Yet another option is to create a website using WordPress (that’s WP.org, and self hosted).
Word Press is free, easy to use. I recently learned how to install
WordPress, it’s not that hard, and there are free online tutorials
and videos to show you how, step by step.
You can use Word Press to create a static website, one that is not a
blog. You can even have purchase buttons (a variety to choose from)
on a WordPress site.
You can get WP preinstalled and hosted for only $6.95 a month. That’s
less than two trips to Starbucks a month.
I went the other way on this: I bought space on a server ($19/month
[I can host up to 20 separate sites each with 60+ email accounts] plus
the $8.50/year for the address) and seeing as when I bought this PC I
got the full Office suite of programs so I have Frontpage (not the
best choice, but if it ain’t broke, why…) which will let you build
web pages as if you were editing a word document.
To date I run two sites, the one below and one for my hobies
(www.tjanstrom.com if you’re really interested), doesn’t take much
time to keep things as up to date as required. The hard part is
doing forms that are not clunky/unsecure but FP will take some of the
hard work out of that too. Or you could visit one of the many online
form generating sites (some are free) and get the required templates
there.
Blogs should be self-hosted to be taken seriously, this means you
buy your own domain name and pay for your own hosting service.
That’s a paste from one of Elaine’s articles she linked to - very
nice, though there are also libraries on the subject and many
options.
I’m going to speak for myself on the subject - I ~hate~ blogs.
Rarely if ever will I go to anybody’s blog for more than a second or
two. Elaine doesn’t get very deep into it but she touches on it -
use multiple pages, which so many people just never bother to do.
It’s not the blog itself - a blog is just a website with another
name - it’s the way so many people (mis) manage them. Go to a blog
and look at the scroll bar at the right side - right now on this
email the bar is around 1 1/2" long in a 2" window - about two lines
of text. On many blogs you’ll hit the page and down below it will
say “loading 875 images” and then the bar just shrinks to a
millimeter in size. What that means is that the site is one sheet of
paper about a mile long, and I for one and not going to sift through
it, ever. Much less the “archives”.
Again, I have nothing against blogs, per se. Just a bit of feedback
and maybe a design tip from a web surfer. Don’t just add content at
the bottom endlessly - I’ll never look at it and I’m sure I’m not
alone. Organize and present. Best advise from a Dreamweaver book is
to make sure most pages don’t scroll at all, unless they are data of
some sort, and certainly no more than two pages on screen - then
link to page 2. All can take that or leave it, but it’s based on how
people surf, and how they want to surf and are comfortable - I
consider it good advise, and use it…
I did it another way too. I have a mac computer and have had a.mac
account for my email. I found out that I could have a website through
that so I made one. Drag and drop images in the iweb program. The
address was really long so I investigated further. I found out that I
could purchase my domain for 5.99 a year so I did that and used the
domain to forward the address to the longer mac website. I use my
etsy site to sell the work and that is nearly free. I could have a
shopping cart through my cc company but I just use etsy. I don’t sell
much online but it is there and I can always add other things as I
learn them.
I use Google Apps; website registration is $10 per year, can write
in English and don’t need an html editor. oh yeah, 200 email
addresses can be associated with my site. We also use the same thing
for the Western SC Gem and Mineral Society. I pay the $10 for them
and act as the webmaster. I don’t have a lick of formal education in
web design and/or hosting.
Even easier: get a freewebs website. As the name indicates, the
website is free. It has hosting for your pictures built in -
basically everything you need as long as you arent’ building a huge
website. Then, pay the extra $20.00 per year for your own domain name
so that instead of: www.freewebs.com/yourname you have the address: www.yourname.com. Anyone can afford $20.00 a year, and with your own
domain, no one knows that it’s freewebs. Buy the domain name through
freewebs. My first website was through freewebs with my own domain
name while I taught myself about managing a website, SEO, and being
on the internet in general. They have a web editor that you can use
if you don’t know html. If you are really unsure, sign up for a free
site without the domain name first, play with it, and then go for the
domain name.
Speaking as a professional writer (jewelry and lapidary, creating,
selling, demonstrating and teaching is what I do to stay sane) this
is good advice.
There’s a tendency to write a blog post like an article. It isn’t an
article and it should be short. The two-screen rule generally applies
– make each individual post no more than 2 screens (40-50 lines) and
that’s pushing it.
If you want to do something longer, say a tutorial, fine, but warn
your readers because a lot of them aren’t going to be interested
enough to slog through it.
RC (who has a lot more good advice, but this is already getting too
long.)
I agree having a presence on the web it going to reeaaaallly boost
any business. A website would be the ultimate, but there are a couple
of ways of having a presence without the website. Social networks –
like this one or other targeted forums. Facebook, You Tube, My Space,
Fashion forums, etc. Social networks can help in many ways
gain credibility
connecting with like minded people and other artists.
connect with potential customers
show your work (online galleries and You Tube tours of your work)
Also Free Press Release sites
-Publish articles and send them out to targeted audiences (Search
Google - keywords: Free press services)
In case it hasn’t been mentioned - etsy.com is great! Also, you could
do a blog for just putting yourself out there, not so much a website
though. wordpress.com, or blogspot.com