Almost There!!!!

Today was a big step in the right direction. I finished recording all of the videos AND received two discs of photos in the mail from Alisa!

The videos were my biggest obstacle so far, but thanks to the talents and generosity of my friends it went off without a hitch.  *Hoping I didn't speak too soon!* We did a string quartet, harp solo, and violin and piano.  My friend Colin did the audio and video recording. He was the brains behind the operation and without him I would have been in some hot water. I also was fortunate to have some very talented musicians performing. Thanks Molly Baer, Rebecca Macleod, Ana Isabel Zorro, Miti Wisuthumporn, Vanessa Young, and Dan Curtis!!! They did an awesome job and I bet the videos are going to be KICK-ASS.  The string quartet did Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Vanessa played a Bach Prelude from The Well-Tempered Clavier, and I played Saint-Saens The Swan.  I should have the edited videos by Sunday!!

The photos from the string quartet shoot and the flute & harp duo shoot look AMAZING.  I'm so excited for them.  Man, I have some pretty friends!  Now the problem will be deciding which ones to use. Anywho, I'm exhausted after a really long day.  I think that's enough for now. 

Pretty Logo!

Yay, my logo made it onto my Blog!  Elizabeth configured it just for this purpose and it looks awesome, thanks Elizabeth!

I had a SERIOUS case of writers block while writing my content last evening.  It took me something like 4 hours to get out 4 paragraphs!  (Granted I was chatting on the phone for some of the time but still...)  I didn't realize I would have this hard of a time getting this stuff on paper.  Honestly, I thought this would be the easy part.  I found that anything and everything I wrote sounded lame and boring--not the kind of stuff that I want on my website!  I'm going to tune it up today (pun intended, haha) and hopefully I will make some more progress. 


Crossing my fingers about the videos as well!!!

Getting Closer...

I finished all of the photography this week!  It was quite a production, but Alisa Garin made it so easy and fun :)  I can't wait to see the finished photos of the string quartet and of the flute and harp duo!  Now I'm working on getting the videos in line.  I knew this was going to be the biggest challenge, so I'm hoping I have them all done before the site goes live...

I just started writing the content, and researching SEO practices, and there is SO much to know.  I had no idea it was so involved!  There is a lot that I can't do anything about (like reprogram algorithms lol) so I'm learning about other strategies that I, as a webmaster haha, can do myself.  Unfortunately this stuff is REALLY dry reading, so it is very easily putting me to sleep at 1:30 am!

Photos Galore!

I had my head shots taken last night, and oh man, was that an experience.  I had them done by Alisa Garin and she was FANTASTIC.  We had so much fun!  I was really nervous that I would look awkward and she made me feel COMPLETELY comfortable.  I got to see some of the shots she took and even though I thought I looked really weird, the way they came out was stupendous!  I had on four different outfits, and used bunch of different poses with my violin which made for great variety.  (Thanks to Rebecca MacLeod for the use of her red and white printed dress!)  We were there for two hours and got some really amazing work done; thanks Alisa!!

Tonight we are shooting a string quartet at Carnegie Music Hall.  These will be distributed throughout my website.  Thankfully I have some very beautiful and generous friends who have donated their time. Thanks Jenn, Becky, Emily and Laura!!!

Having a Hard Head Pays Off...

Much to my dismay, I was doing some research last night and discovered quite a few competitors that I formerly didn't know I had.  I guess that comes with the territory...  Now the idea is to work even harder to make my business more appealing than the competitor!

I've been tossing around a bunch of marketing ideas, including a listing on The Knot, have found that reaching customers might be a lot harder than I thought.  I also started a marketing plan that has forced me to look at a few aspects of my business that I didn't even know were there!  E.g. direct and indirect costs?? So I have to plan out my marketing strategies?  Who knew...?

On the bright side, I'm making the final revisions on my logo, and I think it looks AWESOME.  I'm so excited to see it in action!

Problems...

Things are taking a LOT longer than I thought they would.  I was anticipating having everything finished by this week, and I'm not sure I've even hit the 50% mark yet!  There is so much left to do: content writing, photos, videos...and that's just the big stuff.  


It's been over a week since any progress has been made, and I feel like I'm losing steam.  The tick is clocking, and my time here in Pittsburgh is running out.  I don't have that much time to get myself established before I am gone and once I leave, it will be so much harder.  I just have to hope that things will start coming together really quickly...