PaulWarning Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 our annual payment is coming up for our website, wondering whether it's worth it or does Facebook do the job for free? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hechtor Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 Do you have any statistics on if it is getting visits or not? Do you receive any emails from people wanting to book your band? Facebook is good, but you should add more than just that (Twitter, Instagram, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tegs07 Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 2 minutes ago, PaulWarning said: our annual payment is coming up for our website, wondering whether it's worth it or does Facebook do the job for free? I don’t think anyone under 30 uses Facebook … 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 How much traffic does it see? Do you follow up with enquiries about where people have found you? Facebook is difficult as people need to be a member in order to access all the details of your page. Not a member? Maybe lose an enquiry. If it's an originals band, I'd say you don't unless you're at a particular (high) level. But I'd sack off Facebook and have everything sitting across Instagram and Bandcamp. Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulWarning Posted May 18, 2022 Author Share Posted May 18, 2022 our singer runs it, he doesn't seem to know how much traffic it gets, most of our audience is 50+ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hechtor Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 (edited) Ok, to be honest, if your SEO is done right, it can only help, especially if you run a very active blog and keep it updated about shows etc.... If I may ask, how much are you paying for the hosting ? Edited May 18, 2022 by Hechtor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulWarning Posted May 18, 2022 Author Share Posted May 18, 2022 Just now, Hechtor said: Ok, to be honest, if your SEO is done right, it can only help, especially if you run a very active blog and keep it updated about shows etc.... If I may ask, how much are you paying for the hosting ? just been quoted a renewal price of £86 for 1 year and £136 for 2 years, I tried a blog many years ago, in the end only one person was looking at it 😂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hechtor Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 (edited) 6 minutes ago, PaulWarning said: just been quoted a renewal price of £86 for 1 year and £136 for 2 years, I tried a blog many years ago, in the end only one person was looking at it 😂 For a hosting only? If so, that is expensive. You should look elsewhere, but beware of companies like GoDaddy (they are horrible and have all sorts of ways to fosters you off). You might want to read this: https://hostingdata.co.uk/best-cheap-hosting/ Edited May 18, 2022 by Hechtor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supernaut Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 I would say so. The amount of pop up businesses that have a FB page has their website is shocking. Makes you look cheap and tacky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 One of my bands has a proper web site with CMS and everything, that hardly anyone ever looks at. For the other one I just have a domain name which points at our Facebook page and costs about £10/year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 No. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 It can be useful to have a (easily found) domain name with a single page that highlights any important information and then includes links to all your social media and on-line sales sites (Facebook/Instagram/Tiktok/YouTube/Bandcamp/etc.) You used to get more than enough web space free with your domain name registration to be able to do this, but that appears to be a thing of the past. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elfrasho Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 I'm wondering this myself because I've not looked at a band website in probably 10 years but one of the boys in a wee band I've tried to put together was adamant we needed one and spent 100 odd quid doing it. I reckon we'll get a dozen views over the year and I find it hard to believe we'd lose our in bookings if we referred them Rob Facebook/Instagram instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor J Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 (edited) Facebook and the likes are making it much harder to access information on their sites without logging on. As someone who doesn't participate in social media, I have given up clicking band links to FB/Instagram, etc. as it's usually a dead end. I'm a music buyer and a gig-goer but I've no interest joining Facebook to find out when your next gig is. I am not going to chase your information around the internet. I'm sure I'm not the only one, so I'd recommend every band have their information somewhere which doesn't require a log on. It doesn't need to be your own website, but don't put your info exclusively in the FB basket and think you have told the world. Edited May 19, 2022 by Doctor J 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tegs07 Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 17 hours ago, BigRedX said: It can be useful to have a (easily found) domain name with a single page that highlights any important information and then includes links to all your social media and on-line sales sites (Facebook/Instagram/Tiktok/YouTube/Bandcamp/etc.) You used to get more than enough web space free with your domain name registration to be able to do this, but that appears to be a thing of the past. This. Possibly try AWS free tier. An S3 bucket can host static pages. If this is all just unintelligible jargon wix.com is easy to use and can cost less than £5 a month. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velarian Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 In the past I’ve used Better Web Space for simple no-frills web hosting. Packages start from £15 per year. https://www.betterwebspace.com/hosting/packages.php As already mentioned, now that Facebook insists on a login to access content hosted there, this is likely to exclude (annoy) potential visitors. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 IMO yes. I pay £10/r for a .co.uk domain. I won't comment on hosting as it's on a bigger package with a load of other site. Our website gets loads of hits, we sell a load of merch through it, a lot of people check the gig list on it. We do well on Facebook/IG but a lot of people don't use this, or don't use it much, and without the website we'd be missing a load of people 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 8 minutes ago, cheddatom said: Our website gets loads of hits, we sell a load of merch through it, a lot of people check the gig list on it. We do well on Facebook/IG but a lot of people don't use this, or don't use it much, and without the website we'd be missing a load of people That's interesting. When I used to run The Terrortones website we sold fair amount of merch and CDs right up to the time that we also started selling on Bandcamp, at which point sales from our own site dropped to zero despite the fact that it was cheaper than buying the same things from Bandcamp. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 15 minutes ago, BigRedX said: That's interesting. When I used to run The Terrortones website we sold fair amount of merch and CDs right up to the time that we also started selling on Bandcamp, at which point sales from our own site dropped to zero despite the fact that it was cheaper than buying the same things from Bandcamp. I think a domain pointing straight to a well maintained Bandcamp would be better than pointing straight to FB or no domain at all 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvia Bluejay Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 We used to have a website for one of our bands because we started it when social media was just a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg's eye. We got rid of it several years ago and never regretted doing so. The bookings we got through it, even before social media, could have been counted on the fingers of one hand. I'm talking about covers bands. I strongly believe that originals bands definitely should have a good, up to the minute website, as well as presence on all existing social media, and work hard on all of them. For both our current bands, we find that Facebook (for those who are on it) and Lemonrock (for landlords/club managers and social media refuseniks) work absolutely fine for bookings and communication. Our rock and roll band has accounts not just on FB and Lemonrock but also on Insta, Twitter, Soundcloud, Vimeo and obviously Youtube. The only thing I refuse to touch with a bargepole is TikTok, which is in any case used mostly by the wrong target market for the band, so it's not worth bothering with at this stage. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrypF Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 Many bands I follow or am friends with have a 'shell' site with one, or at most a few basic pages - but these display, front and centre, the social media people favour these days. For example, here's Silvertwin's site: https://www.wearesilvertwin.com They have a young-ish audience (plus old farts like me who liked their sound before it was retro) but I'd guess they want to make sure there is some standard web presence. If you can get a cheap domain and someone to put together simple pages, that's how I'd go. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nilorius Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 It would be easier and more effective to make a good and active facebook place. Easier to update it and to advertise it for free. Millions of people use facebook. No need to pay such a money every year to create something that can't be advertised for free. I vote for facebook. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 My last band had a website which linked to our merchandise, of which we used to sell a lot. From what I understand bookings etc were all done via Facebook, but that website was invaluable for the merch aspect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabag Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 (edited) Avoid Facebook at all costs. All pages looks a mess even in good light. Navigation is convoluted, it looks cheap, and i despise any business ( not just music ) that only has a Facebook page. It's a cop out. Get a decent website and make it easy to navigate. Keep it simple for dummies, that way everyone can see what you need them too Edited May 19, 2022 by fleabag 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicko Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 Depends on what kind of band. If you're playing pubs once a week then no. Oh, and a half arsed amateur looking website is worse than having nothing. This is true for any on line presence though and whatever social media you use you need to keep it updated and interesting. Lemonrock and Bandcamp are OK. Facebook is not as popular with the youngsters but if your audience is mainly middle aged it's still a good way to post events. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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