Free Website Builders for Artist Site

 

Having your own artist website is probably the best way to be successful with art promotion online.

There are two options when looking for a place to build your artist website.

 

1. Free website construction services – This is the focus of this article
2. Host your own artist website – This topic will be covered soon in a series of articles. Stay tuned!

Today, we will discuss some various free website services. If you choose to avail of such website builders, please read the very important tip at the end of this article concerning domain names.

 

When are free website builders recommended for artists?

• If an artist is a complete newbie to site construction, they may build one using an easy to setup template.
• Some artists do not have time, or even the interest, to learn how to program html, css, and even how to use the cpanel. So, if this is the case for you, you may want to try one of the services below, which all require relatively little maintenance when setup. 
  

 

Recommended Free to Join Website Builders for Artists

Listed below are some free to join builders for websites and blogs, which artists can use. It should be noted that most are ad free (except Weebly – tiny ad at the bottom) by default.

1. Blogger.com

   
   Many artists are using Blogger as a way of keeping fans regularly updated with their artwork progression. The blog here is very straight forward to set up. In just a few short steps, an artist can be ready for posting.
   
   If you are completely new to constructing a website, then we recommend you start here.
   
   
   • Post regularly and become familiar with the WYSIWYG editor. You may even try to learn HTML by toggling the post to that setting. By regularly doing this, you will steadily become more knowledgeable with the little HTML that is sometimes required.
     
   • Add social network widgets to your blog. Some you may want to consider adding are the Facebook like widget, Twitter follow, and the Google Plus one.
     
   • When you become very familiar with blogging and using the dashboard, you should consider getting a better template. The main problems with default templates here is that many other blogs have the exact same ones. These default templates are also not very search engine friendly. If you are one who wants to know where to find good quality blogger templates for free, please leave a comment below letting us know.
   
   
   Here is some further reading and tips to help you in your art blog setup.
   
   How to Setup Blogger Blog for Art
   Blogging About Art
   How to Setup Feedburner on an Artblog
   
   
   
   
   

2. Weebly

   
   Here are the advantages of Weebly for those artists who are new to website construction:
   
   
   • There is a small Weebly ad in the footer, but it is barely noticeable.
     
   • The Weebly templates are very visually appealing, and the site is very easy to setup. You may create several pages and link them all together, since a navigation bar automatically appears.
     
   • There are also photo gallery widgets at Weebly to showcase your artworks.
     
   • Surveys and contact forms can easily be created here.
     
   • If you later decide that Weebly is not for you, there is an option to download the website which you created, and host it elsewhere.
   
   
   Weebly has plenty of great reviews and is highly recommended for a starter artist website. After you have used it for awhile, you can always decide to transfer the whole site to your own hosting, along with your very own distinct domain name.
   
    

3. Googlesites

   
   
   Googlesites is obviously run by Google, and is completely free with no default ads. The dashboard is relatively easy to use.
   
   It is included here because of the many Google widgets which can be added, along with compatibility with Docs, Google Plus, Maps, and Video. The main drawbacks are the limited template supply, and the fact that the pages are not as customizable as they should be.
   
   
   

4. Webs

   
   Webs is free and has easy to use site creation tools, with tons of widgets. They have over 300 templates to choose from. Photo galleries are available there for display of your artworks.

 

Should you Get a Domain Name?

We encourage you to get a domain name right away if you decide to avail of these free website services for art promotion.

The main advantages of a web address are:

1. A domain name appears much more professional in the eyes of your artist website visitors.
   
2. You will be promoting your domain instead of a Blogspot site for example.
   
3. The internet adress is yours for as long as you keep it.
   
4. In the future, if you decide to build your own artist website, on separate hosting, the domain name can be transferred without losing any of your search engine ranking.

If you need any help on setting up a domain for any of the free website services listed above, please leave a comment.