Friday, January 21, 2011
Should non-profits have websites for their shows?
PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE: "I was honored to have been asked to speak on a panel about marketing last night at The Women's Project. During the panel, search marketing and organic rankings came up as a Producer expressed her frustration with Google. The problem? When she googled her latest show, a bunch of ticket-hawking brokers came up first, and the official page for the show on her website failed to make it into the top 10 organic Google recommendations.
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3 comments:
The points raised are valid, but for a non-profit, having a domain for each show could be more of a hassle than it is worth. First off, there is an additional cost incurred for each domain. A domain can be registered and added to an existing webserver account for about ten dollars, but the more shows there are, the greater the cost. Also, more is expected as far as content for a separate domain. And finally, is it worth buying a domain to use for maybe two months when you invest in the domain for a year. A subset of a non-profit's main domain can be changed or removed when the show is over.
Meg's comments are valid but miss the mark. Sure it's a hassle and costs more for domains and building separate websites. But the costs are negligible. While we're talking about hassle, content generation for an entire website on one show is hard. How many LORT theatres really have so much content on each show in their season as to fill a standalone website?
The real problem here is one the author addresses himself. Non-profits don't survive one show at a time. In fact box office sales are usually only cover 50% of the organization's costs. Non-profits need to build their producing organization as a brand. They need donors who care about the longevity of the company, not show by show. They need season subscribers and fans. Advertising shows as a standalone is not a realistic method for non-profit theatre.
The authors concern is valid, but what he is suggesting is impractical. You can't have a separate domain for every production being produced of a play. Your show would be lost amongst all the others, making it harder to find your show. A better idea would be to make a sub domain for your show. It would narrow it down and make your show easier to find on google.
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