One year ago today, I published the first version of www.ralphkendrick.com. I knew that having a website was important in terms of marketing, but I didn’t really know what to expect in terms of traffic and what level of interest the site would generate. I remember thinking at one point, if I receive 2,000 visits to the home page in the first year I’ll consider that a victory.

The first year results are in, and they are beyond my wildest expectations. I thought I’d share them with you as a potential source of encouragement, especially to artists still on the fence as to the value of a personal website. In the first year my website…

• Received 4,941 visits to the home page
• Played 4,132 excerpts of my music
• Delivered 2,648 downloads of excerpts of my musical scores
• Displayed my biography to 1,649 visitors
• Reached 2,288 unique visitors

In December, I began blogging on a weekly basis as a way to consistently provide fresh content and lure folks into coming back to the website for multiple visits. The blog itself is now more popular than the website. For the month of August, my blog is averaging 36 visitors a day, while my website is averaging 14.

I’m adjusting to these statistics however, making sure that on occasion, I sprinkle in some biographical information, musical excerpts, and links to scores in the body of my blog entries. Blogging is really just a different format to get information to people – but it appears to be widely popular!

As of this morning, the blog has enjoyed 4,986 visits in just over 8 months. My most popular blog entry, Beethoven Walked, We Text has been read 547 times. 10 of the 33 blog entries have been read over 100 times. Isn’t that amazing?

There may be some of you that understand the importance of a website or a blog, but are intimidated by the technical aspects to get a site up and running. Relax. The majority of website providers have easily configurable templates, that can be used to create a professional product without too much technical expertise. And, some providers will even include free technical support as part of your purchase.

The costs are quite reasonable as well, especially when you consider how much it would cost to mail 4,132 CDs or 2,648 scores. I purchased the domain, ralphkendrick.com for about $15 for two years. I spend about $9 per month for website hosting from GoDaddy.com and there are even website providers that allow you to host a website for free (check out Yola.com). Blogger.com and WordPress.com have free blogging accounts available too, if that’s more your speed.

So if you don’t have a website yet, stop making excuses. Invest 20-30 hours in your career, get yourself a web presence, and let the internet starting working for you. Good luck!

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