Thread: Website Designers

I know this has been asked before, but after perusing all the threads I could find - have not found quite what I am looking for so thought I'd ask directly...

I've been teaching belly dance for four years now, and while not inexperienced in public performance and event hosting, have never worked the restaurant market. I am at a point in my life where I would like to take my teaching/performing to a different level and ramp up the business side as well.

Starting with my website...
Know this is a MUST HAVE if I am at all serious about making the tranisition from this being a paying hobby to the career of my dreams. I already have my business name, logo, and general feel I want to project. Plan on tying website in with other marketing that will do (biz cards, post cards, ads, etc)
It will contain both static and dynamic elements, have CMS (so I can edit/add/change things myself), an opt-in email thing-a-ma-jiggy, email form, and way to pay for classes online. Would also like ability to either have or link to an online boutique with shopping cart.

But not have to sell my car or motgage my house to pay for it...
Any Suggestions?

Thanks

Wordpress CMS on the host of your choice. Most hosts have one-click installs for WP.

The nice part is WP is a base a lot of designers use. You could start with the basics yourself and, in the future, pay a designer to give a professional look to the site.

It's a fairly easy system to learn and update yourself, too.

Always just thought WP more for blogging...
Hmmm, I will have to look.
Thank you

There's the version of WP that is on the wordpress.com site.

Then there's the version of WP that you install on your own server. It's a lot more flexible and customizable than the wordpress.com site version. I've set up everything from basic sites to ecommerce sites with WP. Really, there's a plug-in to do just about anything.

My site was done on WordPress by Dreamstar studios (dreamstarstudios.com). Brian is amazing! And it's very easy for me to update. Samira Shuruk | Belly Dancer in Baltimore & Washington, DC
Also on WordPress by DreamStar is Anasma, Ranya Renee, Shiraz, Hannah Nour and others. If you google search them, you'll find them. :)

If he's booked, I also highly recommend Isabel. She's a belly dance and a graphic designer, so really understands your needs. And she's great to work with.

Isabel | Belly Dance Artist

Hi, I am both bellydancer and graphic/web designer too, so I understand bellydancers needs ;)
I can offer my services - designing and building web site without CMS for 300 USD and with CMS for 550 USD. If you need more info, let me know. Contact: info@sandesign.cz

Samples of my work (mostly for bellydancers):
::::: Sandesign - grafika a tvorba webovch strnek :::::

Remember to make sure it's mobile-friendly? Even with as much crap as I have on my webpage it loads faster than many "pro" jobs (I did it in plain html).

Originally Posted by anthea

Remember to make sure it's mobile-friendly? Even with as much crap as I have on my webpage it loads faster than many "pro" jobs (I did it in plain html).

This is a good point because people tend to like graphic heavy sites. Unfortunately, even plain HTML can be slow as molasses and unsuitable mobile when you base the design on graphics. Also, any text you put into a graphic --- unless you are using ALT tags --- will not be indexed by search engines.

The simpler, the better.

There is a sweet little plug-in for Wordpress called WP Touch which does a nice job of parsing out WP sites for mobile devices. There's a stripped down free version and the single site license is only around $50 for the full version. I'm using it for couple of clients right now.

I'm still a proponent of a solid content management system for the backend of sites --- Droopal, Joomla, or Wordpress. Otherwise, you end up tied to a site that you're not going to be able to update easily. Relying on someone else to access your site and update it for you can be a pain.

Speaking of which, since I have to deal with this regularly at work --- make sure you have all the information for your domain registration and your site hosting. In fact, I would recommend you set up the accounts yourself instead of having a designer do that for you. If things go south and your designer closes up shop, you're going to need all that information for any further updates. You also need to keep up with all of these accounts and keep your contact information up to date. There's nothing like finding yourself without a site because the hosting or registration bill is due and you never got the email about it.

Originally Posted by roguepen

This is a good point because people tend to like graphic heavy sites. Unfortunately, even plain HTML can be slow as molasses and unsuitable mobile when you base the design on graphics.

Graphics don't grind on me nearly as much as Flash. Splash screens make me want to gauge my eyes out regardless of how they're implemented, though.

Originally Posted by roguepen

I'm still a proponent of a solid content management system for the backend of sites --- Droopal, Joomla, or Wordpress. Otherwise, you end up tied to a site that you're not going to be able to update easily. Relying on someone else to access your site and update it for you can be a pain.

I don't consider this to be relevant to the discussion on page load times since any CMS that does anything CMS-y is going to be acting on the server side and not browser side. I mean, I guess if you're trying to do a whole bunch of stuff with Javascript, then that would have an impact...

CMS turns into "plain HTML" when you have a good caching system. I like WP Super Cache if you're going the Wordpress route.

Originally Posted by roguepen

Speaking of which, since I have to deal with this regularly at work --- make sure you have all the information for your domain registration and your site hosting. In fact, I would recommend you set up the accounts yourself instead of having a designer do that for you. If things go south and your designer closes up shop, you're going to need all that information for any further updates. You also need to keep up with all of these accounts and keep your contact information up to date. There's nothing like finding yourself without a site because the hosting or registration bill is due and you never got the email about it.

I will agree with that. Make sure your contract says that upon payment you have ownership over the work that the designer did for you, too. Graphics, text, coding, anything... It's yours when you've settled payment.

Or else the designer, things gone south or not, has a permanent claim and can issue you a DMCA for stolen intellectual property if he or she so pleases. The case might not make it to trial, but very few dancers can afford that kind of potential litigation. Claim ownership. The designer can have claim to display their work (as a designer, I want to be able to show my work to future clients without relying on you keeping your site running and with the same content I created), but you shouldn't leave the rights with them.

Originally Posted by roguepen

The simpler, the better.

I couldn't agree more.

I'm in the process of ditching my website and just using The Morning Bleat

Just for others that find this thread, I figure I'll chime in here. I'm Brian (a.k.a. DreamStar Studios).

In about 2 ~ 3 months I'll be releasing the first ever service similar to WordPress.com (e.g. you don't have to install WordPress, mess with FTP, and a slew of other things that make a DIY website a huge headache).... but the special part is that it's focused on artists (bellydancers first, and then I'll branch out to musicians, and other breeds of artist.

Notably different than similar services, is that it will have:

* Included custom domain name (rather than yourname.wordpress.com)
* Theme options that are customizable to your personality, but not so customizable that they confuse artists who aren't born as techno-wizards
* Complete shopping cart / eCommerce solution
* Ability to upload, stylize, and adapt specific images, photos, and branding in a way similar to some of my most loved design styles
* Instant access and automatic creation of everything pertaining to your site
* A comprehensive catalog of video tutorials that show you exactly what to edit, where to click, and what to do to be a administrator of your website

Will take me about 2 ~ 3 months (from the time of this posting) we will launch a new service that makes creating a beautiful artist's website as simple as filling out your name, choosing a domain, giving some basic info, watching a few videos and then adding your content.

I'm taking all that I've learned about the process from the last 6+ years and consolidating it into a highly customizable tool for creating and managing a website that is lightning fast (hosted on a private server that is highly optimized in comparison to other crappy webhosts like GoDaddy, etc.) but is also highly stylized (or minimal if that's your preference, there will be themes at both ends of the spectrum) and includes upcoming events management, eCommerce, image galleries, and all the features commonly requested by bellydancers.