Only if it is as easily navigated as your coroflot. Personally, I have never been a fan of coroflot. there is too much to distract you.
I believe that for ID, a good website is all about the work and about you. You don’t even want to know that the site is there. It is a delivery method.
This has been mentioned many times but check out Cargo Collective, Indexhibit or Wordpress. everybody has different favorites.
I am using both Indexhibit and Cargo at the moment, one for my personal freelance website (Indexhibit) and one for the design studio I have with my partners (Cargo).
For me, yes. The only contact I get through Coroflot seems to be from scammers and chancers and people who don’t want to pay.
My advice to you if you’re thinking of developing a website:
Keep it simple and easy to navigate. Get someone who is hopeless with the web (I use my mum) to try and navigate it.
Avoid Flash, especially now everyone has a damn iphone. Smoke, lights and mirrors get in the way and you might have lost your audience before the page has loaded.
On that note check that it renders properly on Macs, pcs, phones. So many I websites I see were ‘designed on a mac’ and I just can’t see them on my Linux Phone or on a pc.
Think about your audience. You are trying to impress potential clients rather than fellow designers. So, be business like when you write your copy, be a salesperson and not a designer.
I say: do both. Use your Coroflot to direct traffic to your own website. That’s what I did when I was available. I got good feedback from clients and employers about it.
+1 on Shoenistas points. Keep it simple. Let your work speak for itself.
Yes, good point, don’t ditch your Corefolio, Link to your website. Put a link in your sig on these boards. You’d be surprised how much traffic comes to your site from Coroflot and Core.
+1 on keeping coroflot, I have several client coming from coroflot (they browse on the site and landed on my page) and I think its a good place to have a network with other designers
I just ramped up two Wordpress sites and it took a while to grasp their interface, but it’s not rocket science. The key to a decent Wordpress site it to pick a good clean theme. I used one free theme and one paid theme. I’ve stayed away from any Flash templates because of Apple’s boycott of Flash on iOS devices. Flash is also a beast to edit unless you’re a Flash ninja.
It’s important to get the look-and-feel established before you load it up with content or else you’ll be tweaking forever.
Get your own web site so people can download your CV and portfolio. Keep your Coroflot. It’s free and can’t hurt, and can direct more traffic to your own site.
I highly recommend http://www.squarespace.com for getting started. Awesome interface, and you can ease into basic html/CSS at your own pace if you want.
I’ve been using Cargo for my personal website. It is very easy to upload work, move where you would like type, etc. I have chosen a layout that makes the work the hero. I think the layout represents me well. This website features much more “final” and real work. As new work releases, I will most likely drop the TaylorMadeGolf work from this site as it consists of sketch renders only.
I’m trying to make my Coroflot more of a sketchbook. I have so many sketches I need to load, but I aim to make this site much less formal.
If you are really serious, just organize your photos and images and hire someone to do a site. It’s cheap, compared to what you will profit from it. Also, a pro can pull off that really cool concept that you have in your imagination but have no idea how to pull off.
I would advice though to update the sections “about” and “contact” asap.
You are now goggle-ble through this and you want of course that people can read about you and get in touch with you. Just as important as your work.
