Website

mwadeson · Post by **mwadeson** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 7:58 am

I am looking for some web site ideas and some one to design it. i already have a website but it needs alot of work. If anyone has ideas let me know i would appreciate it.

cowboydarryl · Post by **cowboydarryl** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:25 am

Whats your web site to view it???

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:08 am

I do not have a web site.

1. I don't need one.

2. They are a lot of trouble to keep them up-to-date. An out-of-date site makes you look stupid.

3. If you have to pay someone to do it, now you have to make more money. And you have to depend on them to keep everything current.

4. I have seeen many karaoke web sites.

My close competition has a web site. They have never worked as much as I do. Or as steady. The empty calender looks like a joke.

5. Put more time and money into your sound system and it will pay for itself. I get jobs because I have a great sound system and know how to use it. Singers spread the word about who is good and who sucks. Much better than a web site.

mwadeson · Post by **mwadeson** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 10:05 am

i see what you are saying bigdog but i am looking at is as more a advertising device. some of my patrons said i should they would like to go on it and find out where i am playing and see pics and stuff like that. Plus i figured i could save some money with mailing everything via contracts for weddings. they can just download them fill them out and mail or email them back. I have a lot of weddings that the bride grew up here and they want there wedding here but wont be back here until a week before.

cowboydarryl · Post by **cowboydarryl** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 10:16 am

The cost of a web site is not that much and once set up they are very easy to maintain. It takes only about 15min to update a month and I'll be the first to admit I suck at typing. We add pic's from our shows most KJ,s dont. but its a big hit with the singers! I also DJ weddings,company funtions and privite partys almost all have been booked by word of mouth but I hand them a card and have them go to my site and check It out. As for my sound system having a web site hasn't made me cut back there. I would put my system against any one. I get many profesional singers at my shows and one of the first comments I get is on the sound quality. (I run 2 sets) that was my first and formost goal! Good sound brings good singers and the not so good sound better. I also use my site to promote that. You can post your song list. I have people that go to the site and have their song list ready when they walk in the door! Its just another tool to promote you business.

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 11:56 am

I use mine to give my singers a place to go to find out where I am and also if they want to get a leg up in picking their songs an interactive version of my songbook is there as well.

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 4:14 am

16 years......and no web site. I have made hundreds of thousands of dollars. Guarantee I have made more money than my competition that has sites.

If I do this 20 more years I'll never have one.

letitrip · Post by **letitrip** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 4:17 pm

I'm with Darryl and Dan on this. Websites cost next to nothing (less than $100 a year for mine) and with the right Content Management setup can be extremely easy to maintain. My singers love that they can search my song list and let me know what songs they want me to get that I don't have yet. I also get bookings through my site and I post photos there of past shows which the singers like and it's an effective marketing tool for booking new shows.

Bigdog, you have ways and they work for you, that's awesome. Tried and true isn't a bad thing. But don't just assume that because people use some other methods that you don't find necessary that they're doing so to cover up for some other deficiency. I've spent 10's of thousands of dollars on my equipment and I'd put my rig up against anyone's with absolute confidence.

mwadeson · Post by **mwadeson** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:40 pm

how about does anyone have a drag and drop web site design program that they really like.

letitrip · Post by **letitrip** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 4:36 pm

I don't know that I've seen any drag and drop website tools, but Dreamweaver and MS FrontPage are two WYSIWYG design tools that work pretty well. Dreamweaver is the cadillac of website authoring tools and comes with a pricetag to match. FrontPage is more of a Cheverolet, its dependable, getst he job done, isn't real flashy and doesn't have all the features of the big guns.

A lot of website hosting companies also provide some form of page authoring tool with their service offering. Usually it's a pretty simplified web based tool but it would be enough to get a website up and running. Some offer more advanced Content Management Systems like what Darryl's site uses. These usually have some really cool features and a lot of customizable options.

You can also pay someone to design a site for you. Some places will do a basic design for a couple hundred bucks. Might get a more professional look that way and not pay much more than you would for software or advanced hosting services.

Your last option is find a friend that knows website design and ask them to build one for you. I used to work on web applications for a financial services company so I know things like PHP, ASP, etc pretty well. So I chose to build my own site which included writing some custom code to do things like my song search. Find a friend with simialr knowledge and they might be able to do it for you for a case of beer or something.