A website of my own - where to begin

Started by N-drju, August 09, 2019, 08:07:10 AM

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N-drju

I'm... not even sure how to address this... Or if there is anybody willing to help at all but I'll try anyway. I know that there are many kind people in this community, so I hope some good souls will lend me a hand.

I am thinking of establishing a web page to reach out and make myself known to the world as a broadly understood artist. If just a little. Yes, this also includes Terragen and this is exactly the reason why I feel somewhat uneasy asking you for assistance... Established artists and professionals who (which is perfectly understandable) take care of their own interests first and foremost rather than tutoring others about stepping stones.

In case you were wondering, I also consider a career in podcasting and audiobooks. Just to let you know I'm not that much of a threat to your profit margins... ???

I think that if there is any good way to advertise yourself and your own work, it is through a personal website. For now, I just have two basic questions:

1. How do I design one? Is WIX or Wordpress a good place to start?

2. Apart from the design you need a (paid) hosting service and a domain. Is this always true?

I would be very grateful for any tips or help. Thank you!
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"

Dune

I'd recommend somthing like wordpress, which I had to resort to last year or so. Works fine. Hosting needn't be expensive. I pay about $30 a year for 1gig of space (I think), before that I had half as much and paid half the amount. Just find a good and cheap hosting company.

CredePendrel

I am interested in doing something similar. For now I have decided to start an ArtStation account. This lets me incorporate both Terragen and Blender projects. 


https://www.artstation.com/credependrel

WAS

Like Ulco said, you could go with WordPress or WiX which are very cheap, with build in website generators that work OK. 

Hosting yourself on a dedi or something and doing it by hand may be a bit if a headache without a webmaster. 

However if you take that route I will offer my assistance freely where I can.

Oshyan

I think the best route to this really depends on what content you want to be on the site, and how much you're willing to dig in to learning a website management system.

Artstation and others are great if all you really need is a basic portfolio with your images (which you can add descriptions to, etc.). And they help you get visibility and comments due to the communities there. A stand-alone website of your own doesn't have the community advantage, though it is a lot more customizable on the flip side.

Wordpress is good if you want a more fully customized website and have time and energy to pick out a theme and understand how it all works. If you've never dealt with web hosting or a website management/content system, it may take a while to get up to speed.

Platforms like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are arguably easier, more drag-and-drop (although there are drag-and-drop page builders for Wordpress too), but they are not necessarily free. Wix and Weebly have free versions, in some cases with ad support, so I'd recommend paying for them. But I'm not sure if you have budget for that. 

The nice thing is you will need some kind of hosting for even a Wordpress site, and for the most part that in itself will cost money, so paying for e.g. Weebly or Squarespace gets you all-in-one, a hosting service *and* visual website builder/editor. That would generally be my recommendation.

- Oshyan

WAS

#5
Quote from: Oshyan on August 09, 2019, 05:42:47 PMI think the best route to this really depends on what content you want to be on the site, and how much you're willing to dig in to learning a website management system.

Artstation and others are great if all you really need is a basic portfolio with your images (which you can add descriptions to, etc.). And they help you get visibility and comments due to the communities there. A stand-alone website of your own doesn't have the community advantage, though it is a lot more customizable on the flip side.

Wordpress is good if you want a more fully customized website and have time and energy to pick out a theme and understand how it all works. If you've never dealt with web hosting or a website management/content system, it may take a while to get up to speed.

Platforms like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are arguably easier, more drag-and-drop (although there are drag-and-drop page builders for Wordpress too), but they are not necessarily free. Wix and Weebly have free versions, in some cases with ad support, so I'd recommend paying for them. But I'm not sure if you have budget for that.

The nice thing is you will need some kind of hosting for even a Wordpress site, and for the most part that in itself will cost money, so paying for e.g. Weebly or Squarespace gets you all-in-one, a hosting service *and* visual website builder/editor. That would generally be my recommendation.

- Oshyan

To note/add to this, Wordpress has it's own hosting, free, and paid, as well.

What you really intend to do is a good point. For example, if you want to have a shop for products, you're not going to have those features on artstation or deviantart (dedicated to you)

And if you do decide to have a shop, you might as well have a artstation etc for exposure.

Oshyan

Yeah, defining your specific needs/goals is really the first step.

Wordpress does have free and paid options, but as far as I know it doesn't have a full drag-and-drop editor like the 3 others I mentioned do, so if you're going to pay for a hosted solution like that, I'd recommend a different one.

- Oshyan

WAS

Quote from: Oshyan on August 09, 2019, 06:01:56 PMYeah, defining your specific needs/goals is really the first step.

Wordpress does have free and paid options, but as far as I know it doesn't have a full drag-and-drop editor like the 3 others I mentioned do, so if you're going to pay for a hosted solution like that, I'd recommend a different one.

- Oshyan

Yeah no it doesn't. It has "Modules". You activate a module, and from there you can do some basic editing like images and such. There are plugins which offer advanced page building, but of course (from what I've seen) aren't free. At that point the alternatives are a better bet.

What I will say is that Wix, Weebly, etc, are easy to mess up for cross-browser (and platform) support due to their nature.

cyphyr

Take a look at Google Sites.
Completely free and all you pay for is the domain name.
www.richardfraservfx.com
https://www.facebook.com/RichardFraserVFX/
/|\

Ryzen 9 5950X OC@4Ghz, 64Gb (TG4 benchmark 4:13)

WAS

Quote from: cyphyr on August 09, 2019, 07:31:23 PMTake a look at Google Sites.
Completely free and all you pay for is the domain name.

Oh wow, I thought that closed years ago. I guess not. Lol

archonforest

Dell T5500 with Dual Hexa Xeon CPU 3Ghz, 32Gb ram, GTX 1080
Amiga 1200 8Mb ram, 8Gb ssd

cyphyr

Quote from: WASasquatch on August 09, 2019, 08:30:37 PM
Quote from: cyphyr on August 09, 2019, 07:31:23 PMTake a look at Google Sites.
Completely free and all you pay for is the domain name.

Oh wow, I thought that closed years ago. I guess not. Lol

To be fair it is very limited. Support is non-existent and half the plugins work ... but it serves my needs.
I will move over to a WP site  ... when I can be bothered and can find the time lol
www.richardfraservfx.com
https://www.facebook.com/RichardFraserVFX/
/|\

Ryzen 9 5950X OC@4Ghz, 64Gb (TG4 benchmark 4:13)

CredePendrel

Quote from: WASasquatch on August 09, 2019, 05:58:48 PM
Quote from: Oshyan on August 09, 2019, 05:42:47 PMI think the best route to this really depends on what content you want to be on the site, and how much you're willing to dig in to learning a website management system.

Artstation and others are great if all you really need is a basic portfolio with your images (which you can add descriptions to, etc.). And they help you get visibility and comments due to the communities there. A stand-alone website of your own doesn't have the community advantage, though it is a lot more customizable on the flip side.

Wordpress is good if you want a more fully customized website and have time and energy to pick out a theme and understand how it all works. If you've never dealt with web hosting or a website management/content system, it may take a while to get up to speed.

Platforms like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are arguably easier, more drag-and-drop (although there are drag-and-drop page builders for Wordpress too), but they are not necessarily free. Wix and Weebly have free versions, in some cases with ad support, so I'd recommend paying for them. But I'm not sure if you have budget for that.

The nice thing is you will need some kind of hosting for even a Wordpress site, and for the most part that in itself will cost money, so paying for e.g. Weebly or Squarespace gets you all-in-one, a hosting service *and* visual website builder/editor. That would generally be my recommendation.

- Oshyan

To note/add to this, Wordpress has it's own hosting, free, and paid, as well.

What you really intend to do is a good point. For example, if you want to have a shop for products, you're not going to have those features on artstation or deviantart (dedicated to you)

And if you do decide to have a shop, you might as well have a artstation etc for exposure.
Actually ArtStation does have a user marketplace now. Found some cool world machine Marcos on there.

WAS

Quote from: CredePendrel on August 11, 2019, 12:21:04 PM
Quote from: WASasquatch on August 09, 2019, 05:58:48 PM
Quote from: Oshyan on August 09, 2019, 05:42:47 PMI think the best route to this really depends on what content you want to be on the site, and how much you're willing to dig in to learning a website management system.

Artstation and others are great if all you really need is a basic portfolio with your images (which you can add descriptions to, etc.). And they help you get visibility and comments due to the communities there. A stand-alone website of your own doesn't have the community advantage, though it is a lot more customizable on the flip side.

Wordpress is good if you want a more fully customized website and have time and energy to pick out a theme and understand how it all works. If you've never dealt with web hosting or a website management/content system, it may take a while to get up to speed.

Platforms like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are arguably easier, more drag-and-drop (although there are drag-and-drop page builders for Wordpress too), but they are not necessarily free. Wix and Weebly have free versions, in some cases with ad support, so I'd recommend paying for them. But I'm not sure if you have budget for that.

The nice thing is you will need some kind of hosting for even a Wordpress site, and for the most part that in itself will cost money, so paying for e.g. Weebly or Squarespace gets you all-in-one, a hosting service *and* visual website builder/editor. That would generally be my recommendation.

- Oshyan

To note/add to this, Wordpress has it's own hosting, free, and paid, as well.

What you really intend to do is a good point. For example, if you want to have a shop for products, you're not going to have those features on artstation or deviantart (dedicated to you)

And if you do decide to have a shop, you might as well have a artstation etc for exposure.
Actually ArtStation does have a user marketplace now. Found some cool world machine Marcos on there.

Yeah but it's a profits share market as far as I'm aware. Not dedicated to you.

N-drju

The idea with Artstation is really good. Seeing is believeing... So this could possibly be a good "showroom" for any visuals and an entry point to the internet presence.

A personal website, I guess, is something that I wish to pursue in the long run. Artstation is fine for CG as previosuly discussed and I will really consider this. Is it possible to set up links to Facebook accounts or Patreon profiles from that page?

In the long run, ideally, I will also need a space for podcasts, voice acting and perhaps translation portfolio and this is where I would see a personal webpage coming into a spotlight. Having advertisments on a page (pay-per-click probably) could also be a nice fund reclaim, though I have completely no idea how it is done... :(

Quote from: archonforest on August 10, 2019, 03:50:56 AMI am using Weebly. It is also free.

Could you share it? Just that I (we) can have a look? How do you do hosting and domain?

Quote from: WASasquatch on August 09, 2019, 12:57:44 PMHowever if you take that route I will offer my assistance freely where I can.

So you do things like that (semi)professionally? I need to make up my mind, but I could sure use some help... Maybe even paid, profit-share help if I figure out how to lure advertisers onto a potential webpage.
"This year - a factory of semiconductors. Next year - a factory of whole conductors!"