I posted this in the General Message section but the GT forum might be more appropriate.

Has anyone used Blue Voda or Wix to build their own music website?

I'm looking for a very simple way to set up a half-decent looking site for my lyrics and songs. I wondered what people's experience here has been. BV and Wix are both free, though I'd need to pay a hosting fee to BV.

The emphasis isn't on "free", however. I'd be glad to pay a (realistic) fee for a decent and user-friendly site builder, or to someone knowledgeable who could give me a hand. Can anyone recommend such a person or provide a weblink?

Any tips/advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Donna

Over here you can usually look in the phone book for someone that build's web sites. That's where I would look.

Not that I'm a fan of Broadjam.com, but they make it easy to build your own site. They have lots of templates to choose from.
I believe they charge $195 yearly to host. Check them out here for details: http://www.broadjam.com/hosting/templates.php

John

Donna,

I use http://vexxhost.com/ to host my blog and have absolutely no complaints. In addition to the best hosting prices I have seen, they have several different tools for building your sites included with the hosting packages.

BTW, I am not signed up with their affiliate package, so I don't get any money if you sign up. DakLander recommended them a while back, so now it's my turn to pass it on.

I see that Dak responded on the General Messages forum thread.

Hostbaby is very good. They have templates that are easy to use, you can upload mp3s and lyrics, etc.

Ray, John, Kevin, and Vikki, thanks very much for your feedback here.

Donna

There are tons of options... I'm kinda late replying so you might of already chose something.

Do you have any HTML experience? If not, go with HostBaby or some other hosting company geared towards musicians. Or, you can use a content management system like Drupal, Joomla, Modx, etc. Or, you can use blogging software like Wordpress. All the content management systems have different pre-made themes you can choose from, same with Wordpress.

If you choose a company that is geared towards musicians (I assume you can just Google something like "band site hosting") they probably have a built in music player which would be helpful. If you choose a content management system, they are pretty easy to set up, but don't come with any type of music player.

But, if you need help implementing a music player let me know, if I have time I might be able to help out or at least give suggestions.

I would suggest Bandcamp. Free, simple and easy to use. have a look at mine (below).

Colin

Yes, bandcamp is an excellent choice!

go-round and Colin, thanks very much for your input.

In the meantime, someone has kindly offered to create a website for me in exchange for him being able to use it as a promo on his own (music) site. I'll see how that goes.

Colin, your Bandcamp site looks good.

Donna