Designing the Project Studio website.

A few years back, I bought Dreamweaver and I proceeded to create the most pretentious, poorly designed, boring website on the Internet.

Basically, I think that anything that needs to close the deal and generate a phone call or email to me about recording in my little project studio can be done in one or two pages.  I don't need the studio tour of the two rooms I have.  I suppose I could include the laundry room and the upstairs loft (which would actually be a great place to record live drums if I could keep the dogs from barking) but really, what was I thinking?

Maybe a little box with some buttons to play some sample tunes, a small list of my best namebrand gear (that would be a short list).  I've got to maximize my strong points and minimize where my studio falls short.

I think something simple along the lines of this guy's brief description of his "B" studio is what I need to do. http://www.cleartrackstudios.com/studio/studio-b/ 

 As far as what it would look like, I'd prefer something more in line with a Facebook page (see mine www.facebook.com/Gatortraks ) with a splash screen panorama, maybe a picture of me, a few shots of my best stuff and a phone number.  I think that posting rates wouldn't be good for me because, I will either be perceived as too high or too low and immediately dismissed before I get a chance to state my benefits.  I don't want my site to be the sole basis for a decision but I want it to generate a call.

I do this part time and I'm not ashamed of that because, quite frankly, I make a decent buck.  This allows me the freedom to adjust rates depending on how interesting the project or artist is or what my schedule looks like.  IOW, I would rather work with a really talented artist on a lower budget than a twit who suck-o-las and has plenty of dough.  (Although I take them when there is a piece of gear I want.)

Anyone that want's to make suggestions, point to great sites, lend a hand or give me a proposal for a turn key site, I'm cool with it.  

As far as my tastes,

Flash and background audio playback are out.  I hate waiting for Flash animation to load and I've had the beegeebers scared out of me from audio suddenly blaring out of my speakers when I didn't expect it.

Dave, if you'd like your site designed, my good friend Tim Wilkinson is a freelance designer, I'd be happy to put you in touch.

Another vote for a Flash-less page and minimal graphics. You're not selling your services to children who need to be entertained to get their attention. A few photos, preferably including at least one of a pretty girl singing into a microphone. If you've done some bands, ask them for jpegs of their promo pictures. Prospective customers want to see smiling people like themselves (as opposed to pictures of your mixer). 

NW Smith


I think the best option for website design is Wordpress. It is simple to use and there are many free "themes" that you can customize to give your site a distinct appearance. There are also many excellent free plugins covering a variety of needs such as search engine optimization and making your site mobile phone friendly.

I've done a bit of investigation of Wordpress.  I don't quite get how it works but it seems like it would be something along the lines of what I want.

I'll see if he's up for it and get him to contact you if so.

Dave, I feel your pain there bud. I put my little site together also with dreamweaver and while I tend to think it looks ok I haven't gotten a single call from it either. http://stormroomstudios.com I need to add better pics etc. and beef it up, but I honestly thought that my sound samples would help sell more work than they have. It's frustrating to see all these local bands on Facebook (some that I know) wasting their money in these decked out facilities with a moron at the helm of the ship pressing out these turd recordings when I can do it better, for less. but I have yet to get them to take me seriously enough to call me a book a slot. I am sure I will figure it out, but it does suck.

NW Smith


I think the best option for website design is Wordpress. It is simple to use and there are many free "themes" that you can customize to give your site a distinct appearance. There are also many excellent free plugins covering a variety of needs such as search engine optimization and making your site mobile phone friendly.

I'm going to go down this route when I re-do my site. I like all the templates available so I'll just sort through till I find an appropriate one and give it my own images and colour!


My current site I just made up in Dreamweaver and it's just too '90's looking for me. The ones on Wordpress and great and very modern looking. Simple, yet effective is my aim. I don't like too much flashy stuff unless it can be expertly pulled off. If you can't pull off the fancy stuff 100%, then don't even bother trying is what I think.

I really like the idea of having a mobile version too which is so much easier to pull off with Wordpress.

I plan to find something that integrates nicely appearance wise with SoundCloud and YouTube as I wish to have these as my default players.

And +1 for the "websites that play music instantly when you start them are stupid" idea. I hate that. Gives me a fright. If I want you to make noise, I'll tell you to make noise! I always have my own music playing when I have my computer on, I'll stop it IF I want to listen to something on the net, otherwise, be SILENT! :)

Following this post of yours, Linear Phase, I have been looking up lots of these CMS website builders. Came across another one called Joomla which I like the look of. Seems there are loads and loads of these builders so finding an appropriate one is going to be fun... From what I've read though, Wordpress is most suitable for blogging and a little less customisable than other sites.

Have you used many of these before, Linear Phase?

I found irony and humor in this example

http://drupal.org/node/1671878

where the Stanford Law School website is used to demonstrate how drupal was used in a rebuild of an actively served database driven website that encourages the constituents to post compelling content like "data show that a reputation" right on the Law School splash page.

I'll bet the next post is going to be every bit as exciting and informative.

That was a whole lotta work just to empower students and staff to post such vital and time sensitive content.













What ever happened to html? It still works ok.

Beagle


Dave (modbod) - you do realize that the website you linked to above as an example has flash on it, right?

flash doesn't have to be about an intro "entertainment" like is on IK Mulitimedia or the heavily integrated stuff like Native Instruments.

those menu buttons on this link http://www.cleartrackstudios.com/studio/studio-b/ 
 are flash menu buttons.

another thing to remember is that all phones and tablets do not support flash at all, so even those buttons on that website above do not show up at all on that website on my android tablet.

Thanks for clearing that up for me.  I was citing that one page for the general simplicity of the information presented.  You are right that I have equated Flash with extended page intros and that sort of thing.  Nothing I hate more that to have to wait for an intro to load to a point where I can skip it.

Alegria


Hi Dave,

Here's my 2 cents worth on this subject and from what I've read so far (and this from experience). Deal with an experienced Web site developer (James recommendation for example). It's going to cost you some $..., but since you obviously do not have the proper background to make any kind of informed decision on your needs at this point (no offense intended), I would consider at the very least a consultation session with a pro to properly evaluate your needs. It's an investment in your Web site future, not an expense IMHO.

Since your site's main purpose is going to be to generate new business opportunities in your area of the world, SEO considerations are going to be an important factor (very important). At the very least you need to be aware of this. I do like your minimalist approach in how to present yourself online but done in such a way as to give you some flexibility for future growth. Don't attempt this yourself with ready made templates if you value the importance of the famous/infamous "first impression" factor.

And you're right in that a FLASH only site for commercial purposes would probably be the worse thing you could do. In your case, emphasis should be on HTML5's multimedia capabilities, if need be. I wish you good luck with your project and will be following it with interest.

I just dropped back into the thread to say that I've come to the conclusion that I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.  The Wordpress template generated sites just scream "WORDPRESS TEMPLATE."  And most of the user created sites are so obvious and are as bad if not worse than my home built site.  I even decided that the right amount of Flash doesn't take all that much to load as long as there isn't a definite gateway page.   I even found one Flash template that would probably work for me but I don't really want to do this thing myself is my conclusion.


Your post pretty much confirms everything I've learned in my two hour search of Wordpress and Flash templates.  Thanks.

Oh BTW, I do know that you have said that you do not want some of the subjects alluded to in the top bar... the idea is that you simply throw away anything in the top bar you don't want.

best,
mike

It has a nice look... but anyone that knows what a website is will recognize that the web "pages" you have set up are re-purposed blog entries.

Ultimately all the template choices for the blogs look like blog templates. By the time you out think the template with clever work-arounds so as to force some "originality" into the page layout you will have worked as hard or harder than simply laying out a little .htm business card site.

best regards,
mike

Hi Dave,
 Here's a an example of a DIY prescence that has instigated initial contact and subsequent business with revenue in the 7 figures.

 http://www.kevindeyo.com/

 A good business card site can be as simple as a good business card.

 I made this site about 10 years ago and the only thing that ever changes is a new camera or format is added to the list. The site just keeps working and working.

 It is time to replace the flash contact slider on the bottom because, as has been mentioned, Flash is dead. It was fun while it lasted.

 The point about the drupal based site that I was thinking of (and the joomla sites) is that they are made for active content, on the fly, page building to enable a website to have content added without anyone noticing, and usually nobody notices. In that particular example, they already had an actively served web presence using "yesterdays", flavor of the month active server data base driven solution. Now they have todays.

 Most business card websites don't need that sort of interactivity with the "back office".

 The most important thing about a business card website is to have contact info prominently displayed and to make sure people feel comfortable, even enthused, to initiate contact.

 There's no need, as some service providers do, to explain how bad studios suck or how many unsatisfactory times they have had at one. That's like a waiter telling you they just got over food poisoning and then asking you if you are ready to order some good food.

 T.M.I.
 
 There's no need to remind a potential customer about how scary it is to hire a stranger.

 A nice photo of you with a sincere and warm smile will go a long, long, long, long way.

 The other important thing to realize about a business card website is that is does not drive traffic... you have to drive people to the website through other, usually, traditional means of business communication.

 So, for example, Kevin's website above is often found through a Google search for regional service providers. Often it is visited by someone who got a tip from a colleague or trade association. What we have found is that the web site seems to provide an interim step, where someone who has found out about the service uses the website as place to be reassured that it is a good next step to get on the phone and talk business.

 I've done a few real estate pages that were even simpler in scope but initiated rock soild 7 figure revenues from contacts made through the page. In those cases a billboard was used to drive people to the web address. The point is, the web is not effective push marketing... there are many more effective tools to drive people to you. The website is most effective as a means of reassurance and creating a strong first impression.

 My wife is an active server, database programmer for front ends that look and act like web pages. I have nothing against some good active technology...  it's just overkill for a web site that isn't changing content every few minutes.


best regards,
mike