Yes.
Let me put it this way. Yes.
If you are a performer and your "website" is only found on myspace, you need to get your own website!

Not so many years ago you had to spend a fortune to put together a website. You still can spend a lot of money. However, you can also find a nephew or niece who'll do a great job (check their spelling) for just over minimum wage.

Pluses: Makes you look professional.
Easy to refer to people.
Looks good on a business card.
Comes up in searches.

Minuses: Advertising by outsiders on YOUR website. YOu can get a FREE website, but it will have pop-up ads. Remember those on this forum? Many thanks to Steve for paying the extra so we don't have to see the girl in the bikini. (E-mail me if you want to know where she is now.)

Websites used to be designed in HTML or IMHO or WPA or something like that. Now you can use templates because computers are faster and they can download the whole template just as fast as the more streamlined HTML.

Here are some steps:
1. Choose a domain name. What will be easy for people to remember? I recently checked on TerryFator.com but it was already taken. So was Borders.com, to my great dismay!
2. See if your domain name is available by typing it in and seeing if something else comes up. I wanted www.schoolassembly.com but it is being "sold" for $10,000 or so. I checked on www.schoolassembly.net and it was available. .com is better, but .net is okay. .org is usually for non-profits so if you have a ministry you may check on that.
3. Choose a company to register your domain. I prefer to use the same one as my Host because you only hear from your domain registrar once a year at most and you may forget and think it's spam. I really like www.virtualave.net.
4. After you get your domain name then call the company and see if they have a tutorial for using templates to build a website. The more you can do on your own the better.
5. Too busy? Bring that high school kid over and ask them, or call your local high school and ask if they will pass your name and phone number on to the parents of a good student in the computer area. Not the kid, the parents of the kid. Or put a help wanted in the local paper.
6. Let us know when you have a website going!

Yes is the answer. You do need a website. Tony's got great suggestions and solutions there.

Andrew Young has also recently shared ideas on the Puppetry List Pupcrit. Here is his post....

For anyone who is struggling with building their own site, I would suggest
trying Wordpress which can be downloaded for free from
http://www.wordpress.org and can be hosted on your own domain ( like
www.yourpuppets.com). Wordpress is blogging software that is very easy to
run a professional looking website on.


Once set up it's very easy to use - if you can an email to Puptcrit, you can
use Wordpress - and there are thousands of free templates available as well
as some really beautiful "premium" ones that can be bought for as little as
$20-75. There are also hundreds of plugins to help you easily add features
like a calendar of your shows, photo galleries of puppets, videos etc.


Better yet, if you buy a domain and hosting through companies like GoDaddy
or Netfirms you can get a site for only a few dollars a month and they will
install Wordpress for you.

I've done web development in the retail and tourism industry here and there
over the years and I've often wondered if there was a market for offering
basic web site packages that look professional and are easy to use
specifically to puppeteers and puppetry companies.


Andrew <puppetvision@gmail.com>