How much did you pay for your martial arts website design

[Tony Dismukes]

Sites hosted on WP.com don't have as much admin control - WP.com updates everything as updates are available, I think. I'm not sure Tony can even see what plugins are being used without digging.

I can see the plugins, I just can't control which ones are active by default.

If I were running the business, I might be willing to pay for hosting which would give me more control. However the owner isn't interested in investing the money and I've already donated my time for free - I'm not going to put more of my own money into the project.

The idea of a website with extra content for registered students sounds cool, but I don't have the time or energy to put into creating that content. Maybe if I won the lottery and was able to quit my day job ...

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Maybe if I won the lottery and was able to quit my day job ...

That's my plan, too, Tony. Seems a sound approach, right?

 

[JowGaWolf]

Sites hosted on WP.com don't have as much admin control - WP.com updates everything as updates are available, I think. I'm not sure Tony can even see what plugins are being used without digging.

Good to know. I didn't realize that they limit the admin control.

I like the control that concrete5 offers. I've,found that it's a good compromise between lack of control with a sit builder like Wordpress and coding from scratch.

I just took a look at their add on selection and it wouldn't work for me. Some of the things I use now weren't available. Maybe in a few years after they have more add-ons developed for them.

 

[JowGaWolf]

However the owner isn't interested in investing the money and I've already donated my time for free - I'm not going to put more of my own money into the project.

I can't blame you for that. I've been there done it and didn't like that I cared more about the business being successful than the owner did. Some people just don't think a website is valuable enough to properly invest in it.

The idea of a website with extra content for registered students sounds cool, but I don't have the time or energy to put into creating that content. Maybe if I won the lottery and was able to quit my day job ...

It's not easy and to be honest I don't think I would be doing it now if there wasn't an opportunity to pull an additional revenue stream from the effort. At the moment I know of 5 additional revenue streams that our school can take advantage of. It'll be 6 (outside of teaching classes) once we get our Lion Dance team up and running again. I just have to pace myself and not burn myself out.

 

[WaterGal]

I originally got out of the website design game due to all of the competition out there and because many people like to use the "Do it yourself" website design services that are out there. I've been thinking about hoping back into the game as I have seen some really terrible websites lately. The number of martial arts websites that aren't mobile friendly or that freezes during loading is just crazy.

But before I try to tackle this market, I would like to know what some of you have paid for your martial art website. I would also like to see your website as well. To see what you got for your investment.

I did ours myself, so I can't help you on the cost front. For our current site, I used the Themify Ultra Wordpress theme, and I have the Timetable plug-in for the schedule which I would recommend. But it was a lot of work and sometimes is a little glitchy, especially on mobile. (Which I think is my fault, lol.)

If you made your own website, with WordPress or Joomla, then how interested would you be in having access to ready to go Martial arts templates that are designed specifically for these systems?

As long as it was customizable to some extent, then yes I'd be very interested in that. One of my 2017 goals for the school is a new website.

 

[WaterGal]

I'll second the concept JGW is speaking to here. I use WordPress (quite similar to Joomla, in many ways, which I used to use). The ability to add functionality by simply installing a plugin and setting up a few things is like magic. Things like adding a contact form (instead of posting your email address, which brings lots of spam) become quite simple.

And that you can put that contact form on every single page of your site very easily - and if you want to change something in the form, you update it once in one spot to change the form on every page. Same with your menu, header, footer, etc.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Timetable plug-in for the schedule which I would recommend.

I'm glad you mention this. I was looking for an extensions that shows when the school is open last year, but some how I got sidetracked and forgot all about it. I think seeing a feature that says "Yes we are open" or "Sorry we are closed" I think this makes it more convenient. Even though our schedule written on the website, we still have people who as "what are your hours"

 

[WaterGal]

I'm glad you mention this. I was looking for an extensions that shows when the school is open last year, but some how I got sidetracked and forgot all about it. I think seeing a feature that says "Yes we are open" or "Sorry we are closed" I think this makes it more convenient. Even though our schedule written on the website, we still have people who as "what are your hours"

The Timetable plug-in is basically a responsive schedule that you can customize, so I don't think it would do what you're looking for. But if you have a school with multiple programs, or with classes aimed at different ages groups, it's good because you can tag each class with an attribute and use that to filter which classes show up on a given page (i.e. you want to show a schedule of all the kid's classes on your children's program page, so you set it to only show the classes marked "kids"). I'm sure there's a plug-in that'll do what you're talking about, though.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

The Timetable plug-in is basically a responsive schedule that you can customize, so I don't think it would do what you're looking for. But if you have a school with multiple programs, or with classes aimed at different ages groups, it's good because you can tag each class with an attribute and use that to filter which classes show up on a given page (i.e. you want to show a schedule of all the kid's classes on your children's program page, so you set it to only show the classes marked "kids"). I'm sure there's a plug-in that'll do what you're talking about, though.

I'll have to look at that one. I'm using Time.ly's All-In-One Event Calendar plugin. It has similar properties, though a bit more complication than I need (since it's actually designed to work with the Time.ly service). It was the only one I could find, though, that allowed me to easily set up exceptions (so I could cancel class on a specific date) and that actually worked as intended.

 

[Steve]

Independent of platform, I installed google apps on our school's website. It essentially allows you to create google/gmail accounts using the domain name. So, for example, if your school domain is bobsdojo.com, you can create email accounts that function in all ways like a "gmail" account, but use the bobsdojo.com domain name. So, "[email protected]" could actually be a gmail account.

In this way, you can create gmail accounts that allow you to tie in all of your various social media accounts to your school email. [email protected] could be your facebook account, your youtube account, twitter, and whatever else. You can also access your email through google mail, use it for google docs, the calendar and whatever else you want. It's been very helpful.

You can also set up different accounts for different things. So, [email protected] could be one account, [email protected] another. You could set up a shared account, if you want to allow multiple people to access the school youtube or twitter feeds... lots of ways to do it.

And it's easy to manage, too. Takes seconds to add or delete an account.

Edit: I'm looking at it now. I should clarify that it was free when I installed it. Not sure if it is still free to use and install. I'll take a peek, but it appears that it might cost a little dough.

 

[JowGaWolf]

The Timetable plug-in is basically a responsive schedule that you can customize, so I don't think it would do what you're looking for. But if you have a school with multiple programs, or with classes aimed at different ages groups, it's good because you can tag each class with an attribute and use that to filter which classes show up on a given page (i.e. you want to show a schedule of all the kid's classes on your children's program page, so you set it to only show the classes marked "kids"). I'm sure there's a plug-in that'll do what you're talking about, though.

Oh ok. I have something like that already. I thought you were referring to an open hours feature. But you are right. Being able to tag each class so that it can be filtered is good. I think of how I use other websites and there have been many times in the past where I wished I could filter the information. This is especially true with calendar stuff. Anything that makes it easier for the customer to be on the website is always good.

 

[JowGaWolf]

I'll have to look at that one. I'm using Time.ly's All-In-One Event Calendar plugin. It has similar properties, though a bit more complication than I need (since it's actually designed to work with the Time.ly service). It was the only one I could find, though, that allowed me to easily set up exceptions (so I could cancel class on a specific date) and that actually worked as intended.

I'm surprised that there isn't a plugin that works without having to pay a monthly service fee. My calendar extension does everything that the Time.ly service does but it doesn't require a service to run it. Things like this is why I recommend Joomla vs WordPress. Compare this Events Booking - Joomla Events Registration | Joomdonation
with what Time.ly charges for.

This is what the calendar looks like in action http://joomdonationdemo.com/eventbooking/
The only downside to the calendar is that it takes a bit of configuration to do. The good news is that if you don't want to configure the calendar then you can get the vendor's tech support to get you started. This wasn't a big negative for me since the documentation was clear and easy to follow. I think the configuration is so extensive because they built an event Calendar that will fit the most advanced needs as a result, someone who is looking for something small will probably not like all of the configuration that's needed to get it set up. But once it's set up it becomes very easy to use. My clients never go through the pain of the set up because that's my responsibility as part the website design service. If you are the developer of a website then you'll get to spend a lot of time setting this up.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Independent of platform, I installed google apps on our school's website. It essentially allows you to create google/gmail accounts using the domain name. So, for example, if your school domain is bobsdojo.com, you can create email accounts that function in all ways like a "gmail" account, but use the bobsdojo.com domain name. So, "[email protected]" could actually be a gmail account.

In this way, you can create gmail accounts that allow you to tie in all of your various social media accounts to your school email. [email protected] could be your facebook account, your youtube account, twitter, and whatever else. You can also access your email through google mail, use it for google docs, the calendar and whatever else you want. It's been very helpful.

You can also set up different accounts for different things. So, [email protected] could be one account, [email protected] another. You could set up a shared account, if you want to allow multiple people to access the school youtube or twitter feeds... lots of ways to do it.

And it's easy to manage, too. Takes seconds to add or delete an account.

Edit: I'm looking at it now. I should clarify that it was free when I installed it. Not sure if it is still free to use and install. I'll take a peek, but it appears that it might cost a little dough.

Sounds good but if you already have a hosting account then you can make your own email accounts using the domain name. [email protected]. for example, If I wanted to use my @jowgakfa.com email address in gmail then I can just configure my gmail clent to manage emails from that address. Are we talking about the same thing?

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I'm surprised that there isn't a plugin that works without having to pay a monthly service fee. My calendar extension does everything that the Time.ly service does but it doesn't require a service to run it. Things like this is why I recommend Joomla vs WordPress. Compare this Events Booking - Joomla Events Registration | Joomdonation
with what Time.ly charges for.

This is what the calendar looks like in action http://joomdonationdemo.com/eventbooking/
The only downside to the calendar is that it takes a bit of configuration to do. The good news is that if you don't want to configure the calendar then you can get the vendor's tech support to get you started. This wasn't a big negative for me since the documentation was clear and easy to follow. I think the configuration is so extensive because they built an event Calendar that will fit the most advanced needs as a result, someone who is looking for something small will probably not like all of the configuration that's needed to get it set up. But once it's set up it becomes very easy to use. My clients never go through the pain of the set up because that's my responsibility as part the website design service. If you are the developer of a website then you'll get to spend a lot of time setting this up.

Oh, I don't have to pay a fee, because I don't use their service. The plugin just has some complications in it that are meant for use with that service. There may be other plugins that can do what I want, but Time.ly's is the second I tried that had all the functionality, and the first one didn't want to work, at all. Once I found a workable solution, I quit looking.

 

[Steve]

Sounds good but if you already have a hosting account then you can make your own email accounts using the domain name. [email protected]. for example, If I wanted to use my @jowgakfa.com email address in gmail then I can just configure my gmail clent to manage emails from that address. Are we talking about the same thing?

Sure, but google apps is way better. It's not just email. its access to all of the google sites and features, including the gmail. And it works for signing in to other places, too. Wherever you see "sign in with your google account" you can use this. Or maybe it's the same.

 

[Blindside]

This is mine, it is an adapted template using webs.com. Costs me $20/year for the domain name.
Blackbird Training Group

I am sure I could pay for a fancier and nicer website but I am a little skeptical how much that would really drive recruitment to the training group.

 

[JowGaWolf]

I am sure I could pay for a fancier and nicer website but I am a little skeptical how much that would really drive recruitment to the training group.

I will drive up recruitment but you have to be active in making that happen. You can't just put up a website and expect everything to work. SEO for a website is critical, marketing for a website is critical, and market interaction (interacting with potential customers) is critical. The same marketing challenges that you have offline are the same ones that you have online. The only difference is that it's cheaper to address the marketing issues that you have from online operations than it is to address the same challenges that you have offline.

 

[JowGaWolf]

This is mine, it is an adapted template using webs.com. Costs me $20/year for the domain name.
Blackbird Training Group

I am sure I could pay for a fancier and nicer website but I am a little skeptical how much that would really drive recruitment to the training group.

I just checked out your website. You have something strange going on with the menu links sometimes your pages show and sometimes it gives the message that the page cannot be found. I went back to write the names of the links for you, but now the pages are showing.