My website right now is free...hince all the advertisements. Do you think It's worth keeping and paying for,or should I just delete and start over?I need truthful expert advice.

Well, I have nothing so it's better than mine How do you feel about it? Since you are questioning it I'm assuming you have your doubts.

websites are always a work in progress. Yours has some great shots and just needs a little love.

You can own it outright without and ads by hosting it elsewhere. I reccommend godaddy.com. 3.99 a month, free customer service, your own email account (ie annette @ annettewilliams.com )

it's VERY much worth it to pay for either a template or to have someone design it for you. it may seem like a lot of money at first, but.. in the long run it will pay for itself. if you want to be taken seriously as a professional, you have to have a professionally designed website, that's the bottom line.

I would start over, but I say that in the most respectful way. Your website is SO...SO important to how people perceive your abilities. Let your images be the first thing to speak for you. I purchased my template because it was the one that had the biggest opening image display (without anything else) I could find. I can't tell you how many people have said they LOVED the fact that I had big images for them to see and that the site was clean and simple.

I use BluDomain (man, they're getting popular!), and I think that have some basic sites for as low as $200. But, when you catch them launching a new site, you can have an amazingingly beautiful site that showcases your IMAGES for about $500. I'm sure you'll be pointed to a few other template sites, but I've had great success with Bludomain.

I purchased my current domain for $600 and it was by the best money I've ever spent in regards to building business (which is all by word of mouth for me).

You have beautiful work!

best regards,
michael

hi Nettie,

your content is good, but you need to take those ads off.

here's a suggestion for you...

make yourself a budget. if you are funding your biz yourself, decide right now how much you will invest. put that aside and go for it. keep it simple. you can start wtih a $45 template and a web host that is a few dollars a month. you do not need to invest a fortune in a website to attract clients.

when we started our biz, we said we would contribute our own money for 6 months, and then it had to suppor itself.

write a plan
make a budget

Whatever you do, I think you need to get off of a free site with ads like that - your competitors are showing up in the Google ads, so while you may not be spending money for a site, you're definitely losing money by essentially referring people elsewhere.

Beyond that, your photos look squished to me - somehow they're not loading at the correct dimensions or something.

Honestly, I think you should ditch it. There are a lot of fairly inexpensive templates out there that you could use to display your work well (I think winklet is one that people around here have used), or you could consider amping up your myspace page to display stuff and/or having a blog (note that something like Wordpress could be customized to function as a website; the software for it is free, so it's just a matter of customizing it to display all of your information effectively and professionally, which isn't terribly difficult).




I hope you mean your whole site cost you $600, or did you have to pay that much to get your own domain name? Yikes!

Nettie, you can get a domain name for under $10, hosting for a few bucks a month, and a template for under $100 that will certainly carry you as you move forward.

I agree with Robin - you need *some* kind of plan and budget. Even if it's for the next 3 months. Something to help you focus where you're going.

I'm getting ready to get flamed pretty hard here, I'm sure, but I'd charge the website on a credit card in a heart beat if I had to, and there was no other way to pay for it. Even if I couldn't pay anything but the INTEREST payment for a year, my web site has been SO IMPORTANT to the rapid build up of business we've enjoyed, it's not even funny. This is assuming you have a real service and product to offer the buying public, and it looks like you do. I can't emphasize enough (ESPECIALLY in this competetive industry) how important your web presence is!!!

YIKES! ha ha ...yes I mean site...not domain...that was something like $14.95/yr


Also, Blogger, which is nearly as important as the web site, is... FREE!!!

Nettie,

Good to see another Alabamian on here. I agree with Robin and Kaitlin. You don't have to spend a fortune, but your website might well be the only way people see you, so it's worth investing a little time and money.

1and1 has some excellent hosting plans starting at $1.50 a month, with some excellent free software. They can also hook you up with a domain name, registry etc.

I also use Blu and it has been a great investment...but you don't have to go that route just yet. You can build your own very attractive website with some of the software available from 1and1...that's what I did at first.

Good luck!
Bentley

my suggestion!

I tried several of the "cheaper" routes myself and in the end, I wish I would have saved the money and just went the "blu" route to begin with. It's so much faster to administer the site and it usually looks so much more "legitimate". Also, like has been pointed, you need to log on right away and register your planned domain name. You need an address that doesn't have anything but YOUR name in it. That also gives you a "legitimate" looking email address (there are other ways to get that).

DECISIONS DECISIONS

Check out Livbooks they're great!

They did my site, we've been getting tons of positive feedback from it....

I agree with the others. A good website is COMPLETELY 100% worth the investment.

nettie, your photography is simply too good to waste on that site, lots of great suggestions from the folks. You really dont have to spend a fortune. Mine such as it is cost about $80 including hosting for a year and the choice of lots of template designs. A good investment in anyones book.
steve

Winklet Web Design has some great templates for a pretty cheap price. The one I used to use for my photography and now use for my wife's portfolio and my personal design portfolio is #22 -- the 2nd one down on that first link that I mentioned. If you do happen to purchase a template from them and need help figuring it out, I'd be glad to help as much as I have time for.