FAO: Webmasters/MySpace owners/Promoters

[borninblood]

I figured that there should be a topic dedicated to us techie types that run metal websites of any kind. A few topics to get the topic rolling...

What have you found to be the best way to market your site to the general web viewing public? - I myself have found search engine optimisation to be the best way of getting constant good hits and new traffic, with link exchanges with relevant sites to be the second biggest way to get traffic, although generally speaking search engine users seem to stay around longer / use services you provide more than people who have followed through from another non-search engine site. While I think about it, if anyone wants a link to http://www.borninblood.co.uk - let me know!

What programs does everyone use? I usually create the site in Dreamweaver (I actually own a legal copy of the entire suite, so thought I should use it!!!) and then tweak it with notepad2 or notepad++ for image editing it would have to be either GIMP or fireworks - photoshop is too powerful for what I want to do and Adobe Illustrator can just burn, its shit.

What have you found to be the best way to finance your website? I have recently introduced google adsense to most of my websites, while still early it seems to be having a good effect and bringing in a bit of cash, what other things have people tried and what opinions do you have on them?

Finally - Any examples of your work that you want to show off? (Personally I am more interested in seeing good code than nice graphics)

 

[Arch]

I've done a site from scratch (with pure HTML coding) with open source software integrated like phpBB2, Gallery, ViPER Guestbook, etc. It's not as complete as I like it, because it was made for a friend and she's a little behind with the contents. This site isn't marketed in anyway as it is a personal site, however it received massive hits coming from a blabbermouth article a year ago. Fortunately, the dedicated server nicely handled 2 GBs of data transfer a day during the appearance of the blabbermouth article for over a month. It's definitely nice thing to have a webserver log analysis software showing you pertinent information about your web traffic. I highly recommend awstats. Photoshop is mainly used for graphics and The GIMP for a macro used to create the site's banner. The editor of choice is either NotePad2 or vim when I'm directly changing the code on the server. It's not financed in any other way than just a couple bucks for the domain name registration, thanks to Godaddy.com.

As for an upcoming site, it will definitely be built on some kind of CMS like WordPress or Drupal. AJAX, WML, WAP will be implemented. Constant mucking with MySQL backend will be expected.

 

[judas69]

Anyone know of any cheap dedicated server hosting with at least 1TB / month transfer?

The best I can find now is $150 / month (Canadian) with cPanel.

 

[Arch]

Anyone know of any cheap dedicated server hosting with at least 1TB / month transfer?

The best I can find now is $150 / month (Canadian) with cPanel.

http://www.serverbeach.com

These are UNMANAGED dedicated hosts, so if you're Windows Server/Linux savvy, go for it. The main company is owned by Peer1, a Canadian company.

 

[judas69]

I am looking for managed hosting at this point, otherwise I'd definitely grab that one.

 

[RockMyMonkey]

I figured that there should be a topic dedicated to us techie types that run metal websites of any kind. A few topics to get the topic rolling...

Great idea.

What have you found to be the best way to market your site to the general web viewing public? - I myself have found search engine optimisation to be the best way of getting constant good hits and new traffic, with link exchanges with relevant sites to be the second biggest way to get traffic, although generally speaking search engine users seem to stay around longer / use services you provide more than people who have followed through from another non-search engine site. While I think about it, if anyone wants a link to http://www.borninblood.co.uk - let me know!

I have tried a ton of things and I keep going back to two things that always kick up traffic. First off is to slap 2 Thousand into a month of 'Global" ads on FixionMedia.com I know that is a chunk of cash, but the results are worth it. The second is to email the most newsworthy text of a band interview to Blabbermouth.net. I get at least a couple hundred hits on an interview when they link to it.

The third is link trade like crazy. I save myself a ton of time by automating my link trades. To trade with me go to http://www.rockmymonkey.com/botb it says it is for bands, but as the person in charge I will say it is open to any heavy music related website.

What programs does everyone use? I usually create the site in Dreamweaver (I actually own a legal copy of the entire suite, so thought I should use it!!!) and then tweak it with notepad2 or notepad++ for image editing it would have to be either GIMP or fireworks - photoshop is too powerful for what I want to do and Adobe Illustrator can just burn, its shit.

I have a super geek friend who made me custom templates for my stuff. Dreamweaver drove me nuts, but it seems to be what most people like the best.

GIMP just plain rules! I have tried Photoshop, but it is so damn feature heavy that the simple tasks are a pain. So I always go back to GIMP.

What have you found to be the best way to finance your website? I have recently introduced google adsense to most of my websites, while still early it seems to be having a good effect and bringing in a bit of cash, what other things have people tried and what opinions do you have on them?

I have a ton of Amazon links, Google ads, FixionMedia ads (I was a customer way before I was in that network), and I just rolled out Gold & Platinum memberships for me site.

Let me explain the Gold & Platinum thing because it is something everyone should do. Get Vbulletin! Yes it costs money, but is the best purchase you will ever make. THey have a way to automate membership levels. I have it linked through PayPal. It is set up so that the higer the level of membership, the bigger avatars, sig banners, profile photos, image hosting, permissions, & control you get. $10 is the higest it goes and with that I paid for the board software in a few months.

Finally - Any examples of your work that you want to show off? (Personally I am more interested in seeing good code than nice graphics)

Have I mentioned my automated link trade. I love that thing. http://www.rockmymonkey.com/botb I am open to link trades with all heavy music websites. Just sign up and it is done.

 

[RockMyMonkey]

I am looking for managed hosting at this point, otherwise I'd definitely grab that one.

www.themothership.net is a small company, but the nice thing about that is that Pat takes care of people better then any place I have seen. He also is one of those geeks that is scary as far as how well he knows his shit. I get him to dumb it down to human speak though. Plus he is a metalhead...very old school, but a metalhead the same.

 

[borninblood]

Great idea.

Cheers!

The second is to email the most newsworthy text of a band interview to Blabbermouth.net. I get at least a couple hundred hits on an interview when they link to it.

I have yet to get them to accept any bit of "news" I have for them, but since my website concentrates mainly on unsigned bands it is hardly a big shock.

The third is link trade like crazy. I save myself a ton of time by automating my link trades. To trade with me go to http://www.rockmymonkey.com/botb it says it is for bands, but as the person in charge I will say it is open to any heavy music related website.

Thats a nice system, I made something like that before, but decided against implementing it on any website since I like to have a firm control over the websites I link to and their positions on the links page, certainly makes things easier though!

I am open to link trades with all heavy music websites. Just sign up and it is done.

Done

 

[borninblood]

Splash Screens - Who needs em.

What is the deal with so many metal sites having an opening screen that has the band logo followed by CLICK HERE TO ENTER, a complete waste of time in my opinion.

The only time a Splash Screen should be used (in my opinion) is when the user needs to make a choice as to how the site should look, or if there is legal stuff to display about something.

Opinions anyone?

 

[Arch]

Splash Screens - Who needs em.

What is the deal with so many metal sites having an opening screen that has the band logo followed by CLICK HERE TO ENTER, a complete waste of time in my opinion.

The only time a Splash Screen should be used (in my opinion) is when the user needs to make a choice as to how the site should look, or if there is legal stuff to display about something.

Opinions anyone?

I totally agree. Luckily that trend is dying off.

 

[borninblood]

The shame, after that rant I was making a template for a website for someone, who specifically reqested a splash screen.

"We just wan't a really big logo on the first page"

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

[Arch]

The only splash screen I like are the ones that says: "Warning! You must be an adult to enter."

 

[slacker]

Free Open Source Software - ALL THE WAY !!

 

[Arch]

Free open source software is redundant.

 

[borninblood]

There will always be a small group of tight fisted slackers that will go the open source route!!