Sunday, October 29, 2006

If you do anything creative, and you have been looking for a place for a website or an online portfolio, I discovered something new the other day. Actually, not totally new. I received an invitation to test this website in it's 'beta' mode back in August, but I just got around to trying it. The site is called ImpactFolio.

This is not an ad or even an affiliate link for ImpactFolio. I'll just tell you about it.

The site has several pluses...number one being that it's free right now if you want to try it out. They won't even ask for your billing information. I thought that was very cool. I hate sites that claim something's free, but then, if you forget to cancel it by their nit picky rules, the next thing you know, you've got a charge on your credit card bill. (argh)
You can check out the portfolio I set up within one day - http://www.impactfolios.com/ddixonart/
Can you believe I set that up within one day? It was just a bit here and a bit there, too.

So it's definitely easy for someone who does art or photography and wants to whip something together fast, so they'll have more time for their art. It also wasn't exhausting. If you've ever tried to upload images to sites, you know how you can sit there and just sigh, waiting for the dang thing to upload...and I have DSL. On ImpactFolios, my images uploaded in a snap...I couldn't believe how consistently fast they uploaded.

At the basic level, you can only have four portfolios. I think you get more when you upgrade.
I just found that merging categories, like Portraits of Women and Portraits of Men together, could help get more room. In each portfolio, there seems to be plenty of room.

By signing up for the beta version and helping them work out bugs (and telling them what you wish the site would do), you are rewarded with a lifetime 25% discount if you wish to upgrade either now or when the beta session is over. They will give at least 30 days before the beta version ends, to give you the option of moving your stuff somewhere else or upgrading with ImpactFolios.

If you pay monthly, the charge is $21. A 25% discount would take $5.25 off, making it $15.75 monthly.
I pay $12 monthly for my site on Tripod, and I can have TONS of pages. So if you can handle a sitebuilder and a little bit slower going on the uploading, you should probably try a site like Tripod. Then again, there are good sites you can set up that are totally free ('forever') but are also limited in space like ImpactFolios at the free level. FreeWebs.com is one that I've tried and found it pretty easy. The layouts are not as impressive as those on ImpactFolios though.

Downsides of Tripod are that you can get a domain name to go with your site on Tripod, but if you ever leave Tripod, you will lose that URL that you have worked hard marketing and promoting. That is a major downside.
I have also heard that if you are on a server that also posts porn sites (unless your site is also of an adult nature!) that will hurt your site ranking. I think Tripod does. Overall, Tripod has a better siteranking than FreeWebs or ImpactFolios. Impact folios is new but not doing too bad with their 333,000 or so Alexa site ranking. Freewebs ranks at 340 today. (the lower the number, the better it is ranking, and so therefore the better your site would rank if you had it with them). Tripod is at 438. Hard to believe that Tripod is ranking lower than FreeWebs. (huh?!?)
Geocities.com is at an amazing 39. I never tried them, maybe I should...

Bottom line, if you just need a very quick but impressing looking website for your photography, art, or crafts (even cake designers could use it!) why not go ahead and give ImpactFolios a try, since it's free now...and you'd be locking in that lifetime discount in case you end up wanting to go with them.

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