I have been doing a lot of research lately trying to find different ways to promote my photography. Along the way I kept seeing submitting your portfolio link. I was thinking how in the world can you build a portfolio online that would (1) look half decent (2) be useful (3) and not cost a lot of money. Than I seen a Nature Photography site that cost for a yearly membership and in the package they give you a site that is used for building portfolios. I knew I wanted one, but not a 100% sure I wanted to pay the fees for a membership to that site, I went back online searching again.
I came upon another site that looked really good. They charged a little more than I wanted to pay, but this new goal is very important to me, so I paid the fees, glanced the terms of agreements and spent A FEW HOURS setting up my site (which was beautiful by the way)! When I reached a place that I felt pretty comfortable at I began to explore the site and did my regular Google search on the site’s pro’s and con’s list. SOMETHING I SHOULD HAVE DONE BEFORE I PAID THE MONEY!! I found out some disturbing news and double checked the terms of agreements again and sure enough it was true! Unless you paid the big buck for the pro site, any photo you entered onto that site could be sold BUT you do not get any of the money. I wrote this site an email, and said I wanted OUT of the agreement and told them why. Although, they usually do not give refunds, they did in my case because my payment had not gone through the system completely (all of this stuff was happening within a few hours of each other). So at that point I was going to give up and put the whole idea on hold!
I was going through my email, which I have neglected so badly and was accepting some things from folks on LinkedIn. It was there that I found Behance Network. Behance is a fantastic place that offers a lot. The link I just gave is to a Squidoo Page I wrote about the network. If you would like to take a look at my online Photography Portfolio, here is the link: Eva Thomas at Behance
When you are building a portfolio at Behance, you will do small projects showcasing some of your better work. Behance even has it set up where you can purchase your gallery url and sell the artwork or photography if you want to.
The Lesson Here:
READ before you leap!! I really consider myself lucky that I was able to get out of my other obligation, but it was my fault for not researching the pro and con’s better before I leaped!
