Blog
Posted on 10/4/2021 10:37:12 AM
By Susan Gainen
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Three Cave Frogs from the Lost Cave Paintings of Saint Paul
Creating a website
Once you've decided that you need a new or updated website -- STOP. Think very carefully about what you want and what you need. Know that these are two different things.
1. What are you trying to do? Teach? Bloviate? (I love that word.) Sell product? Create community? Entertain?
2. Consider your web skills. Are you a Coder? Do you even know what that means? You will find people and organizations that will make your blog for you or provide pieces that you can put together with varying degrees of difficulty. The distance between the two categories is wide and elastic. Beware of anyone who indicates that you yourself can do this with a few clicks of your mouse.
3. Think about how much time you want to devote to keeping your site current. This personal choice relates to the amount of control that you want over how you present yourself and your art, and how good you will be at explaining your vision to your Web Person.
4. Look at websites of people who do what you do. A chef's site will be different from a painter's site which will be different from a writer's site. Consider this a crucial step before you make decisions about your site. Carefully considering how other people do what you want to do may help you define and refine your own vision. Failing to do this will send you down rabbit holes or rat holes, depending on how you respond to frustration.
4. When you have identified sites that you like, find out the vendor that provides the box. Be prepared to understand nothing. You will learn a lot. Your vocabulary will expand. Be careful -- your head may explode.
5. This will cost money -- potentially lots of money. To have someone else do create and populate your site can cost thousands of dollars. If you are not skilled at creating your images, you will have to create a "studio-like" set up or pay someone who can make perfect images.
6. Get ready to tell your story. Everyone's art story is different. Yours may include things that make you happy or sad, angry or motivated, eager to learn, and/or eager to change the world.
I will have a lot more to say about this during the next few months.
