Wordpress: BC'ers own webpages

[SimonEdward]

BC'ers

A polite request.

I am looking at creating my own webpages (I haven't decided on a host yet - maybe a UK one?) and intend to use 'Wordpress' - because I'm not that interested in learning how to code - I'm getting on a bit, and more interested in writing/playing Bass (?).

I've had a Tumblr for a while with SoundCloud widgets, but I would like all my social media interests and own music to link back to, or stem from my bit of SEO optimised space on the web...

There are tons of free 'themes', and paid for one's, but I would be interested in seeing what 'themes' other members have chosen - using 'Wordpress' [i]please[/i] - and perhaps sharing their experiences; good, bad or indifferent. You don't have to, but if would be great if you could. please don't forget to paste your link! (no spam or anything other than your own domains please - the Mods are watching).

Over to you! thanks

Ps
I could just Search... but then there would be no opportunity to share and link back to a thread on BC.

MODS: If this topic has been 'done to death' before - I apologise - please [i]delete[/i]. thank you

[tonyf]

Here's ours.

[url="http://www.secondcitysoul.com"]http://www.secondcitysoul.com[/url]

Wordpress site using the Soundcheck theme from Studio 75. It's also got the gig press plugin to handle the gigs.

WP is awesome. Being a .NET web developer by trade, I didn't want anything that was too much grief to maintain. WP really is fantastic and I've done all of this without touching a single line of code. Brilliant.

[hollywoodrox]

Cool site tony, so can you use wordpress to create a regular webpage, I thought it was just for blogs, nice work

[SimonEdward]

Thanks for coming back to me Tony! http://www.secondcitysoul.com/ Congratulations on a great site for your band - very well done.

Just checked.. http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/soundcheck/ by 'Press75'. It has lot of promotion options for your music + social media links.

Cheers! I'll keep this one in mind.

[JTUK]

I mostly stick to Wordpress.org for free themes ..and one of my faves is twentyfourteen as it is very
'responsive' on all devices.
If someone wants to buy a theme, then that is no problem but people generally like it if you show them a few options
that are 'free'
It depends what they want to end up with, but small jobs in WP are far easier to get look pro than a lot of software.
I am generally shocked at some peoples page presentation and what they pay for...

The key to freeware on WP is to see plugins and themes are rated and how many time they have been down-loaded.
The ethic is basically dev advertising and the benefit is some great free work to use..

[monkeynuts]

Wordpress is a great tool to get a page together using straight forward plugins without any coding knowledge. Easy to update so less time spent faffing around.

Ours is still in its early stages and being refined but if you are thinking of doing a website then wordpress is certainly worth looking at

www.thecarbonites.com

[tonyf]

[quote name='monkeynuts' timestamp='1405327182' post='2500690']
Wordpress is a great tool to get a page together using straight forward plugins without any coding knowledge. Easy to update so less time spent faffing around.

Ours is still in its early stages and being refined but if you are thinking of doing a website then wordpress is certainly worth looking at

www.thecarbonites.com
[/quote]

Great looking site. Really crisp and professional. :-)

What theme did you use?

[monkeynuts]

Thanks :-) It's getting there!

We used Enfold (http://themeforest.net/item/enfold-responsive-multipurpose-theme/4519990)

It's got more of a corporate look I suppose rather than being specifically for music, but we just liked the clean looks

[mike257]

There's lots of good responsive themes around now, meaning your site will cleverly rejig itself to fit whatever kind of device/screen size you're viewing from.

My (under construction) page for my live sound/artist transport business is at [url="http://weareboom.co.uk"]http://weareboom.co.uk[/url] - light on content until I get 5 mins to put some together but the basic layout is there. Took a couple of hours at most, including a brief delve into the code of the contact form plug in to tweak the appearance a little bit.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I have just launched a new mobile-first responsive single-page site for my band.

[url="http://junkyardrocket.co.uk"]http://junkyardrocket.co.uk[/url]

I normally use WordPress for everything, however once I decided that I wanted to maximise usablility by stripping out anything that wasn't important, it was clear that a CMS probably wasn't required. I used bootstrap with a custom stylesheet, some jQuery plugins & a bit of custom scripting.

I'm thinking of turning the template into a WordPress theme aimed at bands with the contact form / audio / scroller functionality included as custom plugins with customisable colour schemes, but alternatively it might be better to add in some flat file functionality system to keep it lightweight and keep the admin overhead as minimal as possible.

Edited July 14, 2014 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[mrhectic]

I use freshsites.co.uk for my domain and hosting. My personal experience I have found them quite good! Much better then 123reg.

[ShergoldSnickers]

Just be careful to keep things up to date with new releases for bug fixes etc, as WordPress sites are a target for those looking for ways in. Once in, they can use your site for sending out spam etc. At the very least, apart from updating WordPress as new updates are released, change the default 'Admin' user to another one that's not easy to guess, and then delete the Admin account. Use a really strong password as well.

I know one friend who monitors attempted access to his admin section via third party software, and it's sometimes thousands of attempts per day. There are some determined people out there.

[EliasMooseblaster]

I must admit, I had to go back and check! I've been using the rather plain-looking Ascetica. I suppose the key thing is that my blog is just a space for my own ramblings, largely independent of my band. But it's been very easy to upload or link various media to it, and if you're after the benefits of SEO then a lot of the (very little) traffic I receive seems to come from Google searches for bass-related stuff.

Here 'tis...
http://thecrowfrombelow.wordpress.com/

[JTUK]

[quote name='ShergoldSnickers' timestamp='1405425020' post='2501744']
Just be careful to keep things up to date with new releases for bug fixes etc, as WordPress sites are a target for those looking for ways in. Once in, they can use your site for sending out spam etc. At the very least, apart from updating WordPress as new updates are released, change the default 'Admin' user to another one that's not easy to guess, and then delete the Admin account. Use a really strong password as well.

I know one friend who monitors attempted access to his admin section via third party software, and it's sometimes thousands of attempts per day. There are some determined people out there.
[/quote]

Good call.

[dannybuoy]

WordPress sites auto update nowadays, it's just the plugins that need to be done manually. A little disconcerting as I no longer have a chance to backup before updating, but I haven't seen any issues yet.

I made this for the wife's childminding business:

http://goldilockschildminding.co.uk

[TheRev]

I used the 'Canvas' theme from Woothemes -cost £50 IRRC. I haven't had the time since little Rev came along to tweak this as much as I'd like, so its pretty much as I set it up 18 months ago.

www.skimmityhitchers.com

I went for this theme cos it was recommended by Mrs Rev who was using for work at the time. I had to get a website up and running in a hurry and she felt this was the best option.

Good points: I needed something that I could set up really quickly as our previous website wasn't being updated but the person we had paid to set up and maintain the site. It was very easy to set everything up, add pages and events/gigs. Setting the backgrounds took a bit of trial and error but was easy enough to do.

Bad points: It doesn't seem to respond very well to different devices - which is quite likely down to my lack of ability/experience, so it looks great on a PC, ok on a tablet and gash on a smartphone.
The contact plugin won't allow messages to be forwarded to a Hotmail account (again, it's likely I've missed something here).
None of the gallery plugins I tried worked very well, so I ended up setting the images manually. This wasn't a major pain, but I was hoping for a better looking gallery page -as it is it looks a bit like a ropey holiday snaps album (according to our manager...).


If I had to do it again, I'd definitley try some of the free, band specific themes as the functionality would be spot on. However, some themes don't allow the user to set their own background images and it was very important for us that we used our own artwork.

[SpaceChick]

I'm certainly after using a free theme, so would be interested if there are any more basschatters who would like to provide examples

[JTUK]

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1405604468' post='2503538']
I'm certainly after using a free theme, so would be interested if there are any more basschatters who would like to provide examples
[/quote]

Wordpress.org has decent free themes... but if you rent space and install Wordpress...and most hosts will have an easy install option,
then from the dashbaord, just search for free themes ... you can install quite a few and then go through the demo... once you settle on one, just activate it. Make sure you pick one that is compatible with your WP version... and one that has been downloaded and rated A LOT.

If you view themes from wordpress.org you don't really get a good idea... so better to do so from within a Wordpress host install, IMO.
Having said that...
[url="http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/30-free-responsive-and-stunning-wordpress-themes/"]http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/30-free-responsive-and-stunning-wordpress-themes/[/url]