Website creation guide for entertainers
Created | Updated Apr 24, 2003
These are a few guidelines put together for entertainers who have or are thinking of having a website. They are a combination of personal experience with working in the web-programming environment, and what works for entertainers.
GENERAL
Ask yourself, “Why do I want a website?”. In general, the answer will be to provide an additional avenue of communication to your current and hopefully future fans. Bear this in mind when designing the site.
CONTENT
Content must be up to date. Many entertainer sites fail because the gig-guide shows the next gig as over two years ago. Would you go back to those sites?
You must have a gig guide on the site, including the venue, date, time and cost of the gig. Also include the address of the venue, especially if it is not a well-known venue. Provide booking details if applicable.
Fans like to see photos on the site, especially of recent gigs. Be careful to use small thumbnail images on one or two pages, with links to larger photos. These keep download time small.
Feedback pages are good, as well as pages to allow fans to subscribe or unsubscribe to and from e-mailing lists. At the very least, provide an email address. Also check your email regularly. Many venues and promoters use email to communicate with entertainers.
Have a few MP3’s on your site (if applicable - not if you're a mime artist), especially of recent gigs. To keep the files size small, you can make them mono and low resolution. If you don’t have space on your site for MP3’s, put them somewhere else, like on MP3.com.
Create a simple press release, with a couple of photos, an MP3 and a bio. Zip this and have it available on the site.
Keep the navigation simple. Remember that less is more.
TECHNICAL
Avoid fancy technologies like flash because:
· It takes too long to download
· You may have to install additional software onto your browser (more download and time)
· Ultimately it complicates things without adding significant benefit
You don’t need fancy server scripting such as asp or cgi. If you know how to use them, and your server allows it, they are great and can provide some really nice database access. However you can do some really good stuff through basic forms and email-based feedback.
Use as few pictures as possible. The more pictures, the slower the website.
Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). This makes it very easy in the future to change the look and feel of the site (fonts, colours, background logos etc).
SEARCH ENGINES AND DIRECTORIES
If you are marketing yourselves well, and ensure that fans know the address or your web site, search engines are not too important. However if you wish to know more, read this article.
However, it is important to have your site listed on some of the entertainment directories such as
· SA Rockdigest
· IAfrica.com
· SA Sounds
· Powerzone
· BBC Comedy
WEB COUNTERS
These are useful to see how many people are visiting your site, but make them hidden. If you are only having a few hits on the site, the fans do not need to know that.
Remember: Put your website and email address on all business cards, posters and fliers.
A FEW EXAMPLES
Lastly, here are a few examples of sites that work.
· tuesday's child
· Sting
· Marillion
· Garbage
