Hi dakwegmo and marcal,
I do agree with your points of getting a domain setup and paying for web hosting.
But
I still like to use GIMP over PhotoShop for the simple reason that GIMP is free and still provides nearly 80% of the functionality of Photoshop.
Moreover my clients does not (donot or don't, I have terrible English) care if I have edited photos in PhotoShop or GIMP or PICASA or in Microsoft Word
Additionally starting up a business with free stuff makes your overheads minimum if not nil so you can pass that to your clients.
I get a kick in making my own things by my own hands. In future if I feel that I need a professional look to my website, I might hire a professional person to design my website and put it on my own Domain.
Once when one has sufficient clients (high paying clients or abundant low paying clients) one can switch to a personal domain or start using Photoshop for editing
I agree with you 100% on the point you make about professional image and that
dharmit.photography@gmail.com looks cheap and that
http://sites.google.com/site/dharmitsphotography is a cheap way of doing business but what I believe in is providing PROFESSIONAL RESULTS to the clients and they can judge me based on my work and not where I have my website setup and what email address I have. I wont name any famous photographers, but if they have their email address as
Famous.Photographer@gmail.com does not make their work cheap (my thoughts).
This is just my thinking and please dont take it other way as I am just starting. Only time will tell whether I will survive Photography business by sailing on a FREE boat with GIMP and Google or I have to go on High Paying Chartered Cruise ship of PhotoShop and Paid domain.
Please correct me if I am wrong or if I am heading towards a ditch or if I am in the hole that I am still digging as I am just starting on this journey and as is said, I want to make this journey beautiful and not just the destination.
Thanks Again