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Four Online Promotional Steps Every Artist,Writer, Needs To Implement

Today’s artists have a wide range of possibilities to promote themselves, especially online. But that means you must compete with other groups to gain an online presence. There are four key steps in online marketing to gain a successful start with promoting your music on the internet.

Submit to Directories

1. The first step is to submit. Submit to directories , online radios (http://www.last.fm/), and online magazines (http://www.world-newspapers.com/rock.html) – anywhere that plays or features music. The more places that play your track, the more people will hear and recognize your music. Thousands of people listen to free online radios daily and most of these stations allow artists to submit their music to them. Similarly, directories permit you to add your website with a brief description, which is then added to the directory site. An even better idea is to make a friend submit your site or music for you so you are not always pushing your own music.

You must be careful when submitting to sites, however, because search directories like Google will downgrade you if your incoming links look unnatural. This means that when someone performs a search for your site, it will not show up in the top search results because the search engine is punishing you. Try submitting your site or music to a couple sites weekly with various anchor texts. For example, the words “an awesome rock blog” are the anchor text to the link www.motorcityrocks.com. Also, do not always submit your site with a link pointing to your homepage. Sometimes submit your site with a link to the secondary page of your website to make the links seem more natural.

Give Away Music

Anchor text ¬– visible, descriptive text you click on for a hyperlink

2. Secondly, offer your music at no cost. With the plethora of options available to users to download free MP3s, strictly offering your music for purchase hurts your online status. When a listener gets your MP3 for free, he or she has a greater possibility of returning to your site to hear more music by you if they liked what they heard. Only after listening and liking your music will they purchase your album. You have to be sure not to give away too much music, though, because the listener will have no reason to purchase your album if they can find everything for free.

Adding a podcast or MP3 to your sites also allows users to hear your music without paying anything for it. The hardest part in adding music to the site, however, is the recording, so start by focusing on a quality recording of your music. To add music to the site:

a. Find a computer with audio input capability and an easy to use audio encoding application. This is easy if your music is on CD, just rip it with iTunes or a similar application. If it is in some other analog or digital (mini-disc) format, it gets a little harder, but applications are freely out there.


b. Then with MP3 file in hand, you can upload the file to your web site and link like you would link a web page or other media/image file.

c. From there, there are more complicated ways of doing it so it is more "presentable" with a nice embedded player, etc.

Make Business Friends

3. The third step is to build professional online relationships to boost your online presence. You know a lot about music, so comment on it. Look up blogs related to rock music (http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/arts/music/rock/) and add meaningful comments to help others reading the blogs. Most of the time the comment box asks for your URL, which is a great way to promote your own website or blog while helping others by posting comments.

Blogger ethics state if one blogger comments or links to another’s site, the other blogger will comment or link back. This is a great way to build an online relationship and promote one another’s music. An additional option, besides just commenting on their blogs, is to help them out somehow. When you find online radio stations to submit your music to, compile a list and send the list to them. They will in return promote your music to thank you for your help.



Besides commenting on blogs, creating a blog can prove very beneficial in online rock music marketing as well.



Utilize Social Networks
4. Connect yourself to tons of different social networking sites. YouTube, Yahoo Video, and Google Video allow you to post different videos onto the site at no cost, like the OKGo video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI) that was fairly inexpensive and still receives views daily. Post all your music videos and add links to your website to these videos.

MyBlogLog (http://www.mybloglog.com/) allows users to share different sites and build a community based on various interests. You can also add your site to your profile and view who else has your site as their favorite. Although just over a year old, MyBlogLog is quickly gaining popularity, which presents a great way establish yourself early in the community. Similarly, Ning (http://www.ning.com) allows you to create a social network for any topic. Joining and commenting on various music networks and creating your own network for group provides the best methods to get the most out of Ning.

Finally, joining the additional social network sites like LinkedIn, iseecolor,Facebook and MySpace are all helpful in promoting. Finding friends and friends of friends can boost you music and be helpful in additional ways. Network as often as possible both online and offline.

These simple steps provide a great way to start promoting your music online. Remember to submit, give away, and comment. Online marketing is a continuous process you must constantly work on, but it pays off in the end.

Top 10 Music PR Tips
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Note that PR is about being smart and creative. It’s about finding a reason for people to care about you and your music. Sure, great music and a good look are helpful, but you also need to reach out to the public and come up with stories. Think outside of the box and you’ll really benefit from the results in no time. Good luck

1. Make sure you have a press kit that includes a well-written bio, an 8X10 photo, CD and contact info.
2. Go local. Local press is by far the easiest press to get. Let them know your story and send in a CD. Shoot for the music editor or columnist and if they don’t have one assigned specifically, contact the entertainment editor.
3. Social networking sites are all about music these days. For example, Myspace’s reach is incredible for gaining new fans. Where else can you find people to listen to your music in the convenience of their own home? Make sure you are updating your music, adding friends, keeping them all posted, and updating the tour dates. There are magazines on Myspace looking for music to feature all the time.
4. Radio is a great way to share your music with the masses. You don’t have to approach the big ones—you can see success with air play on smaller stations as well. Send in your CD to local DJs and look up college radio shows nationally and see if they’ll spin your music. Online radio is picking up these days too… USA4Real.com is a great option… it doesn’t cost much and it gets your music heard.
5. Music licensing is a great way to make money and get publicity. Try contacting some music supervisors on TV shows for a start. Send them an inquiry with your information and a link to your music. If you get placed, you can use it for press—and it becomes a story!
6. Music websites and e-zines are always looking for music to review. Look up their websites and send emails to their editors. Tell them why you’re a fit for their magazine and ask if you can send in a CD. Again, try to make contact first… sending in a random package may be useless.
7. Youtube.com and .. are wonderful outlets to share your music. When done right, you can really start gaining a fan base. Try to do something charismatic and original. Reaching out to people online can do wonders. Create a music video, a video blog, sing an acoustic set, take a stab at some comedy-- anything… Just remember, first impressions are everything.
8. Be philanthropic. Charity does wonders for publicity outreach. Find something you believe in and offer to play at their event or donate proceeds to their cause. Not only does it get you out there and give you a story angle… but it feels good to help out.
9. Send your CDs to appropriate magazines for your music’s genre. Make sure you call ahead and find out the right contact, unsolicited packages get lost in the shuffle. A good rule of thumb is to look up specific writers you feel would enjoy your music and find out how to reach them.
10. Try to book shows in different towns, that way you can easily label the cluster of shows as a tour and contact local newspapers and radio stations and offer them merch in exchange for promotions/articles.

Note that PR is about being smart and creative. It’s about finding a reason for people to care about you and your music. Sure, great music and a good look are helpful, but you also need to reach out to the public and come up with stories. Think outside of the box and you’ll really benefit from the results in no time. Good luck

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