| Success Story Series
The Missing Link That Expanded a Business
SiteGrinder lets photographer/designer Chris Lang provide new, comprehensive services to his clients
by Brad Cook
“SiteGrinder is my greatest asset for marketing my photography business. And it’s so simple to learn that it almost feels like cheating.”
And so began our conversation with professional photographer/designer Chris Lang, who, when it comes to creating websites, confesses to possessing “zero coding experience.” Chris relies on Media Lab’s SiteGrinder to not only maintain the website of his Wilmington, North Carolina-based photography business, but to also build sites for clients. He estimates 80 to 90% of his projects allow him to use SiteGrinder and eliminate the outsourcing costs that he used to incur. (The other 10 to 20% of his projects require implementing complex customized databases or other backend infrastructure features.)
“If I did not have SiteGrinder and had to outsource the coding and development,” Lang explains, “I would have to spend 50 to 60% of my total project income on outsourcing. That’s what I used to do, and it was a nightmare. Now I don’t have to depend on others, so I’ve streamlined the process and enabled faster turnaround of projects.”
He continues: “SiteGrinder has also empowered me to know exactly what I can do on a project and meet the timeline. It has opened up a whole new avenue of clients because I can market myself with more confidence and go after projects I wouldn’t have pursued before because of the outsourcing costs.”
Lang cites two projects where he created websites with photo galleries, each in about two-and-a-half hours, and his clients “were blown away.” He adds: “With my skill level in Dreamweaver, it would have taken me 40 hours to do the same thing. SiteGrinder lets me do sites that others would charge two to three times the same amount for. Some companies won’t even start work on a site before getting paid several thousand dollars. SiteGrinder gives me the ability to successfully compete with these companies.”
The Missing Link in a Creative Workflow
Two years ago, before he began using SiteGrinder, Lang attempted to bring Adobe Dreamweaver into his website creation workflow, “but it made me want to implode. It’s not my skill set, and I don’t have time to learn another tool.” Thanks to his intimate knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, however, SiteGrinder became “the missing link in my creative solution.”
He notes: “Sites made with SiteGrinder load very quickly, which keeps people around, and browser compatibility issues, which often used to push me over budget, are a thing of the past on all operating systems and with all browsers, even in Microsoft Explorer. What you see in your Photoshop file is what you get.”
Lang continues: “SiteGrinder is also very flexible: the way it layers very complex design concepts is awesome. There are creative ways to think through creating depth in a website by using [SiteGrinder’s] hints in Photoshop’s layers. And since site updates are all based on that single Photoshop file, it’s all about how you organize it: if you do that well, changes are simple.”
Lang points to the website for his photography business, which includes approximately 600 layers, as an example of effectively using SiteGrinder hints and Photoshop layers to create a unique experience. In fact, it stands out so well that it clearly differentiates his business from other photographers’ websites, which makes a memorable impression with potential clients.
He explains: “Many photographers’ sites use Flash templates that cost them around $25 to $60 per month, and sometimes there are problems with loading the main pages, which causes people to get frustrated and leave. Clients often look through 15 to 20 photographers’ sites and tell me that they remembered mine because it’s unique — SiteGrinder lets me convey my personality through it. That leads to me getting the job. I’ve had clients sign me solely because of the website: they saw it and said: ‘We have to hire this guy.’”
A One-Stop Shop
For one of Lang’s marketing photography jobs, he came up with the concept of creating a constantly updated, event-based photo gallery for the client’s website which chronicled, in pictures, the event’s happenings. Within about 24 hours he was able to use SiteGrinder to create sample galleries that “blew away the client.”
Chris also specializes in wedding photography, commercial photography, portrait photography, sports photography, and marketing photography. Whenever possible, he combines the two sides of his business, photography and web design, to create “a one-stop shop for branding and identity. A lot of customers are looking for budget-conscious web design, and SiteGrinder lets me do that while making a significant positive impact on my revenue.”
Lang adds: “I encourage others to use SiteGrinder too, now that word has gotten out that it’s my secret ingredient.”
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