Dear Phaedra,
I also find such sites to be really of no value whatsoever for marketing purposes. They seem instead to be a sort of self activated techno shrine to the person about whom they are supposed to be imparting information. I think we should apply the same concepts to advertising ourselves on the net that we for an article about what we do and who we are, or an advertising campaign for our products or services. the concept is old but proven. Answer these 6 questions as succinctly as possible
WHO are you?
WHAT do you do?
WHEN are you doing it?
WHERE are you doing it?
WHY are you doing it, as in a mission statement to your prospective audiences.
TO WHOM are you marketing, who is your prospective audience?

For this to all come together it is pretty clear that it is not about YOU , but about the people you are marketing to. Obviously this person you have talked about has missed that point entirely!! Maybe that is good, in that prospective customers will be tempted to look at her site for 10 seconds and move on to someone else who has more on the ball as to caring about something other than their own images on the computer screen!! I am sorry to admit that this kind of stuff does bring out the sarcastic beyotch in me!! LIke you, I see a clear line between intelligent promotion and making it all about MEEEE!!
Regards,
A'isha

Lol, I know who you are talking about.
I think a site is best when kept professional, too many photos overwhelms the potential customer. I believe that quotes should be attributed to one's talent/contribution to the art form, (especially with so many photos, if you're hot the reader will get it, you don't have to beat them over the head with it.)

If you are trying to promote yourself as a professional, you should have recent professional photographs, that are kept in the dance context. I don't like seeing pictures of dancers lying on a bed or rolling in the sand (a little too budoir for my taste) you should have some shots of live performances if possible. You should keep your bio brief and concise. Too much reading tends to bore the client and most of the GP will have no idea who you are talking about anyway.

I think promotion becomes egotism when a site has stuff like "the only authentic teacher in America" on it.

This might not have been your intention, but most of us know quite plainly who you're talking about. Mostly because she just relaunched her website and there's a thread on bhuz where she's asking for feedback. With that being said, this entire thread sounds snarky. Don't mean to be the party pooper police or anything, but she might appreciate if you gave her CONSTRUCTIVE feedback directly to her. She did ask for it after all and I know a few of you are over on bhuz.
So instead of starting a thread that innocently asks the question (although I do think it's a good question), you might want to offer feedback and generalize your question a bit more. As it is now, it just seems like an attack on one person.

Or maybe I'm just in one of those moods today.

Yep, I agree that it's very obvious who this post is about. It's a valid question, but has gotten a wee bit personal. It's a shame no one mentioned any of this to her on her thread asking for criticism.

I don't know...the whole "behind the back" aspect of this just leaves me feeling icky.

I just came across this post. Just to let you all know this dancer knows you are all talking about her and criticizing her. I have come across so much negativity in the last couple months it is incredible. I do understand the original question.... but along the way on this thread it seemed to become a bashing session. Why is it anyones business really if they choose to have alot of photos on there site? I do too. I am a photographer and am lucky enough to have a ton of great photos. I didn't read all these posts...or go through her whole website....
I do think in general it is best to keep it professional. I personally might not add any comments about being hot.
I do believe you do have to market yourself and promote the heck out of it...b/c there are so many dancers now..and if you want to get any gigs you have to work hard at it.

Just a note to be careful what you say....it is always bound to come around....those on facebook know exactly what I am talking about..LOL

As the maybe-Wilde aphorism goes, "A gentleman (or lady) never insults anyone unintentionally." That is definately my goal, but it takes lots of practice.

-I think it is important to have a website you like and represents you the best it can.
-Websites are visual. You do need photos on the site. Since people may not sift through your gallery, I think it is valid to keep photos scattered about your site. My favorites are the photos that make sense in the context. For instance, on a page about teaching, I think it's fine to have a photo of the person teaching with students around. As long as it isn't cluttered or outright bizarre, I think photos on non-gallery pages are acceptable and good.
-I'm torn on the comment thing. I've seen people who are up and coming post compliments from clients and/or their teachers. On one hand, I think it's good for potential customers to see so and so dancer is well-received and talented. On the other hand, I find them a little off. I don't know why. I guess I were a pro and had a pro site, I may have a list of references or comments available, either on the site or through email, should someone ask.
-I too hate when people write stuff like "the best dancer ever" or "the only authentic." For me, as a student, it sends red flags when someone seems to slam everyone else.
-I think I am in the minority, but I like having a good solid bio read. When I look for a new teacher, I like to know what s/he is about, and I've sometimes decided not to go with someone, based on having a bio that seems mean or too self-congratulatory. I think Aziza's website deals with it well. It has a small bio and then you can choose to read more.
-With photos in a gallery, I think the most important thing you can do is be organized. Some people have slow internet connections or don't have the time/patience to look at all the photos. I think when people create albums it's the most helpful, so if I want to see what they look like performing as opposed to studio shots, I can see it.
-With the gallery stuff, I think it's important to note whether the photo is recent or from 20 years ago. I think if it's possible, keeping the freshest photos makes the most sense. Like if you go from blond to black hair you should have those photos available and make well known that you are no longer blonde. People do want to know who they're getting.
-I think it's not only important to be mindful of what you write on your site but also on the internet. Tribe does pop up in Google. There's nothing special to making a Bhuz account. As long as you can live with the consequences of your actions.... In my blog (which is indeed public), I try to write truthfully and clearly, so the entries are things I believe in, written to avoid confusion (sometimes but not always the case, and stuff I will stand beside, should my writing get called out.

I think I found the site in question and I took a look at it. My personal opinion is that the site is missing a lot of the info that I would need in order to feel that she is what she claims to be, but her day job seems to be PR so i have to assume she's got her own angle on what the potential customer thinks is important - and since I am not one of them, who cares? As far as the somewhat derogatory remarks about other dancers in her blog entries... she is probably as surprised by how word-gets-around as some of the posters on this thread are. Hey, live and learn!

Wow, I was away for the weekend and I didn't realize this was going to spiral out of control like this. I just wanted an answer about what is the best way to look professional when working on websites. I never meant to cite anyone specifically. It's a little difficult for me because I wanted to ask the question and I did my absolute best to keep this professional and open-ended. I have not posted any names or links or pointed any fingers and I feel like this has gotten a little out of control and that's not what I wanted. Whether or not you know who the dancer in question is, this thread was never meant to be about HER. It was about the trend I've seen with several other websites. In the interest of keeping the discussion lines open I'd like to start another thread and see if we can move away from this one. I do appreciate all the wonderful helpful feedback from some of you that gave me a great idea of what a successful website needed!

Going back to the original question...

Aside from web sites, here's another angle to explore this idea from.

In belly dahce shows, it is common for the emcee to ask dancers how they want to be announced.

Some people provide bios that contain a great deal of detail about their training background and performing experience.

Other people provide comments explaining something about the type of dance they are doing or perhaps a synopsis of what the song lyrics are about. In other words, they provide information that will help the audience better understand what they are seeing performed.

Some don't use bios, but they'll offer comments about where they teach or regularly perform.

Which approach do you think will better help the dancer achieve her aim of self-promotion?

Please take the comments that I'm about to make as being my personal philosophy based on 28 years of working as a sales and marketing professional in the high-tech industry, and NOT as commentary on any specific web site other than those I own and maintain myself.

Regarding photos, I don't have a problem with dancers using photos shot in a studio environment on their web sites. If a web site's purpose is to promote the dancer it features, then it needs to put forward a certain aura of polish and professionalism. That's how you convince clients that your skills as a performer are valuable enough to justify charging $250 for doing a 20-minute performance at a private party. In a studio environment, the photographer can provide a not-ugly background, and can set up high-quality lighting. Those things are not feasible in a real performance.

That said, some studio portraits look too "posed" and fail to convey a sense of movement, drama, and genuine facial expression. Of course, it's possible to overcome this. If you look at my gallery at www.shira.net/shira/shiragallery.htm and scroll down to "Photos Taken in 2008", the ones of me wearing the midnight blue dress were all in a studio setting, and the way I overcame the too-posed look was that I brought music to the studio, which the photographer played during our photo session, and I DANCED instead of standing in frozen poses.

Now, I do agree there is value in showing some action shots of live classes and/or performances. If you scroll down to the "Photos Taken in 2006" on the same link, you'll see some action shots from live performances. I removed the background from the photos of me wearing the red dress for two reasons. One was that the actual background was ugly - it was someone's living room. The other is that I preferred not to upset any of the audience members by posting photos of them without permission. (I did get permission from the guy who is dancing with me in one of them.)

You can see that I do what some people on this thread recommended - I have a gallery page full of thumbnails. People can click on whatever thumbnails they choose in order to see a larger version of any given photo on that page. And you'll see that I've included both recent photos and ones from over 20 years ago, but I label them with the year so that someone looking at the site will know which most closely represent what I look like today.

I see no harm in sprinkling photos of yourself throughout a web site. I do it. My rationale is that 1) a text-only page can be boring to look at, 2) the Internet is a visual medium, and 3) from a journalistic perspective I think of my web site as being like a magazine, NOT like a PhD dissertation. Magazines have photos, and therefore so do many of the articles on my web site.

When it comes to testimonials, I've always been torn on that score. I personally don't feel persuaded when I see a testimonal published on someone's web site. Well duh, of COURSE the web site owner is going to post only the favorable comments!!!! But I don't see harm in doing it. Some people may be convinced by them, and others won't. I don't currently have any testimonials published on my web site, but I have been thinking of going to some of the workshop sponsors who have hired me to request testimonials. And you can bet that once I have them, I will post them. But when I do, I'm going to give careful thought to HOW I incorporate them into my web site. As has been noted on this thread, sometimes testimonials can be off-putting. There's a delicate balance to be considered.

Anyway, the whole issue of promoting yourself is one that lots of dancers struggle with. Some people are modest and feel uncomfortable advertising the positive things they offer. Some people are very full of themselves and make you deaf from how loudly they toot their own horns. And I think the overwhelming majority are somewhere between those extremes. Ultimately, each of us needs to decide what type of clientele we wish to attract and then design our web sites in a way that will be appealing to those prospective customers.