Hosting unsure which way to go.

Mp4 · 15 May 2015 at 12:28

Greetings all,

I have a wordpress website for my photography and have spent around £330 on it since 2011 upgrading the template/addons. And am very happy with the outcome.

I use Vidahost for my hosting but now space is becoming an issue (10GB)
£105 inc Domains a year.

The next package up is £99 which would be £30 more per year to a
20GB upgrade, but I think the more images / client galleries I add I will eventually fill this up.

or upgrade to the £199 (Unlimited) which would be the same price as SS per year. / Which is the $24 month (£16 - £199) per year on SquareSpace.(SS)

But then would need to transfer domains to SS..

I have been looking at Squarespace and have setup 4+ site for people now and really like the simplicity and specially some templates that allow images to be shown full screen (Landscape work) which I currently can't do using the addon (Prophoto) and has to be within a box/slideshow format.

I did think about splitting my landscape work and getting a (SS) account with the £12 a month £120 a year which would add on to the cost above.

OR

I'm not sure if I can run another wordpress site on my current and then use that for my landscapes and find another template but then won't be able to do sales...

AHarvey · 16 May 2015 at 03:55

Firstly, how long are you keeping images on your site for? I'd probably just upgrade to their unlimited package and off you go, no worries.

Mp4 · 16 May 2015 at 08:29

With the client galleries I leave them on the site for 2 months after their wedding date.

I feel that I do spend a lot £145 a year inc domains.

But really looking for more than 10GB

AHarvey · 16 May 2015 at 10:02

** Deleted post removed **

Mp4 said:
With the client galleries I leave them on the site for 2 months after their wedding date.

I feel that I do spend a lot £145 a year inc domains.

But really looking for more than 10GB

Honestly, if you're doing enough weddings that you are running out of space after 2 months the price shouldn't really be that much of an issue

What I would do (and it's difficult without seeing your site).

Upgrade to the Unlimited package with Vidahost, it saves headache of moving it all and if you go for the 3 year package it comes at £133 a year. Unlimited webspace and unlimited bandwidth so no worries for you.

Then, as it allows multiple websites, look where you can split yours. Weddings/events/christenings etc keep on one site. I would put your landscapes on another, it's easy enough to do it just means marketing the 2 sites but having separate SEO for each would make it easier.

For instance, I run my weddings/parties/christenings/pets etc through my Something Forever facebook page (I do have hosting/domains but after 3 years I've still not done anything with them

) then all my product photography goes through "my name photography" facebook page. That covers all the other services I offer.

A local company to me has "Weddings Boudoir Portraits etc" on the studio window. Why you would mix those up I don't know

Mp4 · 16 May 2015 at 12:12

If I wasn't lazy & forget to delete clients photos then id probably have more space

& if unlimited I could use as another backup method for full resolution images then too.

ive just looked at the unlimited at £199 a year or £398 over 3 years cant seem to find it for £133?

I currently do have weddings/portrait/landscapes under one site and in the background I have a shopping cart which i can sell images/albums etc which is fantastic.

But using (Prophoto) and the image slider on a 1900x1200 looks small and personally doesn't show off the images well.

where as SS templates can be nice full screen which I like so I could show off my landscapes and sell them.

If i went to SS then i would loose the client area side of it.

AHarvey · 16 May 2015 at 20:36

Mp4 said:
If I wasn't lazy & forget to delete clients photos then id probably have more space

& if unlimited I could use as another backup method for full resolution images then too.

ive just looked at the unlimited at £199 a year or £398 over 3 years cant seem to find it for £133?

unlimited is 3 years for the price of 2, so £398 for the 3 year package / 3 = £133 a year. It makes sense to just upgrade

Backups, client storage etc.

I currently do have weddings/portrait/landscapes under one site and in the background I have a shopping cart which i can sell images/albums etc which is fantastic.

But using (Prophoto) and the image slider on a 1900x1200 looks small and personally doesn't show off the images well.

where as SS templates can be nice full screen which I like so I could show off my landscapes and sell them.

If i went to SS then i would loose the client area side of it.

I've no experience of SS so can't really comment, but if you think it would be more beneficial for your landscape work then go for it

Maybe worth going unlimited for Vida and letting clients know they can purchase from the site for a much longer time, and get SS for landscapes, if it increases sales it will pay for itself

Mp4 · 20 May 2015 at 10:11

Well today a video was released that ProPhoto will be going to version 6 which will practically give me the abilities of SquareSpace

like scalable (screen size) galleries

I shall look at the 3 year plan

Mp4 · 26 May 2015 at 15:49

Now unlimited (Cloud!)

couldn't afford £400 in one go so..