How to create a portfolio website?

Kube

Not the correct way to make lasagna
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Aug 31, 2014
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Hey peeps:

It may be a little early into my mapping experience for me to do this, but I'd like to set up a digital portfolio site showcasing some of my work. I have extremely minimal experience with html programming, wouldn't be able to pay for a domain, and really don't want a wix.com scroll banner on the bottom of my page. Are there any great, free services you would recommend for me to look into? Also, is there anything in particular that I would benefit from showcasing on th site? Thanks in advance!

Oh, and one more thing, I'd be very happy if I could find some WordPress plugins that would require little to no HTML or manual programming and formatting. I looked into Crash's site (which uses WordPress), and it looks fantastic!

-KubeKing4556
 

Freyja

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Jul 31, 2009
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There are a few options.

There's the "processional style" template sites that manage the domain/coding for you, like Carbonmade, it's probably good enough but your portfolio ends up looking really similar to everyone elses.

Sites like wordpress also can host for you using a subdomain, you get lots and lots of templates to choose from and it lets you upload your own. It's probably less suited to a portfolio without lots of tweaking though.

Personally, I think building your portfolio is half the fun, and html/css is a great skill to have :D
 

Crash

func_nerd
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Mar 1, 2010
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My site is entirely free Wordpress template work and plugins. I'm not web design nerd, so I went with what I could.

Also, it's not exactly a "portfolio" site so much as just a place to collect my stuff. Which I guess could be considered a portfolio site, but I'm not thinking of it that way.

That sounds boring and professional.
 

killohurtz

Distinction in Applied Carving
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Feb 22, 2014
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Weebly has a decent selection of templates and uses a drag-and-drop system for the layout. You can't use a custom domain in the free plan, but it's a pretty good place to start hosting if you aren't confident with HTML.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
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Nov 14, 2009
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HTML isn't really that hard to learn at all. For a site that's meant to showcase a relatively small number of things, you might as well be running a purely client-side setup and learn how to do the fancy tricks on your own; systems like WordPress are usually designed for people who need to keep track of a lot of identically-formatted somethings, whether it's blog entries or events in a calendar or strips in a webcomic, and for anything else just add a bunch of unnecessary guff.

Seriously, I've worked with WordPress enough to know that the fancy stuff on Crash's site was made possible in spite of being powered by WordPress, not because of it.
 

iiboharz

eternally tired
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Nov 5, 2014
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If any of you guys are willing to spill some dough (just as a tip or something) I'm always around to help you guys setup websites ♥
 

Freyja

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Jul 31, 2009
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As someone who just finished a web design degree I can offer my help too, if iiboharz isn't available or whatever
 

iiboharz

eternally tired
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Nov 5, 2014
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Do you have a portfolio of your work?

Unfortunately no, but I can tell you with my word that I do have experience with Wordpress and creating websites on that platform.

My work is more in the line of graphic design but I do web design on the side, basically.
 

3Dnj

Ducks
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Dec 21, 2008
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I made mine from scratch by learning a bit of css and html (see link in my sign)

It's a bit hold now and very static and it's takes time to learn but You can do what you want and it's fun (and not so complicated)

Of course when you need to add a picture, you have to edit the source files.
 
Oct 6, 2008
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Go with WordPress to build it they have 1000's of templates and plug ins. Some templates work better than others on mobile devices but you can find both - paid and unpaid :)

Here's mine - a free template with 2 paid plugins (foobox for my image gallery - because I wanted this style - you can run with the template one if you like and the other is my forms to cut down on spam)

http://www.jecphotography.com
 

Micnax

Back from the dead (again)
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Apr 25, 2009
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Just a note, WordPress is a back-end for your site, there are themes/styles you can implement through it and easily make your own if you want to. Very simple to use and manage things and there are hundreds of thousands of themes to choose from. As for actually displaying your portfolio, there are a number of portfolio plugins available through WordPress too, so you can manage your portfolio items into categories and organize them, just like your blog posts.
 

Kube

Not the correct way to make lasagna
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Aug 31, 2014
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I want to thank everyone here for the great suggestions. I think that I'm going to move ahead with creating a showcase website using Wordpress a bit later, when I have some more maps and stuff to show off. I've experimented with the site a bit and it looks to have some great potential for me.