A website is a lot of work

Over the last several weeks, I have been working extremely hard to launch a new website. The reason for the new website was two-fold. First, I created my own website originally using iWeb. While this served its purpose initially, I had outgrown what I could do with that program. Specifically, I wanted a more dynamic Flash-based website. Second, I had decided to rebrand my services to specialize in photography only. Previously, I had offered other services such as graphic design and video production too.

So, once I decided to go that route, I began considering the various options for my new website. My first thought was to learn Flash and design my website from the ground up. While that sounds great, I quickly learned that Flash isn't easy to learn. And I am not that well versed in web design. In fact, I know just enough HTML to get me in trouble. Other than that, I need WYSIWYG software to help make it possible for me to anything more. My second thought was to buy a Flash template from a website such as iwebtemplates.org. They offer prebuilt Flash templates that anyone can customize and publish. Alternatively, you can pay to have their web designers customize the template to your specifications for an additional fee. While the pricing of the templates were reasonable, around $70 for most templates; I was still unsure of my ability to customize the template to my liking. And the option of having their web designers do the work quickly added up to a lot of money.

After much deliberation, I chose a third alternative. I elected to buy a template from bludomain. They offer prebuilt Flash-based websites for creative professionals. The great thing is all of the customization can be done through a very user friendly web interface. Of course, you are limited to how much customization can be done versus unlimited options if you buy a template from a website like iwebtemplates.org. Despite that limitation, I was very happy with the flexibility the template offered and the whole process of customizing the site was easy. I actually purchased a template that was originally priced at $400, but at the time I bought it (January 2, 2009) they were offering it for only $100. I thought that was a pretty good deal.

It took me nearly a month to customize the website, but that was because I couldn't work on it every day. I spent a few days every week during the month of January until I had it almost done. But before I could officially launch the website, a potential client asked me for my website information. Instead of giving out my old one, I decided to go home that night and launch even though I had a few more things to finish. I figured I could make the final changes to my website after the launch. And I was right. Making changes to my site now is just as easy as it was before the site launched.

This is a screen capture from the home page of my website. It cycles through

various images from my portfolio while music is playing in the background.

The menu slides up from the bottom to access other pages of the website.

So, if you can't already tell from this post, I am very happy. I would recommend bludomain to anyone interested in a dynamic Flash-based website, especially if you are in the creative services industry. To check out my new website, go to www.pwphotographer.com. Post a comment and tell me what you think.