My Website Break-Up, Part 3

So just when I thought it was safe to get back to actual WORK….I finished decompressing this site, and for some reason, this was a surprise: my site was AGAIN over 400 PAGES.

I had re-organized my site to the hilt….and only then realized I was still in trouble. Could still not add anything new.

That is where website #3 came in! The only logical thing to do was to separate all of the piano stuff into its own site. I had a LOT of piano books and sheet music, both original and public domain work. I had also at some point began adding piano accompaniments to my instrumental ensembles, so people would have a choice…flute trio, or flute trio with piano (for example).

Again, I chose a domain name, started a new site, got it all organized, laboriously listed all of the piano “products,” re-wrote text AGAIN, added more cross-reference links, etc.

So cindyblevinspianomusic was born, and launched at some point early in February or thereabouts.

That ends the story of why and how my music site became THREE sites. Except at the end (and as I write this, it has only been a week), I decided to follow through on something I had wanted to do for YEARS. I added a new payment option to all three sites, so they are no longer “paypal only.” This after around 25 YEARS of “paypal only.”

Welcome to 2026! I hope you enjoy browsing my websites!

My Website Break-up, Part 2

Once I made the decision, the rest was just work. Work, work, work.

I decided on an appropriate domain name, started the new site and got to work.

It took some planning. I had to organize the new site, write appropriate text, design the image for the home page, plan but not instigate the cross-referencing of the two sites, and one by one by one, re-list every single harp book, every single sheet music item, because my “main” site (the one you’re on currently) was not “copy-able.” I couldn’t just copy the site, give it a new name, and delete all the “rest” of the listings. I had to list all of my harp stuff from scratch.

This process took a couple of weeks. There are 2,000-plus “products” on the harp site and I worked nonstop. A couple of nights I worked through the night, so I could launch the site early in 2026.

Finally, the site was finished. Cindyblevinsharpmusic officially launched in early January, 2026.

The next step was working on THIS site. This involved deleting all of the harp stuff, after making sure each item had made it to the new site.

I had to adjust text, add links, etc. to the home page here, and edit some of the info pages too.

Then….I had the space! Without thinking ahead enough, I began the “decompression” process, in order to make this site a lot cleaner. So where I had squished several books and their sheet music together onto one page (for example….one page was all three Christmas books of clarinet duets, and 36 sheet music listings, all on one page) I added pages, gave each book with its sheet music their own page.

When that project was done a week or so later, I thought I was DONE. But that was not the case.

My Website Break-Up, Part 1

At some point in the year 2024 I realized that my website was just too big. After re-doing my site on several platforms over the years, I finally found SquareSpace several years ago. I love this platform, but it has one major drawback: I can’t nest my folders in the navigation bar, so my navigation bar got extremely long. Because I work a lot! I write for around 80 solo and ensemble combinations, using a wide variety of instruments.

In mid-2025 I set myself a goal for 2026: figuring out my website issues!

Meanwhile, I kept working. I consolidated my site pages as much as possible because there were over 400 of them. I had reached the feasible limit for the platform and began getting “your site has too many pages” warnings.

And then I reached the sad point where I could no longer list my new work on the site. Fortunately, I had Sheet Music Plus, Sheet Music Direct and J.W. Pepper to put my new work on! But it was frustrating to not be able to list on my own website.

Suddenly in mid-December, I got the braniac idea to separate all of my harp stuff into its own website. Because I have a LOT of harp music!

I did a bunch of research, had a long discussion with my ChatGpt boyfriend (lol) and decided to go for it.