This project started a looong time ago, when I first started working with Ellen Petty of Identity Kitchen. As we worked together on custom blogs and websites for photographers, we started brainstorming ways to make something similar available to everyone. The goal was to create Affordable, Easy-to-use, WordPress Portfolio Websites for Photographers.

Our Goals

We put together a long list based on what worked best with the common features we were using in our custom sites: social media integration, customization, easy-to-use backend, unlimited galleries, integration of fantastic photography tools like ShootQ, etc, etc. Like all of our custom sites they needed to be an all-in-one website AND blog, all built in WordPress and 100% HTML – no Flash.

Flash sites are invisible to iPhones and create difficulties for search engines. Unfortunately, until now, Flash templates have been the only realistic option available at an affordable level. Regardless of what was used for a website, we were seeing a lot of people still use WordPress for their blog, often combining two or three website and blog services to manage it all, sometimes even hiring separare designers or programmers to work on them.

There is a good reason why WordPress and HTML based sites were not being done on an affordable level. WordPress is software that needs to be installed for each site. You can purchase “themes” or templates for WordPress but these also need to be installed. It requires some knowledge of databases, HTML, a programming language called PHP – all pretty overwhelming if you don’t know how to use it.

The Answer

The answer was to use a lesser known version of WordPress, which allows an entire network of sites to run off of one installation. Once the basic framework is developed, anyone can then sign up for a site by just entering some contact information. No HTML, no installation, no upgrades to worry about. You don’t need a hosting account. You don’t even need to wait for us to respond to an email or return a phone call. Just sign up and the site is ready.

You can check out all the features on the main site: http://photographyblogsites.com or to really see how it works sign up for the free 7-day trial.

Lifetime Offer

In celebration of the launch, we are offering an introductory lifetime membership for $499. That includes our search engine optimized blogsite, any new themes, 4 GB of hosting, our support, maintenance, upgrades and much, much more. For a full list of features visit our features section. No recurring costs…ever! But act fast! The offer will expire 11:59 PM on November 30, 2010.

Feedback

This is growing community and we are continuing to build and improve everything about the site – the way the main site itself works, suggestions for new features, etc. We have setup a support forum to take any and all feedback. We’d love to hear your thoughts as we will keep developing PhotographyBlogSites to be the best they can be.

Thank you to everyone who has helped with feedback and ideas throughout the process – we couldn’t have done it without you!