You'd be surprised at how often we have photographers approach us wanting a new website. It's actually a very exciting challenge to have to design and build an online extension to an artist's business.

The first major challenge we face when working with artists like photographers, is that they tend to be very involved in the design process. They have very strong opinions (naturally), but are very cognoscente of the effort that goes into a good design. Challenging, but rewarding.

The second major challenge, and the real purpose of this post, is the features and functionality that they require. Photographers will typically need the following:

• A content management system, so they can control all the content in the site.
• Multiple photo galleries - done in a slick, contemporary fashion - to showcase their previous work.
• A secured client area, where they can allow their clients to preview, order and pay for their photos (very common with event photographers, like wedding photographers).

To custom build something like this, even if we leverage an existing system like Drupal, will start in the $15-20,000 range. But photographers of Calgary, do no fret! A solution exists that can shave thousands off the cost your dream website: PhotoBiz.

PhotoBiz (www.photobiz.com) offers not only all the common features (like those outlined above), but some really slick ordering and proofing tools. Rather than turn this post into a long, drawn out love letter to PhotoBiz, I will let you, the eager photographer, check it out for yourself.

There are (of course) a couple of notable catches.

• PhotoBiz is a hosted service. That means that they handle all the hosting, including your email and domain name, and you pay on-going fees. The on-going fees are based on the total number of photos you have within your website. But hey, even if you're paying $500 to $1,000 per year, it would take a long time to catch up to a $20,000 custom website.
• Design is limited to their templates. I'm sure they have some customization options, but you'll definitely be working "within the box".
• Apis can't help you build your site. If you choose PhotoBiz, you're basically on your own. But that's kind of the point of this service, isn't it?

Further to that last point, however, once you've built your new site with PhotoBiz, Apis can help you drive it to the top of the search engines.

So for all of you photographers, rookies and seasoned veterans alike, PhotoBiz is something to look into.