I’ve added a couple of affiliate adverts to the side bar of the blog in the hope of earning a bit of commission. I’m no fan of ads, but these are at least for things that I actually use and like, so I figured it was worth a go.

Photocrati is the WordPress theme that this site runs on. Without the skills to code it myself, or the budget for a bespoke site I’ve been hunting for the perfect mix of photo portfolio and e-commerce for months. I’ve gone through various different combinations. But up until now the portfolio themes had no sales functions, and the e-commerce sites were all just store fronts unsuitable for displaying photos.

I also looked in to hosted services such as clikpic, livebooks etc. But those all have recurring fees of some sort. Some even have a hosting fee and also want a cut of any sales. One or the other I could understand, but both! In any case I already had some web space that was suitable for my needs, so paying for more hosting seemed a bit wasteful.

So far Photocrati is the only WordPress theme I’ve come across that is aimed at displaying photography/art that also combines ecommerce features suitable for selling prints.

It looks pretty slick and is easy to set up. If you can set up WordPress you can set up Photocrati. It’s got lots of options to fine tune the look of your site, and because it uses WordPress it’s easy to expand its functionality even further with plugins and widgets!

It’s not perfect, but it’s the closest I’ve found without costing the earth. They even offer a 30 day money back guarantee, so you can try it risk free.

The other ad is for GiffGaff mobile phone network. I’ve been with them since last year and have never had a problem. They’re very big on community input, and run a payback scheme to reward people who help out, which is pretty cool. If you order a sim through my link (or any other affiliates for that matter) you get a bonus £5 credit when you first activate and top up the sim. So we both win!

Right, that’s enough of the hard sell for now.

Just installing and setting up a new theme that has temporarily made a mess of the site, but once it’s ready it’ll be fantastically fabulous and will include a brand new gallery with properly integrated shopping cart! Wooo!!

Anyway, for now the old portfolio is still available here, should you feel the need to buy a print before the new site is ready.

Update : New portfolio section is live.

xx