How I Built My Freelance Art Website for Free
Here’s the interesting part first: I built my entire freelance artist website completely for free—using nothing but freely available online tools, a bit of coding knowledge, and a dash of AI.
(Side note for later: I’ve had a love-hate relationship with AI, and that deserves a post of its own—especially how I’ve come to incorporate it into my workflow. Definitely a topic for another day.)
Now, back to the website.
The Path to a Personal Website
Over the years, I’ve used various platforms for hosting and building websites—WordPress being one of the main ones. It’s a great system, and it works really well for a lot of people. But the truth is, in today’s economy (and I say this as someone who’s no expert on global finances), even small recurring costs can add up.
As a freelance artist, I’ve always been looking for a way to showcase my work online without sinking money I didn’t have. I’ve tried a lot of options.
My interest in web design actually started back in tech school, where I took a class on website design as an elective. It covered HTML and CSS, and oddly enough, I already knew a bit about those—thanks to the golden days of MySpace, where you could customize your page with code in ways modern platforms still haven’t quite matched.
Building a Website with Free Tools
Eventually, I realized I could save money by using tools that have been around for a while—if I just learned how to blend them. And that’s exactly what I did. Using only a free Google account and a mix of creative solutions, I built my own website.
Here’s what I used:
Blogger – for blogging and some basic structure
Google Sites – for creating and hosting static website pages
Google Photos – for organizing and linking to images
Lensdump – a free image host that lets you get static page image links
AI tools – to help generate a working HTML framework I could build on
Some HTML/CSS knowledge – to tweak everything to match my vision
I blended these tools together, adjusted layouts, modified themes, and added my personal style. The only cost? $12/year for my domain name. That’s it.
As a freelancer on a very tight budget, having a full portfolio site for basically the price of a pizza is a huge win.
I highly recommend you only follow my path after you know what you are looking for in a website. I have and will continue to evolve my website and change how it looks and flows. However the method I used can be used for free without a custom domain name. Bringing the price down to FREE.
Pretty hard to argue with that. The methods I have used would work with anyone for simple site setups to get going in starting a business. Once the business is making money then assessing your needs from there with a budget in mind could open many avenues of setting up even more features for your website.
While you can write with a pencil and some paper in today's times its often more common to use a computer. I wrote this entire post—and built my website—on a laptop that’s been surprisingly solid if not a bit loud with the fan(full review coming soon). But if you’re like me and want a little more power under the hood for creative work like digital art, editing, or multitasking with heavier tools, I recommend checking out this one:
👉 Insert Laptop Name Here – Affiliate Link
It’s what I use when I want reliability and creative potential without breaking the bank. Whether you're building a portfolio, editing images, or just want something that won’t choke when you open too many tabs (we’ve all been there), this one’s worth a look.
Affiliate disclaimer: If you decide to grab one through this link, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you. It helps support what I do and keeps posts like this rolling. Thanks!
If you would like to check out my site then here is the link:
or if you would like to email me directly:
Thanks for reading!
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