Your professional opinion on Free Websites for Photographers.

<p>First, I am brand spanking new to Photo.net, this is my first post and I'm sure it might be in the wrong forum but, here it goes:</p>

<p>I have had a website, www.Vividvisionz.com, for 3 to 4 years now. I don't pay for it due to photography work that I did for the host of my site. Though having a domain name of my own is nice, I am unable to change the home page text and or photo and due to lost info., I haven't been able to update any of my photo's for close to two years now. I have wanted my photo's to fill the majority of the screen when a viewer is on my site but the host claims he is unable to do that. I am considering using WIX.com or any free website designed for photographers because I don't have the money to put out at the given moment. I also just relocated from FL to CA so it's going to take some time working my way up in the world again. Any suggestions? If you visit my site, I'm only really proud of my wildlife and nature section and as mentioned earlier, I haven't updated anything for quite a while so please, be nice but comments are welcomed. Finding a better host is my main concern.</p>

<p>Thank you,<br>

Rich H</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I have wanted my photo's to fill the majority of the screen when a viewer is on my site but the host claims he is unable to do that. </p>

</blockquote>

<p>Just to be clear, that doesn't have much to do with the hosting operation. That's just a matter of how you format the HTML and supporting files that you put there (or on any web server).</p>

<blockquote>

<p>I am considering using WIX.com or any free website designed for photographers because I don't have the money to put out at the given moment.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Are you talking about being short of the funds necessary to develop a web site's content, or the funds needed - month to month - to actually keep it online where people can see it? Those are really two different things.</p>

<p>I am not familiar with free websites. Is Wix free any more? Be careful, some low cost or free web hosts will not release your URL if you turn it over to them. You should have the ability to forward it to your site however. If you need to retrieve your old content, try googling the Wayback Machine and see if your site was indexed. Sometimes content can be recovered.</p>

<p>Rich:</p>

<p>As a consumer, I would be very wary of choosing a professional to do any important job for me if the so-called professional uses free web hosting. That's not specific to photography.</p>

<p>As a photographer, I have kept the above in mind. I don't depend on free services. If I don't value displaying my work, why should my clients?</p>

<p>Eric</p>

<p>Rich, have you considered setting up a WordPress site? It's free, flexible, and you can work on it yourself or hire someone one. If you don't like any of the free templates, lots of folks sell others (I purchased one from Photocrati). You can use your own domain name. It's a hassle to learn and get set up but once it's set up, it's easy to update, add photos, text, etc. I haven't done it, but you can also set it up for selling. Might be worth looking into. Good luck. --Sally</p>