All right, I have the domain name and a hosting server. I need your recommendations for easy to use software to help build it, and maintain it.
I want to build a website that showcases my work as a classical singer/musician. It will need to be updated with new content around once a month as my schedule updates. I would like to have pages for my bio, resume, performance/broadcast schedule, a photo gallery and some high quality sound clips. I would like it to look elegant and classy, and I have no particular need for animated graphics or other flashy add-ons.
I’m using a Mac, at least until this computer wears out in the next year or so and I switch back to PC.
What are your suggestions, O Dopers?
Mods, I thought IMHO was the best place for this, as I’m asking for opinions. However, please move it to wherever you think it will get the best response.
I’m going to recommend a CMS (Content Management System), mainly because that’s the normal way to create and maintain websites nowadays - it means you create and edit the website online, from any computer.
It might seem like overkill for a site that’s starting fairly small and simple, and they can sometimes be a bit tricky to initially set up, but it’s worth the effort.
You may find that your host offers the facility to automatically set up a CMS for you. Who is your host?
I would recommend going with a managed CMS service. WordPress.com, Drupal Gardens, Squarespace are some options; there are many others.
You may have somewhat limited options for customization on those services, but most of the work is done for you, and you’ll have plenty of ready-made designs to build on.
(Disclosure: I work for the company that runs wp.com)
I’m with these folks - Mecca Internet Solutions. I’ll have a look through the web site to see if I can find some mention of CMS.
Doesn’t look like they offer any standard one-click CMS solutions, except their own ‘Site2Go’ thing, which will be some sort of CMS, but probably limited in what you can do with it, and certainly limited in terms of migrating your website away to another host, if you ever needed to.
If you’re on their Starter or Pro plans though, you’ve got everything you would need to be able to install a CMS for yourself (or get an independent web designer to set one up for you).
If you have a host, just install WordPress and play with it. ( The free WordPress.org open source CMS. )
It is very customizable and does not have to be shown as a blog format. Provided you implement strong security and find plenty of plug-ins to add anything you want, you can set it up and leave it. Best not to get sucked in to the WordPress community if you’re not into it as a hobby. I stopped upgrading after they changed to a mandatory toolbar — if upgrading any application offers a degraded experience, you may as well stick to what works and disregard scare tactics about security; and they like upgrading a lot.
There are plug-ins for galleries, audeo, video etc., basically you would be creating Pages, rather than blog Posts — although you might keep the blog about for commentary or news as an minor part.