{"id":7640,"date":"2015-05-27T04:37:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T11:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flauntmydesign.com\/?p=7640"},"modified":"2021-09-09T14:32:45","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T18:32:45","slug":"photography-website-designer-alex-vita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flauntmydesign.com\/photography-website-designer-alex-vita\/","title":{"rendered":"Photography Website Designer Alex Vita"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photography<\/a><\/p>\n

Specialize as a Web Designer<\/h2>\n

There are many reasons to pick a niche <\/a>as a creative freelancer. Clients trust experts, word of mouth works better, and your marketing becomes more straightforward. For your inspiration, and to give you a little push to specialize, I interview creative freelancers who have chosen their niche.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meet Alex Vita! Alex is\u00a0a Bucharest freelance web designer\/developer who specializes in\u00a0websites for photographers. Alex works with photographer clients from all around the world, and each month he gets around 20 project quote requests from potential new clients.<\/p>\n

Read on for Alex's niche pick, his marketing<\/a> and samples of his design work!<\/p>\n

The Niche Picked<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

Hi, Alex! What's your niche?<\/h3>\n

I'm a web designer and developer working exclusively with photographers, offering them professional web-related services (design, manual customization, SEO, consulting & more).<\/p>\n

Besides client work, I also write in-depth articles on my site's blog and send out a weekly newsletter for photographers, all about photography websites.<\/p>\n

My target audience is made up of semi-pro and pro photographers who have a poor or outdated online presence and are looking to improve their site or build a new one from scratch. I've also successfully worked with larger photo agencies wanting website improvements. My clients are usually already established in the photography industry and are just looking to make their website have a bigger role in their photography business.<\/p>\n

Regardless of their status as a photographer, my clients are sometimes not very technically experienced, so I'm used to \u201chand-holding\u201d them through the first weeks of learning to manage their site.<\/p>\n

\"Responsive<\/a><\/p>\n

Why did you pick photography websites as your niche?\u00a0How did you break into websites for photographers?<\/h3>\n

After a degree in computer science, a fruitful but boring programmer “office career” was in store for me, and I worked as a software developer for a short while. But I was always searching for a better lifestyle, and my entire spare time was spent exploring the passion I had for photography. That meant buying professional camera gear, setting up a photo studio, shooting weddings, and slowly improving my artistic skills over time.<\/p>\n

It also meant sleep deprivation. My regular office job was bringing me down, so I made the leap and quit my job, becoming a photography freelancer.<\/p>\n

The website I had built for myself (as a photographer) got the attention of others online, and they soon hired me to build their own site. And that's how it all started for me. Some of it was accidental, I guess, but letting go of job security and leaping into the unknown world of freelancing were the calculated risks I needed to take to change my life.<\/p>\n

What was the most important thing (initially) that allowed you to grow your business?<\/h3>\n

After building several sites for other photographers, my big break came when I was noticed by a company offering photo websites & tools: PhotoShelter<\/a>. They were looking to build a short list of certified consultants that can help their users with improving their websites.<\/p>\n

That brought in a steady flow of clients in the years that followed, allowing me to build a growing list of clients (with a high rate of repeat business), and connections in the photography industry.<\/p>\n

\"Website<\/a><\/p>\n

Which service has proven to be the most successful for you?<\/h3>\n

Building websites from start to finish have always been the most fulfilling projects I had. That means having initial discovery discussions with the photographers, setting clear goals for the site, designing and building everything, taking care of the site's performance, security, SEO etc., polishing everything up into a marketing engine for the client.<\/p>\n

Building such a website from scratch is where I find the most meaning in my work.<\/p>\n

What are the top things photography clients are looking for in a website designer? What crucial pains do you solve for your clients?<\/h3>\n

1. \u00a0<\/strong>Photographers want something as automated as possible. Since they're sometimes not experienced with any web stuff, they just want getting quick results from a site and then not having to manage it too much. Their focus is on going out there and shooting images.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a wrong expectation there (which I'm trying to correct):<\/p>\n