Affordable Websites for Artists and others!Why do I need a website?
What are your rates? You will get more out of your website if it is current, and it's easier to keep it current if you can afford to update it at least 1 or 2 times a year. For many artists, artwork contributes more to the quality of their life than to their bank account. For these reasons, I am charging less than most web designers, $45 / hour, charged by the quarter hour. How much does a typical site cost? The sites below ranged from $450 to $750 for their original setup, and many have been expanded over time. If images are provided, a gallery takes about an hour. www.Biganess.comwww.WilliamRushton.comwww.KaryStickney.comwww.JanEldridgeArt.comwww.LesOverlock.comDomain registration and hosting for two years is an additional charge of about $115. Do you offer other formats? Yes, there's a different gallery format at: www.erikavonzoog.com/erikavonzoog_Scroll_Gallery/index.html Instead of enlarging thumbnails, viewers can scroll right through a long "gallery". Where will my site be hosted? I searched the world over to find a top-notch green hosting company and found HostPapa.com in Canada. They have an annual energy audit and buy back 100% of the energy from a local wind farm, which is then fed back into the power grid. Can I save myself some money and format the images myself? You can save your images as JPEGs 7" high, 72 dpi, with NO spaces in the title ("Title_8x10.jpg" is a nice format). Thumbnails can be saved at 2" high, 72 dpi. What's dpi again? Here's what today's artists should know about "dpi". It stands for "dots per inch" and it is the resolution of your digital image. For printing, 300 dpi is standard. For use on a screen, such as email or website, use 72 dpi. Lowering the resolution will decrease the size of the image, which will make it load into a webpage quickly. If you're asked by a newspaper reporter or gallery director to email a high-resolution image, do NOT email anything over 5MB (megabytes), you risk clogging up their inbox, and bringing their day to a screeching halt. In fact, a high res image is usually between 1 and 3 MB. Typically, a file size expressed in KB (kilobytes) is a low res file, but there are exceptions. The best file type to send is a .jpeg, NOT a .tiff, .psd, .ai, .png, etc. Pdfs are needed in some cases. What makes a good URL? Your name is the best name (URL) for your website. But sometimes, it's already taken! If possible, your URL should be so easy to remember that you can tell someone verbally, at a reception, for example, and they will remember it the next day, even after a glass of wine or two. Reserving your name is a good reason to take the leap and get a website today. What is the best way to get images to you? Burn a disc. Or, 72 dpi images can be emailed, but don't let the total file size of the attached images creep over 4MB. I also have a scanner, but digital images are much preferable. How will my site look different from the others you've made? The websites are coded with CSS, or cascading style sheets, which allow us to change the code for different colors, fonts and text sizes and the changes instantly occur in all the pages of the site. This means that you can easily change the look of your site each time you upload a new batch of images! What about photography? I am currently offering digital photography for the same low rate of $45/hour. I am not a photographer on the same level as local legend Hedi B. Desuyo or Michael Malerba, and I would highly recommend their services for tricky subjects. Do you offer other services? Yes, contact me for more information about artist's books, posters, postcards for Open Studios, labels for exhibits, studio organization and other artists' needs. I have over 3.5 years of gallery arts administration, over 14 years of art experience and a degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley, with design and space planning study. |