Topic: Website and E-Commerce Recommendations/Suggestions

[Neomod]

I'm looking to set up a website to display and sell my art. I did something simple back in the dreamweaver days but am now looking for a simple/easily modified/secure solution. I've heard squarespace so many times on podcasts I know they have a good marketing budget but little on the quality of the product.

Have the panel got any recommendations, personal or professional that I can check out?

[Fr.Bigley]

Wordpress is super easy to navigate, Update and the plugins on offer cater for literally everything.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I too need to set up a portfolio site (about seven years ago, but that's neither here nor there). A bunch of people have recommended Wordpress, but I still have some questions about it:

• Are you stuck with "wordpress" in the URL? I wonder how professional that would seem, if so.
• Do you get an e-mail address with them? Using my stupidly named Gmail account would seem even less professional.

[Fr.Bigley]

I too need to set up a portfolio site (about seven years ago, but that's neither here nor there). A bunch of people have recommended Wordpress, but I still have some questions about it:

• Are you stuck with "wordpress" in the URL? I wonder how professional that would seem, if so.
• Do you get an e-mail address with them? Using my stupidly named Gmail account would seem even less professional.

WordPress simply acts as the builder, What ever domain you register will be your URL and subsequent Email address. There's tons of YouTube tutorials about it. Very user friendly stuff over all

[JaDanketies]

I too need to set up a portfolio site (about seven years ago, but that's neither here nor there). A bunch of people have recommended Wordpress, but I still have some questions about it:

• Are you stuck with "wordpress" in the URL? I wonder how professional that would seem, if so.
• Do you get an e-mail address with them? Using my stupidly named Gmail account would seem even less professional.

No, you can point any domain to your wordpress. Ask a nerd for help if you struggle.
You will get an @yourdomain email address when you buy your domain from 123-reg, 1and1, GoDaddy, whoever. I use 1and1. GoDaddy are fucks.

Wordpress is good as a standalone. Shopify is good if you actually want people to buy stuff over your website like with a shopping basket. I also work with some other web design companies who make ecommerce sites, hmu for more info, but they'll both charge you a much higher monthly rate than either Shopify or Wordpress.

[JaDanketies]

Oh and marketing is my forte, so before you funnel a wedge of cash to Squarespace (or me) to do some marketing, ask yourself the following questions and then some more questions too:

• How do you expect people to find your services? Social media? Putting 'art' into Google? If it's the latter then you're not ever going to rank for 'art' on Google. Check out the competition, see who else is marketing in your sector.
• If you do lots of art of sad-looking ponies, and you expect that people are gonna be googling 'art of sad-looking ponies', then do that search yourself, see who comes up at the top. If it's anything like a directory that you can sign up for, ideally for free, then that's your short-term aim. Piggy-back off those who are already ranking rather than initially compete against them.
  
• How much are you going to spend on marketing? If Squarespace ask for £15 a month, they're gonna do fuck all with that money. Don't spend money on online marketers unless you're willing to spend at least three figures, and then hire a freelancer to do it rather than a big organisation. Instead you might wanna try and figure it out yourself, if CAB user JaDanketies can figure it out then surely any idiot can. If you're willing to spend less than £100 a month, then my first suggestion would be PPC.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

1and1 have a Cyber Monday sale on for the next few hours - 6 months hosting for free, then 7 quid a month after. Should I throw caution to the wind and sign up for that with a free wordpress site?

All I really need is a page to display photos and embedded youtube videos, with my contact details.

[JaDanketies]

You might wanna read this before you pay for hosting.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Does that mean I'd have to pay wordpress, or is the free option still sufficient?


BUSINESS!

[JaDanketies]

Yknow what, for your requirements, Wix might be the easiest and simplest to do, and also free. And then you just need to buy a domain name and point it to the Wix servers; Wix pays for hosting. You never see Wix sites ranking well which is why I don't really recommend it. But who cares about ranking

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Ranking thread.

I certainly like free stuff - although I suppose that does prompt the question of what they're getting in return for no money? I'm guessing the free stuff is just very basic/limited.

[QDRPHNC]

Shopify

[touchingcloth]

Shopify

Probably quite expensive for an art portfolio site? Though it would depend on the OP’s turnover really, but I associate Shopift with fairly high volume retail type sites. Might be worth it if selling art is your living rather than a bit of extra cash on the side kind of thing.

[QDRPHNC]

Probably quite expensive for an art portfolio site? Though it would depend on the OP’s turnover really, but I associate Shopift with fairly high volume retail type sites. Might be worth it if selling art is your living rather than a bit of extra cash on the side kind of thing.

Most basic package is $30/mo, so not much more than a good host would cost. And better in the long-term to build on a robust, dedicated commerce platform, rather than something like Wordpress, where you'll need to fiddle (and fiddle and fiddle) with WooCommerce and ZenCart bullshit.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I'm still confused. A cursory look at Wix shows that they also do domains, so what is the advantage of registering one with a separate hosting company? Does it work out cheaper?

[JaDanketies]

If you ever want to move away from Wix they make it difficult

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

"It's got our name on it. Wix."

They're still worth going with for free site design/hosting though, right?

[JaDanketies]

Certainly worth a shot! It's a good place to start from definitely