dotPhoto's My Website feature is a quick way to create your own photo web site to display or sell your public photos. The MyWebSite feature is available as part of the dotPhoto Club or other paid member plans. Here is a sample MyWebSite:  bdag.dotphoto.com   You can also buy a domain name and forward it to a dotPhoto MyWebSite. 

Choose your login carefully because it becomes your web address

Your MyWebSite web address will be www.dotphoto.com where the "www" is replaced by your login. Your dotPhoto login cannot have special characters because your login will become part of your website address, and the Internet domain rules do not allow special characters.  For instance,  tom.smith with a period would not work because this would not be an acceptable Internet address:  http://tom.smith.dotphoto.com   However, removing the period would work:  http://tomsmith.dotphoto.com.  You can change your login by editing it in the MyAccount tab. We also recommend that you remove capital letters from your login so that it's easier to tell people about your site.  

Getting Started

Login to dotPhoto.

Click on the My Web Site button, which is on the drop-down menu under your login name.  

Follow these pages. Click on the Save button for each page before moving onto the next page. 

Helpful Tips

Most of the directions for the web site builder are contained in its step-by-step instructions.  These tips may also be helpful:

• If your text is "missing," you may have chosen the same color for text and background.  For instance, black text on a black background will disappear -- as will white text on a white background.  Click here for information on changing colors..
• If you have another web site, you can use your dotPhoto web site as an easy way to handle photos.  In the Upload Header section, add the URL for your other web site so that visitors can click on your header and go straight back to your main site.
• You can buy your own unique URL at a domain seller and point it at your dotPhoto domain to make finding your photos even easier.

How can I change the photo on MyWebSite?

Our most popular styles are Style 1 and Style 2, which do not require a special photo to represent the site because your albums' first photos become the photo content for the site.

If you would like to add a photo for Styles 3 or 4: please email mywebsite@dotphoto.com with this information

1. Your dotPhoto login
2. Your photo as an attachment (because this is not for printing, the photo does not have to be high resolution)
3. Which style you choose (see below 1-4)
   
   

   We will generally install your MyWebSite photo within 24 hours.
   

How do I change background or font colors on MyWebSite?

We have an entire FAQ with color codes for MyWebSite:  please click here.

How do I create a banner for MyWebSite?

Banners are 800 pixels wide by 90 pixels tall and can be saved as JPGs or GIFs. Clicking on the banner will take a visitor to your main mywebsite page, but you can also add a link to the banner that takes a visitor somewhere else -- for instance, to your main web site. Some pros link their web site to dotPhoto's MyWebSite feature to sell photos, and then set up a banner that says, "Click here to return to our web site." Please email or call us if you would like help setting up a banner for your web site.

Need free software to make a banner or edit photos?  We like these, and they're absolutely free: Irfanview    Inkscape (also for Mac and Linux) 

See the sample Mother's Day banner attached to this FAQ.

How do I edit text on MyWebSite?

Type in or copy-and-paste text to text box. If you have copied text that arrives with unwanted styles, highlight the text and remove the formatting by clicking on the button on the right side of the edit bar (circled below.)

Highlight your text, and then choose text attributes and see how they look in the preview below.  For instance, the text entered here is Style=Paragraph, Font=Verdana, Size=4, text is bolded, and color (the underlined A button) is light gray.  For pleasing spacing, we recommend leaving the first line blank and indenting the paragraphs with the Indent Tool (the right arrow).

Would you like help setting up your photo web site?

Email your requests and any logos or graphics to mywebsite@dotphoto.com  Please be as specific as possible about what you would like to see.

Want to learn more?

Email BetterFAQs@dotphoto.com