I’ve been using Google Trends recently for expanding my reach. I was intrigued by meeting influential music bloggers all over the globe. Ultimately, there is no lost cause here in research as long as you work towards your sites promotion. These were some of the initial tasks I wanted to accomplish in this test:

• Commenting on international blogs, increasing visibility
• Seeking out international blog reviews of my music
• Using Twitter and Facebook to build relationships with new friends

Why Use Google Trends?

Google Trends allows you to see the world’s interest in certain search terms tracked by Google over time. The nice thing you can see is georgraphic regions that showed increased search interest in your keyword. The accuracy of specific data may contain some inaccuracies due to data sampling issues and a variety of approximations, however, for our purposes the information will work.

In the image above I used the term “buy hip hop” as a general example to see any increasing or decreasing trends and also to find out what regions I could research to expand my music marketing efforts. I would recommend doing genre searches in relation to your music. What tags do you use to describe your style of music?

Regions Results

The image to your left shows some of the regions results where “buy hip hop” was being searched. You can see the different regions aside from the United States, such as South Africa, Canada,New Zealand, UK, and Australia.

Google trends is giving me an idea of some different places to reach out to globally where hip hop searches are flourishing. Now that I have a list of some countries to reach out to, I will do a Google search.

For instance, I will take UK as an example and search “Google UK” for their search engine listings. I will use the http://www.google.co.uk/ address to see search results that are UK specific and include world results.

I get a better chance to connect with bloggers in the UK by doing a variety of searches, such as “hip hop blogs” or “hip hop reviews”. I like to also refine the search and just select “pages from the UK” and resubmit

Positive Results

• I was introduced to new hip hop bloggers in the UK and exchanged information over Twitter
• I was able to ask what social networks are hot where they live
• I can create a network slowly that can increase my online presence globally, exchanging promotion
• I was able to find some blogs that review music from the UK and the US. Great for future free music initiatives and iTunes projects
• I wouldn’t have found some of these friends if I didn’t try this, they didn’t show up in my regions’ search results. Worth the effort

The list is slowly building. It ties in with a recent article I wrote called “The Blogging Fan is My Publicist”. The plan is to develop future marketing partnerships, exchanging promotion as a possibility. I want to work on creating different channels where my music and content can be sent out to a relevant audience.

I want to reach out to overseas fans. Hip Hop overload in the US is very prevalent. Put your music in front of fans that want to hear it, just do some research. Write down a couple of search terms and search Google search results for that specific region. Get creative with your own searches. Your music dies when your promotion stops.

More and more people are joining the blogging community and creating their own websites expressing their passions. It is very common to find a reader that leaves a comment who also has a blog. Why is this important for musicians?

I recently did a guest post and noticed some great opportunities.

Social networking makes it very important to acknowledge and help those that help you. Maybe that is not an approach that every musician wants to take, but from a small operation standpoint, I love the Idea.

While reading Technorati’s “State of the Blogosphere 2009” I wanted to observe some blogging growth trends.

But as the 2009 State of the Blogosphere survey demonstrates, the growth of the blogosphere’s influence on subjects ranging from business to politics to the way information travels through communities continues to flourish. In a year when revolutions and elections were organized by blogs, bloggers are blogging more than ever, and the State of the Blogosphere is strong.- Jennifer McLean

The Blogging Fan provides an interesting aspect. I’m thinking about engaging with readers on my band site that also have blogs. If this aspect flourishes in internet marketing, why not music marketing?

This is not to neglect other fans, it is to explore who your fans are. How can you help each other? This is not a promotion that is done at random just to increase traffic, its to build relationships.

I see backlash on Twitter from fans disliking artists for their lack of engagement, or still pretending you are bigger than life and are too busy for your fans. I couldn’t agree with the fans more. I’ve even contacted artists with a similar fanbase as mine and was shocked to see how they viewed themselves as rockstars, when their follower size and website look proved otherwise.

What did I learn?

Reward those that show interest in you.

What Blogging Has Taught Me About Online Street Teams

I have always stressed how important gaining visitors is to your site, and even though sales can be sluggish, don’t give up your efforts to improve. One thing I think people overlook is how important of an asset your visitors are. Traffic is a good thing, the more the better. How can you make it work for you?

I was offered to do guest blog for a larger site and I was happy for the opportunity to be featured on a blog with such high visibility, seeing traffic trickle in and introducing a new form of visitors to my project.

In return, I wrote a review about the author and introduced my readers to his site and my article. I reciprocated because I wanted to, not because I had to. I appreciated the acknowledgement. I was more willing to promote his site in the future. I already enjoyed visiting the site, now I found myself talking about the site to others.

Create that feeling for your blogging fans. It doesn’t have to be a guest post. It’s about relationships and learning from one another.

The Blogging Fan Initiative

When your blog starts expanding, your fans start showing up in your comment section. Now it’s time to get to know some of your fans. Let them know you see them, and appreciate their time.

Let them share as your traffic rises. Traffic is what you can return to your fans. Bloggers love more eyeballs staring at their content.

The project is in the hands of the musician. How can you show love for your blogging fans?

1. “Fan of the Week”: find a fan that has a provided some good input to your music or has been a loyal reader. Highlight them in a post and introduce your listeners to them. Highlight who they are, what they do (their website) and where fans can learn more about them. Create a sense of community. Introduce fans to other fans.
2. Visit a Fan’s blog and participate: return the love if you actually enjoy their subject and comment on their blog. It doesn’t have to be music related, it just has to be genuine. Don’t fake it just to promote, genuinely get to know people. Build relationships.
3. Twitter Promotion: introduce your followers to your new friends and Retweet an article they wrote or a website they write for (only if you like it). Great way to show your love for new followers.
4. Social Bookmarking: If you like any aspect of their blog, Stumble or Digg an article. It takes less than a minute and helps their cause tremendously
5. Mention In Newsletter: some fans are producers, musicians or artists, they would probably love the promo

These are just some examples so get creative with some of your own techniques. You might find its easier than you think to build these bridges.

Blogging Fans Respect The Effort

For the independent band or musician, bloggers carry alot of weight. I even believe on a lower level, bloggers outweigh traditional press releases when established in the proper channels.

Don’t view it as a chance to get your music reviewed, view it as a way to increase your visibility with people who are more likely to return the favor in the future. It’s only selfish marketing when you don’t put in the effort to help others. Nobody owes you anything.

Practicing this allowed me to meet some generous souls out there that now I can call good friends. Without their help, I would not have the extra article Retweets, the new RSS subscribers, and the extra daily visitors that show increasing traffic. There is no right way to approach this, just get to it and get to know your fellow fans.

The goal of this initiative is not to find massive traffic, it’s to find relevant users and increase my content distribution. It is one thing to gauge your monthly visitors, but how active are you in resolving issues or continuing success in your online marketing campaign?

I was very pleased to see monthly stats rise, greater discussions and new social networks flourishing adding to my visibility. I got too comfortable in 2009 with just raw numbers, that my data analysis was lacking. You don’t have to be a scholar to make improvements: just show you care and improve.

Social Networking/Social Bookmarking/Search Engine

The title of this section describes the 3 facets of my marketing plan that I constantly try to improve. The stats below are provided by my favorite WordPress plugin, Referrer Detector. This plugin allows me to see where my social and search engine traffic is coming from.

Referrer Detector is a WordPress plugin that shows a greeting to users coming from various areas of the internet. For example, If someone found one of my articles on Digg and they click through to my site, the user finds a personalized message to vote up that article or become a friend on Digg.

Another example I see is if a user comes from finding me in search results in Google, I can customize the message to say “don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS”. Very helpful and provides a call to action to promote your efforts more.

The stats breakdown is very nice. I like to see the pie chart that comes out to gauge where all my efforts are going to. Break down the stats: daily/monthly/yearly/all time/ or specified dates.

Plan

I want to increase production and mainly my effectiveness. I feel like a fool because I was so focused on search engine marketing and the stats show it. I’m believing that the balance has to exist because social media networks are vital. Here are some stats for Hip Hop Distribution that I found interesting over this selected time period.

I’ve always felt strong about my search engine traffic. I’ve worked really hard doing research, and optimizing all my content, but even though the graph shows nice Google traffic, my Yahoo presence sucks. Analysis shows my efforts can still improve. Even a successful segment can be improved upon.

Stumbleupon and Digg provided nice referrals. Twitter showed improvement over last month and out did my Yahoo search engine referrals. How can I fix it?

Why not try using Yahoo Buzz to social bookmark some content and maybe it could gain a little momentum within that search engine. Will it work? Maybe. The proof lies in my test. Be creative with solutions, it’s always worth a shot if you are trying to improve your business.

Build your own stats and fix accordingly. The main thing here is what proof do YOU have that your social media campaign is effective or lacking?

Homework

The stats can be taken from your control panel if you are not using this plugin. Ask yourself these questions:

1. How many Social Bookmarking/Social Networking sites are you using?
2. Where is your content flourishing?
3. Where are you going to improve?

Don’t sit back and let your stats plateau, keep them rising. Analyze and think of ways to introduce your content into different channels. I am currently breaking down each social network and implementing some tasks to create engaging conversations, adding more followers, and spending time where it is most promising. The one troublesome fact of this analysis for me is my Facebook presence needs severe improvement. Live, Test and Learn.

Set a timetable where you want to monitor your activity. Blind promotion is over with in 2010. Stay active, your content distribution relies on it.

Feel free to Tweet and Stumble this article if you enjoy it.

Staring at my old Eric B and Rakim cassette next to a CD and flash drive made me think of how prepared am I for the next fundamental changes that might occur to my music operation once I get settled. As independent musicians, we need to create, maintain, critique and improve our methods for online promotion, or get left in the trash. The main thing I like about music marketing is that you can customize a marketing plan according to your needs. Pick the brains of fellow musicans and marketing experts and create a strong plan that can survive.

Agree to disagree. Prove your marketing strategies with numbers, build upon small success and do what works for your wallet as well. I selected some articles I found very informative that cover topics very important to every evolving music operation: Search engine optimization, album release planning, focusing on small or large fan bases, and embracing imagination with releasing your music.

Audible Hype

Justin Boland sparks the importance of planning when it comes to your album release and also embeds the importance of knowing your genre’s demographics and how to use it to your advantage.

• The Template: Planning Your First Album
• Hip Hop 2009: 5 Big Open Questions

Seth Godin

Seth Godin breaks down the music industry and the fundamental shifts which created opportunities and threats. Social media and interaction is at the heart and soul of creating that “tribe”.

• The Live Music Talk

Music Think Tank

Music Think Tank gets musicians in gear with focus on work ethic and building a solid fan base from the ground up. Independent success is closer than you think.

• What happened? A rant about the work ethic of many musicians
• In Defense Of 1,000 True Fans – Part I – The Mountain Goats

Gen Y Rockstars

Greg Rollet delivers some insight on affiliate marketing for musicians. Creating extra revenue streams for your music is necessary, and goes a long way in offsetting costs. You don’t have to be chessy with sales to make a little change.

• Major League Affiliate Music Marketing

Flatacre

Peter Holmes discusses branding from the ground up for success. Too many musicians rely on gimmicks leading to short lived fame.

• Want to learn about music marketing? Don’t listen to major record companies.

Plugola Inc

Erik Peterson explains the importance of search engine optimization and music blogging. Small steps lead to major improvements in search engine rankings and traffic. When search engine spiders crawl your site, make sure they know what your website is about

• SEO Basics for Musicians

Digipendent

Great article that discusses why we should encourage fans to share our music through social media. Use the tools if we have them.

• 3 Methods to Encourage Music Sharing

The ultimate goal is creating a music marketing plan that works. Music 2.0 has offered an amazing amount of options and tools for independent musicians. The one thing I have realized is that every music operation is unique in its own sense.

Finding the right mixture is dependent now on the expectations of the artist. I’ve put a big emphasis on blogging for my Label in hopes of reaching value in time to come. Maybe its my Finance degree yelling at me to keep investing in this stock that is bound to take off.

The reason I find value is monthly visitors keep increasing and digital sales are coming in slowly but surely. The key component is converting sales. It’s a common problem many internet marketers face with monetizing their blogs and its a big issue for musicians. How can we become creative and use successful principles in relation to our music?

I want to take a pro active approach and test out different ideas that will take time but will be worth the effort. The first experiments will involve building Mailing list exchanges and affiliate marketing opportunities.

Mailing List Exchanges

Every musician needs a mailing list. Nothing new here, but we have to think about what do we want to get from our mailing list?

The discouraging thing for many new bloggers is building a mailing list takes some time and then they neglect its importance. I want to plan networking with fellow bloggers and exchange mailing list opportunities and let the test begin.

Step 1 involves you getting to know fellow music bloggers and establishing relationships. The main reason I see this as a good move is we got to think like an artist on a tour. Most tours have several opening acts that are the warm ups for the big show. The opening acts generally are in related genres and the opening acts benefit from the exposure to the bigger fanbase.

Why not treat our mailing list with a Pandora mentality? “If you enjoyed this song then you might enjoy hearing this band”. The key here is not whoring it out. Work with artists whose music you enjoy and brainstorm with these musicians. Offer to promote their song/album, blog article in a newsletter in exchange for the same effort. The power here lies in the numbers: building stronger exposure and branding while establishing a fanbase and networking.

Your blog visitors are just as important as your mailing list subscribers. These assets were built from your hard effort, now its time to put them to work for you.

The plan now involves talking with hungry musicians like you who are willing to share exposure. Take time to find the right partnerships. Power in numbers.

Affiliate Marketing and Music

Affiliate marketing provides a great way for you to get some extra income for your music operation. You essentially promote other services or products and in exchange get a commission. Many bloggers use this to make some extra money to cover hosting costs and promotion. I promote only products I use, so I feel comfortable promoting it and relaying my experience with it.

I am looking to flip this script and have other people promote for me. Affiliate promotion is ready for the music arena. This is not new but I personally have never been offered the opportunity to promote a musician’s cd and am shocked. The incentives through Amazon and iTunes affiliates provides a low commission rate, thus low incentive for people to promote.

As my label emerges, I would love to reward faithful fans with a commission for promoting my album. You share some album sales but may gain long term customers and loyalty. Who knows, even promoting an affiliate in your newsletter. Earn a commission while rewarding someone who is helping you. Monetize where you can and do it in a Ron Burgundy manner, “Stay Classy San Diego”.

Giving away some money to affiliates is not a bad thing. You would have to hire a street team for that kind of promotion and pay some money anyway. Share the wealth and watch your sales expand. The one thing I will be looking for is finding how to set up your own affiliate program or better solutions to establish this plan.

Why Is This Important for My Band

Judge what fits right for you in your operation. Some musicians use multiple blogs to promote their band while others prefer traditional methods. Do what you feel comfortable with. Most musicians play multiple roles to increase chances for success. The important part is finding what you enjoy and working hard at that goal. Build a fundamental business, with strategies in place, and watch your expansion take place.

The planning now begins and building these relationships with fellow musicians to stimulate sales and exposure. Selling music is just one aspect of a music operation for many bands. Build equity through your blog and use that leverage to expand on your ideas.