Need to build a simple website

[jyl]

I need to build a web portfolio for my daughter. She has done a lot of art, enough to fill a pretty large room for her exhibition this summer. I'm thinking it would be good to have it online so that we can reference it when she applies to colleges this fall.

Needs to be a nice looking site, but simple to build. Not much functionality needed - no forum, comment, transactional, etc. And I will have like 10 hours to devote to it.

Any software or online/blog site you'd recommend?

[slodave]

Check out smugmug or Wix. Smugmug is more geared to photographers, but have templates and such that will work. Wix covers everything with their templates. Free basic sites will need to be hosted through them. Wix used to offer the links for flash built websites, but has seemed to have done away with that, forcing you to keep the website hosted on their servers, even if you pay a monthly. Wix does offer HTML5, getting around the flash issues with displaying websites on iPhones and iPads.

[Zeke]

Oh boy. There are only 10,000 sites for this. Grab your lunch.

For this I'd go strictly on price. Watch out for the domain registration fees. 50 cents for the 1st year can turn into a lot more.

[slodave]

That's why the two I offered up, may work. Nothing to pay - at least with Wix, for a basic site. You won't have your own domain name, but in the beginning, this may be okay. The domain name may read..
Jylsdaughter.wix.com or www.wix.com/jylsdaughter

These are the two sites I am familiar with, like Milt said, they are a dime a dozen.

[stomachmonkey]

Use a service where artists hang out like https://www.coroflot.com or deviantART: where ART meets application!

Do not build a website on your own.

You want a neutral presentation for her work.

If you are asking the question then you do not have the skill set to create something that will present her portfolio in the appropriate manner. That's not a diss, just reality.

You will overdesign it and probably use blink.

Her work needs to stand on its own and that is best done in a bare/blank environment. Just like an art gallery with blank white walls.

If her schools of choice have not heard of deviantart.com then she does not want to go that school anyway.

[slodave]

I forgot about deviantArt.

Scott is correct. In the long run, it ain't easy to build a site.

[Hugh R]

My domain name is through godaddy.com They offer a $1/month for website development. Looks easy.

I'm interested in free or very cheap software to build an easy website. My domain is hosted by a former Pelican friend for free.

[slodave]

Hugh, what you describe is dead simple.

[Hugh R]

OK, any recommendations on software? I don't mind paying godaddy.com $12/year, but do you have an alternative that is simple? I think I can do it with Word, but I'm not sure. Load a few pages with pics and info on me, maybe a downloadable PDF of my resume. I have a cool hazardous materials spill gaussian plume dispersion modeling excel spreadsheet that I'd like to upload that is interactive. You enter the spill amounts, temperature, relative humidity, etc. and it will tell you how far downwind you are going to die horribly.

[slodave]

I code by hand, Hugh. I have no idea on software. I've been looking a bit for free software that does html5 for my dad, but yet to have found anything that is easy to use.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

OK, any recommendations on software? I don't mind paying godaddy.com $12/year, but do you have an alternative that is simple? I think I can do it with Word, but I'm not sure. Load a few pages with pics and info on me, maybe a downloadable PDF of my resume. I have a cool hazardous materials spill gaussian plume dispersion modeling excel spreadsheet that I'd like to upload that is interactive. You enter the spill amounts, temperature, relative humidity, etc. and it will tell you how far downwind you are going to die horribly.

Get a hosting package with a "Control Panel", c-panel or Plesk.

~$6.99-$12.99 a month.

It will offer a CMS like Wordpress or Joomla as a free automagical install. Click a button, go take wizz, dump or make some coffee and when you get back the install is done.

Then go find a basic free template that you like and input your personal info.

Little bit more complicated than that but not much.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by slodave

I code by hand, Hugh. I have no idea on software. I've been looking a bit for free software that does html5 for my dad, but yet to have found anything that is easy to use.

Yeah, HTML 5 WYSIWYG ain't there yet.

[porwolf]

Check out "Yola". The offer pretty nice temlates free hosting and other benefits. I stumbled on it a while ago and composed a nice functioning website in a few hours without any knowledge of website construction.

https://www.yola.com/

[Brando]

With the GoDaddy $1/year hosting I believe you can do their 0-effort installs of wordpress or other such CMS platforms. Use it to post photos and viola done.

[intakexhaust]

godaddy basic. Ridiculous cheap and fast template setup. For free extra storage and pages, make your links right off the main page to Flickr etc., MS live Office or Gogle docs. You can also use the free vid embed built in... youtube. With a domain might be less than $33 for 3 years.