SEO Work

Perhaps you keep a blog or have a website that you would like to promote for your band. Maybe none of you have the time or skills it takes to set up your site and link to the site to help increase your traffic and thus the views or ‘listens’ you get on your music downloads. Hiring a freelance worker to do this work for you on a daily, weekly or monthly basis is not as expensive as you may think.There are many sites out there that can help you to find the perfect match for you in a ‘virtual employee’ that you can pay to take care of this very important aspect of your music promotions. You can expect to pay anywhere from $5 to $20 dollars per week depending on the volume of work you require.

I Don’t Have Time to Tweet

We all know that Twitter does have immense value as well, especially in an age where we no longer need desktop computers, or even laptops, to get online. With all of the available phones out there now, we can do most of what we could on our old ball and chain PC’s and while mobile, sitting on the bus, taking a break at work and just about anywhere else you may find yourself during your busy day. However, you may be surprised how inexpensive it is to have another company Tweet for you. A site called Message Broadcaster will actually tweet your message for you, to over 300,000 users, 5 times per day, 7 days per week, for $4.99 each month. This can and does add up to some serious advertisement for a joke of a price.

I Only Have Ten Extra Bucks!

Well there are solutions. Gigabux will let you surf to their site and find a freelancer in the advertisement department that can provide you with any of their services for only $5, $10 & $15 dollars. They are many ways offered to help you promote your music depending on what you are looking to achieve or what format you wish it to take. If you want some Twitter coverage or someone to update your FaceBook pages all of those opportunities are there for less than the price you will probably pay for your lunch today!

1. Join a social network
MySpace and its ilk act as a one-stop band advert where you can upload anything you want: photos, songs, video, text and more. Limit yourself to two or three social networks though – you don’t want to spread yourself too thinly.

2. Set up a website
As good as MySpace and its mates are, having your own website too looks more professional. Websites are cheap to host and easy to build so there are no excuses. Remember to update it as often as your social network profile though…

3. Keep your website/profile current
Make sure that you post regular updates and news stories. Add new photos frequently and generally keep your profile looking busy. That way you’ll be seen as a serious, enthusiastic, up-and-coming act. Regular profile/website updates will also keep things interesting for returning fans.

4. Write a decent biography
An artist biog should be concise, informative and interesting. People (particularly venue staff) don’t want to know that your band was formed “in the first year of uni by songwriter Joe Bloggs and producer John Smith” – cut out the background and write something that’s a bit different.

5. Get some good photos
Top-notch imagery is crucial if you want to be noticed online. Try to present a uniform ‘look’ that fits with your music. There are plenty of aspiring photographers about who will be willing to take press or live photos of you and/ or your band for little or no money. Take advantage of them!

6. Offer your songs for free download
If you’re an independent act, your goal is to get your music heard as much as possible. Be aware that people are much more inclined to listen if you offer the occasional track for free. If you do decide not to give away your music then at least offer streaming full-length versions of your tracks rather than short clips.

7. Interact with other artists
Networking with other artists and bands by keeping in regular contact and giving feedback on their music means you’re likely to find gig partners and be asked to play support slots. Musicians are also generally more interested as fans when it comes to independent music like yours.

8. Dedicate some time to your fans
Replying to mails and friend requests can sometimes be a chore but try to avoid blanket “thanks for the add” messages. If you keep things personal you’re far more likely to be remembered and if your audience likes you, they’ll be predisposed to like your music.

9. Avoid spamming
While it’s important to keep in touch with your fans, repeated spam is annoying, so reserve mass messaging for special events. It’s far more effective to tailor your messages and gig invites to individuals or small groups of people – there’s no point telling someone from Land’s End that you’re gigging in Dundee.

10. Make sure your social network friends are valuable
It can be tempting to add every person you come across, but when it comes to MySpace, high profile views is what makes you look good and not your friend count. Make sure you add only valuable friends who you think will like your music and visit your profile.

11. Do something to stand out from the crowd
The sad truth is that the quality of your music won’t always be enough to get you noticed. Try doing a blog, a quiz, a gimmick – anything that will make your website or profile a bit different and interesting.

12. Get a short, snappy URL
Your website and your social network profiles will need a short snappy URL (web address) that’s easy to remember. Bear in mind that you might be shouting your URL through the PA at a noisy gig to apathetic, drunken punters – keep it fairly obvious and make sure the spelling is logical.

13. Get your songs on iTunes
Nothing says professionalism like having your songs available to buy on the world’s largest online music store. Websites such as CD Baby can get your tracks online for a small charge – you can then link to your songs in the store from your website/profile.

14. Keep your social profile concise
There are all manner of widgets and plug-ins available for social networks, but while they may look flashy, having too many may obscure the important info on your profile. They can also make your profile slow to load – remember that people generally don’t have much patience on the net.

Fee or not this could be worth it if you think you have an outstanding example of your own music that you and others believe really stands out in your genre. This could mean top notch advertising for your tunes and your band. Getting your tunes as widespread as this service offers may have never been as easy as something that handles all of these aspects of advertising in one place.

Methods like these are very important to research for the aspiring musician. Taking the time to look around and see what the world wide web has to offer for help in your online music promotions can save you a lot of time and money in advertising in the future.

Overall you can make this process take less time if you put everyone gunning for you to a bit of work. There is no shame in having your little brother or sister create a music site for you if they are adept at it. Let your band mates help you to build your social media marketing tools with a fan base by gathering email addresses from their friends and yours. Do not hesitate to use the free aspects of sites such as MusicSubmit and bypass the pay features until you can afford it. Even using skeleton features via some of the means to promote your music online allow you a bit further reach than if you had not!

Who Should Run Your Sales Booth?

Well probably not your Mom. Actually, only if you think your mom may try to give each fan who approaches your booth a cookie, or a good talkin’ to about their hairstyle. If your Mom is laid back and understands what you are trying to do, AND is a fan of your music, hell let her help! No one is going to promo you like your Mom. Use just about anyone, any close friend will do.

Make sure your booth is set up to have any t-shirts or CD’s you have for sale nicely displayed and make sure you have a handy notebook or sign up sheet. You can find thousands of free templates online just about anywhere to print one up. Be sure it has a place for a persons name and email address.

Imagine!

Now imagine all of the people there at your show, whether that is 100 or 600 people who are raring to go. As you are somewhere in the middle of the performance, how about during a warm up before your next tune, lean over to the mic and announce that the show is being recorded and that if any are interested in downloading it to leave their name and email address on the sign up sheet at the booth.

Not only does this get those who are interested in your live performance download, but it also gets them to your booth to see your other promotional items as well.

1. Twitter DOES serve a huge purpose in marketing
2. Twitter DOES work in getting you attention
3. People ARE watching their tweets

I didn’t really want it to be so. Indeed I wished for those who run Myspace or Facebook to win in the social media race. But twitter has its purpose and that one is a mobile one. Unfortunately not all of us are allotted plenty of free time to sit by the PC marketing ourselves. But with Twitter this can be done on the go. Load up your live links to song, videos and other online music promotion activity and utilize your short URL by tweeting them.

Although I didn’t want to admit it I have to say that with promoting something myself, nothing near as fun as songs and videos, and having had some great luck, I can only imagine what online music promotions can benefit if just sent to twitter as often as possible. Daily I have new people joining the followers list on my twitter.

So

• Upload your video to Youtube
• Upload your songs to your site of choice

And then TWEET them. Daily, new material is always better. But keep tweeting. This WILL build your fan base and give you surprising results in a shorter time than you may be expecting.