Website advice
- Thread starter Scamall
- Start date
Hostajunkie
Well-known member
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- 162
Look at wix and weebly. Last time I used them they were free and supported e-commerce.
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- 6,203
I've seen some really nice looking sites built with wix and weebly.
ZenDruid
Supporting Member
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- 435
I've been using Zenfolio for about six years. It's drag and drop with a little bit of typing for your profile. About $200 USD a year. They have a free trial offer. They offer a retail service for your work - I haven't really used that, have no opinion about it.
Scamall
Supporting Member
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- 254
I just looked at your site, very easy on the eyes and professional, thanks again!
MurrayG
Contributing Member
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- 245
Hi, either way, you will be up for fees. There are "free" options, but sometime come with downsides or limitations. If Free is a criteria - then try Blogger.com, downside is it has limited flexibility in names etc. Most "systems" will aim at a monthly fee for hosting eg Weebly and similar. To do it all yourself is not so difficult but you need to be clear about your needs. I selfhost and own my own domain names and use a number of website CMS's from Wordpress to Bludit, Both are free, and both come with some "learning". I am very happy with Bludit, simple, free etc.... WP can be complex for a beginner and is often a hackers heaven. Whatever route, be prepared to put time into the site.
Artyczar
Moderator
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- 8,445
To get a site up and running, it is an investment, if you want a real professional site. Some people can build one on a Wordpress site and make their domain wordpress.domainname.com but you at least have to pay for hosting and a domain name to have yourdomainname.com. That is not really that much. You can get a domain name for like 8 bucks a year and hosting for about 30-50 a year, depending on your needs.
There is a really big learning curve to Wordpress. It seems easy, but it's actually kind of difficult to make it look the way you want it to. It's very temperamental no matter what theme you use. I use it for my blog and it was hard to make it look somewhat like my website, or make it look like it matched it's "look."
My website I build from scratch, but Hannah and I know how to do that in php and whatnot. It's on a dedicated server and that cost a ton of money. It's not necessary for most people to get a regular website up and running. Mine is like that because it's running on a massive database that I use for my inventory on the back end.
I think sites like Wix and Squarespace have easy ways to put sites together because their templates are fairly simple to use. I lean toward Squarespace just because I like its simplicity.
There used to be a place called artcat that did everything and it was well worth the money because it came with support, hosting, SEO, etc. all in one, and helped make sites specifically for artist's portfolios--simply. You also want your site to be responsive--that's very important.
I don't know if they are still around, but I used to recommend them. There is another called bigblackbag that does the same thing, but with more templates.
There is a really big learning curve to Wordpress. It seems easy, but it's actually kind of difficult to make it look the way you want it to. It's very temperamental no matter what theme you use. I use it for my blog and it was hard to make it look somewhat like my website, or make it look like it matched it's "look."
My website I build from scratch, but Hannah and I know how to do that in php and whatnot. It's on a dedicated server and that cost a ton of money. It's not necessary for most people to get a regular website up and running. Mine is like that because it's running on a massive database that I use for my inventory on the back end.
I think sites like Wix and Squarespace have easy ways to put sites together because their templates are fairly simple to use. I lean toward Squarespace just because I like its simplicity.
There used to be a place called artcat that did everything and it was well worth the money because it came with support, hosting, SEO, etc. all in one, and helped make sites specifically for artist's portfolios--simply. You also want your site to be responsive--that's very important.
I don't know if they are still around, but I used to recommend them. There is another called bigblackbag that does the same thing, but with more templates.
KreativeK
Moderator
- Messages
- 1,287
I've been very happy with Artspan and mainly because they have a prints on demand service. Many people/customers do not want or cannot afford originals and rather have prints. I pay about $219/year. They do offer a free month I think still. You can set it up yourself as far as what type galleries you want on the site such as Florals, People, Still Life, Abstract, etc.
Jo Castillo
Contributing Member
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- 1,262
Daily Paintworks has no limit to amount of photos, has commerce including auctions. $12.95 a month I think with a free month. Contests. You can have a domain name but no personalize e-mail so need to go separate on that.
I use FineArtStudiosOnline. Lots of perks like email, newsletter, commerce, new art reminders, contests, different price range for amount of photos, usage of newsletters, etc.
Both of these are designed especially for artists.
I have a blog on Blogger which is free with no ads or junk. You can set it up like regular art page. Easy to use. It's with google so you can get a domain name and use google mail. No limit on images unless you post huge ones which isn't a good idea. Thousands of images. I do store my images separate on my computer after posting them for both my blog and website.
Have fun....
I use FineArtStudiosOnline. Lots of perks like email, newsletter, commerce, new art reminders, contests, different price range for amount of photos, usage of newsletters, etc.
Both of these are designed especially for artists.
I have a blog on Blogger which is free with no ads or junk. You can set it up like regular art page. Easy to use. It's with google so you can get a domain name and use google mail. No limit on images unless you post huge ones which isn't a good idea. Thousands of images. I do store my images separate on my computer after posting them for both my blog and website.
Have fun....