is a web site worth it?

**LittleSlurpee** · 2012-05-17 22:08

So for the last year or so I've become increasingly more successful as a freelance artist. I've been getting more work, with better payoff, more often. In all honesty I think this success is based off word of mouth more than self advertisement. Anyway..

Recently I got officially contracted to do the art work for someone who is making their own type of table top game. My job is basically to do the artwork for the cards and the box. I've been pretty excited about it since it's a great experience with a lot of good potential. Running down the line of benefits the guy mentioned he could list my art website in the credits and such.. at which point I kinda cringed. I have a free gallery website on deviant art, but to me it neither looks nor feels professional. If you pay for the membership you can get a more personalized, better looking page, but the web address doesn't change. It says username.deviantart.com which of course associates you with deviantart as a whole.

My question is.. Would it be worth paying for a more professional website with the address as myname.com? Or should I just pay for the membership at deviantart and personalize it and clean it up for myself? Having a web site sounds nice and all, but I'm not sure if it's worth it to shell out the money. In respects to archive and gallery and such, the free version of the site seems to work out fine.

Thoughts? Do you take artists with personalized sites with their name in the addy more serious than those with free versions? Does it even matter?

If it's worth personalizing a web site, how should I go about it? I'm really not looking forward to spending a ton on a site, either. -.-;; Starving artist, even if I'm doing better as a freelance.

**Minions** · 2012-05-17 22:12

In the grand scheme of things.... it ends up costing like $12-15 a year for URL hosting. You can use something like blogger for free webhosting if you want. However having a .com tends to be "more professional" even if you use word press or blogger or something as a back end. Keep in mind having a website for $15/year is a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for any sort of advertising.

**tyven** · 2012-05-17 22:17

you should just for your portfolio. also you need to make your avatar symmetrical. it is driving me fucking insane

**Cantih** · 2012-05-17 22:21

All of the pro artists I keep an eye on, even if they use DA heavily day to day, always have a separate portfolio website.

**hey** · 2012-05-17 22:23

There's really no reason not to. You can get free hosting easily enough, and domains are cheap, or even free if you're willing to use something like .tk

**miokomioko** · 2012-05-17 22:35

Domains are dirt cheap, cheap hosting is pretty easy to find, free hosting is even easier to find. There is zero reason to not have an online portfolio. Get on it. Now.

Look at cargocollective.com

They have a bunch of layouts to choose from. If you want to edit the CSS, you have to pay for a membership. I'm not sure if you still need an invite to get in. I think I have some invites floating around (maybe) if you're actually interested.

**LittleSlurpee** · 2012-05-17 22:36

I wanted to see if and when you would go mad.. but then I thought that might be dangerous.
Better?

**LittleSlurpee** · 2012-05-17 22:39

In response to the answers.. I shall check it out, then. Thank you muchly.

**Kohan** · 2012-05-17 23:19

Upon sifting through the Tech forum a bit, you should be able to find old discussions—involving very discerning parties—on which domain name resellers are the best to go with. There are literally thousands out there, and it'll help cut out a lot of your research. While the majority of mainstream ones are awful (and therefore easily avoided), the sheer abundance of registrars and hosts on offer means it's easy for you to get suckered by an independent and inadequate provider, too.

One of the great ones is NameCheap, which I have personally used. They've been fantastic, and I'm rather discriminating, myself. Furthermore, Tumblr, which is arguably the best free blog-like website you can use for an artistic portfolio, will let you point your domain name to your blog at no additional cost.

It really can't get any cheaper than that, and considering how prolific both companies are, you won't have to worry about a lack of support, a loss of data, downtime, or anything of the sort.

**Qalbert** · 2012-05-17 23:39

Originally Posted by tyven

you should just for your portfolio. also you need to make your avatar symmetrical. it is driving me fucking insane

**LittleSlurpee** · 2012-05-18 00:54

Thank you Kohan for an awesomely insightful response.

Qalbert... You win.

Those're awesome, btw.

**The Stig** · 2012-05-18 01:28

Yep get a website.

Then, install wordpress (really simple to use!) (free!) (make sure your host supports php & mysql)

Then, fork out an one off $35 or so (average price of "good" themes) for a portfolio theme. There are free ones too, but the paid ones are usually that much better. Of course, look around.

This is a free one that I came across on the official site:

http://demo.alienwp.com/hatch/

**Kohan** · 2012-05-18 04:50

That requires regularly paying for a host and configuring the website yourself, and it doesn't give you the advantage of being on an extremely prominent and well-funded blogging network. Despite WordPress's versatility—I've used it in both professional and recreational applications—it isn't nearly as easy to use as Tumblr, which is virtually painless.

For a real world example of how suitable it is, here's a Tumblr-based portfolio:

http://simplebits.com/work/

Considering that it's free, there's no reason not to use it, unless you've got money to burn and truly want to make your own site. Only having to pay for a domain name is a very sweet deal.

Beyond that working example, here are some free Tumblr portfolio themes:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-10-...ate-portfolio/

**The Stig** · 2012-05-18 05:01

Hey thanks for that I've actually never really heard of Tumblr, haha. I guess as popular as they are, the only time I have seen them mentioned is the "Social Media" icons for sharing things, but never actually ventured in there.

Going to make an account and toy around. Quick question though, is it possible to install my "own" Tumblr software, like wordpress? I don't see any option for it. Or is it purely hosted by Tumblr and there's no way to "break" from it (which in a way is a plus, as that means I'm automatically party of the network). I can't see, yet, (will make an account on my lunch) what benefits/features you get with an account, or any limitations.

I know you say it's easy to use, and it's probably true for people like us, but this is useful for me in a way that for some people I help, who are really scared of PCs (yes, they still exist!), this is yet another option/venue for me to "offer" on depending on my clients' needs.

**Vigilia** · 2012-05-18 05:31

Yes, having a website is very much necessary for a freelancer. It's so easy to do nowadays too to just link up Twitter/Tumblr/Facebook etc. so when you post on one it'll show up on all to keep up presence in the social media as well. You could always look up dA's famous freelancers like Loish, Shoomlah or Alicexz and see their set ups. Setting up a store at Society6 or Redbubble or selling your own prints/original art is not going to hurt either. Some folks swear by Etsy, some by Ebay, whatever works.

There are also pseudo-professional portfolio websites such as http://carbonmade.com/ where you can make a more customised portfolio without having to go through the hassle of building your own website. But so many people use Tumblr and Blogspot you shouldn't really feel unprofessional for taking advantage of them either. Ultimately what makes your portfolio professional isn't so much the URL, it's the content and visuals you choose.

**Brill Weave** · 2012-05-18 06:43

Seriously just use it as an online art gallery for your potential customers to peruse.

**Hellfury** · 2012-05-18 12:14

If you make your own site, make sure you make it good, I know nothing about your specific branch, but I work in HR (IT) recruitment, and people often attach their homepage URLs to their resumes.
A poorly designed home page leaves a horrible impression, a well designed one piques my curiosity.
A webpage containing info on how to break copy protection might interest me on my private time, and I've seen more than one of those, but it doesn't leave that good an impression on the recruiter (unless it's really really really good) (as an example).

If I was looking for an artist, I would probably want a good "professional" easily accessible peak at some of the stuff you have made, before actually start making an effort at considering getting into any kind of business with you.

**Rollercoaster** · 2012-05-18 14:11

Elaborating on what Mio said: I use cargocollective, which is invite only. The free version is nice, you get to choose from 16 different layouts and the CSS editor is easy to use, but there isn't a personal domain name included in that (just cargocollective.com/name). The paid membership is like $66/year but you get more space, more layout themes, ability to edit HTML and custom URL. I have some invites left over if you are interested!

**Caiyuo** · 2012-05-18 16:22

If anyone's comfortable with it it'd be cool to see your own sites or portfolios, interested in what you jerks are up to.

**Kohan** · 2012-05-21 06:31

Originally Posted by The Stig

Going to make an account and toy around. Quick question though, is it possible to install my "own" Tumblr software, like wordpress?

Virtually. While you don't have complete freedom, you truthfully have all the freedom you need to make an obviously customized and gorgeous site. This is another reason Tumblr is fantastic for portfolios: you can already look sharp by simply taking an imaginative, pre-existing portfolio theme from the Internet, and then you can code your own completely original one later on, once you've acquired the necessary skills.

To make this clear, check out their page for basic customization:

http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/customization

And now, behold how much room for customization you can have on their HTML coding page, which lays out all of the functions available to you:

http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/custom_themes

Whether you're a neophyte or a coding veteran (if not a coder-to-be), you should feel comfortable on Tumblr.

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