Facebook VS. Website

I was just curious if there are any painters that use Facebook as their only form of a "page" for their business? I know not every potential customer has a Facebook account, but a business page can be set to be viewed by anyone, whether they have an account or not.

I paid for my domain name through GoDaddy.com for 3 years, and I pay monthly for my web hosting through Pappashop. It's around $13 a month, which isn't much I suppose, but I'm trying to cut out some monthly expenses. I think my 3 years with GoDaddy.com runs out sometime this year and so I'd have to pay to renew. The biggest appeal is that Facebook is FREE.

Does anyone use Facebook as the only form of Web site? Thoughts on a website vs. Facebook?

I have both, and I can tell you that I get LOTS of calls via my website and have only had one person that I know of find me through my Facebook page. You might try doing a search for your business using different keywords and see how your website places in the listings as opposed to your facebook page.

Also, when speaking with someone it is very easy for me to say "facesalive.com" and everyone knows what to do, but asking for people to search for you on Facebook makes it more complicated, especially for those who aren't familiar with how to use it.

Just some considerations for you. If you want to cut back on expenses perhaps you could switch to a free web hosting service, and just pay an annual domain fee?

As a customer when I am looking for people I look for companies who have an offical website. I will like or follow them on face book but I like to see websites. It is not much with all there free hosting places but it tells me they put that much more time into there Business.
As a professional I prefer the website because there is only one .com with my name where there could be name face book pages. I have found hundreds of ppl with my name on there. Also It looks a lil more professional and I like the facet that my pictures on my page are protected and can not be copied. I use wix for my website. I pay for it but they do have a free verson. THere is also Weebly, Webs, Yola, and google to choose from.

I second Yola it's a great site to host your site on.

I second what Michelle G said, it speaks to level of professionalism to have a good looking, well designed website instead of a Facebook. You'll be able to command higher rates and may get bigger gigs if you look like you spent the time and energy to create a website.
I use Dreamhost: http://www.dreamhost.com/
and Wix: http://www.wix.com/
You can use your existing hosting site instead of Dreamhost with Wix.

My personal opinion is that free sites look free. They often have the host company's logo all over, or various ads that you can't control or a long, complicated site address. To me, free websites look cheaper than a Facebook site, and are usually accompanied by bad font (stay away from Comic Sans!) and poor color choices.
[note: This may also be my opinion because I live with a graphic designer and am subject to his whinging about poorly designed websites! ymmv]

Comic Sans: "The worlds most loved and hated font"
http://bancomicsans.com/main/
When good people pick bad fonts: <--funny
http://youtu.be/ULb_xtz_SE0
The History of Comic Sans:
http://youtu.be/qefD5YHPeEM

Perry Noia wrote:hat being said, I'm a clown, my business is working with kids and I want my stuff to be easy to read and kid-friendly. Comic sans and chalkboard look like the printing that they learn in school. It is familiar and comfortable.

And that is a completely appropriate and rational for choosing a similar font. Many people are locked into Arial, Comic Sans, Times New Roman, etc by the site templates that they choose to use or the program they design their website with but there are also lots of amazing resources for free fonts available on the web as well. http://www.dafont.com/ is one. Note the "ymmv" part of my original post.

Here's my take on why most FP's, clowning aside, should look to different fonts: We're judged on our website as much as our galleries and portfolios for quality of work. Comic Sans doesn't say "take me seriously as a professional artist" and it certainly doesn't command $100+/hr pricing.

Audience is important, so if we're aiming exclusively to the PTA/librarian/soccer-mom crowd who is comfortable with friendly familiarity and non-sophistication in artistic design, then it's appropriate to pick a font that matches that. If we're looking to score big body art projects and move beyond the cheek art PPF events, then it might be time to look at updating the "feel" of our websites to match the artistic sophistication we want to project. The maturity of design should match the maturity of our desired audience. If we want to straddle that line and try for both birthday gigs and larger, corporate or body art gigs, then it might be worth evaluating if the design of your site can handle that.

Whether or not we choose to realize, typography has an amazing effect on how our website is perceived and the "feel" we give people when looking at it. If we want to be taken seriously as artists, the design and typography of a site are as important as considering which pieces to place in the gallery section. For artists that live from gig to gig, we may never know which gigs we do or don't get because some large company thought our site looked like the work of a 16year old in 1995 or it looked like the work of a respected body artist who is aware of basic web trends and who wants to project that updated image.

I know, I'm resurrecting yet another old thread... But I don't see why not...

I use blogger.com to make my website, I use it because I used to be a beauty blogger and I know how it works, it's familiar and I like how it looks.

I use co.nr as my domain, it's free and is easier to tell people: www.littlemasterpiece.co.nr

People ask about the 'nr' part, but it's easy enough to explain.


And clowning aside, Comic Sans... Is something I struggle with... It has it's place, but some people use it religiously!

I use Webs for my site. It is free, and they do stick their logo and crap at the bottom of the page, but I think it looks pretty good. Better than a lot of not-free sites anyway.

I like using Facebook and my website. My website has a lot more detailed information for those who are interested in booking me. I mostly just use Facebook to post face painting pics.

And Comic Sans is terrible. My boyfriend and I both took typography... every graphic designer hates Comic Sans with a burning passion.