Bits For Bands 2.... More Tips for struggling artists of any medium or media
Wether you're a songwriter, a DJ, MC, folk, pop, or rock band...
wether you're a photographer,painter, a digital designer of games or any kind of programmable art.... even if you're an author , poet, or just a creator of limericks for badly produced birthday cards ....
Here are some very simple,easy to follow,- but MUST DO tips- that will turn your creative passions from hobbies into vocations and professions.
(JUST IN CASE YOU WEREN'T PAYING ATTENTION, MISSED IT ON BITS FOR BANDS 1 AND NEED A KICK UP THE BACKSIDE :-)
1) Get a free myspace account.
2) Fill in your myspace profile AND LET PEOPLE KNOW YOU EXIST!.. there are simple easy to follow guides on myspace for any level of internet novice.
3) Start uploading samples of your work
4) Swallow your pride, trample over any self consciousness ond shyness and start applying to make freinds - There are plenty of well known professional artists and musicians who will gladly add any talented newcommer to their myspace freinds list and many will gladly promote your work.
Go on... Do it now! It's completely free and you'll be surprised at how many doors it can open for your careers!
5) You must make your own band or arts site and start selling your work by either mail order or as downloads-If you don't know anything about writing code or web construction then we highly recomend using Moonfruit which is probably the most affordable ,easy to use and highest quality site building and hosting solution currently available worldwide -it's been specialy designed for idiots and experts. See just how amazingly simple and easy it is to use for yourself - click the link ,explore and take a free trial (or even a free site and use it for an online 'flyer').
6) Partner up and share 'your stage' with other artists and find sites like ours who can help you sell your work SECURELY without ripping you off and find new audiences -one other new site we recommend (for musicians) is Nottingham UK based NonMono.moonfruit.com - which like us has all the standard tools available to help you sell and promote all your work online -if you pass the audition.
Being a struggling artist often involves struggling financialy so if you've done all of the above here are some more tips and programmes to follow that could help boost your income in times of need.
7) Sell other digital programmes as part of, or through online affiliate networks. Presently the two most popular affiliation networks online are PayDotCom.com and Clickbank.net. If you sell any of their programs online you can earn a commision ranging anywhere between 30 to 90% of the product price. A large proportion of the publishers available are merely 'Selling shovels' to dig for gold on the internet and charging an average of $97 us dollars for information which is mostly contained on this page for free - but ... as you may have noticed on our other pages .. there are plenty of skilled and talented writers, artists, musicians and teachers of arts and crafts selling some very well composed and professional material among their lists. If you choose to sell your own art or music with them (and are prepared to offer a high commision leaving you with a similar cut found in most major recording contracts) then you could stand to gain a growing worldwide army of well over a hundred thousand 'affiliates' trying to promote and sell your works for you ... and without worrying who to pay every month as both networks sort all the finances out for you.All you need to fully optimise your payments is a PayPal account which is free to join ,instant,takes the headache out of worrying over credit card fraud and fees,it's secure, and works out alot cheaper than most high street buisness banking accounts. You can explore and aquire a free PayPal account here-
To try out these free to join affiliate networks follow these links (but please don't fall for the get rich quick marketing tat of some of the listed programs and schemes- try to find some of the genuine arts or music related programs instead).Remember, if you have a paypal account international currencies are no longer a barrier as Pay Pal accurately sorts the exchange rates for you.
For clickbank go here For PayDotCom.com go here
Now the world of internet marketing and advertising is awash with second hand and outdated 'get rich quick' schemes, yet many big and small marketers and 'wealth seekers' often use the same 'surfing' network advertisers to advertise their wares. If your selling arts and music these networks can often become a gold mine for musicians and artists( people expect to find the same old 'money making' fads and ads, so when 'something different' appears they all flock to it - one young girl found herself with a US number one just by advertising on 'Instant Buzz'. There are many surfing and marketing networks - unfortunately many are littered with spyware and virus. The best and the safest we found were Instant Buzz and Traffic Swarm. Our tip is simply to find one where your art or music will look utterly unique and stand out in the crowd.You could also advertise your links in 'sections' that have no connection to art or music at all to pull in a 'surprise' response - a technique that our resident Canadian Jawdropper, David Lloyd Thompson has employed to successfuly intensify the 'wow' factor among those who discover his art. Though we do urge some caution with this technique as jealous marketers could accuse you of 'spamming' - which is now an imprisonable offence in Holland!
Yet speaking of surprise responses ....
Here is a very familiar application from the instant messaging and video call sector that could offer surprise dividends for musicians wanting to publicise their works. Now video messaging and live video calls have come a long way in recent years (and it's no secret that it's a technology we've had a very sharp eye on in recent years for our own future plans) and as most new pc's and chips increase in capacity so too do the opportunities for artists and especialy musicians to expoit them.Skype has been a long term pioneer in the technology despite having often been overlooked and cast as being a bit boring in the process, but... recent years have seen a steady change in skype applications and in their quality which, following the introduction of Dual Core processors, is definately on the up and up for both video and sound quality. One highly overlooked feature by musicians is the ability to host free internet calls for up to a hundred people at one time- perfect for airing your talents in 'exclusive' gigs or online interviews.OK, so they still can't manage it for the live video calls ( but we know a man who can and we're not telling who until we do it here first) but all the big skypecalls are highly visible on the site and do attract alot of attention from other skype users(-I think the bit about it being free helps immensly too). Other applications now added are the usual avatars and Klones plus the ability to make your own music into ring tones (to let your fans know your comming) and you also get to save an absolute packet on your mobile, land line and international phone bills. Skype is now well on the way to being a highly usable cutting edge communicator and, with over two hundred million users worldwide, a welcome addition to any musicians potential list of promotional tools.
Another quality promotional tool geared specificaly for musicians and independant artists is Myxer. With it's head office based in Florida in the US and new offices spreading worldwide, Myxers mobile solutions have seen it's user and artist population explode in the last few months. Now there are many mobile mp3 and 4 delivery systems in existance which are making an absolute killing from exploiting signed and unsigned artists worldwide but Myxers pro artist philosophy puts the rest to shame. With Myxer you can set up a profile to either share or sell your works over the mobile networks or you even create your own polyphonic ring tones. Where myxer realy stands out in it's bid to become the biggest genuine sponsor of artists and musicians in the world is in the way they allow artists to set their own price for their works and take home the lions share - so no more mesely seven cents a song...unless of course you actualy decide to charge seven cents. It seems that Myxer have not only stumbled upon a new quality medium set to compete with the CD, pc and download charts but they've bought up the entire platform, giftwrapped it and handed it all back to creative artists as a big thankyou present.... if only all labels and platform providers thought that way...
Mark our words - mobile network delivery is the set to become 'the' primary music platform of the future ( we've been poised and waiting to pounce into this area ourselves for the last few years) and Myxers explosive growth worldwide has confirmed our long held suspicions, and as we've had such a very keen eye on most IP , Mobile, video and music delivery systems ourselves over the last few years we think we can safely say that Myxer is a top tip for bands and very highly recomended as being the new next and best 'big thing' to for putting your music in front of real people in search of real music. Their positive and supportive attitude towards artists is set to earn Myxer the 'lions share' of all the mobile music markets as creative talents flock to their platform. See how and why for yourself by exploring our link (right) ...
... Or theirs ( above left)
