Sharing

For the most part the approach is very good, blogs can look great and give you control over the content. But some services like Facebook make it hard to reach the audience you are talking to and then to share outside the closed environment. An open site is much better for people to find you and your work. Take a serious look at photoshelter.com for example.

How about proofing and e-commerce?

While I agree that simple portfolio websites don't necessarily cut it, a website can be much more than that:

- It can host your full archive online, searchable and licensable with automated e-commerce,

- a tool to interact with your clients on commissioned jobs (proofing, image delivery, etc...).

A website can, and should indeed, be much more than just a portfolio. Not just a window, but a complete tool to support your business in a professional way - and make you look good at the same time.

See e.g. www.photodeck.com.

A website is useful as part of a whole

There is some truth in there, but like J-F Maion I think a website can also be more than just a portfolio. I use private galleries in my smugmug (www.frankiegoesclick.Com) for proofing and submitting pictures to my clients. But then again, with Photoshelter or SmugMug for example, you don't need to pay for a developer - with a bit of CSS and basic HTML knowledge, along with some basic graphic design skills, you can easily make your own website.

I could not disagree more...

I really am not sure that I could disagree more.

Facebook is great for communication and building community but is in no way a professional representation of anyone's work. It doesn't allow you to funnel someone towards a contact form or towards a purchase, which is the goal in the end. So when people are done "liking" you, you need to get them to your website.

A blog is great for showing all your work, your most recent work and to present your personality through your writing. It can create a great connection with prospective clients. However, it still lacks a focused look at your best work. You want potential clients to see your BEST work, not 20 images from one portrait session you shot last Saturday. When people are done reading your posts and leaving comments, you need to get them to a purchase. You need to get them to your website.

You need Facebook. You need a blog. You also need a structured, focused portfolio site that portrays your best work in a professional manner. A site that works correctly will funnel prospective clients through your BEST work, a quick about me, and contact form or signup page or purchase.

There are lots of options out there but I have always built sites using WordPress - entire portfolio sites with galleries and a blog. One site. One login.

While custom WordPress sites do cost a lot, we created http://photographyblogsites.com to solve the exact problem you are describing. Most people do not need a fully custom site, in fact I do not recommend it for someone who is not established in their business and really needs to stand out from the crowd. So at PhotographyBlogSites, we created a system where you can sign up in about 30 seconds for a full WordPress site, including a blog. Lots of options to customiize, etc.

That's already too much of a self promotion but i really feel this was terrible advice to be advising people to not use a website at all.

Complete nonsense

I totally disagree with this article. No website equals less work. But I suppose that is ok for photographers living off arts funding.

Meanwhile, back in the real world

All the photographers I know take their websites very seriously and with good reason as it is more often than not the first port of call from a potential new client.
It suits them to take a view on your work before they decide to speak to you or your agent.

Of course websites will go out of fashion. The job of a portfolio, digital or print is to show what you are doing now. That includes presentation as well as content.

A single page with you contact details is brilliant for the accounts department to find out where to send the cheque, presuming you ever get a job.......

um...

Um, I can't help but disagree in part with this - perhaps the core sentiment is right, but the angle of approach is wrong.

there are a good few vehicles to greater present your work, shout about and connect with (engage in conversation, be in the conversation and retain as "friends, likes or followers") - but the single best, and most final calling card is your website. All traffic must ultimately be directed at your site. "Retain and gain" A facebook profile/page, a twitter acct, or an about.me profile - all bring issues of ownership, licencing and maintenance, but yes they are certainly great places to present our efforts. All traffic should be directed to your site, traffic logged and observed. I would perhaps suggest that it would be best served that we pay more interest into how people digest the presentation of our efforts, to better understand and present, hopefully leading to better returns for our efforts.

Of course, you could delete your site and see how your work/cashflow equation works out... ;-)

about.me/phillowry

Ditch that blog and Flickr!

A photographer's website is the single most important point of contact for their would be clients, it's their shop window, it's their brand. What a crazy idea to ditch it in favour of messy photo sharing networking alternatives splattered with gross advertising and other people's pictures and worst still... comments!
Websites are not fashion dependent, they are fashion, if your shiny new site is looking dusty and dated it's your fault, probably too much time spent networking and not enough time keeping your site bang up to the minute.
I'm not a big Flash fan but the vast majority of image websites are Flash based, I would tend to say don't pay a fortune for an iPhone or iPad if they can't display Flash content.
The medium is now the message, the content will decide whether you sink or swim!
Get your website out there and drop all the rest!
( See our listing of Photographer's Website providers at Shuttrblade.com )

Agree on one thing....

.....don't build your website in flash (with few exceptions)

I would like to see some examples of photographers who are successfully using the approach advocated by the author.

http://www.borndigitalwebdesign.com/services/web-design-for-photographers/

Not 100% Correct

I have generated online business completely from my HTML based website a href="http://www.digitalstudio.in/" Digital Studio.in /a