web page or gallery hosting??

after realizing i have 1048 processed photos from mousefest trip, probably will end up culling out 200-300 or moreof those, i still can't post them all here,

is it hard to learn how to make a webpage?

is it expensive to have a webpage?

would i be better off with a gallery hosting service, such as pbase?

eagerly awaiting your answers, i'm sure many of you have this knowledge, and this is such a friendly place, i don't feel i'll be flamed for not knowing these things
gary

 

1) Learning how to make a simple, basic web page is so simple you can learn it in 5 minutes. Once you have your feet wet, you learn one new thing at a time forever, and eventually you know how to make a better web page. Try an HTML for Dummies book, and I guarantee you'll find it not only very simple to learn, but fun as well, since web pages are a creative endeavor just like photography.

2) Depends on how much storage space you need. You probably already have a small amount of web space that you could use for a simple site of a few pages and a few small pics or graphics; most ISPs give you 10mb or so of space. There are also lots of places where you can make a web page for free with automated software, such as tripod. Those have space limits, though, so you won't be able to post many pics.

3) Again, that depends on what you want to do and how much you want to post. Photobucket has free image hosting with size limits, and paid hosting for a fee, that you can link directly to from message boards and web pages. Places like Shutterfly, DotPhoto, etc. offer free photo hosting with pretty much no limit on the number or size of pics, but you can't link directly to the pics.

After many years of having a very small web page hosted on the free space I got from my ISP, I finally outgrew the 10mb limit and decided to start paying for enough server space to host my web page and all my pics. I went with a company called DreamHost; they're a prety good company with very little downtime, good pricing plans, and lots of goodies and extras thrown in. I knew HTML before I went in, though, so I have not used the services they offer to help you build a page, and I have not used their customer support, so I can't comment on them.

My current web hosting package is called Crazy Insane Domain. It includes 200gb of storage space at startup, and 2tb of bandwidth, and both the storage space and bandwidth grow by a fixed amount each week, which is like getting free upgrades. The plan includes up to 3,000 email addresses (I use 3), and 24-hour email tech support, and best of all includes registration of a domain name (mine is willcad.org). It also includes plenty of more technical extras - you can install message boards and chat servers and MySQL databases and all sorts of other stuff. I pay $120 yearly, which breaks down to $10 a month; if I pay 2 years in advance, it drops to $7.95 a month.

The biggest advantage to having my own paid storage space is that I have more than enough space and bandwidth to host not only my web page but all of my digital photos, too. I don't use a gallery software, I create simple HTML pages for my pics; but there are gallery softwares available free or cheap. I love having all of my pics available to share with my family and friends, and include in my trip reports. All of the pics you see me post here are actually hosted at full resolution on my web space.

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My advice to you is, find out how much web space you have from your ISP and use it to create a simple, basic web page with just a few medium-res images (1024x764 or so). Once you get the hang of the process of making a page, uploading it, and making additions and corrections to it, then you can think about getting more space and uploading more pics, or maybe even uploading all of your pics to the web as a form of backup.

Take things slow, one step at a time. Like anything else, a web page is a complex structure built from simpler components; once you learn the simple components, putting them together like Legos becomes easy.

 

thanks, very very informative, good idea to get the dummies book, i just finished ps 7 for dummies as i bought that when i upgraded from elements to ps7,
i use optimum online, my local cable provider for isp, i guess if i visit their website i can find out how much free space is available, i really don't know much about this, i use satellite for tv, i never liked their tv pricing or service levels so when sat became an option i jumped ship and never looked back
gary

 

Ditto to everything Will said. I recently did a ton of research on different web hosting sites for my job and for my personal use. I ended up going with Bluehost and am very pleased with them.

Here's the main reasons I chose them over the others: They're cheap - $6.95/month (24 month order) or $7.95/month (12 month order). You can host 6 websites with one account, at no extra cost (I think they may be the only site that offers this). 50,000 MB disk space and 999 GB bandwidth - that's a lot! You will get a free domain name for life if you sign-up as a user for 1 or 2 years.

If you decide to go with an online gallery instead of hosting your own site, take a look at Phanfare. I use them for my photos. They have unlimited storage, fast uploads, no ads, great tech support (within the hour), you can share photos and videos, link to websites, they have very nice looking albums that are customizable, and you can access your account online. They aren't the cheapest way to go but you get what you pay for. If you like them, let them know I referred you and my next year will be free!

Barrie

 

thanks for all the good advice, i was at the library this morning 5 minutes after opening, html for dummies wasn't in but i did get 3 other dummies books, creating a web page, designing a web page and graphics for the web, they were all in the older shelves so i've got 4 weeks to read them, 1/4 way through creating a web page for dummies and took a look at the 2 different hosting sites, i figure within a month i'll have my first simple page up and go from there, i think i'll go ahead and just buy a year's worth of hosting, both servers have template and creation programs to get started for the simple beginning effort so i might as well jump into my first effort soon
gary

 

I use a service called phanfare. I initially started using it so we could post our vacation pics on the web for the family at home tp see. them. Now I also use it as a backup for all my pics. The service is $6.95 per month with no advertisements.

They give you your own web page that you can setup using their own templates. If you get someone else to sign up and use your name as a reference, then you get the same amount of time that they signed up for free. I had a local company sign up for 1 year and I got a year free.

Not knowing anything at all about setting up or running a web page I have found this to be very easy to use.

There are also some other features they have that I like such as password protection, sending invitations to people when you post new pics etc.

They also allow 10 minutes of video to be posted. (good for the grandparents) I usually take short clips on my PS camera and post for them.

Their web site is http://www.phanfare.com
My web site is http://rudolph.phanfare.com

I have been very happy with this service now for over a year.

 

Yay - another plug for phanfare. I love them!

 

Gary - probably far too late to respond to this thread, but you might want to take a look at the new Photoshop Elements 5.0 package. It's got a really great feature for automatically setting up (and uploading) photo albums to your personal websites. It seems to work really well, though you still would need to set up a "main" page.

If all you want is to stick your photos online, it's probably far easier (and cheaper) to go with a hosting service, like pbase or something. I have a personal domain, but it's mostly just so I can keep the same email address for all eternity and have a personal ftp server when I need it.

 

I use SmugMug.com. They are a paid service so you don't have any ads and depending on the level of subscription you want, you can fully customize your site.

Mine is at http://scottwdw.smugmug.com/

I am just now getting around to starting to customize. Have a long way to go yet.

Pricing includes UNLIMITED storage of your photos. I upload all my huge photo files to my SmugMug site as a backup. You can make your galleries (aka albums) public or private. They feature various sizes you can link to with no bandwidth problems. You can even let other people purchase prints and photo gifts if you want.

Standard accounts are $39.95, Power user $59.95 and Pro user are $149.95. You can make that up by referring other people to SmugMug. If you are interested, I can get people $5 off these prices.

I have been very pleased and what's great is SmugMug likes Macs and PCs!