Judging by your recent comments, I'd say you're chomping at the bit to overhaul David Cassidy's official website.
To be fair, it seems he's been busy revamping his MySpace page. You have to log in to MySpace to view most of it and since I've no intention of becoming a member of that type of social network, guess all that amazing content will remain a mystery to me. (Does he really have a blog?) There is a mixpod of eight YouTube videos on his page. Click on it to reach a page listing all the songs with buy and ringtones options for each. Not surprising, the options link to dead ends.
Anyway, websites aren't obsolete yet! (Or perhaps they are and I didn't get the memo?) My suggestions for improving his:
-Eliminate the automatic playing of that heart attack inducing PF song remix when we access the site (I click it off so fast, I can't even identify the song)
-If you're going to keep music on the site, how about alternating the tunes (and identifying them)?
-Provide dates for news articles
-Simplify current home page layout - too busy now
For the store section:
-Newsflash: all four seasons of the Partridge Family are now available on DVD - update with links to all four
-Ringtones: how about offering some audio clips? I'd love to use the first 20 seconds of "Summer Days" as a ringtone but I'm too lazy/technically challenged to make it myself. Not sure what the average market price for ringtones is but I wouldn't pay more than $3 for one.
-Personalized autographed pictures? I'll admit to having no clue how time-consuming this proposal would be.
Ready to add your ideas, dear blog readers?
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
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21 comments:
1. Fire Ashley whatever-her-name-is and hire a competent website person with real visual design skills and website navigation expertise. This really should take care of all the rest of the problems.
Barring #1,
2. your point about the PF disco song needs reiteration---it's awful and embarrassing and likely to turn away casual visitors.
3. Change the color scheme to dark text on a light background.
4. Radically re-work the navigation scheme. For example, consolidate the links to DC's other sites (Facebook, fansite, etc.) to a links section...have separate sections for recordings, merchandise, tv/movies, etc.
5. Have a blog section somewhere to make the whole thing more personal---have DC write something (or dictate to someone) about what he's doing/thinking lately. It's a trend on the web right now, and he needs to keep up.
I could go on all day---it's an absolutely terrible website---but those are just a few ideas.
DD, you could do the ringtones idea as a whole separate thread. I was thinking the first keyboard bit of "Every Little Bit of You" might be nice. :)
You're talking about Twitter I think SLK. Lots of British celebs are on it. You can start up a twitter and people join in and 'follow' you. I can't see David doing this as he guards his privacy too much.
You've hit the nail on the head DD. Obviously David has been informed that everyone is on facebook or myspace now so all their attention is directed there maybe and the website is neglected. I don't do myspace or facebook either and have no intention of doing so, not even for David Cassidy. As for ideas for his website I may post later on that one.......if I can add to any of your ideas.
Well I've just ventured onto his myspace site. You can't access much of it without logging in but you can visit the mechandise page where there is more choice of T shirts and mouse mats! I wonder who is responsible for the running of the myspace, is it Jo-Ann or someone else? Perhaps many of his fans join him there and on facebook instead.
SLK, just curious, are you a website designer? I like your ideas.
I like the idea of David posting something about what he's up to every so often, but I fear as British Fan points out, he may be too private for that.
I'd rather him keep to the website as the central place since a lot of people don't want to join MySpace. And I was even thinking that I will probably have to use a different name if I want to be "friends" with "David" on MySpace because of some of the not so great things I've said about JG across the planet.
Thanks for that info British Fan. I think I may try to join so that I can see what's going on over there.
Wow, DD, you've done a fair amount of investigating into this. Thanks!
Well, I've just had a peek at facebook. You can't see much there either except that he has 604 friends. That's more than enough to put me off. Some people jumping on the bandwagon, latch onto a famous name. I wonder how many 'friends' on his myspace/facebook think they really are!! Could this be where all the 'die-hards' hang out? Are they communicating with David or Jo-Ann. I snigger at that thought.
All suggestions above are good.
*Yes, get rid of the remix music.
*Some videos on the website would be nice.
*A question and answer section.
*A timeline would be nice.
*More photos of David would be good, the ones there are useless.
There should be a section for angry fans to have a rant. I just went on YT to watch Junked Heart Blues and guess what, it ain't there anymore. The version where he sits at the piano singing has been removed. Well I can't find it anyhow. It was there for months! I'd love to know if David is responsible for this or youtube covering their *ss. Seems I need to learn to download and save videos real fast.
If I knew David was responsible for removing these things I'd write him a letter voicing my anger and disapointment. It's these clips that make me (and others) go and buy the music which line his pockets.
Breathe, British fan, breathe. :)
What happens with YT is someone will post copyright material (such as clips from a TV show - the one you mention is an example) and the original owners of said material (e.g. Sony, Columbia, etc.) will spot it and ask YT to remove it. If YT sends multiple requests to the same uploader, that person's account gets revoked and all their videos removed. This is why I prefer to post slide shows created by fans rather than videos containing clips of shows because I don't want to call attention to any copyright material and risk having it removed.
Thanks for that explanation DD. I was hoping that as David's clips don't have a huge amount of views that they would be ignored and left alone. It's only been the last few months I noticed things disappear at quite a rate.
singmedavid: yes, I do websites, or at least I did before being laid off yesterday (maybe I can get a new job doing DC's site?!). I tried looking for examples of websites of other entertainers that I liked, but surprisingly, didn't find too many---so many of them are over-stuffed with visual clutter and jazzy Flash animations that take forever to load---very annoying. One of the better ones was David Byrne's site---the changing pictures at the top are annoying, but everything else about it is well-organized and nice and clean---the menu at the left stays the same, and then each section has another set of navigation links at the top center---it packs a lot of categories of information into a small space in a very logical way that doesn't confuse the user. The color scheme is creative and easy to read.
Britishfan, you'd be surprised about how blogs and other personal messages are becoming prominent on websites now. It's not just a Facebook or Twitter thing anymore; they're all kind of bleeding into each other---most celebrities now have a constellation of websites---the "official" one, the Facebook page (generally for updates from other pages), the MySpace page (primarily for music and videos, but also for blog entries), and lately the Twitter page as well (for short updates and responses to tweets from others). Some people use one service to update all the social network sites in one shot---there is something I've seen called UberTwitter that I think does this. And then there is Ping.fm for pictures---you put a picture on Ping.fm, and link to it through Facebook/Twitter/etc. It sounds complicated now, but i'm sure in the future it will all be streamlined.
The point is that media promotion is a vastly different animal than it was even five years ago, and any successful celebrity had best hire people who are right on top of the technology and the trends if they want to get their message out and make it easy for people to reach them.
As for the blog issue, you're right that DC is private, and it's also true that he's not much of a writer, but that's also something where a management team could be of help. All they would have to do is meet with him once a month (at least) and interview him him in some way---a monthly "chat" thing, a series of questions, a single topic---something to elicit thoughts from him about what he's been doing lately, what's important to him, etc. They could write it for him, he wouldn't have to do it himself. But at least it would be something personal and current, something the fans could look forward to seeing and that would give them a reason to keep coming back to the site for updates.
Anyway, just a few thoughts...I certainly would do DC's media management very differently from the way it's being done now!!
Thanks for your wonderful insights and suggestions SLK. He would be lucky and fortunate to have someone like you on board. David Byrne's site is well set out and a good example of a decent website. Thanks for all that info.
David Byrne has a journal! As if I needed something else to bookmark. Thanks a lot, SLK. Seriously, thanks for your input. Very informative. So sorry to hear about your job.
Thanks SLK - Great info!!! I'm so sorry to hear about your job! I hope you find something again soon.
I'm actually a software professional too, but very specialized. I would like to get some expertise with websites and blogs and some other more mainstream type of software work. I have a blog with a friend but we've been inactive for a couple of months now. Hopefully we'll be able to pick up soon.
Good luck with the job search!!! There's a web design company down here in South Florida that really impressed me. I used to know someone (lost touch) who lives in Texas that works for them or at least used to. Anyway, it's called Iguana Farms. Interesting, huh?
Hey, thanks for the kind words. I'm officially a victim of the Great Recession! I worked for a hedge fund; 'nuff said.
At the moment I'm optimistic---there are definitely jobs out there; it's just a matter of finding one. One thing is I live in New York and I don't want to go anywhere else!
We will see!
Occasionally I check DC's official site to check for updates but am put off by the busy home page and 'upbeat' version of PF song, which I neither never seem to be able to switch off quickly enough. Am sure that David is not into IT at all, beyond communicating with his loved ones, so he needs to employ switched on people to handle his website. There seemed to have been an initial effort to sort out his website but it has not been followed through effectively; the promise of "updates soon" are rarely followed up and I really don't care for the persistent plugs for his wife's business either. I will not be sucked into that; with all due respect, Sue's business interests are and should be kept separate.
David's website, Myspace and Facebook have no personal involvement by David. They are run by his website person, that Ashley, and she and/or Geffen write as "David" on the blogs. I would assume letters & emails from "David" via his website are also written by Ashley or Geffen.
David's wife, Sue is very involved with his website also. Note all the news about her cosmetics company on there and what she is doing and their son. Very little David "DNA" on there if you know what I mean. He prob just lets them take care of the online stuff as he is not that interested in doing it. His old website was done by Ruth McCartney who has a web design company of her own. She still works for David. She owns & runs IFanz.com and handles DC's (& other stars)e-blast promos. I've gotten some of these. David most likely wants as less hassle as possible and less he has to do so he may not even know what is done on these websites, myspace, facebook things and lets Sue, etc take charge. He does his concerts and horses. ;-)
Thanks for that info Anon! Why do you think they are not more attentive to fans in the way of providing holiday wishes, updates, interacting with fans more? People are writing all sorts of things they'd like to see/hear from David, and he seems to be clueless, like they don't pass much on to him at all, even verbally. Plus, I've gotten the feeling recently that they do not want to hear from fans much at all. I emailed JG about the prospects of more upcoming concerts than were listed on the website and all I got back was something like a curt "See the website for concert dates." Another time I asked about the prospect of a Cassidy brother's talk show and her answer was "They're not going to do that now." No, Dear so and so, Thank you for your inquiry..." It is so strange. It's like they couldn't be bothered.
What, Singme, you read those short replies and don't get the message the woman's BUSY?!
Yeah, DD, and "Don't you have anything else better to do than to email me your dumb questions?!"
Well on that cmongethappy thread about that autograph show debacle, someone posted they wrote to JG to ask about it and they a reply from JG saying that fans need to "get a life". So that sure doesn't sound like they want to communicate with fans...unless of course if its to buy something they are selling. I see his wife's business and JG book touted on the front page.
American Fan
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