the site.

Below is her masonry style portfolio, for quick viewing of images. They can be clicked to see in a larger view or scrolled to get it all in at once.

This brings us to our Meet Abby page. Abby worked really hard on creating the content for this page. I love how bold and fun it turned out!

As always, the site is completely mobile responsive and great for SEO. To see it all, check out abbybphotography.com.

Looking to book your own site revamp? Send me a note.

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May 25, 2018

What does GDPR mean for your photography website?

small business website design - laptops Let me start this off with the necessary I am not a lawyer, and therefore can’t tell you if your site is GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant. Now that I have statement out of the way, this is what I understand. I am hoping a plain words explanation might be helpful to my clients, other photographers and small business owners.

If you have a WordPress website you fall under GDPR.

So here is the thing, you are collecting data on your website whether you think you are or not. Sites by default have cookies. Most of us run Google Analytics to understand our web traffic. Many of us have blog posts with comments, and almost all of us have contact forms. Some of us also have opt in forms for a newsletter. All of these items collect data.

What do you need to do to secure these items?

Get an SSL certificate for your site, install and implement it properly. I can not find a definite out there of any well known authority saying this is a must. However, here is my logic. GDPR includes collecting names and email, and says this needs to be done securely. Forms and comments do this so having an SSL gives your site security for this. Plus Google wants SSL for rankings so it’s a good idea anyway.
Triple check your opt in forms for newsletters, downloads, anything like that. Clients must by default opt in, not have to uncheck to opt out. If you want to dive deeper into this, check out WP Beginner’s article.
Be sure your newsletter audience knows they can opt out. You’ve probably received lots of emails from newsletters you subscribe to telling you how to opt out and sharing their privacy policy. I can’t find anything that says an email needs to go out but it seems like a good idea.
Create a privacy policy and link to it on your home page.
Make sure any plugins you are running are GDPR compliant. This one gets a little tricky but most plugins on your site can be googled to find out. For example, search “gravity forms gdpr compliant” and you should get your answer. Gravity Forms is by the way. I love Gravity Forms anyway, so one more reason to use it.

This is a very brief overview of action steps you can take without spending too much time. Read the article I linked above if you really want to understand this thoroughly. I’m not an expert by any means on this, but I do understand WordPress so I am sharing the steps I took for my own site.

Questions about SSL? Send me a note or stay tuned for a blog post on the topic.

Have a project in mind? My next opening is July 16th! Setup a consult now.

Disclaimer: We are not lawyers. Nothing on this website should be considered legal advice.

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March 17, 2018

Custom website design for Mary Kate McKenna Photography

I’ve known MK for a few years, and used to work on her Heart of Frederick website. I must admit when she came to me in the fall saying she wanted to revamp her Mary Kate McKenna Photography website, I was just the slightest bit scared. She already had a very custom beautifully designed website.

After we spoke in detail, I understood. Her website no longer matched her vision and she had some big changes in mind for her business going forward. A site can be really good and not right for you. This was the case.

As for all custom ProPhoto design clients, we start with an in depth survey and inspiration board. Then we go through the answers in detail during our discovery meeting to kickoff our project. MK was very clear that she wanted a well organized minimalist site but what her inspiration pins brought out was that she also loves color and a feminine touch.

MK already had a logo that she wanted to keep but was open to changing the colors. We created a color palette with a pop of peach and sage green. For the logo, we went with charcoal for the font color and peach for the bird graphic.

Projects morph as they develop. During the concept review I encourage clients to remember that it’s still going to grow more. The design is kind of living, breathing and morphing entity as we work together. The collaboration and where it takes us is one of my favorite parts of what I do.

Here is the concept layout for MK’s website.

You’ll notice on the live website, many elements do carry over but others changed. Some got removed, as they just didn’t work with the final vision. We actually started with the logo a different color and the signup bar. We also went with a bit warmer of an slightly off- white for the background.

Here are some screenshots from her site, of the finished product.

Mary Kate has been in business for 14 years. That is a long time in the photography industry that tends to have lots of new startups. She has always worked with families and couples repeatedly over time, from photographing their engagement session to their babies years later. We incorporated an incredible video that she had created to showcase this, and a link to a page talking about this experience. It was really important that this be eye catching on her site.

Some other important features were a blog that was easy and quick to view posts, clean galleries, and an about section that really lets people get to know MK.

Check out the full website for Mary Kate McKenna Photography at mkmckenna.com.

If you are looking to rebrand or build a new website altogether, send me a note for details about working together.

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March 14, 2018

What does it cost to setup a WordPress website?

Whether you setup your website yourself or you hire a web designer, there are certain costs involved.

Registering a domain name

This should run about $20 per year. Sometimes domain name registrars, such as name.com, run specials but most of the time it is $10 a year for the domain plus $10 a year for privacy. Privacy is optional but I do recommend it.

Hosting

Your website files have to live somewhere. Some times your host and domain name registrar may be one in the same. Some times it may be two different companies. Web hosting varies in cost from $5 monthly to hundreds. The host I prefer to work with charges $15 per month for their “tiny” account, and almost all my clients fall into this category. The next level up is $30 per month.

Email hosting

If you want to use a domain email address such as jane@janesmith.com, you’ll need to host the email account. Some hosts include this in their web hosting package. Some domain registrars offer it as an add on for a very low cost. I use Google Apps for Business, which is $5 per address. Expect to pay 0 – $5 per month.

Software licenses

WordPress itself is free. I own many themes and can use them for my clients. If you were to purchase a premium theme yourself, expect to pay anywhere from $30-$200. Some themes, such as Divi and Pro Photo, require each client to have their own license. The most common theme I use is Pro Photo, which is $199 for the full release or $89 for an upgrade if you already own a recent older version.

There are also templates and child themes, if you are designing a site yourself. Pro Photo sells templates (and I will be releasing my own templates for sale soon as well) starting at $45 and going up to $600.

Photos and Fonts

If you are a photographer, then images are not a problem! Most of my creatives and soloprenuers in other industries usually need good quality images. For portraits of yourself (almost always recommended!), expect to pay atleast $200 for a good quality headshot, and $500+ for a more in depth lifestyle session. You’ll also needed photos for your site. I prefer Adobe stock, who charges $10 per image for a license.

Most of the time we can use free fonts. Google Fonts has a huge selection of high quality professional fonts. For logos, I also have access to Adobe premium fonts through my Creative Cloud subscription. Some times a client falls in love with a specific font that we need to purchase, but this is the exception. If this happens fonts can cost anywhere from $10 to hundreds. The most we’ve ever had to spend is $60.

A quick wrap up

For clients that choose to work with me, here is the run down of typical costs outside of my fee.

Hosting: $15 – $30 monthly

Domain name: $20 yearly

Email: $5 monthly

Pro Photo License: $89 – $199 one time fee (photographers only and we don’t have to work with Pro Photo but it has many advantages)

Send me a note for details about my fees. I’m happy to give you all the information up front but just need to know a bit about your project to give you an accurate quote.