Wix or wordpress for wedsite??

[Goriila Texas]

Which way would you go to sell music,merchandise or any type of online business? Looking at freedom to customize page,online store,upload format (mp3,wave,aiff),video quality and storage space. Also,any information on how the customer support is would be useful.

[selig]

I have no experience myself, but have looked into a few of these. A good fried suggested Shopify for e-commerce. Also maybe look into Weebly and Squarespace as they offer similar services at nearly the same price range IIRC.

You can ask Noel G. about Wix - his Reasonistas site is built with Wix, and it's always good to hear from folks with actual experience (sorry I don't have any!). Would love to hear what you find and will follow this thread to see what the response is!

[Marco Raaphorst]

I am using WordPress + https://gumroad.com. Wouldn't choose anything else.

[Goriila Texas]

I am using WordPress + https://gumroad.com. Wouldn't choose anything else.

Why? Have you used anything else? Nice page!

[Goriila Texas]

I have no experience myself, but have looked into a few of these. A good fried suggested Shopify for e-commerce. Also maybe look into Weebly and Squarespace as they offer similar services at nearly the same price range IIRC.

You can ask Noel G. about Wix - his Reasonistas site is built with Wix, and it's always good to hear from folks with actual experience (sorry I don't have any!). Would love to hear what you find and will follow this thread to see what the response is!

Thanks for response I will look into those you mention as well.

[Marco Raaphorst]

I am using WordPress + https://gumroad.com. Wouldn't choose anything else.

Why? Have you used anything else? Nice page!

Yes I have used Sendowl as well. Works fine too.

Squarespace I wouldn'r advice because it can't handle Paypal. That's a must when you are selling. Squarespace looks great though.

[16BitBear]

I don't know anything about Wix but I develop for Wordpress constantly for myself and others.

The free Wordpress sites offer very little in the way of customization but if you want to register your own domain name and get a reasonably priced hosting service (I personally use NameCheap for both) then installation of the full Wordpress is pretty straight-forward.

From there you have incredible control over themes, plugins, security, etc. I used Divi from Elegant Themes as the first framework and for the small investment, it was worth it. I am now branching out into creating my own themes and plugins. I agree with Marco that Gumroad is excellent as well.

[Goriila Texas]

I don't know anything about Wix but I develop for Wordpress constantly for myself and others.

The free Wordpress sites offer very little in the way of customization but if you want to register your own domain name and get a reasonably priced hosting service (I personally use NameCheap for both) then installation of the full Wordpress is pretty straight-forward.

From there you have incredible control over themes, plugins, security, etc. I used Divi from Elegant Themes as the first framework and for the small investment, it was worth it. I am now branching out into creating my own themes and plugins. I agree with Marco that Gumroad is excellent as well.

Yeah thanks I'm looking at the business option at Wordpress for $24 a month. Is that what you're talking about? Domain name I already have with Godaddy.

[16BitBear]

I don't know anything about Wix but I develop for Wordpress constantly for myself and others.

The free Wordpress sites offer very little in the way of customization but if you want to register your own domain name and get a reasonably priced hosting service (I personally use NameCheap for both) then installation of the full Wordpress is pretty straight-forward.

From there you have incredible control over themes, plugins, security, etc. I used Divi from Elegant Themes as the first framework and for the small investment, it was worth it. I am now branching out into creating my own themes and plugins. I agree with Marco that Gumroad is excellent as well.

Yeah thanks I'm looking at the business option at Wordpress for $24 a month. Is that what you're talking about? Domain name I already have with Godaddy.

Wordpress for business is an upgrade to their free plan that includes themes and such but is still limited on plugins, control, and optimization tweaks that you might want to make. It is also rather expensive at $24.00 a month.

if you don't want to host and run your own site, then definitely it is a step up. If you don't mind hosting and running your own site, I would go with a cheaper hosting site that allows you to use your cPanel to install the full Wordpress on your own server space. It takes a bit more effort but you have a lot more control and options.

I use NameCheap and it costs me $80.00 a year for hosting space with multiple domains and sub-domains plus options like Joomla, Wordpress, etc.

[platzangst]

For music specifically I think Bandcamp has a decent setup. Everything has to kind of fit into the Bandcamp page parameters - that is, most Bandcamp pages are going to be recognizable as Bandcamp pages, there's not a lot to customize beyond colors and backdrops. However, you upload WAV files to the site and they spit out just about any audio file format a customer wants. They work off of PayPal. They take something like 10% of sales, but in a kind of odd way. Suppose you sell 10 copies of your album - the first 9 go to your PayPal account, the 10th is kept by Bandcamp.

Bandcamp allows you to sell merchandise as well. So if you have CDs or vinyl or even T-shirts related to your music, you can set that up on your Bandcamp site as well, and from a consumer's perspective it's super-great if you want to, say buy a vinyl copy of someone's album but also want a digital version, because generally buying a physical copy enables a download.

There's also ways to produce download codes - so if you're sending your vinyl copies out to stores, you could in theory have Bandcamp make you a database of codes to print onto cards to get included with the vinyl for anyone not buying through your Bandcamp page. Don't know the specifics on that, though. I think you get like 100 free codes a month and have to pay for more.

Bandcamp also allows for subscription plans and package deals, where you can pay something to be given some number of future releases, or pay a fee to buy the artist's entire digital catalog.

[Benedict]

I always +1 Bandcamp for presenting and selling music. You have to bring the fans but the platform makes the rest work well incl. allowing embeds.

Sellfy for my ReFills with no dramas

Wordpress (free) for my main site. Have used many other methods but Wordpress seems very robust and likely to be around forever.

[Goriila Texas]

I don't know anything about Wix but I develop for Wordpress constantly for myself and others.

The free Wordpress sites offer very little in the way of customization but if you want to register your own domain name and get a reasonably priced hosting service (I personally use NameCheap for both) then installation of the full Wordpress is pretty straight-forward.

From there you have incredible control over themes, plugins, security, etc. I used Divi from Elegant Themes as the first framework and for the small investment, it was worth it. I am now branching out into creating my own themes and plugins. I agree with Marco that Gumroad is excellent as well.

Yeah thanks I'm looking at the business option at Wordpress for $24 a month. Is that what you're talking about? Domain name I already have with Godaddy.

Wordpress for business is an upgrade to their free plan that includes themes and such but is still limited on plugins, control, and optimization tweaks that you might want to make. It is also rather expensive at $24.00 a month.

if you don't want to host and run your own site, then definitely it is a step up. If you don't mind hosting and running your own site, I would go with a cheaper hosting site that allows you to use your cPanel to install the full Wordpress on your own server space. It takes a bit more effort but you have a lot more control and options.

I use NameCheap and it costs me $80.00 a year for hosting space with multiple domains and sub-domains plus options like Joomla, Wordpress, etc.

Thanks for giving me an honest/detail opinion.

[4filegate]

Digital Downloads for quick and easy selling of your product

things you should consider when selling a digital product is: doing it via a service that is exactly dedicated to that, or doing it via a WordPress plugin.

(hosted versions) is easier but more limited. If it does exactly what you want, feel free to go for it. Just make sure to select the appropriate pricing model for your vision. Gumroad if you want to avoid monthly fees, and SendOwl if the monthly fees don’t bother you but you want to save in the high volume areas...

(self hosted / they’ll be on your own server) is slightly more complex to set up and maintain, but more flexible and extendable, i.e. you or your developer have access to the code and therefore you can customize a lot. WooCommerce for the more ambitious who want to customize the checkout process, or sell something slightly more complicated and be a store with physical goods.

Where is your WordPress backend?

http://www.jimdo.com/pricing/ (EU-Trusted Shops, are quite a bit different from the rest of the world’s )
+ Theme responsive = mobile optimized for automatically sending out a digital product

[Goriila Texas]

For music specifically I think Bandcamp has a decent setup. Everything has to kind of fit into the Bandcamp page parameters - that is, most Bandcamp pages are going to be recognizable as Bandcamp pages, there's not a lot to customize beyond colors and backdrops. However, you upload WAV files to the site and they spit out just about any audio file format a customer wants. They work off of PayPal. They take something like 10% of sales, but in a kind of odd way. Suppose you sell 10 copies of your album - the first 9 go to your PayPal account, the 10th is kept by Bandcamp.

Bandcamp allows you to sell merchandise as well. So if you have CDs or vinyl or even T-shirts related to your music, you can set that up on your Bandcamp site as well, and from a consumer's perspective it's super-great if you want to, say buy a vinyl copy of someone's album but also want a digital version, because generally buying a physical copy enables a download.

There's also ways to produce download codes - so if you're sending your vinyl copies out to stores, you could in theory have Bandcamp make you a database of codes to print onto cards to get included with the vinyl for anyone not buying through your Bandcamp page. Don't know the specifics on that, though. I think you get like 100 free codes a month and have to pay for more.

Bandcamp also allows for subscription plans and package deals, where you can pay something to be given some number of future releases, or pay a fee to buy the artist's entire digital catalog.

Thanks for replying,I guess that's an option,but not feeling the % they taking out. I know itunes gets a percentage too but that's itunes though. Depending on how difficult Wordpress is to learn I might look into Bandcamp.

[Goriila Texas]

Digital Downloads for quick and easy selling of your product

Where is your WordPress backend?

What do you mean? I've never used Wordpress.

Thanks for replying.

[Goriila Texas]

Digital Downloads for quick and easy selling of your product

things you should consider when selling a digital product is: doing it via a service that is exactly dedicated to that, or doing it via a WordPress plugin.

(hosted versions) is easier but more limited. If it does exactly what you want, feel free to go for it. Just make sure to select the appropriate pricing model for your vision. Gumroad if you want to avoid monthly fees, and SendOwl if the monthly fees don’t bother you but you want to save in the high volume areas...

(self hosted / they’ll be on your own server) is slightly more complex to set up and maintain, but more flexible and extendable, i.e. you or your developer have access to the code and therefore you can customize a lot. WooCommerce for the more ambitious who want to customize the checkout process, or sell something slightly more complicated and be a store with physical goods.

Where is your WordPress backend?

http://www.jimdo.com/pricing/ (EU-Trusted Shops, are quite a bit different from the rest of the world’s )
+ Theme responsive = mobile optimized for automatically sending out a digital product

You bring up a good point about International sells,I need to do more research on the others on how they handle different currencies.

[platzangst]

Thanks for replying,I guess that's an option,but not feeling the % they taking out.

Well, that could be a concern. Keep in mind, though, that Bandcamp hosts your files and provides bandwidth as part of the basic "free" plan, so in the event someone wants to download your entire catalog as FLACs you aren't going to take any kind of hit based on traffic or storage space. If you go the Wordpress route, make sure to keep an eye on usage rates, and what your provider charges if you happen to go over.

Really, I guess it comes down to how much you are or aren't willing to pay to let someone else handle some of the logistics of running a site.

[4filegate]

Digital Downloads for quick and easy selling of your product

Where is your WordPress backend?

What do you mean? I've never used Wordpress.

Thanks for replying.

it has humor and is self-critical; I have seen too many of it

[16BitBear]

For music specifically I think Bandcamp has a decent setup. Everything has to kind of fit into the Bandcamp page parameters - that is, most Bandcamp pages are going to be recognizable as Bandcamp pages, there's not a lot to customize beyond colors and backdrops. However, you upload WAV files to the site and they spit out just about any audio file format a customer wants. They work off of PayPal. They take something like 10% of sales, but in a kind of odd way. Suppose you sell 10 copies of your album - the first 9 go to your PayPal account, the 10th is kept by Bandcamp.

Bandcamp allows you to sell merchandise as well. So if you have CDs or vinyl or even T-shirts related to your music, you can set that up on your Bandcamp site as well, and from a consumer's perspective it's super-great if you want to, say buy a vinyl copy of someone's album but also want a digital version, because generally buying a physical copy enables a download.

There's also ways to produce download codes - so if you're sending your vinyl copies out to stores, you could in theory have Bandcamp make you a database of codes to print onto cards to get included with the vinyl for anyone not buying through your Bandcamp page. Don't know the specifics on that, though. I think you get like 100 free codes a month and have to pay for more.

Bandcamp also allows for subscription plans and package deals, where you can pay something to be given some number of future releases, or pay a fee to buy the artist's entire digital catalog.

I have to say I also use Bandcamp and would recommend it as well.

[Marco Raaphorst]

Yes Bandcamp us great. Will take a larger percentage than others but its shops is great.

Soundcloud is also a must in your case. You can connect Bandcamp as shop for Soundcloud.

[frog974new]

i use both Bandcamp and wix
Bandcamp to sell music and a free site on Wix for all others purpose . Wix its a bit expensive for premium and pro account but its steel a good alternative for indie without knowledge in coding ( Html5 , java..etc..)

http://frog974new.wix.com/reason-to-be-creatif

take me 2 days to do this on wix ..
the only bad thing , wix its a bit hard to optimize the web site for App IOS and co

don't forget if you want to sell music , before you need a real strategy ( com , advertasing , speech ....) . For indie composer on DIY (do it yourself ) or Direct to Fan , atm the complexity of Music industry and retaillers Artist spend most of the time to sell a brand , you can bypass this if you have a solid fanbase .

[avasopht]

There are plenty of easy to use responsive WordPress themes, like the X theme, which has a wysiwyg editor

[Goriila Texas]

i use both Bandcamp and wix
Bandcamp to sell music and a free site on Wix for all others purpose . Wix its a bit expensive for premium and pro account but its steel a good alternative for indie without knowledge in coding ( Html5 , java..etc..)

http://frog974new.wix.com/reason-to-be-creatif

take me 2 days to do this on wix ..
the only bad thing , wix its a bit hard to optimize the web site for App IOS and co

don't forget if you want to sell music , before you need a real strategy ( com , advertasing , speech ....) . For indie composer on DIY (do it yourself ) or Direct to Fan , atm the complexity of Music industry and retaillers Artist spend most of the time to sell a brand , you can bypass this if you have a solid fanbase .

Yeah I can see wix is not really good for mobile use because your page comes up blank on my phone. That's a customer lost.