Advice on setting up first website

spiki

spiki

spiki

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Joined
18 Oct 2005
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917
I play in a covers band part time & business has been good up to now but we are noticing some bars closing & others cutting what they pay. We use Facebook to publicise upcoming gigs & post a few photos & videos but that's about it in terms of promotion.

More & more people are asking at gigs where they can find more information on the band, have we a website etc.

I have read other posts on these forums about the best hosting companies & the two that stand out are tsohost and vidahost. I would go with either but am just not sure what package I need. We intend to post general info on the band, setlists, photos & maybe some mp3 & video snippets for potential clients. The purpose of the site is is to generate new bookings and doesn't have to be anything flashy. Is the basic package enough around the £15-17 per year or would we need the medium priced package around the £35 mark?
 
Get yourself a starter account, the £15 will be great with Vida (you can upgrade it if you need more later on - Vida don't charge for admin only the difference between the packages)

Use Fantastico or Installatron to install Wordpress in a few clicks, and off you go .. you've got a website.

It's very easy. Highly recommend Vida - I've been with them 4 years and never moved
 
Thanks Blade - one other question. Are those things you referred to (Wordpress etc) part of the package offered by Vida or are they additional add-ins?
 
Yeah it's a one-click install!

Install Wordpress and have play around with installing some themes in the back. It's all very straightforward.
 
Might want to look at setting up a site on Myspace. Mate from work is in a band and they have a Myspace page which looks pretty slick. Seems perfect for bands, allowing you to upload vids and tracklists so people can listen to you etc.
 
+1 for myspace, as it's music focused. soundclick will host some mp3's of your music, and then wordpress + a few plugins. Don't forget twitter as well....
 
I forgot we had a myspace page too although we don't really exploit its full use. We really want something that can easily be found if someone puts the band name into a search engine.

I have another maybe obvious Q, but does the price of Vida cover domain? I see they offer a basic and starter package - would basic be adequate do you reckon since we only want to create one site?

http://www.vidahost.com/uk-shared-hosting
 
Well, I went back and designed a basic but functional website using iweb.

We're happy with it and have opted to go with Vidahost. But before I sign up, what do I need to do next once I publish it on iweb? Do I send a file to the hosting company? Apologies if this is a daft question but I have no experience whatsoever with hosting.
 
best way is to ftp it up to vidahost. They will send you the ftp details, download filezilla or similiar and use that. There may be an ftp function in iweb but I'm not sure...
 
Just a little update. I uploaded my first website today with Vidahost. All went very smoothly with the FTP option in iweb. Had to ring Vida a couple of times to just to check a few techy things and were very patient & helpful. Seems very reasonable for two yrs hosting & we're happy with the domain.

I wouldn't mind your views on the site. I wanted something minimalist, with a clean layout and provides enough information for potential customers/clients to get in touch. Please be gentle!

http://www.motherslittlehelpersband.co.uk/motherslittlehelpersband.co.uk/HOME.html
 
Not bad for a first effort! A little advice, keywords, seo, and maybe sign up for a google account and use google analytics....
 
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