Getting my photography site off the ground

It has been an interesting process. How do you get a feature rich personally branded photography website off the ground without knowing CSS, Java or HTML. Well, you don't. Luckily, there are a few sites providers that provide enough tips and (undo) features that you can give it a try and see what happens, without losing everything. I have tried a bunch of hosting services and none have given me what I need, without additional customization costs.

I have tried BigBlackBag, Foliolink, Photoshelter, IFP3 and Smugmug. I always left the site because it had a limitation that I could not live with, including Smugmug!
BigBlackBag just seemed to be too complicated and the reward (result) did not look like it justified the effort.
Photoshelter - its design wasn't very appealing and the set up was a pain for me.
Foliolink is REALLY expensive, compared to the rest and very limiting. The good news is that you can tell them what you need and they are really good about helping you. The bad news is that they run on an East Coast support schedule and close at around 5 or 6pm. So, if you are on the west coast.... too bad. They do not provide support at the weekends and they cost 5 to 10 times more than Smugmug. To make matters worse, you have to have a portfolio site as well as a client site and they operate under two different set up systems and need an additional domain name. The portfolio site only allows a limited number of images, the client site, many more. But, if you want to sell stock, you have to buy their Amazon powered extra capacity and pay monthly for that capacity. In addition, the images are limited in size on the std. site... I think you are getting the impression that I am disappointed with it. You are right. Not worth the money.
IFP3 - is another good alternative. Has limits, but most people would never hot them. However, the deal breaker for me was the limited image size on the site. My images need to look great and I am limited in file size and number of pixels.
Smugmug - Well, it is not easy to make the site look the way you want, but it is doable, with a day or two's dedication to reading through their forums. The issue is that you have to cheat the site into thinking it is something it is not. ie use custom code to change galleries to look like a std. web page. Of course their support is available 24 x 7 and they really do get back to you within a few hours, often less. They always seem to point you in the right direction too. The site has unlimited uploads, downloads and you can load multiple images types, up to 20MB EA.  The reason I went back to it.....? They have the best presentation, "stretching image code" and it is cheap, the best level (PRO) is only $120 a year, that is hard to beat. And did I tell you the galleries look great. In addition, my customers found it the easiest to navigate and understand...

I am sure some people will have different opinions, but these are mine..

That's it for  now

Web sites - So easy, but not

Just testing