About This Website

I thought that it my be helpful for people considering building or updating their own website to tell you about how The New Media Artist site was created.

Firstly the website is hosted on Blogger. For some, this may come as a surprise, as it doesn't look like a normal Blogger site. This is because it has been customized using Freeway Pro. Freeway Pro (and it's little brother, Freeway Express) come from a U.K.-based company called Softpress. The Freeway products have features called "Freeway Actions", which allow people who don't have any experience using JavaScript (like me) to do really cool stuff.

FW includes a set of Actions called the "Blogger" suite. Using these actions, you can build your website using drag-and-drop editing, then add Blogger post, archive, header and profile sections to your site. On TNMA, I have used only two actions, the Blogger post area, which you are looking at right now, and the Archive section on the lower right column.

If you are interested in learning more about Freeway, check out an interview that The Reverend Doctor Bobby Newton did with Ian Schray, the U.K Marketing Manager for Softpress.

You may also notice that the URL http://www.thenewmediaartist.com will bring you directly to this page. By having your on personal domain, such as www.yourdomain.com, you can then point that domain to your blogspot-hosted blog. You can also mask the Blogger URL, in this case, http://thenewmediaartist.blogspot.com/, although the site is reachable through either URL.

Videos are viewable directly on the page using Vimeo. This means that the files don't have to be stored on your on hosted (paid for) site. However, I want people to be able to download interviews to their computers or iPod, so in this case, they are also uploaded to my GoDaddy hosting. When someone goes clicks on the iTunes subscribe link, then clicks to download the videos, they are downloaded from my GoDaddy shared hosting.

I chose Vimeo because, in addition to having great quality (Although the TNMA videos are not HD, Vimeo can handle that), I like the way the videos are presented on a webpage. Once you start a video, the rest of the controls fades away, allowing a distraction-free viewing experience.

Many artist/performers are intimidated not only by the knowledge required to put up a website, but by the cost as well. Don't be...

Blogger site and Blogspot hosting - Free

A personal domain name - about $20 a year including 1 email address.

The cost of having your on hosting (a place on the web to store your stuff) varies, but you can get GoDaddy hosting for as little as $50 dollars for a year. There are other, just as reliable services available for even less.

My suggestion is that you get started with a free and easy blogging solution like Blogger or Tumblr. Then, if you want to upgrade and customize your site later, you can.

And, if you need help, you can always contact me.