Mystic Liquid

I had a musician friend approach me the other day about creating a web presence for his band. I thought about it and came up with a bunch of great ideas that could really help him put his music on the map. It started me thinking about the massive and ever expanding market of music and band websites that could utilize SEO and PPC to profit from the internet.

We have all heard about the many viral marketing campaigns that Snow Patrol and other unsigned bands used to create buzz using the internet, but what if you are just starting out and want to make a splash in the scene? I took on the project and begin to find some great resources for links and many social networking sites that could be very useful to spread the word about this new site.

The question comes down to what are some major components that need to be a part of an effective band or music site? I would have to think that a bio, contact, and a song page are the most important. After that you could go after pictures or even the video side of the industry. This can be accomplished through Youtube and some other social video sites. After that you can use the integration of a media player to play some songs while protecting them from scrapers.

Once you have the fans it comes down to keeping them. This can be done in variety of ways in today’s web 2.0 world. Mobile updates, Skype, RSS feeds from blog and even the old standby of emailing can be used to update your fans and visitors to your site of upcoming events and gigs.

The number one rule that we found while developing this band website was that the user must come first. That means that the experience and usability is key to developing a loyal fan base for years to come. Make sure you check your website in all the major browsers. This will ensure that the overall experience is the same for all that come to your site. Once the site is ready to go now is the time to spread the word.

This can be done on many of the social sites like Myspace and Facebook, but make sure that your website has a bookmark feature so that people can link to your site which will help in the SEO of the site. Also try and get links on the websites of the bars and clubs that you play. This will help with a better overall link structure. By interacting with your fans through the social sites and building traffic you can then use your analytics to judge if you need to optimize some other pages on the site. This brings us to the last point which is how to monetize your band website.

Traditionally this is done through merchandise sales. Not to worry if you do not have the coin to buy hundreds of t-shirts and merchandise with your logo on it. There is a website that will allow you to offer merchandise while keeping your overhead low. One such site is CafePress.com. There are many more site like them on the net with different deals and such, so spend the time and do the research. Once you have the merchandise next is the shopping cart. Find a reliable and integrated platform with unique landing pages. This will help in the online marketing of your band and products.

After several weeks of learning the ins and outs of the band and music website industry, we are proud to say that our friend’s website is starting to gain some fans and even seeing some sales.

Managing a full service small business website company like Mystic Liquid is not an easy venture. One of the biggest opportunities to take advantage of is the process of convincing potential customers that using Myspace or another community based “profile” as a company website is not a good thing.

Before the Myspace and the other social community revolution started to ravage the Internet landscape, small business owners had to either hire a web designer or use a template website such as Bravenet to create a web presence. Back then those template websites were very economical, but lacked all the customizable features that a web designer could provide.

Even though Bravenet has gone by the wayside and Myspace has taken its place as a way for small businesses to get a piece of that online market, it is not the best long term solution for a small business that is looking to enter the online business market.

There are several steps that need to be taken if you are a small business owner that is looking to revamp or even create a web presence from scratch.

1) A domain name that represents your business name is worth its weight in gold.

a. Just like a logo, your domain name is very important. You want to choose a domain name a close to the name of your business. That way consumers and internet surfers will remember your online presence with ease.

2) Looks are everything!!!

a. Even though templates are easy to put together, it comes down to being unique and separate yourself from the pack. Spend the time to pick the colors and overall structure of your website before you go to a web design company.

3) Being social is good, but you need a home.

a. Having a Myspace or a Facebook account to represent your business is a good thing, but should not be the overall solution. Those social sites should be used as a compliment to your main small business website. Those social sites are a great way to dive traffic to your main site and will be a great way to interact with customers.

So if you are a small business owner looking to get a piece of the booming online business market, remember to use the social community sites a compliment to your main site and if you’re looking for help with this, we offer a social media optimization package. Remember there is no place like home when it comes to having your own website and domain.

With the growing popularity of Web 2.0, we have seen an increase in the number of client questions about creating a website geared towards the social media realm. Mystic Liquid loves the challenge of it too.

Socially optimized websites present a unique set of challenges compared to a static website. I’m not saying one is better than the other. It all depends on the purpose of the website. What I’m saying is personally I like the challenge of creating a website whose content is based around the involvement of its users.

We run into different circumstances and problems in building and maintaining these sites all the time. Sometimes a website owner just doesn’t realize the amount of work involved with running one to going with a social media campaign for a market that just won’t work for it. You never know how these things will turn out but that doesn’t mean you can’t try.

Here are the five most common reasons why a social media website doesn’t last and fails:

• Don’t expect everyone to find and fall in love with it – The online community has less attention span that five year old kid told running unsupervised in a toy store. Worse yet, competition for those quick attentions is getting more competitive by the day. Your website better contain a compelling purpose for those users, but first you need to get them to your site in the first place. We try to do this by gearing as much content as possible to the target audience and then letting them join in on the conversation.
• Don’t be a bad webmaster – People are joining your social online community for two things: to find information on something they find interesting and more importantly, to have fun. You take either of these factors away from your site and expect to also lose traffic and members. There is no quicker way to do this that by being an over-controlling site owner. You want your website to be an environment in which people feel comfortable participating. It creates loyalty to do so. Studies have shown that once people begin participating in a community, they feel a sense of ownership. This is what motivates them to keep participating. What I’m trying to say is, let everyone feel like they are all owners and part of something big.
• Don’t forget about it – You are spending a lot of time, money and effort into building a website. Why do all that and then walk away from it? Owning a website takes hard work. Owning a socially optimized website takes A LOT of hard work. Expect to visit your website regularly for maintenance. By participating constantly, you encourage others to do so as well. If you forget about your website, so will everyone else.
• Don’t make your website overly complicated – It’s a website for people to enjoy themselves on, not an IQ test. If a user needs more than a minute or two to fully understand your website’s organization or flow, don’t expect them to stay. They are bouncing. Stay away from clutter and get right to the interesting stuff. Try to let your social site grow organically through member contributed content.
• Don’t take it too personally – You know that saying you can’t please everyone all the time? This is no where more true than on a social website. I know that you can sometimes be a little protective of your website since after you all you built it from scratch but that doesn’t mean you should let a commenter ruin your day by giving some criticism. My advice is to keep a sense of humor about things and maintain your perspective about the larger picture.

Don’t forget that an online community or a socially optimized website is all about user communication and interaction. Encourage others to get involved and most importantly, have fun!