My band needs webdesign!!

Hey guys,

I don't know how much help you can give me but I thought I'd ask regardless. My band is going to be recording our demo soon and will have it circulated around some majorly huge rock stations in Canada. So, we really need a slick looking website for people to come to. The problem is that we're indie and are all broke students. We're not looking for anything crazy just a unique simple design that we can update ourselves.

We play prog/hard rock with an earthy feel to it... check out www.myspace.com/pilgrimtheband if you want to...

If you guys have ANY idea where I can find someone who wouldn't charge us an arm and leg for design, please let me know here or email me at info@pilgrimband.ca

Thanks so much guys!

Define an arm and a leg. You got a budget for this project?

/w

"Majorly huge" eh?

[slingblade voice] I like the way you talk. [/slingblade voice]

--

Sorry, I really have nothing to add.

"You art not te be talkin' that a-way. Yer jest a boy."

"Reckon you could make me some biscuits?"

"One feller says, 'the water's cold'. T'other feller says, 'the water's deep.'.... GIT IT?"

"AIN'T GOT NO GAS IN IT!"

/w

lol... thanks for the input guys!

"an arm and leg" would connotate anything above 200-300 I suppose. I've tried to find out the going rate for band sites but no developers I've emailed seem to care enough about their business to return my inquiries :-/

and that's right, I said Majorly huge... you can use that if you'd like

Originally posted by SudzDrummer lol... thanks for the input guys! "an arm and leg" would connotate anything above 200-300 I suppose. I've tried to find out the going rate for band sites but no developers I've emailed seem to care enough about their business to return my inquiries :-/ and that's right, I said Majorly huge... you can use that if you'd like

Yeah... that's not much of a budget for a website, unless you're going to do it yourself. When you say you want to update it yourself, how do you envision that happening? Somebody in the band know HTML?

/w

Are you broke high school students or broke college students?

Does your school have any computer classes or computer oriented students? I found several deals in college by asking the computer majors to do something for me. They'd do it for fraction of the normal cost. Even some high school's have this option.

If students are not an option, look for a new web design company that's trying to make a name for themselves. They may cut you a deal as they want to get big and may roll the dice on you becoming big in the short term future. It's not very likely but worth a shot.

Not sure about that... no self-respecting web design shop is going to do the job for that kind of bread. Maybe a just-starting-out freelancer, but not somebody with a business plan.

+1 on your students idea, though.

/w

cool, thanks for the ideas. I'm in university so I'll see if I can weasel anything out of our comp sci people.

In terms of upkeep, with a little bit of tutoring from a friend in the business I'll be able to update the site pretty easily. I'm not computer illiterate by any means, I'm just website design illiterate

I just signed on to a job for a small site, basically a frontpage template with the company name stuck on it, and that was $450. $200-$300 isn't even worth calling around for unless it's basically a single page that links to a MySpace site or something (which is what many bands are doing nowadays, including one of mine).

I've done sites as low as $300 for people just starting out but they were pretty much just one or two pages with contact info and such.

Sorry to bring the bad news!

I'm referring to the new and completely unknown web designer. Stuff like that happens all the time in business for both sides that are trying to get known. Look at Wind Up Records, a record label with no artists but wants to get known, meeting up with Creed, a band with a future but can't get signed. Ok, so Creed is no longer together, but you get the idea. That was Wind Up's big break as much as it was Creed's.

Again, highly unlikely, but possible. The likely result is a site that'll cost at least a $1000 but look respectable.

And if you get real daring, check out the computer department from other colleges if your's turns up nothing.

Yeah uh, websites get expensive. My sites generally run about $500 and up, most of what I do is in PHP and is pretty heavy in design, so the price gets up there.

For a site of your description I'd probably tie all the news posting and show posting to a hidden forum, where your bandmates just sign in and post the updates. Band pages have to be pretty damn spiffy as well.

That brings up a good point. The type and complexity of language may be different than the complexity of the display. I use PHP and CSS for my band's page. Sometimes a small change can really take time and thus cost more.

"What are you doing with that lawnmower blade Carl?"

"I aim to kill you with it."

ahh okay, I see that we're pretty much up {censored} creek unless someone decides to go pro-bono with us.

Thanks for the info though guys, I'm glad I found all of this out before I embarressed myself....

spend your money on a graphic artist, get a background that looks good and professional, then pay a webhosting place ~10 bucks a month and build the rest of it yourself. it's not as hard as it seems to use html, and the site will look professional if your graphics are done well.