… and when I say “Let’s” I truly mean “let us”… (answer please!)
Yesterday I was doing some coaching and one of the issues was websites. The artist in question has no desire to learn Dreamweaver or FrontPage and wanted to know if I had any experience with web hosts that would be easy to learn and update, but not look like “Joe the Plumber”s website down the street.
Since I use Dreamweaver and do all the design, I wasn’t the best source of help. I told her I knew some people… (that’s you!)
We would like to know if anyone has used the following web hosts and what you think. If you have additional suggestions, put them in the comments too. If you would prefer to email me privately instead of posting in the comments, CLICK HERE.
I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be a helpful post to many so thank you in advance for chiming in!
– Tara
I have been using http://www.godaddy.com to host my various sites but most of them now are ‘blog based’ meaning they are a lot easier to update and personalize. I have been creating web sites since 1995 and learned html coding from scratch but I kind of got tired of updating the software and learning all the new stuff after a while. Now I just use the old Adobe Pagemill for basic html and prefer the quick updating with wordpro . I think Godaddy has templates that can be personalized etc but I have no experience with that end of things.
Sharon
I myself build my own site (which I am not sure yet if its a good thing or not) but its mostly html based.
I would suggest using web templates, there are a lot of companies offering it. One of them with hundreds of templates, lots of them for free, is http://templaterover.com/
Or, can look into one of the following:
http://foliotwist.com/ (from the creator of EmptyEasel.com) – they have embedded blogging and purchasing with PayPal setting, which makes things easier…
http://fineartstudioonline.com/ (from FineArtViews.com)
The nice thing about web templates is that it won’t look like cookie cutter, and for a bit more money you can get your own design that no one else will use.
The advantage though with the other sites is that you don’t have to know any code, or try to invent the wheel… for someone starting on the net it might be the fastest way to start… Switching later to something else is always an option…
I use officelive.com – Microsoft is the server and it is table, insert graphic and text based. I don’t even know all the features. It does allow some html which lets me use paypal. Some easy templates and if using just the basic it is free except your domain registration. Helpful for those who do not want to know coding. I’d like to do a few things differently but for now…
I have found http://www.wix.com to be great. I have been transferring all my webhosting to the site (I used to use Yahoo). They have the platform for you to make easy flash sites without knowing all the coding. It is very simple and the possibilities are endless. You can create your own site from scratch or use a template that they have available. It is a great resource.
Hey Tara,
I have used 2om.com for about ten years. Initially they are free, template based sites. You can pay for additional things such as banner free (ad free) sites. I have this and only pay about $25 a year for that.
GoDaddy hosts my domain and I have it “forwarded” to my site at 20m – an additional $10 a year.
I encourage anyone to check them out, very user friendly!!
Feel free to check out my site at http://www.jenigrayphotography.com
If you have a mac – iWeb
It is interesting to see what everyone is using. I started out doing a lot of design work along with illustration work, so many of my clients needed help with hosting. After having a ton of bad experiences with third party hosting, I decided to set up my own web hosting and domain services that are artist, author and small business friendly (www.CherishedHosting.com), especially since you can get a great site with unlimited features for only $5/month.
For the site design, I have tested hundreds of programs, when I am not using Dreamweaver, I like WordPress, which comes with my hosting package for free. It is easy to customize and you can run a site and a blog together. Many of my clients use iWeb and we have thousands of customizable templates available as well if it is easier to go that route.
I am using http://www.artdealers.com and they have nice templates and a shopping cart included.