Wish: Find more voice students Obstacle: Not sure

[JazzMuse]

Hi everyone!

This is jazzmuse, again!

I am now in Sokcho, South Korea teaching English part-time, and rebuilding my vocal coaching and performing again!

I used to have up to 36 voice students a week in my home studio, when I was in Minneapolis.

But now that I'm overseas, I'm trying to find voice students online, and I'm not having much success, and I'm not sure why.

I would really appreciate your comments and suggestions!!

Here is my voice coaching website: http://www.holisticvoicecoach.com

Do you see why 96% of visitors leave my homepage after 30 seconds or less - other than my being Asian?

I don't get it?! I've got great testimonials!

Please help!

[Elaine Glimme]

Hi, Karen,

Are you the Karen who posts about her music on HO?

I hope someone else answers this because I'm a rank amateur at advertising, but here are my ideas.

Get your most important ideas in bigger and bolder print. You have a lot of good things there about yourself, but just pick the very best points and make them stand out.

One important thing I wanted to know is how you are going to teach students who are not physically close to you. You offer coaching via Skype and you have classes as well. Make that obvious. The words "on-line" should stand out on the front page. Then add the explanations on the "lessons" page. The titles on the links could be in a bigger font.

Use the very best information as a hook. Make it stand out. Then include all the information backing up the big ideas in a smaller font.

I'm not an expert at designing websites. So please take or leave my ideas. And good wishes.

[JazzMuse]

Hi Elaine!

Yes, it's Karen Lyu from Hanging Out with Barbara!

Thanks for your thoughtful suggestions!

Yours truly,

Karen

[SquarePeg]

Dear JazzMuse,

The main page that folks land on when they visit your page (index.html) is way too long, IMHO. Secondly, the navigation "Tabs" at the top (About, Testimonials, Lessons, etc.) are not very noticeable. So the overall effect is that it seems as if all your content is on a single page, and the reader doesn't want to wade through it all to find what he or she is looking for.

[JazzMuse]

Hi SquarePeg,

Thanks for your insight. My home page used to be shorter, but that actually didn't make much difference.

I do plan to make a new website soon, with a shorter homepage and clearer buttons, anyway!

Karen aka JazzMuse

[JazzMuse]

Hi Elaine and SquarePeg!

I shortened my homepage and added bold italics!

Thank you for your suggestions! Praying and crossing my fingers!

I'm going to advertise on a few online listings next month (which I haven't done in years), and we'll see how it goes!

Yours truly,

Karen aka JazzMuse

[synchronicity]

Hi Jazzmuse - My suggestion is that you can improve your site by making it more clear that you are giving singing lessons. There are "voice coaches" out there who teach voice overs which is something different (that's voice overs for tv commercials, radio commercials, etc). So make it clear that you teach singing lessons. Also, your site looks unpolished. It is just a long list of items and it's hard for people to figure out what to do and what you're about. Make it more clear and concise by putting the info into sections or different pages that are easy to find. Also the style and look is very basic and bland. There are all kinds of free or low cost website templates you can find online. Try "jazzing" the look up too. Plus maybe adding some more exciting photos on there, such as a great photo of you teaching a student. (Make sure to get good photos -- good energy, people smiling...) Good luck to you and keep us posted!

[unpinkpanther]

Hi Karen:

The site seems to be offline now.

I think you should start by having a clearer idea
of the type of students you want:

How old are they?

Where do they hang out?

Why should they choose your voice lessons?

And why should they get your lessons now?

Once you get a clearer idea of who you're
targeting, it can help you create unique offers to
draw them in.

Cheers!

[JazzMuse]

Hi everyone,

A friend is working on condensing the text on my website and she'll give me design suggestions, too!

There were weird tech issues with JustHost.com that got fixed. So it's back up again.

I will keep you posted.

Thanks for checking in on me!

JazzMuse

[inspiresuccess]

Hi Karen,

I'm so glad you're going to update your website to get those new clients!

Here's my feedback so far:

Visuals – It would help to have variety such as Bold, italics, LARGE PRINT, small print, different fonts, etc. ENTERTAIN THE EYES while they're reading the information.

One person here commented on something important – making it clear that you're selling SINGING LESSONS ONLY. If people are confused about what you're offering they'll just leave the site. I know you have lots of experience in many fields but you can always create a different website to sell those skills.

Testimonials. These need to focus exclusively on singing lessons. Plus, they have to focus ON YOU AND YOUR SKILLS, not on people's stories about themselves. Also, they need to be shorter.

Editing. I've read your home page, your "about me" section, and your testimonials. They all read like a first draft. When we write a first draft, we just free flow everything we can think of. Then the editing begins. We need to remove repetitive phrases, make decisions about what's most important and what needs to be cut out, organize material into sections that all go together, etc. Most of the time, we do multiple editing because “sleeping on it”, waiting awhile, coming back to it with a fresh look, helps to hone it into the final draft. If you're not skilled at editing, it will help to get someone else to edit for you.

Each section is much too long. People on the internet have a short attention span. They'll read the first few things in each section then jump to the rest.

One person here said your links up above are not clear and I agree. To get readers to jump around the site and pick up a bit here and there, that top line needs to be strong. There needs to be some basics on the home page and then let them hop up to your "about me" for more info, and pop down to the testimonials, etc. Hip hopping around is what people do and that needs to be encouraged.

That's all for now.

The most important thing is to do what Barbara's title suggests-- “LIVE THE LIVE YOU LOVE”.
She also talks about the difference between skills and gifts. You may be very skilled at teaching English, but YOU'RE GIFTED AT TEACHING MUSIC. THAT'S YOUR DREAM! Don't lose sight of it. I hope we, on the Boards, can help you reach that dream!

[inspiresuccess]

Correction. That's supposed to say LIVE THE LIFE YOU LOVE, NOT LIVE THE LIVE YOU LOVE!

[inspiresuccess]

There are all kinds of free or low cost website templates you can find online.

Hi Synchronicity,

This is a great idea. Where would she go (or what should she Google) in order to find these?

Inspire

[inspiresuccess]

A question for people here on the Boards.

Do most websites say, "Karen Lyu has taught".......................etc.

Or first person, "I have taught.................?

[SquarePeg]

I think the first one is better. It seems to be impartial. The second could come across as bragging.

[BarbaraSher]

I like the website I saw, Karen. Now you need to get the word out to the world so they'll come find you.

I tend to use YouTube for that - and I use Facebook and Twitter to send people to my YouTube videos.

But I'm always looking for new ways to get the world to know about Scanners because it drives me crazy to get wonderful thank you letters from people who thought they were total losers, found out they're Scanners, and now that they know they're okay, they feel wonderful --

but they didn't hear of me until last week and they're 57 years old!

Most of them seem to show up on YouTube and on the Facebook page for Scanners and Renaissance Souls (that I didn't start, but got turned over to me by another Scanner who moved on). I assume you have a Facebook page? (I'll go look.)

But I'm also looking into marketing methods I don't quite understand yet, like Pinterest. I can't make heads or tails of it yet but I know authors use it, and marketers use it (not just gardeners and interior designers). And I just saw this quote:

"Think those inspiring vision boards don’t result in referral traffic to websites and blogs? Think again. In January 2012, Pinterest drove greater traffic to websites than LinkedIn, Google Plus, Reddit, and Youtube — combined."

I read that on a copyblogger.com page I saved because this is its name: 56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest
by BETH HAYDEN

And this is the link: http://www.copyblogger.com/pinterest-marketing/