Effective Web Site Promotion Using Your Live Performances
Now with Napster.com on the brink of exiting the online arena,
Scour.net under fire, and MP3.com with its tail between its
legs, the Internet seems to be the biggest question on every
artist’s mind. How am I going to sell my music online? How
am I going to protect my songs? Should I upload my tracks?
While these are important questions, they are not focusing
on the right strategies to bring in more CD sales.
The best way to make the Internet work for you is to break
down your promotion campaign into three integrated strategies:
traditional offline promotion using radio, retail, venues,
& press; building a strong “online presence” with music portals,
Internet radio, ezines, & search engines; and at the hub of
it all, perfecting your web site.
The first strategy should encompass your offline promotion
efforts. Remember that every piece of literature, merchandise,
and announcement should have your web address clearly stated.
Your address should be short and simple. I recommend “www.first-and-lastname.com”
or “www.bandname.com.” Anything else will be difficult to
communicate verbally and in writing. This especially goes
for groups that have their web sites hosted by free online
services like MP3.com, IUMA.com, GeoCities, etc. By using
these free online services as your “official” web site, you
cause severe damage to your “online presence” and will have
very little control over the “look-and-feel” that makes or
breaks a web site.
The second strategy is your “online presence,” which includes
everything outside of your web site – i.e. music portals,
search engines, ezines, Internet radio, etc. Music portals
are sites like MP3.com, Napster, etc. Keep in mind that every
major music portal contains tens of thousands of artists.
If you are a new artist, you are most likely to go unnoticed
on these vast online resources. However, as you grow offline
awareness of your work, fans will begin looking for you with
these popular services. Until you reach that point, focus
on executing the first and third strategies – offline promotion
and building/maintaining a great web site.
Your web site strategy is just as important as your offline
strategy. Even though you may be drawing a lot of traffic
to your site because of your promotion efforts, the battle
doesn’t stop there. Having visitors participate and respond
to your web site is crucial. A majority of web sites typically
receive correspondence from less than 5% of total visits.
With a professionally designed site and generating interest
at performances, you could increase the response rate easily
to 50% or more.
This is where a strong web site presentation comes in. It
will lead to not only more sales online, but also to stronger
attendance AND sales at concerts. Initially, build your web
site to accommodate the exposure you get from wherever you
are performing offline. Your site will not be effective outside
of these areas, over the long term, until you reach the status
of a national act. Even with Artists web sites that have real-time
credit card processing, a majority of sales still tend to
come from Amazon.com. Fans appear to be more willing to pay
more for a CD using Amazon.com because it is the most trusted
merchant online.
The key points to remember are that your online and offline
presence should never be considered separate. Being more effective
offline will generate more interest towards an Artists’ web
site and in the areas where they are more likely to be active.
In short, performing live will generate more interest in your
web site than any form of online promotion.
No matter how you approach gaining exposure for your music,
a web site is crucial to success. Instead of wasting time
on placing songs on sites with thousands of other artists,
focus your attention on perfecting your web site and placing
CDs in reputable online retailers like, Amazon.com and CD
Baby. That means save submitting your web site and uploading
your songs to Internet radio, ezines, search engines, & music
portals for last!
About the Author: John Dawes is an
independent Internet consultant and founder of MusicPromotion.net,
a company specializing in affordable web hosting and design for artists. He is
most known for his informative articles on Internet music promotion and is co-author
of international bestseller The
Complete Guide to Internet Promotion for Musicians, Artists & Songwriters,
with music industry guru Tim Sweeney.
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