Another week goes by, and we are suddenly rushing toward the Christmas season.

At the request of my mentor, Santa Ron Campbell, I generated a PowerPoint slide for him to use in a presentation he is giving this Saturday (7-29) at  the 10th Annual Santa Business Round Table, in Highpoint, NC, showing the importance of having a Santa Claus website.  Of course, I used screenshots from my own website as an example, and I must admit that I did have Ron's input when I put that site together.  It took me a couple of tries to get the slide that Ron wanted, but I was happy to do it.

This past Monday afternoon, Ron called me and suggested that I put together a brochure to offer to help other Santas in the area put together a good website.  Most of the gentlemen performing as Santa in this area don't have websites, or if they do, they are minimal... three or four pages at most.  My site runs about 20 pages, with room for expansion.  I admit that I can't compete with Santa Ed Taylor for coming up with a top notch web site, but I don't plan to charge a bunch of money either. 

Having agreed to do this, I quickly edited some of my work generated while making the PowerPoint slide for Ron.  I thought I was good to go, but then he comes back Tuesday evening and "suggests" that I replace the picture on my entry page with a video.  Ho ho ho... wasn't that a whirl wind of excitement. 

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I'm in the middle of refurbishing several bedrooms in our house.  I had JUST finished paining the walls in the first room (a dark green), and decided to use this space to record the video.  I assembled various pieces of easily portable furniture and other props, and I and Mrs. Merry Lou Claus (Lou Shelton, my partner) practiced and recorded a minute and a half of video in an hour on Thursday afternoon.  In the evening, I trimmed the ends of the file, added some background music, and published it to YouTube so I could display it on my website and on GigSalad.

Tomorrow (Saturday, 7-29) is the Santa Round Table, and I expect to be getting up and hitting the road by 6:00 a.m. (it is an hour and a half drive to Highpoint, and the day starts at 8:00).  I will have a folder full of brochures (OK, 8 ½” x 11” double sided sheets) advertising website services, a box of business cards (thank you Vista Print!), and the cheerful demeanor of a newly minted Santa Claus.