websites - bluedomain? is it worth it?

[lisa_13]

little bit of a dilemma here.

i'm 19, & freelance photographer. i have a crappy free website right now, but i've been wanting to upgrade it for about a year and i've never been able to afford it. i just did a big shoot so doing something like this right now is possible but i'm not sure if it is worth it.

i'm looking at www.bludomain.com - $100 for them to create my site (i have to add the content but they take care of the rest) then $100 per year to host thereafter.

this is the template for the website i would be choosing from blu:
http://www.bludomaintemplates.com/cleo/index2.php#/home/


& here is my current website:
Lisa Czech Photography


i want to add more information about my rates and having more room for photos would be key...is it worth it? if it's not can you recommend another free website that might be better than my current? i need to get new business cards printed up soon & i want to put my website on them, so i don't want to print them with my current site, then update my link & have to throw out cards.

please & thanks in advance!
lisa

 

[Eco]

I hate flash and think it's a really bad choice for websites........maybe down the road when everyone has better connection speeds but for now it turns people away. You can have flash plugins for normal sites that generally don't take a long time to load.

Have you taken a look at some of the Wordpress themes for websites yet? Within an hour or so most people can figure out how to add page, embed a flash mod/plug-in and add content.

In regards to hosting, $100 a year could be a great deal or a horrible deal depending on what it includes. If they are going to give you plenty of storage space and bandwidth along with 24/7/365 service then it could be a good deal. If it's just hosting with no service (help if you site goes down, database back-ups, etc) then you could shop around and find the same for half of the price.

BTW,
http://www.bluedomain.com <-- are they still in business, the site looks like a made for Google adsense site.

Another thing, make sure you buy your own domain name (URL) don't let anyone buy it for you.

My 2 cents.........don't hate me for hating flash.

 

[lisa_13]

my bad...the website is actually www.bludomain.com (no e)

with the $100 it includes unlimited bandwidth + 3 GB storage. there is free support, and they back up their servers daily. i think there are two $100 sites that are HTML & flash..so on the homepage the viewer can choose which site to load, but those i believe are $150 startup then $100 per year.

also for $15 they will get a domain for you...is that bad?

thanks for the response

 

[Eco]

A few questions for them:

#1. Will they instruct you on how to change content (prices, about us info)?

#2. Will they instruct you on how to load photos on your own?

#3. If you screw something up will they help you for free or what is their hourly rate?

#4. Will they add your Google webmaster tracking info to the site for free? (It's a free stat program that is worth having).

#5. What type of hosting? (cpanel is very user friendly)

#6. Can you add a blog to the site down the road?

#7. Any limit on e-mail addy's?


$15 is not a good deal, you can Google for Godaddy.com coupons and end up around $7-$10 per year. Even if they gave you a domain name for free it's not worth having someone else owning your domain name.......your business....your future.

 

[craig]

Take your time and investigate your choices options. For example; SEO is extremely important for retail photographers investigate your hosts compatibility with Googles web tools and adding meta tags and all that fun stuff.

Also keep in mind that we as photographers are not happy with with working for free. Neither are web designers. If you want to make money you should be willing to spend money.

Love & Bass

 

[Christie Photo]

I use Bludomain. I like it.

It's very easy to use... easy to update. There's a control panel URL for your site where all changes are made. No muss, no fuss.

I think $100/year is pretty typical for hosting.

-Pete

 

[NateWagner]

ditto, I use Bludomain as well, and I like it quite a bit. (now if only I could figure out how to change the background on a non-background uploadable site).

If you choose not to host with bludomain they charge 100 dollars, so what I did was spend my first year with them, and then I moved to the other host for the second year. Pretty good deal.

 

[skiboarder72]

I use bluehost and it's been working great. Unlimited bandwidth, I think I signed up for 90$ for two years :thumbup:

 

[bdavis]

All the templates I brought up loaded slow...I would look into photobiz or viewbooks...

 

[craig]

All the templates I brought up loaded slow...I would look into photobiz or viewbooks...

I have been using viewbook for over a year. Excellent service, but does not support Google Webtools or Bing.

Love & Bass

 

[Pugs]

All the templates I brought up loaded slow...I would look into photobiz or viewbooks...

I have been using viewbook for over a year. Excellent service, but does not support Google Webtools or Bing.

Love & Bass

That brings up an interesting question: does BluDomain support Google Webtools and/or Bing?