Super Simple Website?

[ott0bot]

Hello all,
I'm a freelancer that only does a few jobs a year, so I put together a really simple one page site and would appreciate some feedback.

http://rarecurrencyrecording.com

I'm not making any serious money off of recording, so I need to keep my overhead as low as possible, but I do put out quality work and want a decent resume site. I got a decent logo made for collateral. This one page site is free with my domain name purchase, but I could pay $3 a month for a wordpress site to make it look exactly how I want. I'm limited to 4 pop-up links and the layout is set at one of the 5 possible patterns. I think this works ok.

Do you think this gets the job done?

Do I need pictures?

Is a gear list necessary?

Any pointers are helpful.

[kslight]

Simple is fine by me, but it loads weird on my iPhone. The image takes up essentially the whole screen, and you have to zoom in a lot to accurately click anything on the left, then zoom all the way out to get your text on the right.

I think that pictures and a gear list are helpful to have but up to you.

Hope that makes sense.

[Snarl 12/8]

It works fine for me. Firefox on Windows 7.

Here's my $0.02 as an ex-web-developer. I've been out of the game for years now, so perhaps my concerns are bullshit at this point.

1) Is it optimized for mobile? I hear that's a huge deal these days and it ties to number 2) Is it "Search Engine Optimized. (SEO)"

With regards to SEO, a quick skim of the text and I don't see the words "recording studio" anywhere on your site. Which means google, after it's bots "read" your site (if they can even see those pop-up windows with the way their crawler works) won't list your site among other sites that have those words on their pages. Maybe you don't want to be found in a google search for "recording studio," fair enough. But do you have the terms you want to be found under on the site? Your text is clever and engaging on a human level, but it might be confusing to robots, is I guess my point. That is just one among all the other technical things that you need to do to have google fall in love with your web site.

And yes, just as a client type person, I'd want to see photos. If I were thinking of spending time in your space, using your gear, I'd want to know, aesthetically, what I'd be getting myself into. But I'm not a super easy going guy. I always want as much predictive information as I can get about situations I'm walking into. For example, I'd want to see a picture of your smiling face, as well.

Like I said, a heavily discounted $0.02.

[ott0bot]

Simple is fine by me, but it loads weird on my iPhone. The image takes up essentially the whole screen, and you have to zoom in a lot to accurately click anything on the left, then zoom all the way out to get your text on the right.

I think that pictures and a gear list are helpful to have but up to you.

Hope that makes sense.

thanks for the feedback. I agree, it's a bit akward. I am using my iPhone to view the site after editing...it seemed to load ok. I tried the top menu layout. Looks better mobile, it's a bit of a train wreck on desktop computers. I'm limited by the go Daddy site editor...I'll try few more settings and see if I can rig it.

I will add pics, and I already had a gear list. I don't have a studio, but I record on location, in other studios, and mix/overdub/master at home.

[ott0bot]

It works fine for me. Firefox on Windows 7.

Here's my $0.02 as an ex-web-developer. I've been out of the game for years now, so perhaps my concerns are bullshit at this point.

1) Is it optimized for mobile? I hear that's a huge deal these days and it ties to number 2) Is it "Search Engine Optimized. (SEO)"

With regards to SEO, a quick skim of the text and I don't see the words "recording studio" anywhere on your site. Which means google, after it's bots "read" your site (if they can even see those pop-up windows with the way their crawler works) won't list your site among other sites that have those words on their pages. Maybe you don't want to be found in a google search for "recording studio," fair enough. But do you have the terms you want to be found under on the site? Your text is clever and engaging on a human level, but it might be confusing to robots, is I guess my point. That is just one among all the other technical things that you need to do to have google fall in love with your web site.

And yes, just as a client type person, I'd want to see photos. If I were thinking of spending time in your space, using your gear, I'd want to know, aesthetically, what I'd be getting myself into. But I'm not a super easy going guy. I always want as much predictive information as I can get about situations I'm walking into. For example, I'd want to see a picture of your smiling face, as well.

Like I said, a heavily discounted $0.02.

Thanks for the detailed feedback. To be clear, I don't have a studio. I have a home set-up and decent gear for mixing, overdubs, and mastering....but I generally record on location or at other studios. It's tricky. I'm ok with not even showing up on google as of now. I only take a few jobs a year, and only stuff I want to do. I generally produce the session, engineer, and mix. I didn't include the words recording studio, as not to mislead people.

Once I get an actual dedicated studio space together, that's a different story. I will optimize for Google. thanks for the tips.

Sadly, I cannot optimize for mobile with this el-cheapo free site creator and cannot use any html code. I'll just have to mess with the layout until I can get it to work for both.

I have a bunch of cool session pics, but they have to be posted as a link, not able to imbed anything other than the background image. Can't imbed the soundcloud payer either. So a link for now.

Thanks for all the notes. it's exactly what I was looking for.

[kslight]

Simple is fine by me, but it loads weird on my iPhone. The image takes up essentially the whole screen, and you have to zoom in a lot to accurately click anything on the left, then zoom all the way out to get your text on the right.

I think that pictures and a gear list are helpful to have but up to you.

Hope that makes sense.

thanks for the feedback. I agree, it's a bit akward. I am using my iPhone to view the site after editing...it seemed to load ok. I tried the top menu layout. Looks better mobile, it's a bit of a train wreck on desktop computers. I'm limited by the go Daddy site editor...I'll try few more settings and see if I can rig it.

I will add pics, and I already had a gear list. I don't have a studio, but I record on location, in other studios, and mix/overdub/master at home.

Alternatively maybe you could download the trial version of Dreamweaver, or pay for a month subscription (with Adobe Creative Suite)? I know it costs a bit, but if you aren't planning on making a lot of changes to your site once its put together I have to assume its a far better tool than what Go Daddy gives you. Dreamweaver is another graphical based web page designer (if I'm not mistaken, one of the first actually?I started using Dreamweaver when it was a Macromedia program) and simple enough to use if that's how you want to use it?but still works with HTML directly if that's what you're into?and you can preview your site in various screen dimensions and browsers to give you an idea of how it'll look.

[ott0bot]

Simple is fine by me, but it loads weird on my iPhone. The image takes up essentially the whole screen, and you have to zoom in a lot to accurately click anything on the left, then zoom all the way out to get your text on the right.

I think that pictures and a gear list are helpful to have but up to you.

Hope that makes sense.

thanks for the feedback. I agree, it's a bit akward. I am using my iPhone to view the site after editing...it seemed to load ok. I tried the top menu layout. Looks better mobile, it's a bit of a train wreck on desktop computers. I'm limited by the go Daddy site editor...I'll try few more settings and see if I can rig it.

I will add pics, and I already had a gear list. I don't have a studio, but I record on location, in other studios, and mix/overdub/master at home.

Alternatively maybe you could download the trial version of Dreamweaver, or pay for a month subscription (with Adobe Creative Suite)? I know it costs a bit, but if you aren't planning on making a lot of changes to your site once its put together I have to assume its a far better tool than what Go Daddy gives you. Dreamweaver is another graphical based web page designer (if I'm not mistaken, one of the first actually?I started using Dreamweaver when it was a Macromedia program) and simple enough to use if that's how you want to use it?but still works with HTML directly if that's what you're into?and you can preview your site in various screen dimensions and browsers to give you an idea of how it'll look.

I've considered it. I'm actually not a total moron about this stuff, but you see the crux is having to pay a monthly or yearly fee so it allows me to host an HTML based site. I can't justify spending any money at this point when it's really not being used to attract new business.

My terrible business model at this point is just aimed at having an online resume I can direct clients to for information about my production services and link them to some sample of my work.

Do you think this simple site does enough for that? (once I add some pics of course)

[kslight]

Simple is fine by me, but it loads weird on my iPhone. The image takes up essentially the whole screen, and you have to zoom in a lot to accurately click anything on the left, then zoom all the way out to get your text on the right.

I think that pictures and a gear list are helpful to have but up to you.

Hope that makes sense.

thanks for the feedback. I agree, it's a bit akward. I am using my iPhone to view the site after editing...it seemed to load ok. I tried the top menu layout. Looks better mobile, it's a bit of a train wreck on desktop computers. I'm limited by the go Daddy site editor...I'll try few more settings and see if I can rig it.

I will add pics, and I already had a gear list. I don't have a studio, but I record on location, in other studios, and mix/overdub/master at home.

Alternatively maybe you could download the trial version of Dreamweaver, or pay for a month subscription (with Adobe Creative Suite)? I know it costs a bit, but if you aren't planning on making a lot of changes to your site once its put together I have to assume its a far better tool than what Go Daddy gives you. Dreamweaver is another graphical based web page designer (if I'm not mistaken, one of the first actually?I started using Dreamweaver when it was a Macromedia program) and simple enough to use if that's how you want to use it?but still works with HTML directly if that's what you're into?and you can preview your site in various screen dimensions and browsers to give you an idea of how it'll look.

I've considered it. I'm actually not a total moron about this stuff, but you see the crux is having to pay a monthly or yearly fee so it allows me to host an HTML based site. I can't justify spending any money at this point when it's really not being used to attract new business.

My terrible business model at this point is just aimed at having an online resume I can direct clients to for information about my production services and link them to some sample of my work.

Do you think this simple site does enough for that? (once I add some pics of course)

I didn't intend to call you a moron or anything like that, I just am not familiar with Go Daddy's tools and their hosting plans. That's weird that they make you pay for more html hosting...or maybe you're saying you're on a free plan now? I dunno. I use 1and1 for my hosting but I need something a little more complicated.

If all you want is a r?sum? i would probably just do something real simple one page mostly text (all links to different sections would just link to a lower section of the same page and not a pop up or frame) and supplement with your Soundcloud. I dunno if Godaddys tools support that style but that would be my way of laying it out in a mobile friendly way given the option.

If not though your basic page content is probably fine, i would just be careful with how it loads on mobile because IMHO that matters even more than how it looks on a real computer.

[Snarl 12/8]

I just wanted to add one more point after some of the comments. I truly believe it is acceptable [probably desirable] to cobble together a "web presence" from all the "free" services that are out there. Facebook, soundcloud, flickr, etc., etc. And then link to them all from your "official" site. You never really know how someone will find you or use your stuff. A friend of a friend via Facebook, a gear lover drooling over your gear on Flickr, someone falls in love with a song on SoundCloud, etc. and a new client is born. Y'know what I mean? I wouldn't use every photo site, audio site, networking site, etc., just one of each so as not to get too carried away.

[ott0bot]

Simple is fine by me, but it loads weird on my iPhone. The image takes up essentially the whole screen, and you have to zoom in a lot to accurately click anything on the left, then zoom all the way out to get your text on the right.

I think that pictures and a gear list are helpful to have but up to you.

Hope that makes sense.

thanks for the feedback. I agree, it's a bit akward. I am using my iPhone to view the site after editing...it seemed to load ok. I tried the top menu layout. Looks better mobile, it's a bit of a train wreck on desktop computers. I'm limited by the go Daddy site editor...I'll try few more settings and see if I can rig it.

I will add pics, and I already had a gear list. I don't have a studio, but I record on location, in other studios, and mix/overdub/master at home.

Alternatively maybe you could download the trial version of Dreamweaver, or pay for a month subscription (with Adobe Creative Suite)? I know it costs a bit, but if you aren't planning on making a lot of changes to your site once its put together I have to assume its a far better tool than what Go Daddy gives you. Dreamweaver is another graphical based web page designer (if I'm not mistaken, one of the first actually?I started using Dreamweaver when it was a Macromedia program) and simple enough to use if that's how you want to use it?but still works with HTML directly if that's what you're into?and you can preview your site in various screen dimensions and browsers to give you an idea of how it'll look.

I've considered it. I'm actually not a total moron about this stuff, but you see the crux is having to pay a monthly or yearly fee so it allows me to host an HTML based site. I can't justify spending any money at this point when it's really not being used to attract new business.

My terrible business model at this point is just aimed at having an online resume I can direct clients to for information about my production services and link them to some sample of my work.

Do you think this simple site does enough for that? (once I add some pics of course)

I didn't intend to call you a moron or anything like that, I just am not familiar with Go Daddy's tools and their hosting plans. That's weird that they make you pay for more html hosting...or maybe you're saying you're on a free plan now? I dunno. I use 1and1 for my hosting but I need something a little more complicated.

If all you want is a r?sum? i would probably just do something real simple one page mostly text (all links to different sections would just link to a lower section of the same page and not a pop up or frame) and supplement with your Soundcloud. I dunno if Godaddys tools support that style but that would be my way of laying it out in a mobile friendly way given the option.

If not though your basic page content is probably fine, i would just be careful with how it loads on mobile because IMHO that matters even more than how it looks on a real computer.

I'm the one who is sorry....I didn't think you were saying I was a moron. just joking about my level of skill. just above moron.

thanks for the additional tips. all super helpful.

Regarding mobile...absolutely. I use my mobile device for Internet way more than my desktop.

With Go Daddy, I pay for the domain name for $13 bucks a year. It comes with a free one page site using their page editor. I wish it was just blank an I could code a 1 page site, but it won't let you. You have to pay an additional fee for anything beyond the one page free site.

[ott0bot]

I just wanted to add one more point after some of the comments. I truly believe it is acceptable [probably desirable] to cobble together a "web presence" from all the "free" services that are out there. Facebook, soundcloud, flickr, etc., etc. And then link to them all from your "official" site. You never really know how someone will find you or use your stuff. A friend of a friend via Facebook, a gear lover drooling over your gear on Flickr, someone falls in love with a song on SoundCloud, etc. and a new client is born. Y'know what I mean? I wouldn't use every photo site, audio site, networking site, etc., just one of each so as not to get too carried away.

I agree. i think all of those elements of social media and other free promotion are essential to build a business these days.

As far as my business model, or lack there of, I'm thinking the simple site will work with a few alterations. Great advice to future growth.