Creating A Website- Any Recomendations?

Costs come with hosting - BlueHost is currently $3.95/month for a 3 year span.

From there you can create a website using various builders - I use wordpress.

I also use BlueHost with a Wordpress blog. However three months ago I started a portfolio with Zenfolio and love it. I simply transferred one of my domains to the Zenfolio premium account. With a discount code it cost less than a $100 for a year and gives me unlimited storage and additional POD services. Setting up the website with their templates was easy, intuitive and customer service is fast and friendly. It still needs some tweaking but you can check it out below. I do not look at it as a replacement for my FAA premium account which I intend to keep.

Use this Referral Code: HNC-1EC-8R4 for 10% off a new account.

Lynn
http://www.lynnpalmerstudio.com/

There are about a dozen free do it yourself website builders out there and I've found that Weebly works just fine for me. It's easy to use, you can choose from a variety of templates and you can then publish your website using their domain. You can always go back and edit or make changes whenever you need to. They also offer a premium service for a nominal fee( $9.00 per month). Check them out at Weebly.com and see my website at http://fineoilpaintings.weebly.com/

Read my recent blog post for some guidance: http://www.daysray.com/blog/2014/3/your-website

Very informative everyone, thank you. I do also intend to keep my FAA account, just thought a website would also be helpful.

Thanks again for the information.

I'm a professional Website Developer, as well as a Digital Artist. My recommendations:

1. Do use Bluehost as your web hosting service. They are one of the top hosts.
2. Don't use Blogger, Weebly, or some other service where your website becomes a sub-folder on their domain. That may be hard to market. And your site under their control.
3. Don't even think about building a website unless you're willing to spend considerable time and money marketing it. Building is easy and cheap. Online Marketing is difficult and can be expensive.
4. Yes, for most people, a WordPress website is best. There are many Themes (which control the "Look & Feel" of your site) and Plugins (which add functionality) for artists. WordPress is not as easy to do well as people claim, so I recommend hiring a pro to build it and train you - then take it over yourself. Or pay your pro fro maintenance and updates.

crap Jim, I already went with weebly. lol
I went to each site people recommended and the weebly one seemed the easiest, and I liked the templates. Wish I had seen your post before.
Thank you though........

Wordpress

It's done....still have to tweak the wording. If you'd like to check it out, please visit it at:

http://www.artismarnie.com/

If you have any suggestions, I welcome them. Thank you

Marnie, it looks great, I just favorited your shop on etsy (i'm paintedtulipstudio). I love the colors, looks fresh, not fussy, just lots of great art to see!

I had my domain name on Webs.com but have let it expire because I had so many issues with it.

Thank you for starting this thread, Marnie.

Thank you Melissa, I should have done it a long time ago but I was honestly intimidated. It was so much easier than I thought. It has been suggested to me by another FAA member that I put watermarks on my images as he thinks they may get stolen.
So I will be doing that sometime today. I will check your shop out also, I haven't seen a lot of sales. I offered prints figuring it would be easier for shipping and more affordable but nothing. It's hard not to get discouraged, I'm still moving forward hoping eventually something's got to give. Thank you for the kind words, if you have any suggestions about my etsy site or otherwise please feel free to let me know. I thought my prints were reasonable but what do I know? Lol
Btw, the site on weenie cost me @$40 a year, and was very easy once I got the hang of it for anyone interested. I have photoshop and was able to make all the nice graphics. If you would like a nice collage of your graphics with your name etc, let me know by private message. I'd be glad to help a fellow artist out as everyone has been so wonderful to me. Paying it forward, there is no charge, just want to be helpful. This is open to people responding to my post.
Walter- check weeble out, I'm happy with mine so far.....

So many seem to look for the cheapest when starting their own website. Don't forget, this is your brand, how you look to the public. Would you buy a suit at Kmart to wear to your best friends wedding. Maybe the least expensive site fits, and that's cool, but don't sell yourself short. Do a lot of research and find the right brand for you.

You can get a very nice website with hosting at a fraction of what they use to cost.

Richard, I checked your Weebly site...Very nice...I just wanted to point out though, that your FAA link takes you to the FAA home page, not your personal site...You should change that!

Kevin, I definitely agree with you, but I think (and hope) my website is good quality. I made my own graphics, and think it looks nice. Again, I hope so... lol