My name is Ant. I created the initial version of the Bandonkers website some time ago. I had worked as a computer developer for a number of years but unfortunately I was made redundant. Having spare time on my hands gave me the opportunity to advance my skills as a web developer. Most of my programming experience had been involved with application development. As I am a guitarist, I decided a good way to combine learning web skills and my interest in music, would be to create some sort of music related website.
I wanted to create or join a band but I didn't know any musicians. I did a search on Google and found various sites allowing musicians to find bands and vice-versa. That's when I started thinking maybe I should create a site like this myself. It was not straightforward. Users would have to be able to post, search and reply to advertisements.
Looking back, I realised one of the biggest challenges for musicians isn’t writing songs or getting gigs — it’s finding the right people to play with.
To better understand why bands split up, we recently asked over 200 musicians, and the biggest reason wasn’t creative differences at all — it was commitment. Personality clashes and life getting in the way followed closely behind.
Most bands don’t fail because the music isn’t good enough. They fail because finding reliable, like-minded bandmates is harder than people think.
Development
Initially, progress was quite fast. In between applying for jobs, I had plenty of spare time to work on the website. There was a lot of work to do and sometimes I'd hit problems, but I had a lot of time to figure things out. After I had completed about two thirds of the project, I was lucky enough to find new employment. This was great for me but not good for Bandonkers. My spare time was now limited and I considered abandoning the site. However, I thought it would be a shame to give up after the many hours of work I'd done so I decided to see it through to completion. I don't like giving up on projects!
Finally ready
After what seemed like quite a long time, the site was ready. I paid for hosting and pushed it live on the internet. Once the search engines had done their bit, people started posting! It was great to see people using the site. I've had messages of users to say the site has been successful for them. This is fantastic to hear :)
For me, this was just the beginning really. I was perhaps a little naive in thinking once the site was live, I could sit back and relax! This is not the case. With web technologies improving all the time, search engine algorithms changing, social networking, and answering user queries, there's always plenty to do. It's good fun though and keeps me out of trouble!
If you're ready to post your first ad, it's worth taking a few minutes to get it right — take a look at our guide on what to include in a musician ad to give yourself the best chance of finding the right person.
Ant - Bandonkers