I have been meaning to do one for awhile. I got the domain at the end of this summer and have not had time to do anything with it. Well, I finally sat my butt down and started working on it since I am on winter break. I thought it would be daunting but it was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. The service I picked has made it very easy for me to set things up - kind of like "Website Design for Dummies". It is pretty self explanatory and the website creator leads you through it step-by-step. I have had to e-mail the company with a few questions but the response has been very fast (within 12 hours every time). The cost is very reasonable. This is who I am using - Network Solutions standard package. http://www.networksolutions.com/
I recommend this site only for people who are okay with a canned site. You can only be so creative with the standard package. You might opt for something else if you want your site to be more funky or more "you". This service gives me what I need and it also can incorporate Paypal in when I need it later. Whooo Hoo. I think that I am set. My other purpose for setting up this site is to see if I could actually do it. My artist partner and I are setting up an online shop - so we will need a website for that with Paypal capabilities.
I remember reading in one of Teesha Moore's zine that an artist should really have their own website. Websites nowadays are an artist's online portfolio. I guess that you could just put only your blog on your business card but a website on there would be more professional looking. I am interested in seeing what some artists' business cards look like.
Hmm, my question now is whether or not I will keep up my blog since I have a website and am paying for that. This is a free service. I guess I can suck it up and upload to the website and to here. Would that be too redundant? The quandries created by technology.
Here is my website: http://www.crazyartgirl.com/pages/1/index.htm . It is still a work-in-progress. Tell me what you think - honestly. I need constructive criticism here - not acccolades or sugar coated comments. Thank you so very much. I will seriously consider every comment I get and will do what I want anyway. Hah! 8-)
I remember reading in one of Teesha Moore's zine that an artist should really have their own website. Websites nowadays are an artist's online portfolio. I guess that you could just put only your blog on your business card but a website on there would be more professional looking. I am interested in seeing what some artists' business cards look like.
Hmm, my question now is whether or not I will keep up my blog since I have a website and am paying for that. This is a free service. I guess I can suck it up and upload to the website and to here. Would that be too redundant? The quandries created by technology.
Here is my website: http://www.crazyartgirl.com/pages/1/index.htm . It is still a work-in-progress. Tell me what you think - honestly. I need constructive criticism here - not acccolades or sugar coated comments. Thank you so very much. I will seriously consider every comment I get and will do what I want anyway. Hah! 8-)
4 comments:
Your site looks good Belinda. I like the overall set up and visual presentation. I would suggest checking your about me to make sure that whatever you consider most important is in the first paragraph or two, because that's where the casual viewer will stop. More info is fine, just everyone won't read all the way down. Also, you'll need to think about how your gallery display will evolve. It looks great now, but I know that's been one of my headaches as the number of images I have up grows.
I like how your site looks, and can't wait to see how it develops... but I do hope you keep up your blog, too, even if it's just "I added this to my website today, here's the link", though more is better (to a point). I like being able to know when something is updated and find that it's easiest for me to do that if I can blogline it. Just my personal preference.
I don't know if you're aware, but you can publish your Blogger content to your new domain instead of on blogspot.com. Just change your Blogger publishing settings to FTP and configure for your new hosting service. (You would first need to set up a directory on your new server where your blog would be published.) A blog is nice because of the dated entries - good for updating your readers, etc.
I like the background image(s), but the "Comic Sans" font does not reflect the quality of your art, IMHO. (Sorry to say, this font looks kind of cheesy.) I would at least consider Verdana (and perhaps Georgia) - these are both nice screen fonts. (Avoid Times New Roman and Arial.) Also, your font colors do not contrast enough for easy reading. Just my humble opinions. Definitely not a criticism. FWIW :-)
I like how you've broken up the galleries but find it distracting when I see the (very cool Asian) background behind the art. TRhe few times I tried to see it in a new window, it came up the same size almost. Was that your intention? I understand when people do that so others cannot see the detail but that usually isn't your modus operandi ;)I also found the red type too bright and the blue link back to your blog positively vibrated on my eyes.
Good luck with your endeavors this year. I like to check in on your blog and hope you'll continue.
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