Part of my DIY experience is about just testing things out.  My music could always use extra promotion and after seeing some sales stats from my old album, I started thinking.

My album sales were down but my singles sales went up.  Instead of finding this discouraging and abandoning the Do It Yourself effort I decided to do some more writing.  How can I promote my individual tracks and create better sales and more time spent on the site.

I came across this free Wordpress Plugin called WP Post Footer. This plugin allows you to make different post footers that follow your article. I wanted to use this for custom messages for different articles on my blog, and increase time of visits and create a better call to action.

Reason For The Project

I am working on multiple web projects and have been studying Search Engine Optimization since 2004 when I worked for a Content Creation company, focused on creating free, organic traffic from search engines.

Marketing music is a different beast, however, certain concepts in internet promotion are dead on with what we as musicians need to focus on.

How can we increase music purchases? How can we have visitors spend more time on our blog? How can we increase our chances of getting articles shared virally on Twitter and Facebook?

Classic Marketing Example

The classic marketing example includes interlinking relevant articles to your posts.  If I had a book about Building a Studio, I would write on my blog about the different steps such as soundproofing or building a mic booth and so on.

A home musician is now searching for tips or books on building a studio.  He/She discovers your article about “Building a Mic Booth” and finds the content very helpful.

At the end of that article you include a post footer to “sound proofing and bringing out the best of your mic”.  You are introducing a relevant user to exploring more of your blog, helping them and potentially selling them on your book.

The best part of this is you are encouraging potential fans to explore more of your music.  If someone directs me to just their album, I might be hesitant to just sit there and listen to the whole thing.  By introducing your style in affordable packages such as presenting free singles or $1 singles, fans might be more inclined to find something they like.

3 Songs With 3 DIfferent Messages Test

Post #1 is our first example.  I have a track that was produced with some grimey hip hop drums and soul breaks.  What I will do now is add a post footer to the end of this  post directing visitors to a similar track from my old catalogue.  I am promoting a new song and letting them know where they can find a similar song from my archives.  Increase relevance.

Post #2 takes on an instrumental post.  I am a Hip Hop head that loves to write rhymes and produce music.  I wanted to write a post about a recent instrumental I made.  If they like it, I provided a post footer to where they can find an older instrumental album we made on Bandcamp that is free. 

Selling doesn’t always have to be the point.  Give them something free and create a starting point for a relationship.

Post #3 is my beats per minute experiment.  Slow tracks, fast tracks, similar beats per minute, lounge or dance themes.  Pair up similar sounding tracks and lead the way to introducing them to other singles, highlighting your versatility and your catalogue.

I love the fact that now your album has multiple advertisements introducing people to your project’s concept.  The additional tagging for you singles will be very good for the search engines.

Worth A Shot

From an internet marketing view I love the idea of getting readers to follow more content on my site because it related to the current topic they were reading about.

From a musical standpoint I love it because it acts like Pandora in a sense of providing similar sounding music, except its from your band or collective.

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.

Themes on a Budget

Affordable Options

The reason I like Themeforest is I bought a theme for $25 and it had so many options, with a sweet modern design. If you are a Wordpress musician, you will love the options features on many of the themes.

1. Admin Options: Easier customization features within Wordpress Dashboard, versus dropping code into your templates.
2. Multiple Page Layouts: Important for me as an artist because it allows me to find a different page layout for my albums, home page, and blog area.
3. Installation: Step by step instructions for certain customization features
4. Save On Web Design Costs: Now that you have found a theme structure you like, you can still get expert help from a web designer. Having a theme idea already makes the job easier for a web designer and will save you money from starting a design project from scratch.
5. Customer Comments: check out the comments from people who have purchased the theme. You get to find out about how helpful the designer is with answering questions or any problems with their product.
6. Affiliate Program: If you like their service you can promote them on your blog or to fellow musicians you work with. Great way to get your money back and create a passive revenue stream. Here is my affiliate link.

Just another option if you are tired of looking at endless “Top 100 Free Wordpress Themes” articles found everywhere with the same recycled themes.

My search for free Wordpress themes for musicians lead me all over the web, testing out various styles of themes. I came across Photoblog themes that were aimed towards photographers who wanted to display their picture portfolios, to better showcase their artistry. From a musician’s standpoint, these themes stressed an important idea: visual branding.

Here are some examples of 4 Free Wordpress Photoblog Themes:

New search engine, Bing has been providing our band website a lot of traffic just off of image searches. This just made us provide some more imagery with our music and made us prepared to label and tag every single photo uploaded to your blog. It does make a difference, search engines are watching.

We have recently been receiving amazing traffic from Stumbleupon and really wanted to understand the nature of the beast. If you have used Stumbleupon before, you can understand that you can cycle through so many sites within a minute. What is it that makes me stop at a page? In my case, images have grabbed me at times to see what it is, and if it interests me I will read on. At the very least, the visual branding can add an extra element to the flyby visitor. Get your logo, album artwork, and creative photos and use them strategically to express what your music is about.

Musicians underestimate the value of great artwork, gig photos, studio time pics, and even individual artist photos. This Music 2.0 affair is all about bridging that gap between you and your fans. Let them see more of you.

One main dilemma I’ve encountered with bands is generating fresh new content to keep their website active. Use these photos you take and tell your story. Each photo has some sort of memory, and it might ease that writers block.

Using Photoblog themes are great. It really comes down to personal preference of your layout and what you want to convey. I will use one of these themes in the future, just always remember SEO (search engine optimization) is the ultimate deciding factor in me using a theme.

When I first installed Wordpress, I was on an endless quest for the perfect free theme out there for our band blog. The deciding factor for me came when I decided what I wanted from my layout. Any free theme out there can be a Wordpress theme for musicians.

The key is obtaining a layout that will display your message and vision. Create some mock layouts on scratch paper, visit some artist websites you like and observe what attracts you to some of your favorite sites. The quest now begins with your concept. I created a list of free Wordpress themes I found online that contain different layouts and endless possibilities.

Examine different layouts. Check out how some themes accentuate the header image better. This might be useful if you have some nice artwork to display on your site. Some themes have wider columns and can allow you to put your social network links, album display, and ads if you choose. Find themes also that have fonts and color schemes you like. These are customizable but when I first started. I tried to find one that didn’t require as much customization so I could focus on my message as soon as possible.

I will be adding some random themes here for musicians that want to get thinking on what kind of layouts fit their scheme. There is no right answer to this quest. Focus on a clean theme that is SEO friendly, easy to navigate, pleasing to your eyes, and is not too noisy looking. Remember, your search engine visibility relies on your message and not on your display: Your display should complement your content.

When your music is online, you want to collect as many email addresses from your fans. I had some tracks that I wanted to use to give away as a free promo. If you don’t have a mailing list setup then this will give you an idea of some free options. I needed a way to collect emails from fans in exchange for some free music. Once they sign up I could inform them with some newsletters with new releases and free music. I chose two different options:

1. WordPress Double Opt-In Manager Widget
2. Bandcamp

Wordpress Double Opt-In Manager Widget

The WordPress Double Opt-In Manager Widget allows you to add a widget to your blog and collect emails. Here is a list of some of the great features:

1. Subscribe to your mailing list from your blog
2. Send a welcome email to each new subscriber
3. Saves the subscriber details to your Wordpress database
4. Customize sign up form
5. Schedule your emails to be sent weekly, monthly or whenever you update your blog
6. Users can update their subscription and unsubscribe easy
7. Can automatically delete users who don’t confirm their subscription within 7 days

Our free music strategy we worked on the other day now comes into effect. Stimulate some sign ups and create some website exclusive music that can be downloaded if they sign up. Great way to provide a unique piece of work exclusive to those who sign up. Download the plugin and upload it to your plugins folder. Activate it and customize your message.

Bandcamp

If you don’t use Wordpress but want another way to give away some free music and gather emails then I would suggest using Bandcamp. Upload some of your free albums, ep, or singles and Bandcamp takes care of the rest. They provide you with free promo codes for you to share your music on various social networks. In exchange for downloading music, your fans have to give their emails to be sent the link. Quick solution to building a free mailing list. Bandcamp even allows you to export that email list to whatever future email software you plan to use.

Here is an example of a free ep we uploaded. We are currently testing its online results.

Free marketing options don’t have to look cheap and spammy. You control the messages, and appearance with these great tools. There is no reason why any band that wants to sell music online can’t begin their mailing list campaign. These new sign ups express interest in your music and are a valuable asset to your music operation. Reward fans and give yourself a better chance of selling your music.

Need a free concert and tour listings plugin for Wordpress? GigPress is a great Wordpress plugin for all those performing musicians out there with blogs. Manage your upcoming shows and past performances through your Wordpress dashboard.

This plugin is nice because of the many features it includes such as: listing chronologically upcoming and past shows, auto linking Google maps to venue locations, and it can create an upcoming shows RSS feed. The website does a great job describing more in detail the plugin’s features and provides great screenshots.

GigPress is highly customizable and the output is clean in displaying your message of where you’ve been and where your are going to be. Book more shows, Let the fans know! Free Wordpress plugins for musicians aren’t hard to find and are very effective.

Using Wordpress has made life easier for me as a musician and blogger. Free Wordpress plugins can add so many different dimensions to your music operation.

I created a list of plugins that I have found useful in my music marketing efforts. Discover your options: Build subscribers, create mailing lists, stream your music, or create a music store.

• G-Lock Double Opt-In Plugin: allows your visitors to subscribe to your mailing list, once they sign up they receive your message. Place it in your sidebar and manage subscribers through your Wordpress Admin Menu
• Audio Player: Flash mp3 player for your blog. Give the fans some new music in appreciation for visiting your site.
• Wp e-Commerce: add a shopping cart to your blog with this plugin. Great for when thinking of selling band t-shirts, ringtones, and videos. Great compliment for your digital distribution. Different avenues for musicians to make money.
• Bookmark Me: adds social bookmarking buttons to your blog posts. This is a great tool to increase your traffic and let your visitors choose their bookmarking service of choice. I use Digg and StumbleUpon while others prefer delicious and yahoo buzz. Cover your ground.
• What Would Seth Godin Do: Increase your RSS subscribers with this plug-in. It creates a message at the beginning of your post welcoming new visitors with a default message, “If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!”. Increase your fan base and customize your message accordingly.
• Myspace Crossposter: Bridge the gap between your blog and Myspace account. This plugin publishes all your Wordpress blog entries to your Myspace blog. You can either publish a notification of it or the whole story. I have a nice friends list that could turn into potential RSS subscribers. Keep marketing.

I will keep you posted in the future of more marketing techniques and cool plugins to increase your unique visitors and sell your albums.

Setting up a band blog or artist website can be very easy with the large amount of free Wordpress themes out there. I compiled a list of 3 of my favorite sites to check for free new themes and plugins.

• Smashing Magazine
• Weblog Tools Collection
• Wordpress.org

Try and make a little list of things to look for in a theme that will maximize your artist exposure. For your music blog, decide how many columns you want and how you want to present your music and merchandise.

Some people prefer a simple theme over a magazine style theme because they want to display their message, instead of clutter. I enjoy just searching through the different styles and generating ideas of how to integrate my album cover, news articles, and music downloads. Be creative on your presentation.

Some themes are easier to customize if you prefer widgets. Adsense ready templates are also available for each artist to make some side ad revenue from Google.

To make life easier, I visit the author site of the Wordpress theme and see how valuable the instructions are. Many authors are kind enough to provide step by step instruction on how to easily customize it. Enjoy your search and make your band stand out.

When I began marketing in this crazy social networking environment, I became overwhelmed as to where to start. I worked for an Internet Content Company that provided content to web site owners and their message was clear for promoting yourself, content is key. The more you can write about yourself, the better chances you can have your fans find you. The message was simple, but putting the marketing campaign together was the question.

The first step is getting your blog setup. I signed up with Wordpress and chose to just experiment with how Wordpress works. With the free blog, you get to choose from 67 templates to choose from. I went through their admin section and it is very easy to work with. My previous experience was just customizing my Myspace pages.

The first thing I did was just choose a template that I could customize and see what setup I wanted, whether one, two or three columns. I choose a template called “Black Letterhead” and began to write. Before you find yourself criticizing a theme for its limitations, you must remember its all about your message. I went to the admin section and began to write my first post.

I used the sidebar as a place to add all my profile pages. This was an important move because you want to get as many hits to your music, for potential sale. I added my Myspace, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, and BlogLog links. Once I saw the amount of people visiting my page, I wanted to purchase my own blog name, hence, Hip Hop Distribution.

I purchased a domain name for this blog because once I became familiar with all the features of a Wordpress blog, customizing came easy. There are several tutorials online that can help you make your blog with your personal flavor. Whether free or a purchased domain name, your content is what brings in the traffic.

Check out these sites for beginning your Wordpress template hunt, and customization articles.

1. Wordpress Templates
2. 625 helpful links for webdesigners
3. Free Wordpress Themes
4. Photoshop Tutorials: Customize Your Site

Feel free to check out our Record Label’s blog Fried Roots