Whether you’re creating photo hosting sites for personal purposes or to house your professional portfolio on the web, you want to get it right because you will be living with this design for a significant period of time. Building a website is much like building a house. It requires careful planning and strategy and when done right, success is going to be inevitable. Here are a few rules that you should take into account when planning and building your free online photo gallery.
1. Choose the right image hosting sites
In an era where smartphones and low-cost digital cameras have empowered individuals to compose shots whose quality can be at par with the output of a professional photographer. We have become a generation of trigger-happy snappers who would take out our phones at every Instagram-worthy moment. Having said that, people have different reasons for needing free image hosting sites. Some use them to archive and free up space on their local drives and mobile devices. Others use free photo hosting sites as a way to share images with a close group of friends and family while others need an image hosting website to attract new clients and land gigs or projects.
With so many top photo hosting sites available today, you want to choose a platform that will suit your objectives. For instance, as a free online image hosting site, Strikingly caters to individuals and creatives looking to display their best images through modern and mobile-responsive websites. Creating your own website to house your photos is great if you want to showcase your talent to potential clients.
2. Be clear about your theme or chosen genre
If you’re taking photos professionally, it’s important to be clear about the genre you choose to work in. If you're offering services, you also want to state clearly where you are willing to travel to. For instance, you might want to state that you specialise in family portraits or newborn photography and that you can offer services to clients residing within your state or city. You might even want to include your chosen genre and the location where you operate in when you choose a website title for SEO purposes.
3. Let your personality reflect your website
Just because you’re using image hosting sites free of charge doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to sacrifice creative freedom and make do with a generic looking website. Strikingly enables users to create unique-looking websites with customizable and free image hosting site templates. Use your own color scheme to push your brand. Add a custom logo and personalized website buttons. Make sure to add an About section and tell your visitors about your personal story, your passions and how they translate to the subjects you shoot.
4. Simplicity is key
While websites provide a good amount of room to express your creative side when it comes to designing your site, it would still be a good idea to lean towards simplicity when planning site navigation. Make it easy for users to find information on your page. Menu items should be few and clear. Organize your photo galleries according to genre or subject. Your clients shouldn’t have to make several clicks just to get to what they are looking for.
5. Maintain a curated content
The best photo hosting sites that are designed to be dedicated online portfolios do not contain a comprehensive library of photos that the photographer has taken throughout the course of his career. Potential clients will only want to see a sample of your best work to arrive at a decision on whether to hire you or not. Make sure to manage your content regularly and add new projects as they are completed and remove the irrelevant collections. On the other hand, if you’re using a photo hosting site for personal viewing, we recommend that you keep your collection organized by splitting them into categories for better viewing. This is also a good way to manage access to your files, making sure that you only display what you want to share with friends and family.
