Check if value exists

Here's what I'm trying to do:

Display a list (lastname), (firstname) from a database. If that person has a weblink, I want to make their name a weblink, for example,
<a href="weblinkexists">(lastname), (firstname) </a>
<a href="weblinkexists">(lastname), (firstname) </a>
(lastname), (firstname) -- this person has no weblink, just their static name shows
<a href="weblinkexists">(lastname), (firstname) </a>
<a href="weblinkexists">(lastname), (firstname) </a>


HERE'S MY CODE SNIPPET:

Dim i_website1

Sub Page_Load(sender as Object, e as EventArgs)

    call openDB()

   dim strSQL="Select * from jbi_artist WHERE director_group='flute' ORDER BY director_lastname"
       
        Dim ds2 As New DataSet()        
        dim mycommand2 as new MySqlDataAdapter(strSQL, connTemp)
        mycommand2.Fill(ds2, "cur_data2")   
            
        flute.DataSource = ds2
        flute.DataBind()
            
        i_website1 = ds2.Tables("cur_data2").Rows(0)("director_website")

         call CloseDB()

End Sub
 
AND HERE"S MY DATALIST ON THE PAGE:

<asp:DataList ID="flute" GridLines="None" HorizontalAlign="Left" CellPadding="0" ItemStyle-VerticalAlign="TOP" CellSpacing="0" RepeatDirection="Vertical" RepeatLayout="Table" RepeatColumns="1" ShowBorder="False" Width="100%" runat="server" >            
<ItemTemplate>
<% IF i_website1 <> "" THEN
%>
 <a  href="<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "director_website") %>"> <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "director_lastname") %>, <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "director_firstname") %></a><br />
  <% ELSE  %>
 <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "director_lastname") %>, <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "director_firstname") %><br />
  <% END IF %>
</ItemTemplate>                              
 </asp:DataList>

No matter how I flip things around, either everyone has a link or no one has a link.

For example,

<a href="weblinkexists">LastName, FirstName</a> (actually has a website so the link is correct)
<a href="mydomain">LastName, FirstName</a> (has no website, but it take the a href anyway
<a href="weblinkexists">Last, First </a>(actually has a website so the link is correct)

I've tried making the field (NULL), empty, etc.

I think I need to use "count" to go through each row and see if that value is NULL, but my attempts with that have thrown errors.

Thanks for any assistance!
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