Gerard Sala, sports photographer
Gerard Sala, with his website gerardsala.cat, showcases his portfolio as a photographer and expresses his vision of sports through his work. We talk with him about the importance of being true to your values and his experience with the .cat domain, how it started, and how now people are contacting him through the website and the service it provides him. His intention is to improve it and dedicate more time and effort to it in the future.
Can you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do? What is your .cat domain and what do you use it for?
Well, I am a person who does sports photography. My domain is https://gerardsala.cat/ and I use it as a portfolio and as a blog where I post photos of the events I photograph. I accompany the photos with a brief chronicle (in no case journalistic) that serves to contextualize the result of my work and where I talk about the event itself and how I took the photos.
When and why did you decide to have an online presence? Why did you register a .cat domain for your website?
What started as a hobby is gradually turning into a need to organize myself, have a mini agenda, and have a space to publish my work. At the beginning, social networks were enough. The reach was good, and I didn’t feel the need to go further.
I had the opportunity to take a website creation course, offered by the Fundació .cat, and I thought it was worth doing.
The truth is that everything coincided because some people had been suggesting for a while that I should make a website so people could check out my photos. I always thought they were right, that I shouldn’t just depend on social networks, but I never found the right moment to learn to make it and manage it myself. Both requirements were indispensable.
Can you share a significant anecdote that illustrates how the .cat domain has helped you gain more visibility?
The first one was the day a hockey player who plays in Portugal contacted me through the WhatsApp option on the website. At first, I thought it was a virus or something similar. When I saw it was real, I became aware of the importance of having a website.
Later, I also found myself answering questions about the website itself: where I made it, the extensions used… If they knew that I know the bare minimum…
How does the .cat domain reflect your culture and identity?
My website is about photography, but it was important to me that it was in Catalan. I am a Catalan speaker, and it seemed important to me to make the website in my native language. The website has the option to change the language, so I thought this wouldn’t be a problem. But I had to make it in Catalan.
In fact, I think no one would have understood if my website wasn’t in Catalan, and with today’s technological resources, there’s no reason not to use it.
Do you think the .cat domain has had an impact on your online reputation? How do you evaluate it?
What I am sure of is that having a website with a .cat domain has not harmed my online reputation. It’s true that the content of my website is very mild and I don’t put opinions, but if I look at my online followers, or analyze the website views, I think my reputation wouldn’t change much if the domain were .com or another.
In fact, when I try to get accredited for an event that goes a bit beyond the Catalan scope, they have never rejected my accreditation because of the website domain. In fact, I think having a website has opened some doors for me, and therefore, I confirm that the domain does not influence, but the quality of the website does.
How do you think the .cat domain differentiates your website from other websites using other domains?
Formally, I don’t think there are differences. It’s true that there is a perception that, a priori, it reduces the public scope you can reach, but in my work scope, I think it has no impact. The ability to reach a larger audience depends on multiple factors beyond the domain.
Technically, I don’t see differences either. The website works correctly, with a reasonable speed, and I think search engines do not penalize my website for being .cat.
What advice would you give to other people or businesses considering registering a .cat domain?
There are many factors that lead a business to choose one option or another, and I cannot assess them all, but the important thing is that the website is fast, easy to navigate, and the content is attractive. If you have that, the domain doesn’t detract.
My impression is that users do not pay attention to the domain and that they do not dismiss you because of the website’s domain.
What are the future plans for your website and how do you think the .cat domain will help you achieve them?
The starting point is that the website is my portfolio and should be the basis for expanding my work scope. Many people talk to me about selling photos and monetizing my results. At some point, I will have to get to it, but I need time to evaluate it and do it well. I think one of the strengths of my website is that it is very easy and friendly for the visitor, and I want it to continue being so.
I have been using this image for a while and think that at some point I will have to modernize it. What I am clear about is that I do not want to turn it into the website of someone I am not, with meaningless ads and videos as if I were someone I am not or that might seem annoyingly commercial.
I also see that I will have to revamp the blog section because it is a very basic option of the WordPress theme package and I would like to find more visual and attractive ways of organizing the posts.
Is there any other comment or aspect you would like to highlight about your experience with the .cat domain?
First, I want to highlight the course I took. With four two-hour sessions, I had the basic structure of the website done. Since then, I have improved the content and found extensions that I didn’t know about that improve the quality of the website, but the skeleton and the functioning of the website are the same. Very easy to make and very practical. Honestly, a 10. I went with a notebook to take notes and found that I had to make the website right there. I didn’t have a life jacket, but I jumped into the pool.
From there, when I needed something related to the domain, the support department’s attention was immediate and friendly.
As for the technical part, the domain allows me to work with the same quality as if I did it with any other. I compare it with other colleagues, and I don’t find differences.
Therefore, I am fully satisfied with having a .cat domain and the service I have been receiving until today.
