I had a rather irate e-mail this month from a singer who is unhappy about our statement that every singer should have a Web site. He drew the conclusion that because he had never gotten work from his Web site, we were wrong.
As a singer, or a singer who teaches, you are a business—like the shoe repair store or the department store—and to make a go of your enterprise, you have to learn to follow a lot of the rules they follow.
One of the prime rules: Pay attention to your storefront. Your appearance, your Web site, your résumé, your headshot—these are your points of contact with the outside world. First, you want to make sure your storefront looks neat and attractive. If you can afford it, it’s nice to have a professional design, but it isn’t really necessary.
You also have professional associations you can join, which give you more points of contact with the outside world. If you’re a teacher, NATS (the National Association of Teachers of Singing) gives you space on their Web site to post information and a photo. (In fact, I start a new student today who came to me from this point of contact.)
My letter writer was correct about one thing: In our business, word of mouth is how most business is done, and that’s because we have another point of contact: auditions, audiences and general directors. General directors talk to each other and to managers, so contacts happen and we know nothing about them—until a job offer lands at our feet.
Suppose you have all the jobs you want and you are already in front of the public? Well, Macys pays more attention to its storefront than the shoe repairman does! Even singers with a lot of work want to control what the public sees! You don’t want the public to do a search on you and find your bad reviews; you want them to find your Web site, where you have glowing reviews, sound clips, photos, a guest book…
Suppose you are a new singer or teacher just starting out. A Web site gives you an immediate presence, can be very inexpensive, and if done well, makes you look professional. You can send an interested person there to hear you and see you without having to send your materials all over creation over and over and over again. People who see your Web site can tell others to go there—and word of mouth…
New teachers who believe their studio will fill up by word of mouth, however, will have a long wait! A Web site helps potential and current students see you and hear you as you were/are as a singer, see your studio policy, and more. You need a storefront.
Suppose that:
• An audience member wants to buy a ticket to a show you are in, but wants to know if you’re any good.
• A general director heard something good about you and is curious.
• Someone on the “Opera-L” mailing list heard you and wants to tell the list where to hear you and find more info.
• A student in another teacher’s studio wants to know more about you without being obvious or show a friend what a great singer you are.
Where is your storefront so these people can see if “this” is something they want to buy?
Don’t assume that just because you don’t use the Internet, others don’t. Opera fans have a huge online presence. Every opera company has a Web site—why don’t you? What actor or business doesn’t have a Web site? Are you serious about the business of singing or not? What do they know that you don’t?
If you have a Web site and have not gotten a job off of it, I say three things:
1. Have you submitted your Web site to the search engines, so that it is coming up high on the list when you do a search?
2. How do you know who has come to your Web site?
3. Your Web site is only one factor in whether your total storefront draws people: hirers, fans, students, or buyers for your CDs. You’ve got to have a total strategy in place. Just as you can’t expect people to hire you if you sit at home, you can’t expect people to come to your Web site if you do nothing to get them there.
4. Does your Web site work? Have you checked all the links and had friends check it on other browsers? It’s possible it’s not functional on other people’s computers.
The only reason someone comes to the shoe store is because they saw or received an ad, they drove by it, or someone told them about it. Apply the same logic and come up with a marketing plan to move business to your own storefront! Classical Singer stands by our statement: Every singer should have a Web site.
Our Web designer has made six versions of Web sites you can do in an evening at
www.classicalsinger.com for $45. Or find a smart friend to do one for you on another site. We don’t care how you do it—just do it!
If you have a question about this article or anything else, please write to Ms. CJ Williamson, the editor of Classical Singer magazine at cj@classicalsinger.com or P.O. Box 1710, Draper, UT 84020. Letters can be used as “Letters to the Editor” if you would like, “Name Withheld” if you’d like, or just meant for the staff only. Just let us know.
