Hi all

I was wondering, would anyone be able to offer me any assistance, tips, advice etc with choosing a webhost and registering a domain name for a newbie like myself who wants to upload a website?

I'm based in the UK so would preferably prefer a UK based host in case of any problems

I'm using dreamweaver at the moment and I'm in the middle of (between projects) editing an XML template with all the text and images etc. and a friend of mine is doing the artwork and design for me

The website is for my acoustic covers/busking act that I'm planing for later on in the year to make a little bit of money just doing busking, playing round pubs/bars and weddings as I'm flat broke at the moment

I want to do it all professionally and plan to get some business cards printed so if anyone asks me when I'm out busking for a card they'll have a point of contact on the web to get in touch for any potential bookings etc

So far, i've been looking at godaddy or 123reg as my options, and I'm hoping to have the site live in the next two months or so, or as soon as i've finished editing the template with the text/images/mp3's/videos etc

I'd like to get the site to appear in the search results for my chosen keywords, so I think I'd need help with things like robots.txt and meta tags and general SEO so that when people search say for "wedding guitarist liverpool" i'll appear in the results and won't be buried on page 10000000 somewhere

Ok, cheers folks for any help offered, much appreciated

 

reg123 or similar for buying your domain name, and then use a free web host for your webpages, you simply log into your reg123 account and change web forwarding to your web host address. (your ISP for example may give you some free web space to store your pages)

you can setup dreamweaver to upload your pages as well.

don't worry too much about search results, you can get yourself listed easily without using any so called fancy SEO sales gimmicks

vistaprint is about the cheapest for cards (if you don't mind using their templates) Your own design will cost more though.

 

Anyone who wants to establish themselves, should have a 'home base', so to speak. It's great to utilize some of the music sites that offer free uploading of your music and videos, but those sites/companies can change their policies, rules, and revoke your 'rights', etc. at anytime. They can all disappear or fade away when the next new social music site appears and then you'll end up having material all over the internet without any real foundation. (i.e. the old mp3 . com, my space, etc.)

Many of them lure you in with 'free' and then when they get enough of a following, they start charging you fees to utilize 'premium' features.

Having your own site allows you to build your fan base and have them focused on you, your art, services, etc., as well as have the ability to connect with your 'official' social media accounts, etc. which you can link from your website. You want the focus to be on you and your art and not some big name/billionaire owned websites that make tons of ad money on traffic that your creations and visitors/fans bring to their site.

Having your own site gives you the advantage to have more control of your art. There are millions of people on all of those other music sites, and it's easy to get lost in the shuffle. People who see that you are serious about your craft, and are willing to invest in yourself, they will make time to visit your website. People are not as busy as they appear. There is just a lot propaganda fluff floating around on the internet preying on their short attention spans.

It's all about building your brand, no matter how small you start. Make yourself stand out.

You can register a domain and host it for free, or have low cost hosting that starts at $4 per month, depending on which company you use.

As the saying goes, 'build it, and they will come'...

Good luck!

 

Cheers guys

I took myself off facebook a while back, it just annoys me with the constant 'what i'm having for dinner' updates, not to mention all the NSA spying thing that goes on with FB, plus every musician & business it seems is on there plugging away, it's not really a route I want to go down

I do have a soundcloud and youtube though, so that would be a good idea to use them in conjunction with a personal site, as I think it does give you something else that you don't get with social media, but thanks for your comments and advice though

I still like the idea of a website for a personal touch, it gives off a professional image which is what I'm attempting to do, you can also add pages, host mp3's etc and sell yourself a bit better

Any thought on the SEO sides of things? Also, is an XML site ok

Thanks

 

two sides to the coin.

option 1: have your own site, (I would also prefer to have my own site, as it just appears more professional) that being said, are you going to have enough traffic to validate paying for a domain name, and not forgetting all the SEO things you need to do in order to come up on Google's 1st search page,.... (being found on page 17, is not going to help much), one of the other drawbacks are that you need to be known in order for people to even know about your site. (if the only people who know your domain address are those people who you give cards too,... then you're going to have to give out a lot of cards)
one example that comes to mind is the Dark Ambient artist, Geomatic My link .... and the only reason I know about his site is because of soundcloud,
I also only got to know about him , because I searched for similar artists on last.fm

option 2: you go with bandcamp, soundcloud, last.fm, G+..... etc, and let the users do the work sharing your tracks and getting your name out there. you might have some user looking for their favourite track, and then notice you as a similar artist,... and who know, perhaps after that, you're their favourite artist.

I've also discovered bands/artists where they upload their music to magesy, or audioz, if they didn't do that, I never would have even known they existed.

well, that's just my opinion anyway.

anyway, as for hosting, I know you would prefer a company in the UK, but have you considered bluehost (yeah they're based in the US, but after lots of looking around, we've found them to offer some of the best service, there could be better ones out there. anyway, just an option

Good luck with whatever you decide