We're always happy to quoted on your site; I'm sorry it's usually for disagreeing. Surprisingly we don’t disagree with you that much.

Yeah, I see your point about finding topics where we overlap with other blogs/sites. I think these are great suggestions for generating site traffic from new areas. I'm not denying that you can turn that traffic into interest down the road but it’s hard to keep a first time reader reading if it’s not exactly what they are looking for. It’s too easy to hit the back button.

But it really depends on your reader. If they are casually browsing clicking on whatever looks good then you stand a chance at building interest especially if there really is a significant overlap in their current interests and your content. But I think most people are searching or browsing for something specific; if you’re not it, hit the back button and keep looking.

I do think you have some great points about forming strategic partnerships with organizations that have similar audiences. They are the best place to look for new prospects.

While I think the ideas are right on, I have a hard time seeing how they would work themselves out in this medium. I think that blogging is by design has a narrow focus and it’s just too easy for people to find exactly what they are looking for instead of related to what they are looking for.

My traffic has increased significantly since SYTYCD. I know everyone just LOVES to turn up their nose at such programs. I'm not one to do that; I find life works better that way...

Danciti,

Thanks as always for your comments - I find it very helpful when bloggers/readers offer different opinions and perspectives.

Overall, I see the process of reaching out to new audiences via dance blogs as on-going and incremental. Some readers may reach a dance blog via a partner site, read a single post one time and never return.

But the more that dance bloggers offer content that is not just for inside-the-dance-world consumption, I think it will be easier to convert these new visitors into long-term blog participants or, at least, followers of your dancing and upcoming performances.

I think we still need to do a lot of brainstorming and experimenting about what type of online relationships we want to create with audiences via blogs.

Tonya,

If I understand you correctly, one of the ways to develop new audiences is by reaching fans of popular dance forms.

For example, ballet companies can look to cultivate new audiences among ballroom dancers and fans of So You Think You Can Dance. These are large audiences of people who are already dancing or love watching dance - so an excellent potential audience to nurture.

A question is how to nurture these audiences? How can the Internet and video be used to get people excited about concert dance forms?

That is a good question, Doug! I hope I didn't sound too testy. I just get really annoyed when people think everyone who watches these TV shows is a shallow idiot. A lot of these people are very smart, accomplished people who simply don't live in NYC or another urban area, and have very little access to dance. This is the first time they're really being given a chance to see dance, and they're developing an aesthetic for viewing it (in choreographer Dean Moss's words!) I think that at least some of the people who are so into the shows can discover ballet and other forms of dance and develop a real love for them.

Also, I understand what Danciti is saying. I'll sometimes visit a dance blog that's really specific to a certain style of dance and it'll be so technical that I can't understand anything and the writing isn't very engaging so I leave and don't return. I think the trick is to somehow write about what your subject in a way that makes it really interesting and appealing to as wide an audience as possible. That means dancers and bloggers have to step outside of themselves and put themselves in the mind-set of their audience. For this, you obviously have to figure out who your target audience is and put yourself in their shoes. For me, it's people who know very little about dance, who know none of the terminology, but who are finding DWTS and SYTYCD on some level engaging and maybe want to know a little more about Pasha and Anya and maybe might be intrigued by ballroom dancing in general and perhaps, hopefully, even my ballet stuff might pique their interest. Personally, I initially fell for my favorite ballet dancers through profiles, interviews and pictures in magazine articles and books (Marcelo Gomes), through documentary films (Jose Carreno), and through blogging on the Winger (David Hallberg). I think if people are really engaging, have attractive likeable personalities, and they post interesting pictures (for me, videos are fun but aren't necessary; pictures will do), once audiences begin to visit their blogs (another challenge), they'll stay.

I mean, I have no idea if I'll lose a large part of my audience after SYTYCD ends -- I really hope not! I also hope that I'm not losing any of my serious ballet fans who may think my writing is becoming too sophomoric -- I hope not! This is very tricky, isn't it -- I sympathize with professional journalists and magazine and newspaper editors!

Hehehe: look at the third link!!:
http://bloggingsytycd.blogspot.com/2007/08/around-web_07.html

Doug,

I just wanted to thank you for devoting yourself to this frontier. Who is to say what the limits are; or, what the potential is for this forum? We don't know yet; I'm just glad you and others are asking the questions, putting in the elbow grease, and making- as you say- incremental progress. Yes, I'm in the dance world, but blogs have expanded my world and will continue to do so. I have several non-dancing friends who have become dance enthusiasts as a result of the written page in blogs & the visual display of danceaday & youtube. Thanks for the vision... I consider you an artist, your medium for creation is different than mine, but no less valid. The need to communicate in your own voice through a specific medium or media... art-maker.

Tonya,

Thanks for sharing background about how you approach writing your posts and reaching out to new audiences.

I think you are one of very few people (maybe the sole person) who is actively engaged in connecting with viewers of TV dance shows such as Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance and offering them an engaging path toward learning about ballet and other dance forms.

I think ballet companies and presenters should be closely following what you're doing so they can learn more about reaching out to the same audiences as you are.

Kelly,

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement!

It's interesting what you write about how your non-dancing friends are beginning to connect to dance via blogs, YouTube and video dance projects such as what Boris does. It would definitely be helpful if there was a way that we could better understand and quantify the relationship that newcomers to dance have with the art of dance as a result of these online dance offerings:

- What are the pros and cons of traditional media (newspapers in particular) versus digital media in terms of reaching new dance audiences?

- At this point in time, how many more people attend dance performances as a result of the Internet and new ways to experience dance? And,

- To what extent do more people take-up dancing as a result of the Internet? Or do more people take up dancing as a result of seeing popular dance shows on TV?

Great blog! Many good points are covered here...
I think that trying new and innovative ways of bringing those people who consider dance but are afraid for any number of reasons is key to increasing class size and turnout...Dancing with the Stars is definitely putting dance back on the map for the American mainstream (it seems to have disappeared for a few decades) but more needs to be done to further leverage new media and marketing (myspace, youtube, etc.).