Web site recommendations

LeeB · Jun 7, 2019

I'm a new 107 pilot getting started with an aerial imagery business, creating a brand and building a web site. I've been looking at web hosting site targeted to photography businesses. They offer what I think I'm looking for (general information with a portfolio, customer specific pages and general sales of stock imagery). Several offer video hosting as well as pictures but aerial imagery includes more that just photos and videos. I've looked at Pixpa, Photobiz, Zenfolio and SmugMug.
Does anyone out there have some suggestions/recommendations on building out an aerial imagery commercial/e-commerce web site? I haven't made a decision on which way to go and am looking for some guidance.
Thanks in advance.

BigAl07 · Jun 7, 2019

Welcome to the forum

I don't have any suggestions but hopefully some of our members can offer some to help guide you going forward.

Allen

dirkclod · Jun 7, 2019

Welcome to the forum.
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching .?

aviator · Jun 7, 2019

WordPress.com: Create a Free Website or Blog
offers many services and you can tailor it to your needs, buy up or buy down. Quite popular.

Stexas · Jun 7, 2019

I use WordPress for my site.

clackey · Jun 8, 2019

Wordpress is currently the most popular framework for creating business sites. It is incredibly flexible with tons of plugins to do whatever you need, however it isn't easy to go from 0 to a full-functioning site as there is a bit of a learning curve. There are tons of WP developers/designers to help if you ever get stuck. Long term, that is probably where you want to be.

If you aren't ready to bite off that level of complexity, I'd recommend squarespace for a photo site as they have some great artsy-like templates. It is also easier to get up and going with squarespace but harder to find help if you need custom stuff done. https://www.squarespace.com/

Drone-Scapes · Jun 8, 2019

Hire a web developer to design and implement what you want and need.

Then take over for updates and content additions.

Your a pilot first, right?

Splash Page - BadDog Digital Productions, Inc.

window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-WSX1ETXMQ6')…

www.digitaldoghouse.com

My Drone site done with WordPress on my VPS server using Themeco Pro theme.

Drones Scapes: We Fly... We Produce... We Deliver... Drone Services

Drone services central NY, specializing in photography, videography, mapping, orthomosaic, photogrammetry, special events, weddings, real estate, construction monitoring, stockpile & more.

www.drone-scapes.com

dougcjohn · Jun 8, 2019

I looked at several, wanted a quick way to obtain a site, registered domain name, and domain name email easily without programming or needing http source editing. Plus wanted to throw a site out quickly and not need to complete in one step. I'm in a building process, creating a new business for retirement... so it's a work in process.

After trying a few, went with WIX.

Your website, your business, your future｜Wix.com

It starts with a website. Build on a platform that gives you the freedom to create, design, and grow online exactly the way you want.

www.wix.com

It may not be the best, but for my needs was great! Note... But NOT the free site, not their domain name accociation with WIX... for a small yearly fee (less than $25) produces a site that appears self standing and doesn't link to WIX parent site like the free version.

Obtain domain name else where and own for small fee (less than $20) and with the Gmail (Free non-business version) interfaces, you can create Domain name email addresses (no limit) that route to any email client. So you don't need to purchase the additional email modules in Web tools or Domain. When replying to domain emails you can select any of the sites email addresses or your personal. Many others will route a false email domain name but won't create or allow 2-way communications.

WIX also easily generates Browser & Mobile pages easily, and the speed to edit, move slightly, add text or photo is 1-3 minutes to complete. If mobile needs tweaked, you can select to edit either page content or placement separately or together. Lastly, you can create multiple versions of your pages... save as different builds and swap as needed... handy to communicate an event or playing with a new design and want to move it from test site to live.

I know zero and don't care to know Zip on Web development, know zero on web languages, and no desire to pay someone to setup a simple web site.

Probably others better, but this works for me.

Drone-Scapes · Jun 8, 2019

dougcjohn said:
I looked at several, wanted a quick way to obtain a site, registered domain name, and domain name email easily without programming or needing http source editing. Plus wanted to throw a site out quickly and not need to complete in one step.

After trying a few, went with WIX.

Your website, your business, your future｜Wix.com

It starts with a website. Build on a platform that gives you the freedom to create, design, and grow online exactly the way you want.

www.wix.com

It may not be the best, but for my needs was great! Note... But NOT the free site, not their domain name accociation with WIX... for a small yearly fee (less than $25) produces a site that appears self standing and doesn't link to WIX parent site like the free version.

Obtain domain name else where and own for small fee (less than $20) and with the Gmail (Free non-business version) interfaces, you can create Domain name email addresses (no limit) that route to any email client. So you don't need to purchase the additional email modules in Web tools or Domain. When replying to domain emails you can select any of the sites email addresses or your personal. Many others will route a false email domain name but won't create or allow 2-way communications.

WIX also easily generates Browser & Mobile pages easily, and the speed to edit, move slightly, add text or photo is 1-3 minutes to complete. If mobile needs tweaked, you can select to edit either page content or placement separately or together. Lastly, you can create multiple versions of your pages... save as different builds and swap as needed... handy to communicate an event or playing with a new design and want to move it from test site to live.

I know zero and don't care to know Zip on Web development, know zero on web languages, and no desire to pay someone to setup a simple web site.

Probably others better, but this works for me.

So what is the web address of your site, so LeeB and others can see what you got from WIX

dougcjohn · Jun 8, 2019

Drone-Scapes said:
So what is the web address of your site, so LeeB and others can see what you got from WIX

I'm in process building as mentioned and not wanting to advertise my little shop yet on an uncontrolled open forum. I'm happy to PM to help with someone else, my site is a work in progress, wasn't mentioned to be critiqued on open forum. It's currently a placeholder to own domain name and to pass email & phone.

My site doesn't yet utilize a small portion of the available WIX tools... to evaluate WIX tools, several examples on their site.

My point was, the tools are out there: domain owning, search engines, email tools, and quick web tools... I found then very easily without needing other consultants or much cash outlay.

Drone-Scapes · Jun 8, 2019

dougcjohn said:
I'm in process building as mentioned and not wanting to advertise my little shop yet on an uncontrolled open forum. I'm happy to PM to help with someone else, my site is a work in progress, wasn't mentioned to be critiqued on open forum.

My point was, the tools are out there: domain owning, search engines, email tools, and quick web tools... I found then very easily without needing other consultants or much cash outlay.

My apologies, I did not see anything about your site being a "work in progress" in your comment. I was just curious as to what WIX can offer from an actual users perspective. I see there ads constantly on YouTube

dougcjohn · Jun 8, 2019

Drone-Scapes said:
My apologies, I did not see anything about your site being a "work in progress" in your comment. I was just curious as to what WIX can offer from an actual users perspective. I see there ads constantly on YouTube

No problem, and I heeded your comment and edited a small bit to clarify.

Sent you a PM.

Geminai · Jun 8, 2019

Another vote for WordPress, if you have any mind toward programming at all. If not, WP can be a challenge when you're just trying to get a presence out there. I used SmugMug in the past, and it's pretty easy, so long as you don't want to do a lot of customization. I went through and made the whole thing custom with CSS coding and then they upgraded and nothing worked anymore, so I gave up. WordPress themes help minimize that happening.

My site is linked at the bottom of my profile info to the left, for reference.

Stexas · Jun 9, 2019

I have pretty much zero coding or website building capabilities and WordPress was simple to use to get a basic site up and running. I used Google to find how to make a contact page with widgets and it works great.

It's nothing fancy but I'm a brand new startup so can't afford to pay somebody to make something really nice yet. WordPress will get ya going and the pricing isnt bad for the business site plan which was a must for me as it includes unlimited space for photographs and video.

AH-1G · Jun 9, 2019

I also use wix. I had them for a year before starting a subscription.

LeeB · Jun 10, 2019

Sounds like I may need to go the WordPress route. Several of the site builders (Photobiz, ZenFolio,, etc.) offer the various elements I'm looking for (my 3 basic sections mentioned in my original post). Many offer watermarking of display images and right-click protection of images. This is available for photos and videos however, they do not support 360, 3D, 2D. So I need to support these externally and add links, plug-ins or embed code. Now I'm maintaining multiple sources for my images as well as the code to add them to the site.

I've also noticed varying policies on taking a piece of the action, from nothing to double digit percentages.

I appreciate all your your insights. I anyone has their site up and running please share your URL. I did look at Geminai's site and have gotten some ideas. There are 360 degree panos there.

Thanks to everyone who responded. Keep the suggestions coming. I'll Update this thread as I move forward.

LeeB · Jun 10, 2019

Geminai said:
Another vote for WordPress, if you have any mind toward programming at all. If not, WP can be a challenge when you're just trying to get a presence out there. I used SmugMug in the past, and it's pretty easy, so long as you don't want to do a lot of customization. I went through and made the whole thing custom with CSS coding and then they upgraded and nothing worked anymore, so I gave up. WordPress themes help minimize that happening.

My site is linked at the bottom of my profile info to the left, for reference.

Very nice site. What did you use to show your 360 panos? Did you shoot the images manually or use software to control the drone?

Geminai · Jun 10, 2019

LeeB said:
Very nice site. What did you use to show your 360 panos? Did you shoot the images manually or use software to control the drone?

Thanks so much, Lee. I'll have to look tonight to remind myself what plugin we used. I know we tried a few of them 'til we found one that would do what we liked. It's not overly elegant, but it does the job!

The panos are shot with a 360º camera.

It's fantastic! Smaller than a cell phone, we bought a special monopod stand for it, and it's controlled with software on the phone. I can shoot an entire property in under 10 minutes. The cell phone software stitches it and does an amazing job shooting HDR, so I don't even have to go in and edit the windows. I never tell customers how easy it is, though.

haha.

That said, my husband has devised a system that connects to the drone, to allows us to use the 360º camera hanging below the drone, but we haven't had a chance to test it yet.

GadgetGuy · Jun 10, 2019

Geminai said:
Thanks so much, Lee. I'll have to look tonight to remind myself what plugin we used. I know we tried a few of them 'til we found one that would do what we liked. It's not overly elegant, but it does the job!

The panos are shot with a 360º camera. It's fantastic! Smaller than a cell phone, we bought a special monopod stand for it, and it's controlled with software on the phone. I can shoot an entire property in under 10 minutes. The cell phone software stitches it and does an amazing job shooting HDR, so I don't even have to go in and edit the windows. I never tell customers how easy it is, though. haha.

That said, my husband has devised a system that connects to the drone, to allows us to use the 360º camera hanging below the drone, but we haven't had a chance to test it yet.

I've recently been researching terrestrial 360° cameras for myself. Which make and model of 360° camera are you using, and which cell phone app do you use it with?

As to aerial 360° panos from the drone, GO 4 already has a terrific fully automated Spherical Pano function under the camera settings (available under the single shot selection, as one of many alternatives), which even fills in ceiling of the sky for you, saves the stitched 360° pano to the microSD card, and even saves the originals, too, if you choose that option, in either jpg or DNG (can't do both, unfortunately). It's available on the Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom, and the P4P, and probably others as well. Takes 60 seconds per pano, leaving plenty of flying time in between panos to move around to different locations. I've managed as many as 8 panos and 13 minutes of video in a single flight! I then use PanoramaStudio 3 Pro to create the interactive web output, from either the lower resolution microSD card stitch, or the original 25 .jpg images, for the best quality. It also supports visually chaining panoramas together, like yours above, and even plotting them all together on an interactive Google Map, along with an optional thumbnail gallery of panoramas along the bottom, and an optional compass for the changing view heading, while scrolling around within the image. Way cool, and highly recommended!

Create and present 360 degree panoramas | PanoramaStudio Panorama Software

PanoramaStudio creates high-resolution panoramic images from individual photos, ranging from partial panoramas to 360x180° spherical panoramas, as well as interactive panoramas for the web.

www.tshsoft.de

Tobias is also very responsive and helpful with any and all questions.

Geminai · Jun 11, 2019

Geminai said:
Thanks so much, Lee. I'll have to look tonight to remind myself what plugin we used. I know we tried a few of them 'til we found one that would do what we liked. It's not overly elegant, but it does the job!

Lee, it's the iPanorama plugin that we used.