Post your Band Website!

[Al Krow]

Band websites have become an important part of publicising bands and getting gigs. A good website that stands out can, I assume, make a big difference?

I thought it would be a really helpful resource for all of us if folk were up for sharing a link to their band websites? I'm certainly really interested to hear from you, as both my covers bands have come round to the idea that we need to get our band websites up and running asap and it would be really useful to get a few pointers as to what works well and what doesn't?

Be good to hear from you with a link to your website, plus some details of:
i) how you went about pulling together your website (did you do it yourselves, or get a mate or someone else with expertise to set it up?
ii) what web hosting (e.g. GoDaddy) and platform you're using (e.g WordPress, Wix)?
iii) if having a website has made much of difference or none, or whether most of your gigs come via word of mouth etc?

It will also be a great way to get to know you guys a bit more and what projects you are involved in!

Cheers

AK

[Osiris]

This is out little number - Candy Slam

In answer to your questions;

i) I cobbled it together myself mostly in my lunch breaks. I'm no graphic designer but I think that it conveys the fun vibe of the band.
ii) Hosted on Moonfruit
iii) Not sure how much of a real world difference it makes. According to the hit counter the site sees around 5000 hits a year so I guess someone must be looking at it. Most of our gigs are either repeat bookings, word of mouth of from people who have seen us play. The others in the band prefer to handle promotion via Facebook so it's a combination of factors for us.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[cheddatom]

www.headsticks.co.uk

I did it with the guitarist doing some of the graphics. I host it with 123-reg. I don't think it attracts attention from promoters or venues, but it's popular with fans to find gigs, and to buy tickets, music, or merch. We do quite a lot of sales though the site.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[Stylon Pilson]

My current band's website is really a glorified holding page at the moment. Our first gig is in 10 days, so we don't yet have any photos or anything like that. The website is just a single page with links to our Facebook and Twitter pages, and details for the upcoming gig.

S.P.

[BigRedX]

Here is the The Terrortones website.

It was set up originally for the purpose of being able to sell T-shirts and CDs to those members of the audience who had been unable to buy them at one of our gigs (where we sold by far the largest amount of merch). Apart form the merch page it mostly acts as a portal to all our other web presences and social media pages, and very conveniently comes out top when you Google the band.

I do think that having a dedicated band website makes you look a bit more serious, as anyone with a spare 30 minutes can set up a Facebook page, but TBH most of our promotion was done through Facebook and since we joined Bandcamp we've sold far more CDs and records through them then we have through our website merch page (despite the fact that most items work out cheaper directly from us).

The website was created by me with direction from Mr venom, but it was mostly hand-coded in Dreamweaver, which I have because was originally an Adobe Creative Suite user and now Creative Cloud subscriber.

Hosting is done by Vidahost and is using a legacy offer that gave us free web space when we bought the domain name through them. Since the site is small, fairly low traffic and any high-bandwidth elements on the site are hosted elsewhere, we don't need anything fancier.

Since the band isn't currently active, the main purpose of the site these days to maintain a web presence and provide links to places where people can buy our music in either physical or digital format. Even when the band was gigging every week, traffic was low and most of the interaction between the band and promoters and fans happened through Facebook and our monthly mailing list emails.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[Happy Jack]

http://www.junkyarddogslondon.co.uk/index.html

Originally designed for us by Steve Gee (Stingray5) of this parish, and subsequently kept up to date by Silvia (Bluejay) and Steve working in perfect harmony.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[Guest Jecklin]

http://www.thomasstonemusic.com

I currently use a Squarespace page set up.

I used to run a built/coded website then went to a Squarespace website and then downsized to a page.

Wherever you host your website it's crucial to have decent analytics built in.
Seeing how much traffic you get and where from.

I realised I get far more useful traffic through Instagram @thomasstonemusic than any other source, so only retain a website as a point of reference when I'm making applications for gigs and funding.
I update it/change it every 6 months or so - already planning the update for this winter.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Jecklin

[Bassassin]

http://www.bradfordpriceproject.co.uk/

Like SP above, just a single page with links to FB & SoundCloud - having knocked up numerous band sites over the years, with varying levels of complexity, currently it doesn't seem important to have anything more than a token site alongside the social media stuff.

We're currently a non-performing recording project - and still at the demo stage - so there may be a need for more as things develop.

Edit: Should mention - knocked up with a very old copy of Dreamweaver MX, hosted in a small, dusty corner of webspace belonging to the charity I work for (with permission, of course!) with a redirected url.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[Cat Burrito]

http://www.casehardin.com/

I run the website and it isn't the easiest to navigate behind the scenes but I am pleased with the end result.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[crez5150]

Websites are becoming secondary for our use though we are still using it for our ticket sales mostly. Social Media is the best platform we find though you have to invest a fair bit of time into getting it right.

WWW - http://thesignatures.co.uk/

FB - https://www.facebook.com/TheSignaturesNorthernSoulBand/

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[Steve Browning]

http://www.teedupblues.co.uk/


Put together by the keyboard player.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[Paul S]

My long standing band Illegal Tender. I put the website together using moonfruit and wrote it all apart from the guitarist's bio - don't think he appreciated my sense of humour.

Rock Covers band 'The Wayward Sons' (not to be confused with the US covers band The Wayward Sons, who are over here at the moment) - compact website made by singer.

However we are kind of winding down and morphing into a Bon Jovi tribute band Just Jovi . The website was also put together by the singer. Still new so not much content but we have a decent gig this Saturday that is being filmed (St Georges Theatre in Great Yarmouth - tickets available online...) - hopefully that will result in some useable footage.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[nightsun]

Love noels wig

[Paul S]

You know Noel, then - its pretty darned good, isn't it. Ben's maybe not - he has a better one now....

[SimonEdward]

Thanks for the thread. Here's my blurb ...

I'm not a full-time musician and barely get time to play ~ let alone write, but I've been putting together a small run (nay limited edition!!) 6-track EP... forever. I'm long beyond the fame & fortune stage, and will probably 'give it away' for pay-what-you-want Or a small £ donation.

i) how you went about pulling together your website (did you do it yourselves, or get a mate or someone else with expertise to set it up?

I wanted to learn how to do everything myself ~ personal development thing. I tried Tumblr first which is a free platform - drag & drop. I'm a geek for stats (who, what, when, where) which are quite important - up to to a point. I found that the sites don't generally index well on any of the major search engines. I wouldn't use Tumblr as a main website, but as part of a social media promotion strategy, it could be useful.

ii) what web hosting (e.g. GoDaddy) and platform you're using (e.g WordPress, Wix)?

After a while, I decided to go down the Wordpress route with a budget of £5 a month for hosting. Web domains are extra and I don't have to worry about band width - Pfftt! :+)

I chose Freshsites https://freshsites.co.uk/ because they were local to me. They've been good whenever I've needed any support, with fix times for tickets of a few hours - not days. I can't recall a time when my website has been down, because of a server issue or anything. I've been with them for 3 years, and don't feel like changing at the moment.

iii) if having a website has made much of difference or none, or whether most of your gigs come via word of mouth etc ...

Hmm. It's complicated... 'Authenticity' is a word I come across a lot these days, and having your own website is a good base to tell your 'story' and link to/from.

My website generates around 5-6,000 page views a YEAR, which is extremely small beer. And it's hard work getting that much. (Anyhow, I don't write for the 'views').

To finish, If you don't want to do it all yourself then Bandcamp might be the route for you? Seriously. I'm a HUGE fan. Good luck every one !!

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[Cuzzie]

Just have to say guys, really like all your websites, its nice to see people not pumping out generic stuff, but stuff which encapsulates the character of each band.

Long success to you all

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

The Rock/Americana band I was in for many years split up a few years ago so I retired the CMS site I built, and hand-coded a single page responsive static site that requires no ongoing maintanance.
http://o5b.bandrocks.co.uk/

I also made one using much of the same code but with a different design for the blues band I was in after that:
http://junkyardrocket.bandrocks.co.uk/

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[tauzero]

I've kept websites going for the defunct and hibernating bands - will close them down at some point. They're Spiral Six (now defunct, we thought we might get back together but nothing as yet) and The Lightning (defunct but doing one more gig, and we may well reunite on more than that occasion as Mrs Zero is still working with the guitarist as a duo and Mrs Zero, the drummer, and I are all working together in a prog rock covers startup). Used the same code for the menu and scaling from big screen to tablet to phone.

All put together with my own fair hand (I've done some other HTML/CSS, although that's not my main programming skill) and hosted on a VPS with bitfolk.com.

I think having a website makes a little difference, though I couldn't quantify it. Sadly, a Facebook page seems to be considered a "website" these days, much to the disdain of those of us who are proper internet snobs.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[phil.c60]

My band website is www.railroadband.co.uk
Simple Wordpress site run by me and hosted with Vidahost who were most helpful when I transferred the site to them - I had to do it by cloning the original Wordpress site as although I owned the domain name and ran/maintained the site it was hosted by the guy who originally set it up and he was expensive and extremely unhelpful (especially when we wanted to host it elsewhere).
I update it after every gig, and use it in conjunction with a Facebook page run by the harmonica player. Even if we only change the poster for the next gig on the front page, it shows that the site is active and current, which I think is important. Websites with old and out of date information are not attractive - quite the reverse! How much it contributes to the band I don't know, but it seems to be a useful way of keeping band information that complements the "rolling news" nature of Facebook.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[artisan]

My bands website
https://www.jacksabbath.co.uk
Created by our singer,no idea how or what with but I think he's done a damn good job.
The post below jolted my memory.
Our was made with Wix too & apparently was easy to do plus is cheap to run.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[rushbo]

Here's mine - The Peoples Republic of Mercia - Hot rockin', old school R&B from the Midlands.

http://www.promercia.com/

I put it together on Wix, which i can thoroughly recommend - not the cheapest, but the templates are easily customised and their mobile optimisation is really good. The merch is listed on the page on a cool widget from Ecwid which is free for less than ten items. We've got some gigs through the site, along with the FB page, so it's paid for itself a few times over. I like curating it, too - I can make sure no "unflattering" shots of the debonair bassist ever get uploaded (cough...)

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[geofio]

Here is the Extreme Danger page all info and music is available on this page links to albums etc, have a listen all albums , we are currently on album number 7 and almost completed !!!
https://www.facebook...89981824604224/

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[JapanAxe]

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[ChrisJaxon]

Here is our band website: www.route61.band

It is made using WIX and was done in a very short time by my step-son who is anyway an IT whizz/nerd. I have been maintaining it and upgrading it ever since, and it is a doddle even for an old f@rt like me to add/remove/edit stuff. I would recommend the wix.com method.

I would say that the website has got us a couple of festival/beerfest gigs, as well as one private party, and a couple of tracks played on a Dutch blues radio station. A good site does get interest, and Wix are quite hot on search engine optimisation, which is a real bonus when folks are looking for local bands.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353

[super al]

I've been waiting...

...and waiting...

...for our drummer to finish our website so I could post on here!

He put it together, like a lot of folks in this thread, using Wix. We had a vote over 2 domain names and www.goldband.rocks won the vote 3 to 2 (close, like brexit!).

When I was asked to audition I had no desire to join a function band, I just thought I'd 'fill in' until they got hold of a proper bassist! I started to enjoy learning the songs they threw at me though and before I knew it, I was in.

Just in case you missed it www.goldband.rocks
(Is there a fine for mentioning it twice?)

Edited June 13, 2018 by Dad3353