What can I do when logged in?

You can submit new articles, so we can make unique versions of them and distribute them for you.
If you want to simply publish the same article on 800 websites, you can tell us to do that.
You can see the archive and current status of all your article distributions.
You can order any number of high-quality articles - just let us know your keywords.
You can browse the archive of all the articles we have written for you.
You can order our Complete Service (10 high-quality articles plus 10 article distributions).
You can purchase more credits for our services and check your affiliate earnings.
Much more ...

SpinDistribute.com Article Directory

The following article was published in our article directory on September 20, 2019.
Learn more about SpinDistribute Article Distribution System.

How To Choose A Website/Builder and Host For Indie Artists

Article Category: Advice

Author Name: Music Talks

When it comes to choosing a website for your music it can be quite complexing at the beginning. From choosing a trustworthy host, a theme or even domain all come into play.

From my experience, there has been quite a few hosts and trials which I've tried and tested and it wasn't until Music Talks grew to an extent, I tried to implement idea's and found it was very difficult to do so, resulting in the move to a different host and re-building the entire site again.

Now, many would say, "why couldn't you just upload the FTP file across". Simply because it was not at all possible.

WHY YOU NEED A WEBSITE

But let's get back to the easier solutions for an indie artist. An artist should have at least a basic website as their base. This should be their space, their place, their own little piece of the net in which they own to send fans and business personnel.

Your website should feature your latest music, all your social media links which are easy to see, a newsletter subscription, contact details, pictures of you, and video if you have any.

These are the basics and should be kept up to date!

You can even have a private portal for PR purposes only so you can include your latest music and PR release for download to radio, management or other business industry professionals.

WIX/WEEBLY

The easiest and cheapest solution without having your own domain name as a stand-alone domain name, is either Wix or Weebly. (you can have your name in the URL, but it will be set up as a sub-domain) This means that your name will be at the beginning of the URL and end with either Wix or Weebly. (See Example here: https://traceyarbon.wixsite.com/musictalks-xyz-old/home)

Wix or Weebly providers require little to no coding experience and provide a drag and drop builder. Once you learn and know where everything is, it is quite easy and very fast to just get in there and do what you need; well at least that's the aim of it, and should be that way.

I did find by using Wix, that it took quite a long time to upload pictures and quite often during my experience in the editor, the site editor would freeze. (however, this could be due to the fact that the site just became too big and I was on it every day.)

Wix only offers the plugins they have on offer and nothing outside, unless you have coding skills. And I did find that by using Wix, the SEO was affected. I believe this is also the case with Weebly.

However, it is very good for a simple site for artists at very little cost.

If you do like to purchase your own domain name, I would suggest not to purchase from Wix itself. Wix is locked in with Network Solutions, which means, should you wish to re-locate your domain with a different host, you are unable to transfer your domain immediately. If you do wish to transfer your domain, it takes 60 days, which will mean your site will be offline for that period of time. You can point your domain to your new host if you do not wish to take 2 months off the web.

The other disadvantage is with Wix, is that you cannot download your FTP, which consists of all of your content. This means your blogs, pictures etc. can not be downloaded all at once in one file. You have to copy and paste every single article into your new site or onto a word document and be super organized.

You can download your pictures one at a time.

So, if you plan on building your site into a huge blog site or E-commerce site, I would not suggest Wix.

However, I do stress that it is perfect for the simple few pages of an artist for their music, gig dates, have a base place for fans or business personnel and to sell your music directly from Wix. You will need a Paypal account set up for this as well.

If you do want to purchase your domain, I would recommend Namecheap, Bluehost or Go Daddy. There are quite a few to choose from.

Namecheap and Go Daddy also have website builders available for free as well, with hosting at very good rates and support is average.

To Upgrade to one of the premium packages for Wix, which allows your own domain, begin at $10usd a month but does not give much bandwidth or any e-commerce features, nor your own email. Email accounts need to be purchased separately and can be done through Wix, but is a G-Suite email account.

You can see what they have on offer here. https://www.wix.com/upgrade/website

A domain name alone will cost you around $15USD a year from a separate host if you choose to purchase this outside of Wix.

WORDPRESS

The other options are WordPress. So many options will have your head spinning,

However, to build a simple site for an artist, you can set this up with a simple WordPress theme for free.

You will need hosting and purchase your own domain name. Using WordPress has so many options available and it is nice and fast.

The down side of WordPress, is if you are always needing to add content on a daily basis it can take a bit longer, and you need to be on top of understanding more about certain aspects of how a site works. But hey, with so many using it around the world, it can't be too hard.

If you are using WordPress for a large site, you need to keep an eye on your plugins and their updates, as they can break your site. Word press hosts also usually have unlimited email accounts and sub-domains included in their plans. Shared hosting is the normal option and is absolutely fine to use for sites that are not huge businesses.

SQUARESPACE

Other options are Squarespace, which looks amazing, but I think are quite expensive after looking into it, but super easy to use, fast, have great themes and looks to be able to do it all. However, you will need to pay for all the bells and whistles.

For a simple artist website, you would be looking at paying approx. $23USD a month if paid annually on the Basic Commerce package, which includes a checkout page should you wish to sell merchandise. Squarespace does not include emails either and needs to be purchased in addition to paying for hosting.

BANDZOOGLE

Bandzoogle looks like a fantastic option for artists and if...Read the full article with links to sites on Music Talks.

Keywords: New Music, Indie Music, Indie Artists, Rock Music, Indie Rock, Indie Pop, EDM, Dance Music, Country Music, Folk Music, Indie Music Blogs Australia, Sydney Music Blogs, Songs, New Songs, Discover New Indie Music, Submit Your Music, Top Indie Music Blog, Music, New Indie Music, Indie Music Website, Independent Music, Musicians, Best Music Blogs Australia, Top Music Blogs, Music Tips, Social Media Tips for indie musicians, Alternative Music, Music Promotion, Promote Your Music, Music Marketing, Marketing Your Music, Indie Genre, Indie Music Promotion, Best Indie Music Blog, Top Indie Music Blogs

Learn more about SpinDistribute Article Distribution System. We also offer Professional Article Writing to everyone who's looking for high quality web content.

SpinDistribute.com Network

Each article you submit at SpinDistribute.com is sent through our innovative Article Distribution System to our network of more than 1840 publishers - about 55% of them are high-quality article directories, 30% of them are niche blogs and 15% of them are other content-rich websites.

To achieve the best possible success we only publish your article to most related websites. This means your article will show up on approximately 640 - 880 most related websites which will give you great SEO results.

We also offer a separate Professional Article Writing Service to everyone who's looking for high quality web content and well researched unique articles.