I've been trying Wix out as a site-builder. Easy, nice layouts, lots to like. However, they can't wrap text around a picture. I can't decide if that is a deal-breaker or not but if they can't do something that basic what else will I find as I go along? I have trial accounts with a few other site-builders so will be checking them out.
Wondering what my other art friends are using for their sites?
Did you have someone do it?
Did you use one of the site builders? And, if yes, which one did you use?
Do you sell anything via your websites? I know a website is a must-have these days, do you wish you'd gone another route than paying for design or using a site-builder?
Anything problems, suggestions, general comments?
Here's my current website (hasn't been updates in eons): http://www.janetmcgregordunn.com/
Here's the one I'm building on Wix: http://hhpottery.wix.com/janetmcgregordunnllc (hope that works...if I stick with Wix will be using my regular url)
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I retired after 20 years as a web developer a couple of years agp, and I use Wordpress for several sites. My thoughts on Wordpress:
As a developer, I find configuring, theming amd customizing WP to be more tedious and time consuming than just writing from scratch, BUT once the site is configured properly I need to do very little in terms of security, which is a major issue, and one which can bite you in the butt if you are using a software package to build from scratch. Best practices and what you need to watch out for changes constantly.
There's a reason why there are professionals at this; staying on top of it all is nearly a full time job. Once which I am no longer doing and my skills are now out of date... so I outsource it to professional hosting companies and my preferred CMS site. Making an attractive web site will be easy for many artists and craftspeople. Making one that won't silently inject Russian malware into your visitor's browsers is another.
I've used Zenfolio; they were constantly out of date. This says poor dev team or lack of resources, but when your site doesn't support a browser with a 40% market share (at the time), that's bad. And makes me wonder what else isn't getting done. Otherwise they were nice folks.
I have no experience with Wix or others that are out there.
Be very cautious hiring web devs. Some use proprietary code and servers and it's not unknown for some of them to hold their customer's web sites hostage to staying with their service or owning the domain. Or even, in the case of a local developer, pulling the plug on everyone's sites and skipping town. If you hire someone, ask a LOT of questions and check their references carefully.
I have set up a few WP installs for other artists. No one has had any issues adding or managing content on their site once we did a mini training session. This is another option: hiring someone to what I've done for a few folks.
If you do hire someone, whether a custom site, configuration or even if you DIY, sit down and design what you want on paper first. It'll save much time and money later.
(Ironically, my own art site is a total mess right now.)
Thanks much for your insights. I meant to reply earlier but got side-tracked.
I have tried many options but my ultimate favorite has been wix. Take a look at my site, it could be better but I'm still trying to decide what I want to say. I will get it all nailed down soon I hope.
http://witheredmoth.wix.com/karaunland
Hi, Kara. You are developing a nice website. You might want to rename your file names so that the titles of your pieces don't have extra words in them, like zapp and jpg. I think you should be able to do that fix rather simply. But like Janet, I think you also need the medium and materials used, size, and price on the works and a brief description about the subject.
Are you exhibiting in ComicCon San Diego (STARTED LAST NIGHT!) like I suggested? Wherever you are doing it, I hope it's going great. WOOHOO!
Well, I tried every site recommended in the thread plus a number of other suggestions I rec'd via Facebook and from friends. I now have free or trial accounts with more site builders than I can count :-)
After it was all said and done I just went the Wix route. It was easiest for me and while it has some drawbacks, all the others did, too. Each one had something I didn't like, all had things I really liked.
Thank you to all for your suggestions and comments. I am going to keep my free accounts with those that allow on-going accounts and will continue to play in my spare time.
I love Art Fair Insider, great resource and a wonderful group of artists so willing to share.
I use to have a website but gave it up as I was getting no traffic. However I kept my domain name. It now redirects to my Etsy shop. I have done a whole lot more on Etsy than I did on my website. I have had my Etsy shop since January 2015 have had multiple sales each month except March.
As long as Etsy works for me I am keeping it. I am technically INsufficient and it was easy for me to learn how to use. I can upload unlimited numbers of items from what I can tell. Each listing gets 5 photos of the item, plenty of room to describe it, variations and so on.
Right now it's a keeper for me.
Hi all,
Lots of good options discussed above.
Here's an article I wrote a couple of years ago that offers 9 easy site-building systems to explore.
The primary recommendation in that article is a site builder called Site Build It. SBI has great SEO training and many other things to recommend it but i's not great visually, though, so it may not work so well for artists.
But the several other options included may be useful:
http://clickmillionaires.com/page/best-site-builder
I agree that wrapping text around pictures should be a no-brainer for any website builder but unfortunately it's not. The difficulties of simply presenting text wrapped or floated images across different browsers and mobile/tablet platforms seems to have flummoxed the tech world!
Also, Etsy offers some good tools that can be useful but it also introduces your customers to a huge world of your direct competitors. I would definitely recommend having your own site under your own domain name as your primary web presence instead.
Best,
Scott
Thanks. Will read the article.
Anybody use SiteSpinner Pro? It looks like a reasonable alternative to Front Page. Dreamweaver is an option but I really hate to "rent" software.
I haven't used but just went out and took a look. Will let you know if I decide to go that route & try. Saw the Pro on Amazon for $89 so that's not too bad.
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