Hi all! Does anyone post their designs to other sites? I’ve seen some stuff on Thingverse, but it seems geared towards 3D printed designs rather than laser cut ones.
Are there others?
I’m just looking to share stuff out. Pictures, SVGs, that type of thing.
I post everything on my own site first:
… and, I strongly encourage people to do the same and, help rebuild the free and open Internet.
It is easier and easier to have your own website. It doesn’t have to be complicated. There are numerous options, including some reasonable free ones. I am happy to help with specifics, if you want to go this route.
After you have a site, you can post links to it in various public forums, like here, your local makerspace mailing list, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Just my two bits …
I’ve shared 3D printer files on Thingiverse, but nothing for the laser has made it in there so far, and I actually wound up taking down the most popular files just from the sheer aggravation factor. (Too many “Please sign up so that people can give you money!” notices from Thingiverse.)
Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram are good choices.
I have shared a few on Thingiverse. I have also posted a bunch of 3D printer files too!
Whaaaat? Nobody wants to pay for anything on Thingiverse… that’s why I ain’t there. LOL.
Thingiverse can be used for laser projects as well. Actually, there are a lot of “laser things” over there. It is the only place I post stuff, as their policy seems fair and because they advocate open licences through creative commons.
I have no clue where people post if they want to monetize their designs.
I’m not trying to monetize anything so I just share a few things on my G+ account. Very little spam over there, none sanctioned. Google doesn’t need to monetize its social network so the sidebar is blank.
I’ve been practicing with my new 3D printer and playing with files from Thingiverse. Where would I find some of yours?
@Jules how bout some of yours? 
Oh I’ve just left a few up, but you’re welcome to look at them:
Funny piece of history. When that team started thingiverse, they were using the laser at the NYC resistor Makerspace. thingiverse was initially only laser files. It wasn’t until they created MakerBot that they started adding 3D printer files.
I’d love to get that rundown. I used to be a Web Guy, like, I made sites in exchange for Earth currency, but it was so long ago that I still use
tags. I honestly have very little understanding of the best tools for making a site today, though my technical foundation is still good.I would prefer not to do what everyone else does and pay for WordPress at Bluehost.
Are there any free options that let you do bloggy things WITH a proper domain name? (Obviously, ya gotta buy the domain name.)
If not free, how about CHEAP?
This probably needs more editing and, is certainly missing things but, I’m out of time to work on it for now. I am pretty sure there are a nearly infinite number of articles covering this topic online.
In the interest of full disclosure: my company (Evermore Enterprises) provides web development and hosting services. We are not the in the low-price market. We provide managed hosting (where we take care of keeping your site secured, software updated, etc.). We often rescue businesses from free and inexpensive services where they are having problems with getting hacked regularly, can’t get support, etc.
If your website is a core part of making your living, please consider getting professional assistance from someone who knows what they are doing.
None of this should be taken as an endorsement of any particular service:
A lot of people will have some web hosting service they may not even be aware of. For example, my ISP includes static hosting of a few MB with my service.
Some registrars include some hosting service with a domain name registration or, for a small additional fee. Some of those include tools to automatically install something like Wordpress (see below). That is probably going to be your optimal free/cheap option.
You can also get software that will let you put together a static site visually. RapidWeaver and Sparkle come to mind. Those both show up in bargain software bundles regularly.
Wordpress
Wordpress is the most popular content management system for building websites. The software is an open community project. Wordpress is very adaptable with plugins to make it do all kinds of specialized things. You can build a very serviceable website with a default installation and one of the stock themes. Most providers that offer Wordpress hosting will set it up for you.
Because the software is open, it is easy to extract your Wordpress site from any given provider and, move it somewhere else. This is useful if you start having problems with the provider or, if you grow beyond the services they provide.
In theory, You can get a free Wordpress site from http://wordpress.com – it does not appear to be working at the time I am writing this, though. A number of other providers offer Wordpress sites. Some are free (possibly with imposed advertising, usually with limits to what additional components you can install). Here is a fairly current list of some I found:
Some providers will set you up with a Wordpress site on a shared server for free or for a minimal cost with a domain name registration. For example:
I have seen offers around $7/year from some registrars.
Proprietary Website-as-a-Service
There are a bunch of companies now providing web-based systems that let you make a website using visual tools. Some of them have free levels of service, like Wix, Weebly, Webnode and Mozello. Those usually run ads on your pages in exchange.
Paid services like these include SquareSpace, JimDo, Duda, One.com, Virb and more.
One of my key issues with any of those, free or paid (but especially paid), is that the site is tied to the provider. If you have a disagreement with SquareSpace, you can’t pick up your site and go somewhere else.
Google Sites
If you have a GMail account, you can create a simple website with Google Sites. This is still a proprietary website-as-a-service but, it’s Google.
Dropbox
It used to be possible to host static sites directly on Dropbox but, they shut that down. There are, however, free services that can connect to a Dropbox account and provide the hosting portion, like:
Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive
Similarly, there are services that provide front-ends to do the same thing with other file hosting services:
E-Commerce Sites
If you are looking to run a web store, there are a number of other options.
Some payment processors, notably Square, will let you set up an online shop with their system for free, if you use them for payment processing:
Etsy is a popular online marketplace that charges a minimal fee for each catalog item and, a percentage of each sale. Additionally, people know Etsy as an online marketplace for handmade items. So, you get some extra traffic from random searches and their other promotion built in.
What else am I missing? Everybody feel free to chime in.
Nicely done and comprehensive. I agree on the Wordpress recommendation - it’s really a decent alternative to an expensive custom designed & hosted site. Especially for casual site needs.
Nothing beats a bespoke site but most hobbyist or small business types really don’t need one.
This is great, thank you.
Hopefully one of the free/cheap choices will handle automagically updating Wordpress. I do not want to do the rigamarole of doing a security update, finding it breaks the theme or a plugin, and then fixing those problems too. I can understand why joints like Squarespace that handle everything are popular.
(I could actually spin up a public-facing hello world in a few minutes since I have a Unix server at home… but I know what is involved in doing that properly, and I just don’t wanna spend the time. Like with the Glowforge, what I may decide to put on the site is the fun part, not maintaining the site itself.)
This is a great resource. Thanks for sharing.