How to make an artist website?
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@Paul-Burton It's not free, but when you're not sure where your next paycheck is coming from $50 a year is a lot better than $144. You obviously know a lot but you're coming in a little bit with an attitude of "if you're using Wordpress you're an idiot" which is a little insulting considering many of us here use it. I think they're all good tools and it's only a matter of what's a good fit for each person and what they can afford.
I've made my 2 sites using only free plugins including very good free SEO plugins, my sites have never broken before including the one I've had for years. Once a month I log in to add a few more images to my portfolio and while I'm in there I update my plugins, then go on my merry way. It's really not the "nightmare" maintenance big deal you're trying to make it out to be...
vanessastoilova.com
instagram.com/vanessa.stoilova/Check out my Youtube channel for tips on how to start your career in illustration! www.youtube.com/c/ArtBusinesswithNess
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@Paul-Burton I’m no WordPress expert but I do know for a fact that you don’t need to know code to make a WordPress website. In the instance that you do, there’s youtube. Everything is learnable nowadays with the internet.
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I'm personally quite happy with both of my sites through Portfoliobox. I pay $7.00 a month. It's a WYSIWYG alterable-template thing, but it's web-based. They include free e-commerce, practically all the images and pages I'd ever ever need, hosting, my domain name, and look good on mobile (which I've heard WIX is not so good at...). I'm sure it's similar to Squarespace and such.
I like it because it is clearly specifically image-based for creatives, not a general catch all mechanism that tries to do all things for all people.
Children's Illustration Portfolio: https://www.coreyartusillustration.com
Art Portfolio: https://www.coreyartusimagery.com
Mastodon: https://mindly.social/@Coreyartus
Pixelfed: https://pixelfed.social/Coreyartus -
@Coreyartus I've heard great things about them also! For a simple no hassle portfolio site it seems they're the obvious choice and most affordable option
I heard they don't offer many templates or customization options, but lot of artists want something really clean and simple to put the focus solely on their illustrations. -
Clean and simple indeed. But the images are clearly at the forefront of whatever template you're adapting (the usual stuff like line weight, fonts, text size and color, general layout, etc). I'm often kinda daunted by the scale of the images in their templates... It's like , "Woah, that's so much bigger than I drew it!! Good grief, it's an embarrassment of riches! Turn it down, turn it down!!" They really really REALLY wanna show off your visuals. I can't just insert a video--it's like HERE IS MY VIDEO SPLASHED ACROSS YOUR ENTIRE SCREEN, YE LOWLY PEASANTS!!!
So, I guess they're actually a good thing in some ways. I've not heard of a service that actually privileges visuals like that before. It's kinda... flattering in some ways. I guess it worked on me, anyway. LOL!
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@NessIllustration I apologize if you found my contribution to this discussion offensive. But please don't interpret my words to mean something I did not explicitly say.
I'm simply trying to help anyone who has zero experience designing or developing or maintaining a web site make an informed decision. Take it or leave it.
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At my day job, and personally at home, I’ve had a chance to build several websites. I’m not a programmer at all, and when I used Wordpress it would take weeks of fiddling, looking up problems, research, learning, more fiddling...I wasted a lot of time and usually didn’t get things looking how I wanted.
We use Wix now at the day job, and I love it. I built a multi-page website complete with bells and whistles in a few days.
For me personally, the choices either saving a bit of money on Wordpress but spending a LOT of time trying to get the website set up , or spending some money and getting the website done without frustration and lots of time, so I can go back to drawing.
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End of the day there are pluses and minuses to both.
WP gives you a lot more flexibility if you have the time to do some research and is most likely going to cost a bit less than the other platforms nut will take a lot of your time
Squarespace and Wix and others like it will help save you a ton of time but might cost a bit more month to month.
Its safe to say either way, there are good options on both for beginners and experts on both platforms. its all about time and money and level of effort at the end of the day.
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@juliekitzes Thanks for this info I never thought of using the Adobe Portfolio, but your portfolio looks amazing I am going to give it a try now.
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I am also using Adobe Portfolio (portfolio.adobe.com) together with my own domain ( about 11€ a year for the Domain name) https://www.heimlich-illustration.de/ . It is easy and free if you have adobe subscription.
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Adobe Portfolio user here too. It suits me fine for now and beats paying monthly site fees on top of the CC subscription.
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Because I have a Mac I use Ever Web. I’ve tried others but I can totally customize it myself.
