Ross Barber (ElectricKiWi) and I met through Twitter (@rossautomatica) - it feels to me like we’ve put our arms over each others shoulders and we’re weaving down the road together singing and having a laugh, but at the same time being serious about our journey and we’re each of us striving to reach to our destination - so there’s bound to be a little bit of jostling ;)

UBP: We opened our friendship by talking about flyer design, which I’m interested in because I promote the idea of bands using a Vertical Rectangle Banner Ad. (a reduced A6 flyer) - a good combination I feel! Ross, what are your thoughts on the different sizes of flyers, and how do you feel about turning them into website banners?

Ross Barber: Hey Ian, I think it’s a good idea to reduce physical flyers into an online format. As more and more people are discovering music online than ever before, online promotion cannot be ignored. I would say it does depend on the design of the poster/flyer as to how well it will transfer to a digital environment. As you mentioned in Band Flyers and Banners, it can be difficult to read when a poster has been re-sized for online use. It could be a good idea for designers to create a separate version once the background image has been re-sized. This would not take up a great deal of time and would maximise potential exposure for the band in question.

For use offline, I think varying sizes of posters and flyers are great, too - particularly if the designs are creative and can match the band’s style. For example, cutting posters into different shapes if the band’s name is associated with a particular shape or object. Different poster sizes work for different locations so it’s always a good idea to have at least 2 different sizes for the purpose of maximising the number of places you can advertise.

If the flyers can double up as both an offline and online method, then even better! I’ve always said that it is so important not to ignore either environment for promotion as each is extremely valuable and together they can be even stronger. They enhance each other massively when the strategy is right!

UBP: Thanks for the flyer, it’s an ideal working example. Yeah, I totally agree with you, promoting and marketing your genre, style, image, aura and brand simultaneously using both online and offline methods, can have an ultra-powerful effect.

Cost is always in the back of my mind, different sizes, full colour etc. cost money; one of the reasons I recommend bands should start with a simple A6 flyer, is so they can self-print four to a normal sized sheet of paper (A4) in monochrome and slice them accordingly; most bands don’t have much money - I’m aware there is also a professionalism issue here! Most venues use a local printer who may also do the designs, how do you feel you fit in with this, who are you targeting?

Ross Barber: Cost is always going to be an issue. I know that money is an issue, particularly if a band is dedicating a lot of their time to their music and don’t have another source of income. Even someone who does have a steady income may not have the extra funds available to spend on flyers. I do think that high-quality flyers which are relevant to the band’s style can make a big difference when it comes to promotion, so I would say that if they can afford to spend some money on a design which reflects their music, they definitely should - it could be very good value for money.

As for the venues who may have printers and designers in place - there is not going to be much we can do in this situation. The downside to this would be that often the designs may not represent the style of music as accurately as an in depth consultation with someone who designs specifically for musicians and bands would do. I’m not sure how you could combat the venues who will only allow flyers made by their chosen agency, though - that would be something I would look into when the situation arose.

UBP: Well from a band’s point of view, a venue who promotes their gigs is brilliant, a band can still, and should, produce their own flyers, it’s all part of branding.

Even though you’d never know it from my websites, I love art and have had a life full of art and fashion. What initially attracted me to your website was the Jackson Pollock-esque, James Brooks-ish, abstract expressionist header image. The ‘era’ of the 1950s to the 1970s (with a little 1930’s surrealist movement thrown in) is my main love and influence, what are your main influences and how do you reflect them in your artworks?

Ross Barber: Bands should take advantage of any promotional services the venue can offer, absolutely, but I agree that they should have their own flyers made wherever possible.

As for my inspiration, it’s a difficult one to place. Unlike you, I’ve never really been that involved in art. It’s strange though because I love graphic design but don’t think I could cite any specific artists or eras that inspire me. I would say I am inspired mostly by artwork I see everyday - whether it is online or elsewhere. I do love abstract and experimental graphic design and have always liked combining elaborate abstract designs with grungy textures and patterns.

Music gives me a lot of ideas too - I often get images in my head when listening to music. Listening to instrumental bands like Explosions in the Sky or This Will Destroy You never fails to conjure up a few ideas! Sometimes they are vague such as a basic colour palette to start with and sometimes they are more complete visions. It varies so much! I always try to match the visuals with the audio so there is a level of consistency and branding to some extent so I try and listen to the artist’s music while working to keep the vision focused!

UBP: A while ago I was sitting and chatting to my wife, when the thought suddenly popped into my head ‘What colour is rock music?‘ and something odd happened, I could see the colours! I wondered how this would translate into branding as well as marketing and promotion. It does! Almost! Sort of! Wow!

Do you see/feel the differences between Marketing and Promotion? I ask this because of the way you present your website (BTW., that’s not a negative criticism). Also, one of my hobby-horses is ‘local band promotion’, how do you interact with your local bands in Glasgow?

Ross Barber: Haha, I wouldn’t solely rely on the ideas that music creates, but I definitely think there are certain colours that are more appropriate for a style of music than others. It’s funny though, because music and art affect people in different ways - what one person "sees" music as could be something completely different from what another sees. This could be a fairly interesting topic to research!

I would say I have a pretty good understanding of marketing and promotion. Marketing has more to do with defining your target audience and presenting the product (in this case, the gig/website/album etc.) in a way that will appeal to the audience. Promotion is more about spreading the word and advertising in a sense. I offer an online marketing service, which is mostly about ensuring that a band’s website has copy which is going to be SEO friendly while also being engaging to their audience. I do provide online promotion services, marketing and promotion do go hand in hand. The services I offer are tailored individually as everyone has different needs.

I’ve only recently moved to Glasgow and am still getting to know how the music scene works here. It’s definitely different from the small town I moved here from! I do most of my interaction online at the moment and have made quite a few connections this way. Before starting ElectricKiWi, I had done quite a bit of writing for The List magazine and AbsolutePunk.net which introduced me to a lot of new bands and allowed me to connect on a slightly more professional level.

I’ve always embraced the internet as a networking tool. I started building websites and participating in online communities around 12 years ago. I think I maybe spent too much time online when I was younger and as a result find it far easier to make connections via the internet first, I would say in all honesty that I’m perhaps a little shy and reserved in social settings at first which is why I find it harder to introduce myself in an offline environment than online. Online I can showcase my abilities far easier than I could in a real-life setting, I guess!

UBP: Interesting name ElectricKiwi, where did that come from, do you have connections with New Zealand?

Yeah, small town band promotion is completely different from big city promo. Bands who come from London say, have a big advantage in terms of getting gigs and fans, over bands who come from the provinces - I was talking with a London based band who were trying to make it big on the internet, they’d ‘forgotten’ where they lived!

The most common question I get asked by bands is, "Can you help us get our name out there?" How would you respond to that?

Ross Barber: The ElectricKiWi name has been around for a long time. I originally purchased the domain about 8 years ago and it started off as a personal blog, then it evolved to include and showcase my own music. I decided a few months ago to relaunch it as a design and marketing service. As for the name itself, there is no real meaning behind it. When I decided to buy a domain, I wanted an unusual name and just tried pairing random words…ElectricKiWi was the result!

You’re absolutely right. Bands in larger cities have a greater chance of getting gigs but at the same time there is so much competition it can be harder in some cases to stand out.

When a band asks for help "getting their name out there", I think it’s important to know if they mean locally, nationally or internationally. I would offer some assistance or advice in on-site and off-site SEO to ensure their website ranks for the most appropriate and effective keywords, encourage them to network and communicate with their target audience and other bands/venues in their local area to start with. Without a big budget, it is usually going to be a slow process building up a large fanbase and becoming known either in their area or elsewhere. Of course it is possible but they have to be dedicated and be willing to stick it out for the long haul!

UBP: Put the elasticated stockings on, We’re Going Long Haul - that’s So True :)

Ross, I really like your individual and personal approach when engaging with bands, and I think that you have got it absolutly right when you talk about, encouraging bands to start off by networking and communicating with their target audience, other bands and venues in their local area. It’s always a joint effort between ‘us’ and the band :)

ElectricKiWi - I’m disappointed! I was expecting tales of travel into the mystical heartland of New Zealand, hey-ho, what’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet - actually I’m not so sure that’s true anymore after watching ‘Secrets of the Superbrands’ presented by Alex Riley last night!

END

Get in touch with Ross Barber for graphic design, web design and online marketing and promotion - he’d love to help you with your band’s next flyer campaign. Ross: ElectricKiWi, Twitter, Facebook.

In Conversation With The Music Industry,
Unsigned Band Promotion
UnsignedBandPromotion.com
Helping musicians and artists get their websites noticed by fans, search engines
and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own.

I got a Facebook message reply from Lisa the other day that asked, "what’s the point of having a fucking website?" Then a couple of days later I read Michael Brandvold’s well written and informative Music Think Tank article, How To Use Facebook & Twitter With Your Official Website, Case Study Kissonline.com. Coincidence?

I referred Lisa to my 101 Reasons Why Your Band Needs A Website, but I’m thinking that I wrote it ages ago and it needs a bit of updating and some more explanation:

Firstly, I think many people are somewhat confused about the definition of a Website. Simply, a website is a set or group of web pages that are linked together by a common domain name (URL, e.g: Facebook.com), it is hosted on a web server(s) and it is usually owned by one person (partnership, business, company etc.). So, your Facebook page, MySpace page etc., are all part of someone else’s website. MySpace isn’t YourSpace, it’s Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation’s space. By relinquishing web ownership, you also give up your potential advantage. I do say in ‘101 Reasons…’, "Owning a website shows credibility, control and professionalism; and if you want to be taken seriously by the music industry, you need a website." But let’s get real, there’s nothing professional about owning a website anymore, every self-employed person who comes to our house (gardener, window cleaner, my wife’s hairdresser etc.) has got one; and there is especially nothing professional about having a website and directing the visitors to a social networking website. It is the way you use your website that makes you look professional. I will go further and say, "it is very possible for an ordinary, mediocre musician to succeed because of the way they make use of their website." For instance, if we miss the window cleaner, we can pay him online (+10% and maybe give him a tip)!

Ownership is a key to your success. You own the ©copyright of your website and the Contents therein; that is important, because when you join a social networking website you share your copyright by accepting their terms and conditions. Meaning: subject to your privacy settings, you will grant them a limited worldwide license to use any Content that you post on their website. But, it’s not only about intellectual property rights, you also have to behave accordingly. When you own the website, your only limitation is you yourself.

"A website is for business." Most of the social networking websites allow an element of ‘free’ e-commerce, but that’s it; however there’s more to doing business than selling a few downloads or T-shirts. The real business of a website is achieved by Understanding Your Website’s Statistics (numbers of social networking: page views, comments and friends are all meaningless); it will enable you to target your ‘fans’ more accurately. Every time someone visits your website, their (Internet client software) browser talks to your server’s software, and passes on vital information about that visitor and what they are doing on your website, like: what page the visitor entered and exited; information that is not available from your social networking pages. Typical stats information would be: Unique Visitors (maybe sign-up details. Inf. gained from cookies [can be inaccurate]), Page Views (number of page impressions), Referrers (who links to you and how much traffic they send), Search Strings (what words people are using to find you in the search engines) and Traffic Data (sites, IP addresses, users, geographical, what browser, etc., it can be all tech stuff like visit timeout - handy if you know how to interpret it!). If your web hosting service only provides basic stats, try Google Analytics, they’re free.

Websites and web business can be about small percentages (remember all the fuss about ‘the long tail’?). Social networking sites never allow you to gain online advertising revenue generated by ad serving applications like Google AdSense and affiliate links, actually what they are doing is cutting into and reducing Your online advertising revenue - they become a competitor!

Lastly, IMHO, MySpace went into rapid decline in ‘07 with the introduction of msplinks. Added as a security measure, msplinks filter outgoing links by using a redirect to help prevent and warn against spam, phishing, etc., of course it also prevents users from posting links in MySpace comments to promote their websites and increase their search engine ranking! It is taking the emphasis away from promoting your website (if you had one) Lisa, and that’s my gripe, your website should always be at the top of the promotion, marketing pyramid, with your many social networking pages forming the foundation. As for forwarding or redirecting your URL toward your social networking profile page? Lisa that is Bollocks. Promote yourself, not MySpace, Facebook or whoever!

Point your social networking traffic towards your website then branding, building and targeting an audience, fan/customer relations and statistics will all have more of a positive meaning.

I’ve been looking at the standard sizes of banner ads, to see if one would translate into an Online Flyer (Hey! It’s a good idea to include your flyer on your website and various profiles). Obviously there are a number of well-known standard banner ad sizes: 728×90 Leaderboard, 468X60 Full Banner (standard), 120X60 Button, 88×31 Micro Bar, 125×125 Square Button, 300×250 Medium Rectangle, 180×150 Rectangle… but there wasn’t a size that would fit with the reduction of an A5 flyer (140mm x 210mm). So, I took a look around the Web and I’ve come up with the 180px X 255px Vertical Rectangle.

Of course, reducing an A5 flyer down to 180X255 can cause problems - one can’t read the information - so that’s no good!

I made a very basic A6, postcard size flyer (102mm x 152mm, 5.75″ x 4.375″, 1/4 A4. Yeah, I know You can design a better flyer), and by keeping it simple it resized very well (BTW, Thanks Menendez for allowing me to use their ‘old’ flyers and cobble one together using their name) - see above.

1. To keep life simple and the results awesome, I recommend you start off with an A6 (102mm x 152mm), postcard size flyer - they’re easy & cheap to print, four flyers to an A4 (normal printer paper. Black & white or monochrome?). Creating an effective flyer may not be that easy if you don’t have the tools or talent - you’d better find someone who has! The idea is to create a flyer that works: clear, informative and easy to read text. Interesting and eye-catching graphics. Reduce the A6 flyer image to make a 180px X 255px Vertical Rectangle flyer ad.
2. Think about your fans and the information they’re seeking from your flyer - are there any special factors like age restrictions?
3. If entry to the gig is FREE, make sure it’s displayed clearly - people are interested in the word FREE, so it will make your flyer more eye-catching!
4. The best position to place the 180×255 Vertical Rectangle flyer is about halfway down on the right-hand side of your website’s opening page.
5. You definitely need to spread the word about your next gig. You can do this by asking fans, friends & family and local bands of the same genre to display your flyer on their: Website, Facebook, Myspace, ReverbNation, Wordpress, etc… Can you see the problem? What happens after the gig, and your wonderful flyer becomes obsolete? Make a 180×255 Vertical Rectangle banner advertising your band. Name the image YourBandName-flyer.jpg (this is the file everyone links to, it will always be the filename of your flyer AND banner images - get it?). Now you only need to change/manage the filenames and replace/swap the image as and when required! - - Oh God! even that solution can cause problems, so provide a selection of the two (different image names) and let the ‘advertiser’ choose.
6. Encourage other local bands of the same genre to swap flyers/banners/links with your website. Create a ‘Your Flyer Here’ or special flyer page - it’s a good idea to provide your flyer/banner link code (the HTML). This is all good for website promotion too!
7. Keep an eye on your website’s access logs to get an idea of what flyer/banner design works best - you may need to create some alternative flyers/banners, don’t stick with the same old design.

Helping Indie Bands With Website Promotion,
Unsigned Band Promotion
UnsignedBandPromotion.com
Helping musicians and artists get their websites noticed by fans, search engines
and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own.

I was contacted by Leslie, who I assume is part of the Next Day Flyers promotion/link building team! She sent me some blurb, and here it is:

How are you promoting your upcoming shows? Naturally there are many methods including online marketing and offline marketing. One of the most common ways to create buzz about an upcoming performance is to utilize printed club flyers. Printed event flyers can be distributed via the venue you will be performing at a couple of weeks prior to your show. This gives potential guests time to plan and schedule around your gig. Flyers can also be distributed to businesses in the area where there is a potential crossover in the fan base you are trying to attract. For instance, if there are music shops, coffee shops, and book-stores located nearby your venue, you may want to leave your flyers on hand at those businesses. If a band of a similar genre is performing at a bar, don’t be afraid to place your flyers on the windshields of cars in the area. Every bit of exposure helps.

Next Day Flyers is an online printing company offering custom printed materials. Their service meets the needs of bands, DJs and musicians who have the goal of spreading the word about a performance and attracting more visitors. Next Day Flyers has themed templates offered on their website designed specifically for musicians to use. Custom layouts can be created online in a matter of minutes. Be sure to think through your next marketing tactics and do what is needed to attract a large crowd.

Of course, Next Day Flyers is a USA based printing company; I’m sure they’re not targeting bands and clubs based in the UK, costs would be far too high (actually, don’t most people go locally for printing so they can build up a relationship with the printer?). I thought I’d give you a Price Check and a rough idea what the costs would be for a typical band’s flyer: 100 X half page (A5) ‘Night Club Flyer’, full colour front & blank back, 100lb glossy paper, printing turn around 2-4 business days: Sub Total $39.95 Plus shipping @ $11.53 (that’s to Houston, TX, they’re in Rancho Dominguez, CA).

Is $51.48 expensive for 100 flyers Leslie? At Band Flyers they’re Free - one has to print them off oneself though!

I have always recommended that bands use both online and real world techniques to promote themselves; flyers bridge the two, you can post them as an image on social networking sites and hand them out at gigs (promoting your next gig), they are almost always good value for money, even at $51!

If you give Next Day Flyers a try, please let me know how you got on.

August is a funny month - the so called silly season - so now that we are at the end, I thought I would share a typical email correspondance - to extend the pain. Obviously I have protected the identity of the sender, who’s real name is Andrea!

Date: August 2010 - Subject: NOSPAM - Band Promotion

Joanna: Hi, I’m in a London based rock band and I’m interested in your ‘Band Promotion Project’. I was wondering if you could help us with promoting our myspace page, i.e. increasing number of plays/hits and expanding our fan base.

UBP: Hi, I am sorry but I do not help bands to promote their MySpace pages (even though I’m #1 in Google for: MySpace Band Promotion), I only help bands to promote their Websites. I see you have a website, I would be happy to take a look and offer some practical promotional help and suggestions - maybe you would like to swap links? Join me on Twitter and I’ll re-tweet your gig dates. Let me know what you want.

Joanna: That’s cool, as you know most people go to myspace nowadays because it’s easier as it’s got all the info in one page. Also record labels and management look at myspace to see number of plays, friends, comments etc. We only got the website so we had a band email and because it looks more professional to have one. Having said that feel free to have a look and tell us what you think, but bare in mind most of it is referring people back to myspace! I’m not very good at twitter I just got updates from myspace, facebook, etc…

UBP: Dear Joanna, Well, you have obviously visited my website Unsigned Band Promotion, but (and I quite understand why) you haven’t quite grasped what I am trying to say to you, so here it is again:

I am NOT a band promoter in the traditional sense (I do not arrange gigs/bookings), I am "Website Promotion" for bands! I help musicians and artists to get their websites noticed by fans, search engines and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own, PLUS: UnsignedBandPromotion is the worlds best free website promotion resource and service for independent bands. I do not get hands-on and help bands to promote MySpace, PureVolume and profiles in general, or FreeWebs, Yahoo! (GeoCities is dead) LYCOS.tripod and other free webhosting type of pages - *I am all about the real Website*. The Band Promotion Project is a practical approach to promoting your band’s website (it is: - This website. My way of helping bands with website promotion. About experimentation and discovery). I aim to increase the number of visitors to your website, find missed promotional opportunities and ultimately, increase your fan base. I do not aim to change your band’s image, your sound or the look and feel of your website. I am simply experimenting with a number of website promotion and SEO methods for independent bands - it is free and there is no sign-up - and that’s it! Get it?

Anyway, even though bands use MySpace, all your fans have moved over to Facebook and/or Twitter - for some strange reason, that I can’t explain, I’m not very keen on Facebook, I prefer twitter!! I do realize though that Myspace is an important erogenous zone for independent bands because it has a reasonably reliable and easy to operate music player. Apart from that, the interface is shit and Friends aren’t Fans - nb: if you are a band that wants to attract young teenagers, Myspace might still be a good place to be. Gig Promoters, Venues, Labels, Press, Online Radio and DJs all want to hear quality music, so if you are a band who has genuine talent, you’ll do O.K. (where ever you are on the ‘net), but if you’re not and you’re having trouble getting your music noticed by the ‘music industry’, then it’s probably shyte, give it up, or do it just for fun in private.

And there is nothing professional about a band having a website, everyone has got one. And there is especially nothing professional about a band having a website and directing all the visitors to MySpace - unless you’re a band of professional tossers! It is the way a band uses it’s website that makes it look professional. And I would go further and say, that it is very possible for an ordinary, mediocre band to succeed because of the way they make use of their website. Wow! that’s a big statement. BTW Andrea/Joanna, whatever your fucking name is, your landing page (website) is absolute rubbish.

I wish I’d replied with that!

Time to get lazy and sit in the garden and watch the world go by with a beer, September’s here at last.

Helping Indie Bands With Website Promotion,
Unsigned Band Promotion
UnsignedBandPromotion.com
Helping musicians and artists get their websites noticed by fans, search engines
and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own.

SYRUSS the rock band from Plymouth, Devon (Southwest England) have got themselves a shiny new website - have a gander.

They’ve got the usual profiles where you can check out the tunes and videos and help yourself to any of the free downloads - MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Micro-Site

Spring has sprung the grass is ris, I wonders where the birdies is… so says Charlie Brown, Spike Milligan, Ogden Nash or was it E.E. Cummings? I suppose if you’re a fair-weather band you might be thinking of getting out into the fresh, Spring air and going busking? No? Worried about volcanic ash getting into your equipment or lungs?

Over the last week or so, I’ve noticed a GoogleAd for Busking Cancer, which is an event in aid of Cancer Research UK and sponsored by Fender® that You can get involved with. I’m interested because it is a website promotion opportunity. Your local media are often looking for ways to appear philanthropic (without actually really doing anything!), so it’s quite easy for bands to promote themselves while supporting (and on the back of) a local charity.

Out of curiosity for what bands I might find who have Busked for Cancer, I search Google Web and Google Images and the band that stands out from the crowd are Radfax. Radfax have not got a real website (but that isn’t stopping them) - they have only got profile pages: MySpace, Radfax Blog, UnsignedChart, PeacefestUK/Ning, Twitter and YouTube. Wow, They could’ve bought radfax.co.uk <joke>like I just did</joke> which was about £22 for 2 years, and could have been a focal point for all their efforts!?

Radfax are a Psychedelic Rock band from London and they Busked for Cancer in September 2009. Their music is influenced by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, early Clapton, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Black Sabbath and many more I’m sure.
The band members are: - Skullyman: rhythm guitar, lead and backing vocals. Speed: vocals, rhythm guitar. Tony: bass. Flud: drums.
Go and see them play live at Lock 17 Camden Lock, London - they post their gig dates on their blog and Twitter.

How To Promote Your Website While Busking: hand out business cards or flyers (Include: band name, website URL, email address) to everyone who donates, offering them a free mp3. Put the freebie on your website and Make It Very Easy To Find And Download. Ask them to join your mailing list to get another freebie from the same web page.

Always wear T-shirts with a readable Web Address on - if you send me a T-shirt (I’m XXL and my favourite colour is black. Email for my postal address UK), I’ll use a photograph of it for my avatar.

Visit Busking Cancer on Twitter and get a little local promotion for yourselves and your bands’ websites.

Promote Your Genre

Folk Rock	Gothic Rock
Indie Rock	Punk Rock

"What colour is rock music?" That’s a hard one for me to visualise, nothing really comes to mind - maybe yellow & chrome? Indie rock is easy though, light blue with a little light fern green, so is Punk, pink & black, Gothic is black, purple & red, and Folk rock is browns, burgundy & moss green. I wonder if my colour perception of music is the result of looking at too may bands’ websites and album covers?

My inquisitiveness gets the better of me, I log-on and head to Google image search, and look for punk music/rock/band/s, and I repeat the search using AltaVista, nothing jumps out at me and I’m not really satisfied with the results. So I open up Photoshop and create a new image. Then I copy and paste the first three or four most relevant images (filtering out the dross) from each of the search results into the new image file. Blend a little, resize, pixelate and crop… Wow! Bingo! The image feels right. I repeat the process for folk, gothic, indie and the big one, Rock. The images have the feeling of their genre (they do for me anyway). What does your genre look like?

Before you set out to promote your genre, you need an aim and a strategy, you don’t need an elaborate and convoluted plan. Find out who your fans are and work out what is the most appropriate promotional mix to connect with them. Don’t concentrate on your website in isolation to everything else, however, it is important that your website is a part of your overall promotional strategy. Be aware of the different time scales - a lot of UnsignedBandPromotion’s tips are short term, but You also need to think about the long term and the bigger picture.

A note about branding: it’s not just about getting your name out there, it’s about getting your brand out there! You do this by creating a strong, positive and unique identity within your genre and by promoting it at every point of contact with your fans.

Rock

Genre Promotion Tips

1. Not many independent bands put much effort into identifying their niche in the marketplace, branding or promoting their genre, so it’s an easy prize for those bands that do.
2. I think that it is important for a band to define their genre before they start promoting themselves, just like it is important not to promote your website too soon. Nail your genre as soon as possible - I wouldn’t be a trailblazer by inventing a new one, just keep it simple!
3. Use the search engines to find out what other bands of your genre are doing and to keep an eye on the competition. The top five search engine results will normally be well-connected authority sites (as per usual). Some worthy bands are:
   • folk rock band first band listed: HEDGEPIG [Google #5 Excellent Result]
   • gothic rock band first band listed: THEMIS [Google #4 Excellent Result]
   • indie rock band first band listed: THE LAYAWAYS [Google #20 Good Result stiff competition]
   • punk rock band first band listed: CODE 415 [Google #7 V.good Result]
4. The easiest way to promote your genre from your website is to write it into your website’s title tag i.e., "post-rock band" V.simple. Also works incredibly well when joined geographically i.e., "post-rock band farnborough".
5. Using Meta tags is not a secret ingredient, however, you could give the Genre Meta Tag a whirl!?
   <meta name="Abstract" content="(’http://www.your-url.com/’ Genre: punk rock)">
6. Team up and get involved with websites that fit-in with your genre and lifestyle - from a fashion house to a plant food supplier to a motorcycle dealer!
7. Reflecting and defining a band’s genre:- your name, your band’s name, the brand’s name, URL, logo, avatar, slogan, website design, colours, graphics, images. Your sound, techniques, styles, context. This information should be on everything and everywhere.
8. Promoting and marketing your genre, style, image, aura and brand simultaneously through your website, can have a powerful effect.
9. Get yourselves a Website Co-ordinator / Designer.
10. The most effective way to promote your genre from your website is to fill your website with relevant and spellbinding content - blogs are good for this.

[Ed. note] Just because UnsignedBandPromotion happens to be #1 in Google for MySpace Band Promotion I get a few bands asking if I can "get their name out there". No. I do not get hands-on and help bands to promote MySpace, PureVolume and profiles in general, or FreeWebs, Yahoo! GeoCities, LYCOS.tripod and other free webhosting type of pages - You Need A Real Website.

Helping Indie Bands With Website Promotion,
Unsigned Band Promotion
UnsignedBandPromotion.com
Helping musicians and artists get their websites noticed by fans, search engines
and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own.

© CHRISCB PHOTOGRAPHIE

If you want to promote yourself and sell your music Online, in my view, you need to get yourself a website (not just a number social networking profiles and a blog) - that’s what UnsignedBandPromotion.com is all about! But it doesn’t stop there, once you’ve got yourself a website you will need to promote it to get visitors - your website needs "traffic".

Targeted Traffic is the Buzzword here. What I’m talking about is attracting hundreds of visitors who are interested in your genre and lifestyle to your website. And quite frankly it doesn’t matter what you are promoting online, whether it’s music or cars, if you want to be successful you need masses of targeted traffic. Most websites get the bulk of their traffic from Google! Google is the most important supplier of traffic for the typical business website, in fact, an average of 65% of visitors could come from Google - that’s a lot, but I’m not talking about search engine optimization, I’m talking about asking your fans, friends and family to help - and don’t forget to keep saying Thank You.

5 Ways Fans Can Help To Promote Your Band

1. Ask fans, friends and family (FFF) to join you on: Facebook, Myspace, ReverbNation, Twitter, Wordpress, Youtube. Then ask FFF to spread the word by/via: Updates, Bookmarks, Bulletins, Emails, Pings, Retweets, Tagging, Comments and Posts… talking about your band, genre and lifestyle.
2. ReverbNation almost has a plethora of widgets and a street team ‘organizer’. Ask FFF to share your widget by putting it on their websites, blogs and social networking pages. Via email, ask your FFF to join your street team, then create a street team mission. Read Brian Hazard’s excellent blog post, My first ReverbNation street team mission.
3. Ask FFF to link to you and encourage others to do the same. Create a set of banners and links. Display the banners, provide the code… eg.,
   <!– Start of YourBandName link code - copy & paste to your website –>
   <p><a href="http://www.YourBandName.com/">YourBandName - Rock Band</a></p>
   <!– End of YourBandName code –>
4. Set yourself up with an e-mailing list (MailChimp?). Ask FFF to include the sign-up form on their sites and ask their friends to join your mailing list. They can also include mailing list sign-up details in their email signatures as well as adding a tell a friend link.
5. Tell your fans, friends and family not to Spam on your behalf. Tell them not to contaminate the Internet with the same mind numbing bollocks that would cause a brain seizure in even the most dim-witted music fan and come up with something new and interesting and while you’re at it tell them that if they use the phrase "This band is AWESOME they TOTALLY Rock" you will personally come around to their house and stick the rough end of your Flying V up their arse and the same goes for "Sorry about the shameless self promotion" and if they say "These guys are definitely musicians’ musicians - check ‘em out they’re totally amazing, OMG I can’t wait for the album, everything by this band is SO awesome" send the band around and stick the fully wired and throbbing Roland D-Bass-210 amplifier up their ignorant arse to block the flow of mindless crap that will have the readers and your potential future fans sticking red-hot needles into their eyes rather than read another turd fuelled fabrication about your awesome band, these stupid tossers are only going to impress the lemming-minded who will not actually buy your hard worked album, they will spend their lives exploring how they can download it for free and if you think that they will pass it on to their friends and ’spread the word’ you have got another think coming because they couldn’t pass on influenza. Feed your fans, friends and family with plenty of content and warn them about spamming and quality or it will cost you dearly - silence can be a virtue. You guys totally rock!

The Slips New Website

After slating the Slips’ website in "The Slips - Electro Band London" about a year ago, I thought they deserved a big WELL DONE for creating such a positive and attractive site.

The only thing I liked on The Slips’s old website, was the way they collected a fan’s email so they could download free remixes - very few bands did it so well as The Slips. The new website however is very entertaining. The Slips’ website is pulsating, gloriously bouncy and super-hot. I’m Loving The Slips New Website.

<strange>They’ve changed their website address too, from theslips.net to theslipsmusic.com</strange> Which is a little odd, but I’m sure they have their reasons.

The Slips released a 7" single Girls At The Back Up in the States as part of LA based IAMSOUND’s Singles Club, reaching No. 6 on The Hype Machine on the day of the release - awesome BUY it NOW - Click Here - $6.99 uses PayPal or you can BUY NOW From iTunes - MP3s or 7" vinyl including DRM-free MP3s.
The Slips have also released their first ever mix tape: Vol 1 Download Mix Tape Vol 1 FREE

• The Slips
• MySpace
• @The_Slips [Join The Slips on Twitter]
• DNR Music Productions