Quote tcdyer:

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Hi,

Spa, spam spam

If you want more info just send me a pm.

Tom

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You might wanna read the forum rules Mr 2 posts.

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www.BandSoundHire.com
PA Hire in Brighton, Sussex, Surrey and Kent.

I'd REALLY suggest skipping the desktop based tools like Frontpage and Dreamweaver in favour of a content management system like Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla. Do a bit of googling and you'll have no problem coming up with plenty of muso/band sites using these tools.
They take a bit more setting up but make life very easy after that.

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Mark Gibson
www.ImproveYourMusic.com

Quote A k A:

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Hello,

use iWeb for Mac, very simple, very effective, no need to know HTML or whatever. This is what I did with it, check Apple site for more, you can do a lot more...

http://www.villa.schumann.sizaret.net

Cheers !

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2nd that !

I would not bother with Notepad or other text editors if you are not familir with HTML.
Using a product like iWeb, you can create good looking pages at a suprisingly high rate with virtually no knolwedge of the programming launguage used.

It is the web equivalent of Garageband or Acid - instant results !!

As a beginner this can be the most frustrating experience. But, if you have the patience...

On the other hand if you just want to get your website up and running, go check out elance. They have a whole bunch of freelance web designers there that will bid on your post. You can view there work and also look at what past clients have said about them. I use them for all kinds of stuff.

Trevor

Record Label Guide

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www.independentmusicstartup.com/recordlabelguide.html - For Anyone Starting A Record Label

Quote Gibbo:

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I'd REALLY suggest skipping the desktop based tools like Frontpage and Dreamweaver in favour of a content management system like Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla. Do a bit of googling and you'll have no problem coming up with plenty of muso/band sites using these tools.
They take a bit more setting up but make life very easy after that.

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That's good advice - Wordpress in particular has thousands of free good quality templates that can be tweaked to produce a professional looking website in an hour or two, and installing Wordpress itself only takes a few minutes.

The quickest way is to use myspace as a template. The most important thing is that you have content: pictures, and information that is interesting...oh yes music too, and things you have on youtube. If you are more patient, go buy some web software and learn how to use it. Dreamweaver (Html based) is very good, but there are much cheaper options.Then get spamming, and play gigs..human contact has no alternative.

Here is our effort: regards strangefates

www.moonfruit.com/

Hmm, the fastest way actually you use wordpress to set up a website for you. It easy and you don't have to learn HTML because they have an in built "MS office" like editor. Also the best part Wordpress is FREE! just go to worpress.org and download one.

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Spyware Doctor 6 Review | Stellar Photo Recovery Review

Use iWeb - simple.

Way better than everything else in the "amateur applications" group.

Start with an "almost there" template and edit to suit your needs.

superb.

The problem I have is that I've absolutely no sense of layout design. I can do the coding OK, but can't produce anything that looks attractive.

I've looked at other sites to see what ideas I can copy, but they all seem to be far too complex for just a simple, clean layout that is easy to keep updated.

Most sites also seem to use obscene amounts of javascript and flash. Something which I want to avoid at all costs!

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It wasn't me!
(Well, actually, it probably was)

Yup we used to use Dreamweaver now we use Wordpress and it is awesome. Highly recommended.

Another very cheap but well featured and very easy to use desktop WYSIWYG type program is WebPlusX2, much better than FrontPage.

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www.electric-himalaya.com
VST and hardware synth sound design

I mostly use Joomla Content Management System to design my websites, which is free, open source, and has a lot of useful addons for music, like mp3/video players, and isn't too hard to get a hang of. www.joomla.org is the homepage of Joomla.

You can add forums for free, embed youtube or whatever onto a page, and it's graphically pleasing.

It is helpful to know a bit of html and css, but websites using a cms do most things for you, and the web forums are wonderful things to find help and support. I'd post some links, but I'm new to the site and don't want to be accused of spamming. lol

All the best with it.

Chris

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Djembe drums, musical instruments & percussion

Quote Folderol:

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The problem I have is that I've absolutely no sense of layout design. I can do the coding OK, but can't produce anything that looks attractive.

I've looked at other sites to see what ideas I can copy, but they all seem to be far too complex for just a simple, clean layout that is easy to keep updated.

Most sites also seem to use obscene amounts of javascript and flash. Something which I want to avoid at all costs!

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I suppose it really depends on what you want to achieve, like someone said up above: a blog, ecommerce, forum, gallery etc. A blog is easy to update, and all the coding is done for you, so Wordpress or Blogger would work. Some people have made these quite attractive, like jimmy currant's site I read about earlier in the thread. I think, if you go down the blog route then adding your own gig photos, or youtube videos, or other interesting content really goes a long way to making it noticed, whereas flashy stuff is only a short term thing. I usually make sites on Joomla CMS, but buy a professional template which has all the attractiveness I am looking for with the functionality of Joomla. Look up Rockettheme, joomlashack or search joomla templates on google if you want to see some options for that. Most webhosting will have Joomla and other CMS options preloaded in their control panel (cpanel) under Fantastico, so it's not too hard to install and get going.

Sorry for the long post, congrats, you're at the end.

Chris

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Djembe drums, musical instruments & percussion

If you are on a mac use iWeb. The pages pratically build themselves and you do not have to use code at all. You can get pretty complex if you want also. Check it out!

Hey, please check out this Online Radio and comment about the design!

It's my friend who is a jockey that designed that site.

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D.G.
Tailored Suits Designer

Thanks for the suggestions guys. It looks like Joomla will be my best bet (when I can find that fictional concept - free time)

@djembedrumshop
No probs with the length of comment. It was useful

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It wasn't me!
(Well, actually, it probably was)

Seamonkey by Mozilla (the guys who made the firefox browser) is a decent place to start if you're a beginner. Best of all its free too.
Seamonkey!

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www.totalmusicsupply.com
Great Instruments at Great Prices

Haven't read the whole thread so it could have been already mentioned. Kompozer, Seamonkey and most of freewares are ok for simple stuff. Joomla seems to be an overkill from my point of view if you are about making band/artist webpage. I have found Joomla as an excellent tool if the content of the site changes very often and basically you are not after "unusual" look. Flash would be perfect but I haven't found any free GOOD editor yet. Paying for Adobe makes no sense for me. So I would recommend HTML based Microsoft Visual Web Developer. FREE, pretty stable, good editing/coding capabilities, keeps page setup pretty firmly. I have ended up with this one after few months of trials and I'm really happy with it.

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Dance&Club Myspace Profile

Btw the most tricky thing about Joomla is installation. You need to set up a virtual server etc. To be honest PINA. However, if you crack it possibly it could be quite useful in some situations.

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Dance&Club Myspace Profile

I've not used Visual Web Developer, but if my past experience is anything to go by I'd stay far FAR away from anything Microsoft for creating webpages. Yuck yuck yuck.

I'm sure it's been mentioned before in this thread, but I've just used Wordpress to build a quick and simple website for a friend, that allows them to easily make changes without having to delve into HTML or ask me for help. I managed to get my head round how it all works and put together the site in a few hours, I'd fully recommend it, both for more static sites as well as blogs. Dead easy installation as well.

For more complex things I use Zend Framework, not really so relevant for beginners, but a very flexible tool if you want to start doing anything beyond the very simple with PHP.

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Myspace | All Things Considered - album out now!

I used Macromedia Dreamweaver which was really easy to use.

Im 17 years old, & I created about 5 professional websites for companies.

Nathy xx

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Nathan Stewart | Freelance Sound Engineer

Usability is all about making the visitor’s experience a good one on your site. Things should be easy to read, easy to access and most importantly, easy to understand. When a visitor visits your site, they should know exactly what your site is about within the first couple seconds. This is obviously where design, and layout come into play. You need to avoid cluttering your site in the physical sense. I’m not talking about having “too much content”, but rather how you choose to display that content. Things should be laid out with spacing and margins.

I personally use Adobe Dreamweaver, it's a bit of a learning curve but worth the effort.
HTML is a must and flash is optional. Google doesn't deal with flash well so it has to be a combination.
try out lynda.com, they have tutorials about anything you can think of.
I created my site with Dreamweaver, have a look:
Free sound effects by the Sound effects hunter

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sound is everywhere
sound effects hunter

A few quick solution:
If you want a flash site, (that google can't find) but looks and sound cool try www.wix.com - you can design you own site in a few hours and it looks great.
You can also try wordpress, it's easy to use and there are many plug ins that can make it a full working website in no time. You can also buy a domain to host the wordpress site.
For pros I recommend dreamweaver...
Good luck

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sound is everywhere
sound effects hunter

Tutorial on How to Design Your Website Using Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 .... simply click on the word you wish to replace, delete it and type your own. ... One reason we're going to do this now, even before we've finished.
You'll want to do this to make sure you're not really seeing a cached copy of ... Get more free tips and articles like this, on web design,
If so, you'll need to go to each website where you're using your Windows Live login ... To do that, go to Tools and then “Delete Site”.


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Quote Alphajuno:

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So i want to design a website, ive never had a bash at designing one before.

Whats the best way to go about this? Should i be looking at flash or HTML? Which is the easiest for a beginner to start with?

Are there any programs ideally free/cheap that can help me along the way?

Tar

Ray

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This could be the best $27 you ever spent, I did and I learnt a lot about web design. I initially built my own websites but then decided that it wasn't just about coding but graphic design as well so now I have my sites "skinned" by a web designer and then do a lot of the coding myself. Looks much better.

It includes a load of training videos and templates to work with. It also includes a realtime css/html editor. It's a triple pane split screen where you type your html code in one pane the css code in another and the third pane renders what you have done like a browser would

Also check out http://www.dynamicdrive.com/

This is stuffed full of great Java Script ideas which is the way to go IMHO.

http://howtomastercss.webdesignboost.com/

It's a pain in the rear to begin with and you'll find you have to watch the videos a few times for it sink in. But once you start to get to grips with it it's a lot of fun and great asset when it comes to keeping your website up to date.

Also use the web, there are hundreds of forums from absolute newbies to real experts and they are really helpful

Have fun

Sean Kenny - Ten21 Recording Studios

http://www.ten21recordingstudios.co.uk/

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Sean Kenny - Ten21 Recordings Studios

Quote Forum Admin:

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Hi Paul,

Nice clean, easy to use web site - does the job well.

I even found out you did the music for Get Shorty - one of my fave films, and my kids will be ever so impressed when I tell them that the man who did Spongebob Squarepants writes in the SOS Forum from time to time. Respect.

Ian G

PS: that's what I love about this forum - you never know who you are communicating with.

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OK I know this is OT - BUT Paul - it's an impressive list of credits - but it would be interesting to know what you actually did on those films - ie what the actual credit was, and if I were to type Get Shorty into the IMDB database where would I find your name...?

And in what sense are you the man that "did" spongebob squarepants?

And I know you didn't write '2.4 Children' because that was Howard Goodall; 'Father Ted' was Neil Hannon etc etc etc

So Ian - I wouldn't be so easily impressed with everything you read on the web! Is there a lesson in website design there?

Ben

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The large print giveth and the small print taketh away

Quote James T Bigglesworth:

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Hi Ian - not all the scores, unfortunately - just 'additional music'. But, as ever, and like everyone else, I keep trying...!

Paul

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OK I've just realised this is a really old thread resurrected this morning - I'd like to hear some of that 'additional music' on your website though...

B

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The large print giveth and the small print taketh away

I didn't know you could use Photoshop to design the layout of the website then work with the design in DW. I've been trying to work in DW alone and just cant get my head round it.

So i'll design in PS split up the design into tables and work with it in DW.

Sweet.

Sorry it's taken me a while to respond to this - I don't get here as often as I would like, unfortunately.

Regarding my website, the list of credits (additional music) is long out of date and it would probably be a good idea to junk some of the older titles in favour of newer ones. You're right to make the point that I'm not credited at the end of most of the programmes, but I'm credited on the cue sheets, which is all that matters to me. Again, when and if I ever get time, I'll post excerpts from the programmes on the site to show just where and how the music was used - actually it can be quite informative to see, for example, how one piece of music can fit lots of different scenes!

I don't know what you mean about being "the man that 'did' Spongebob Squarepants", but I'm grateful that they've used a huge amount of my music on that programme.

I've not seen Get Shorty all the way through - I've not seen even a quarter of the films and programmes that have used my music - but the film appears on all my royalty statements going back ages, so without looking it up I can tell you that the track is called 'Sixty Seconds to Climax'. Conversely, I don't know offhand what music was used in 2.4 Children, so I'd have to look it up. If you think there might be a problem, I'll happily send you extracts from my various royalty statements and you can take it up with PRS etc.

But going back to website design, I'd be the first to admit that mine is far from perfect, although that bothers me not a jot. However, it reaches the people I want it to reach (e.g. music editors and commissioners). They understand it and it works for all concerned so, at the moment, it can stay as it is.

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"Over fifteen years without a slogan"

The good news is that you have numerous options. First, eventhough Flash looks good, these websites are difficult to get seen and ranked by search engines.

So, if you want some traffic, stay with the HTML-Based design. To really standout, I would suggest hiring a freelance web designer. There literally thousands of them just waiting to show you what they can do. Go to Google and do some research.

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Make Your Own Studio-Quality Music - Free Trial

A friend of mine used a wordpress template as my website - this means I have a content management system, rather than what I had to do before, which was to update every page manually and update all the links. I registered a domain name, then this got redirected to the WP blog template site. Much easier for me than having to learn html

I recommend you HTML and Dreamweaver (the most popular html editor)

I'd be carefull about taking on the design yourself! HTML/Dreamweaver all have a learning curve and that means time! If you want to get on with making music avoid the doing it yourself - I would suggest the best approach is use wordpress(free!) and use a premuim template like THESIS from DIYThemes http://diythemes.com This cost about £60 but you have support/forum etc to help get you going ASAP

Hope this helps
kevin
http://kevinjryan.co.uk

hi,

to the OP, here's my take:

at its heart, a website is a set of files written in a specialized mark-up language called HTML (hyper text markup language). there are about two dozen basic html commands you need to master. btw, back in the old days of computers (pre-Wordperfect) we all used some variant of these codes to lay out documents in a text editor - things like .li for a list element, .ul for underline, etc. it's not a big deal to learn these basic commands. the other thing you need is a text editor that generates text files (not Word files, not RTF files, just plain text). both notepad and wordpad on windows machines work fine.

the home file of a website is always called 'index'. it defines the homepage and contains the links to the daughter pages.

after this, things can be made very complicated very quickly. there are things called style sheets, etc, that web designers use for ease of re-use, etc. don't worry about them for now.

the last thing is a host on the web to place your HTML files. your ISP should offer this service as part of your subscription and there are zillions of third party choices. i use Godaddy, but there are many other good ones. you'll need to use a program that implements a file transfer program to get your files on to the one you choose. the provider should have a help desk if you need a hand, which you probably will the first couple of times.

dreamweaver, photoshop, etc are very nice programs but definitely overkill unless you are getting into the web design biz. to summarize, all you need is:

1) learn the basic HTML codes
2) a text editor the outputs ASCII text files
3) a (FTP) file transfer program
4) a host computer on the web

also, you'll need to register a domain name if you want people to be able to find your site. there are zillions of domain registrars. pick one, buy your name, they'll load it into the internet 'phone book' called the domain name service (DNS).

that's it. bob's your uncle.

of course, the real fun starts in figuring out the design of the pages, layout of pix, etc, but the fancy tools only get in the way IMHO.

btw, the SoS tutorial ian referred to above is an excellent source (no surprise, every SoS tutorial i've read has been top notch). also google the W3 consortium, they have tutorials that you can follow.

my advice: start simple, add incrementally, avoid (unnecessary) complexity. sort of like learning an instrument ;-)

cheers,

d

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"Patsy had the drug tolerance of Keith Richards and the moral rectitude of Brian Jones." - Dr. Walter Bishop, "Fringe"

My advice would be to always think of userbility in your design. Once you figure out how to create a site ... keep it simple and functional!

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Unsigned bands and artists can audition their music to top industry opportunities using www.audiorokit.co.uk

Best Soap Cutter

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Best Soap Cutter

Another recommendation for Wordpress. You can get a site up and running with music samples, contact form, etc. very quickly, and many of the themes can be personalised to some degree. You can add/edit pages, categories, upload pictures, mp3s, etc. whenever you want. There's a plugin for almost everything - all the hard work has already been done. Once your site is running, then you can spend time learning about html, css, etc. and build your own theme if necessary.