Do It Yourself Or Hire A Designer
Now for the big question. Should you build the site yourself or should you hire a de-
signer/developer? By the way, a designer generally handles just the front-end of the site
design. The “look and feel,” if you will. This normally is about the site page layout, fonts
and typography, colors, and various other visual elements. A developer typically takes
care of the backend functionality. These are things like links, scripts that do this and that,
navigation functions, contact forms and a myriad of other programming functions. These
two often work together as a team, along with a writer, and there are those who handle
both areas of site building.
There are loads of tools available on and offline to help you build a site. You might be
lucky and have a band member or friend who can do it or help you out. Lots of musicians
go that route. You might really luck out and have a family member ... like your father ...
who’s willing to push a pixel or two. That was the case with Eric Knight, a web-savvy
musician and self-promotion virtuoso. “I have the good fortune that my father is a Web-
master and we are both computer nerds. So, he builds them and then I maintain it,” said
Knight. Eric’s site is very well executed and incorporates all the elements I’ve written
about so far. It’s clean, contemporary and provides all the information a fan or the media
could want. Plus, Knight’s site ties into ReverbNation for videos, lots of music samples,
lyrics and much more. It’s a great example for independent musicians and band to follow.
His site can be found at http://www.ericknightonline.com.
Not all acts are so fortunate. Sure, you could probably muddle through it, drink lots of
coffee, that will eventually degrade into tequila or vodka, guaranteed, get incredibly frus-