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Recs for web site building

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 10:23 am
by MicahSommer
I have been meaning for a long time to pull my online presence together into one place and am wondering if anyone has recommendations for web hosting and web site building resources.

I am happy using Bandcamp for my actual music and Youtube for my videos, but want to build a web site with my bio, info on booking/live gigs, contact, maybe some kind of blog, etc.

I know many people are here are super coders who can build their own beautiful robust websites in Notepad. Not me. I have a number of friends who use Squarespace and like it for its ease and all-in-one-ness, but maybe it would be just as easy and a whole lot cheaper to download WordPress and use some other service for hosting and domain name registration. Or maybe one of the thousands of other options I don't know about would be better.

What do you recommend, O songfighters?

Re: Recs for web site building

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 10:47 am
by jb
Need more info to provide good advice.

What is your budget for getting it built?
What is your budget to maintain the site monthly or yearly?
What is your web-building skill set?

JB

Re: Recs for web site building

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 3:29 am
by fluffy
If you just want a simple blog that people can follow, consider Tumblr. It's pretty easy to point your own custom domain to it, and it isn't bad for posting songs and gigs and whatever links and so on. I've been using it as my default "how to make a quick and easy site for sharing shit" thing and it's Good Enough for most of that. Plus, lots of community features that are useful but also easy to ignore if you don't care about them.

Re: Recs for web site building

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 7:47 pm
by roymond
Here's my new, unfinished, Tumblr: roymondmusic. Not yet sure about it...

Re: Recs for web site building

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 3:13 pm
by MicahSommer
Thanks for replying.
jb wrote:Need more info to provide good advice.

What is your budget for getting it built?
What is your budget to maintain the site monthly or yearly?
What is your web-building skill set?

JB
I'm not too keen on hiring someone to develop a custom site for me, and I'm willing to spend $10-15 per month, which is about where Squarespace hosting runs... so that might be the best option for me. Took a second look at Wordpress and it looks like it may be more intimidating than I thought.

I know my way around an FTP client and I like to think I pick up new skills fairly quickly, but I'm not really at a point in my life where I want to spend a ton of time and energy learning to build and maintain a custom site. [primary caregiver of tiny baby, pleased to meet you...]
fluffy wrote:If you just want a simple blog that people can follow, consider Tumblr. It's pretty easy to point your own custom domain to it, and it isn't bad for posting songs and gigs and whatever links and so on. I've been using it as my default "how to make a quick and easy site for sharing shit" thing and it's Good Enough for most of that. Plus, lots of community features that are useful but also easy to ignore if you don't care about them.
I am a Tumblr lurker and enjoy following other people, hadn't really considered it for my own stuff. I like the social/sharing aspects but feel like it might be a little too limiting.

Re: Recs for web site building

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 3:32 pm
by jb
Squarespace is swank. I use their competitor Wix for my band: http://magrocksdc.com

If you have the budget, it's an easy way to get a nice site without too much effort if you have at least some minimal design skillz.

JB

JB

Re: Recs for web site building

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 4:39 pm
by MicahSommer
jb wrote:Squarespace is swank. I use their competitor Wix for my band: http://magrocksdc.com

If you have the budget, it's an easy way to get a nice site without too much effort if you have at least some minimal design skillz.

JB

JB
Thanks, your band site looks pretty slick indeed. Can I ask what plan/tier you are on, and did you register your domain thru Wix or someone else - godaddy, etc... Also is your music player native to Wix or a third-party thing?

The main criticism of Wix I'm seeing is that apparently you can't switch templates once you've starting building your site; you have to start over from scratch...

Re: Recs for web site building

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 4:54 pm
by jb
I'll respond, but tomorrow. Need time to go look up what's on the site. I didn't use a template, really, because they didn't seem to want to apply to a "band portfolio" web site. A band blog, sure, a concert promotion site, sure.

More later,

JB