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About This Author
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La Bene Vita
I am a professional musician  , worship leader , small business owner , songwriter , aspiring author and freelance nonfiction writer with a chemical engineering degree .
But that's just my resume.
My profile of qualifications is only one of the ways in which I am unique. Here I chronicle my personal and professional goals and my efforts to achieve them. Occasionally I fail. Mostly, I take daily baby steps toward all my long-term goals. Much like the stories I pen, the songs I compose, and the businesses I run, I am always a work in progress.
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Student Count = 271.5.
To the point made by Robert Waltz  in the comments section yesterday, I could see how the SEO race would be much more applicable to Internet-only businesses like WDC, for example, or Amazon. For a brick-and-mortar local business like MTMS , it's just one of a dozen ways to generate traffic (foot traffic, not Internet traffic) and sales leads. We do collect marketing data, and here are some statistics:
Total enrollments (ever): 715 (a little skewed because we changed the way we collected this data about six months ago, but close enough for this analysis.)
Marketing referrals:
205 signage
159 existing customers (a student added another instrument or class, returned after a break/two-month trip to India, or enrolled a sibling or other family member)
134 customer or employee referrals
98 unknown
87 Google/website
22 print ads
The rest are miscellaneous.
SIGNAGE: Includes a 30-foot sign facing Hamilton Road ($3000) and a 12-foot sign facing the parking lot ($1000), along with a couple smaller $100 window signs advertising our summer camps, what we teach, and how to find us online. The best advertising investments we've ever made (not counting the lease agreement that places us so visibly on Hamilton in the first place.)
EXISTING & REFERRALS: Clearly, we are a large referral business, and that's something we need to cultivate.
UNKNOWN: Yikes. We need to collect better data.
GOOGLE/SEARCH/WEB: Here's the thing: about half of these are just strictly "website" referrals, which means they enrolled online. So we have no way of telling how they stumbled upon our site in the first place. Did they Google us? Bing us? If they did use a search engine, what did they type? Music lessons in Gahanna? Or "Michelle Tuesday Music School" because they drove by and saw our sign?
PRINT ADS: Easily the most expensive marketing tactic we employ, with ads ranging from $150 for a tiny business-card sized ad to $1000 or more for a full-color, full-page ad, all in a one-time printing that probably ends up in most people's trash bins before it makes it into the house.
Our sign works for us, and it requires no ongoing marketing maintenance (besides occasional burned-out light bulbs that the Plaza handles). Referrals work so well for us that we need to find a way to encourage it. Print ads seem to be an evil necessity but maybe a bit of a waste. Either we're printing in the wrong publications, or our ads are not compelling, or people just don't read print ads. We're about to find out, because we did a very expensive direct mailing, meaning we're right on the cover of the thing that appears in your mailbox (as opposed to Page 7 of a booklet or ads inside of a local town newspaper.) But if it doesn't pan out, print may be the wrong direction for us.
That leaves Google and Internet searches, which in my opinion are an opportunity for us. The thing about marketing and advertising is that each venue attracts a certain crowd. You have a certain group of people reading those town papers, and they may or may not be the same people who go to Google first for their kids' activities. I think we're leaving a market untapped by being optimized for "Michelle Tuesday Music School" (which requires customers to seek us directly) instead of "Music lessons in Gahanna" or even "Music lessons in Columbus" (although, this is a local business, because people don't want to drive their kids across rush hour traffic from the other side of Columbus for a 40-minute music lesson every single week.)
All things to consider, and reasons why I'm looking at SEO now. It's something of an experiment. Our Google PageRank is 2, which is somewhat typical for local area businesses. I'd be thrilled to bump that up to a 3, but even more thrilled to optimize for new keywords. The majority of our traffic comes from people who have already seen our sign and know we exist. Could we tap into a new market of people if we optimize for people who don't know our name? I'm thinking maybe. But it still annoys me that I have to play the game.
I did leave a comment on a piano teaching blog yesterday.  Maybe one per day is a good target. |
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I'm working on it. We do pretty good business just based on our signage; people see our sign, they Google the name, they find us. But it excludes people who haven't seen the sign. We have some print ads out, but I'd like to build our web presence so we're more visible to Googlers not specifically seeking "Michelle Tuesday Music School ". I've managed to get our MarketingGrader.com and Klout scores up a smidge, and though I've improved my blogging and social networking, it's still just numbers. MarketingGrader thinks I have a mobile-friendly website, but I don't; not yet. I just have the building blocks in place.
The next trick is inbound links.
I hate talking about SEO. If you have a good website, with good information, that answers the right questions (where can I find "music schools in gahanna ohio" or "guitar lessons in columbus"), that should be all it takes. Google has worked hard to be smart at figuring out if you're the right answer to the question. Meanwhile, people have worked even harder to be sure they are the right answer to the question by outsmarting Google. I just don't think that's the right way to go about it.
But facts are facts, and I can clearly see the statistics that prove my site gets more traffic than many of my competitors, most of whom don't know the slightest thing about SEO, web design, or even marketing at all. And I've gotten there in part by following SEO advice. And all the advice I've researched points to more inbound links.
Some of those can be purchased, and I don't mean buying or trading junk links. I mean buying advertising on legitimate, highly-ranked sites like the local chamber of commerce, school districts, high school sports calendar sites, and the like. You would be surprised at how expensive those are, and I can only afford a few key links. Therefore, I need to supplement that with some cheaper inbound links.
I discovered in my Google analysis that I have an inbound link from this page defined by HubSpot as "authoritative" (which counts more, from a link referral perspective, than a non-authoritative page): http://www.sarah-holroyd.com/blog/welcome/ . Now, I didn't comment on this blog post to get an inbound link. I commented because Seisa-sleepingcatbooks.com  is my friend, and I want to see her business succeed. Little did I know that Google would appreciate my support, too.
It got me thinking. An easy way to get inbound links is to read blogs and comment on them. Isn't that what HubSpot has been saying all along, in so many words? It's all about blogs. Social networking, yes, content, yes, but also blogs. Write one, read others, comment comment comment.
I do read blogs, and I read them all the freaking time. They suck me in. I find hours lost because I spent the morning clicking from one interesting article to the next. Do I ever comment? Nope. Not unless it's a friend. Why? Too busy? I read the article, didn't I? I have no opinion? Yeah, RIGHT. I have lots of opinions.
So I'm considering adding "read and comment on blogs" to my daily agenda. I do it anyway. Why not add another item to my to-do list that I get to check?
I may never see sunshine again with all this SEO crap. |
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It's disappointing, even though it follows last year's trend. We opened in September 2010. The first few months were "ooh, what's this? A new music school?" But I believe that starting in January of 2011, we settled into what will become our typical seasonal trending patterns. Which, for spring, means backwards.
Student count = 269.
The good news is that June is a record enrollment month, and our summer camps are filling up better than they did last year (and we haven't even launched our promo yet... the ads come out May 1st.) So, yay.
My brain is fuzzy, and so is my throat, neither fact of which will help me sing at Senor Patron today. I'm dipping my toes into new opportunities, because SP just doesn't get much of a lunch crowd. I'd hoped that my performance would boost volume, and maybe it has a little, but I could get better exposure in a joint closer to my school and with more people already eating there.
On a web design kick. These kicks can be so time-consuming, because I get engrossed - in reading articles, in trying tutorials, in experimenting with the site / blog / QR codes / etc. etc. So... that's what I'm doing. I swear I'm not spending all my time playing with my new android phone.  |
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I'm such a geek, I know. But this just made my freaking weekend. I discovered that I can pair a bluetooth keyboard with my new android phone.
I may never use a laptop again.
Okay, I'm exaggerating. But seriously. This is exciting news. *runs to Amazon to spend a bunch of money on new accessories* |
April 21, 2012 at 10:10am April 21, 2012 at 10:10am
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Pretty psyched about my new android phone. I've had it less than 24 hours and haven't done much but play with it. Sadly, it doesn't look like I can IM without it. Anyone know differently?
Regards,
Michelle
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I'm about to go crazy with this. A local radio station is looking for a web developer. It's a full-time position, which is BAD. They strongly encourage women to apply, which is GOOD (in case you didn't know, I meet that specification.) And when I saw the posting, I thought... holy crap, I'd much rather do that than write Textbroker articles.
It just sounds so much more fun.
And I have radically different reference websites to highlight, my own and my church's, for which I've served as administrator for a couple years now. I've set up a podcast site and overseen the podcasts. I'm creative AND geeky. I know Wordpress, html, css, php. I don't know MySQL, but I know Access and want to learn MySQL (and, by the way, that one is listed as a "plus".) It's a Christian radio station, which is obviously a good fit for me, not just because it's my personal faith, but also because I have a job history in the church, both as a worship leader AND web developer.
WTF? I must be out of my mind. But it's rare that I get so excited about job opportunities. |
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Blogged at http://michelletuesday.com/blog/?p=3434 about writing. My day is complete. Oh, wait. I still have church and a day of camping ahead of me. Never mind. My day just started.
Student count: Still at 268.5. |
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Can I get three more LIKES for this page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michelle-Tuesday-Music-School/120753377955624
It's an automatically-created FB page, which appeared because people started to list "Michelle Tuesday Music School" as their employer before the MTMS official page was created. I hear 25 is the magic number, and we're at 22 Likes so far. I have no idea what happens when we hit the magic number, so you're helping me experiment.
Thanks! |
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Student Count = 268.5. Which is lower than the 275 - by a lot - on which we based our last staff addition. I'm not worried... much...
My schedule, my motivation, my volume, all whacked. I think I'm still a little numb from Holy Week. I've been relaxing the last couple days, not replying to messages or taking care of business, mostly just reading (yay, Dresden) and working on the website. I've consolidated blogs (my blog with the school's news blog, that way the posts happen twice as often); started to reorganize my files (and reap the consequences of moving things around); and set up redirects like they're going out of style.
I base a lot of my web design decisions on my ranking at marketing.grader.com (formerly website.grader.com) because I'm irrationally competitive. I know, deep in my gut, that the true grade for my marketing strategies - web or otherwise - is in volume and sales. Since I'm not a web business, I don't need "engaged" visitors or a compelling blog that brings people back over and over. My website is not about engaging visitors. It's about making sales.
But, damn it, I'm going to get that grade higher if it kills me. |
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I was reading an article about genre and marketing, which I hated but totally agreed with. In summary: as an author, I don't want to be pigeonholed into a genre. But if I want to be successful, it doesn't much matter what I want. I have to specialize to create a loyal reader base.
I decided that my best genre is fantasy. I'd bet a paycheck (small as they are) that most of my readers prefer Poor Witch, and even The Butterfly Stone, over Andromeda Sings. Maybe I'll revisit Meda someday and rewrite her to be a bit more speculative.
I also decided that this explains why I'm floundering in the writing department. I've dabbled in romance and mystery and decided I suck at both. I'm trying to write fantasy, comedy, thrillers and nonfiction,which I don't suck at, but the whole thing feels like massive scope creep because it's too much. So when I sit down to "write" on a given day, I end up farting around on Facebook instead, because I have no idea what to work on.
Picking a genre will help me focus on attainable goals.
So, I have decided to NaNo Poor Witch again this year, and continue the saga with a sequel. (Like how I verbed that noun, just now?) I've already started to outline what comes next, and it involves at least two, maybe three, sequels. |
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I love spring sports season. Student count = 270. Bleh.
Speaking of holy, it's Holy Week, which means I'm honkin' busy. I recently regained web administrator status for my church, as well as being music director, so I'm hopping. I think I remember about writing... what it is, I mean...
I need blog posts for MTMS , as well as some progress on the fiction front. I'm starting to wonder if I really want to be a writer anyway. There's an awesome Open Order at Textbroker that I might have taken any other week, but I looked at it and thought... ugh... that would be work.
These days, there's very little I consider "work". I don't consider writing or even editing fiction as work, nor almost anything that has to do with my business. Music direction at church has felt like work the last few years, but minimal. So to look at a writing assignment and think... no thanks, that's more work than fun... makes me wonder if writing is for me.
Maybe it's just this week weighing me down. Which is sad, because it's supposed to be the happiest week of my year. |
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Thanks for sharing!
Even better if she can whistle to the tune of Mozart or something. 
Comment • View 4 comments 
, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.![Merit Badge in Music
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To a dear friend whose talent for writing music is sensational. May you have a fabulous New Year, (((Brandi)))!!! *^*Kiss*^*
Big hugs,
Sherri *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Music-1050.gif)
![Merit Badge in Organization
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I don't know how you do it, but I assume there's magic involved *^*Bigsmile*^* I have really enjoyed this month of planning and preparation for NaNoWriMo and I love how organized it all is. Thank you for hosting a great challenge and for your dedication to helping so many of us prepare with confidence and trepidation for National Novel Writing Month (known to sane folks as 'November' *^*Laugh*^*) at your [Link To Item #1474311]](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Organization-1150.gif)
![Merit Badge in Leadership
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For your hard work, commitment, talent and innovation in running the October NaNoWriMo Preparation each year, which helps many of us get our scattered thoughts together for November's novel-writing. And also because this badge has ducks on it.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Leadership.gif)
