Pinball Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Senario: A new originals band has been playing for about 1 yr and is on Facebook, ReverbNation and Soundcloud. We're getting better gigs and have better recordings but aren't making money. We really would like to set up our own web site. Low cost would be good. 1. Any suggestions 2. Any advice on selling on a web site Note: We did try one of free ones but found it a bit constricted and soon came up against barriers that needed cash input-not quite as free or as fit for purpose as it first appeared. Any advice, with examples would be much appreciated! Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 We have a web site, buts mostly a gateway to our other social media sites and a page from which we can sell records and T-shirts. Like it or not most people use Facebook as their main point of contact with a band, and a web site looks good and can act as a hub for all the other site that you are on, but don't expect it to be your fans' first port of call. One thing that is interesting is that we have our merch for sale on both our web site and Bandcamp, but the current trend is for most of our sales to come from Bandcamp despite the fact that it works out slightly more expensive for some items than buying directly from our site! Regarding getting VFM from your own web site, the best deals come with the free hosting packages when you buy the domain name. So provided that you don't need loads of space (or bandwidth) for your site or multiple email addresses you should be able to host your web site for the cost of the domain name each year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valhalalf Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 I really liked the old Nine Inch Nails website. They basically had an official front page using their web domain but all the links took you to free hosting sites. For example, the image gallery link took you to their flickr album, the video link to their YouTube channel and the music link to their soundcloud page etc. Most internet sevice providers offer you a small ammount of free hosting you could upload the front page to and then host everything else for free at other sites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jecklin Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Just to echo the other comments, my own web page gets far less traffic than my social media pages even though it's where I direct people initially. By default "people" want Facebook and then go to other sites from there. Try a bandcamp page to get you going and then see what you want in addition to that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0175westwood29 Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 if you have a good following on social media like facebook add the shop now link on to your page and link to the place where they can buy, for my band its itunes andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambient Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Mine directs you to my bandcamp and soundcloud etc. Sell via bandcamp, it's free, easy to use and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. It's used by a lot of guys like Steve Lawson for example. You can sell merch on there as well as CDs and digital. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smaz Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 You're probably best off selling through iTunes / Bandcamp etc. (check out https://www.emubands.com/ if you want to get it on iTunes/Spotify/Google Play etc.), as the hassle of trying to create & host something yourself won't be worth it. For building a site, try squarespace.com or using wordpress.com. You will have to pay a monthly fee if you want anything half decent, but you'd have to pay hosting if you did something yourself / with a template anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinball Posted July 4, 2015 Author Share Posted July 4, 2015 Thanks all, Does anyone use Reverbnation as we're already on there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 [quote name='Pinball' timestamp='1436036198' post='2814534'] Thanks all, Does anyone use Reverbnation as we're already on there? [/quote] We have a ReverbNation page, but except for updating gig info we don't use it anymore as the interface is too slow and clunky. For Facebook gig integration we've started using Bands In Town instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambient Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 [quote name='Pinball' timestamp='1436036198' post='2814534'] Thanks all, Does anyone use Reverbnation as we're already on there? [/quote] I had a discussion with some friends a couple of weeks ago about Reverbnation. The overwhelming consensus was that it was extremely annoying and pretty useless. I left it a couple of years ago, after failing to get it to do what I wanted, I'm still getting emails from them now, asking if I know this band, or this artist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 I have a dead simple website for one band and we shift a fair bit of merch on it. I just use paypal and their buttons. If you're just selling music then you could link to your stuff on itunes or set up a bandcamp www.headsticks.co.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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