Jayhell
I have been looking at many web hosting options on the net, but what do I really need? Like many bands we just have a Facebook profile and looking at how that's working out, we seem to just be spamming our friends, especially the 2 of us that actually use our Facebook. It seems Facebook is rather ineffective by itself. Yes, as a tool it's great, but every band needs it's own website. I want to register a .co.za domain, have a couple of pages to share pics, tunes and video, customize the look of the thing and bla bla bla...
What do you or your band use? I'd like to visit your sites and compare the pricing and features of different hosts etc..
Bob-Dubery
I think the challenge is the same. If you run a Facebook page, you set yourself up on myspace or you run a standalone web site you have to do two things
1) Get people to look at your page/site
2) Don't turn them off.
(2) is on my mind at the moment. I've liked some band pages on FB. Some of the likees use their page to publish details of upcoming gigs, links to live footage etc. Fair enough - I'm interested in their music and this sort of news on my feed suits me. Some others (and one in particular) also put out copious amounts of non-relevant material, including rants (sometimes with a factual basis) about goings on in politics or business or the fate of rhinos or whatever. Big turn off for me and I am going to unfriend them because I'm getting swamped by the influx of unsolicited outbursts. See, I liked them because I like their music and that's what I want to know about - I don't want to have to countenance their beliefs on the afterlife, their thoughts about vegetarianism (and omnivorism) and global warming. That's not why I signed up.
Also make sure that YOU have control and keep it focussed. TJ's set up a FB page that quickly became annoying to the people who liked it and useless to TJs because the people who were asked to keep it updated posted lots of irreverent, sometimes annoying and always distracting material as well as using the TJ's page to punt their own band's gigs. It became a lose all around.
Jayhell
There are a lot of 'free' services out there, but no one is going to find your band if it is at www.freewebhosting.com/profiles/bands/yourbandnamehere1197. So you need to register the domain. Most web hosts will provide this service, but do we need 100 pop mail accounts and all the blablabla... American sites don't want to register .co.za and our name is already taken as a .com (who did that? Bastards!)
So far it seems Hetzner is the way to go, we use them for all our companies, but any other suggestions are welcome.
And come on, www.yourband.com is a lot better than www.facebook.com/yourband. I don't want to market facebook, i want to market my band. It's just a branding thing.
My other problem with Facebook is that you can only market to your friends, the only way out of your circle is if people are particularly looking for you.
DonovanB
Please just don't use Wix, I hate their sites.
What about asking Norio? he has a great service going as well. He's the reason why I don't do websites any more, too good and too cheap 8)
Bob-Dubery
Jayhell wrote:
My other problem with Facebook is that you can only market to your friends, the only way out of your circle is if people are particularly looking for you.
I don't think that's an issue. If people are looking for you they'll punch your band's name into a search engine. A lot of pro musicians do use FB and Twitter these days. There is an advantage in that you can link some social networking accounts so that updating on twitter generates an auto update on FB. Also you can easily do emergency updates from a smart phone, even post during or immediately after a gig.
Jayhell
X-rated Bob wrote:
Jayhell wrote:
My other problem with Facebook is that you can only market to your friends, the only way out of your circle is if people are particularly looking for you.
I don't think that's an issue. If people are looking for you they'll punch your band's name into a search engine. A lot of pro musicians do use FB and Twitter these days. There is an advantage in that you can link some social networking accounts so that updating on twitter generates an auto update on FB. Also you can easily do emergency updates from a smart phone, even post during or immediately after a gig.
This is all true, and as I said Facebook is a good tool, but I think it is important to have a good web page as swell. It should all be interlinked to cover all your bases. If I google my bands name the Facebook page does not appear.
Bob-Dubery
When I google "Suns of the Gun" I get a list of results with your FB page being the 2nd result.
The problem seems to be the unusual spelling. If I just google suns of the gun then google decides I mean "Sons of the gun".
scotty
I don't have a band, I do follow quite a few bands though.
What I like:
- things already said about posters about FB/Twitter etc.
- a nice basic web page with some history and some photos
What I hate:
- an outdated webpage showing last years gigs -
- a page that is not in sync with your fb events. or wherever you run the events from
- random rants about politics etc. (also mentioned earlier).
So what I am saying is, decide where you want to do what. If you want to keep everything in sync, fine. Just keep on doing it ?
Services I have used in the past for straight forward html hosting @ R10/month is www.host4africa.com .This means you will require some knowledge about web pages/servers etc. (it's not that advanced, if someone shows you once you will probably be good) but you will have full control. Something like Wix (mentioned earlier ???) is much easier to setup and normally looks nicer than you DIY home page... maybe a web designer friend can help with a few basics. You can buy your domain name either at the hosting provider or if you want a dot com you can go the godaddy.com (i think it is $10 a year).
You can also consider running a blog from www.blogspot.com but that is probably not the smoothest way for running a static website, if you like to share videos, links etc. a blog might be a good idea.
I think people get overrun by options, end up trying everything out and then forget to update all these interlinked intertwined things, this ends up leaving a footprint somewhere that becomes outdated... soundcloud, myspace, bandcamp, twitter, facebook, wix, blogspot...
Hope this info helps a little bit in some way.
epictring
Best web hosting in my opinion for small sites like bands use. Is Nearlyfreespeech.net
Pay as you go web hosting, simple, safe and mind boggingly affordable. Run something like wordpress on top and you're set.
AlanRatcliffe
If you're just looking for some hosting space, PM me - I have a reseller account with a US hoster (with all the usual bells and whistles) and can let you have some space very cheaply. I can also help you with the registration (quick and easy). Could even set up a test account for you to play with before you register, If you want to see about doing it yourself.
Otherwise, if you need a designer too, speak to them first - they might use their own, preferred host.
Bob-Dubery
X-rated Bob wrote:
When I google "Suns of the Gun" I get a list of results with your FB page being the 2nd result.
The problem seems to be the unusual spelling. If I just google suns of the gun then google decides I mean "Sons of the gun".
I also get your FB page if I type in "Sun of the Gun" (with the surrounding quotes).
It's a problematic name. Unless people see it spelled out they'll likely be looking for "Sons of the Gun" or some derivative thereof.
Hammeron
The Kahn in our name is constantly spelt wrong Khan instead of Kahn, however if you google it with the wrong spelling, google spits out the right one.
Bob-Dubery
Hammeron wrote:
The Kahn in our name is constantly spelt wrong Khan instead of Kahn, however if you google it with the wrong spelling, google spits out the right one.
I think it depends on what it's got as possible alternative matches. "Sun of the Gun" is phonetically very close to another well known expression. (which is why I get better results when I surround the name with quote marks)
It may also help to check to see if somebody else hasn't already got the name that you want. British band "The Beat" found out that there were established acts with the same name in the USA and Australia, both territories where they were selling well and wanted to tour. They had to operate under a modified name in those territories and their records and all their other merchandise had to be re-branded.
Jayhell
Thanks all, ja the quotation marks make a big difference. How many of you actually visit band's websites?
sharonzaz
Donovan Banks wrote:
Please just don't use Wix, I hate their sites.
What about asking Norio? he has a great service going as well. He's the reason why I don't do websites any more, too good and too cheap 8)
Wix rocks! using it for myself and built a couple other site for ppl using it, its great.
R80 a month and u got hosting and building tools + youll need a domain, roughly R100 per year.
an account with wix also gives you SEO tools and facebook ad vouchers included free.
yes, yet another Israeli company ?
AlanRatcliffe
Wix is always painfully slow for me. I see a link to Wix site and I usually don't bother following it.
Bob-Dubery
Jayhell wrote:
Thanks all, ja the quotation marks make a big difference. How many of you actually visit band's websites?
I have one or two I visit regularly. I actually like the FB thing because all the relevant stuff (we're playing here, this is our new album etc etc) appears on my news feed and I don't have to worry about looking for it. This is where social networking sites work well - most people with a computer or a smart phone use them, so they're a way for you to broadcast information to the masses instead of getting the masses to come to you.
HOWEVER, and as I've already said, if artists start using their page to publish rants - which then also end up on my news feed - then I am less keen. Sure they're entitled to their views, but one of my views is that they should keep this stuff separate from the professional side of things. Some of them also don't seem to consider that fans of their music might actually not agree with their world view. What's worse, after they've got onto the high horse and seen the reaction they start arguing. Big lose. Don't go there in the first place. I'm only interested in your page because I like your music.
But yes... I visit a couple of web sites regularly. I have a few I've liked on FB and so get news pushed to me. Some I visit occasionally - for various reasons. There's no time to actively monitor more than a handful, so the push thing on FB works well for me.
string_slinger
Hi Jayhell!
Another alternative is CDbaby. They have a new service called Hostbaby which offer a lot of value, all the add-ins you need and at a really decent price. Tailored for bands, so check it out...
Cheers
SS
Jayhell
X-rated Bob wrote:
HOWEVER, and as I've already said, if artists start using their page to publish rants - which then also end up on my news feed - then I am less keen. Sure they're entitled to their views, but one of my views is that they should keep this stuff separate from the professional side of things. Some of them also don't seem to consider that fans of their music might actually not agree with their world view. What's worse, after they've got onto the high horse and seen the reaction they start arguing. Big lose. Don't go there in the first place. I'm only interested in your page because I like your music.
+1, I hate rants. I like posts about songs, gigs, pictures and band relevant stuff. If you want to rant do it on your own account, not your band page.
