hello fellow fusing lovers,
I would like to find a reasonably priced webhost, one that offers very nice templates, good service and the ability to have a shopping cart at a later date. There are sooo many out there- any of you using a host you are pleased with???
and thanks for being such a great group of folks- met many of you at WGW- it was terrific to be with so many with this shared passion!
Thanks,
Bonnie
creating a website
Moderator: Brad Walker
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Bonnie Rubinstein
- Posts: 213
- Joined: Sun May 04, 2003 9:04 pm
- Location: River Falls, WI
creating a website
Bonnie Rubinstein
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Barbara Muth
- Posts: 382
- Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2003 8:10 pm
- Location: Washington DC Metropolitan Area
- Contact:
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Bonnie Rubinstein
- Posts: 213
- Joined: Sun May 04, 2003 9:04 pm
- Location: River Falls, WI
Hi Barb,
I have some questions about Godaddy.com.. I couldn't reach your email address- comes up as 'undeliverable'..
do they help with setting up the site? do they good with technical support?
I have other questions.. feel free to contact me at ecosource@pressenter.com
thanks!
Bonnie
I have some questions about Godaddy.com.. I couldn't reach your email address- comes up as 'undeliverable'..
do they help with setting up the site? do they good with technical support?
I have other questions.. feel free to contact me at ecosource@pressenter.com
thanks!
Bonnie
Bonnie Rubinstein
Bonnie,
Reasonable is a relative term.
I use http://www.intent.net as my isp and it is great and I think very resonable since I've got two sites hosted there. Dee Janssen, who's on this board, does the back end of my sites and I do the front end & design.
Why not email Dee and ask her about her rates.
There is someone in the classifieds too, did Marty Kremmer's site plus some others and the site is beautiful.
Regardless of whom you choose make sure to put advertising and promotional expenses into the mix.
good luck,
Sara
Reasonable is a relative term.
I use http://www.intent.net as my isp and it is great and I think very resonable since I've got two sites hosted there. Dee Janssen, who's on this board, does the back end of my sites and I do the front end & design.
Why not email Dee and ask her about her rates.
There is someone in the classifieds too, did Marty Kremmer's site plus some others and the site is beautiful.
Regardless of whom you choose make sure to put advertising and promotional expenses into the mix.
good luck,
Sara
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Paul Tarlow
- Posts: 344
- Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2003 4:06 pm
- Location: Helios Kiln Glass Studio - Austin
- Contact:
Re: creating a website
The good hosts that are reasonably priced inevitably become popular and the companies ultimately become greedy, jamming too many sites onto a single server.Bonnie Rubinstein wrote:hello fellow fusing lovers,
I would like to find a reasonably priced webhost, one that offers very nice templates, good service and the ability to have a shopping cart at a later date. There are sooo many out there- any of you using a host you are pleased with???
and thanks for being such a great group of folks- met many of you at WGW- it was terrific to be with so many with this shared passion!
Thanks,
Bonnie
If you don't want to switch hosts every 12-18 months then go for a middle tier vendor. It is pretty hard to find anyone who is in the under $30 per month bucket and has happy customers who have been using the service for more than a year.
Don't look for the host to provide templates -- you are better off with Front Page or something like that (make sure the host supports Front Page extensions -- most, but not all, do).
Also, not all shopping cart software is equally capable or equally difficult to set up. Unless you know exactly what you want/need for a feature set then the fact that a host advertises shopping cart software doesn't mean it will work for you.
Online commerce, done right, isn't cheap and it isn't easy.
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Brad Walker
- Site Admin
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- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2003 9:33 pm
- Location: North Carolina, USA
- Contact:
For both this website and for warmglass.org, I have used a host named OLM for about the last two years. All things considered, I am satisfied with their service (they're the third host I've used, and by far the best of the three). For small websites, they are quite reasonable (around $10/month for very small to $30/month for a bit larger) -- they manage the traffic problem Paul alludes to by very strictly adhering to bandwidth requirements. What this means is that you are allowed a certain amount of traffic per month and if your demand exceeds that amount you must pay extra. That means a high volume site can cost considerably more than $10 to $30/month, but if your site is low volume (and I suspect most are), it's reasonable and the service is generally acceptable.
The downside is that they don't hold hands much, and you have to figure out how to set things up more or less on your own. (They have help manuals and sitebuilder software and all that, but you have to train yourself or pay someone to do it for you.) They have lots of features, such as shopping carts, that can be added in the beginning or at a later time (though of course these cost more).
All in all, I'd recommend OLM for someone who's looking for reasonable service at a reasonable price, so long as you're willing to do some work of your own. Contact me directly if you have more questions about what's entailed.
Their website is http://www.olm.net
The downside is that they don't hold hands much, and you have to figure out how to set things up more or less on your own. (They have help manuals and sitebuilder software and all that, but you have to train yourself or pay someone to do it for you.) They have lots of features, such as shopping carts, that can be added in the beginning or at a later time (though of course these cost more).
All in all, I'd recommend OLM for someone who's looking for reasonable service at a reasonable price, so long as you're willing to do some work of your own. Contact me directly if you have more questions about what's entailed.
Their website is http://www.olm.net
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zino vogiatzis
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 5:39 pm
- Location: maryland
- Contact:
I designed Marty Kremer's web site, thank you very much for the compliment Sara.
I wrote on choosing a web hosting provider in the Jul 03 issue of Crafstreport. I usually recommend hosting at around $20/mo with well known national providers for reliability and support.
An inexpensive one that I have used (so far so good) for my volunteer work is http://www.icdsoft.com loaded with features you will never need - but no live support, no templates (=cookie cutter site, btw)
Also check some ratings, features, pricing here
http://www.webhostingratings.com
In any case you get what you pay for, you can change providers any time.
Forget about e-commerce, many business people think you put up a shopping cart and visitors start buying, it's not gonna happen, it's very tough - I'll write about it in Craftsreport some time early next year. Never mind the technical and administrative requirements as Paul mentioned above.
I hope this helps
zino vogiatzis
zv@alexanderconsulting.com
I wrote on choosing a web hosting provider in the Jul 03 issue of Crafstreport. I usually recommend hosting at around $20/mo with well known national providers for reliability and support.
An inexpensive one that I have used (so far so good) for my volunteer work is http://www.icdsoft.com loaded with features you will never need - but no live support, no templates (=cookie cutter site, btw)
Also check some ratings, features, pricing here
http://www.webhostingratings.com
In any case you get what you pay for, you can change providers any time.
Forget about e-commerce, many business people think you put up a shopping cart and visitors start buying, it's not gonna happen, it's very tough - I'll write about it in Craftsreport some time early next year. Never mind the technical and administrative requirements as Paul mentioned above.
I hope this helps
zino vogiatzis
zv@alexanderconsulting.com
Zino, I launched my first site in 1995 thanks to the foresight of my daughter Elle who works for Sun computerszino vogiatzis wrote: Forget about e-commerce, many business people think you put up a shopping cart and visitors start buying, it's not gonna happen, it's very tough - I'll write about it in Craftsreport some time early next year. Never mind the technical and administrative requirements as Paul mentioned above.
I've been very fortunate that I get strong traffic to my site and it actually pays for itself. . . it can be done although it is very tough and a completely different marketing spin needs to be put on it. My advertising budget to keep people coming to both sites is large.I'd like to add to what you're saying that if someone were to launch a site this site needs to be used as a showcase for information as Marty does, or if one were to want to sell on-line then a secure server and credit card acceptance is really manditory. I probably only get .5% of my orders with an off line order.
Even with my concentrated efforts I have only been overwhelmed one time with web sales and that was when I sent out a mailing to my 2000+ list of interested persons, yikes although that only happened one time, hummm, maybe it's time to do another e-mailing.
Your articles are informative and well placed,
Sara
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zino vogiatzis
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 5:39 pm
- Location: maryland
- Contact:
Sara,
I had in mind someone in Marty's category, I agree, it depends on your business, if you are an established artist/business with relatively inexpensive items then not only it makes sense to go with e-commerce, it's recommended. You simply have made it easier for your customers to do business with you, and cheaper too. You are not fortunate, you made the right business decision.
If you are relatively new or selling something pricey e-comm is a no starter in my view. And yet there are artists out there that have items worth a couple of thousand $ with "place in cart" buttons and "quantity" boxes next to them.
And yes, everything must be working perfectly and securely and all your customer service policies must be clear.
zino
zv@alexanderconsulting.com
http://www.alexanderconsulting.com/dv.htm
I had in mind someone in Marty's category, I agree, it depends on your business, if you are an established artist/business with relatively inexpensive items then not only it makes sense to go with e-commerce, it's recommended. You simply have made it easier for your customers to do business with you, and cheaper too. You are not fortunate, you made the right business decision.
If you are relatively new or selling something pricey e-comm is a no starter in my view. And yet there are artists out there that have items worth a couple of thousand $ with "place in cart" buttons and "quantity" boxes next to them.
And yes, everything must be working perfectly and securely and all your customer service policies must be clear.
zino
zv@alexanderconsulting.com
http://www.alexanderconsulting.com/dv.htm
Re: creating a website
hi bonnie, if you are fairly computer literate, you can design a basic site to start and the update the look and add a shopping cart at a later date. as sara mentioned, i take care of the shopping cart and other programming/db requirements for her site as well as full site design and shopping cart needs for several other artists - one artist has a basic hosting account with order forms for her wholesale buyers and a separate website to show her retail work that has a full blown shopping cart built into it. i have 8 sites hosted at intent.net, including sara's 2, and have found them to be as reliable as mechanically/humanly possible. i get excellent tech support when i'm outta my depth. they offer basic hosting from $15/mth to large e-commerce capability for $90/mth. they don't however offer any ready made templates but there are sw packages you can buy that can help you with that or zino or i could help you with the design. think about what you want your website to do for you - showcase your work, attract galleries, let customers know where to see your work, sell retail/wholesale online, etc. if you email me at dee@ucjewelry.com i'll be happy to answer questions.Bonnie Rubinstein wrote:hello fellow fusing lovers,
I would like to find a reasonably priced webhost, one that offers very nice templates, good service and the ability to have a shopping cart at a later date. There are sooo many out there- any of you using a host you are pleased with???
and thanks for being such a great group of folks- met many of you at WGW- it was terrific to be with so many with this shared passion!
Thanks,
Bonnie
D
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Robyn Alexander
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2003 7:49 pm
- Location: Berkeley CA
Choosing a webhost is the least of your worries -- and one of the last things you should do. Designing your own website can be an adventure but if you don't understand what you are doing, it will end up hurting you far more than helping you. A poorly crafted site will detract from your work. Consider how much effort & time you put into finding the right way to set up for a show or finding the perfect brackets for hanging that new piece. If you've never done a site before, chances are good that your first attempt will be like laying your work out on card tables at ACC. Skill, technique and artistic vision will be lost, overwhelmed by that first impression of a garage sale.
Before you waste a lot of time and endure more than a few headaches, talk to a web designer and get a quote. You may be surprised. Whether your vision translates to $500 or $5000, remember to weigh that against your time away from the studio. A good web designer should guide you through the process. What are you trying to accomplish and why? Who do you want to reach? Do you teach? What do you want to use as your domain name? Go back and look, REALLY look, for sites that entice you, ones that make you want to taste the work firsthand. What about the flow of the site? How easy it is it to find what you want? I won't even begin to address the issues & decisions involved in ecommerce
You like those little flying cursors, streaming banners and music? A good web designer will tell you why NOT to include them. They will listen to you, get a sense of who you are, look at your work and your objectives, and then work with you on producing something worthy of your art. They will help you avoid mistakes. Just take a look at http://www.kremerglass.com designed by Zino. Elegant, simple, up-to-date. The fact that Marty's work is stunning doesn't hurt either.
I spent 15 years in high tech designing & supporting web sites for marketing, technical and education groups. Somewhere along the way, I picked up a few non-profit volunteer sites. In the past few years, I have designed and implemented several sites for artist and small businesses, some of which use ecommerce. What will take me 40 hours to accomplish well will take a beginner 160 with lackluster results. It would be like comparing my first fused projects with one of Avery's works of art. Scary, huh?
Talk to Zino, talk to Dee, talk to me.... but please, if you care about your work and you want to taken seriously as an artist, talk to a web designer.
OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.
Before you waste a lot of time and endure more than a few headaches, talk to a web designer and get a quote. You may be surprised. Whether your vision translates to $500 or $5000, remember to weigh that against your time away from the studio. A good web designer should guide you through the process. What are you trying to accomplish and why? Who do you want to reach? Do you teach? What do you want to use as your domain name? Go back and look, REALLY look, for sites that entice you, ones that make you want to taste the work firsthand. What about the flow of the site? How easy it is it to find what you want? I won't even begin to address the issues & decisions involved in ecommerce
You like those little flying cursors, streaming banners and music? A good web designer will tell you why NOT to include them. They will listen to you, get a sense of who you are, look at your work and your objectives, and then work with you on producing something worthy of your art. They will help you avoid mistakes. Just take a look at http://www.kremerglass.com designed by Zino. Elegant, simple, up-to-date. The fact that Marty's work is stunning doesn't hurt either.
I spent 15 years in high tech designing & supporting web sites for marketing, technical and education groups. Somewhere along the way, I picked up a few non-profit volunteer sites. In the past few years, I have designed and implemented several sites for artist and small businesses, some of which use ecommerce. What will take me 40 hours to accomplish well will take a beginner 160 with lackluster results. It would be like comparing my first fused projects with one of Avery's works of art. Scary, huh?
Talk to Zino, talk to Dee, talk to me.... but please, if you care about your work and you want to taken seriously as an artist, talk to a web designer.
OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.
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Tony Smith
- Posts: 1037
- Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2003 5:59 pm
- Location: Massachusetts, USA
- Contact:
I was thinking the same thing myself (except I wasn't laughing)... can you say "faux pas"????Sara wrote: Dear Zino,
I am laughing while I type this yet feel I had to add that I certainly feel I'm in "Marty's Category" regardless of popular opinion
Sara
Tony
The tightrope between being strange and being creative is too narrow to walk without occasionally landing on both sides..." Scott Berkun
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starchimes (Andrea)
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- Location: Dallas, TX
- Contact:
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Jackie Braitman
- Posts: 27
- Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 9:53 am
- Location: Takoma Park, MD
- Contact:
I know I'm a little late in posting to this thread and I don't mean for this to be a commercial but ...
I'd really like feedback from the members of this board on a new service my company (in my other life) is launching. We're offering a shopping cart/gallery designed exclusively for selling art. We'll integrate into an existing web site plus we're developing templates for artist web sites
I'm a "new" glass artist wanna-be but an experienced business owner (I have a software/information company). The offering is a collaboration with one of my brothers who is a painter and has an art school in Charlotte, NC. He and I were talking about some new technology my company was building for another industry and he asked if I would consider extending it to the art community. That was about 9 months ago and after a lot of collaboration with him and his friends http://www.TheArtCooperative.comis the result.
My company (BizMat, Inc.) has always survived on strong customer service. We've built the service to take advantage of fast database technology and new .net technology. So all the images and web content are served from an optimized database.
I agree completely that too many business owners (artists or other businesses) think of the web as a panacea. It's not. It is, however, a nice adjuct to other marketing activities. I have a friend who buys all her holiday gifts from artists who offer online shopping. She gets to know the artist by going to shows and galleries but she rarely buys during the show. She selects a gift when she needs it from the comfort of her home.
Anyway, I would really love feedback on what we're doing. We're still refining the design and implementing the automation so there's still a lot of time for change and improvement.
Thanks.
I'd really like feedback from the members of this board on a new service my company (in my other life) is launching. We're offering a shopping cart/gallery designed exclusively for selling art. We'll integrate into an existing web site plus we're developing templates for artist web sites
I'm a "new" glass artist wanna-be but an experienced business owner (I have a software/information company). The offering is a collaboration with one of my brothers who is a painter and has an art school in Charlotte, NC. He and I were talking about some new technology my company was building for another industry and he asked if I would consider extending it to the art community. That was about 9 months ago and after a lot of collaboration with him and his friends http://www.TheArtCooperative.comis the result.
My company (BizMat, Inc.) has always survived on strong customer service. We've built the service to take advantage of fast database technology and new .net technology. So all the images and web content are served from an optimized database.
I agree completely that too many business owners (artists or other businesses) think of the web as a panacea. It's not. It is, however, a nice adjuct to other marketing activities. I have a friend who buys all her holiday gifts from artists who offer online shopping. She gets to know the artist by going to shows and galleries but she rarely buys during the show. She selects a gift when she needs it from the comfort of her home.
Anyway, I would really love feedback on what we're doing. We're still refining the design and implementing the automation so there's still a lot of time for change and improvement.
Thanks.
Jackie