At what point should you invest in a website?

[Jack B]

Hey everyone, I am a young artist and I feel I am getting to the point where I need a website to showcase my artwork. I have several questions...

Is a site like weebly okay or should I invest in my own domain?
I only know very little HTML or CSS, is it worth teaching myself more or just hiring someone?
Is a website even a good investment? Should I just stick to posting my work on instagram?

[Chip Valecek]

@Jack-B I think it is a good idea to get a website. You can use some of those free services like weebly or squarespace and you can point a domain name to the site. I prefer not to use those free sites cause you are limited in what they have to offer. But maybe a simple portfolio site would work fine over there.

[audrey dowling]

I need a simple portfolio website for the moment and I haven't started working really, so for me, wordpress does the job. even if it appears in the website address, I don't think it's crucial right now. I can do quite a lot of things with it to customize it, enough for what I need anyway.
I'd say I will get my own when I have more substantial things to show (books and different sorts of jobs) and when I have a budget for it
so it all depends on what and how you want to show and if you can afford

ps: you can see my website in my signature for a look (still a work in progress though)

[Christine Garner]

A free Weebly website would probably be fine or you could use something like WordPress.com, Squarespace or Behance. CSS and HTML is not hard to learn and its useful, so there is no harm in learning it, but these days its not as essential as it used to be just to get up and running. It is good for making cosmetic tweaks and getting things just as you want them though.

[in2graphics]

@Jack-B

I specialize in helping artist get an affordable website!

If you don't want to deal with setting up a domain and hosting and also create your website, then I can create a website for you for $499 and then set up your hosting and everything else, so you don't have to worry about anything.

I've been working with web design for 16 years and I specifically focus on creating websites at a lower price point to my competitors because I just want to help people out.

Here's an example of a site I recently created for a veteran artist: http://curtbeanart.com

And you can learn more about what I do on my website at www.streamlineyourbiz.net

There are some definite negatives to setting something up on Weebly if you want to contact me I can go over those with you so you're prepared to make an informed decision.

Cheers and best of luck, whatever you decide.

[ZackracK]

I actually went through the process of creating my own website two weeks ago. I don't know anything about HTML or CSS. I did some research, and talked to a few people, and ended up going with ehost.com. Several others said they used GoDaddy and had a good experience with them as well.

I paid $99 and now have a website up and running for the next 3 years. The interface was a little clunky, I couldn't do everything I wanted with it, but for the price and the relative ease with which I got it up and running, I would absolutely recommend it for a portfolio type site. I think there were cheaper plans available even, but I went with the one that had no ads or anything- which I think is important in any case, but certainly with a portfolio site that you want to look professional. I definitely think it's worth it when you are first starting out. Even though it wasn't perfect, the interface was very intuitive and fairly straight forward. Feel free to get back to me if you have any specific questions I could answer to help you out.

My website: http://zacksindustrialartworks.com/

[Jack B]

@ZackracK Woah, I love your website, did you use a template or create it from scratch. This seems like a decent direction to consider.

[ZackracK]

@Jack-B Thanks! I started with a template, but also customized quite a bit. When I say "customize" though, it was all still pretty much drag and drop from a list of their elements, nothing I "created" on my own. I messed around with Macromedia Dreamweaver about 10 years ago, but that was the only experience I've had with web design, so I would definitely say the process was pretty painless and I ended up with something I am happy with. And the price made it even better- I definitely expected it to cost me more than $33/ year.

[Chip Valecek]

I am a professional web designer by day, so if any of you have questions along the way feel free to ask.

[Leontine]

A view weeks ago I wanted to start a new website, so I went to the company that creates them. They advised me to start blogging. Its fast, easy, and very fit for this time. Ive tried it out and i love it! (https://leontineillustrator.com/) Wordpress, cost just a view bucks a month and very findable. You can post every day, people who follow you love it. I still have some work to do to make it rock, but for the time that I have now, it really works. The best part: It was on air in 15 minutes!