Increased Online Traffic

Musicians, Radio Stations, and Promoters all can benefit from a web marketing strategy.  These may include a website, email marketing list, blog, or podcast.  If you're a musician looking to build an online buzz, then consider these things for increased website traffic.

• Podcasts of your music, interviews.  Give away a great song making it easy for people to hear your entire range.
  

• Blogging (with syndication) providing thoughts and other information about your music, appearances, and ideas.  If you know what your fans react to, you can emphasize that and encourage them to tell others.
  

• Email marketing lists - Email lists are a tough one.  People are hesitant to sign up and increase their email load.  Make sure that if you plan to create an email newsletter that you plan out at least six months' of issues in advance.  Many will put everything in the first couple, then stop it.  Never send out much email - make it infrequent and terrific, or don't do it at all.
  

• Simple, fast web design - Make sure your pages are quick to load, by choosing a quality web host and optimizing your photography.
  

• Follow basic internet marketing rules.  Stay away from scammers offering to submit your site to hundreds of search engines.  They will do more harm than good and can get you banned from Google or others.  Find a company or consultant who has a track record of boosting website traffic and get their advice.  Search Engine Marketing changes all the time, so what worked last year may not this year. 
  

• Internet marketing research can save money.  By understanding the ways people use the search engine to find you, you can make a plan for improving your search engine rankings and getting more visitors to your website or blog.  Don't assume that everyone uses them the same way you do.  Look at your website statistics to see what people typed when they found you.
  

• Website search engine optimization (SEO). This is a difficult and frustrating effort for many, but usually to those who expect too much too quickly.  SEO is an art, and requires creative, technical, and marketing savvy.  There are many scams out there taking advantage of this impatience, each of which can do much harm to your web marketing efforts.

Good luck to you all!

Scott Clark
Website Marketing Expert