Thread: Website?

I'm thinking about starting a personal website to advertise myself as a dancer & instructor. Does anyone have any advice? Anything I should include? Companies to use to host the site? Anything at all would be helpfull! I know this would be great to have, I'm just a little intimidated to get started. Thanks!

I would start by checking different dancers websites to get ideas and to compare information.... you can start by checking mine, there's alot out there!

Checking out other dancers' sites is a great place to start. I'd also check out the websites of different products or services that might appeal to your target market, just to get a feel for design schemes, layout and verbiage.

You might also want to consider going for the opposite color scheme of your local competition, to make you stand out on a visual level. Everybody in my area seems to have rich jewel tones or black, so my web guy and I opted for pretty, calming pastels on a white and gray background.

You may also consider implementing a social media strategy, not just to blast out invites or "self-promote," but to add a splash of personality to your web marketing. Lots of clients have picked me solely because I consistently carry myself as a fun, approachable and professional entertainer. Social media and blogging require a little more upkeep, and they're certainly not for everyone - but for me, they've paid off in spades.

As for photos, I firmly believe that you should only use the best ones you've got. If you don't have any professional photos, you might consider booking a shoot. I see a lot of dancer-sites with enormous galleries, but IMO, a big gallery isn't 100% useful unless the pictures are crisp, sharp and appropriately cropped and framed. If your goal is to "sell" yourself, then resist the temptation to post too many grainy, poorly framed, out of focus photos. If you have tons of photos (like me), you might want to set up an additional account on Flickr, and link to it from your gallery page.

I get tons of compliments on my site every day, from dancers, clients and marketing & PR professionals - so please feel free to check it out for inspiration. If you're in the market for a designer, I highly recommend my guy Brian Feister: DreamStar Studios | Web, Graphic, & Identity Design Studio | Photoshop, CSS, xHTML, & Web Design Blog. He's brilliant, artistic and light years ahead of the curve - and funny as hell and easy to work with, to boot! Be warned, his rates are equivalent to 2-3 Bellas. But sooooooo worth it.

I use GoDaddy.com to host our site. I also registered our domain names through them. I find them very reliable with good customer support.

I used Weebly. It was really easy. They have lots of templates that you just click and type.

Thanks for all the great info ladies! I'll get playing around and see what I can come up with!

I have an excellent designer who is very reasonable and his design sense is exemplary if you need someone...

It's fine and helpful to check out other dancers' sites but, ultimately, what do you want the world to know about you? What image do you wish to project? What are your qualifications and what makes you unique? It behooves you to answer these questions first and then go about the nitty gritty. Also, knowing the answers to these questions will help you and/or your designer once you do get to the brass tax of building your website.

A short, well-written warning about Flash from Violinist.com:
News Flash: If You Have News, Don't Use Flash "...golden rule for webpages: Make it easy for the reader. The key to having a website that serves both you and those who seek you out is to make it usable. It's possible to make it usable and beautiful, but please, first make it usable."