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In this episode of the podcast we look at websites for DJs and producers: why you need a website, one approach for doing it yourself, and some words of caution. I share some of the lessons I’ve learned from running and maintaining this website since 2017, and why I made the decisions I did.

You’ll Learn

• Why you need a website
• The six steps to setting up a website
• Why you should consider WordPress over Wix or Bandzoogle
• A pitfall to avoid

Resources

• Knowem – great tool when you’re trying to determine your DJ brand. Helps you quickly find names that are available across major social media platforms.
• Google Domains – easy to use, and provides free domain registration privacy. You can see what domain privacy does for you here.
• Bluehost – Free SSL certificate, 1-Click WordPress install, 24/7 support. This is my affiliate link, so you can support the podcast and get a discounted intro rate.
• Elementor – A terrific page builder for WordPress which I’ve used for the last couple of years. Lots of functionality in their free version, so give it a try. Also an affiliate link. Gotta keep the lights on in the ninja-lair 😉
• GDPR info – critically important if you decide to collect email addresses or gather information using a Facebook pixel or Google Analytics
• Some of the other plugins I use and like, most of which offer some capabilities for free: Blueberry PowerPress for podcasting, Askimet Anti-Spam, Official Facebook Pixel, Really Simple SSL, UpdraftPlus which backs up your site automatically to a cloud storage site of your choice, Wordfence Security (anti-virus, Firewall, and Malware), WP Super Cache (speeds up site), WP Forms Lite, and Yoast SEO.

Transcript

What’s up Heroes, welcome to episode 29 of the Producer Life Podcast. I received an email this week reminding me my web hosting was about to expire, so this seems like a good time to do an episode on websites for DJs and producers.  In this episode I’ll introduce you to the tools I’ve used to build my website at HouseNinjaMusic.com and explain why I made the choices I did.   

You may be asking: why do I even need a Website? I already update Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter… isn’t that enough?  I come back to a point we’ve made numerous times on this podcast:  social media sites come and go. Your website and mailing list are the only two things you really own as a musician and so they deserve at least as much attention as your social media.   As I’m writing this, the U.S. government is threatening to restrict the wildly popular Chinese social media app TikTok, which would be disastrous for some musicians who have built huge following there but haven’t converted them yet to their email lists.

So if you’re just getting started or thinking about re-doing your website, keep listening!

But first, cue the intro music!

I’m going to start at the beginning.

Branding comes first; I tried hard to ensure that my username on most platforms could match my website. I made that decision all at once after considering multiple variations on House Ninja. Ultimately, I settled on HouseNinjaMusic which I use for all of my social media as well as my website. It turns out there’s also a House Ninja out there that does real estate stuff, so I had to differentiate myself.  If you’re just getting started and trying to decide a DJ name a good resource is  https://knowem.com/ which lets you search dozens of social media sites at once and see if a particular handle is available.    

During this process you want to think about search engine optimization… in other words, how easy is it to Google this name?    There’s a Portugese vocalist I really like who’s name is Sandra Bullet (thats BULLET).  She does a lot of acoustic covers and also provided the topline and vocals on my track Love the Way You Love… but every time I try to find her online her profiles get buried under the actress Sandra BulloK… making matters worse her handles don’t match across her social platforms, so when I try to tag her in a post on one platform it sometimes takes digging to find her on another. Most people just won’t bother. In contrast,  I’m HouseNinjaMusic just about everywhere. 

Next stop is domain registration; this is where you purchase the rights to your domain… the root URL people go to.  When people type your website into their browser, your domain registrar points them to the hosting location, which I’ll talk about next. There are a lot of top level domain extensions (.co, .biz, .org, .music) but  .COM is the gold standard for a professional looking domain and the one most people default to, so I recommend checking website availability as you’re thinking about your handle on social media networks. 

I use Google Domains, at domains.google.com.  It’s $12/year and offers free privacy protection … so if you lookup my website using Whois you don’t get my real name and home address, instead you get Google as the domain registrar and an address in California.  I’ve been happy with Google as my domain registrar.

After that is hosting; this is the company that hosts the server that stores your website and serves it up to people visiting your domain. I’ve been using Bluehost since 2017 and have been very happy with their service.  They’re one of the least expensive web-hosting providers and provide nearly 100% uptime.  Full disclosure, I did sign up for their affiliate program so you support this podcast if you decide to sign up using the link in my show notes. That also gives you their promotional rate of $3.95/month with their normal rate after a year being $7.99/month.

I use the WordPress software to build my website.. That’s the Content Management System…. It’s been around for almost 20 years and is one of the most popular content management systems on the planet. What that means for you is that there are a TON of plugins that allow you to customize the site any way you want. It’s also infinitely expandable, so when you decide it’s time to hire a webmaster they’ll all be familiar with the platform.

I also use a plugin called Elementor which provides a drag-and drop interface with a ton of good looking elements to add to your website. I’ve used for the last couple of years. I started off with their free version which includes a lot of useful templates but ultimately wound up upgrading to their premium version which is only $50/year.   What really sucked me in were their popups for email collection. I was looking for a cheaper solution than Optinmonster  which is $120/year just for the optin forms…. Whereas Elementor Personal also added in 300 templates, fifty more wedgies and a theme builder. Much better deal!  Elementor is one of the top 15 most popular WordPress plugins and they have a 30 day money back guarantee.  I’ll post an affiliate link on the episode page which lets you support this podcast at no extra cost to you.

The reason the popup is so important is for building your email list. As I mentioned at the beginning of the show, your website and your email list are the only two things you really own.  I use Mailchimp to handle my emails, and they integrate very easily with the Elementor popup.

There are a bunch of other plugins I like and use on my site, an especially important one is Blubrry’s PowerPress plugin which I use to easily publish podcasts, but that’s another show. I’ll have a list of my favorite plugins on the shownotes page.

So, my total cost between the domain registration, hosting, and Elementor pro is about $12/month going with the full price of Bluehost. That’s competitive with Bandzoogle, Wix, or any of the other one-stop website building site…. But it gives me complete control over the website and hundreds of pre-made templates and tools to easily create and update my pages. 

This DID take some time and research to figure out which tools and services I wanted to use… but if you want to copy what I’m doing I feel very confident recommending this combination of tools and services. 

Because the WordPress / Elementor combo is so popular, there are a TON of tutorial videos and lots of forums you can rely on.  This is a DIY approach, it’s not hard… but it does take a little time to set up initially.  There are a bunch of Elementor tutorial videos.  Once you’ve got your name chosen, I’d say two days is plenty of time to register your domain, sign up for hosting, get familiar with the software, and build your initial pages.  After that, the maintenance is pretty easy. 

Oh, a legal word of caution… and this applies to ANY website you build, not just one with WordPress.  If you’re going to collect data about your visitors either through a mailing list, Facebook pixel, or google analytics, you have to have a privacy policy. WordPress provides some boilerplate material, and I expect Wix and Bandzoogle do too… but you really need to read up on this and the European GDPR laws, or better yet, have an attorney familiar with this stuff help you. Europ’s privacy laws are much stronger than those in the United States so you have to be very careful how you store and what you do with user’s data.

So to recap:

1. Pick a brand
2. Pick your domain
3. Pick a hosting provider
4. Pick your software
5. Build your website!
6. …. Now keep it updated.

One thing my website really lacks is e-commerce.  WordPress works very well with Shopify and Woo Commerce, but I haven’t got this set up yet.  Eventually I need a more robust merch store… but I’ll prioritize that once I start touring. Right now it’s print-on-demand via Redbubble, but their store doesn’t embed well in websites so if you visit the merch shop on my website it’s just photos with links to the Redbubble store where someone could purchase something with my logo (T-shirts, phone cases, pillows, etc) and then have it printed and sent to them.

So, that’s my website. Please take a look around and see what you think, I’d love to get your feedback. I’m pretty proud of it considering I don’t have any formal website design training. What tools do you use for your website? Join the discussion on the show notes page at producerlifepodcast.com episode 29.     If you’re enjoying this podcast, please spend 3 minutes posting a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you’re listening… that would be a huge help!

Until next week, this is the House Ninja reminding you to be somebody’s Hero today.