You sing? You Rap ? Why Don't You Have Your Own Website?
Introduction
It is hard to Imagine that today in 2012 some artist's still don't have a website. With all the resources around at fraction of the cost they were five years ago It still boggles my mind that most artist dont have a website. Don't get me wrong Im not that great with all that computer code like CSS or Java or Html ,but you don't need to know all of this to get a website running. A website is fairly inexpensive, and it lets you engage with your fans on a more personal level.
The key to the internet today is engagement. You have to treat your fans like clients music is a bussiness and you need to learn how to run it. By having website you can develope your own brand, and reek the rewards of having a website such that of the benifits of advertisments.
Where Can I Start
Its pretty easy these days to go to a site like Godday.com and get your own domain name. (eg www.mywebsite.com) most domain names only cost like between $9.99 - $20 per year. Then you might need a hosting to store your website information you can this from a sites like hostgator. It might cost between $1- $9.99 per month. When artists see this they get worried but if you are working on your music every day and bringing people to your website you can make that money back from advertising like adsence.
Your own website makes you look so much more professional, it makes you feel so much more important to your fans and gives them the impression that your music is worth listening too. It will also make you look so much better when you send your music to a label or a company. This will show that you have a following a global bussiness and your worth the investment. Its shows personality to your fans a makes it much more easy for your them to have a personal connection with you.
I find it completely crazy that some artist's barely have any web presence bar a twitter account and a link to datpiff.com or hulkshare. By all means use these sites there very important to your success and integral to getting you music heard. These sites should be the medium to your own social hub of your own www.website.com.
How can I get a Website
Today most websites are build using Wordpress.org template. This is really easy to use and can be put together very quick along with all the video tutorials on youtube you dont need to be that amazing with web coding. If you can't copy and paste some html right now dont bother being in this industry. You have to learn that using computers every day is essential to your success. There are so many simple site's out there that will help you build a webiste like that of Wordpress will help you bulid a website in minutes.
Get some help
Once you got your website built you should start playing around with it. Go to a site called Mixtapecoverking.com to design your banners on your site and the template you want they do a good job . Change your site up have some photos of you play live. Place your music players in different places. Try and have it completely easy for your audience to buy your music. If you have you music up on you site have it as easy as possible with instructions on your site on how to purchase your music.
One of the things I see a lot of is that artist's are using thier Facebook fan page as a web page. People dont buy products on facebook I have never paid for anything from anything on facebook from any one and I never will pay for a product or service from some one if there too cheap to have thier own website. Get them off facebook and bring them to your site people will be less likely to click away and more likely to come back.
Mailing list is key to your success
The best thing you can do for your website is get a mailing list and get people to sign up to your site these people are real fans. Real fans will equal real money. These people will buy your T-shirts, they will buy your tickets to your shows and your music. The most popular mailing list software is Aweber.com . Once you have mailing you always have base to sell music or merchant dice too or ticket shows too. Look at this way if you have 1000 people all ready to buy your T-Shirt or EP at $5 a pop thats $5000 to invest in your music. Most people check there emails contantly as it will more often be linked to all of thier social media, work , school and friends. Having a mailing list is great way to make those that took the time to sign up feel special and give them some free content that others can't obtain like a Free Mixtape or interview. This is real music marketing.
Benifits of a website
Yes you can benifit from having advertisements on your site. But don't think that adsence will pay the bills unless you have a huge following. It would be better for you to put up original content video's on youtube and monitize your channel with adsense. The more videos you have up the more revenue that you will earn as I have learned in my experience is that the click through rate on my videos is much better that on my site.You need to remember when your an artist that you and your music is the product that needs marketing. Having a website is best way and the most professional way you can market your music online. Having a website can define you make you engage with your real fans more than just facebook stalkers.
