LIKE ANY TOOL, FACEBOOK REQUIRES CARE TO BE USED SAFELY

BY JIM WEISZ

The world is changing before our eyes. Social media is everywhere, and as small business owners, many DJs are embracing the still somewhat new technology. As a result, there’s a lot to be learned about social media and how to use it.

For this column, I will focus on Facebook, since it is by far the most-used social media platform. Facebook has over 500 million active users (as of July 2010), while Twitter has over 100 million users. Both obviously have impressive statistics, but the additional 400 million users on Facebook, coupled with the additional capabilities of Facebook make for a good resource for DJ companies.

FACEBOOK OVERVIEW

According to the statistics page on Facebook.com, Facebook launched in February of 2004 and by December 2004 they had nearly 1 million active users. That means more than 500 million people have jumped on the Facebook bandwagon in the last six years—and it’s just going to keep getting bigger. Facebook users are loyal—50% of Facebook’s active users log on to Facebook in a given day. There are also more than 150 million users who access Facebook through their mobile deviceS.

Every Facebook user has a “wall,” which is almost like a personal homepage on the website. It’s a place where friends can see your status updates, pictures, links, and anything else you choose to post. It also shows anything that anyone else has posted to your wall too. In regards to all of that, there are privacy options that allow you to choose what content your friends and Facebook users who are not friends can see.

REGARDING PRIVACY

Facebook has a plethora of privacy options in regards to the various ways you use the website. There are options for applications, friends, pictures, ads and more. One feature that pertains to privacy is the option to separate the various members of your Facebook friends via lists. The lists tool is useful because you can make a list for any category you’d like. For example, you could make a list for friends and family, another for DJs you network with, and one for clients .

The benefit of this feature is that it allows you to designate what each group can see from your profile. This is particularly important if you have other wedding professionals or clients as friends. Why is that important? Let’s say for example you’re particularly biased on a certain political issue. You get fired up on a topic and post about it. If you don’t use lists, all of your Facebook friends see what you posted in their newsfeed. A local photographer who enjoys working with you and refers you often is offended. Now what happens? Maybe nothing. Or maybe they stop referring you because they were offended. Why risk the chance of tarnishing your businesses reputation for something you post online?

SEPARATING BUSINESS AND PERSONAL

More than likely you already have a personal Facebook page, but do you have a separate page for your business? If not, add that to your to-do list. Your personal page should be primarily for that—your personal life, while your business page is where you can post DJ-related content. Now does that mean you should never post DJ content on your personal page? Of course not. But if you’re using your personal account to peddle your DJ business, eventually your real friends might get annoyed and hide you (meaning they won’t see your posts in their newsfeed).

I’m friends with a lot of DJs on Facebook. I don’t know their privacy settings and how they have their lists set up, but by the looks of it, many don’t use that feature. As a result, I see tons of DJs who make multiple posts everyday that are only about their DJ business. Of course work is part of our personal life, so the fact that you’re talking about work (DJing) isn’t the problem—it’s the fact that most people won’t have the slightest clue what you’re talking about. For example: “Status update: Just realized I forgot to bring extra XLR cables for the wedding tonight” or “Status update: Meeting with John Smith and Jane Doe about their wedding reception.”

Concerning a lot of what people post on Facebook, someone might say “who cares,” since there is so much mundane content. But there’s a difference between mundane posts and posts that have little to no relevance to most of your friends. Do you see your friends who work in an office post about the TPS report they forgot to put a cover sheet on? Or your friend who is a realtor post updates about showing houses to clients? If so, and it’s on a regular basis, I would bet that gets old to you too.

So, what’s the solution? Use your business page for your business updates. Go ahead and post that you’re meeting a bride and groom for a consultation, or that you’re excited about a new piece of gear you’re showcasing at an event this weekend. It’s even OK to occasionally make those types of posts on your personal page, but remember that unless you’re using lists so only your DJ friends will see it, most of your friends won’t care.

FRIENDING CLIENTS?

I see a lot of DJs posting updates from their personal account where they’ve linked to a clients name (using the @ sign before their name to link to their page). You can only link to someone you are friends with so that means these DJs are friends with these clients. I personally am only friends on Facebook with a couple clients, as I wait for them to send me a friend request. Why? Well, I don’t want them to feel obligated to accept my friend request just because I am their DJ.

I recently asked some other DJs about how they handle friending clients. Some said they take it on a case-by-case basis. For clients they feel that they have a good connection with, they send a friend request. Others wait for the client to initiate the contact. My personal opinion is that since I wouldn’t want my doctor, lawyer, dentist, insurance guy, pool guy, etc. to ask to be my friend on Facebook, what makes me think a client wants to be my friend on Facebook? So, I let my clients know I have a business page that they can join to get updates about my business. If they also chose to friend me on Facebook, I would accept the request. But I am not going to initiate the friend request, so I don’t put them in a weird place about how to handle it.

POLISHING YOUR BIZ PAGE

A page for your business on Facebook can be a great resource for new leads. One way a lot of DJs are using their business page is to post pictures from recent events. Then they will send an e-mail to the client to let them know the pictures have been posted and send them a link to their page. The best-case scenario is that the client will go through and tag the pictures of their guests. So now all those people who have been tagged are heading to your Facebook business page to see the pictures from the wedding.

In addition to pictures, under Notes you can also post articles that visitors to your page may find useful. Or, if you have a blog, you can post a link to a new blog article. Either option depends on you creating interesting content that will engage the reader. You can also post links to relevant wedding-related websites or pages of interest to your clients or prospective clients.

As far as getting people to “like” your Facebook page (using FB’s virtual thumbs-up feature), be sure to link to it from your website. You can also send out invites to any of your Facebook friends as well as send an e-mail to all past clients asking them to join your page. You may be surprised at how many will like your page and post a nice comment, which is good for prospective clients to see.

In addition to posting news, pictures and various business updates, you can also use it as a resource to fill dates. You can offer special discounts on particular dates or let everyone know that you offer a gift card for referrals. If you do post offers, be sure that the people who like your business page are relevant to your offers. For example, I’ve visited numerous DJ business pages that I can see I am one of about 200 DJs who like the page. The page has a total of 250 people who like it. If the business owner posts a promotional offer, it’s really only relevant to the 50 people who aren’t DJs. It’s for that reason I personally recommend not inviting other DJs to become a fan of your page.

The world of online social media is ever-evolving. While it provides a great new tool for DJs to build relationships and build business, it requires awareness of how website features work, and some common-sense thinking about how to approach making those connections with clients

Jim Weisz is a DJ who has primarily served the wedding and school dance markets since 1999. In 2003. Jim relocated to Dallas from Chicago to take a position at TM Studios (formerly TM Century and JonesTM). Over the last ten years, Jim has spoken at DJ conventions about websites and has been a regular writer for Mobile Beat magazine about websites, marketing and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.

Facebook Business Page Tip

Once your page has 25 “likes” you can create a custom URL for it. Meaning, you can name your business Facebook page something like www.facebook.com/xyzdjservice, giving you a better option for linking from your website and in any emails you might send.

If you have testimonials on your website from past clients this is also a great time to post new quotes or acquire some new quotes by contacting past clients. Be sure to ask for permission from clients to use their quote and name on your website/in your marketing materials. In almost 8 years of DJing I’ve never had anyone say I couldn’t use their quote/name but it’s still best to ask. I ask for permission with a question on my post-event survey.

Pictures are often overlooked when people make updates to their but it’s one of the easiest updates you can make. If you have a photographer you work with a lot ask for permission to use some of their pictures on your website. Let them know you’ll give them credit and put a link to their website and more than likely they’ll be happy to give you some great shots.

My opinion is you should be updating your website a minimum of once per quarter, however if you can update it more that’s even better. There’s a good chance prospective clients check out your website and your competitors websites a couple times before choosing a DJ. So, if they go to your website and see new content every time you’ll stand-out from the competition.

Finally, this is a great time to finally get rid of any cheesy gifs/animated images you have on your website, remove music that automatically starts and either update or take down any pages that say “Under construction” or “Coming soon.”

Website reviews

Have a website you want reviewed? E-mail it to jim@discoverydjs.com and I’ll review it in an upcoming column here on MobileBeat.com. Your website review may even make it into an upcoming issue of Mobile Beat magazine!

The first website this week is: www.prodjspokane.com

Good:
Good URL-that will help with search engine positioning.
Nice, fun design. Overall the design to me appeals to private parties, schools or clubs. If that’s your target market, it’s doing a good job.
Availability checker on the bottom of the home page (why not also on the packages pages?).

Nice links to your pages right at the top of the page.

Phone number & location is front & center.

Suggestions:
Drop the music or allow the visitor to start the music on their own. Why? What if someone’s enjoying a song they like on their computer, possibly with the volume up a bit and then your website music starts playing over their music? They may hit back on their browser and go to the next website. Or they’re at work researching their wedding and the music on your website just got them busted.

You have a lot of stock photos on your website but nothing that looks like it’s from one of your events-how about a page with pictures from your events?

What about company history/DJ bios? With the website you’re just another company, but with bios & pictures of DJs it adds a human element.

There’s something to be said for a simple website with not too much text, however I don’t think you have enough text. It’s basically the list of your packages. I would add another page or two-testimonials, company history/bios, pictures-all could be added to your website.
The next site is: www.randrdj.com

Good:
Good, comprehensive FAQ page.

Suggestions:
Drop the music-see above review for more info on why.

Drop the flash intro-no need for it.

I think your pages are very long since you have the English & then Spanish text below it. Is there any way you could have it default to the English version at the top of every page put a small button that says something that would let people know they could click it for a Spanish version? So you would essentially have a whole website in English and then another website in Spanish.

It’s ‘copyright’ not ‘copywrite’ as you have at the bottom of your pages.

You have a lot of text at the bottom of your pages for the search engines.

Drop the music page and instead put up a music search tool.

You have e-mail addresses for quite a few past clients on your website. They are probably getting a ton of spam e-mail because of that. You should remove them and send to people as they request them.

You should do a spell-check on your website-I came across quite a few misspellings.

Many of your pictures are very blurry. Fix them so they’re clear.
You say on your website you only take MC & Visa but you have an image that rotates between all the credit cards, including Amex & Discover.
Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, primarily serving the wedding and school dance markets. Jim is originally from Chicago and lived there until relocating to Dallas in 2003 to take a position with JonesTM (formerly TM Century). Jim has spoken at several DJ conventions about websites and has also written more than a dozen articles for Mobile Beat magazine about websites and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.

http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/current-style.cfm: This is a specific page on a website I really like. The reason I have this specific page bookmarked is because it’s where I like to start when I visit it as it often has new featured websites. As mentioned at the top of this page the goal of this page is where the author of the website tries to “sum up the current state-of-the-art in graphic design for web pages, and identify the distinctive features that make a web page look fresh, appealing and easy to use.”

Overall the website has a ton of excellent content covering a wide range of topics from copy writing to the basic design process. I would highly recommend spending at least a few hours reading through the various sections of this website and it will have you looking at your current website in a different way.
Website review

http://www.ccsnds.com

Good:

Nice website design that would probably appeal to brides.
Good bio page with a good picture.
Nice photo on the services page.
Good questions on the FAQ page.
Suggestions:
Drop the flash intro-it’s a waste of the visitors time and serves no purpose.
I had to go all the way to the bottom to the very small print to find out where you were located. I thought maybe you were in St. Louis with the quote from the St. Louis wedding magazine until I saw that at the bottom. (Note: After skimming through the text I see ‘New England’ DJ in the text however that doesn’t tell me where in NE you are or where you provide services).
Glad to see you have a music player at the top so people can stop the music if they want. However, you should set it so they click play for the music to start. Music on websites is not a good idea.
You have some text on the website that should probably be links. Like, “Contact Us to learn more about how we…” & “Check out our wedding tips & FAQs…” Both of those should be linked to something but they aren’t.
Videos page: Currently says under construction. Unless you’ll have something up there very soon (next 3-5 days?) take the link down until the page is ready.
I see that you use DJ Intelligence-why not put your music tool on your website so people can search for music on it? It’s a great engaging feature that has landed me numerous bookings.
Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, primarily serving the wedding and school dance markets. Jim is originally from Chicago, having lived there until relocating to Dallas in 2003 to take a position with JonesTM (formerly TM Century). Jim has spoken at several national DJ conventions about websites. He has also written more than a dozen articles for Mobile Beat magazine about websites and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.

Q. I’ve enjoyed reading your articles about META tags and have implemented some on my home page. Do you also use them on other pages other than your home page?

Rob Godshalk
Joker’s Entertainment

A. You definitely want to have meta tags on every page. The biggest question is whether to have the same tags on every page or if you should have unique tags for each page on your website. If you check out last week’s column I gave some information that might help you decide which way you want to go.

Glad you’ve enjoyed the column!

If you have a question about websites you would like to be included in a future column please send your question along with your name and company name to jim@discoverydjs.com.

Website reviews

http://www.jpwdj.com

Good:

You have your location & phone very near the top.
Demo videos that show potential clients what you have to offer.
Scanned in thank you notes look good.
Suggestions:
The logo on your home page is way too big. You should shrink it down to at least ½ that size.
‘Click here: Availability to check…’ that’s worded very awkwardly. What about ‘Check Availability for your event date’ with the words ‘Check Availability’ linked to your date checker?
Why not put your location (Naperville, IL) and phone at the top by your company name?
Remove the link to play Tetris & other games from your demo page.
You have a lot of empty space on the left…why not put some pictures there or put something else there? If not, you probably shrink that part a bit.
Review your website (and have others review it too) for consistency. You have your company name as J.P.W. Productions at the top of every page but on your FAQ page you have Jpw Productions.
Drop the equipment page-stock photos of equipment means nothing to a B&G. The picture of your set-up is good though…maybe you could put that on another page on your website?
Website could really use some more pictures and a bio page.

http://www.billysdjservice.com

Good:

Overall professional looking design (although you could probably do without the stack of blank CDs)
Company name, phone and location at or near the top of the home page as well as at the bottom of the page.
Suggestions:
You have D.J. all over your website. The most common way to write it is DJ.
Drop the calendar and use a service that allows clients to interactively check your availability. The empty calendar makes it look like you never DJ.
Drop the ‘Welcome to our website’ text.

Overall you have a very basic website. It looks good (I’m guessing it’s a template) but there’s not much to it and it isn’t very engaging. There are so many more things to be added like a bio page, a call-to-action (what on your website makes them want to call you or e-mail you right then to inquire about your services), interactive tools to browse your music library, etc.

I can see the Superpages button down at the bottom. I’m guessing part of the simplicity of the site is due to what you pay Superpages for your site. My suggestion is switch to a host that isn’t a Yellow Pages company as it will be much cheaper and will give you more options & flexibility. That’s not something to need to do today as it is a sufficient website but if you’re looking to grow your business online (which just about everyone should be) then I would definitely recommend that change for you.
Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, primarily serving the wedding and school dance markets. Jim is originally from Chicago, having lived there until relocating to Dallas in 2003 to take a position with JonesTM (formerly TM Century). Jim has spoken at several national DJ conventions about websites. He has also written more than a dozen articles for Mobile Beat magazine about websites and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.

Getting Started
Unless you’re a graphic designer, the first step will be determining where the design for your website will come from. You can hire a designer to create the design; use a template from within your website building software; or buy a template from somewhere online. Finally, you need to decide if you want to utilize a web-based editing tool or traditional website building and editing software.
If you decide to use traditional website editing software you’ll need to either find a designer or choose to go with a template. If you’re not familiar with website templates, they’re simply the basic design or shell of the site. If you buy a template you can do all the editing yourself to customize it for your needs. Templates are good for advanced users who don’t mind the possibility of another website having the same basic design as their website. If you’re looking for DJ-specific website templates check out Disc Jockey Templates (www.discjockeytemplates.com). There are also probably thousands of other websites that sell templates. You can do a search on your preferred search engine for either “website templates” or something more specific like “wedding vendor website templates” to find something that suits your taste.

Traditional Website-Building/Editing Software
If you’ve chosen this route, you’re either buying a template you’ll be editing or you have a designer creating a site that you’ll be maintaining. Your goal is to find software that’s easy for you to use, so maintaining your website isn’t a challenge. The following are some of the more popular choices:

Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 ($389)
One of the most popular WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors. I think there’s a bit of a learning curve to Dreamweaver but most people who use it swear by it. If this is your first venture into working with websites, I would not recommend starting with Dreamweaver.

Adobe GoLive
While still available for purchase, Adobe isn’t promoting this software as much as they promote Dreamweaver (they inherited Dreamweaver when they bought Macromedia a few years ago). The GoLive page on the Adobe site does offer an electronic download of the software but also recommends checking out Dreamweaver before buying GoLive. It is believed that there are no plans to release a new version of GoLive.

Microsoft FrontPage 2003
Despite FrontPage being discontinued I still mention it because it is a very easy to use WYSIWYG editor. I learned how to edit websites using FrontPage and it was easier to use other website software after knowing FrontPage first. This last version of FrontPage was by far the best version of the software. I checked the websites of several big-box stores to buy FrontPage but came up empty. I did find some smaller, lesser known software websites still selling it but be sure to exercise caution when buying from a site you’ve never heard of before. I personally still use FrontPage and know many other people who maintain their sites with this software.

Microsoft Expression Web Designer ($229)
This is Microsoft’s replacement for FrontPage. I personally haven’t used it but I’ve read that it is pretty similar to FrontPage. If that’s the case it’s probably worth checking out. There is a demo version of it on the Microsoft website.

Notepad (free)
Most people reading this probably won’t be able to build or maintain their site with Notepad (I know I can’t!) but I wanted to mention it because it’s the simplest form of creating and editing websites. Believe it or not, even with all the website building software out there, some people still prefer using a basic text editor like Notepad to edit their website. I wouldn’t recommend this option unless you’re an expert with HTML.

Yahoo! Sitebuilder (free, plus paid hosting)
This is somewhat of a hybrid between traditional and web-based. Sitebuilder is downloadable software that you run on your computer but it includes a lot of features similar to the web-based solutions (more on that below). The software includes 380+ templates to help you create your website. It features easy to use drag and drop capabilities, making it like the web-based tools. The Sitebuilder software is free but it is $11.95 per month to have your website hosted with Yahoo, which is the only place you can have your website hosted if it’s made with Sitebuilder.

Other options
There are probably hundreds of website/HTML editors available for purchase and even some available for free. (A great source for completely free software is http://sourceforge.net-a quick search for “WYSIWYG HTML editor” came up with over 6,000 results, with at least a percentage of those being programs that would be useful to non-computer geeks.) Your best bet is always to download a demo before making a purchase.

Web-Based Solutions
Web-based options are probably the easiest to use and usually include free use of templates/designs, so you don’t need a designer. You can also save some upfront costs by eliminating the need to buy software if you choose a web-based solution.
While web-based solutions are appealing they do have some negatives. Usually you can’t move your web-based design from one host to another, so if you’re unhappy with the host/company you’re stuck unless you want to build a new website from scratch. Also, web-based solutions work in such a way that sometimes doesn’t give you as much flexibility with the design and layout of your website as traditional software does. Finally, web-based solutions are completely stored on the website hosts servers. Since you always want to have a back-up of your website, find out if there’s a way to back-up a copy on your computer in case there’s ever a problem on their end.
The following are a few of the more popular web-based solutions:

EZDJWebsites (www.ezdjwebsites.com)
Ranges in cost from $99-$199 a year, depending on how many pages you’d like for your website. The Bronze ($99 a year for 5 pages) or the Gold ($119 a year for 12 pages) would probably be sufficient for most DJ companies. You can choose from 12 different templates as well as a variety of pictures to use on your site.
A nice feature of EZDJWebsites is the ability to easily integrate DJ Intelligence tools. (DJ Intelligence, at www.djintelligence.com, provides modules you can seamlessly plug in, to add booking, scheduling, event planning and many more interactive features to your website.)
Sample site made with EZDJ Websites: www.jbsentertainment.com

Website Tonight (www.godaddy.com)
Features over 800 templates and 8000 pictures you can use to build your website. Prices range from $4.99-$12.99 a month (they do also offer discounted rates when paying yearly). Includes the ability to add a Flash (animated) intro, forums, RSS news feeds and more.
Sample site made with Website Tonight: www.hailmarysonline.com

Homestead (www.homestead.com)
Offers a free 30-day trial that includes website hosting, 5 web pages, site stats and more. Choose from over 2000 templates to help you create your site. They have 3 different packages from $4.99 to $49.99 a month. The $4.99 option would work for some DJ companies who want a very simple web presence. The $19.99 is probably what most DJ companies would want. They also have an option where you can have a website designed for you and then you can maintain it with their online tools; this way you’re not just using a template.
Sample site made with Homestead: www.nzadventureco.com

As you can see, you can make a very nice looking website with web-based tools but while they are easier to use than traditional software (in most cases), still takes a fair amount of work on your end to make the site look clean and professional.

Let’s Build a Site!
If you don’t have a website yet (living in the Stone Age, eh?) now you have no excuse to not have a website. The best advice I can give is don’t make your sole decision on which route to go with your website just based on cost. If you know nothing about websites and don’t plan to learn, hire a professional to design and maintain yours, or check out one of the web-based solutions.
I designed my first website and now look back and laugh at it. (If you want a good laugh too go to www.archive.org and type in www.discoverydjs.com to check out my site from back in 2000). Despite having website design and maintenance experience for 7+ years, I hired a designer to design my current website and I do all the maintenance. I also recently launched a new website using Website Tonight. Within a matter of hours I had a very nice looking website just for weddings.
When a potential client visits your website for the first time, it is a lot like meeting you for the first time; it becomes their first impression of your company. Would you show up to a consultation looking like you haven’t bathed in a week? Probably not. So why would you let your website look like a mess? Take the same pride in your website as you do your appearance and performance and you’ll be on your way to having a successful presence on the Internet

*All prices taken from NewEgg.com and are for Windows versions. Check with your preferred software retailer for their prices.

Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, working on-air and as sole performer for his company, Discovery DJs. A regular MB contributor, Jim has also spoken about websites at Mobile Beat and other national DJ conferences. He is a moderator at the ProDJ.com forums, and provides a regular online column on websites, “Weisz on the Web,” at www.mobilebeat.com. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.

http://www.digitalmusicent.net

Good:

Clean & professional look/design.
Good color scheme.
DJ Intelligence pages look good and blend in well with your website.
Suggestions:

No location anywhere on the home page (city or state)….add both somewhere.
How about some bio information on the About Us page?
In your e-mail you gave me the website www.digitalmusicent.net and the e-mail on your website is .net. However, it seems that you own the .com. Any reason why you promote/use the .net more than the .com? Unless you have a really good reason you should switch to the .com as it’s more memorable.
Testimonials page makes it look like you don’t DJ very much. Can you get 3-4 more on there?
You could use some text on the Events page.
It seems like weddings are your main focus-why no weddings page? The website seems geared toward weddings so it seems weird there isn’t a page dedicated to that type of event.
A footer at the bottom of your pages with your contact info and maybe the links to the various pages would be a good addition.
Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, primarily serving the wedding and school dance markets. Jim is originally from Chicago, having lived there until relocating to Dallas in 2003 to take a position with JonesTM (formerly TM Century). Jim has spoken at several national DJ conventions about websites. He has also written more than a dozen articles for Mobile Beat magazine about websites and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.

Over the next couple weeks I’ll give the links to some of my favorites and explain how they can help you, too. I’m going to start with just one this week since it has many useful features.
http://www.marketleap.com: This has been my favorite resource for years when it came to anything search engine related. I haven’t used the site much recently but a few years ago I was using it a few times a week.

Marketleap has several really great (free) tools you can use to analyze your website in the search engines.
Link popularity check: (Taken from the Marketleap website) One of the best ways to quantifiably and independently measure your website’s online awareness and overall visibility. Simply put, link popularity refers to the total number of links or “votes” that a search engine has found for your website.
Marketleap has designed this link popularity tool to help website owners find out who is linking to their site, but also to give a useful benchmarking report to quickly show where you stand in comparison to competitors and other major online players.
Trend/history report: This is part of the link popularity check. This will only work if you’ve used the Marketleap link popularity check tool in the past. For my DJ website, it created a report going all the way back to 12/01 as that was when I first started using the Marketleap website.
Search Engine Saturation: (Taken from the Marketleap website) Simply refers to the number of pages a given search engine has in its index for your website domain. Not all search engines report this information but enough of them do to create some meaningful benchmarks for your search engine marketing campaigns.
Keyword Verification: (Taken from the Marketleap website) Checks to see if your site is in the top three pages of a search engine result for a specific keyword. It’s important to be in the top 3 pages of a search result because most people using search engines don’t go past the 3rd page.
In addition to all the tools on the Marketleap website they also have some great information about search engine optimization in general. The main section of articles is called Search Engine Optimization 101: http://www.marketleap.com/help/seo101/default.htm

I highly recommend reading all of the articles in SEO 101 at least once….and if SEO is still new to you, read it a few times.

Website reviews

http://www.soundbytesdjs.com

Good:

Good picture at the top of the home page.
I like your logo, especially the color scheme that it utilizes.
Overall clean & professional looking website design.
Suggestions:

You have ‘Northern Michigan’ near the top of your home page, which is good, but are people going to go to a search engine and type in ‘Northern Michigan DJ’? I doubt it…more than likely they’ll be putting in a city. So, you should list the closest big city to you there.
Overall the website has a very club/school feel to it. If that’s your target market, you’ve accomplished your goal. However, I see a lot of information about weddings so it seems like you are focusing on both schools & weddings. You might want to change out the picture at the top and go through the entire website looking at it as a bride would.
Text on the picture on the home page is somewhat hard to read.
I just found your ‘weddings site.’ That definitely is more like it but how many people will click on that? I bet many will do I what did, which was click on services and look at the information about weddings.
There’s pretty much no information about what packages you have for schools. Since you have wedding packages why not school packages?
Frequently Asked Questions: Why does it open in a new window, on a blank page with white text on a black background? It should be text on your existing design like everything else….it’s confusing the way it is now.
Somewhat off-topic, but you say “You will never hear us playing a song with inappropriate words.” You might want to re-word that…what’s inappropriate to you, me and a school administrator is different. Why not say “All of our music is radio edited, as we get it from the same place radio stations get it from.”
You have underlined text on your website that’s not a link….never underline text on a website unless it’s a link.
The formatting (page size) of your testimonials page is messed up (at least in Firefox).
Going back to the school/club feel, the gallery page only has school pictures…might want to put some wedding pictures up.
Several of the buttons don’t work on your weddings website.
Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, primarily serving the wedding and school dance markets. Jim is originally from Chicago, having lived there until relocating to Dallas in 2003 to take a position with JonesTM (formerly TM Century). Jim has spoken at several national DJ conventions about websites. He has also written more than a dozen articles for Mobile Beat magazine about websites and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.

http://www.digitalmusicent.net

Good:

Clean & professional look/design.
Good color scheme.
DJ Intelligence pages look good and blend in well with your website.
Suggestions:

No location anywhere on the home page (city or state)….add both somewhere.
How about some bio information on the About Us page?
In your e-mail you gave me the website www.digitalmusicent.net and the e-mail on your website is .net. However, it seems that you own the .com. Any reason why you promote/use the .net more than the .com? Unless you have a really good reason you should switch to the .com as it’s more memorable.
Testimonials page makes it look like you don’t DJ very much. Can you get 3-4 more on there?
You could use some text on the Events page.
It seems like weddings are your main focus-why no weddings page? The website seems geared toward weddings so it seems weird there isn’t a page dedicated to that type of event.
A footer at the bottom of your pages with your contact info and maybe the links to the various pages would be a good addition.
Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, primarily serving the wedding and school dance markets. Jim is originally from Chicago, having lived there until relocating to Dallas in 2003 to take a position with JonesTM (formerly TM Century). Jim has spoken at several national DJ conventions about websites. He has also written more than a dozen articles for Mobile Beat magazine about websites and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.

http://www.djtylert.com

Good:

Pleasing colors & nice logo.
Good images at the top of the home page.
Location right at the top of the home page.
Weddings packages page is nice & neat.
Suggestions:
I opened your site and I didn’t see any navigation buttons, images at the top were all screwed and overall the site looked very messed up. Then I opened it in Internet Explorer and it looked much better. For more info read back a few columns when I reviewed someone else’s website with the same issue. Basically, you want to check your website in a few different browsers (at least Internet Explorer & Firefox) to make sure it looks OK. You definitely want to get the site fixed for Firefox as it’s getting to be more & more popular.
A rule of design is to have places for the eye to rest-also known as white space. I think you can create some more of that by dropping the date & time that you have below your logo.
It’s really weird that I have to click a box over your buttons before actually clicking on a button…it’s kind of a pain. I’m guessing this is a template website and that’s why you have to do that. If it’s not and you can remove that I’d recommend it.
What’s up with the @msn.com e-mail address? Drop that and use an e-mail @djtylert.com.
You have many links on your website that lead to your contact page…but they don’t seem like a link that should go to that page (like ‘wedding party’ on the wedding packages page). I’m guessing this is done for search engines. However, it’s very annoying & misleading to the website visitor.

http://www.atmospheredjs.com.au

*Note, this website review request came from Jarrod Brake of Australia. Thanks for reading the column all the way in Australia and I’m looking forward to seeing how your website compares with US DJ websites

Good:

I really like the look/feel of the site….good color scheme & buttons.
Nice letter that you have linked to on the home page. Maybe you can make that link yellow or green to make it stand out?
Great pictures at the top above your buttons.
Weddings page looks great (again, drop the music/have a play button for music though).
Contact/quote button at the bottom of pages is a great call-to-action.
Suggestions:
A pet peeve of mine is audio that automatically starts upon page loading. While the audio on your website is very professional, I was listening to music when I went to your site so I could barely hear what you were saying (until I turned the music down). Then, every time I went to the home page it started again. Maybe you could put a little button at the top by the home button to play the intro? If not, can you set a cookie so it only plays once per visit to the site?
Drop the song lists and replace with a music search tool (like the one available through DJ Intelligence).
There are several misspellings on the Christmas parties page. Also, it looks a bit plain compared to all the other pages.
What about a ‘Company Info’ or ‘DJ Bios’ page? For something like a wedding, most people like to know who they’ll be working with.
Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, primarily serving the wedding and school dance markets. Jim is originally from Chicago, having lived there until relocating to Dallas in 2003 to take a position with JonesTM (formerly TM Century). Jim has spoken at several national DJ conventions about websites. He has also written more than a dozen articles for Mobile Beat magazine about websites and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.

The longer (way too long for this column!) and more complicated answer is the old fashioned way…submitting your site to the search engines, paying a service to get your site on the first page and waiting weeks or months for your site’s placement to improve.

So, which method is preferred and will cost the least? If done right, I think PPC is the way to go.

Should I design my own website or hire someone to design it?
I’ve been working with websites for years, have taken several website classes and even designed a few not-so-great sites. My current website I had designed by a professional. After doing that, I would never design another site on my own. Just as we preach to leave it to the pros when it comes to DJing a wedding, we should take our own advice and hire a professional.

What if I’m on a tight budget and can’t afford a professional designer?
While a professional designer will usually yield the best looking results, there are a few other options.

Buy a template: You can buy a template, which gives you the shell of the site and then you add all your graphics, text, buttons, etc. There are a few websites that sell specific templates for DJs/the wedding industry or there are hundreds of websites that sell general website templates. To use this option, you’d need to know how to edit the template and maintain the site on your own.

Use a web-based site builder: A web-based website application will allow just about anyone the ability to create and maintain a website. There are some specific web-based solutions for DJs as well as numerous others that are offered by website hosts. I’ve personally had experience with GoDaddy’s ‘Website Tonight’ and it has worked pretty well for me. I would estimate the monthly cost for a solution like this would be $7-$15 a month, depending on how many pages you have.

Have a designer make you a template: This was what I did for my last website. You can do it if you’re looking to save money or if you are capable of putting the site together but you’re not a designer. I personally did mine that way for the latter reason because I can pretty much do everything except design the site
More questions next week. Again, if you have a question of your own, send it to jim@discoverydjs.com.

Website reviews…

will return next week. If you’d like your website reviewed in an upcoming column send your website address to jim@discoverydjs.com.
Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, primarily serving the wedding and school dance markets. Jim is originally from Chicago, having lived there until relocating to Dallas in 2003 to take a position with JonesTM (formerly TM Century). Jim has spoken at several national DJ conventions about websites and has also written more than a dozen articles for Mobile Beat magazine about websites and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.