Wix webhosting/design?
divamum
Registered Users Posts: 9,021 Major grins
www.wix.com
I stumbled over this while looking for some templates for my singer site. I REALLY like the look of their designs, but to use your own domain it looks like you have to sign up for their hosting service.
My current website looks hopelessly old-fashioned and out-of-date, trying to get Wordpress launched on my host was an epic fail (my host doesn't use one of the "automated" installlers, and I was entirely out of my depth trying to do it manually), yet another attempt at making a generic CSS template work has hit a stumbling block (I want an ordinary link, but no matter whether I add it WYSIWYG or manually, it inserts a navbar item, and I can't find the code in the css file to fix it), and... well, you get my drift. I'm fed up and a slick-looking, manage-it-online interface kind of has its appeal just at the moment!
Anybody have any experience with them? I might consider moving my site, even though it's quite a big jump in price - the designs are soooo much more pro looking than what I have now, yet I could still handle it myself (the main reason I don't simply hire somebody to build a site for me - I like to maintain, update and monitor it myself without having to go through a 3rd party, and I haven't yet found anybody whose designs I like willing to do that for me at a price I can afford).
I stumbled over this while looking for some templates for my singer site. I REALLY like the look of their designs, but to use your own domain it looks like you have to sign up for their hosting service.
My current website looks hopelessly old-fashioned and out-of-date, trying to get Wordpress launched on my host was an epic fail (my host doesn't use one of the "automated" installlers, and I was entirely out of my depth trying to do it manually), yet another attempt at making a generic CSS template work has hit a stumbling block (I want an ordinary link, but no matter whether I add it WYSIWYG or manually, it inserts a navbar item, and I can't find the code in the css file to fix it), and... well, you get my drift. I'm fed up and a slick-looking, manage-it-online interface kind of has its appeal just at the moment!
Anybody have any experience with them? I might consider moving my site, even though it's quite a big jump in price - the designs are soooo much more pro looking than what I have now, yet I could still handle it myself (the main reason I don't simply hire somebody to build a site for me - I like to maintain, update and monitor it myself without having to go through a 3rd party, and I haven't yet found anybody whose designs I like willing to do that for me at a price I can afford).
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I will say this. I have read your blog before, and I looked at it again today. I think it reads well, is easy to maneuver and looks fine.
I admit to being a little confused by the problem you mention regarding a WP blog. If you own your domain name, you can easily transfer it over to someone such as GoDaddy and of course, they install the WP app for you, to that domain name. I had done the CSS adjusting over and over and finally started finding templates I thought were tolerable and even nice! Which is what my HUB is now.
FLASH> I know lots of folks jumped on that bandwagon, and understandably so, but I will say, lots of us (ME, for one) are stuck in Low bandwidth hell for the foreseeable future. I am so glad I didn't go flash, simply because now with my Back-country bandwidth, I could barely access my site(s).
Are you wanting a blog and another website or two? or just the blog?
For my $85 hosting fee over at GoDaddy, I can have up to 20 websites off of that one hosting fee. Right now I prob. have 8 or ten tied to it.
I've always been pretty anti-flash too, but these look relatively zippy, and I would'nt use that much of the cutesy stuff - essentially it's a place for biography, reviews, production pix, a few soundclips, and my agent's contact details. I'm just soooo sick of fighting with CSS templates! If could get the %&!#&!@Y thing set up it would be fine, but no matter what I choose, there is ALWAYS a glitch. I actually like super-simple websites - very clean, without any fuss. I think that's the design element at wix that appealed, since their "front page" templates are exactly that. Clean, but very stylish.
That said, you make a good point - maybe it's simply time to transfer my site to another host. I use ixwebhosting and have a pretty good deal with them, as well as tons of storage/bandwidth and domain names as I need them. They WILL transfer me to their "new" server which has automated tools that can install WP et al automatically, but it means literally moving me across and starting from scratch (and will result in downtime for my existing site, which I'd rather not have).
Ugh. Tooo complicated. If I had more of a budget, I'd just pay somebody to do it and have done with it!!
Is that you in the recordings?
I will also say, you should have whatever you feel you need. your 'Website' doesn't strike me hopelessly old fashioned and out-of-date. Once again, it strikes me as easy to navigate, to the point and simple, but not simplistic. I would like to see a better photograph though! I do think it could use a tune-up.
I looked over the WIX site more and seems like it would be fine. I am just hesitant to get locked into a one stop shop like that. As I may have said before, I'm finding the WP templates more avant-thinking/looking now-a-days too, which has cut down on me having to rearrange things to taste, and cuts down on changing things round, when it's time to revamp~
Check here for Themeforest
woo themes is another I've used.
And yup, that's me honking away in the soundfiles
Thanks for the feedback - maybe I've just been looking at a bunch of slick sites recently and mine seemed a bit penny-plain in comparison. When I designed it my main goal was that it be super-quick to navigate - I know that hirers don't spend much time looking for bio/soundfiles, so I want to make it easy for them to look me up (and hire me, one hopes!!).
I'll keep researching how to get WP set up on my existing site - it's possible, I just don't know enough about sql and php to do it without learning a LOT more than I know now. I'm also going to see if I can comb the glitch out of this css template I found - I really like the look of it, but it has this one weirdness in adding hyperlinks that I can't figure out how to work around
Long, LONG story behind that splash page/photo - it gets quite good responses from non-photogs, although all I can see when I look at it is what's tecnically wrong with it. I have another one I'm going to start using in fact - it may appear as an avatar at some point, too
Damn impressive!
As for the photo, I like one of those from you in the office, so to Speak: Singing!
And You are so very right. If a person is looking to hire you, it aint off your webs design or lack of it. The only thing that could potentially blow it is if it was a B-word to Navigate! And you took care of that. If you have to begin to get into php and MySql to get yer page working, then something just isn't right! I did learn a few php things and some simple Css but it was all in-situ and for the moment. And that as you might know is not real handy when it comes time to change stuff later on.
Also in the case that you may move your hosting or just to IX's new server. Or even to a new Host. Plan ahead!
Get your photos lined up and ready.
Get your bio lined up.
Get your Audio files lined up and ready.
and go find you a WP template and have that understood and ready. Buy it, download it to your desktop and have that Zip file at the ready!
All before making that move.
So far all I've done is really commiserated here....Let me know if you need help in some way, especially with Wp, WP/GoDaddy. whatever!
Cheers,
Link to my Smugmug site
Ya...Like here
Wow, amazing talent. I had no idea, Divamum.
Link to my Smugmug site
:tiptoe
If you are interested, I can provide the same platform for a decent price.
I personally wouldn't go for any of those sites that provide templates, but then again the hubby is a designer.
Cheers.
Joi Cohen-Haroun
Website :: Facebook :: Twitter
I took a look and listen to your site. I understand what you mean about being "dated" as some of the iframes and the like are a little off. I also got a 404 error and did not like that they put up their error page rather than your own. Putting up your own WP site should not be that hard. I am running three at the moment. I do not know wix but have used FatCow as well as HostMySite and SmarterLinux and Rackspace so I have gone all the way from cheap to enterprise grade and can say that for what you want to do, almost any host would work. If you want ping me offline and I can point you in the right direction.
Now on a tangent, You have a great voice, but can you put up higher resolution recordings? The 128kbps has some ringing in the highs in my opinion.
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What page gave you a 404? They're all working from here... I'm hoping that was just a transient glitch (and if not, I need to know so I can fix it
As to the 128kbps - one of the biggest complaints from industry folks about accessing singer files is speed of access. You're lucky if you get a 10 second hit and you have to grab them FAST - they just won't wait around. I do have higher rez files (most were recorded at 16/44 and down-rez'd from that), but have always been reluctant to make them too much bigger than they are. Maybe the next batch I'll bump it up a little. Btw (since IIRC you're a sound engineer) quite a few of those were recorded using DPA4060s, which can tend to be a little top heavy (the ones which weren't the DPA's were CMC8's from Sound Pros). I personally like that extra bit of "sparkle" from the DPAs since my voice can tend to be overdark, but maybe that's what you're hearing? Also, most were recorded using the Edirol R09 (v1) built-in pre, which did have a bit of hiss. One of these years I'll get the DPA minipreamp, but for now have been running them off the batt box and through R09.
I'm sure that WP is easy to run once it's installed - it's the manual installation of the database info (not WP itself) on my host that's hanging me up. You have to go into the SQL and PHP managers and set them up with commands, and it requires knowledge of how to add various lines and parameters. It completely defeated me. I agree, however, that's probably the way to go... I just have to figure out how!
All I really want is a modernized, cleaner version of what I have. I like the grey/white/red, I like the simplicity. I just don't like the fact it looks out-of-date (for all the reasons you say, Brad!).
The page that has an error is the schedule page, the link to Annapolis Opera is misformed. It looks like you have an relative reference to your site not absolute.
In terms of the audio quality, I don't know your industry as well as you do but perhaps having multiple sizes up there on the audio page so that one can decide what they want to listen to. So if they hear something they like they can get more detail - just like from medium to large images.
The DPA are really nice mics - now I work for a "competitor" but I still know and like the ones I hear from DPA. I wonder if some of the ring could also be a result of the Edirol since if I remember right it is an unbalanced input. Now my brain is trying to remember if I have a spare mic pre.
In terms of the PHP and SQL questions, do you know if your host has a myPHP admin interface. If they have that, I can probably walk you through everything. I was able to walk my wife through it without any problems....
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As for those DPAs... they have a funky connector (two mini-coax). The MM2K is DPA's own mini-pre which I SHOULD have bought when I got the mics, but the mics themselves nearly required a mortgage and I just didn't have quite enough to stretch to the pre as well at the time (the BB is about half the price). I was going to trade up, but then life intervened, and then I started buying camera equipment - nuff said!! They are AMAZING stealth mics though - I don't know anything that captures the wide dynamic range of operatic sounds as well as they do. Especially when you consider they're the size of a pencil eraser! Every time I use them they astonish me.
I see you got an in here with Brad, and having help is a huge benefit. But I will say Doing a WP blog and entering your data: Uploading the files, photos, audio, etc is easy @ GoDaddy. Sometimes I use their ftp. Other times I just use the WP blog itself to upload a file/s...we're talking easy here...You do need to be able to click your mouse, but that's about it!
Sure, learning the interface can seem daunting, as it will most always be in a new interface, but that is the hardest part: Wheres, this, where's that, etc.
Let us know how it all goes~
Thanks, once again, to dgrin - talk about "good folks" round these here parts
I see, i see. Looks some like your last site, but works better and has a better( easier?) gallery viewer. Congrats!
Still tinkering - the them I chose is extremely customizable, so having some fun playing with it now it works. New trainset
I think I might have created a monster
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:lol4
Yeah, but I get really busy at the end of this week so whatever it looks like then is likely to stay that way for a while
Famous last words....
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I've been ever so good and not done a thing since then!!!
I must admit I LOVE not having to upload everything - makes it so much easier to manage the site from anywhere when the content is stored and manipulated online. Consider me a convert, Tom and Brad - WP, for all its foibles, is pretty fabu!