When we’re launching a show, it’s easy to assume the website is the big move.
A website feels official. It feels like progress. It feels like the thing that makes the project “real.”
And yes — a great website is cool.
This post is about a faster path: the path that gets tickets sold sooner, keeps our energy clean, and gets the tech stuff off our plate.
This advice comes from producing a weekly show for 266+ weeks and helping performers sell themselves for a living. I’ve built a lot of websites. I’ve also watched websites become a distraction from the one thing that matters: getting people into seats.
Websites Work Best as Conversion Tools
A website is not a stranger machine.
A website works best when it takes someone who’s already curious and turns them into someone who clicks Buy.
That’s the job.
So when we’re building a new show, the question becomes:
What helps a curious person buy a ticket with the least friction?
Strangers Come From Promotion
If we want new people in the room, they don’t appear because we built a nice page.
They show up because we promote.
Strangers come from:
- ads
- flyers / physical presence
- partnerships
- venues and local orgs sharing us
- word of mouth
- social momentum
- being talked about by the right people
That’s the engine.
The Fastest Setup Is a Short Funnel
When our goal is ticket sales, we win by making the funnel short.
The best setup looks like this:
Promo → Simple page → Ticket button → Checkout
That’s it.
Step 1: Put Ticket Sales on a Ticket Platform
We pick a ticket platform and let it do what it’s built to do.
Eventbrite. Humanitix. TicketTailor. Anything.
This is where we host:
- dates
- ticket tiers
- seat options
- checkout
- confirmation messages
- receipts
This keeps everything dependable.
It also makes it easy for other people to share our show, because the link behaves like a real product.
Step 2: Put One Simple Webpage in Front
Then we buy a domain and put up one clean page.
That page can be wildly simple:
- our poster / key artwork
- 1–2 sentences about the experience
- address
- dates
- a big BUY TICKETS button
That’s the whole site.
This is enough for 95% of our customers.
They don’t need an essay.
They need clarity.
They need confidence.
They need an easy button.
This Lets Us Launch This Week
This is the superpower of the one-page approach:
Speed.
We can be live this week.
And once we’re live, every promo effort has a clean destination:
- a link we trust
- a page we control
- a button that works
Then we can put our attention where it belongs: filling seats.
What About the People Who Want the Schedule?
Some people want to follow our schedule like it’s their favorite TV show.
They’re rare and magical.
For those people, our best move is:
- social media follow
- email list
- text list
That’s where repeat attendance comes from.
That’s also how we build a community around the show.
The One-Page Site Is the Perfect “Now” Move
Once the show is running and momentum is happening, we can absolutely expand into:
- cast bios
- photo galleries
- embedded trailers
- deeper storytelling
- an immersive long-scroll experience
- press kits and venue inquiry pages
That’s a beautiful upgrade.
For launch season, the one-page site + ticket link gives us something even more valuable:
momentum.
The Goal Is Tickets, Not Tech
We’re building a show.
We’re building a room full of laughing humans.
We’re building an experience that feels electric.
A one-page site and a ticket button gets us there fast.