Dustin Posted December 19, 2016 Share Posted December 19, 2016 I am at the point where I need to create a good portfolio website. I'd ideally like one with a very minimalist theme and the ability to either host or embed video content. I have viewed and started making pages on the following sites: wix, weebly, square space. Would it be best to buy a domain name from something like godaddy or should I buy from the website builders? Trying to do this on the cheap and keep costs around $20 for the year if that is possible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted December 20, 2016 Author Share Posted December 20, 2016 Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinegain Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 Either with one of these hosts or my personal fav registrar: dynadot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cary Knoop Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 6 hours ago, Dustin said: I am at the point where I need to create a good portfolio website. I'd ideally like one with a very minimalist theme and the ability to either host or embed video content. I have viewed and started making pages on the following sites: wix, weebly, square space. Would it be best to buy a domain name from something like godaddy or should I buy from the website builders? Trying to do this on the cheap and keep costs around $20 for the year if that is possible! You could start with YouTube, which is free or get a Vimeo Plus account for a monthly fee and with Vimeo Pro you can make portfolios and have other options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted December 20, 2016 Author Share Posted December 20, 2016 Well I guess if I want a .com domain and enough bandwidth for videos I will just have to pay $100 at one of these sites. Might go the Wordpress route as I've had a wordpress site last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaylee Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 tumblr is free and super flexible and theres lots of great minimal themes i just have a url i bought that i use for my tumblr page, so myart.tumblr.com is also myart.net *i* like tumblr but its not for everybody lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkyou86 Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 11 hours ago, Dustin said: I am at the point where I need to create a good portfolio website. I'd ideally like one with a very minimalist theme and the ability to either host or embed video content. I have viewed and started making pages on the following sites: wix, weebly, square space. Would it be best to buy a domain name from something like godaddy or should I buy from the website builders? Trying to do this on the cheap and keep costs around $20 for the year if that is possible! Buy a domain name for 10 bucks at name.com. Register @ tumblr, create a new blog, point your domain DNS to tumblr, add a free theme, bummm! you're done. Here's mine. Davey and kaylee 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Sewell Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 Whatever hosting option you choose, if you're looking to keep your costs so low, you'll have to embed your videos rather than host them yourself - $20/year doesn't buy a whole load of bandwidth (and you should avoid hosts who tell you that it will). Dustin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted December 20, 2016 Author Share Posted December 20, 2016 7 hours ago, Tim Sewell said: Whatever hosting option you choose, if you're looking to keep your costs so low, you'll have to embed your videos rather than host them yourself - $20/year doesn't buy a whole load of bandwidth (and you should avoid hosts who tell you that it will). Right that's what I figuered. I'm still trying to figure out the best option. I was thinking of using bluehost for their Wordpress integration as I've used them before...but I made a mock up site on Wix and their pre-made sites actually look exactly like I'm wanting already without having to do any work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted December 20, 2016 Author Share Posted December 20, 2016 14 hours ago, Cinegain said: Either with one of these hosts or my personal fav registrar: dynadot. IDK how I missed your response. Great thread already. Apparently the awesome looking wix site I designed will be too expensive for me. Might go with Wordpress still as it may end up being cheaper...not sure yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff CB Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 Medium is a fantastic free site as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat Mayer Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 Use Wordpress and buy a theme which is almost exactly how you want it to be from Theme Forest. Only choose themes made in past year with at least 20 4.5 star overall reviews. Embedding videos is much easier and it will boost the video rankings on Vimeo or Youtube. Buy your domain name from internet.bs (avoid GoDaddy they will hammer you with unnecessary addons). Host it with Hostmonster if in US or Vidahost in UK. Cheapest package is fine. Actually the domain name may be free with the hosting. Use Tinypng to compress photos or the plugin SmushIt if you want to batch compress. There is also ImageOptim app on Macs for jpeg. Page speed is a big ranking factor for Google. Dont buy any spam links or it will get banned or penalised in Google. Join Google Analytics and Search Console to help get the pages indexed in Google, get advice and see visitor statistics. Join Google My Business Local if you want local clients or Brand if not. Make sure the category is right, then get a couple of reviews and it can be a short cut to the top with the Google Maps listings. This is my first post on here where I am an expert, usually feel like a noob. Dustin, Geoff CB, kaylee and 6 others 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted December 20, 2016 Author Share Posted December 20, 2016 2 minutes ago, Mat Mayer said: Use Wordpress and buy a theme which is almost exactly how you want it to be from Theme Forest. Only choose themes made in past year with at least 20 4.5 star overall reviews. Embedding videos is much easier and it will boost the video rankings on Vimeo or Youtube. Buy your domain name from internet.bs (avoid GoDaddy they will hammer you with unnecessary addons). Host it with Hostmonster if in US or Vidahost in UK. Cheapest package is fine. Actually the domain name may be free with the hosting. Use Tinypng to compress photos or the plugin SmushIt if you want to batch compress. There is also ImageOptim app on Macs for jpeg. Page speed is a big ranking factor for Google. Dont buy any spam links or it will get banned or penalised in Google. Join Google Analytics and Search Console to help get the pages indexed in Google, get advice and see visitor statistics. Join Google My Business Local if you want local clients or Brand if not. Make sure the category is right, then get a couple of reviews and it can be a short cut to the top with the Google Maps listings. This is my first post on here where I am an expert, usually feel like a noob. So it looks like in terms of cheap I will be using a YouTube account since I get unlimited uploads. I wish there was a way to embed videos from google drive but apparently that isn't possible. Lame. Not quite sure I will use Wordpress but I found a few cool looking sites on theme forest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cary Knoop Posted December 20, 2016 Share Posted December 20, 2016 1 hour ago, Dustin said: So it looks like in terms of cheap I will be using a YouTube account since I get unlimited uploads. I wish there was a way to embed videos from google drive but apparently that isn't possible. Lame. What is wrong with YouTube? You can upload videos for free and they encode it in various resolutions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Posted December 21, 2016 Author Share Posted December 21, 2016 7 hours ago, Cary Knoop said: What is wrong with YouTube? You can upload videos for free and they encode it in various resolutions. Oh nothings wrong with youtube...I was just a little pissy that I had to reupload videos from my hard drive rather than use google drive. (Maybe it's because I didn't have google drive installed on my computer but oh well!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat Mayer Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 Just sync Drive to your PC. I use it just like any other folder for all documents and graphics. Everything I have is on Drive (except videos), its amazing because as soon as I make a document it can be seen and edited by someone on the other side of the world or I can grab my notebook and continue it or print it elsewhere. If on Windows you can add desktop icons. Plus you never have to press Save ever again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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