for those that use wix is it totally free?

I have noticed that a lot of face painters here use the wix. I want to know if you are happy with it and is it free to host the domain or do you pay for that? Thanks

Yes it is, but you have the option to pay for it if you don't want their advertisement on your page.

webs.com is also free (and gives you the option of uploading your own html instead of using templates).... for any of those, you are assigned a domain name unless you decide to pay for your own. Any templates from either site will have advertisements unless you pay to have them removed. One loophole I've found is that if you upload your own html to webs, there are no ads but a small thing at the bottom of the page that says "get your own free website." The main problem that I have with the wix sites that I've looked at is that the templates are all very similar in design, if not colour scheme, and they take a while to upload because of the pictures and animations. They are pretty though.

A lot of people will say that you shouldn't use a free site, but I think when you are just starting out and unsure of the stability of your business, it's not so bad. You can always get your own custom domain name later and pay to have ads removed at any time.

I still use a free wix site & probably will till my hubby is working & not a college student. It works well for me. I've managed to get it into the 1st to 2nd listing in my area.

Actually Perry, you don't have to use their templates (it's just easier if you want a website up in minutes) wix.com has a cool designer tool and you can design your whole site with relative ease. It's highly customizable and I just had my purchased domain point to the wix site so that my potential customers can simply type in my company name without referencing wix at all. I recently upgraded because I didn't want that little "free site" thing at the bottom of my page, but I had it for a while as just a free site before that.

I'm not proficient enough in HTML to construct a whole site with interactive gallery and such, and I really don't have time either. I kind of like the fact that I can click on the type of gallery I want and drag it where i want and simply stick my pictures in it. Site doesn't look like the templates and I change it up every few months with relative ease. www.imaginastic-facepainting.com

I realize that if you pay for a domain name, you don't have to have it show the wix domain name... I just said that if it's free your domain will be one that they assign you. I recently paid for a domain name too so that I don't have to use the longer one from webs (although the site will still show on that site if someone has an old business card).

I don't program in html either, I use NVu which works like a word processor interface.

How much is is to buy your domain name from Wix? I was going to leave my facepaint page attached to my 'real' website, and will leave a page there, but feel I want the facepaint to have it's own site. It's getting large and there is so much more info I would like to put in there that I can't really do without my henna page getting too unwieldly. Maybe I'll put up one of each and see which I like better....

I have no idea... I have mine through godaddy.

Perry, what's NVu? Where can I get it?

Last time I looked, it was like $10. If you use the code president at godaddy right now, you can get one for $1.

I have my Website through Go daddy, my brother manages it but, I also have found that I need a general Website for my art work portfolio reviews. I didn't really want to have to bother my brother to design a page for me and I thought that the Wix thing might be a good idea for that since it is powered for pictures and that I can actually do it myself. But, if was uncertain of how it worked. I mean what do you think add another domain name and pay for a portfolio Website? Or, just to do something free? The people that would be searching the portfolio would be the publishers and small presses that I work with. It seems easier to do a Website rather than send a large file. Suggestions?

It's a "freemium" website, not a free one. The free lures you in, but if you want full functionality, you do pay.

Wix charges ~$10 a month if you want to use your own domain name. I registered my domain name through DreamHost for $20 for 2 years and that hosting site lets me have pretty much unlimited domains and space. My boyfriend is a graphic designer and hosts about 10 domain names through the same account, so it's worth it for us. Through that same domain registry, I can use google apps to host my email so I can access my @thegildedcat.com address from any internet access.

I love wix for the ease of use. I pay the $10. Three other artists in my area use it (that I know of).

NVu is an open source (free) web design program... it works kind of like frontpage. You won't get amazing graphics and stuff unless you know how to do it with the html code, but it has a good "normal view" editor that works like a word processor.

I use weebly. It's free and I pay for my domain once a year.

Psalmbook wrote:I still use a free wix site & probably will till my hubby is working & not a college student. It works well for me. I've managed to get it into the 1st to 2nd listing in my area.

Linda can you give us more info on how managed to get urs 1st or 2nd listing in ur area? that's pretty cool since it is free...yes the name is long but hey it's free, and I love it. so If I can manage to get it up there when someone googles face painting in my area then that would be awesome!!!
Thanks

Simple... It's linked to every post I make on FPF & if you notice... I post a lot
I also Placed my site on Google Maps for free & that really popped me to the top!

Linda ur the BEST!!!!!

I think I am the only one who finds wix very challenging, I swear I tried many many times and I gave up. Whitney recommended webstarts and OMGosh it was so easy, you can drag and drop pictures, etc They don't have a lot of font to choose from and didn't see gallery type function with their free service so I am still going to give wix another try.

Maggie u can do it!

hahaha Thanks Ruth! I swear I am going to try

Maggie, you can always pm me. I don't know everything about wix, but I went about learning how to use it backwards and only discovered how easy it really is by accident, lol.

Yay! Thanks Lady Jade I am in the chat room now but I don't see you there I'll pm you

BTW I love your website!

I've tried too with wix & I thought I just wasn't computer savvy enough to get it happening for me. I spent hours at it will no luck.

Hey Ruth your site looks great.