A hat tip to Peter Simonyi who reminded me that the host I switched to does not 
support https - so I need to get used to sending out the link without that s on 
the end.

Correct link for my site is:
http://drewdelaware.com

(Thanks Peter!)

Drew

> On Mar 17, 2023, at 8:42 PM, Drew Delaware <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Julian, Alan, and others,
> 
> I’m a career marketer and have a web design/development background. I’d be 
> happy to help you to get set up on Wordpress. I have a window of time over 
> the next couple of months as I enact some life changes.
> 
> I use a modern theme that has extensive design flexibility so the site feels 
> personal and vibrant, not templated. Wordpress allows for easy updates once 
> it’s set up.
> 
> Here’s my site: https://drewdelaware.com; need to update a couple things but 
> that’s always the case with websites!
> 
> If you’d like to explore working together, feel comfortable reaching out to 
> me off-list at [email protected].
> 
> Cheers!
> Drew
> 
> 
>> On Mar 16, 2023, at 7:38 AM, Winston, Alan P. <[email protected]> 
>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi, Julian --
>> 
>> I'll await other answers with interest, since I similarly don't have a 
>> caller website and it's a Project I could theoretically do but am rather 
>> overwhelmed by.  (Pre-pandemic I was getting all the gigs I could 
>> realistically handle with a full-time job, more outside of contra than in 
>> ****
>> 
>> I also want to empathize with you about being reluctant to self-promote, 
>> reach out to organizers, etc, for fear of being obnoxious, although when I 
>> have my series organizer hat on I'm usually happy to hear from out-of-town 
>> callers/bands who will be coming to my area anyway.  But I've never 
>> programmed a weekend or camp so I don't know how that feels; my impression 
>> locally is that programmers often have a vision and some favorites already. 
>> 
>> -- Alan
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________________
>> From: Julian Blechner via Contra Callers 
>> <[email protected]>
>> Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2023 8:51 AM
>> To: Shared Weight Contra Callers
>> Subject: [Callers] Asking For Website Help and Self-Promotion Question
>> 
>> Hi callers,
>> 
>> Website help request:
>> 
>> As I've been ramping up my accepting gigs again post-shutdown, I'm realizing 
>> that I've put off my "get an actual website" too long.
>> 
>> Any suggestions for website designers for caller pages or contra performer 
>> pages?
>> I can provide photographs myself, for what that's worth.
>> 
>> This is one of those things where, yeah, I could trudge through it myself 
>> with a DIY site-builder attached to a standard web host or Square, but I do 
>> UX Design as my 40-hour-a-week job and I already have many things on my 
>> plate, and I just really haven't found motivation to take on Another 
>> Project. So I really just want to be able to hand someone some money and 
>> know I'll get a good product that isn't needlessly complex.
>> 
>> 
>> Self-promotion perspective request:
>> 
>> I'm also looking for ways to appropriately do self-promotion as a caller.
>> I love doing series dances, and also love doing the dances for groups with 
>> lots of new folks, too. But I also would enjoy expanding doing more special 
>> events, and am getting more comfortable with traveling again, pandemic-wise.
>> 
>> There's this sort of odd condition where the A-List Well-Known Callers don't 
>> need to advertise, but to get there, you need to either/both advertise 
>> and/or have your summers off so you can do All The Tours and All The Summer 
>> Camps. On top of that, New England is kind of a funny area because we have 
>> so many weekly/monthly series dances that we don't have big dance weekends 
>> like pretty much everywhere else in the country.
>> 
>> And ... I dunno, for many of us, there's an unknown of "How much 
>> self-promotion until you become pushy / obnoxious?"
>> 
>> I've been calling for 11 years. Before the pandemic I was doing 30-40 gigs a 
>> year, including some wedding/One-Night-Stand events and smattering of 
>> special events. I've headlined at Flurry in 2018 and got positive feedback. 
>> I known where I'm at in terms of effectively choosing and teaching dances 
>> from simple through advanced. I solicit feedback from organizers I call 
>> dances for. And I know that being an advocate for Larks/Robins as well as 
>> dancer-safety has been a black mark for me in some bookers' minds.
>> 
>> But I still get people being like "Oh, how long have you been calling?" --- 
>> I realize part of this is the name change from Ron to Julian, but, part of 
>> it is definitely hesitation to like, I dunno, email organizers I don't 
>> personally know asking about dance weekends or whatnot. Maybe there's partly 
>> the "imposter syndrome" in there as well.
>> 
>> One thing I do know is that I now have no recent good video of me calling, 
>> which I'm earmarking as part of the website project.
>> 
>> Perspective on self-promotion is appreciated, and perspective for anyone who 
>> also books dances is appreciated.
>> 
>> In dance,
>> Julian Blechner
>> he/him
>> (Western Mass, USA)
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