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Wondering here what is the best way to get a good music artist type website created on a really low budget these days?

I have webspace and a doman, and I created my own website years ago - like around 2004 - with Microsoft's FrontPage website creation software.

It sucks. Bad.

I'm talking about both the website and FrontPage itself. That version of Frontpage was a frustratingly cruel joke for me, and any claims they made about it being WYSIWYG were pure baloney IMO. I haven't attempted to update my lousy site in years because there's a very good chance the whole thing would blow up on me. Again.

I need to create a new identity for my current music direction and album anyway, so I'll get a new domain for that.

Now I'd like to know what people have had actual good experiences with in website creation-ville, and/or what would be another good forum to go to for this line of questioning?

Thanks!

I'm a big fan of WordPress. It's super easy to set up and maintian and the templates are very professional looking. Most web hosts support it and offer an eas and free WordPress install into your existing hosting space.

I use Skyrocket Websites for my hosting. They were recommended by Ariel Hyatt who is a social networking for musicians guru. After a tiny bit of a bumpy start when their server provider had some problems, it's been pretty smooth sailing. I had Nick set up my site initially but I went in and tweaked around with it afterward and found WordPress to be pretty easy to use after I learned how to use some of the functions. They have a bunch of templates that you can start with and tweak to your heart's content, and a bunch of plug ins that you can use to grab things from your facebook and twitter feeds, etc.

http://skyrocketwebsites.com/

I'm sure there's others out there that provide this, I went with them on Ariel's recommendation last year's Road Rally.

I'm not very up on all of this stuff, but I do know that WordPress is the hip new thing and the sites look way better than any Front Page concoction from a few years ago, IMO.

HTH,

Mazz

I like Wordpress, too; it's relatively user-friendly. This is a prefab template with my customized banner; I think it looks pretty pro:

http://doubleadaddies.wordpress.com

I'm currently using WordPress as well and use MacHighway for hosting. But I am thinking of switching to SquareSpace.com when my package is up. SquareSpace will convert everything from my WordPress site as well.

kc

Ummm...I use Frontpage, even though {cough, cough} everyone here seems to not like it. I built mine from scratch.
Keith

http://www.hostbaby.com was simple and works for my site. Don't know your definition of low-budget, tho.

+1 on Hostbaby. Don't know if $20/month is low budget. Super easy, lots of prefab designs.

+1 on WordPress.
It looks great and is super easy to update, and endless free plug-ins.
I turned off all the blogging features on mine so it looks like a regular ol site.

http://www.marcblackwellmusic.com

Tons o' great replies here - what a relief to know about these relatively non time sucking/non life sucking ways to go about it.

I'm sure I'll be using one of these - thanks, people!