We haven't talked about the website for a while, but this morning Briana IMed and asked "How did you get your website so high up on Google?"
This reminded us to talk about the website a little bit more.
"The website" is JosephaHaden.com.
This is sort of an experimental website, intended to do a little marketing for Josepha. We said we'd share what we learned.
First off, we learned that having a website is worthwhile. Josepha has had a couple of job offers from it, and it gives her more of an air of authority, sitting there on her business cards as it does.
We also learned that you have to keep up with it. For example, one of the job offers arrived when Josepha was on tour in Italy, and it was too late by the time she saw it. For another example, she hired someone to do a linking campaign, got happy with the 300 or so links from that, and never did anything else.
So it was good news when we heard that the site's PageRank went up this month, but she still doesn't have as much traffic as she wants.
So the main thing we've learned here is that it's great to have a website, but it won't really just take care of itself.
How do you get it up on Google?
* Start with a good design, good content, and good programming. Google cares about that stuff.
* Get some links. This has to be an ongoing effort.
* Flash it around a little IRL. Put it on your business cards. Put it in the signature of your emails. Add it to your resume. Google won't know that you've done this, but traffic helps you get links, and it also helps you get jobs.
And that's really the whole point, isn't it?
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Josepha and Rebecca got their book proposal in. It was harder than expected. We were writing about dynamics, a small and manageable-seeming part of the big topic of music theory. Josepha had an email from someone who had visited her site and heard her sing, asking her to sing at a wedding. Unfortunately, Josepha was on tour in Italy! July is a big month in pop music history. It was in July that Billboard started keeping track of which songs were national hits, in July that the first rock album was released (by Bill Haley and the Comets), and in July that the Rolling Stones played their first public performance. It was also in July that Bob Dylan was booed for playing an electric guitar on stage for the first time, but that probably doesn't count. Josepha and Rebecca are doing an audition for Head First books for a book on music theory. We're planning to do 10 pages that absolutely completely teaches the scoop on dynamics, from ppp to fff. Rhythm Lesson Plans Recognizing and practicing with rhythms is an important pre-reading skill, and it can be both calming and energizing -- something you'll appreciate if you're still in school at this point in the year! Once you and your web designer have created a terrific website for you, you may think you can just sit back and wait for clients to call Here's that website. The first decision about your website -- once you've decided to have a website --is what web designer to use. Most of the music teachers we know are as busy as they want to be and turning away students, too. They fit in performances when they can, or perhaps they've given up performing. You stand in the middle of a giant, masking tape music staff, hands on hips and surveying the glorious mess around you. There are hollow reeds in a pile behind you with red and black tape on the ends, a musty stack of newsprint at your feet covered in simple tunes written large and happy. The piano waits, top gaping, for new found tuning skills and the open windows allow a breeze to send loose scraps of paper flying in circular patterns about the ankles. A black tape player crackles the music from the curriculum, filling you with inspiration to create more exciting games and more colorful bulletin boards. |
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August 2008
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