More Recent Web History
So GregVail.com is up and the new label is off to a big start. I jumped into a new CD - a Gospel project called the Gospel Truth. The story is online at GregVail.com for this CD too - http://www.gregvail.com/sys-tmpl/makingofgospelcd/
I had this friend of mine cover the Web Site while I worked on the Music. It was a great arrangement. After the second CD sales went a little more normal and the idea a being a record label began changing focus from making music and marketing the music I now had recorded.
I started researching web site optimization during this time and began having issues with my web girl because she was a visual designer that learned web design and her focus was look and feel. I was learning techniques for sales sites and how to get placed in search engines and these things are all very different. To make a long story short, I started a site with the help of my then 11 year-old son and with his help learned html and design.
Once I was sure I was ready to take on some of my primary site, I began trying things on inside pages and saw my rank begin to move up the search engines. I had a small CD Project - Emotion was my debut and I re-released it with new art work and remastering a few tracks in 2002 as I studied search engine stuff.
At some point, and I don't remember when; I took over GregVail.com completely. My friend was very busy and was not too upset since I had never really paid her much anyway. I was very grateful and now on my way to tweaking my site for search engine ranking.
By 2004 I had 58 terms I was tracking weekly and was running top 10 for almost all of them. My site had grown in size and traffic was really starting to pick up.
Spending so much time online to learn and understand this stuff began giving me more ideas. In another blog article here, I talk about marketing research and how web traffic stats have given me direction on what to do next. I had #1 rank for Sax Reviews on Google and decided that was a bad return for that search term and a poor use of #1 rank for such a good search term.
I decided to build a site for this search term and new I could get it to #1 since my site was already #1 for this term. I bought all the related URLs (saxreviews.com, saxophonereviews.com, saxreview.com, saxophonereview.com) and chose Sax Reviews for the actual site with the other URLs pointing over if someone remembered it wrong. This site was birthed from a perceived need and then desire to meet that need. I could have added Sax Reviews to GregVail.com but knew a dedicated site that was properly optimized for this topic would be a better use of that energy and keep GregVail.com more focused and potent.
I then began looking for sites to partner with that would benefit from the exposure of a Sax Review Site. I have a couple of sales sites that have great images that gave me permission to use the images in return for links to their sites and found a few sites with great reviews written but indexed poorly in search engines to post articles from with links in exchange. I began writing a few articles myself, asking for help from my friends and these new partners, and a great site was born.
What do I get out of it? Very little really. I have links to GregVail.com all over it and hope that people might find my CDs and maybe buy one. That's really it. Other than that, it is a service to the saxophone community and I love being part of the solution and not the problem.
Sax Reviews averages 75 visitors a day with around 350 page views each day at the time of writing this post. It is an active site with steady traffic and emails suggest it is a big help to many. The site is a labor of love and I do revisit it regularly to update and add reviews.
Moving on -
I had a friend that my son and I got started doing web stuff and she had put up a little site on herself called www.TeenJazz.com. I thought it was a great URL but could go to much bigger use as an actual teen musician site and not just a personal site. I began doing web development with Shannon Kennedy, giving her ideas and direction on site content, direction, purpose, perceived online need and solutions. I did buy her www.Shannon-Kennedy.com for a personal site once Teen Jazz was growing into its own thing. Shannon jumped in and built a site that now is #1 online for Teen Jazz. She more than followed my suggestions and built a huge site that has no input from me any longer, and has content that is ingenious that I would have never thought of.
In addition she developed www.Shannon-Kennedy.com, after releasing her first CD designed www.angeleyesmusic.com, took a reed case idea to market with www.KenKasemusic.com and has gone on to design numerous other sites, CD art work, Logos, Cards and the like.
Shannon and I talk about the online work and try to work together to impact the web for the better. She began designing new sites for me and made it much easier to get these new sites up and running because I don't have to deal with the basic design. She redid SaxReviews for me, helped with www.saxophone.us and later designed www.tenorsaxophone.us, www.altosaxophone.us, with baritone sax.us now done/not online yet along with 3 of my CDs individual sites and more.
So, what is the goal? Where are we going here?
The goal is to have quality sites for every interest saxophone related.
With Shannon's www.TeenJazz.com covering the Teen years for Sax Players, I thought I would get more specific and offer an educational/information site for each sax. We will have all four done soon. SopranoSax.us, AltoSax.us, TenorSax.us and BariSax.us. Each of these sites will have pics, soundclips, basic lessons, information, history, famous players, links - everything you would ever hope to find for that sax all in one place. The 5 Sites will cover the Teen Years.
The Sax Player Sites are www.Saxreviews.com - since all sax players love gear, www.Saxophone.us - a Pop Sax Helps Site, and coming will be gospel or Church Sax/Musician sites. These 3 sites along with some of GregVail.com will cover Adult Sax Players.
Marketing ideas have lead to the desire to have a site for each CD to focus on CD Sales. With the average site selling 5-7 CDs a year, the goal is to become way above average. I will have sites for each CD going up, first with the new CDs and then I will add the sites for the older CDs. Most of the sites are designed and it is just a matter of time. GregVail.com with these 5 proposed CD Selling sites will focus on the record company and CD sales.
If this seems like a lot, I still own 70 other URLS and have many ideas for further growth in the online services and marketing. Things like PopSax.com or SmoothJazz.US could serve as service to working Artists, and SaxBook.com will one day be the home of my books along with many of my friends books on Saxophone and Music.
I'm gonna sign off for now. I just wanted to answer questions and a few possible critics as to why so many sites. I could cover these topics from 1 site, but with specific sites and a little more work, the time spent has a much bigger impact, reaching and helping thousands more this way. If you are going to try and do something cool, you might as well try and do it right too.
I'm guessing 16 sites by the end of 2007 - mid 2008.
With over 100,000 page views in December 05, and long term growth showing the potential of double that even this next December; I feel like we are doing something right and pray we can keep breaking the records and getting those emails.
Signing off...
SAXBOY
I had this friend of mine cover the Web Site while I worked on the Music. It was a great arrangement. After the second CD sales went a little more normal and the idea a being a record label began changing focus from making music and marketing the music I now had recorded.
I started researching web site optimization during this time and began having issues with my web girl because she was a visual designer that learned web design and her focus was look and feel. I was learning techniques for sales sites and how to get placed in search engines and these things are all very different. To make a long story short, I started a site with the help of my then 11 year-old son and with his help learned html and design.
Once I was sure I was ready to take on some of my primary site, I began trying things on inside pages and saw my rank begin to move up the search engines. I had a small CD Project - Emotion was my debut and I re-released it with new art work and remastering a few tracks in 2002 as I studied search engine stuff.
At some point, and I don't remember when; I took over GregVail.com completely. My friend was very busy and was not too upset since I had never really paid her much anyway. I was very grateful and now on my way to tweaking my site for search engine ranking.
By 2004 I had 58 terms I was tracking weekly and was running top 10 for almost all of them. My site had grown in size and traffic was really starting to pick up.
Spending so much time online to learn and understand this stuff began giving me more ideas. In another blog article here, I talk about marketing research and how web traffic stats have given me direction on what to do next. I had #1 rank for Sax Reviews on Google and decided that was a bad return for that search term and a poor use of #1 rank for such a good search term.
I decided to build a site for this search term and new I could get it to #1 since my site was already #1 for this term. I bought all the related URLs (saxreviews.com, saxophonereviews.com, saxreview.com, saxophonereview.com) and chose Sax Reviews for the actual site with the other URLs pointing over if someone remembered it wrong. This site was birthed from a perceived need and then desire to meet that need. I could have added Sax Reviews to GregVail.com but knew a dedicated site that was properly optimized for this topic would be a better use of that energy and keep GregVail.com more focused and potent.
I then began looking for sites to partner with that would benefit from the exposure of a Sax Review Site. I have a couple of sales sites that have great images that gave me permission to use the images in return for links to their sites and found a few sites with great reviews written but indexed poorly in search engines to post articles from with links in exchange. I began writing a few articles myself, asking for help from my friends and these new partners, and a great site was born.
What do I get out of it? Very little really. I have links to GregVail.com all over it and hope that people might find my CDs and maybe buy one. That's really it. Other than that, it is a service to the saxophone community and I love being part of the solution and not the problem.
Sax Reviews averages 75 visitors a day with around 350 page views each day at the time of writing this post. It is an active site with steady traffic and emails suggest it is a big help to many. The site is a labor of love and I do revisit it regularly to update and add reviews.
Moving on -
I had a friend that my son and I got started doing web stuff and she had put up a little site on herself called www.TeenJazz.com. I thought it was a great URL but could go to much bigger use as an actual teen musician site and not just a personal site. I began doing web development with Shannon Kennedy, giving her ideas and direction on site content, direction, purpose, perceived online need and solutions. I did buy her www.Shannon-Kennedy.com for a personal site once Teen Jazz was growing into its own thing. Shannon jumped in and built a site that now is #1 online for Teen Jazz. She more than followed my suggestions and built a huge site that has no input from me any longer, and has content that is ingenious that I would have never thought of.
In addition she developed www.Shannon-Kennedy.com, after releasing her first CD designed www.angeleyesmusic.com, took a reed case idea to market with www.KenKasemusic.com and has gone on to design numerous other sites, CD art work, Logos, Cards and the like.
Shannon and I talk about the online work and try to work together to impact the web for the better. She began designing new sites for me and made it much easier to get these new sites up and running because I don't have to deal with the basic design. She redid SaxReviews for me, helped with www.saxophone.us and later designed www.tenorsaxophone.us, www.altosaxophone.us, with baritone sax.us now done/not online yet along with 3 of my CDs individual sites and more.
So, what is the goal? Where are we going here?
The goal is to have quality sites for every interest saxophone related.
With Shannon's www.TeenJazz.com covering the Teen years for Sax Players, I thought I would get more specific and offer an educational/information site for each sax. We will have all four done soon. SopranoSax.us, AltoSax.us, TenorSax.us and BariSax.us. Each of these sites will have pics, soundclips, basic lessons, information, history, famous players, links - everything you would ever hope to find for that sax all in one place. The 5 Sites will cover the Teen Years.
The Sax Player Sites are www.Saxreviews.com - since all sax players love gear, www.Saxophone.us - a Pop Sax Helps Site, and coming will be gospel or Church Sax/Musician sites. These 3 sites along with some of GregVail.com will cover Adult Sax Players.
Marketing ideas have lead to the desire to have a site for each CD to focus on CD Sales. With the average site selling 5-7 CDs a year, the goal is to become way above average. I will have sites for each CD going up, first with the new CDs and then I will add the sites for the older CDs. Most of the sites are designed and it is just a matter of time. GregVail.com with these 5 proposed CD Selling sites will focus on the record company and CD sales.
If this seems like a lot, I still own 70 other URLS and have many ideas for further growth in the online services and marketing. Things like PopSax.com or SmoothJazz.US could serve as service to working Artists, and SaxBook.com will one day be the home of my books along with many of my friends books on Saxophone and Music.
I'm gonna sign off for now. I just wanted to answer questions and a few possible critics as to why so many sites. I could cover these topics from 1 site, but with specific sites and a little more work, the time spent has a much bigger impact, reaching and helping thousands more this way. If you are going to try and do something cool, you might as well try and do it right too.
I'm guessing 16 sites by the end of 2007 - mid 2008.
With over 100,000 page views in December 05, and long term growth showing the potential of double that even this next December; I feel like we are doing something right and pray we can keep breaking the records and getting those emails.
Signing off...
SAXBOY
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