Ok, moving on to your blog, because actually your blog is designed to answer these questions and more for musicians who are interested in cruise ship work. Why did you decide to start the blog?
When I landed my first gig I didn't know a single thing about cruise ships. I'd never even seen one! The talent agency called me on a Tuesday and I was on an 8 hour flight to Germany on Thursday. It was that quick! The information that I'd been given by the agency about working on ships was pretty thin and in that short time between Tuesday and Thursday I hadn't had time to ask most of my questions.
I was excited to get on the ship, but I was also a little terrified. Where would I sleep? What would I eat? Could I leave the ship during the day? What happens if I get sick? What should I pack? I wasn't even sure where this ship was even going! The blog started off as a way to connect with family and friends back home, but soon I started to get emails and comments from other musicians who were asking the same questions I'd wondered. At that time it was really difficult to find any honest and genuine information about what it was like to work on ships. That's when the blog started to take its form. It's now a reservoir of questions and answers about working on a ship, combined with a little travel writing here and there.
Many people are surprised to find out that I'm not a cruise fanatic. I don't pay much attention to the cruise industry. My interest lies in musicians and maintaining a music career for myself and for others. The blog is primarily focused on musicians and on giving them all the information they'll need to feel comfortable before they head out on one of these gigs.
Your blog is extremely informative, but the audience is a very focused group. How do you market your blog so that it reaches the right people?
Most visitors come to the blog through search engines - primarily Google. The most popular term is "cruise ship musician," but there are also a lot of searches for more specific things like "cruise ship crew cabin" or "cruise ship musicians hours" or other things like that. It's clear from the stats that people have a lot of questions about the nature of a cruise ship musician gig, and hopefully they find answers on the site.
I've also started using Google Adwords recently, but I keep the daily budget at $1 and I'm not yet convinced that it's an effective way to market the blog. As you said, the target audience for this blog is very focused.
I've listed the blog with several blog directories - Yahoo and BlogCatalog.com and a few others. This kind of linking is standard for all website marketing and that's why I do it, but it's another kind of marketing that I think might not be very effective for attracting quality traffic to the site. The blog's material is very practical and very specialized and might not lend itself very well to casual surfing by the average internet user. There are some fun stories in there about crazy times on ships, but they are surrounded by a heavy dose of musician-speak.
Generally, I think that when musicians start looking for information about cruise gigs they will find the site. If you search for almost anything on the topic of cruise ship musicians the Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Musician is often on the first page of results.
What blogging platform do you use? What features have been helpful to you?
Great question - I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I started this blog years ago with a backend I found for free on a site that no longer even exists. As blogging has become more mainstream several blogging platforms (Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad) have emerged as the ubiquitous backend choices for all bloggers. In this respect my site has really been passed by. I still use the ancient platform that I found years ago! The posts are dynamically created, but the side columns and design all still have to be hand coded. That's crazy, right?! I frequently have to get in under the hood with my HTML and CSS and fix and move things. And cross-browser compatibility? Forget about it! Make sure you visit the site in Firefox!
Lately I've thought a lot about migrating my blog over to Wordpress, but I've been reluctant to pull the trigger. I'm always concerned that a big change like that will liquidate the site's standing in search engine results and then there'll be no traffic to the site. One of these days, though, I'll do it. I like Wordpress a lot and I would love to have that kind of technology behind the material.
Last but not least, any upcoming projects, either for you as a musician or for the blog, that you'd like to tell us about?
Broadway or bust! I'm moving back to NYC and looking for a spot in a Broadway pit orchestra. Aside from ships and blogging, for years now my music career has been primarily in theatre. I've been touring and working regional theaters from one side of the country to another. I've always enjoyed theatre gigs and I'm moving to New York to get closer to the source. My goal is to get a 2nd or 3rd keyboard spot on a Broadway show. Wish me luck! My professional site is www.davidjhahn.org - check it out!
Keep up with Dave on Chronicles of a Cruise Ship Musician and his personal site.
