SO WE NEED A WEBSITE...

Two people, now, have contacted me saying Deathgrass needs a Website. (I do agree.) They’ve both advised when you google “Deathgrass,” you come up with nothing (which I have advised is Google’s fault, not ours—it simply proves Google does not and cannot know everything). But I’d agree a Deathgrass Website is not only desirable, but necessary. I’m just not sure how to do it. (Technological dinosaur, y’know.)

Here’s my idea of what a Deathgrass Website should do. It should be simple—accommodating the folks who still have old, slow computers and slow connection speeds (I was one of those for a long time). And it can be one “page,” consisting primarily of links, because a lot of the pieces of an Internet marketing system already exist, and just need to be connected. So we need:

--A link to a music “page” on Soundclick, SoundCloud, ReverbNation, or one of the other online music databases (OMDs).

--A link to “The Writer’s Blog” on blogspot.

--A link to the specific spot on CDBaby (still to be developed) where people can buy the album online.

--And links to everybody who’ll provide links to us. Years ago, a pharmacist I knew in Germany maintained that was the way business would be done on the Internet—“Links. People will pay for links.” I’m not going to pay for links, but as usual, I’d do trades. Might end up with a whole ‘nother page of links.

In addition, I want a button people can click to play a song. That could be a link, too—we don’t need a separate player. The song needs to change regularly—at least weekly, I’ve been told. A button that’d play (link to) a video of the band in concert would be good, too—and we will have some video, from the Feb. 5 Failed Economy Show.

Photos, of course—and there aren’t many photos of the band in existence. I have a camera, but I’m playing in the band and don’t get to use it. I need to make a regular practice of turning over my camera to someone in the audience at concerts, and telling them to take lots of pictures. The camera’s little chip-brain will hold over 100 photos.

And the e-mail list. The Website must provide a place people can sign up to be notified of future gigs, and future albums. We “collect people” at every show, and the list is growing, slowly. The folks collected from the Website (name, e-mail, and location, too, I think) need to get incorporated into the existing list automatically. I’m not sure how. The ability for folks to leave notes is important, too: the ability to communicate personally is one of our strengths, and I want to make sure we can do it easily.

We’ll need a domain name; *.org, *.net, *.us and *.info are easy—it’s only getting a *.com that’s a hassle. And hosting? The phone company (my ISP) used to host customers’ Websites, but they’ve changed names three times (and been bought out once) since the last time I checked. I don’t know if they still do that. I know one outfit that just hosts their Website themselves—it’s on a computer that’s simply on all the time. And I do have a spare computer—“StuartLittle,” out in the garage, waiting to become the “brains” of the studio (as soon as the weather warms up). Could maybe do that.

So where do I go from here?

Joe