Some artists prefer to handle only the artist side of things and may arrange for someone else to handle the online sales. But with some time and learning, it is possible to do the work yourself.Some artists prefer to handle only the artist side of things and may arrange for someone else to handle the online sales. But with some time and learning, it is possible to do the work yourself.
Let’s now consider the resources (i.e., time, monetary, capabilities) for the set up and maintenance of the information.
Many free sites have the ability to provide templates and/or run through a series of questions to help build a site one or more pages at a time. Some software packages can automagically create pages with multiple images on web pages.
But if you're looking at a full site with customized shopping cart, it might be beyond your capabilities, so hiring someone might be your best bet. Or perhaps, it'll involve the investment of some web editing software.
And realize that the time involved to set up a system isn't anything like the many hundred-times that is involved to maintain a site over the long period.
I, the Model Horse Gallery Curator, have five active domains/sites. The work involved on individual sites ranges from monthly updates (about 5 hours/month) to "I could do this full time" (MHG; up to 40+ hours/week). Some modifications take longer than others and "cannot" be stopped in the middle; you might need to work 4-6 hours straight on one change.
Perhaps you may hire someone to do the major updates, but take care of the day to day updates yourself.
Pros of hiring someone to do the work: Knowledgeable professional applying years of experience in putting together your site. Getting it right the first time (and/or not dealing with the frustrations of things not working, first hand).
Cons of hiring someone else: Waiting for other person to do the work (especially hard if it's needed "now"). Cost. And the less you pay someone the lower it might be on their priority list. You can’t make constant changes (i.e., tweaking design) as it may be beyond the scope of work, delay completion, add to the cost.
Pros of doing it yourself: Total control, work accomplished on your time schedule.
Cons of doing it yourself: Constant updating can become tedious. Keeping up with all the technological issues of maintaining a web site. Time away from artistic pursuits.
To find someone to work on your site, you can look at websites you admire and see if the maintainer has “signed” the site (i.e., put contact information at the bottom of main page), ask colleagues for recommendations, or make an open solicitation.
To find a professional to do the work, where you're hiring someone locally or internationally to do the work (i.e., outsourcing), you might start by posting to a site like Craigslist, contacting a local college for student help, or searching for web developers. Sometimes designers will “cold call” potential customers. Some professionals may specialize in SEO (search engine optimization) which includes the “embedding” of keywords to help promote your site, and charge accordingly. Hiring a professional can mean up to hundreds of dollars an hour in costs; price may be fixed for initial development, but hourly for maintenance. There may be some cultural and linguistic issues dealing with an outsourced firm.
Some of the questions/issues you might want to discuss with a potential contractor:
In your circle of friends, there may be folks able to set up and maintain a web site. Some offer their services in trade to an artist for the products that artist offers.
Regardless of whether you do the work or have someone else, it is highly recommended that at least monthly (or after a major upgrade) a backup of the site is generated on media (e.g., CD or DVD, etc.). Most domain hosting companies do periodic backups, but if a hosting company goes out of business, or the developer company disappears, you have something in hand to recreate the site.
If you maintain your site, there is probably a copy of all the files on your computer disk. If not, you’ll need to ftp all the files from the webserver onto you computer disk. Once the data is on your computer disk, you can easily make a backup copy by burning a CD or DVD. (See your operating system help for the specifics on how to do that. If you don’t have a CD or DVD burner installed on your computer, you may have to purchase an external drive to burn a CD or DVD.)
You will have to come up with the design layout, regardless of who does the work. This article may provide some help.
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