Designing a Website

[junkbox]

I really have no clue on how I should go about getting a website.

I have looked at some of the web designer sites such as SquareSpace. It looks pretty easy to do and very professional. Has anybody tried these sites? Are they any good, or would you just recommend going to a professional web designer and having them do it?

I have no clue what a good price is for getting a website either, and I do not want to be paying loads more than I have to. What is the pay scheme for a website? Monthly? Annually? One-time fee?

This is all new to me, so could you please fill me in on the details regarding, well, everything to do with getting a website?

Thanks.

 

[j.bayme]

Assuming you're looking for a site to promote yourself, the simpler and more professional, the better. For that sort of purpose, SquareSpace is great. Highly recommend their system - I know Brian Brushwood and Justin Willman use SquareSpace to power their websites as well. Easy to use, easy to update, and even their default templates look pretty slick.

 

[slicksleights]

I used wordpress, it took me a while to get my head around it all since I had no experience in web design, but I couldn't be more pleased with the results I got from using it. Well worth the time invested.

 

[baguette]

The quickest and simplests website if you are planning on making an online store would be tictail.com

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I'm so bad at designing web sites it would anger you.

It's one of those "I don't know how to do this, but I know what I like." And I agree with Bayme - simple is good. I like Justin's site that was linked earlier. I also like Daniel Madison's, though it could be a bit easier to figure out how to get to the rest of his site. I really dislike clutter and even though I like Brushwood, I think his site is cluttered (personally).

I look at a web site as a virtual business card. It should have the information necessary to contact you very easy to find. After that, it should have reasons to hire you. I really like Justin Willman's design in that navigation is completely natural and it's visually pleasing to look at without a ton of clutter. Though I would probably go even more simple than that, as I find some of the background images distracting. But that's me - I'm really minimalist with this stuff.

 

[junkbox]

I agree with everything you said Christopher, except I think it is going to be fun to get to design my own website.

I really like Jamie D. Grant's website in that it is one big page and the tabs scroll down to the right section of the page. It is similar to what Justin did and I like that, but I do not know if I can do that on SquareSpace. That being said, I do like a lot of the templates on SquareSpace because of how professional and sleek they look, so I am probably going to go with that.

Just a quick question I have. Should I focus on matching my business card design and website so they are very similar in color scheme and style? I would imagine this is a good thing to do. To me, it seems like this would make the "business" seem more professional as a whole.

One last thing that is a little off topic but talking about the style reminded me of this. I am designing my logo to go on my website and business cards, so my question is-What makes a good logo? I just want an idea of what to try and avoid vs. what makes a good attention grabbing and interesting logo. I want to avoid it just being my name in a fancy font.

Thanks for all the replies thus far.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

I like the idea of doing things yourself. In the book Reworked they highly recommend doing everything yourself until you literally cannot get it done correctly. Then you look for help. This keeps costs down.

I'm just bad at design so it's frustrating. I am inherently non-visual in my approach so trying to create a visual thing is very difficult.

I like the idea of having a theme across all marketing materials. I think it helps tie everything together and make it seem more professional. It doesn't have to be an exact match, but the same general aesthetic is good I think.

Logos are tricky. You want something that is pleasing to the eye, conveys some sense of 'you' as a performer, and isn't close to someone else's logos so they don't get mixed up. Madison's got a good logo, I think. David Blaine's is good. Laura London's, too. They're simple but convey who they are and their aesthetics. Again, I think the key is simplicity and clarity.

 

[RickEverhart]

I use http://www.bludomain.com/ and have been pretty happy after 3 years of service with them. There are really nice templates to purchase, it is easy to update whenever you want, and is easy for beginners. You don't need to know anything about html code or any complicated programs that might take you some time on the learning curve.

You purchase the template you want, pay for the hosting fee on their servers and you can buy your domain name as well.

http://www.everhartmagic.com/index2.php

 

[Habanero]

Let me also add that if you want to personalize your site a bit more, you might want to consider buying your own domain name rather than having the hosting company's server name attached to your url. For example, www.example.com would sound a bit more professional than example.wordpress.com.

As for your business card and website, it would be better to make a visual relationship between both that way the people viewing it can make the connection that they are both related and go together. It would confuse the viewers if your identity doesn't match up in different places.

And to answer your question as to what makes a good logo, a good logo is recognizable, unique, and relatively simple. You don't want an overly complex logo that is difficult to look at. You would just scare people away. As an example you can search up Apple's 1976 logo with Isaac Newton under a tree and compare that to what they have now. You just have to make a choice as to which type of logo you want, a symbol/icon, or a logotype.

 

[junkbox]

Wow, thanks guys.

There are so many options out there as far as designing websites, all of which seem very good. I guess I can't really go wrong with which template to choose, but it is a tough decision because I want it to be the best it can be.

Designing a logo is just as tough. I have a few ideas that I will try to create and then decide which I like most. I will definitely take your advice on simplicity and clarity.

I don't know how I will possibly choose which design to go with. Anyway, thanks for your input and of course any more is always appreciated.

 

[Justin.Morris]

I use Wix.com. Seemed like lots of tools and very flexible with a drag and drop style. HTML 5 sites available. Affordable. Worth throwing in the pool. Best of all with minimal effort I was on ythe first page of Google.