Website Building

[LeeU]

Couldn't find anything in Search--I'm seeking some opinions/experiences with free or very low cost  website builders that have a decent level of quality and flexibility for design options. Not too complicated to put together, but not clunky-looking when done, either.  My WIX site had been wonderful but they have changed the editing processes and pre-sets/templates (not for the better). It's been a frustrating nightmare. I am going to have to start over, and might go to another host platform if there are some recommended options to explore.  I am not looking for--do not need--a very heavy sales/marketing oriented builder. Thanks in advance! I had to unpublish my site and hope to put it back together soon. 

Edited July 30, 2023 by LeeU

[Hulk]

I'm using Weebly/Square, where I'm posting some "about" my work, images of current and historical work, blog entries, contact info...
It's not perfect, but it is fairly easy to use and maintain.

[Callie Beller Diesel]

Weebly is still fine as long as you don’t want to add e-commerce. As soon as you want to start adding e-commerce via Square, it gets clunky and obnoxious fast, and the financial reports are limited when you try to integrate the two. Don’t let anyone talk you into a Square website if you want to improve that reporting. Their layout and tech support are both limited and abysmal. And their templates are mostly ugly. 

If you need e-commerce, bite the bullet, prepare to push it out enough to be profitable and go Shopify. Their back end is nice and straightforward, and if you need help tech support is amazing,  even when you tell them you’re just on the free trial to see how the back end works, and won’t commit any time soon. 

[neilestrick]

I have used Weebly for a long time and it works well. I use their shopping system, too.

[Callie Beller Diesel]

I just remembered that last year Mea mentioned she switched from Weebly to GoDaddy as her blog and website builder. I just had a look at their pricing, and the non-shopping systems are all quite affordable. The one tier that offers e-commerce is comparable to both Square’s top end and Shopify’s most affordable. All 3 of the latter have comparable service offerings. 

[Katie Piro]

I have squarespace and I'm fond of it. I've used their ecommerce system and it's pretty user friendly. I like how it works with square card readers to streamline online and physical inventory levels. 

[Mark C.]

I have been a free weebly user for a really LONG time. many many years now. I also was with square as soon as they started. That all said Square bought out Weebly and now have only a fee based system for weebly square . I will add that Mea also turned me on to Weebly long ago. The flat rate for a simple pay for a year site was 110$ paid up front. I have yet to be forced into that as my free site is still running (i'm not looking ever for e-commerce). When it does go away I'll pay up. I'm near the end of wanting much of a website . It does drive my long time customers  spread over the west my way and does pay for itself in spades when I have to pay for it.I'm getting to not want more work and my wholsale is plenty . I did just send out 42 mugs to one customer who realized I will be dead and he will run out of my mugs so he bought a lifetime supply he said.Now thats a weird thought for me.

[kswan]

Hi Lee,

I just went through the process of switching web hosts. I had a Weebly website, but since I have a custom domain they went from no fee to $16 per month, which was more than I wanted to pay. I was looking at two hosts with website builders: HostGator and Hostinger. I went with Hostinger, which has a starting price of $3 per month, then after two years it's $7 a month. I'm not selling online, though. It's just to give people a view of work I do and other information. The templates are pretty basic, but it was easy to figure out. It includes an email too, but I haven't used that yet. I just ordered business cards and I don't want to change them yet.

Kathy

[Callie Beller Diesel]

@kswan can you forward your old email to the new one, or would the integration be clunky? I’m not as familiar with Hostinger’s back end.

I recently had to do a big cost comparison, and if you buy your hosting through weebly, they charge the most. Note that if you like the templates on weebly better, you can buy your hosting (which is your custom domain name) through Hostinger, or anyone else, and still build your website with weebly. 

The host/domain name is like a camping spot, and the website is the trailer/tent whatever that you park there. The trailer can be shifted from place to place. Many providers like to offer an all in one service for convenience, but on a technical level, they are separate. 

To extend the metaphor, a website that you build for information and contact only would be the equivalent of a tent or a tent trailer. They don’t do much, but you can park those suckers almost anywhere, usually for cheap. If you want to have an e-commerce website, that would be the equivalent of a fancy RV with bump outs and all the fancy stuff.  The fancier vehicles need a large enough camping spot (host) to handle the traffic, and the fancier camping spots will offer power hookups so that you can get the most out of your experience. 

 

[kswan]

Hi @Callie Beller Diesel,

I didn't know about doing that, but I wasn't too attached to my website as it was. I was always thinking I wanted to change it and never got around to it. It's now about as basic as it can get, which is fine with me!

As far as email, it's just my personal one. I put ceramics related emails in a separate folder. I was thinking of making a separate email address for ceramics using the Hostinger one, but I'm scared to fix what ain't broke. My system has been working for me and I've had the same email address for 25 years!

[LeeU]

I've got plenty of time left on my subscription to learn what I need to know to use WIX's updated system, and I'm doing that now--it's not as frustrating as it was last week.  I'm liking my results so that will serve me well even if I move to another platform. This is running me $11 a month (probably about half what a new subscriber would pay. I got a deal for renewing a few years ago & I expect a good deal if I renew, or it will be bye-bye. My price includes online payment & retail support-the set up for the shop is easy and attractive-I just don't use it or need it. I like WIX, so I'm inclined to stay--but "it depends".  I'm beginning to research other options, just in case. Thanks for all the input so far--very helpful!! 

 

[LeeU]

4 hours ago, kswan said:

As far as email,

I didn't see the point of paying for an email through the web builder/host.  I know some people think they look more professional, but I've used leeuceramics@gmail.com  for 10 years, and it serves me quite well.   I don't do mass mailings and of course I get messages that come through my Contact form.  BTW-I like your website, nice and clean, simple & attractive. The Hostinger price is tempting-will check it out.

Edited August 11, 2023 by LeeU

[Callie Beller Diesel]

I think for artists, there’s nothing terribly wrong with a professionally sounding gmail address. I pay for the email, but that’s because I got a package deal initially, and now there’s too many things tied to it to get rid of it. 

As far as email lists go, IF you were to do it, it’s better to do those through an email service anyways. Most of us here I think don’t need much more than features offered under most free versions of ones like Mailchimp or Email Octopus, so it’s not a big deal at all to sign up for one.

 Not that I think anyone is coming after an artist with a 200 person email list, but it’s worth knowing that If you have EU or Canadian citizens on your email list, you may be subject to their data privacy laws, even if you as the sender don’t live there. If you try and set up through say, google forms, they don’t have the right levels of security at all. Email services have all the things you didn’t know you needed, like the ability to delete client data permanently, obtain double op-ins, and have all the correctly worded statements built in. 

[LeeU]

10 hours ago, Callie Beller Diesel said:

Email services have all the things you didn’t know you needed

Yes-I agree. I should have clarified that I am such a small home studio & am not doing online sales, so all I need is the gmail.  I think when I set it up I had been criticized (by some local guild potters) for using the "common man DIY" approach to my web presence &  email-saying it made me look "unprofessional". That probably made me dig my heels in LOL That was years ago,  when I was just starting back into the field & was taking every kind of marketing & SEO workshop on the planet & was barraged with pitches to get me to pay for various services.  In today's  world, I guess a service with the features you have mentioned-especially that you don't know you need until you can't do something,  is probably imperative for a ceramics business.

[Min]

On 8/9/2023 at 3:26 PM, kswan said:

Hi Lee,

I just went through the process of switching web hosts. I had a Weebly website, but since I have a custom domain they went from no fee to $16 per month, which was more than I wanted to pay. I was looking at two hosts with website builders: HostGator and Hostinger. I went with Hostinger, which has a starting price of $3 per month, then after two years it's $7 a month. I'm not selling online, though. It's just to give people a view of work I do and other information. The templates are pretty basic, but it was easy to figure out. It includes an email too, but I haven't used that yet. I just ordered business cards and I don't want to change them yet.

Kathy

I recently changed to Hostinger too. I thought they really pushed the email function, I didn't sign up for it and probably never will, I saw it as a way to tether someone to stay with them. 

[Callie Beller Diesel]

Fun fact, because I just had to do this myself: you can move your custom domain email to google if you move away from whoever you bought it from in the first place. 

Because I bought my custom email from weebly back in the day (it was cheap at the time), they were technically just selling a google email spot. On my part, I just transferred the billing. Why did I do this? The old weebly billing account was having issues, and their payment portal wasn’t working, and after spending almost 6 hours on a customer support call and still couldn’t get it to work, i said some bad words and just moved the billing. Got a free month out of it. 

When I went to look up whether or not you could do something similar with Hostinger, there were detailed instructions on how to transfer MX records from Hostinger, and everyone else selling domain emails.  It’s a few steps to be sure, and like moving your domain to another website builder it can take up to 72 hours. But it’s possible.  I didn’t investigate whether you could transfer an email account from someone like Hostinger to GoDaddy to get deals like you do for just the domain name.

[Callie Beller Diesel]

@LeeUwhen I say email services, I don’t mean having a lee@leecustomceramics.com email, I mean something like mailchimp. Sending a marketing campaign straight from your email box can get you into data privacy problems. 

[LeeU]

10 hours ago, Callie Beller Diesel said:

something like mailchimp

OH  !      re Min's comment, I am going to take some time while I fiddle w/WIX and definately check out Hostinger.  My domain is through GoDaddy and I'm fine w/that...plus I know it's really not that hard to move it around. I'd been so stagnant for so long that this little shake-up w/WIX & the new learning curve is actually good for me! I'm going in a new direction in terms of forms & palette, so I'm finally getting jazzed a bit.

[LeeU]

I've done a "first pass" at resurrecting my WIX website. Mostly to learn the changes to the editing functions & output presentation--still really don't like them, so am likely to switch venders. In any event, if anyone would care to take a look and offer some feedback, I'd appreciate it. This is half-baked, so keep that in mind. One problem I have is that due to certain conditions I must use a large monitor & a mouse. That means I have a hard time finding out how my design looks on a phone, a tablet, and a laptop. I have a phone (Android), so I can see it, but I have not mastered how to change things in the editor on my monitor to look better on the phone, even with the "mobile optimization", it's a lot of trial & error. So feedback specific to tablets/phones/laptops is also appreciated. Just FYI, the pieces are all pretty old and do not reflect the new direction, new palette, that I am moving toward. I won't activate the new site until I have some new inventory. BTW-this image is a screen shot from my large monitor, so unless you ave a huge screen I'm sure it will look different...like all the white space between the bottom red text and the footer probably does not appear on smaller screens. (but I don't know !!! - so you tell me LOL)

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

leeuceramics.com 

Edited September 27, 2023 by LeeU

[Rae Reich]

Nice, Lee! On my iPad it displays edge to edge. Scrolls and slides and links smoothly. Don’t know enough to critique further on bells and whistles, but I’d be happy to have this site. Thumbs up!

[Callie Beller Diesel]

On my IPad, the facebook “add a comment box” is right in the middle of the page, obscuring text. The dropdown menu also tends to not want to disappear automatically: I don’t know if this is part of the template code, or if it’s something you are able to adjust on that platform.

I don’t know if you need every click within your website to open a new tab in the browser. It’s a good idea to use that setting if you’re sending people to outbound links, but it clogs up a browser unnecessarily when navigating “in house.” 

The formatting on your blog page appears to have a spot that’s supposed to hold a thumbnail image or a logo next to your name. It’s showing as a question mark.

Other than that, it functions like it ought to, as far as I can see. The format doesn’t have a lot of unnecessary negative space and everything is legible.

 

Other suggestions, which you can take or leave as you see fit:

Navigation-wise, I’d suggest clarifying for yourself what you want the website to do for you and how you want to structure your online presence. Right now you have a combo of casual/personal stuff that I’d expect to speak to an audience you’ve personally cultivated, and some more formal elements we learned in art school but aren’t super relevant outside of what I’d call an institutional art audience. (Gallery system, academia, etc.)I would suggest tailoring your website to whichever of those groups interacts with and buys from you the most. It makes it easier to write website copy and make design choices.

If that audience is mostly institutional folks, tidying the bio and statement to be more in line with those expectation and moving your more casual stuff exclusively to social media. If your audience is more a group you’ve personally cultivated, consider removing the larger bio and statement, and leaning into the story you have in the Flower and Ash section currently. You can still incorporate your credentials into that writing, but I think that’s the piece that will land best with the wider public. It’s a lovely bit of storytelling. 

I also noticed a mention on your blog that you thought you should be blogging once a month as opposed to posting more frequently on FB.  While blogs have a bunch of pros over social media, I think you should do whichever one you can make consistent. If a more casual FB post gets made every week or every couple of days, that’s better than a spotty blog you do because “that’s what real artists do.” 

Whichever audience you choose:

-I’d pick one font for the whole website and using it throughout. It’s a small detail, but it’ll tidy things up a surprising amount. Right now the home page has 2 fonts, and the sans serif header and sub header are outweighed by the serif text font. There’s no emphasis on one piece of info as more important than the other.

-The header image on the home page wasn’t taken with incorporated text in mind. If you don’t have an image you can crop to have 2/3-3/4 negative space in those dimensions so the text is the focus, it’s worth taking one for the purpose. Or changing some layout choices on that page.

-The one place everyone should be really UN-creative is with your menu names. They should be as clear and concise as possible. Eg, Miss Elainie is a great name for a jewelry line…or maybe your cat, who might be instagram famous as your cheeky studio sidekick. While I 100% support a studio pet picture gallery if it brings everyone joy, if I’m new to your page or on a mission for something, the lack of clarity is a barrier to me finding what I want. The dropdown title should be Jewelry, and the subtitle on the page can be “Miss Elainie Jewelry Line” with a 2-3  sentence blurb. And of course, images. 

In that vein:

-Studio is a bit too broad: I suggest retitling it “gallery” with listings of “Jewelry” “wood and raku” “new work” (when it’s ready), and consider combining “Before and After” into “Studio Shots” for a look at the artist in her environment.

-Consider using the same format for all the gallery pages. Right now you have a slideshow for wood and raku, but all the rest are stationary gallery pages. Some of the transitions in that template are odd. 

-Under About, I love that you actually put your face on there! Not enough folks do. I don’t love the picture you’ve chosen though. You’ve depersonalized it by using a shot of your own computer screen. Please consider enlisting a friend to help take a bio pic during the golden hour. You’re such a vibrant person, and that image seems colder thanu the Lee we know here. 

-Unless you’re talking mostly to a Fine Art/gallery clientele, the expanded bio under About isn’t necessary. You can talk about some of your background in blogs or on social.

-Your artist statement is extremely well written and should be on your home page, not buried under About. It doesn’t need to be formally titled as your artist statement if you do this. 

-Again about heading clarity, I’d retitle Flower and Ash in the dropdown to “Philosophy” or “Background on the Work” and have the Flower and Ash be the title of the page. 

-I think shop policies should be easy to get to, but not the first thing you see when you arrive on a website. Having their own header listing suggests you’re anticipating a bunch of problems right out of the gate. A lot of people have a footer menu now, with things like shop policies, an FAQ list and social links. If you don’t want to create a footer menu, put a “shop” header title in the policies spot for your eventual update, and put the policies under that. 

 

 

 

[LeeU]

5 hours ago, Callie Beller Diesel said:

the facebook “add a comment box”

WOW-thank you SO much for the time & effort you put into the feedback. I will be going over the details it in depth as I carry on! One bit of confusion is the facebook comment thing--I deliberately kept links to social media out of it, so I have no idea what that coud be-it does not appear on my laptop.  I especially appreciate the "choose your audience" perspective-that confirms some things that have been bubbling up into my consciousness lately. Thanks again, this is so helpful. Oh-and that indictor for a missing "something"  by blog author is a glitch in the code on their end-I'm trying to get  IT to deal with it...it's been very frustrating-they may lose me over that alone! 

[AnnaShipulina]

I'm using Squarespace and like it a lot! Easy to use, modern templates.

Edited November 10, 2023 by shipanna

[LeeU]

Nice photography--do your own, use a pro, have a talented friend??

[AnnaShipulina]

Thank you  I use my iPhone and take the photos at home. Found a corner with a good lighting.