Online Presence - Building my Website and Social Media

After looking into various online platforms and looking back at the workshop where we had compared and looked into portfolio websites, it is a little hard to choose the one I feel suitable and comfortable with, though in the end I had personally gone for Foliorop, a portfolio website that looks professional and clean. I had looked into the features that it offers in the free version, the pro version and the agency pro version and it appears the free version offers everything I need to the very least, from custom templates, custom logos to unlimited features. More importantly it allows for a custom domain name which I would want.

Other websites I had looked into such as Wix and Carbonmade, were other potential online platforms I was considering using for my online portfolio, however the aesthetic and presentation on those websites is not exactly my type, as I want a very clean, well presented platform to show my work professionally. Wix comes very close for my choosing, though in the end I decided to go foliodrop.

Foliodrop

Carbonmade

Wix

I had started with the free version first to see everything goes well after a while and then I will consider upgrading to the Pro version to extend on the customisation of my website’s aesthetic to my liking.

The free version only offers the basic black or white template which is ok for me as it does makes things look professionally presented with the colours of white and/or black.

At the moment there is still some work to do in terms of sorting out text, headers, fonts and the limited images I have currently uploaded to the website. It feels empty at the moment due to the lack of original work I have done so far to showcase my skills in digital painting and the type of content I create, though that will take time to produce more work.

Managing the customisation of fonts and galleries were a little confusing at first, though after looking online for video tutorials on how to set things up had made things easier for me to navigate around.

As of 12/03/2017 I decided I want a domain name and have bought my own: “www.tobyleeillustration.com” from the website known as “Godaddy” which I can use, however, I am experiencing problems in connecting my domain name to foliodrop. It was so confusing in managing and connecting it to the website and it felt frustrating. I had pursued online tutorials to try and get it fixed, however I cannot see the outcome whether it works and connects to foliodrop or not as apparently it will take roughly up to 24 hours, which will seriously hinder me from giving my domain name/website to potential clients or viewers, especially for the London Book Fair. As of now it is uncertain whether it works or not and I do not think I will get it sorted in time, as this is my first time handling the online connectivity between my domain name and foliodrop. This is the last step to ensure before my website can go live, though at the moment I would need to wait to see if it successfully connects or not. 

After having doubts about the website whether if it is functioning properly or not with the domain name I decided to speak with Emma, the course technician, to see if she knew anything about connecting domain names to the website. After discussing with her with what I went through, from purchasing a domain name and managing the connectivity between the domain and the portfolio website, she told me that everything is fine and it is just a matter of time for the search engines such as Google to track down my website. We had gone through various steps again to ensure everything is properly done as she has done something similar, and with her experience and knowledge of managing domains and connecting them has me assured that what I had done to get this far is all good. From this point she told me that in order to be more visible on search engines I need to have more people clicking on my website in order to increase its exposure.

Knowing now that everything is done correctly, I will go back to my website from time to time to update it with recent works and information for viewer’s interest, as well as upgrading to the Pro version on foliodrop to gain access to more customisations and options.

In conjunction with my website to post my original/personal works, I already have an account on Instagram and Tumblr/deviantart for various other works (sketches, fanarts and work in progress). All social media accounts are all networked and linked to one another and at the moment most works that are posted are similar (final artworks and fanarts) the only difference there is between them (in terms of posted content), Instagram acts more of a visual diary, where I post on a regular basis (every other 2-3 days) of my works, current illustrations I have been working on (WIP) and fanarts, whereas Tumblr (and deviantart) is more focused on posting final artworks/fanarts. My original website will focus purely on my original works, whereas other social media will contain a mixture and variety between original and fanart content. 

My current Instagram account.

My current Tumblr account.

Connecting each social media account and my website with each other will allow people to navigate between each one, as well as building up followers from each platform if people only have an account on one social media or another. In order to maintain interest for the people who are following me on each social media, I would have to post regularly, which I am currently doing so on my Instagram account. Also, the type of content will need to be consistent as there is a reason why people are following, is because they are interested in the type of work you produce. I am sort of split in between, as I do original works and fanarts (though recently there has been more fanart content than original content as I do these to practice my digital painting) though I am leaning towards producing more original work so I am slowly transitioning from fanarts to original content (in terms of quantity).