Advice on setting up first website

spiki

spiki

spiki

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Joined
18 Oct 2005
Posts
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?
 
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?
 
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.
 
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
 
Thanks 3d, you're too kind. I have no idea what you mean by those things btw.
Could you explain a little more for me. Also, why does Google not find the site? A couple of friends have told me this tonight.
Also, I would like to add social networking badges just to get the word around about the band. Any tips on how to do this?
 
Thanks 3d - just added it to the google index & a list of key words

I have a Youtube account which is Google owned I think - will take a look at it now

How do you add the Face book badges? I tried that with iweb and the HTML snippet but tbh it looked awful on my nice clean black/white/purple scheme
 
The facebook badge is fugly mate...maybe just a link instead?[/QUOTE]


True dat, man. Just so many people seem addicted to it & it has marketing potential for us. I think we have about 90 friends so far which is probably not much relatively speaking but these people do turn up to gigs (although not all at once unfortunately) across NI.

Can you add a personal website to your Google account/profile? Just this is a part of the web I have never considered or looked at.
 
3d - what should I select here to verify ownership on the webmasters site? Its getting a bit confusing now.
 
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Thanks for this endless advice, you've been really helpful. The missus is watching iplayer on the macbook atm so will maybe try it later. Time for some BC2 Vietnam.
 
Got the site verified eventually...just need the masses to login & start giving us plenty of bookings. Music is def. not recession proof!
 
Thanks for the feedback. I had a look at the options & it can be turned off. Its not important to me. Be different if they were sponsoring me & showering me with millions£'s!
 
OK, that's a good idea. Thanks.

Got the site verified with Google yesterday, so its coming together but I'm learning more every day

3d - another question. How can I get those share & enjoy icons/links for Facebook, Digg etc. on my site?

Thanks
 
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Hi 3d - need your advice again. I have made a few changes to the site but have found we are getting quite a few hits (using Stat Counter) and I would like to add an inquiry form to a new page. iweb doesn't have this option as far as I can tell and was wondering is there any other way this can be done using c-panel or similar? Thanks.
 
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