Promoting yourself is a key to your success.
The internet is probably the best promotion tool you can use. It is also very low cost unless you pay for advertising. I could write several articles on how to promote yourself via the internet, but I’ll just cover the low cost basics for now. I’m assuming that you have at least a demo CD worth of material ready to slam in the public’s face. So here we go, get your notepad ready to take some notes…
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1. Social Networking
The first thing you need to do is create accounts on all of the popular social networking sites such as myspace, facebook, twitter and others too. If you don’t beleive this is a necessity, you should check out the “top 20″ websites at http://www.alexa.com/topsites. I recommend using sites like Facebook to keep your close friends and family updated with your music. Facebook is great for personal networking. Get on each of the social networking sites on this list and when you are finished with that, go create accounts on every other site you can think of. When you create these accounts, make sure you fill out your profiles with detailed information about yourself and links to your other website(s). Upload your best pictures, songs and other media. People will be seeing this so think of these sites as parts of your portfolio.
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2. Soundclick
Some may feel that soundclick is no use to their music, but they are dead wrong. This site is pure music and gets well over 200,000 visitors a day. I’ve sold plenty of beats on soundclick and continue to do so. Major artists have been signed from soundclick. Believe it or not, Soulja Boy was found on soundclick. Get signed up, get on their forums, promote your stuff and help others. Becoming popular on the forums helps out a lot, but you have to do promotion outside of that as well.
3. YouTube
Having a personal YouTube account is a must for promotion. Start making videos of yourself at shows, rapping, creating new material or anything you think people might find entertaining. When it comes to promotion, I like to think, “Any promo is good promo.” Do a web search for “YouTube Blaster” and purchase this software to promote your videos. The more people hear your name, the better. Think about Mike Jones, he says his name about 50 times per song and everyone knows him now. This will boost your promo tenfold. Get used to having a video camera around you at all times. If you don’t have one, invest in one or find someone who does. Make remixes, upload personal songs with slideshows. Also, make your videos entertaining so users will want to subscribe and continue watching your new releases.
4. Myspace
People think myspace is dead. Those people are dead wrong. If you viewed the top 20 websites link I posted above, you will find that myspace is still very, very popular. Post as many songs as you can on myspace, but only your best work at the top of your playlist. Make sure your friends hear your best work first, so they will be enticed to listen to more of your songs. Do a web search for “Friend Blaster Pro” and invest in this software. It is only $30, so you have no excuse if you don’t use this software. I’ve used it for over a year now and have made my investment back exponentially. When you get this software, use it every day. Add as many friends as possible, but make sure you utilize the software to its full extent and add people that would enjoy your music or that in a specific demographic group. Post bulletins, multiple comments, send messages, use the entire program. People may become annoyed, but they will know who you are. This program is one of my favorites. Also, this isn’t a necessity, but you should get your myspace page professionally designed and coded. A beautiful myspace will leave a lasting impression on your visitors and friends. It makes you look more professional.
5. Shows
If you have enough material for a demo CD, you should be performing at local venues. It isn’t hard to get a show booked locally, so find some venues, send them a MP3 through email or whatever you have to do to get them to hear your music. Venues hire people to find artists to perform all the time, so all you have to do is present them with your material and make sure its hot. Your job will be bringing people to the spot so they buy alcohol and stuff. The more females you bring, the better. Get crunk, don’t be boring and try your best to entertain people with your music. Watch and observe major stars performing at their own concerts. Do what they do to keep their crowd interested and entertained. Your major goal should be to entertain folks. Get the crowd involved as much as you can. After the show is over, hand out CDs, free shirts, stickers, flyers or whatever you have for promotion material. A big mistake a lot of new artists make is thinking that people will buy their music the first time they hear it, this is mostly false. Don’t expect people to pay $5 for a burned CD with 10 songs on it. This is rare. Invest in yourself and hand out free CDs and tell people you will take donations, but the CD is free if they want it. They probably already paid to come to your show, so just give them some free stuff (along with a good performance) and they will probably come again next time.
6. Personal Website or Blog
Having a personal website or blog is essential to self promotion. It is not expensive, you can get websites for free nowadays if you search hard enough. Most websites will run you about $50-100 per year and if you buy more than one year at a time, the price goes down. www.IAmDstructive.com is Dstructive’s website, an artist I work with regularly. It is a good example of a personal website used for basic promotion. It doesn’t have to be an extravagant website, just a place where fans can check up on you and get the latest news. You can post your newest songs here, videos, and whatever else you have in mind. You can also make a blog on your website to let fans know what is on your mind every day. Having your own “dot com” website makes you look more professional and established as an artist. If you want to make money, you usually have to spend money. In this case, it isn’t even a large investment. A personal site is a must have in my opinion. If you do it right, you can build a huge community of fans.
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7. Advertise
Advertising can become expensive, but remember there is also FREE advertising. If you followed my previous step and made a personal website, you can either pay for advertising or go to very popular forums and put your website links in your forum signature. Google and other search engines will index these links and increase your search engine rank. Also, post your link wherever you can and whenever you can such as: myspace comments and messages, facebook walls, twitter posts, etc. Any social networking site you are on calls for free advertisement. If you have money to invest in yourself, try starting off with simple advertising programs such as Google Adwords and other types. Exchange links with other websites will work as well. Promoting yourself as hard as you can works great wonders.
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8. Media/Press Kit
This is a must have and a great investment for any aspiring artist. Find a graphic designer or artist and create a media kit. It is a good idea to have a media kit available for download online and have a hard copy of your kit to mail to people. Good things to include would be: your biography, business card, history, resume, demo CD/album/mixtape, PROFESSIONAL photos. Make sure you only include your BEST work in this kit. After you’ve created it, you will need to find valuable sources to send your kit to and hope they do something with it. Be sure to always include your contact information, website links, availability and any other valuable information about yourself that makes you stand out from the millions of other artists in the world.
9. Mailing List
A mailing list is great to have so you can keep your fans updated about what is going on with you. There are tons of free mailing list programs on the internet, just do a google search and find one you like most. Do not spam your subscribers, only send out valuable information and updates about yourself. Send free songs via email and other things your fans could be interested in. I would recommend sending out an email once or twice a week, depending on the frequency of your updates and changes. It is a good idea to stay in your fan’s faces with new songs and updates. You can even include show/event dates, ticket promotions, coupons and other free stuff.
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10. Personal Networking
This may seem obvious, but many people ignore the fact that building a fan base requires… fans. Surprise! In order to create fans, you need to relate to them on a personal level. Talking to fans and treating them as friends rather than consumers can help you build even more fans. Word of mouth will spread and people will start talking about how cool of a person you are when you relate to them on a personal level. Don’t just send out automated comments and messages on your social networking sites, make sure you personalize messages and comments when it is needed. The chance of someone listening to your music is much higher from a personalized, friendly message instead of an automated, robotic message saying, “Hey, cool page! Go check out my music blah blah blah…” Get personal, network with important people and even people that you wouldn’t consider “important” to yourself. You should treat each one of your fans, associates, business partners and anyone else with as much respect and gratitude as you would like to be treated with. Don’t screw people over on business, be a person of your word and stay true to who you are and you should continue to expand in your career. Networking is a great key to success. Many great people have said, “Its not what you know, its WHO you know.” I agree with this quote. So network, network, network and when you are done networking, do it some more. And then go promote. You should dedicate at least a couple hours a day to promoting yourself! I am serious!
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If you made to the end of this post, good job! Hopefully you will practice some of these methods and start promoting yourself to a higher level of success. There are many other ways to promote yourself other than the internet, and I will cover some of them on a later date, but the internet is one of the most important tools for promotion. If you don’t believe that, you should wake up and come into the real world. It is almost 2010 and you need to get with the new wave of technology! Now ask yourself… How bad do I want to “make it” in the game?
Hit me up if you have any questions!
Peace,
Isso
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