Why have a traditional website?

[gtrmann]

I have three web sites, one for my primary business, one for a business idea I am working on, and a third as a band site. I pay $2.95 each a month for hosting, and $14.95 each a year for domain name registration. This includes the software provided for web building. I pay around $150.00 per year combined for all three. I can't say I keep up with them like I should, but I don't see this as expensive.

[Kazak]

I have had my own music website for several years and it is not expensive. I like the fact that it updates easily and I have 100% control over the content.

Here's a note about Wordpress. Some friends of mine in Kazakhstan started a Wordpress free website to introduce people to the area. Unfortunately when there was some civil unrest in the country, the govt apparently blocked ALL Wordpress sites due to the anti govt bloggers. The result is we can access our site now only from other countries. My point is free sites can be controlled by outside forces.

Another example, when Myspace decided to change it's profiles a few years ago the customization I paid $350 for was deleted with no recourse.

Alicia (from The Hague)

[coachdebra]

Wordpress rocks!

Yes it does.

Except when you don't check it for a while, and there is an update that you didn't install, and you have your account compromised and your service shut down for sending out spam and you have to spend a couple hours installing the updates and talking with your hosting company to get every think back working again. Then it's not so great.

Moral of the story is - check you site and install all the updates in a timely manner.

Cheers -
kc

Ahhh, kc - so sorry if that happened to you! Yes, staying up on the updates is important. Using a fairly complicated password (10 letter or more with numbers and/or symbols as well) also helps.

[coachdebra]

You are not being reasonable.

DI - it's this kind of comment that gets people's ire up on the forum. Just because you disagree with me, doesn't mean I'm being unreasonable. It just means YOU disagree with me.

Most people that license music do not make enough money to live off of. Why would they spend money on a website in addition to spending money on hardware and software for making music?

If a business isn't in the black - it's not because it's lacking in hardware. It's because it's lacking in CUSTOMERS. You don't get more customers with more hardware - you get more customers with MARKETING...

Saying that it makes more sense to spend money on hardware (unless your product isn't up to snuff - in which case, you should invest in product quality), when you aren't making a profit with your business - well it's not smart business. Assuming you have a quality product - the money needs to be spent on marketing to bring in customers.

The reality is that the people that are making a living from licensing music have connections and do not need a web presence. They simply submit their music to the companies they have relationships with. I know you mean well, but you and many other people think that hanging up an e-shingle will equal success in the business world.

This is very old fashioned thinking. I mean last century old fashioned. And it's very nihilistic catch-22 thinking. I can't be successful without the connections - I can't get connections without being successful. How do you think they got those relationships? Marketing...

And I agree - its not enough to just have a website, I never said that it was. You must drive traffic to your website (see the thread on facebook). But in order to drive traffic - you have to have somewhere to drive traffic to.... So build the website first and then start driving traffic there..

By the way, would you be willing to tell us how your website is helping you to gain additional business?

Debra's site: http://artists-edge.com

Up until about 2007, the majority of my business came from speaking engagements and face-to-face networking at conferences. By the way - I didn't go to Coaching Conferences - since I wasn't looking to work with other coaches. I went to Entertainment Industry conferences, because I wanted to work with professionals in the Arts & Entertainment Industry. (Check out Mazz's thread on going to a Gaming conference...)

Many of the people who met me at those conferences, who went on to hire me or buy my other products, checked out my website first.

In 2007, I started blogging. In 2008, I joined Facebook and LinkedIn, and 2009 I joined twitter. Now about 60% of my business still comes from speaking engagements and face-to-face networking and about 40% of my business comes from the internet. Yep - 40%. In 5 years of learning about internet marketing and intensively driving traffic to my website via SEO and Social Media. I've sold product and had clients on 5 continents, thanks to the internet.

And a lot of my speaking engagements are now coming from connections I'm making via the internet. In the last 3 years, I've spoken at SXSW (a real coup), Australia and I'm going to Sweden next month and back to Australia in October.

Now, my business is not your business. But in essence - business is business. Know who you are marketing to and find out what they want and need and where they are hanging out. Then, get in front of them and be the solution to their problems, the fulfillment of their desires and you will create success.

[mazz]

A website is like a business card: you hand out cards knowing that a lot of them will not be looked at, but there's always that one person that might follow up and a nice gig might come from it. In other words, you can't afford to show up without them.

I was just contacted yesterday by someone I met at the Game Developer's Conference almost 2 months ago now, that I'm sure I gave a business card to. It has my website on it. They may have checked my music out on the site and that inspired them (hopefully! ) to contact me. Having that music on my website is like having a demo that is available 24/7.

I don't know how the whole SEO (Search Engine Optimization if, like me you weren't up on the acronyms!) thing works but I would imagine that having a domain that is not "soundcloud.com/yourname" but is rather "yourname.com" would make you come up more in web searches. I'm sure Debra can speak to that.

In any case, if one is not already established from the pre-web days (and arguably even if!) then a website is a must have to support any serious marketing effort which would include trade shows, networking industry events, business cards, etc.

Web hosting is really inexpensive these days and there are so many folks out there that do web design either from the ground up or with Wordpress or whatever, that it's not that expensive to get a simple one up and running. I also utilize SoundCloud and Reverbnation to host my music and just link their widget on the site and it's a true no-brainer! My site crashed after I had paid to have it designed and set up in WordPress. Apparently my hosting company had an issue with their server company, they've since switched and no more problems have arisen. Anyway, I'd never worked in WordPress before and in 3 hours I had resurrected the site and even improved it (if I can say so myself) a bit. If I can do it, anyone can, believe me!!

So don't cheap out on your marketing materials, go ahead and get a website, domain name, etc. Print nice glossy business cards. Be a class act. Take pride in your work and your presentation. Mediocrity may work for some, don't be that guy! Give it 100% in everything! It's your life, your business, everything that has your name on it reflects you! (even an anonymous avatar can't hide a bad attitude!)

Until the next rant!

Mazz

[eeoo]

Can someone give me a "Wordpress For Dummies" synopsis? I've always been somewhat perplexed by it...

eo

[jimmymio]

Can someone give me a "Wordpress For Dummies" synopsis? I've always been somewhat perplexed by it...

eo

That makes 2 of us!

[DesireInspires]

By the way, would you be willing to tell us how your website is helping you to gain additional business?

Debra's site: http://artists-edge.com

Up until about 2007, the majority of my business came from speaking engagements and face-to-face networking at conferences. By the way - I didn't go to Coaching Conferences - since I wasn't looking to work with other coaches. I went to Entertainment Industry conferences, because I wanted to work with professionals in the Arts & Entertainment Industry. (Check out Mazz's thread on going to a Gaming conference...)

Many of the people who met me at those conferences, who went on to hire me or buy my other products, checked out my website first.

In 2007, I started blogging. In 2008, I joined Facebook and LinkedIn, and 2009 I joined twitter. Now about 60% of my business still comes from speaking engagements and face-to-face networking and about 40% of my business comes from the internet. Yep - 40%. In 5 years of learning about internet marketing and intensively driving traffic to my website via SEO and Social Media. I've sold product and had clients on 5 continents, thanks to the internet.

And a lot of my speaking engagements are now coming from connections I'm making via the internet. In the last 3 years, I've spoken at SXSW (a real coup), Australia and I'm going to Sweden next month and back to Australia in October.

Now, my business is not your business. But in essence - business is business. Know who you are marketing to and find out what they want and need and where they are hanging out. Then, get in front of them and be the solution to their problems, the fulfillment of their desires and you will create success.

Impressive.

[mojobone]

Huffpo makes for a nice model. Almost all the content is linked from other sites, which is great for SEO. You want your own domain name, but once that's sussed, you can use a (free or paid) Wordpress template; with such a huge user base, they're not going away any time soon. (and tons of smart people working at all hours worldwide, updating and improving it) You do need to learn a little BBCode and HTML, but there are rules to it; a kind of grammar, so if you're good at languages, (most musicians are) you can get the hang of it pretty quickly. WordPress maintains a blog and lots of tutorials. There is also a forum, if you need further help, but it's what I'd call a mature internet community, and can be unkind (or even hostile) to noobs that don't use the search function and their Google finger.

It helps if you have a little visual arts background; with an eye for composition, you can easily make a fairly stock template look amazing, with just a few well chosen images and fonts. In my opinion, learning Wordpress is as necessary a skill as learning to read and write notation, meaning you could live without it, or use Nashville numbers only, but why would you want to?

[Casey H]

A website is like a business card: you hand out cards knowing that a lot of them will not be looked at, but there's always that one person that might follow up and a nice gig might come from it. In other words, you can't afford to show up without them.

I think that's the key point. Exactly where you go with it as far as templated vs highly customized is up for grabs and everyone has to do what works best for them. I would hate to be sitting at the bar at the rally, have someone important ask for a business card, and not have one to give them. And if I gave them one, I'd certainly want to feel comfortable with the web address printed on the card.

Casey