Finding her own way

[rmd1064]

I think in many ways, a 'simple storefront' as opposed to an efficient promotional site, might be more detrimental to an artist's brand, such as Haley's, than a help. Haley is in that limbo of limited resources but has media name recognition. There is an expectation, a certain level of professionalism that might be trivialized by being represented by a 'simple storefront'.

As helpful as we might like to think it would be, a poorly executed website, perhaps frought with virus traps, would be much worse than no website at all. If you want it done right, you probably have to pay for it and work with people whose expertise is in building a professional website. That means paying for it, which we don't know Haley can put resources to, yet. Especially if there's no new activity to speak of at the moment.

Tusk—thanks for your response on my questions about Haley and her web site. I see your point—a half-baked web site might be worse than no web site, and she still has a ton of Internet content on YouTube, this site, and Idolforums, and she participates in Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. From your comments, I thought maybe someone offered Haley a full package of web services, similar to setting up Pia’s site, and not just a URL.

Just for the heck of it, I searched all 12 third place contestants on American Idol to see what type of web site they had. Of the 12, four (Haley, Joshua Ledet, Syesha Mercado and Nikki McKibben) have no web site presence, two (Angie Miller and Jasmine Thias) have a simple site, and the rest (Danny Gokey, Casey James, Kimberly Locke, Vonzell Solomon, Elliot Yasmin and Melinda Doolittle) have what I would say are professional sites. Just in general, perhaps it just takes time to put together the resources and effort to get good sites up as of the last three contestants, only Angie has a web site. Of all the sites, I really liked the Casey James site best for its ease of use and clear format –although it appears he may be upgrading his site this year.

One thing—I agree that Haleyfans.com is THE source for all things Haley and even her own site could not keep up with all the links to videos, comments, updates, etc on this site. A wishlist item: I think it would be great if this site would come up higher in a Google Search for “Haley Reinhart”. Right now, this site appears on my view on Page 3. I know that it costs $$$ to move up content on Google to the top or on the right side panel—and that is how Google makes money. But it is a shame that more people do not discover this site, especially Haley fans looking for the latest news. But, a lot of people do know of this site and contribute, and thanks Miguel for all you do to make this site great.