"We do all the work, they provide the webhosting. Easy.."
Haven't had any issues with the hosting. Inexpensive.
Overall, yes. The only thing I think could be improved is tech support when it is needed. It takes a while to get a human being to interact with, which I prefer to the "chat online" method. That said, I have rarely needed assistance with things as it is so intuitive.
If hosting service, you mean Wix, so far we haven't had any real problems. There are sometimes circumstances where we can't link to another site directly but have to go through "the back door" so to speak. For example Wix doesn't support our current ticket pricing company so our volunteer had to find a way to link to that service. I am curious to find out what other services are out there and how they work for other theater groups.
We like that it's easy to use, is able to handle ticket sales and merchandise sales, allows us to apply coupons and promos to the site, etc.
It works well and reliably
Who is Responsible for Website Updates/Edits in California Community Theatres?
Artistic Directors
Outside Marketing Group/Individual
Board Member
Board Member Designated as Webmaster
Board Member Overseeing Social Media
Executive Director
Zbra Design Contact
Volunteer
Staff Person
"Since it is done in-house, we control content and response time for updating."
California Community Theatres:
Website Design & Hosting
Here's a listing of website design programs, website hosting services, and more general info on how website maintenance and content are handled by your fellow California Community Theatres. Survey results are from Spring 2017.
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How did you work with a website designer to create the site your community theatre currently uses?
Board input
In-house - Artistic Director
I am the website designer so I was pretty easy to work with.
We like Weebly, it includes nice templates, and is a very simple "drag and drop" design system. We are very happy with it, especially the integration with mobile devices so things look good for people who visit our website on their phones or tablets.
He gave us a list of questions to answer. These questions included the kind of feel we wanted our site to have, 5 similar businesses sites that we liked, features that we wanted, etc. They came up with some ideas and we made changes from there until we got what we wanted.
I haven't worked with a designer. I looked at other community theater's websites and adapted our needs to what is already out there. I do work with a resident in our development who inputs the information and graphics into the website.
We didn't. The current site was done by theatre staff.
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Showed them our old website, listed things we didn't like about it, discussed what we needed to add, and the design team came back with a great looking easy to use site.
"We like Weebly, it includes nice templates, and is a very simple "drag and drop" design system. We are very happy with it, especially the integration with mobile devices so things look good for people who visit our website on their phones or tablets."
"We like the subtle details, the ease of use, how it captures what our company is and who we are, is professional, up-to-date/modern, etc."
"We don't have money to spend to contract with a website design service and currently I haven't found anyone to take on the responsibility of updating our web pages. Therefore, there are times when the information on the website is not current because I haven't gotten to it yet. Oh the woes of beginning a community theater."
"Many of us cannot afford professional services when it comes to web hosting and design. Unfortunately that translates into a less professional website."
"We do it ourselves. This eliminates a lot of confusion as to what we want."
