Building a Good Art Portfolio Part 1: Website Hosting and Domain Registration

Date: July 02, 2009; Discussion: 0 Comments

There are many how-to articles about building websites, but as is usually the case there are few that discuss it within the context of creative works. Building a good portfolio for your creative works may be the difference in getting a low-paying job versus a high-paying one; this is especially true if you are a freelancer. Unfortunately, many artists make mistakes that likely do cost them a few good jobs.

This is the first part of a series of posts that will be about building a good portfolio website, both technically and visually, and how to make it work well for both you and your potential clients. I’ve had many people ask for my advice over time about how to build a nice portfolio, and so I thought it was about time I got around to writing a series of posts on the matter.

In this part, I discuss website hosting and domain registration. The information below is fairly general and would be helpful to anyone starting out, whether they’re building a portfolio or not.

Hosting Options: Types

Front Rack Server, stock photo by linuxgeek from SXC Firstly, you need to understand the technical information concerning types of website hosting, because all are quite different, and one type of hosting may suit you much better than another. While there are others (e.g., clustered hosting), there are three main kinds of paid hosting that you will likely encounter the most, which I’ve outlined below. These are the three that I think people looking to build a website portfolio (and/or a series of off-shoot businesses) should consider looking into most. All prices listed in USD.

Shared hosting is where you share a part of a server (computer used for hosting data and/or providing services) with other people. Good hosting companies will carefully place a reasonable number of your and other individuals’ hosting packages on the same server; “bad” services will try to pack too many people on the same server, making the service slow, particularly when the hosted websites have a lot of traffic or experience a sudden burst of traffic. Good shared hosting is ideal for individuals and small businesses on a meager budget and will be able to withstand small bursts of extra traffic with little trouble. This should work well for most all creative, personal sites.

ESTIMATED COSTS: $6 to $10 per month; $70 to $110 annually.

Virtual dedicated hosting is a type of hosting where one server is partitioned (separated) into several independent parts that resemble fully-functioning servers. (Thus the name “virtual” dedicated.) Each of these parts has its own set of independent features, such as an operating system, and can carry out individual tasks, as though each section is a server itself. Virtual dedicated hosting is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses, or sites that may need a little more than what shared hosting can offer, that are willing to spend a little bit more for (likely) better server performance and most of the time extra customer support features.

ESTIMATED COSTS: $40 to $60 per month; $480 to $720 annually.

Dedicated hosting is where one has access to an entire server, through a hosting company. Administration of the server can be handled by the hosting company, but all server options are left up to the paying customer who is essentially renting a server. Dedicated hosting is ideal for medium to large-sized businesses or websites that expect to get lots of traffic and/or need lots of bandwidth. As it costs significantly more, I would not recommended this for small, low-profit or non-profit sites.

ESTIMATED COSTS: $100+ a month; $1200+ annually.

Hosting Options to Be Wary Of

While the above hosting descriptions should help you a lot in starting out, there are a few things I wish more people would talk about when it comes to hosting, particularly the stuff you should be wary of.

If it seems too good to be true for the cost, it almost certainly is.
Multi-year or even lifetime sign-ups. My rule of thumb is to only get one year of hosting with a company you’re starting out with, two or three years with a company you know and trust, and to never pay for a lifetime plan that in all likelihood you’ll outlive.
For visual artists, it could be a very bad idea to use “pay as you go” hosting plans. I didn’t discuss these setups above, but they essentially consist of customers paying only for the space and bandwidth they are using. This might be okay for creative writers (I still do not recommend it, but your mileage may vary.); however, visual artists, may find their pay-for-the-megabytes plan quickly becomes more expensive than the hosting types above, due to the size of images and the penchant that random passersby have for occasional hotlinking.
Deals where you must register your domain through the hosting company, in order to save on your plan. This does not indicate a bad hosting company in the least, but it is worth paying a little extra to keep your domain name separate from your hosting company. I’ll discuss this later.

Hosting: Reviews and Recommendations

So now that you know the basics, what are some of your options?

I could attempt to give you a list of services here, but really each person has his or her own set of needs, even among portfolio sites. With that in mind, I suggest you use tools and reviews sites, like WebHostingSearch.com and Web Hosting Geeks to find a host that suits your needs and budget.

For those curious, I am currently hosted by MediaTemple, which I have been very pleased with since signing up with them earlier in the year. The service is good, and the customer support has been quite amazing. I recommend them.

Domain Registration

There are many registrars you can go through to register a domain name, but I have to say that I thoroughly recommend GoDaddy. As annoying and infomercial-esque as their interface is, they do have excellent prices, and there are almost always coupon codes to use when purchasing something from them. Annually, I only purchase two things from GoDaddy: the renewal of my domain name(s) and privacy features to keep my home address unlisted. This costs less than $20, all total.

I don’t recommend you purchase web hosting or other “web tools” from GoDaddy. You can find cheaper and better.

Choosing a Good Domain Name

Use websites like Domain Search and Faster Domain Search to help you find out which names are available.
Don’t get a country-specific domain (e.g., .au, .co.uk) unless you want to target users exclusively from that country.
Your name can make a good domain (like this one!).
Shorter is better.
Easier to type is better.
When combining two words, make sure you don’t make any fumbles like expertsexexchange.com, unless you’re wanting that kind of traffic.
If it sounds weird when you speak it, consider changing it. You’ll have to verbally tell people your domain name many times.
Is this a name you can live with for a long time? Once you’ve gotten an audience to come to your website / domain name, it would be good to keep them there.
With creative names, don’t forget your audience. If you’re planning to target professionals “funkymonkey” and the like probably isn’t what you should use.

Summary

By no means have I told you everything, but I have given you a start. An important thing to realize if you are not a geeky person yourself is that though the items you are purchasing may seem quite intangible, they do have tangible, software and hardware bits powering them. When it comes to hosting, you will get what you pay for, and when it comes to domain registration, a little shopping around or coupon-hunting is often worth it.

Excluding your own personal time, these two services will be your most expensive, ongoing costs in owning a website. For most individuals and small businesses, owning a website can cost less than $150 a year. That becomes increasingly affordable, if you profit from your website and/or works. Choose your services wisely.

Stay tuned for part 2, where I’ll discuss website design.

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