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  Recommendations for a hosting company with template sites serving up Vimeo or Youtube videos

  Posted by Dave Gage on June 17, 2013 at 1:59 am

  I’ve been coding my own sites since 1997 (so I’m not of much help here), but my wife a graphic artist, occasionally gets asked to create a website for someone. Her client wants to display her video work, and to keep life simple and costs down, would like to create a templated website. So far, she’s looked into WordPress and https://organicthemes.com

  Any suggestions on what to use (or what not to use)? I just took a look at John Davidson’s site and if I remember correctly, it looks great, but I think they do it in house.

  Thanks,
  Dave

  Dave Gage replied 12 years, 11 months ago 4 Members · 8 Replies
• 8 Replies

• 

  John Davidson

  June 17, 2013 at 3:01 am

  Dave, dude, that’s really kind. I worked on it all weekend in advance of a convention this week so it’s nice somebody besides my wife noticed. Thank you!

  Our whole site is wordpress. We use hostgator which is like 6 bucks a month for unlimited storage space. We then use a WordPress theme called ‘My Folio’ from Themeforest.net. It’s technically a photo/portfolio theme which takes a little extra jiggering to work with video. There are other themes for about $40 that might be perfect for what you’re looking for and are more video oriented.

  Now, WordPress isn’t the easiest thing to learn despite what a lot of wordpress designers will tell you. That said, once you get your head wrapped around the underpinnings of it it’s not all that bad. You also might want to just craigslist a college kid to set it up for you. All our video is hosted on Vimeo because it integrates with wordpress sites better than self hosting your own video. Also, it seems like Vimeo finally got their act together and works much better these days. I do think we have that Vimeo Pro account that costs about 200 a year. You can do Youtube for free though and it also works smashingly well with WordPress. If you get a theme, just make sure you get one that says it’s ‘responsive’. This allows your site to adapt to ipads, iphones, etc.

  If you look up the My Folio theme, the author Tommus created some great video tutorials that might help you get your head around it.

  Thanks again!

  John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
• 

  John Davidson

  June 17, 2013 at 3:07 am

  Oh, and, wordpress can be installed on any web host for free, and there are also a TON of free themes you can pick from which will come in handy if you need to generate multiple portfolio websites for different clients on the cheap. You’ll find it infinitely more easy to learn if you get somebody to walk you through it in person though.

  Check these out:
  https://reswpthemes.com/best-free-responsive-wordpress-portfolio-themes-2013/

  John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
• 

  Bernard Newnham

  June 17, 2013 at 8:16 am

  https://magicfeatherinc.com/

  A rather excellent piece of WordPressing, in my opinion.

  Bernie
• 

  John Davidson

  June 17, 2013 at 5:27 pm

  Thanks x 2!

  John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
• 

  Dave Gage

  June 17, 2013 at 6:20 pm

  [John Davidson] “Our whole site is wordpress.”
  That’s good to know. As I said, I’m old school and do everything on my websites myself, but certainly there is a huge time saving advantage these days by using templated websites.

  [John Davidson] “That said, once you get your head wrapped around the underpinnings of it it’s not all that bad.”
  Cool. If needed, I can help her with the technical stuff to get her started.

  [John Davidson] “All our video is hosted on Vimeo because it integrates with wordpress sites better than self hosting your own video.”
  Just the kind of information we were looking for. Her client is a high-end music and TV commercial director/producer and the video demo presentation is the main objective of her website.

  Thanks for taking the time. I sent my wife this thread last night and she found your info and links very helpful.

  Dave
• 

  Julian Bowman

  June 18, 2013 at 6:33 am

  Hey John, your website theme freezes my browser on my ipad3. May just be specific to my tiring ipad, but thought I’d mention it.

  And I can second WordPress themes. I use a simple clean one page theme to present my video portfolio. Skinning WordPress is pretty easy, especially if you already know CSS and a bit of coding of websites and WordPress for a client means they aren’t constantly coming back asking for tiny changes to content or copy.
• 

  John Davidson

  June 18, 2013 at 6:57 am

  Thanks Julian. Try it now. The preloader is getting hung up on iPads for some reason.

  John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
• 

  Dave Gage

  June 18, 2013 at 8:24 pm

  [Julian Bowman] “And I can second WordPress themes.”

  Thanks Julian, I will pass this on.

  Dave

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