Money Making Ideas

Create an emailing list

Email is the ultimate promotion tool if you know how to use it. The cost of sending out an email Gigs List/Newsletter is practically nothing, so it's always good value. When a visitor responds by sending you their email address they are "hot" and are likely to be the most productive - if you reply promptly. Your most valuable asset is your hot list. A mailing list takes quite a lot of looking after if you want results. Spend as much time as possible tweaking your mailing list, as a perfect list, like a "hole in one", is almost impossible to achieve.

The main purpose of a mailing list is: communication, keeping your fans informed of events. It will pay big dividends, it could easily boost online sales by as much as 100% and increase your audience size dramatically.

Free gifts

Free! Nothing on the internet is really free - nothing for nothing. There is always a pay off: "We give you a voucher from the website and you get a free gift at our next gig :: you join our fan club". The problem is, how much to give away? The decision of how much to give away is all yours. How much can you afford? What is your music worth? What are you aiming to achieve? There are no easy or correct answers, sorry. A common free gift for a band to give away is an mp3 - the more people who listen to your music, the more CDs your likely to sell.

Make sure the free gift is easy to find and simple to get, and don't forget the pay off. The best place to put your free gift is on the Merchandise page.

Get your fans, friends and family to invest in you

Running a band, recording an album, producing and then selling the album requires a lot of dedication, expertise and some money. You should be looking for help! Don't just stick a PayPal donate button on your website and hope for the best, offer something for it, like a link from your website or a credit on your next album or even dedicate a track.

You need fans, friends and family to join your band as contributors. They can offer their time and skills to help with the website, online promotion, the mailing list, merchandising, transport and even with the accounts!! etc... it's a long list.

Become an affiliate

Become an affiliate for other businesses and sell products and services from your website. Don't crowd your website with banners and products, sell one or two things and sell them well. It's a simple way to earn a little extra cash, i.e. you could sell Apple's iPod portable MP3 player! Find out how at Commission Junction. You will not get rich, but it should buy a round of drinks once a month.

If you are an independent musician, a record label or into band promotion, easybe.com have set-up an excellent affiliate scheme - easybe.com affiliate scheme.

Sell the band's merchandise online

Selling merchandise online, is what most people think of when they think of making money from their website. If successful, it would be a full-time job for an enthusiastic Auntie! You need to be able to: take orders and process payments. package and ship the orders. manage the stock. handle customer service (returns can be quite high!). control the accounts (money). PayPal will allow you to accept credit cards and handle customer contact like invoices, receipts and returns. Sign up with PayPal and start accepting credit card payments instantly.

Here are some ideas: Badges, Bumper Stickers, Caps, Hats and Visors, CDs and Demos, Drum Sticks, Fake Tattoos, Frisbees, Greeting Cards, Guitar Picks, Imprinted Bic Pens, Key-Rings, Lanyards, Lighters, Matchbooks, Mugs, Portfolio of Signed Pictures, Posters, Stickers, Sweatshirts, T-Shirts, Wall Calendars, etc.

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