Eight Ways To Improve Your Band Website
I began to gather information on a large list of bands, and realized how 90% of them (I just made that number up) are missing out on simple ways of marketing themselves online. Record label websites have a tendency to be a little better, but they’re still missing the concept of viral marketing. So I compiled a list of eight ways to improve your band/label website…
1. RSS Feeds – Wouldn’t you want hundreds of people to be updated the moment you publish a news update? RSS feeds aren’t a new concept yet it’s rarely used by bands and record labels. Though many music fans may not use RSS Feed Readers to follow their bands, enough would if bands and labels made them available.
If more label and band websites made RSS feeds available, music blogs would have an easier time staying updated and finding your news updates without having to visit your site. Consider that if a typical music blog covers 1,000 bands each year (I made that number up too), there’s no way a blog can check 1,000 websites every day to see if any news worthy updates have been posted. RSS feeds make it more likely that music blogs will pick up on your news.
Providing an RSS feed also enables you to import your news stories into your social networking sites around the web, turning your updates into Facebook notes, for example.
2. Forget Flash Driven Sites – Five years ago Flash websites were all the rage. They looked nice and they were highly creative, which is the reason I still hear bands saying that they want their site made in Flash. But there are major problems with Flash websites. They’re usually difficult to update, they don’t always work, and they rarely provide RSS feeds.
A major studio asked me what I thought about Flash websites. My answer was, “They look nice, but I hate them.” I went on to explain, “Since there are so many people accessing websites via their cell phones, you need a website that breaks down nicely. Flash sites simply won’t work on most cell phones so you’ll be missing out on some potential clients. You’re also assuming that everyone has the latest Flash player installed, and they don’t.”
Instead of building your website in Flash, use Flash driven applications for your media… such as video players, audio players, and widgets. Keep in mind that some of the viewers of your website won’t have access to your media, but at least they’ll be able to read your latest news or find tour dates.
3. Using Myspace As Your Main Artist Page Is A Mistake – Not everyone uses Myspace, partly because Myspace crashes their browser. In order to build a decent looking Myspace page, you have to break your page by inserting code in specific places. What a terrible idea! Many Myspace pages have a dozen applications running javascript, so your fans may be stuck with a spinning beach ball or hourglass, waiting five minutes before they can hear your music.
Unfortunately, Myspace became the de-facto for artists and the online music community has suffered because of it. We’re stuck with downloading Mp3 files titled with 32 random letters and numbers, such as full_82f42f56d71543163654d54217076907.mp3. Upcoming Shows and the Mypsace Players leave us without the ability to embed the player or feed the information on other sites, working against the concept of viral marketing.
4. Embed Content – Hundreds of social networking sites have made it possible to embed content on your websites. Youtube is a prime example of why this is effective. If you need to post audio, videos, photos, etc., pick a social networking site that provides embedding code, and feed media to your website.
5. Widgetize Your Content – If your websites provides RSS feeds, you can create widgets so your fans can embed your content on their websites. This concept makes your information viral, spreading from website to website. Widgetize your content at: Widgetbox.com, Gigya.com, Clearspring.com.
6. WordPress – You don’t have to build a great website from scratch. WordPress has come a long way since they started, and it’s really easy to set up. You may want to have your friend help you get started in designing a template, but you can make a dynamic website that uses today’s web standards.
7. Ping.fm – If you’re afraid of having too many social networking sites, try using Ping.fm. By providing the login information to dozens of your social network accounts, you can post content to all of them from one website. Update your status, mini-blog, blog, or all of them from one website. Ping.fm also has a mobile app and an iPhone app, making it easy to update your fans on the road. If you use WordPress, you can update all of your social networking sites using the PingPressFM plugin.
8. Engage With Your Fans – The best thing you can do is update consistently. Never let your website lapse more than a week without fresh content. Even if it’s just a photo, at least your fans will know that you’re progressing. They want to see the world through your eyes, hear about your dining experience, and watch footage from your touring van. Engaging with your fans will keep them coming back