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Message
Posted
This is probably as good a place as any to post this, since it's not an over-populated part of the site....
My old website is non-functional, for several reasons, though I do still have my Blogger page,
at https://wightpaint.blogspot.com/
In passing, when I worked the word "pornography" into a post heading, partly as a cynical experiment, I got more responses than I've had for years... could make one a little depressed, that...
Anyway: I am seeking a truly idiot-proof website-builder - guide, or person, book, or site, but it's got to be something an impatient, short-sighted, rather depessive old gent could use without losing the frail shreds of his sanity. I can find many advertisements on Google of course, but they're all claiming to be simplicity itself, "best value" (well, they can't ALL be, can they?), and so on.
Your recommendations, if you have your own website and can maintain it, would be very welcome, AND - if you think I really shouldn't waste my time, but just stick to the blog, I'd like to hear from you too. My feeling is that I'm now 73, if I don't do something now to give myself a kick I'm never going to, and even if it means I have to spend some money - well, what else am I going to do with it? (Silly question, but anyway...)
I await, all agog, your recommendations.
Posted
Well Robert, at the age of 70, I found myself needing a website with blog. Take a look at www.tonyauffret.com. Yes it took as little bit of thinking to get my head around things, but not too much. Plenty of options, including standard backgrounds and images, and easy to maintain. You can check out changes before casting them in stone and recover previous versions. 18 months on and no regrets. Don’t want to offend the advertising rules, but the bottom of page 1 tells you which company I went with.
Posted
Thanks Tony, will devote the rest of the week to investigating suggestions, yours being the very first I shall tremulously approach.
The big problem, as I found with the old site, was actually getting people to visit it: I felt like walking around with sandwich boards, so little traction did it get - not buying is one thing, we're all used to sales fails; but just disappearing into the internet ether was a frustration. Anyway - a linked blog would probably be rather useful as a way of pushing the name out there ..... and I'm beginning to talk to myself here! I do that, increasingly - something to watch out for..
Posted
My website is with the same company as Tony’s. (Nowhere near as snazzy as Tony’s!)
I’ve had it about 4 years I think. It doesn’t cost much (£75/yr, plus domain name about £30 every 2yrs.
I find it easy to update, (though I don’t do it often enough), but initially my husband did all the setting up for me.
Posted
Sadly Robert you have hit the nail on the head, ‘How do you get people to visit your website?’. Even more sadly, the answer seems to be that scourge of modern life……social media. You end up with Twitter/X (which I find a dead loss), Facebook (a little better) and Instagram (which I find attracts the most attention). So far, I have held out against TikTok and others. I just get the impression that when people or browsing on-line, the dreaded social media is dredged far more frequently than information seeking via search engines. C’est la vie.
Posted
I get most of my traffic via Facebook. I’ve recently joined Instagram, but can’t get my head around it yet. (Other than linking the two, so I post on one and it can auto post on the other).
As they’re free, I don’t grumble about it.
There are people out there who don’t and won’t use any form of social media. So I keep the (rarely visited) website going as it doesn’t cost too much. You can do stuff like search engine optimisation (add key words) to make your website come up higher in searches (I haven’t done that).
Posted
Depending on how much time you have, it might be worth learning HTML yourself and rolling your own website. This is the best resource in my opinion: https://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
It isn't that difficult and once you have got the basics there are templates out there to adapt. For creative types there is something satisfying in doing it this way, but I appreciate it is not for everyone.
Posted
Rather than spend a lot of time getting used to a different system, you could create a new site from your existing one, Robert. I'd recommend you try following.
1) Backup your old site...download it to a place on your PC that you make a note of.
2) Create a new site on blogger - start thinking of a new name...or it could be wightpaintingtest or something.
3) Import your backup file
4) Play around with alternative templates until you find one that appeals. There's lots of new ones available.
You can then either, reapply the template to your existing site, or, run the two together ( if you don't name it test.)
I use both "B" and "WP", the second of these needs more time to understand.
Posted
Back in the early noughties, I did teach myself HTML and even wrote a rudimentary web site. Yes there was a great sense of achievement, but when you add up all the bits, Files Transfer Protocols, somewhere to host it (though your internet provider may offer that for free), registering domain names (again your internet provider may offer that but it will have their name on it too) and the sourcing of visual materials and backgrounds....when it came to wanting a website for personal promotion the all in one package was hugely convenient. I did also at one point have two professionally designed and hosted web sites with a few bells and whistles, but it did come at a price. OK if the profits will cover it, but for the one man, mainly promotional needs, I have no regrets taking the route I did.
Edited
by Tony Auffret
Posted
Hi Robert,
I have a wix website that I did myself. It's one I pay for and have a domain name I found it a bit of a challenge but got there in the end. No HTML knowledge needed and not a lot harder than setting up a blog which I had done before.There was an easier option on there that I could have done. There is plenty of info on how to do it and videos on youtube and if all else fails their helpline is very good. there is a free version that would be worth playing with first. After a while of experimenting they offered a good discount deal for the paid version. I ran a fundraiser sale of unframed paintings on there for a local charity. The charity had a Justgiving page so the money went there direct.
I have had my webbsite for 2 years and recently upgraded to have a shop and ecommerce but not done much with it yet it looks like another learning curve.
www.tessaspanton.co.uk
Edited
by Tessa Spanton
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