Getting to have an active website as an artist has been quite a road. It's a significant part of gaining and maintaining a following. Also, I wanted to have a lot on here for everyone to be interested in. Although my current website is relatively new, I have had a few trials with different sites over the past few years. Here are the five things I learned while creating my website.
1) Use a Clean Template
Currently, I am using Square Space to host my website. Square Space has a lot of accessible templates you can use to get started. So, if you're not a website designer, you don't need to be. Before this, I used Wix. Wix has many great features, but designing it was so open-ended, compared to my website now, it was a bit sloppy.
2) Be Consistent
The only way I can gain and maintain traffic to my site is by consistently producing content. This means I will write two blogs a week, starting this week, Post a video every Friday, and continue to promote it on social media. I have to be reliable. I'm also looking at how many people are visiting the site so that I see what works. If you guys like what you see, I can keep giving it to you!
3) Keep it Simple
I try to do this with the flow of the site, and with my blogs. I don't want anything to be difficult to read or navigate. If it's easy to use, I figure it'll be easier to get people to visit. I don't want to write a blog that's too long or hard to understand. I also want it to be easy to relate to. So, I write about personal lessons I've learned, and I try to be honest.
4) Use a Domain
For too long, I had a site without my domain attached! This was when I used Wix. I never got around to adding my domain name, so when people asked me what my website was, it was difficult to answer. Now I can just say mercedescoleman.com. Mercedes is the name of a car. Coleman is a pretty common last name. I chose to keep mine simple. But, you can make yours unique to stand out.
5) Share With Friends and Family
When my new site was live, the first people I told were my friends and family. I trusted them to give me their honest opinions. And honestly, I was so proud of it, I wanted them to know! Sharing with family and friends first is a great way to spread the news and get more traffic. It's also a great way to make your site user friendly.