web presence

Links to my Web Presence 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Victoria-Upson-Illustration/188429587947299?ref=hl

http://victoriaupson.deviantart.com/

http://torjaneupson.carbonmade.com/

Website :    www.victoriaupson.co.uk
Pinterest:    http://www.pinterest.com/victoriaupson16/

Creating a domain name:

options:

victoriajaneupson

victoriaupson

torjaneupson

torupson

Full name preferred because it is more professional and will be on all contact/legal information etc.

choose .co.uk as opposed to .com because .com is far more expensive

Places I can get a domain name from:

http://www.names.co.uk/domain-names

http://uk.godaddy.com/deals2/?gclid=CISPwbm0g70CFSfmwgodzFYAkg&isc=gofhuk25&currencytype=GBP&ef_id=Uxsr3gAAAWi8gw8B:20140308165826:s

This is a really lonwinded way of going about looking for domain name registras, so I have decided to research the best ones in terms of polls ans statistics.

Below, comes from the site 'Life-hacker.com'.

http://lifehacker.com/5683682/five-best-domain-name-registrars

Which Domain Registrar Is Best? ( Poll Closed )

Namecheap 38.35% (3,506 votes)

1&1 13.68% (1,251 votes)

GoDaddy 26.5% (2,423 votes)

Name 4.04% (369 votes)

Gandi 8.11% (741 votes)

Other: 9.32% (852 votes)

Total Votes: 9,142

The first two sites I found too difficult to navigate, so I took the advice of a peer and tried Go-daddy, which was easy to set up and cheap in comparison.

For victoriaupson.com they wanted to charge me £27 for 2 years. However, for £5 I was able to get:

www.victoriaupson.co.uk

This subscription lasts for 2 years and I can manually update it after that time and re-subscribe if needed.

What am I going to connect my domain name to?

Ideas:

• I can create a website and pay to connect it to my domain name:

I.e  Weebly, yahoo, go-daddy 

This could be expensive and there are other ways of doing this free. 

• TUMBLER: I can create a tumbler for free and make it look like a website, or I can create links on the blog that link to a WEBSITE and PINTEREST PORTFOLIO etc. 
• This could also be done on BLOGGER  which I already now how to use, so this could be quite simple. 
• CARBONMADE: I already have a portfolio here and for a lesser price than weebly I can attach my domain to it. It is, however, silly to do this when I can, for free make a:

FINAL IDEA:

Go between page, functions as a link to all aspects of my web presence. 

Here is a quick sketch of what this can look like. 

I already have a pinterest account, a facebook page (business) an online portfolio and a deviant account which I have been using successfully for many years. 

This will basically be a go-between for my domain name and all of the important places I want people to visit when they search my name. 

I have an about page on my website. However, as I am tailoring what is effectively a blog site; I can make one post with a short 'about' section and photograph so people know they are on the right track. 

USING BLOGGER TO MAKE A PAGE TO CONNECT MY DOMAIN TO:

Now I have decided to use blogger, I have created a rough new blog and called it 'Victoria Upson Illustrator'. However, the title will be my logo. I now have to connect the site to my domain name. To do this I followed the instructions under 'settings'. 

I navigated my way around my account on go-daddy until I found a file manager. If you clock quick add nothing happens-however, when you click add host you get an option to add a record. You only get on www. so you have to get it right first time as this is a long-winded process. (learned this the hard way, I added my fmp page originally, which was incorrect, it needed to be a specific page). 

Blogger then have me instructions under settings. You have to add a CNAME (your name effectively) then type in bloggers address www.ghs.google.com.

This is the bit that takes time as you have to wait for one hour for go-daddy to register your change to the account and file-editor. 

 Once the hour is over you can go back to blogger and 'add a custom domain' which I did. So when I type in my domain name it directs straight to my created page that links to the entirety of my web presence. 

So now I have connected my domain name to a blogger tailored to direct the user to the entirety of my web presence. 

Creating the blog: 

logo:

This is my logo, I use it whenever it is needed, It means there is an image people can specifically relate to me. It can either be used with or without the calligraphy

I decided to use the image with my name on because then I do not need a typed title anywhere on the page. Now I know what the logo/title will be it must decide  on what elements of my web presence are important to include. I am happy with my layout design from earlier. I have decided these are pages that it will link to. 

 I have customized the page so that when you click the links you get directed straight to the site that informs my web presence. I have designed the page in 'simple' keeping it clean and concise. I only want to use the page a link-site, however, it is nice to know I can blog something if I need to. I.e videos, news, commissions, jobs in doing, work I am looking for etc.

I have changed the font to something that looks handwritten like my calligraphy (logo). I want it to tie it. I have chosen orange font to complement the logo and kept the orange/white theme going. I am happy with how this has turned out. I would have preferred to connect to a professional website of course but I wont do that until I am earning; at that point I will get someone to make it for me.

above: about/ I have completed a small autobiography for my official website which I have included in a post on the blog. It will let people know in brief what my abilities are. 

FACEBOOK

I have had a Facebook admin page for a couple of years now. I don't spend a lot of time promoting it as I am not a massive user of Facebook. However, I have a few professionals who keep an eye on this page. People at digital leaf for example. For that reason it is useful to have; it is very quick to update and you get get efficient feedback. I prefer to have the page so that I can keep my art posts separate to my personal page, I don't like the idea of people searching me and seeing my last drunken photo. I am not really a twitter or tumbler user; so for that reason I will endeavor to use my Facebook page to a greater extent and see exactly how far I can push it.  

I change the profile photo often, so that a new piece of work is the first thing people see. However, the logo remains and I will keep using it for another couple of years (until it is very outdated). This page is the best representation of my work as it is currently. 

Above: I organise the posts so that they appear in groups. I try not to upload a single image an stick to collections so that everything is in an album or a category. 

Above: Grouping examples. Editorial group on the right and graphic novel on the left. two very different projects but by grouping them and uploading then collectively the page is organised like a blog. The Fairy tale section in the image above that all relates, so as you scroll down you can see the progress and intent. It's quite a good vessel for development. 

ABOVE: example of gallery options. This is a fashion album and the gallery displays coherently if you click photographs/albums etc. Just like a blog, I can update this site for as long as I need to. 

DEVIANTART

collectives/favourites/

I have been using deviantart for many years (about 7 years). I didn't use it for a long time but re-learned it a couple of years ago. For me, despite opinions that it unprofessional and not particularly useful, it has been a really rewarding site to be on. I love the fact I can communicate with some of my favourite Illustrators (Abigail Larson/Campbell) and there is always a chance they will see your work. Commenting, gaining feedback, compilation and 'favoriting' a lot of influential work is easy to do and deviant is full of enthusiastic people. I am always getting requests to be part of groups and collectives, which is really rewarding, it means people are taking interest in my work and want to promote it for me. Some collectives are more worthwhile than others but it's easy to suss out whether it's worth submitting by looking at the other artwork. 

Submitting work is long-winded. You can only upload one image at a time and this involves adding keywords/categorizing/re sizing adding title and description. Sometimes this isn't relevant to the image but has to be completed so the image can be submitted. It is important to think about the keywords because when people search for things this is what links your work. Above is as an example of the gallery, you can organize it into  galleries and projects, which I haven't. Deviant is more about that moment when your image is submitted...that's when the people online see it, it more a browsing site than a portfolio and gallery site. 

contacting people/receiving work/opportunities 

Over the past couple of months I have received correspondence and work opportunities via Deviant. It is mostly unpaid but always interesting. I don't usually accept it but I always ask questions and learn what I can. People always appreciate you taking an interest and some people contacted me various times about various different projects which I love to hear about.

Second page of correspondence. This is ongoing.

There are other opportunities on Deviant 

• competitions 
• notices
• promotion 
• adverts
• points and badges

CARBONMADE (PORTFOLIO)

Carbon made it a really simple portfolio site. Even though I don't really need it on top of a website and various other sites, I like to keep it because it is so simple to navigate. It is also easy to send to people, organised into projects; you can send a link directly to those or the gallery in its entirety. See example of Galleries below.

Problem with site: For free use you only get a certain number of images and projects. After a while they up the amounts, you just have to stay a member and you get more opportunities after a few weeks. If I had had a website when I made this portfolio I wouldn't have made it; however, I keep it updated because it's free and may be useful, as much web presence for free I can get is important.

ABOVE: Simple clean gallery. See how the site organizes into thumbnails you can scroll through. Example of graphic novel above and contrast to project below which is a fashion line. It works for all kinds of work because it is so simple.  

PINTEREST

SEE HOME PAGE TABS FOR MY PINTEREST PAGES.

Part of the project is to keep pinterest boards and document research. Below you can see a couple of pages that concentrate on portfolio and promotion. I have been using this for my research project too but I feel this can interlink.  

WEBSITE

Research into the best website builders:

tumbler

weebly

moon-fruit

go-daddy

google

I have already decided on weebly as a website builder because it was mentioned in a seminar and looked easy and quick to use. Computers are not my thing, so I needed to choose something simple.

Below: here is the final blog, an amalgamation of all of my other sites/blogs/portfolio's. I have included my generic logo in place of a title, a contact page, a gallery and an autobiography.

home page 

'about' 

The first collection if my generic Fairytale work. I have only included work that is less than 2 years old because I want everything to be as up to date and in keeping with my current work as possible. 

It is important that I show versatility show I have completed an editorial section and also uploaded my comic books. These are all things I love to do and want to continue doing. I would be happy to gain work in all of these fields. 

In the future I hope to have a website specifically for fashion work but I am happy for a section of the gallery to be dedicated to it. At the moment I don't know which way my work will sway. 

Below shows the buttons you use to build the site. You simply drag them across onto the template and build into them. Its very easy to use so, for me, this was the best website builder.