Hello Ventriloquists,
I have just hired a web designer to help me with a website and was wondering if you had any advice you could offer me.

What sort of information/media do you think should be included? Is there any element of your website that you wished you'd designed differently?

I'd love to see some of your favorite vent websites if you are keen to share.

I'd look outside of magic websites. See the kind of thing kids might be interested in or that Adults would like to buy.
Check your aspirations. Are you cheap and chearful, or are you the millionares magician? Your web site needs to reflect this.

Take a peek at mine
http://www.woodynfriends.com

I definitely recommend video if you have any.
Tom

Take a look at mine
http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

As a professional web designer and online marketer for the last 10 years, I must ask you what is your main goal in your website. It it to be just a "online brochure" or is it to market you and get you more business?

If it is just to be an "online brochure" then I have no recommendations. Sites like this are not going to get you business. These sites are built with the thought that you can't get much business online. They are usually done cheaply and reflect poorly on the owner.

BUT, if your site is for marketing your brand and image, then I have a few recommendations.

• Setup a youtube account and put plenty of videos on your site (and youtube). Be sure to include your website's domain in the video and on the youtube description.
  
• Setup a facebook "BUSINESS PAGE" and promote that page heavily. Google will be changing how it lists websites very soon (in the next few months) and you will see listings from Facebook and twitter.
  
• Point people to your "other" web pages, i.e. facebook and twitter on your main website.
  
• Setup a blog on your website and update it regularly. A blog should hold articles concerning your craft, updates on your business, and personal tidbits. These all go a long way to getting your site ranked in the search engine and keeping it there.
  
• Decide in the market you are trying to reach demographically and adjust some of your site to meet that need. For example: if you are trying a specific city or region then make sure you mention your areas in your site and have your business address (even if its your home) at the footer. This will help you get listed in
• Google maps. Also, speaking of Google Maps, you can put your listing in their for free. When you setup google maps listing, be sure to put relevant keywords in the listing and your link to your website. These map listings are and will be showing up in searches more and more. For example if someone was searching for "Philadelphia entertainer" you might see a map showing on the google search page with a few listings of entertainers in that area. You want to be in those listings because they show first on the page.
  
• Set aside a realistic budget to use for advertising. I recommend you take 20% of your profit and put it to marketing. Make sure you have a professional setup your google adwords accounts because otherwise you will be wasting money. In the end, you should be spending no more than 20% per client you get. 20% is a high range number, you can do this with less budget.
  
• In the end, remember this website is a reflection of you. It should look trustworthy, professional, and speak to your potential audience at their level. Stay away from automatically playing sound clips. Sites made in 100% flash, and make sure your navigation is easy to use and figure out.
  

Hope this helps!
John

Some great advise John.
Im putting a new web site together at the moment and I'm looking into auto responders.
I'll let you know when it's up and running.

For auto-responder I recommend using aweber.com. Its about 20 a month and will do everything you need and more. Plus it pretty dummy proof.
John

David Farr offered his Amazing System for awhile, but when I was ready to purchase, he had stopped selling. I looked at several autoresponders before deciding on AutoResponder Plus. They installed it directly on my web server and offered excellent customer support when I had questions.

There is a learning curve and it takes time to set up the sequence, but once it was done, I was very happy. And no recurring fees.

Check mine out. I did it myself with very easy software program.
http://www.SonnyVegas.com

Sorry to be brutal Sonny but that's just what it looks like. I think if you are making top quality puppets for the 21st century that's what your web site should represent.
I'm on the process of redoing mine at the moment, I'll post the link when its done.

:dizzy: And that´s how it looks like - a selfmade homepage but not a professional one. Sorry, but this is a perfect negative example of a homepage - unbusinesslike and oldfashioned, like a homepage of the first generation.

Some very cool puppets though.

The puppets look great! His web site doesn't. Does that matter? I think it does as it's the first idea that most people will have about your business. We don't like to admit it but we all judge on first impressions.

Cat lady,
Check out mine at http://www.drsolar.com I have very good listings. I kicked around with some low end designers for a while until I found a terrific artist.
Let me know what you think.

Doc

Doc, your site looks great, as does your show. I've found some video of your show on YouTube but if you have a link to video on your site I couldn't locate it. People, (and Google's search algorithm) love video. I'm working on getting some video on my site because I've gotten this same advice from several folks in the know about such things. My own site is need of some reworking and better organization.. I'm working on it.

http://www.mrpitts.com

Hi Vent friends,
I just thought I'd pop by to show you guys my new website.
http://www.sarahjones.com.au
I am really happy with how it turned out.

It still has a slight glitch with some firefox browsers (the links to other pages at the top don't come up) but that is being ironed out.

I will be adding more photos and video to my media page soon.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and if there are any other glitches or spelling mistakes etc that I might have missed please do let me know.
Cheers,
Sarah Jones

Great site! Love the crisp, clean design/look.

Sarah I agree with Tom. Simple , clean and fresh looking. See you at conVENTion.
Dan
http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Sarah, I loved it! Can't wait to see the other pages...