If you were to do your own website...

[SivakDrac]

I thought I'd get some opinions here.

I've been debating on going to a paid webhost, not too expensive, for some of my general purpose "work".

I enjoy doing midis and musical works along with some Flash projects. I'm not sure if I'd want to gear the site more towards a business aspect, by which I mean demonstrating that "this is what I can do. If you need someone for this work, contact me". Or if I'd just do it as a general interest site...

I am leaning towards the business-side of things... If I were to do this, would you recommend naming the site with my real name on it or to just use my alias? What do you think I would need to put on it to make it very beneficial to myself, and to possible customers?

Thanks for reading.

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[Ugly Joe]

Go with a mix of both professional and personal. More professional than personal, though. It should be creative since it serves as a bit of an art portfolio, but it should also not be confusing in its navigation or in finding contact information and the like. Also, definately use your real name. Naming the site after your alias is alright, just be sure your actual name is on the page with your contact information.

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[Lobster Cowboy]

well, i have two web sites. one with my name, one with my graphic design business. my host allows me up to three domains per space, so for a few bucks, i was able to get the best of both worlds

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[Octocrook]

> I'm not sure if I'd want to gear the site more
> towards a business aspect, by which I mean demonstrating
> that "this is what I can do. If you need someone for this
> work, contact me". Or if I'd just do it as a general
> interest site...

Depends on what you want to do. I do almost exactly what you do (midi and all), except you make Flash as well whereas I do not. Flash is good experience that can be very good to demonstrate for business. A lot of people would like to use Flash on their site but don't want to take the time to learn it. The music is IMO more on the personal side, as least with the kind of music that you and I make. I mean I know that my stuff in its current form would never be played on the radio or in a movie, but it's mainly the composition that I'm putting on the table for people to hear. If I had the technology to make expert studio quality versions of my compositions, then I believe I could easily make songs/scores for movies, but not in its current midi-based form. So my music site is like a mix of a personal site and an artist site (I have stuff about me and pictures or me, but I also have my albums listed on there and songs for download). In the end, it's all on what you want to do. Musicwise, doing a portfolio probably isn't enough on its own to make a differeence if you want to get some work making music for someone...you would have to go out and find those opportunities rather than wait for them to find you.

> I am leaning towards the business-side of things... If I
> were to do this, would you recommend naming the site with my
> real name on it or to just use my alias? What do you think
> I would need to put on it to make it very beneficial to
> myself, and to possible customers?

It's good to have an "artist name" for music and probably Flash as well. If you want that to be your own name, then that works fine. I merely chose one of my screen names (Crooky) that I figured would serve well enough for an artist name, and my name is too plain to be that memorable anyways (anyone remember the Steve Jones that won the golf US Open in 1994? nope). Whatever you decide, you do want your real name accessible, and any contact info that you would want to give for potential clients to contact you (I would suggest just email...you can always give more after they contact you via email).

Also, a note about getting people to come to your site, I found that the most people were coming to my site when I was posting regularly on the mp3.com boards. Frankly it doesn't matter what message boards you post on, but anything pertaining to what you di, as long as it is a bustling board with lots of activity, you will get a lot of curious people visiting you. I know you were on mp3.com as an artist, so you may already know this.

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[Canar]

My recommendation, like the others', is to split it in twain. Arts/music on one site, business portfolio on the other. Link in between. Of course, if you want to be really impressive, you'll do two separate designs.

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