Free web hosting site?

[Alexandra Hall]

I am in the process of starting my photography business. Any advice on the best free site to create my own website to show my portraits and prices and whatnot?

[scootermcq]

I have used these guys.....

Free Web Hosting with PHP, MySQL and cPanel, No Ads

Only thing is your website is triple w name.webuda.com

[funcrunch]

I strongly suggest that if you are starting an actual business that you use a paid site. It will look more professional to have your own domain name, and you will have customer support to call upon if something goes wrong.

I use and recommend Zenfolio (though my front-end site is hosted with Pair Networks). Zenfolio's professional hosting plans might be out of your price range, but if you are using it for display only and not selling then it is more affordable. They have a free trial so check them out. If you decide to go with them, my referral code will save you a few bucks: DUQ-C5J-MB8

[Alexandra Hall]

Thank you for the advice! I will check out your suggestions. I plan on immediately moving to a paid site with my own domain name as soon as I start earning money. For now, while my clientele is mainly just friends and family, I would like to start with something free. Although I will definitely look into free trials which could serve what I was wanting to do perfectly. Thank you!

[RELum]

Weebly offers some nice choices for setting up a decent portfolio site. Point your own domain name (cost you around $12/year from a place like GoDaddy) to it and you have your site up and running WITH YOUR domain name for hardly any money at all. Weebly will not work well for sales, but it will get you going with a pretty decent looking portfolio setup to advertise your business.

Russ

EDIT: Oh, and it is drag and drop to create your site. You can go in and edit the html and css, but if you don't know much about it, then drag and drop gets you up and on your feet till you learn.

[Alexandra Hall]

Thanks so much! Will definitely check it out!

[mad editor]

I don't know. I don't think I'd use any business that had an obviously free web site. Especially when I know you can get one fairly inexspensively.

[Walkere]

Originally Posted by mad editor

I don't know. I don't think I'd use any business that had an obviously free web site. Especially when I know you can get one fairly inexspensively.

Definitely agree. Altho the average consumer may not be so savvy about how much websites cost, what constitutes a free site, etc... it's definitely worth a small investment.

If you want a purely free website, try Wordpress. It won't be the best for a portfolio site per se, but would be just fine for a blog that showcases recent photo shoots and provides info about pricing.

But...

Like someone pointed out above, a domain name is ridiculously cheap. Like less than $10/year. I use Moniker to register domain names, and it's a paltry $8.99/year. When one of my old students wanted to set up a portfolio site I registered the domain name and told her it was the best $10 I ever spent. Really, what is that? A combo meal at Wendy's...?

You can get a cheap hosting plan for anywhere from $5 to $10 per month ($60-$120/year). Granted this is a little higher up on the investment chain than just getting a domain name, but is it really that much money?

You wouldn't think about starting a photography business without a camera and a lens (hopefully). That right there is an investment in the hundreds of dollars (if not thousands). It's tempting to fall into that idea of spending money only after you make it, but at some point you do have to invest money up front.

No risk, no reward. Just keep that risk... reasonable.

[Alexandra Hall]

So obviously I need to get myself a paid site! Any suggestions on those?

[funcrunch]

Originally Posted by Alexandra Hall

So obviously I need to get myself a paid site! Any suggestions on those?

I again recommend that you check out Zenfolio - free trial, and referral code DUQ-C5J-MB8 will get you a few bucks off if you sign up. You can get a plan with unlimited storage for just $50/year if you're not planning to sell photos right away.