Thread: Bio for my website...any suggestions?

hey all!

so I found a wonderful AFFORDABLE web designer (thanks, Aradia, Shaun is GREAT!), and I'm in the process of getting my content together for him to put my website up.

I'm stuck though.

As far as a bio goes...I'm not really sure WHAT I should say about myself. I'm not good at tooting my own horn, and since I am JUST starting out with teaching...yeah...not too sure.

You know...a lot of dancers claim (whether they actually have the RIGHT to or not is another discussion) that they are "one of the most sought after dancers" in an area...well, I can't claim that, so I don't want to say anything of the sort...I want to talk myself up, but without being all egocentric, you know?

HELP! ;) lol

Well, who do you want to be reading your web site and what do you want to tell them? are you talking to customers? students? peers?

do you want to promote yourself? the events you produce? your teachers? the benefits of the dance?

what do you bring to the table?

Answer all those in outline form and it's a start... :)

btw, you gotta be a little egocentric in your bio, cuz no one else is gonna do it for you! :)

also, put the best, most interesting, most unique and most GP-friendly stuff in the first paragraph, as most people don't have an a long attention span. You can flesh it out in later paragraphs, and get into the nitty-gritty dance details towards the end

Thanks ladies. :)

I'll be working on that.

For the moment, its mostly for prospective students, I'm really going to be pushing classes more than performances. (I'm on a performance hiatus right now anyway.)

:)

Originally Posted by yasmindiab

hey all!

so I found a wonderful AFFORDABLE web designer (thanks, Aradia, Shaun is GREAT!), and I'm in the process of getting my content together for him to put my website up.

I'm stuck though.

As far as a bio goes...I'm not really sure WHAT I should say about myself. I'm not good at tooting my own horn, and since I am JUST starting out with teaching...yeah...not too sure.

You know...a lot of dancers claim (whether they actually have the RIGHT to or not is another discussion) that they are "one of the most sought after dancers" in an area...well, I can't claim that, so I don't want to say anything of the sort...I want to talk myself up, but without being all egocentric, you know?

HELP! ;) lol

Haha @ the most sought after comment, cute.

Originally Posted by yasmindiab

Thanks ladies. :)

I'll be working on that.

For the moment, its mostly for prospective students, I'm really going to be pushing classes more than performances. (I'm on a performance hiatus right now anyway.)

:)

When I look into someone wanting me to take lessons under them, I look at there style in movies/clips. It would be nice to know a little about your teaching style. If you've had sold out classes, I'd speak on that. If you've had sold out venues or won any awards I'd speak on those as well. Just a few suggestions off the top of my head.

Originally Posted by yasmindiab

I'm not good at tooting my own horn

me neither! i understand. i haven't worked on my own bio for this reason

one thing for teaching - maybe say what it is that you love & is awesome in your own dancing that you are excited to share with others.

also i've been reading a lot of bios of other people (not just dancing) to try and flesh out what i like or don't like about them. maybe that will help.

Yasmin, try writing a crazy-tooty-over-the-top bio with all kinds of flowery accomplishments and characterizations, and then pare it down bit by bit until it's almost tolerable. ;)

Originally Posted by nasila

Yasmin, try writing a crazy-tooty-over-the-top bio with all kinds of flowery accomplishments and characterizations, and then par it down bit by bit until it's almost tolerable. ;)

I love this idea, Nasila, thank you!

I'll try that. :)

not all new students are looking for the best qualified or most experience teachers (until perhaps when they fall in love with the dance). some may just want some leisure activity after sitting all day in office, or like one of my colleagues who 'want to look better when dancing in clubs'. how about promoting your class as easy-to-follow, fun, relaxing, happy class? i often talked about belly dance with my flight attendant colleagues (many of them because i work with different team on every flight) and most of them feel they will never be able to learn to dance, without ever trying. i used to feel that myself. what about telling your readers that it's not hard to learn to dance (just hard to dance beautifully...) and it's never too late to start and if you don't start now by next year this time you will regret why delaying a whole year!! would you have some promotion like if someone comes to trial class with a friend, they only have to pay for one? when doing scary things such as going to my first ever dance class i want to drag my friend with me and my friend would not say no because it's free and she's curious also. don't know if it's allowed maybe other teachers will think it's bad for the industry or something. are you having women-only class? if yes you may want to emphasis that as well (sorry to all male bhuzzers x). my friends and i when we first started going to class we thought it was great to have no men there and we could dance ugly-ly (not by choice) without a care.
write in a style that shows readers you're friendly and easy-going and generous and happy and fun and enjoy a laugh and all those good personalities so people who have unreasonable bosses in their office would want to de-stress in your class.
testimonials from your students? you can always teach your friends and ask your friends (now students) to say something nice and quote them....