Band Websites

[guy n. cognito]

Resurrecting this thread to hear about any new ideas/recommendations.

Searched for "free" websites, got some hits: wix.com, web.com, ehost.com, weekly.com, ipage.com, and more.

I have no experience with web sites/design, and am looking for a relatively simple drag and drop, insert a thing here or there type of experience. Its gotta be easy, cheap, intuitive, as eye-catching as possible, and did I mention, cheap?

TIA!

Bandzoogle.

 

[12BitSlab]

1) Go Daddy is horrible and always fails to properly notify you of cert renewals.

2) WordPress is great if your web admin person can apply patches at least 2 times per week.

3) Google will downrate you if your site doesn't use https or isn't mobile friendly.

4) Always support https with at least a certificate strength of SHA2 - prefer SHA256.

5) Support html5. Do NOT use flash or silverlight.

6) The user should never be more than 2 clicks away from anything when on the home page.

7) Get a youtube account and host videos or songs on your site. Keep them to 2 minutes or shorter.

8) NEVER EVER use Comodo.

9) If a user can't understand an entire page in less than 5 seconds, you need to simplify things.

10) Understand how many sites are hosted on the box (physical or virtual) where your site resides.

11) Use a free service that will measure and report on your site's response time. Believe it or not, many hosting companies lie through their teeth.

12) Your site = You = Your reputation.

13) Do it right or don't do it at all.

 

[bigboy_78]

We used wix cause it was free. Then paid for a domain name, and the "premium" package to get rid of the wix.com branding on everything.

Its mostly drag and drop and there are heaps of how-to videos around.

We had limited content when we set it up, and I think it needs a refresh.

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[jeffbrown]

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm leaning towards wix and the premium package for the reasons big boy cited. One q for you, big: In the terms, etc., they state that they may post stuff (popups?) on the website. Does that apply to the premium package - have you seen this happening? Do NOT want that!

 

[Jimmy4string]

I saw a couple of peeps mention Weebly so i did a search and here is a pretty good review from PC Mag on Weebly:
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They start at $8/month and from the article they don't have a undo feature while you are web building but do pretty good over all.

 

[bigboy_78]

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm leaning towards wix and the premium package for the reasons big boy cited. One q for you, big: In the terms, etc., they state that they may post stuff (popups?) on the website. Does that apply to the premium package - have you seen this happening? Do NOT want that!

I don't see any advertising at all on our site. There is a "proudly created with Wix" footer on one of the pages, but only because we forgot to edit it out.

 

[BurningSkies]

We're wordpress as well but with different hosting and a different interface/theme. Our hosting is really minimal at about 15$ a month. Our booking agent wouldn't sign with us unless we re-did our old page. New videos, audio, tour dates, press, etc. We also have a 'hidden' page that our EPK that's a slightly stripped down version for shopping to venues and promotors.

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[seanm]

I host the band website on Amazon S3. It costs about 60 cents a month plus $17 a year for the domain through godaddy. The downside is the site must be static only, no server side scripts. So you can still have things like slideshows, but everything has to be client side.

 

[1st Bass]

Mine is WordPress.org, but I maintain it myself

 

[socialleper]

With all of the various forms of social media that a band can use to intact with their fans, list upcoming dates, and sell merch, having a dedicated website seems a little pointless. Bandcamp or BigCartel can handle your sales, Facebook can do anything a regular website can do, and most of the time people expect you to have an Instagram or Twitter account.
A cover band really only needs a place with contact information for future bookings, some self promotional stuff to help you get more gigs, and somewhere to list upcoming shows. Facebook can handle all of that.

 

[BurningSkies]

With all of the various forms of social media that a band can use to intact with their fans, list upcoming dates, and sell merch, having a dedicated website seems a little pointless. Bandcamp or BigCartel can handle your sales, Facebook can do anything a regular website can do, and most of the time people expect you to have an Instagram or Twitter account.
A cover band really only needs a place with contact information for future bookings, some self promotional stuff to help you get more gigs, and somewhere to list upcoming shows. Facebook can handle all of that.

I used to feel this way, but on the professional side, venues, promoters and booking people still want to see it. Not only our own booking people, but we got feedback from several major venues/booking people that the band was great, the album was great but we needed: 1. Better website 2. Better pro-shot video.

 

[socialleper]

I used to feel this way, but on the professional side, venues, promoters and booking people still want to see it. Not only our own booking people, but we got feedback from several major venues/booking people that the band was great, the album was great but we needed: 1. Better website 2. Better pro-shot video.

Having a good video does help.
If you do a Google search on anyone that isn't a major signed act, the first results are their Facebook, Bandcamp, and Twitter pages. Even before the domain name website. It is just kinda old school (and that's coming from a guy in his 40s) to have a regular website. It is a waste of money and time. If a venue or promoter wants you to have one, it sounds like that need to figure out what year it is.
Maybe cover bands are different because they are businesses, and are selling the business through the webpage. I guess it could be more like if I'm looking for a house painter or plumber rather than a musical artist.

 

[BurningSkies]

Having a good video does help.
If you do a Google search on anyone that isn't a major signed act, the first results are their Facebook, Bandcamp, and Twitter pages. Even before the domain name website. It is just kinda old school (and that's coming from a guy in his 40s) to have a regular website. It is a waste of money and time. If a venue or promoter wants you to have one, it sounds like that need to figure out what year it is.
Maybe cover bands are different because they are businesses, and are selling the business through the webpage. I guess it could be more like if I'm looking for a house painter or plumber rather than a musical artist.

Well...I think maybe its less about convincing people to modernize and more catering to the people who are booking the gigs and paying us. Our bread and butter business (connection to the fans and that interactivity) is best carried out on Facebook and Instagram, etc. But when it comes to the other side of the business...until it changes we'll work with what they want to see.

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Resurrecting this thread to hear about any new ideas/recommendations.

Searched for "free" websites, got some hits: wix.com, web.com, ehost.com, weekly.com, ipage.com, and more.

I have no experience with web sites/design, and am looking for a relatively simple drag and drop, insert a thing here or there type of experience. Its gotta be easy, cheap, intuitive, as eye-catching as possible, and did I mention, cheap?

TIA!

Bandzoogle.

Another vote for Bandzoogle: Band Websites that Work. Kelly maintains her own site here: Kelly Rae Band

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[Doug R]

We get a about half our jobs through our website (Link Removed). Most site hosts have cheap deals to start you out but get more expensive on yearly renewals. Having a simple but classy home page, and being able to be found when people look for bands in your area, is an important part of booking.

I used a free template at our host, Invalid Link Removed, to make a nice six-page website. It's drag-and-drop easy to update anytime and we get compliments on how it looks. Most site hosts have similar options. I liked this site better than GoDaddy and those others, but there are lots to choose from.

Be sure to include all the words & terms that will lead people to your site. If folks look up "dance band" and your town's name, you should come up in the searches. You don't need too much on there. Six pages works well for us: A home page, something about the band, a music page, picture page, a bookings calendar, and a contact page. The music page can have audio, video links, song list, etc. The contact page can include email, phone & text, and a link to your other pages like Facebook, etc. Ours has a box to submit inquiries to us which sends incoming contacts right to my email.

Figure to spend about $50 for the first year and $150+ for renewals. It's tax deductible as an advertising expense if you keep books and file your music income. Your website is your presence to the world so make it professional looking but simple to view and maintain. It pays off.

 

[SuperK]

Gotta throw in another vote for Bandzoogle.

 

[justin_runyon]

Use hosting from AMAZON

 

[arder]

I recommend the hPage.com website builder. Built my band website there and its SEO optimized too. You can create a website easily even if you don't know how to code. Hope this resource will be helpful to someone!

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