What is a website builder?
A website builder is a platform that allows you to create your own website without any specific knowledge, such as coding. If chosen right, the set of tools that platform offers can help you to create professionally looking website within just a couple of hours. Most of those platforms also would have a set of themes and plugins to help you out to build a website that is both visually appealing and effective.
Why is it good for artists?
Creating a website through a website builder is great for anyone who would like to create a website, but particularly who has limited time and resources to put into creating a website and managing it. It will be specially great for artists, as having an artistic mindset you would want to spent your time to create more art, rather than figuring out complex website building process. Plus most of the time it will be much cheaper than paying someone to create website from scratch, and I bet you’d rather spend some extra money for your art supplies!
Sarah Letovsky Portfolio Website Made with Format
How to choose the right website builder?
There are quite a lot of website builders out there, so which one should I choose you would ask? A lot depends on the purpose of the website itself. First of all you need to figure out if your website will work just as you business card or will it be set up like an online shop, where people can buy your art. Once you know that, there other things to look out for such as SEO plugins and customer support. Almost all of them will offer a free trials which will be also good for you to find out if it will be easy to manage.
Should I buy my domain name through the website builder?
There are a couple of different opinions on this case, so lets take a look at all the pros and cons of purchasing a domain name through the website building platform.
Purchasing a domain name can seem much easier when setting it up, and quite often they will offer it for free with you subscription, however only for the first year, and the price for the following years, can be much more expensive than if you would have bought it from a domain provider.
If purchased from domain provider it will be also easier to take your domain with you when switching the platforms.
Do I have to pay for it?
Some platforms are free to use, however you will find them quite limited. So if the website serves you use as portfolio or a business card, that might work for you, however if you a serious about making money with your art, remember that you’re building a business and any business requires an investment. Think of your website as your main asset. Plus as I have mentioned before, lots of them also offer free trials.
Best Website Builders For Artists
Now when you know the main purpose of your website, lets take a look at some options available for you out there.
Website- Portfolio
This kind of website will work well for you if your main goal is to showcase your work. The main thing to look out for in the website builder will be the quality of the templates and how customisable they are.
Mario Radev Artists Website Made with WIX
Here is the list of our favourites:
Emily Mercedes Art Website Created with WIX
Website-Online Store
If you not only would like to showcase you work, but also sell it on a constant basis and create a proper online store offering original art as well as prints, you would need a platform that will allow you to set up an easy store front and a smooth checkout for your customers.
Here are our favorites e-commerce website builders:
You can use some of the websites that we have mentioned before, such as Squirespace and Wix, but one of our favorite for artists will be Shopify, as you can easily create prints of your work on various products with such plugins as Printify, that can be shipped worldwide.
