Disclosure: We are reader-supported. If you buy through links on our site, we may earn a small commission. Learn more.
If you’re ready to expand your photography business, creating a website and blog are essential.
There are many options available, but choosing the best blogging platform for photographers makes the difference in captivating your audience the second they land on your site.
Some photographers scratch their head at this suggestion...
They might counter, “But people are here for my pictures, not a bunch of words. My gallery should be enough.”
Sure, a gallery is great, but the reason your audience stops and takes notice is because your photo tells a story.
As a photographer, you’re capturing a moment in time that evokes a feeling in those who see it. Nostalgia. Hope. Awe. Anger. Each photo you take preserves a piece of history.
Why not take it further and give insight behind your work to connect with your following in a more meaningful way?
In this post, we’ll go through several popular blogging platforms and show you which one we believe is the best all-around blogging software for photographers.
Ready? Let’s do this!
Why You Should Start a Photography Blog
Thankfully, the digital world has allowed photographers to share their work far and wide.
With the emergence of online communities like Flickr, stock photo sites, and social media, you’re able to get discovered and build a fanbase much easier.
However, if you want to uplevel your photography business, you shouldn’t limit your reach to these platforms only. Instead, building a website and blogging regularly will help you grow.
Blogging can work well for any photographer, allowing you to showcase your work in a way that engages, inspires, and wows people. And, more notably, it gives you added flexibility to convert fans into customers.
Whether you’re looking for new clients, offering hands-on training or online courses to teach other photographers, or showcasing your work to score a big job with your dream company, your website acts as a detailed and organized portfolio that will help those looking at your work to dig deep.
Also, the main reason you’d want your own site is because you control it.
You might have had a lot of luck with Instagram the last few years, but they could easily change their algorithm, functionality, or shut it down completely at any moment. This means you’ll have lost your ability to reach your audience.
Your blog will be a steady fixture, no matter what happens to the social media and community-base platforms out there. That thought alone should give you peace of mind.
Best Blogging Platforms For Photographers
When considering the best blogging platforms for photographers, you need to consider the following:
- What are your goals?
- What’s your skill set?
- How much control do you want to have over the look, feel, and functionality?
There are a lot of great platforms available, far too many to cover here. Depending on your goals and how hands-on (and technical) you want to be, you might prefer one over another.
To simplify the options, here are the top three blog platforms for photographers we suggest checking out:
1. WordPress.org - Best All Around Blogging Platform For Photographers
WordPress is the best free blogging platform, an open-source content management system, and one of the original sites made for blogging. Since it’s been around forever, there are a ton of options for customization, widgets, and plugins. Another great benefit is their massive community where you can connect with others about questions, ideas, and problems.
2. Wix - Best Option For Beginners Who Don't Care About A Ton Of Features
Wix has been gaining a lot of momentum these last few years due to the ease of its drag-and-drop site builder. If you’re not overly technical, their templates make it simple to create a site quickly.
3. Squarespace - Best For eCommerce Photographers (Easy To Sell Your Work)
Squarespace is a great option for creatives looking to showcase their work and easily build their website. With templates and drag-and-drop options (although not quite as easy as Wix), you can get your site up in a matter of hours. They also have a solid eCommerce solution built in if you’re making sales online.
In choosing the best blogging platform, we recommend WordPress.org.
WordPress’s customization options give you plenty of choices to build out your photographs and showcase your work in a way that makes sense for your artistic expression.
Let's go a bit deeper into why we think WordPress is the best blogging platform for photographers.
Pros and Cons of WordPress.org
Pros
Cons
The main reason we think WordPress.org is the best website builder for photographers is because of its adaptability. Although it might take a little extra effort to create your site, it’s well worth it.
Depending on your goals, artistic vision, and/or audience’s expectations, WordPress.org gives you endless options to showcase your photos in a way that works best for you.
For example, you can leverage:
- Portfolio pages
- Galleries
- Slideshows
- Carousels
- Featured stories (via blogs)
- Categories
3 Examples of Photography Blogs on WordPress
Here are a few examples of how other photographers are using WordPress:
Feature Shoot
Feature Shoot uses their site to meld stories and photography. This site is more story-driven, supporting the range of photos and exhibits available.
Timothy Allen
Timothy Allen puts a focus on his breathtaking images with a dynamic slideshow, and leverages multiple areas of his site to feature his photography. He also uses some space to tell the stories behind the photos, but is more focused on capturing his audience’s attention with visuals.
Markus Huth
Markus Huth does a mix of both. There’s a photography tab that leads you to different galleries. When you click on those, you’re led to a landing page with bold photos and a bit of text to provide context to the story behind the image. If you’re looking for meatier stories, he has another tab that focuses on his written articles.
How To Start A Photography Blog On WordPress
If you're wondering how to start a blog and the customization and setup seem intimidating, don’t stress. There's a few ways you can get started: you can built it by yourself using free tutorials and videos (like this one), you can purchase a blogging course like Blog Growth Engine by Adam Enfroy (our top recommended blogging course), or hire someone to do it for you. If you're short on time and want to build a blog that makes money and helps you sell your photography, a blogging course can be a great option, but can get expensive.
For now, we're assuming you're building this yourself:
To start, you'll need a domain (site name), website hosting (your website host "hosts" your site files so it can display on your website), and WordPress theme (the actual website files and builder).
There are plenty of WordPress theme builder tools available that will give you the drag-and-drop functionality like you’d find on Wix and Squarespace.
This means you have the ease of creating your site while still having capabilities to scale it more significantly.
Here's our recommended starting point for building your photography blog:
Bluehost - Our Recommended WordPress Hosting Platform
Bluehost is a respectable and affordable option for hosting your website. You can get a free domain name, unique themes, secure your site with an SSL certificate, get storage (which will be great since photo media files can be large), and much more. Their customer service is excellent too!
Thrive Theme Builder - Our Recommended WordPress Site Building Tool
The awesome thing about WordPress is the endless ways you can customize your site. However, if you aren’t super technical, don’t want to hire someone to build your site, or don’t have the interest or patience to get down to the nitty gritty, Thrive Themes is a solid option for templates and plugins to build the foundation of your site. Thrive Theme Builder, their new visual site builder, makes it even easier to get your site looking good and is our number one recommendation for a front-end visual (drag and drop) WordPress site building tool.
Bonus: they’re focused on converting more of your visitors into subscribers, customers, and clients, which will help grow your business.
ThemeForest - Tons of Theme Variety
If you are a little technical and want flexibility or are hiring a web developer to manage your site, ThemeForest is good for finding WordPress themes. With nearly 50,000 themes and templates (at the time we’re writing this), you could find a theme that works specifically with your vision. Just note that a lot of these themes aren’t as easy as a drag-and-drop visual builder, so keep that in mind if you go this route.
You've Built Your Photography Blog - What Comes Next?
Now you've got your photography blog up, you've customized your website, and built your photography portfolio...
What comes next?
It's time to start blogging, networking with other bloggers and photographers, and promote your work.
If you're wondering how to write a blog post, we've got you covered, just follow the link to the left.
Next, you'll be wondering how to get traffic to your blog, just follow the link to the left to go through our recommended steps to generate traffic to a new blog.
Now you're on your way!
Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging 🙂
Final Thoughts
Blogging is a smart move for photographers.
It will grow your business, help you reach new clients, and allow you to maintain a stable online platform for your business that you have control of.
And, of course, it helps you showcase your work in a way that really makes it shine.
Complementing your photography with the option for storytelling will resonate with your audience in a deeper, more memorable way.
In selecting the right blogging platform and structuring your galleries and stories in an organized and digestible format, you’ll connect with them sooner and transform them into raving fans and customers.
My Most Trusted Resources
I've negotiated special discounts and trials using my links to the right. Every tool or app recommended has my full trust and has been personally tested by me. I consider these three resources to be FOUNDATIONAL to any online business.
