Okay, I just checked into another website option and I think this may be the best one yet! It uses an open source program called Mambo. (Open Source means that the code used to build the program is available to any web developers who want to adapt it or create add-ons to the program for the benefit of all the users. What this means for us non-developers: a free program!)
If you sign up for hosting with
Bluehost, they have an automatic installation feature that will install the program for you, so that it’s ready to use. This makes it a piece of cake to get started with your very own website! (Once you sign up for the hosting, you’ll get access to the cpanel – control panel – where you’ll have all kinds of options. Just click on the fantastico icon and it will list Mambo as an option for an automatic installation.) Just realize that when you sign up for hosting, it will take approximately 24 hours until you will be able to access the site and all the features. So, sign up now and then work on it as you have time!
Just so you can get an idea of what the Mambo site will look like, I’ve created a sample site here that you can look at. Other than changing the name to “Piano Studio,” I have not made any additional changes. You can change the whole look of the site just by applying a different template to the site. Mambo Hut has a bunch of great template options that you can download and apply to the site.
If you want to view a working Mambo site, visit Wendy’s Piano Studio. Wendy is a fellow music teacher and the one who first told me about Mambo.
This is a little more involved than the Webvertisement option on Music Teaching.com, but if you want to have more control over the layout of the site, I highly recommend Mambo!
[UPDATE: Instead of Mambo, I now recommend using Joomla, also available as an automatic installation with Fantastico through the
Bluehost hosting service. Joomla is the newer replacement to Mambo and is packed full of great options!]
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