Name of your website?Ceilidh Bands Directory
Your name?
Fiona Vallance
Your Location (city, etc)
Scotland
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Our website is a directory of ceilidh bands, mostly based in Scotland, although we will accept entries from the rest of the UK and the world.
A ceilidh (pronounced "kay-lee") is an evening of Scottish dancing to cheerful, lively music. The dances are usually learned quickly by following what everyone else is doing. The caller often walks dancers through a dance before it starts or "calls" the dance as it progresses (shouts out what to do next!)The music is provided by any assortment of fiddle, flute, tin whistle, accordion and drums. An English Barn Dance has many similarities.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
If you search for ceilidh band on Google, there are plenty of results, but it's very difficult to tell where the ceilidh bands are located. Some will be near you, some at the other end of the UK, some worldwide. Because the bands travel some distance, you might find that you search for "ceilidh Edinburgh" and come up with a band from the other side of Scotland that regularly travels to Edinburgh. Now while the bands get a lot of business by word of mouth and don't seem to mind travelling, I think people would sometimes prefer to support their local band. This website will make it easier for people to find their nearest bands.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
Four years ago - it was for a home business I was trying out. Looking back I didn't have a clue, but I've learnt a lot since.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I tried to come up with a name that would show up well when people search for "ceilidh band" or for "ceilidh band directory". Hence Ceildh-Bands-Directory.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
Most directories have the listings buried down several layers deep. Ours has the bands listed on the home page, which should help their websites pagerank in time. Once the website has enough listings I hope to interest the wedding websites in promoting the site. It's too soon for that at the moment though.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I've spent the last few weeks learning about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and this is really a trial website on a subject that interests me - I have a good friend who runs an excellent ceilidh band. My aim is to see how high I can get it to rank on Google for the keywords "ceilidh band" and "ceilidh bands"
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
I've spent a total of £10.50 on the domain name, and may earn a few pence from the Adsense. Really it's a test of my webdesign skills but will be very useful once it's well known.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Put on some better graphics and "twirly bits"! Sometimes simple is best though, so maybe I wouldn't change much at all.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Probably not, but I'm sure I'd think of something!
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Although I have e-mailed some ceilidh bands to see if they want to be listed and had a few replies, people are naturally reluctant to be the first ones listed on a new directory. The idea was that the reciprocal links coming from the ceilidh bands will help the directory in the search engine rankings... but the ceilidh bands are not going to find the site *until* it does show up well in the search engine rankings. So I have a kind of chicken and egg problem!
What has been your biggest challenge?
see above
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Erm, I have no idea yet! Come back to me on that one.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Nothing happens quickly enough! Things take time - bands will take time to find us, the search engines will take time to list us etc. I am too impatient :D
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
Erm, we've been online for exactly a week. See - I told you I'm impatient didn't I? I will keep it online indefinitely if I can see that people are using it.
What is your website address?
Ceilidh Bands Directory
