Name of your website?Ballroom Dancing-It Ain't Your Grandma's Foxtrot!
Your name?
Honey Wesley
Your Location (city, etc)
Brownsville
Please give us a short summary of your website?
My ballroom blog contains interesting, informative articles of interest to ballroom dancers and those who aspire to be. There are dance video clips, valuable resources for dance clothes, shoes and music, advice on your wedding first dance and much more. Comments and opinions are always welcome!
What inspired you to launch your own website?
My inspiration was and is my desire to spread the word about the benefits of ballroom dancing and why everyone should learn.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
Actually this blog was my first website and it first appeared online in Feb, 2006.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The name had to include ballroom dancing, and back when I first set it up, I was too timid to get very creative.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
Most ballroom dance websites are static, with no fresh content and no ability to voice an opinion, ask a question or state a comment. Many ballroom dance blogs are no longer added to on a regular basis. I offer my readers the latest ballroom dance news, reviews of dance books, encouragement for beginners, well, you just need to see it.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I'll definitely be keeping it. I love my blog.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
My success has been in the pride I feel about creating a blog around a passion I've had for years. Yes, I make a tiny bit of money from it, but I would still be blogging on it even if it never made a dime. I very much enjoy the time I spend building my blog, finding new things to add to make it even more fun and interesting for my readers.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would keep a ballroom blog, but with unlimited resources, I'd have it linked to a large ballroom dance website, to include topics I currently don't have, such as ballroom dance gifts, statues, art, things like that.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Besides setting the whole thing up when I knew absolutely zero about anything online? I've had two challenges that still plague me. I'd love to get more comments. I've had thousands of visitors since it went live, but very, very few comments and I don't know why. The second challenge that I'm still trying to overcome is that I've never begun to build a list...I have no opt-in form and out of all those visitors, I've never taken a single email address. Bad for business I know and I'm trying to educate myself right now to change that.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
I have to give credit to article marketing. It's really the only promotion I've used up to now. Hopefully all that will be changing in the near future.
What do you say to someone who says "Why should I learn ballroom dancing?"
You should learn because it will change your life. It will increase your level of confidence. It will benefit your health and improve your posture. You should learn because there's nowhere else on earth you can feel the way you feel on a dance floor. It's magical, and you owe it to yourself to know what that feels like.
What is your website address?
Ballroom Dancing-It Ain't Your Grandma's Foxtrot!
