Looking for some valued opinions from webmasters
I'm slowly plugging away trying to set up my own site (when I find the time). I am going to use the Joomla CMS with Coppermine component for the first version of my website.
There will be a homepage that includes a slideshow showing a sample of images from the galleries, plus (probably) 2 news stories with a blurb and sample images for the latest published photo sets. The slideshow and news stories/sample images will be available to anyone who finds the website.
There will be a forum that can be viewed by unregistered users but only registered users can post topics.
For my photo galleries there will be free 'tease' galleries and restricted galleries. Obviously the restricted galleries will only be available for registered users who pay for access.
But I am undecided on whether or not to make the free galleries available to unregistered users, or only to registered users (i.e. non-paid registration) ? Afterall, unregistered users will already get a sample of images from the slideshow and news stories on the homepage.
One advantage of restricting the free galleries to registered users might be that it makes it more difficult for my photos being 'stolen' through being linked by other sites.
However paradoxically, perhaps it would be better for SEO reasons if the free galleries were available to all? (I will add copyright text to the images anyway)
Ultimately the main aim is to convert users into paying registered users...
So do you think this is more likely to happen if I have let them see the free galleries without registering? Or would registering first without paying to access the free galleries be more likely to turn them into paying users?
Sorry this is a bit long-winded, but I honestly can't decide which method is best so any advice would be much appreciated