Who has previous experience working with performance

[samsoner]

groups? (Poetry/comedy/music/theatre/dance/cultural arts...etc)
Sometimes one member of the group or band is the "resident" web designer or graphic artist. How do you get around this either as a paid professional or volunteer? What can you contribute?

I designed a website for a spoken word group, but that was because I was a member of their cast for 3 months, and then I volunteered in other ways, such as video taping performances or working backstage. 2 years ago I convinced the director to design their website and *just* recently I implemented a CMS for the website. Unless there's a major design change, any staff person who's familiar with blogging can make updates to the site's content.

What can I do now?
The group is affiliated with other acting troupes, artists and organizations that host events and every time I receive email blasts from these various groups I feel like I could work with those people.

Also I want to continue working with the same group, but I don't know what I can contribute. The director uses email, Twitter, Facebook and Myspace Music for news & updates.

CREATIVE CONTROL (as of right now)

CONTENT: Group & Me
GRAPHICS: Me (only if they request new images added to the site)
FLASH/CSS: Me
SOCIAL MEDIA: Group

[Mattinblack]

groups? (Poetry/comedy/music/theatre/dance/cultural arts...etc)
Sometimes one member of the group or band is the "resident" web designer or graphic artist. How do you get around this either as a paid professional or volunteer? What can you contribute?

I designed a website for a spoken word group, but that was because I was a member of their cast for 3 months, and then I volunteered in other ways, such as video taping performances or working backstage. 2 years ago I convinced the director to design their website and *just* recently I implemented a CMS for the website. Unless there's a major design change, any staff person who's familiar with blogging can make updates to the site's content.

What can I do now?
The group is affiliated with other acting troupes, artists and organizations that host events and every time I receive email blasts from these various groups I feel like I could work with those people.

Also I want to continue working with the same group, but I don't know what I can contribute. The director uses email, Twitter, Facebook and Myspace Music for news & updates.

CREATIVE CONTROL (as of right now)

CONTENT: Group & Me
GRAPHICS: Me (only if they request new images added to the site)
FLASH/CSS: Me
SOCIAL MEDIA: Group

I have played these games b4. You could add videos (hosted on youtube and embedded in the site) and also sound files hosted on site.

The key with getting new customers is to emphasise that you will put a professional gloss on what was an amateur site and help their SEO. Get them to help and originate as much of your content as posssible - you can then edit, tweak and rewrite and meld the whole pile into some sort of coherent site.

By getting involved they start to see how much work there is and do not balk so much at your fee, also you will find they get enthused and the project becomes bigger (and of course more costly) than it would have been.

[samsoner]

Well, thanks MattInBlack...

The site I designed for the group is not an amateur site.
This was designed a few years before Youtube integration.

Asking to integrate videos and audio files on their website is a great idea.
I have the technical expertise to do that.

But what do you mean by "I have played these games b4" and "Get them to help and originate as much of your content as posssible?"


Also, to anyone who's moderating this page...I think I might have posted this question in the wrong Sitepoint section by accident. Is there a way I can move this thread to "Business and Legal Issues?" http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=61

[Mattinblack]

What I meant was that when you originate a site for a large company or a group it frequently has its own amateur 'experts' in graphics or page design, or coding etc.

We all know that there is usually more than one correct solution and lo and behold as soon as your site is unveiled all these people will point to a different set of solutions (and some probably really better than yours) and say we should have done this - result loss of confidence in you and lack of repeat business OR you change the site and resubmit it, change the site and resubmit it.... This is THEIR GAME. Dont take it personally its just human nature.

To stop this happening the only thing you can do is to employ these 'group experts' - ask who knows anything about site design, graphics or coding right at the start and get these people to submit ideas. Choose your favourites from their ideas and then do another round of questions on the specifics of each of these ideas. Get them to generate some of the content maybe, just gently nudge the whole thing in the direction you want it to go. Then when you submit the site its theirs, they have ownership of the ideas of how the site went together and what it contains. Now they play YOUR GAME.