Blog V Website

[mitchcrowle]

Evening to all

At this current point in time, I'm displaying my recent work on a blog that I have set up - I realise that this is not the best way for a designer to share his or her portfolio, one of my short term goals is to have a website designed by the end of the financial year and uploaded shortly thereafter.

I wanted to ask, would this put you off (hypothetically) hiring me as a creative solution? Don't hold back, I prefer honesty even if it's harsh and biting. Obviously there are so many hinderances in displaying my work this way, though the load time and ease of navigation means that I keep pushing the website design down in my to-do list.

Thankyou in advance : )

[mitchcrowle]

Oh, whoops - in case anyone asks, this is the address:

http://mitchellgjcrowle.blogspot.com/

[mike@engagemarketing]

Hi Mitch,
I personally find your blog very effective in combination with the type of imagery that you have used. It also helps as I can read about the process and your principles used on each design.

I still think that It would be an enormous help having a portfolio that can refer back to the blog for thoughts and the process.

Cheers,
Michael

[MissieK]

For me, the biggest thing is the domain name. Domain names are so cheap these days, maybe while you are waiting for your website, buy a domain name and point it to the blog.

There are sites such as www.tildavirtual.com.au that are made using Wordpress, blogging software, that are on their own domain and hosting and look effective. Maybe you could look into something like that?

Melissa

[Jexley]

I second that notion about the domain name and the impression of professionalism. Even if you only pick up a domain name for $12 and point it to your blogspot site, it helps.

And I can definitely vouch for a WordPress site being one of the better options for a budget and such. Same deal, even if you only register the domain and point it, it's still more professional.

Good luck!

[Rachel Reeves]

Yes, I agree as well - purchasing of domain and pointing to the blog is a really good idea. A blog is a great way to keep your website current and in the moment. Your blog does look professional Mitch and the immediate thought when I viewed your blog is that I was viewing a portfolio of your work and the work looks good/professional.

[The Cafe Ninja]

If you haven't seen it already, have a look at Zern Liew's website. He's a designer too.

http://eicolab.com.au/work/

I like the way he links everything together - previous experience, examples of work, blog, etc. I think it's good to have both a blog and website. If you keep putting it off maybe you should just get someone else to build it for you...

[gregpritchard.virtualcio]

Some great work on the website.

Totally agree with the above posters that your own domain will provide a little more credability. Both mitchellcrowle.com & mitchellcrowle.com.au are currently available.

Something that I have to recommend though is: in addition to the domain; get an email address that is part of the domain. e.g. mitchell@mitchellcrowle.com No offense, but I find "joesmith@yahoo/hotmail/gmail" addresses to be somewhat unprofessional. Even if you are the best at what you do, at first impressions, a generic email address puts doubt into people's mind as to how established and committed you are. Its kind of the electronic equivalent of those paper business cards you can get from the machine in the shopping centre. Allows people to contact you, but its incongruent with the sort of polish you are displaying in your work.

Email hosting is easy and relativey inexpensive to setup. For example, once you have the domain registered, http://www.mailtrust.com do email hosting from USD2 per box per month (min 3 - e.g. mitchell@, info@, accounts@).

[LukeH]

I agree completely with all the comments about getting your own domain and email address. That would be the starting point.

One of the great benefits to Wordpress and other similar software is that you can use the blog platform, but it doesn't have to look like a blog. But they are incredibly easy to update, so you can keep your portfolio current and add articles and info all the time. There are both image and SEO benefits compared to having your site hosted at Blogspot.

[tier1onlinestrategies]

Hi Mitch,

In the blog vs static website debate there are 2 main things to consider:

1. Google loves fresh content
2. Viewers have a certain image in their minds of what a website should look like.

From an SEO perspective, a blog is a great tool. The content is syndicated via the automatic RSS feed and you can target as many keywords as you like for your particular niche. You can also tie your blog posts in with other social media to create a massive amount of content and page rank.

A static site is still worth having to placate fickle viewers, so I recommend you do both. With a blog at your site (preferably as a subdomain), Google will eat up all that new content and reward your main domain (i.e static site) with higher rankings.

On both sites, the key is to have relevant content to your keywords, so when a viewer does click your listing, they find what they are looking for and continue to use Google as their primary search engine.

Regards,
Matt