personal web sites

[iowasculptor]

I was just wondering if you all design and program your own web sites or do you have some on else do the tech work. I am technically challenged with web sites and don't have the funds to pay someone else. Who do you have host the site are their free web hosting sites? Any help would be appreciated.
thanks
matt

[JAZ]

I was just wondering if you all design and program your own web sites or do you have some on else do the tech work. I am technically challenged with web sites and don't have the funds to pay someone else. Who do you have host the site are their free web hosting sites? Any help would be appreciated.
thanks
matt
Matt,
My daughter did mine. she had a degree in computer graphics from Syracuse and lots of experience. I paid her $500. You might look into finding someone qualified and trying to barter something for it.
JAZ
www.joyceaudyzarins.com

[Julianna]

Hi, Matt.

I run my own website on a tweaked version of Geeklog (http://www.geeklog.net). It's quite a bit of work to get setup, but after it has been "installed", the maintenance on it is quite easy. The thing itself is free, and you can pay for someone who works for them to install it. You'll also need to pay for webspace though, because free webhosts don't usually have all the requirements.

I've worked with Dreamweaver (a program which creates/edits websites) in the past, which is good if you can afford it and the time. An alternative could be to get Adobe Photoshop, which can generate web-based photo albums for you (but you'll still need webspace). Cost-wise, it's probably better to pay someone to setup the site if you're not particularly interested in doing it yourself. I don't have much money but have been tinkering with websites for years, so I was in a good position to setup my own website.

There are a variety of free webhosts (try looking in the Yahoo! directory (http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Communications_and_Networking/Internet_and_World_Wide_Web/Network_Service_Providers/Hosting/Web_Site_Hosting/Free_Hosting/)), but most of them put ads and/or pop-ups on your pages to pay for the costs of hosting. If you're okay with that, then you're set, but the pop-ups may annoy surfers and you have no control over what is being advertised on your pages. The few which don't put ads on your pages will probably start to after a few years. I was with Crosswinds (http://www.crosswinds.net/) several years ago, and they went from free and unlimited to ad-supported and limited to a paid service.

If you decide to pay for hosting, you'll need a domain name (that's the "sculpture.net" people would type in to get to the website...I've got mine with GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com), which was the cheapest when I found it and still was when I did a check for someone a few months back) and webspace (this is the equivalent of the space on your hard drive, which you need on a "server"...this is where all of your files are).

And...if all of this is too much for you to think about, find yourself a computer science student at a local college/university/high school. They'll want the money and the experience, and won't cost you a fortune.

Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions!

Julianna

[Araich]

Great post Julianna.

I code and publish my own, and although it is a pain in the rear, if you are in this for the long run I recommend you learn the basics.

Anyone with html or simple script questions, feel free to post your questions on this forum in a new thread (http://www.sculpture.net/community/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=9)

[fritchie]

I'm with Araich on this - Julianna's given a great review of the basics, and an excellent overall evaluation of when to do your own and when to hire someone else.

I learned html and put up a chemistry-course learning assignment in the fall of 1996 when my university first opened the web to students. The assignment covered NASA’s announcement that a meteorite from Mars held possible evidence for Martian life, and the evidence ran over a large number of the topics to be covered in that first-year chemistry course. It was an excellent real-life overview for the students (I hope).

That was basic html, with none of the fancy animated or video features available today, but many of the packages Julianna mentioned, and others as well, will guide you through the process, if you want to take the time and consider that you have any aptitude. As Araich said, you will have full control over the site if you do it yourself.

I’ve never put up a sculpture site for myself because of the continuing costs for hosting space, about $20/month minimum last time I looked.

Another minor point. Julianna says you probably will be bothered by pop-up ads, but many browsers or ISP’s (providers) can block those automatically, today. Ads put up in the main page are a different matter.

[iowasculptor]

Thank you for all of your input, I am going to try to get a site up this fall. I know a few computer animation people that I will try to get some help from (do it for me). I do have a question that I don't see an answer to... How do you get your site to come up when people do a search for sculpture, public art, etc... I know that there are a lot of sites out there that no one has ever seen, If I am going to do this I want it to get seen.

[fritchie]

Thank you for all of your input, I am going to try to get a site up this fall. I know a few computer animation people that I will try to get some help from (do it for me). I do have a question that I don't see an answer to... How do you get your site to come up when people do a search for sculpture, public art, etc... I know that there are a lot of sites out there that no one has ever seen, If I am going to do this I want it to get seen.

That’s a bit tricky, and the NY Times had an article this Thursday, in its regular technology section, covering specifically email spam, but similar overall to the ongoing “search-spam” war between search site such as Google, and spammers.

From what I read about two years ago, the search engines, like Google, regularly comb the web for new sites, as yours would be, and add these to their databases, together with appropriate access codewords such as sculpture, metal-art, nonobjective, contemporary, and so on. Once they have you in their files, searches for those words will bring up your site.

Clearly, spammers want their sites to appear early in many search lists, so they add invisible text (white letters on a white background) which contains words irrelevant to the site, but popular in searches. I won’t give examples, but it’s enough to say sex typically is mentioned as the most popular search topic.

I would suggest that you be honest, but try to think of all relevant descriptive terms, plus such visual descriptors as image, installation, and so on.

When Russ put up his earliest version of this site, close to two years ago, it typically took the search engines about six months to add new sites to their index lists. I would expect that time has shortened quite a bit by now, but it still may be a month or two.

I understand that the ordering algorithms for engines like Google use the activity level at each site in raising the site’s posting level - which sites appear in the top ten, for example. As more people refer to your site with net links, you get a higher order in the posting list. That, too, is what spammers manipulate, but it is inappropriate for honest users.

I’ll be interested to see other responses. This is a good question.

[sculptor]

hi Matt

Do you have an example of the sort of site you'd like to have?

Long ago and far away, someone told me that it is easier to get there if you know where you want to go.

if the sort of simple site which I have is what you want, then many I.S.P.s offer free webspace, but the addresses are a tad long........eg:
http://www.mindspring.com/~mandali/id1.html
http://www.mindspring.com/~mandali/index.html

however, most ways I communicate allow links imbeded under any word of your chosing eg: Rod's page (http://sculpture.alturl.com)
or frankenstein (http://sculpture.alturl.com)
or you can call it anything you want (http://sculpture.alturl.com)

personally, I have no need nor liking of flash or music or dancing monkeys
a simple place to post pictures and some words is sufficient.

and,
there are dozens of online galleries who offer free posting of your pictures

So, chose a site layout you'd like, and then you'll have a better idea of how you can get there.

and
as/re html
when you've found the site layout you like, you can click on "view"........then "source", and get an instant example of html layout----and metatags, and ---
etc--
----on a site I had 5or 6 years ago, I had "borrowed" the html from someone else, then rephrased to suit-----
------and-----
(epimetheus)

---gee-----Russ probably knows more about this than anyone else here-----


rod (http://www.mindspring.com/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://home.mindspring.com/~mandali/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/rod.patterson.jpg&target=tlx_new&title=American%20figurative%20sculptor;%20Rod%20Pa tterson)(sculptor (http://www.mindspring.com/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://home.mindspring.com/~mandali/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/lynn.torso.figurative.sculptor.rod.patterson.jpg&target=tlx_new&title=figure%20sculpture%20LYNN%20torso%20in%20the %20clay))

[Araich]

The 3 most important factors in having your site listed well in search engines are, IMHO, the title of your page, the text in your page and the quality of the other sites that link to you.
From there it gets more complicated. With factors such as word density, words used in incoming links, internal linking, outbound links, rate of update, domain name, keyword use, alt text, heading text, bold text, meta tags, robots.txt files and many, many more.
Often forgotten in all of this is ease of use and simple obvious structure. I mean, what is the point of having lots of visitors if they immediately leave.
Also not widely known is that a 'new' page can get listed well fairly easily, but it is a different story after 3-4 weeks.
Two last tips, get yourself listed at DMOZ (http://dmoz.org/) but wait until your site is in good shape. In 2-3 months it will propagate to the Google Directory (http://www.google.com/dirhp?hl=en) and last, avoid joining any large general link pages or databases.

[ironman]

Hi everyone, What about "Yahoo small business" for 11.95 a month and then use Yahoo site builder to build the site. This was recommended to me and I don't think you have to know very much HTML to do it. Does anyone have experience with this or comments???
Have a nice day!
Jeff

[Julianna]

Do you have an example of the sort of site you'd like to have?

Long ago and far away, someone told me that it is easier to get there if you know where you want to go.

Great point, Rod! It's definately best to have something in mind. You might want to take a look at what's out there, and make a list of the websites you like and the ones you don't (and why!). That'll help your web designer much.

Rob and fritchie pretty much covered the whole web search thing. Do keep in mind that being found and listed on the first few search results pages when someone types in "sculpture" or "sculptor" will take a lot---I think it's something like the more visits to your website via the search engine, the more likely you are to be listed. The search spammers fritchie mentioned abuse this by various methods, and annoy the heck out of the rest of us ;) Being listed in the actual directory is probably easiest, so people can find you if they're looking for steel sculptors.

I haven't had any experience with Yahoo!'s web services, though I personally stay away from companies who try to keep a finger in every pot. CNET has an old review of the service from 2003 (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6536_7-726608-2.html?tag=st.mig.3799-8-20791128-1.arrow.3799-8-20791128-2), and a few user opinions (http://www.download.com/3302-2048_4-10250903.html) of the software. From a casual glance, it looks like they're essentially offering an ad-free version of the otherwise ad-supported "free" website services offered elsewhere.

[Araich]

To my knowledge, no search engine tracks 'click-throughs' for the purpose of ranking it's results. The actual number of visitors to your site has no direct bearing on your listing. What does is the amount and quality of incoming links to your site from other pages listed in the same directory, and more importantly the nature of those pages.

That is, a sculpture site pointing to a sculpture site, confirms the relevance of the site for the word 'sculpture'.

[obseq]

I would suggest, if you have the time, becoming adept with a timeline-based design program such as Flash or Director. Each of these programs, outside of being great for the web, allow for a rather painless creation of CD-ROMS of your electronic portfolio.


They are easy to carry around to hand out and serve as a better physical reminder to someone you meet to have a look at your work instead of a URL scribbled on a napkin.

[sculptor]

as/re flash

there probably is something more annoying than being interrupted while on the way into someone's website with slow loading flash nonsense that breaks up into meaningless fragments and wanders aimlessly around the screen dragging its chunky tails behind, then recombines and asks if I want to enter the website------------"not anymore" I think as I move the cursor over the x and click the crap away.

if it doesn't support the material in a meaningful way, it is just a distraction.

so why do it?

Rod (http://home.mindspring.com/~mandali/index.html) Patterson (http://home.mindspring.com/~mandali/id1.html)(sculptor (http://sculpture.alturl.com))

[Julianna]

I always figured that Yahoo was doing something with their search results having a long redirection URL before the actual site's URL (e.g. http://rds.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K=sculpture/v=2/SID=e/l=WS1/R=1/SS=7906/H=0/SHE=0/*-http://www.sculpture.org/ ). I tried to find out if I had read somewhere that clickthroughs effect ranking, but the search engines are quite secretive about their methods. Maybe I'm just incredibly confused :o

Re: Flash on websites. I'm with Rod on this one. Those flash intros become tiresome after a while, and I spend most of my time looking for the "x" to make it all go away. And bookmarking doesn't work with Flash, unless you have a lot of separate pages for each flash file... It's a good way to go for CDs though, if you can get it all packaged so the flash player isn't needed to open the file.

[sculptor]

As/re S.E.O. and Robert's previous posting .....blah.........It seems that the search spiders want to learn------and can be trained

if the bots will direct you to Ariach's site via searching "blah", then it would seem that the cover text becomes part of the mechanism for the searches.

S.E.O. is simply a matter of attending to the obvious

as fritchie said.........be honest.......the bots seem to like that, and they seem unhappy when they feel deceived----if they get unhappy enough you get banned or sent to the back of the line----(white words on a white background is a surefire way to get banned by google)

then think of what it is that you want to show, and the words that describe the thing become obvious.........if you use them in text and metatag, and tag all pictures, the bots'll find you

remember the bots do not know if a picture is of an ithyphallic unicorn or a drunken sailor or the indianapolis motor speedway so you gotta tell them

sculptor (http://sculpture.alturl.com)

[fritchie]

...........
I tried to find out if I had read somewhere that clickthroughs effect ranking, but the search engines are quite secretive about their methods. Maybe I'm just incredibly confused :o
.....

I may be responsible for this false idea, phrasing my earlier comments carelessly. Araich gave a better reply on this issue. Click-throughs or simple visits probably have NO effect on your site’s ranking by a search engine. What I meant by my general comment on a site’s “activity” was the number and quality of links to your site from other sites. Links from “good” sites DO typically raise your ranking in the search postings. He made that point very well.

Also, at least Google has changed its listing priorities within the last six months or so. About that time, someone told me they were “very impressed” with a search on my name, plus “sculpture”. Naturally, I was curious enough to do a search myself, and I found maybe a half-dozen odd references mixed with much else, but nothing especially impressive.

I’m not going to say things are more impressive today, but a Google search for “fritchie” + “sculpture” a day or two ago turned up: first, my summary page on this site with recent postings, and then newspaper reviews of a show from about 4 - 6 years ago, and so on, down to my local university’s weekly newspaper, with an article from the time of my retirement in 1996, saying I hoped to spend more time with sculpture.

Obviously, that is a personal example, but it does show what general-interest publications say about the engines: (1) They update their methods frequently, to improve them and to fend off manipulation; and (2) they give extra weight to “reputable” sites such as this one, local newspapers, and university publications.

On the depressing side of this equation, I repeated several versions of searches I have conducted periodically over the last 8 - 10 years or so, for combinations of sculpture, figurative/realistic, bronze, and so on. Results are in the thousands or tens of thousands, with nothing of quality rising even close to the top.

This doesn’t auger well for any professional artist’s individual site.

[obseq]

"there probably is something more annoying than being interrupted while on the way into someone's website with slow loading flash nonsense that breaks up into meaningless fragments and wanders aimlessly around the screen dragging its chunky tails behind, then recombines and asks if I want to enter the website------------"not anymore" I think as I move the cursor over the x and click the crap away.

if it doesn't support the material in a meaningful way, it is just a distraction.

so why do it?"


Rod (and some of what Julianna added),

What you described is the instance of happening upon poor design skills by the author and not something that holds true every single "Flash" site.

Your last sentences can easily describe a very good portion of bad art being made. Bad art can contain just as much fluff and filler as a tedious Flash intro....So, I ask, "....why do it?"

I still maintain that these sorts of programs are an effective media design tool when like any other discipline or skill, being guided by capable hands and eyes. I do agree that some examples are less than stellar and would drive many to self-defenestration but you are only talking about poor showings and not the tool itself.

[ExNihiloStudio]

The web is such a powerful way to communicate to many people scattered over a wide geography that it’s worth having a simple page. Since it might be the only face some people will see of you, it’s worth getting some basics right. I don’t think any of the so-called free hosting is really free. If you have to keep someone else’s advertising on your page, you are working for the hosts by delivering an audience to them. This is in direct conflict with the primary mission of the webpage, which should be to show the world what you do. So-called free webpages usually have a convoluted and cryptic URL address that has nothing to do with your site’s content. You can solve all of this by purchasing your own URL and space on a host’s server, and it’s not expensive. Mine costs $50 per year, and I didn’t look far to find the deal.

I think an artist’s webpage should be a vehicle to present his work, and as such should be understated and not call undo attention to itself. Elaborate animation may create the impression that the artist’s primary medium is computer code, but declaring a ban on Flash would be dogmatic because I’m sure a good designer could use Flash or other animation to create an elegant and understated webpage to present the work.

I treat my webpage like a portable portfolio. I can give my card to folks I meet, and they can download the page when they get home. I keep in touch with people using the webpage. Sometimes I use my rented server space to host files for others to download that are not linked to my main page. At that level it’s very effective. In my opinion search engine rankings and traffic only feed the ego. It’s the personal connections that a webpage can help maintain that really counts.

[Julianna]

I still maintain that these sorts of programs are an effective media design tool when like any other discipline or skill, being guided by capable hands and eyes. I do agree that some examples are less than stellar and would drive many to self-defenestration but you are only talking about poor showings and not the tool itself.

(and some of what Mark said)

Good point...The majority of what I've seen done with Flash are those, well, flashy opening sequences which play before one can get to the website. I guess it's like the difference between a well-designed java-based website and one which simply makes use of every single java applet available :D

[obseq]

(and some of what Mark said)

Good point...The majority of what I've seen done with Flash are those, well, flashy opening sequences which play before one can get to the website. I guess it's like the difference between a well-designed java-based website and one which simply makes use of every single java applet available :D



And another good point on your end.

Designers/programmers, in poor examples of websites/cd-roms, feel compelled to inundate the spectator with an over-saturated foray into sensory overload.

You mentioned CD-roms in a prior post and this was something I meant to expand upon. I think these are a great substitution for business cards. As long as the program supports an internal projector or movie-player, the recipient does not need to worry about waiting for anything to load. Provided the programmer ensures cross-compatibility between MAC/PC and any bugs, these are truly plug-and-play portfolios

[Julianna]

And another good point on your end.

Designers/programmers, in poor examples of websites/cd-roms, feel compelled to inundate the spectator with an over-saturated foray into sensory overload.

You mentioned CD-roms in a prior post and this was something I meant to expand upon. I think these are a great substitution for business cards. As long as the program supports an internal projector or movie-player, the recipient does not need to worry about waiting for anything to load. Provided the programmer ensures cross-compatibility between MAC/PC and any bugs, these are truly plug-and-play portfolios

Agreed :)

An integral player for a flash-based presentation is probably the way to go with distributing samples of work. Although we're probably still a long way from that being a standard, seeing as how galleries and the like are still very reluclant to accept any digital media.

[Buster]

I know this is an old topic, but I'm a new member so thought I'd add a few observations here.

Several years ago I was in the same situation as you Matt. Wanted a web site presence, but didn't have the funds to pay someone to make a site for me so I chose to try to make one myself. I started with Netscape Navigator which was free, very easy to learn, and no html knowledge required. Then I progressed to Microsoft Front Page (still very user friendly) and now also use Dreamweaver and still don't know much HTML but was able to make what I think is a fairly professional looking web site, although I'm sure it still can be improved upon.

Which brings up another point - I see so so so so many really awful artist websites where the work is good, but such an unprofessional web site really affects the viewer's impression of the art in a negative way. Sort of like having a beautiful house with bad landscaping and it detracts from the work. In my opinion, it would be better to pay someone to make a decent site for you rather than display your work unprofessionally. Free Yahoo sites are one option, but to me (not trying to be cruel), that still says amateur.

As for domain names, web space, and search engine submittal:
I bought a domain name ($7 per year) from registerfly.com
My ISP provider provides 60MB of web space that is part of my Internet service. I redirect the domain name to the URL of my main page that I keep on my ISP server.
For search engine submittal, I just used AddMe.com which is a free service that submits your URL to the major search engines. Be sure to add Meta tags to your pages and they will soon show up. It didn't take long and mine has been showing up somewhere on the first 2 pages of google ever since. Also adding your site to artist directories will get it listed in the search engines. The site now gets around 800 - 1000 hits per month and 75% of my art income comes directly from having a web site out there.

Anyway, hope that helps and best of luck to you getting things rolling.

[Buster]

Two last tips, get yourself listed at DMOZ (http://dmoz.org/) but wait until your site is in good shape. In 2-3 months it will propagate to the Google Directory (http://www.google.com/dirhp?hl=en) and last, avoid joining any large general link pages or databases.

One last note about DMOZ. That is a good place to get listed, but realisticly, don't expect to get listed there any time soon. I submitted my URL to them and it literally took over a year and a half before it was actually listed for the first time and I have heard similar stories from others. Even then, they send no notification that it was ever listed - it just starts showing up in your site statistics referrals list. The good thing is, once it's listed, the directories that feed from their main listing will start to display it too. I guess they get so many listing requests that they are that far behind.

[icreate]

Many years ago I did my own first site using HTML. I did a search for easy online lessons in HTML and found a forum to post all of my questions. IT took some work, but I did it. However wysiwyg ( pronounced wizzywig) or what you see is what you get, is easier. With wysiwyg you don’t need to know code. Look wysiwyg up on the interent with the words free and see what comes up.

The software that I use now to do my web site is Dreamweaver. Oh yes I failed to mention that 7 years ago I married a computer geek who knows a lot about this sort of thing. He has redesigned my web site.

I got one of those free or discounted sites at first, years ago, but then I did not have my own url (web address) but something attached to someone else’s. Ie www.art_studios.com/b.mongeon.html. (My husband and I bought the url art_studios, years ago, wanting to make a site where people like yourself could have work but we have not done anything with it yet. )

There are advantages to having your own url (web address). For one thing you don’t have to worry about if you change servers, your address goes with you and clients can find you. And the cost is only 35 a year, for your own url, contact network solutions. Hosting your site is cheap, after you have a url and a design. We just switched over to wt.net for 9.00 a month. There are bunch of bells and whistles with their hosting, ie many e mails, and scripts. WE were with xo communications but the package we had was old and they were weaning us, so we switched. We have been planning on it for over a year. I am ecstatic, because now I can put a forum on the site as well as a blog and other items that I have been waiting for.

Once you learn how to use the site and update your site it will grow. Mine started with just a few pages and is huge now. Bigger than anyone can see, that is why I really need to update it. I have recently added the weekly updates about the newsboy sculpture http://www.creativesculpture.com/texaspress.html If you think yours will grow, then you might want to google site management software, though I think the package with wt net offers it.

I know a ton of ways to promote your site and I write articles on this quite a bit. Marketing and promotions were my background before sculpting. There is more to share than I can in this small post. Here is a place to start. http://www.selfpromotion.com/ This guy offers the services free, though I send him a $5.00 pay pal each year. There is so many things on this web site, and once you register he will submit your site regularly. Be sure to read all of his article on promotion of your site. You will learn tons.

Links – link to everyone that you can. The more links you have the better your standing in the search engines.

One more thing you might want to subscribe to site pro news it is a newsletter geared to publicist but they send a lot of useful information marketing your web site.

Good luck. Once I get my site over to the new server and tweeked a bit I’ll be putting up regular marketing articles for artists. Subscribe to my newsletter to be sure you know when that happens.

Bridgette

ps I get all my work from my web site!