[Jenna]

I want to create a spot for clients & potential clients to see my work, get information, & contact me. I have a business page on facebook now, but due to facebook's evil compression genie, photos don't upload all that pretty. I plan to maintain my FB page but have a site I can send people to if they are interested in seeing more of my work or getting information.

So would a blog be better than a website or vice versa? I can't spend much (free is perfect right now!) & I have a decent website creator scouted. I am mainly wondering about the pros & cons of each & what blog creator would be best for my purposes. I want one that allows me to password protect some content so I can provide private galleries for clients in the event they don't want their whole shoot visible to the general public.

Thanks!

[ValerieT]

Thinking purely as a client, I think a website would be more professional, I would be unlikely to use someone who sent me to a blog but that's just me. The only downside I know to this is cost, it can get expensive to run a website if you have a lot of content.

DH suggests you use everything, with a website being your main "face" of your business. He says get a blog as well, and use all social media (FB, twitter) and use these to direct people to your website.

[Sara Arell]

Jenna, Valerie said exactly what I was going to say, sweetie! A website would definitely be more professional and you would certainly be more accessible with one. You go, girl! You can do this!

[SandiC.]

Yep, I think Valerie has it right. For building your business (yay that you got it started!!!!!) the investment of a website will pay off soon. Can't wait to see it!

[diannecp]

Jenna, you might look into having a website built on the Wordpress platform. It allows the best of both worlds. Wordpress is a CMS system, which stands for content management system. That means that every time you need a change, you don't have to shell out money to a designer. And as an artist, you need that option to keep your site looking fresh, as you develop your skills. You can have a blog as a subpage . . . so if you want to do an occasional post to make things seem more personal, you have that option. They look every bit as classy as a website; in fact, most people will never know. Hundreds of websites are being built on Wordpress these days. Of course, you don't have to do a thing (blog, make changes, etc.) but you have that option. If you IM me, I can give you some more info and point you to some examples.

[anemone1983]

Bringing a bit of a different perspective, the thing I like about blog sites is the subscription. I subscribe to my favorite blogs using Google Reader, so I get a "push" of updates. Weeks, months, and half-years might go by before I revisit a business website, but if you keep an active blog, I'll know what's going on. If you can have the best of both worlds as mentioned by Dianne, you should look at that option, make it easy to subscribe, and keep your blog active.

[AmandaFace]

As a web designer, both.

You need to display what you're selling, but need to engage with potential clients as well.

[Jenna]

I am thinking both is probably a good idea too. Just hope I can keep up with all of it! LOL

[CindyLuWho]

I voted for website, but after reading everyone's comments, I have to say I'd say "BOTH" if given the choice. I was going to suggest WordPress, too, and was glad to see Dianne already suggested it.

Good luck!

[Jenna]

I went with both!

[Smiles]

I don't think you'll be sorry. The best small business website I know has links to her blog, facebook and twitter, and some password restricted content. It also has a webstore.

[Arizona Girl]

I think that if you have the resources, a website with multiple sections one of which being a blog, another linking to your facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram ect, a gallery, contact page, about you page, and then you can add a store or a pricing guide as you grow.

[Arizona Girl]

Arizona Girl, on 10 October 2012 - 01:06 AM, said:

I think that if you have the resources, a website with multiple sections one of which being a blog, another linking to your facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram ect, a gallery, contact page, about you page, and then you can add a store or a pricing guide as you grow.

One more reason its more professional that way

[scrapper11]

Jenna, on 01 October 2012 - 10:30 PM, said:

I went with both!

I'm glad you went with both - can't wait to see them

[ArizonaAngel]

I have a website and my blog resides there. Good luck!

[Ro]

I know I'm late to this discussion, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents to the discussion. When I started Scrap Girls, there wasn't a choice. It was a static website or not. Blogging was not developed enough. But now, the world has flipped upside down and many of the top "websites" are really blogs. People just don't necessarily realize it.

Google treats blogs as websites now. You can have any layout you wish and even make them look like traditional websites, if you wish. There are tons of good templates available.

The advantage of a WordPress blog:

1. Easier to keep it updated and looking fresh. Tired of how it looks? Just change the template.
2. Easier to keep secure - especially if you use a host that specializes in hosting WordPress blogs.
3. Easier to add functionality. You can do almost anything you can possibly imagine in a WordPress blog via plugins. Editing, scheduling, forums, shops, galleries... it is simply endless.
4. Much, much, MUCH easier to add new content.
5. Easy to add different roles - such as contributor, editor, etc. This makes it simpler to scale, because you can easily give appropriate access. With a static website, you pretty much have to give away your keys to the kingdom to get help.
6. Easier to build the website so that it is optimized for search engines.

Blogs do not have to look like the typical "blog" that you associate with personal blogs.

If you create "pages" rather than posts, and link them across the top navigation bar, it is the same effect as creating static web pages.

You will want your own domain, of course. Never use a free blog platform for a business website because then the company (such as Google) owns your blog and could, for any reason, decide to turn it off.

If you are looking for a professional blog template, I can't recommend this one highly enough: http://www.studiopress.com/

The code is clean and the support is amazing.

Wishing you all the best with your venture!