So I was thinking as I was looking through some different musician's myspaces a week or so ago... thinking wow all these easy to make pages can be done without hiring a web designer... Causing us to lose us our potential clients.

 

Then I got to thinking... most bands, artists, businesses on myspace were happy with their basic layout with the help of an automated layout program when myspace first started getting big.

 

Now everyone wants a custom page as if it were their own domain.

I have in the last two days picked up two small jobs making bands their own custom design.

 

So what I thought originally was this is hurting us.. is now almost making our jobs easier. Once you figure out how the myspace layout is setup with its classes and id's its rather easy to make a design that looks just like one you'd make for a real domain page.

 

So I have been pushing forward and marketing myself to bands I see with basic pages that might want a little extra sparkle to their page. I give them a good rate since its just a myspace page at usually £150 to £250.

And so far in the last few days of shameless self promoting I have gotten two jobs! Which is pretty nice given the fact that my active project list isn't large at the moment.. so its a quick and easy way to make some extra money as a poor college student

 

I have them pay me half now via paypal, then half upon completion.

And I am almost done with both myspaces for a total of £450. Not bad I'd say for only 10 or so hours of work..

 

I recommend anyone to do this if you are struggling for some extra cash during slow job times.. it seems to work very well!

"Myspace..., Did it kill Web design business?"

 

No. It gave it a little bit of a light slap, but nothing serious.

 

I think I'd rather not eat than try and code a myspace template - the tag soup makes me queasy.

Well after you get the hang of how they have it all labeled its rather easy.

I save a default template on my system for reference though because it is a bit messy.

Even if there were no way to customise a myspace layout, I don't think designers would be losing much business. Chances are, the alternative for people/bands would be having a non-customised page, not going out and hiring a designer to make your own site. They customise because they can, not because they have to.

 

Should probably be noted that there's also differences between what people have, what they want, and what they need.

So I was thinking as I was looking through some different musician's myspaces a week or so ago... thinking wow all these easy to make pages can be done without hiring a web designer... Causing us to lose us our potential clients.

 

Then I got to thinking... most bands, artists, businesses on myspace were happy with their basic layout with the help of an automated layout program when myspace first started getting big.

 

Now everyone wants a custom page as if it were their own domain.

I have in the last two days picked up two small jobs making bands their own custom design.

 

So what I thought originally was this is hurting us.. is now almost making our jobs easier. Once you figure out how the myspace layout is setup with its classes and id's its rather easy to make a design that looks just like one you'd make for a real domain page.

 

So I have been pushing forward and marketing myself to bands I see with basic pages that might want a little extra sparkle to their page. I give them a good rate since its just a myspace page at usually £150 to £250.

And so far in the last few days of shameless self promoting I have gotten two jobs! Which is pretty nice given the fact that my active project list isn't large at the moment.. so its a quick and easy way to make some extra money as a poor college student

 

I have them pay me half now via paypal, then half upon completion.

And I am almost done with both myspaces for a total of £450. Not bad I'd say for only 10 or so hours of work..

 

I recommend anyone to do this if you are struggling for some extra cash during slow job times.. it seems to work very well!

 

I build websites for bands / musicians mostly, their my greatest percentage of clients. As a musician myself i tell them that myspace is just a phase and is getting viewed less, websites are taken more seriously especially for things like tour dates and even allow you to promote merchandise and sell music.

 

They are also easy enough to set up, all you need is a simple CMS and you can use their existing album artwork as an idea for the site and work around that.

Myspace allows people to do lots of things but it will never be a substitute for their own site which they have 100% control over

If anything it helped the web design business, as it made more people use the internet and want to have their own spaces on the web. Eventually, many of them get sick of myspace (it took me about 2 days) and they want something a bit better, so who do they turn to?

Musicians were never willing to pay much anyway!

If anything it helped the web design business, as it made more people use the internet and want to have their own spaces on the web. Eventually, many of them get sick of myspace (it took me about 2 days) and they want something a bit better, so who do they turn to?

 

You lasted two days?

Correct, after that I never logged in again.. lol

I originally wanted to offer a MySpace package to my Design packs but I decided against it. MySpace is probably not a fad. It was always for Bands from the start, but I do agree with BlueDreamer that MySpace is no subsitute for a well coded Web site.

 

EVSoul, You're from Northern Cali, how are you fairing with the fires up there? Also, why are you talking in Pounds when you're in america? Are you originally from the UK? I don't think they mind if we talk in $$$. That's just me! Not a big deal just thought it was different. I tried the pound thing and it just didn't make sense to me. Two different economies.

 

Good luck and stay safe.

Probably has something to do with the Forum's large British population. When I speak to Americans I will usually use USD.

hehe, it aint that hard, just halve it and you've got pounds! $10 = £5 - bingo!

I'd say ¥1,058.56

Probably has something to do with the Forum's large British population. When I speak to Americans I will usually use USD.

same i always change my currency when talking to non-americans

 

 

do the majority of the people here use £ or €

yea just an observation. no hard feelings.

Musicians were never willing to pay much anyway!

 

Agreed.

I tried to market full sites to bands on myspace about a year ago. I offered very low prices to start off - i think i started at something ridiculous like £75 for a .com and a couple of pages but still bands were coming back to me asking for money off.

That didnt last very long, as you can imagine.

Its a shame as i think you can be more experimental with the design of band sites.

But being a band myself I think people perceive you as a 'serious' artist if you have your own site as every tom, dick and harry has a myspace page.