More than half of the photographers reaching out to me have their domains with GoDaddy or Bluehost. But I ALWAYS try to convince them not to use them for hosting; they’re awful at that. Keep reading to learn more.

Let’s dive in!

QUICK TIPS

1. Website visitors lack patience

We're all living in a distraction era. Someone lands on your photography website and they just give you their attention for a few seconds until their phone dings with a notification, or they get lost on social media or something.

Browsing habits have changed. People get confused very easily; if they notice any mistakes or problems on your website, they leave. If they take a second more to decipher what your website is all about, they leave, they don't have patience to sit through anything.

2. You won’t get it right the first time

This applies to your first photography website. This might also apply to your entire photography business.

Your body of work will need to be adjusted, reinvented, or even scrapped over time. You should actually count on this (to push you forward).

Here are some reasons why you might not get everything right in your first photography business:

• You run out of money, because photographers often underestimate what it takes to shoot great photos and properly market them.

• You’re not doing the hard work. You’re might just be looking for shortcuts and taking the convenient choices.

• Your work is too generic (aka boring). You might need to focus on a specific niche or target audience, otherwise you’re marketing to nobody.

• Your business approach is too rigid. It’s sometimes good to stick to your convictions, but don’t forget to listen to the market. Experiment with new ideas, measure things, optimize what you can.

• You’re not “investing” time in learning. Intuition can only get you so far. With countless great articles and books out there, you can’t afford not to keep an eye on today’s best practices. Reading about mistakes that other photographers make is faster & simpler than having to go through them yourself.

Preventing some of these mistakes requires that you treat it as a business (and not just a hobby) and that you focus on creating remarkable work.