Have you ever wondered how your customers get to your website, and whether you are doing better or worse than your colleagues or competitors?

I have blogged in the past about options for creating your teacher website, and some of the things to look for, but for those of you who already have a website you are happy with, I thought you might be interested in some benchmarks for how well it is performing.

If you are looking at an online studio management system for your music school or dance studio, you will have come across online services such as YourVirtuoso and maybe you are a little uneasy with not having a CD of software to install?

A good studio management system can certainly help you maintain high levels of customer service in your dance or music studio, and this can help with retention and re-enrollment, but can it generate new business for you?

The business case for online class registration can be difficult to make if you don't know how many of your customers register for your classes because of it.

A few personal experiences from the last week gave me pause for thought, and had me step back from my usual topic of music and dance studio management software and websites to look at the bigger picture.

In a blog last week about music studio management software, I alluded to the need to defer hiring admin. staff as your studio grows.

As your music school or music studio or music business grows, you eventually realize that you need help with management and administration. You could hire someone, but that is a big step you should defer as long as you can (more on this in an upcoming blog).

So you have a beautiful dance or music studio website, and now all you need is visitors. You have set up your pages for the search engines, but still the traffic is disappointing, so you need to give it a boost.

What role should Freeware (Free Software) play in managing your music studio or music school?