Hi John:
In the Classifieds of your Journal, check out "Websites for Piano Tuners".
Www.PianoTunerWebsites.com. 800 533-7998. Their web designs are beautiful, and not expensive at all. All you have to do is to put in your own photos and text, or have them do it. The hosting is very inexpensive, and they have other services at reasonable prices, such as setting up a Pay-to-Click campaign and other add-ons. I don't think you'll find a cheaper price for such nice designs. They are Wordpress based, so you can make changes yourself easily, or have them do it for you. There are also DIY sites that will teach you how to make your own website (WIX, etc.), and they will host it for you. Usually the yearly fee is around $120,I believe, a little more for those DIY sites.
Google likes Wordpress sites, and you'll end up ranking higher in searches if you use that platform. It is meant for doing a blog, so you'll want to regularly write articles that relate to your business. Wordpress is a "dynamic" web platform, which means it is cobbled together when the website is called. A "static" site has all the files in one place on the server, and it doesn't change. If you want to DIY, Dreamweaver is a program that the pros use for making websites, but I'm not sure if you can do a Wordpress site with it. I've not looked at it for years. Doing Wordpress sites from scratch requires education and a lot of time.
Anyway, probably a lot more than you wanted to know. I have an older Wordpres site that's kind of dated, and it cost me about $400 many years ago. I have no idea how much somebody might charge me today. My web designer was fresh out of school and was working for the store where I was working. He offered me a very low price, so I agreed. I think he'd probably charge me ten times that now. He works for one of the big tech giants somewhere in SillyCon Valley.
Seriously, check out the Websites for Piano Tuners. Nice folks, good prices, beautiful designs.
FWIW.
Paul McCloud
San DIego
John Minor
I am curious what piano shops pay for web hosting services for piano work, particularly rebuilding shops. Is the web design cost separate from web hosting? Can anyone strongly recommend a designer/hosting company? I've seen some excellent sites out there, and some not so excellent sites.
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John Minor
University of Illinois
jminor@illinois.edu
Original Message------
I am curious what piano shops pay for web hosting services for piano work, particularly rebuilding shops. Is the web design cost separate from web hosting? Can anyone strongly recommend a designer/hosting company? I've seen some excellent sites out there, and some not so excellent sites.
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John Minor
University of Illinois
jminor@illinois.edu
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