Your Online Presence

[hummingbird]

Jan 22, 2009, 8:28pm, southpaw wrote:Quote:I'm a composer and I have a site dedicated to my film music where I will send anyone interested in hearing tracks for film/tv. It didn't cost the earth to set up, either. Hostbaby has very affordable monthly rates and you can get a domain through Godaddy for 10 or 20 bucks a year. All set up, it costs me about $140 a year for a very professional looking site I can refer music publishers to... or I can post tracks and send links to those tracks via email.Yea i have a few domains through godaddy, it is quite cheap, long as the domain you want isnt a 'premium domain'. Its funny, they wanted to charge me over $2000 for soundscope.com, so i went with soundscope.net for $10 a year... They've got a pretty simple site builder that comes with the package for like $5 a month including hosting which is pretty cool.Quote:This is separate from my 'artist' site where I post works in progress, have my blog, etc etc. I'm also on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and a myriad of other sites... but that's networking.Theres so many dang social networking sites out there, i must have over a dozen accounts with these kinds of sites. I only really keep up with about half of them tho. Networking on these sites cant hurt. I dont think you could really consider it 'marketing' in the typical business sense. For you as a composer recruiting the right kind of people to come listen to your music on your site for the purpose of film/tv placement, social networking might be more advantageous than say one band or artist in a few million who wants people to 'come hear my music'. CheersI own 3 .com domains, each one is $20 a year. Hostbaby is perfect for me, as it hosts music & I can connect it with CD Baby if I wish.I do social networking... primarly to connect with people and extend the sphere of my teaching / mentoring... it is "marketing" but I am more interested in genuinely fostering relationships than anything else. I'm not "selling" anything.

[southpaw]

Quote:I do social networking... primarly to connect with people and extend the sphere of my teaching / mentoring... it is "marketing" but I am more interested in genuinely fostering relationships than anything else.Im tracking. Thats cool you are able to connect with people and promote your services at the same time. Quote: I'm not "selling" anything.Well i dont really see marketing as directly selling, as much as it is something that promotes what you have to offer and could convert to a sale. Im not talking about shiny half off stickers, or statements like "but wait, theres more". But sales are what keep people in business whatever the case may be. You're not going door to door trying to sell poeple something they dont want, i dont think anyone who follows a career in music is.Are you saying that you honestly dont consider yourself as selling anything?I am saying I am an artist, i also have bills, and to stay an artist i need to produce income to or go back to work.' Im not stepping on your toes here, i am tryin to understand where you're coming from on this. I would like to know what you mean, out of curiousity, and namely because you are someone who makes a living making music.

[hummingbird]

Jan 22, 2009, 10:12pm, southpaw wrote:Quote:I do social networking... primarly to connect with people and extend the sphere of my teaching / mentoring... it is "marketing" but I am more interested in genuinely fostering relationships than anything else.Im tracking. Thats cool you are able to connect with people and promote your services at the same time. Quote: I'm not "selling" anything.Well i dont really see marketing as directly selling, as much as it is something that promotes what you have to offer and could convert to a sale. Im not talking about shiny half off stickers, or statements like "but wait, theres more". But sales are what keep people in business whatever the case may be. You're not going door to door trying to sell poeple something they dont want, i dont think anyone who follows a career in music is.Are you saying that you honestly dont consider yourself as selling anything?I am saying I am an artist, i also have bills, and to stay an artist i need to produce income to or go back to work.' Im not stepping on your toes here, i am tryin to understand where you're coming from on this. I would like to know what you mean, out of curiousity, and namely because you are someone who makes a living making music. I mean, when you go to my websites or my blogs, etc... there is nothing for you to buy (at the mo). Therefore I am not in any direct way "selling" anything. But I am putting my face, thoughts, voice & music out there.

[southpaw]

Ahhh, i see. Appreciate the comments, Jamie

[mojobone]

The web way is to jump in with both feet and figure it out as you go along. If you wait 'til you feel sure you're ready, you could be waiting a long time. I can't tell you how to use MySpace, but I can tell you what I do. I try to make mine a place where fans and musicians can connect with each other by keeping it simple. (no crazy apps or games, no sheep-throwing, etc.)I filter friend requests personally, (no auto-approvals) and generally check out the spaces of folks that want to add me. (especially if I don't actually know them, or already have friends in common, though Taxi friends get approved without a second thought-I check out their spaces as time allows) I request the best professional and amateur musicians I can find, and actively search for new and great lesser-known musicians at least once a week, so I can add them and hopefully keep the ratio of great musicians:hopeful wannabes healthy. I also request as many of my musical heroes as I can find. My 'Top Friends' is reserved for them and people who I know can actually play/write and some relatives and RL friends that might feel hurt if they weren't in there. I've adjusted my settings so that my entire network doesn't get notified of every little thing I do, and I save invites and bulletins for when I have something I need to get the word out about. I have only ever denied 'bout three-four obvious spammers, and so far have never needed to remove any inappropriate comments, though I check up almost daily. I redesign the page every six months or so to keep it looking fresh and I try to add pics and new music on a regular basis.I'm also in favor of keeping commerce out of the equation; when the personally hosted site is up, that'll be the place to host merch or link to merch sites, and I can point MySpace folks to that really easily. In short, I try to make the space an outpost and an oasis for the coolest people I can find. I hope you'll be joining us soon.

[southpaw]

Great stuff Mojo. Thanks for the sharing your insight. "I hope you'll be joining us soon." Soon.