Pictures

Before you can bring all of your written content to your neighborhood web designer, there still is the matter of photography to consider. All too often, this is an area clients neglect in order to save money, which in my opinion is usually a mistake.

Take these two local competitors, for example (please note that I did not create either site), vying for customers who are looking for cabins. Owner 1 uses homemade snapshots to advertise his cabins, while their competitors seem to have gone the extra step to hire a professional. Which one would you pick?

Having been to both places, I can attest that both are excellent choices to spend a week or two. Sadly, the pictures on the first website do the location no justice and will result in lost sales. Remember: a website with no pictures is often better than one with bad ones. A website with great photographs, on the other hand, will attract the maximum amount of clients.

So Mary, who wants to showcase her lovely store, has the following choices:

+ She might not include any pictures.
+ If she is a good photographer, or knows somebody who is, she can take her own pictures and hand them over along with the rest of her content.
+ She can hand over her own pictures to the web designer and ask him or her to touch them up. This might not be included in the price, but would certainly be worth the extra money.
+ She can hire a semi-professional photographer. Often, web designers are also decent photographers with good equipment at their ready. Alternatively, local photography students might jump at the chance to apply their knowledge. Both these solutions will greatly increase the quality of the photographs and are good alternatives for someone on a limited budget.
+ She can hire a professional photographer. This is the best choice, if she can afford it. A professional shoot can start as low as $400 a day here in Halifax, and Mary will not need more time than that. Not only will Mary own great pictures for her website, but they can also be used in the future to create brochures, ads and flyers for her store.

For a list of local photographers, please consult the directory on this site.

Right, Mary has her content ready, and so, I presume, do you. It’s time to choose a name for her new website.

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