Photo taken by the talented Doug Wong, of Carisa Hendrix’s act at the Garden Variety Show in May 2012

We find this same issue everywhere. From catering to comedy. From marketing to music. From education to entertainment.

Some people are very busy, and others struggle for gigs. What can be really frustrating is that it’s not always the most talented, most experienced or most well connected who are the busiest. So what is it? Lucky? Nepotism? Black Magic?

Well, maybe a little.

But experts will tell you, the people who are busiest in their fields are often the ones who market themselves and promote their personal brand the most effectively. And in our modern world, that means a multi-pronged, multi-media approach to selling yourself as a performer.

Whatever your style of performance, be you Magician, Fire Dancer, Aerialist or whatever, we hope you will find at least some of the points in this 3 part article series helpful. OK, let’s get into it.

Part 1 “Doing it Online”

The three most important elements that will help you get gigs online.

Social Networking

We’ve all heard that Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and blogs are an effective way to get new eyeballs to your site. However, many of us forget to update or don’t put the time into creating attractive banners and backgrounds.

It’s not enough to just have a social network, you should aim to provide your followers with new content, maintain good web edict and put the time into making them look “real purdy”.

Websites

In the age of social media do we need a website at all. YES!

Facebook and Tumblr are becoming an excuse to not spend the time and money on a dedicated performance site. Here’s something to consider:

Yellow pages are on the decline except for use as booster seat. People are going Googling for the things they are want. A well dressed website will set you apart as one of the bigger, better fishes in the Google sea and without the design restrictions of social platforms you can represent your personal brand in the most effective way possible.

Just like in the real world, your online self needs a home to call your own. Not only will a well designed site help establish your professionalism, it can also be optimized to pull in a serious qualified search engine’s traffic.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the buzz of all web marketing circles. The way people talk about it sometimes can feel overwhelming and a bit scam-y, but it is an important part of creating a web presence and drawing in new traffic to your site.

Firstly, a quick definition. SEO is simply the process of making a site more visible or higher ranking on various search engines, Google being the usual focus.

This is important because many people search for entertainers via these engines and most will only click through the first few sites until they find what they are looking for. According to data from the Chitika network, the #1 search result will get twice as many click throughs as the second on average.

So what can you do? Here is a quick and dirty list of effective ways to boost SEO:

• Pick a Keyword Rich Domain Name – You may have your heart set on some clever URL for your site, but search engins prefer the clarity and straightforward nature of keyword based domains. Tip: Use Google Adwords’ keyword suggestion tool to help identify the top searched words in your field.
• Add a Blog – Blog posts create fresh content for your site and add pages, both qualities that search engines love.
• Keep it Speedy – Buy reasonably good hosting and keep your site from suffering “code bloat”. Search engines are as impatient as people and like a site that loads in second or preferably milliseconds.
• Keep it Focused – Aiming for top ranking on more specific search terms will serve you better than broad ones. For example if you are a Magician in Seattle you would be better off optimizing your site for those term than more general ones like “entertainer” or “magic”.

Start Tuned for Part 2 “Doing it IRL” coming out next week and feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments below.

This article was created with the help and expertise of marketing experts and very savvy professional entertainers, you know who you are, thank you.

Originally posted at Firepedia