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Web Presence 101 - Part II: Building a Successful Web Site
By: Tyler Champley
You have investigated how and who you want to build your band's web site. Now is the time to design and implement your site. There is no perfect web site, just as every piece of art is unique in itself. That being said, there are still many correct and incorrect rules to follow when building a web site.
A well built web site will have the following elements:
Simple and Straight Forward Navigation
Everything on your site starts with the navigation. Having clear and dummy proof navigation is important of an information based web site, as all artist and band web sites are informational based because you are providing your fans, record labels, and viewers with information and even music of your band. If your navigation is confusing, this can frustrate your users and cause certain areas of your web site to be overlooked.
Text and Font Use
After navigation, readability of your web site is the second most important feature. This is not the time to get all artsy and use some nutty font you found while surfing the web. You want to use a font that is easy to read, Arial and Verdona are good simple choices.
How you place your text on your web site is also important. Placing your text on a graphical background is no longer an acceptable practice. This can make it very difficult for your viewers to read your text, even though it might "look cool."
Contact Information
There is no reason to have your web site on the Internet if nobody can contact you through it. Whether it is a fan, record label, or show promoter, it is absolutely vital to have your contact information listed on your site. A valid email address and mailing address are musts; a telephone number available upon request is also helpful.
Artist/Band Bio or Description
So who are you? Whether it is a fan, record label, or show promoter, they will want to know who you are and what you are all about. It is often very difficult for bands to put a description upon their music or classify their music genre, but this is something you need to do. This question will come up, and it is better you are the one describing it.
Use Graphics Sparingly
There is nothing wrong with a good looking web site full of excellent graphics. There is a problem though when you use way too many graphics on your web site. Many graphic artists forget that 90% of Internet users still use a dial up modem of some sort. There is no point having a kick ass looking site when it takes your users a minute to download each of your site's pages. This often leads to users spending less time on your site or not using it as frequently. A good rule of thumb when visiting one of your web site's pages on a 56k modem is that the page should load in about 10 seconds or less.
Use of Flash
Flash has become a favorite tool of many web designers for a number of reasons. There are two top reasons for this. One, Flash enables an artist who is not comfortable coding a web site more freedom. And two, Flash provides more interactivity and aesthetics to a web site.
To sum it up, use Flash appropriately! Doing your entire band's web site in Flash is a very bad idea. Here are a few reasons:
- Flash pages take a long time to load
- Flash pages are often impossible to "bookmark"
- Flash text used by designers is often hard to read
- Clicking the "back" button sometimes does not work or the Flash web page has to fully reload again
When Flash is used to accent a web page, it adds a lot of benefits. Flash used in this manner is and can be a great addition to your web site. Personally, if I visit a web site and the site redirects to a pop-up Flash site I will often just close it out. It completely boggles the mind why someone would design a site like this, a usability nightmare.
Now you have the tools to make a successful promotional web site. Get your site up and bring your music to the masses!
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