OWN YOUR SPACE OR SOMEONE ELSE WILL
Search for a band on Google in 2023 and you’ll probably get these results:
Wikipedia.
Twitter.
Spotify.
Lyrics site.
Rate Your Music.
Bandcamp.
Bandsintown.
Metal Archives.
Another lyric site.
Without a website, you’re letting your fans wander the internet wasteland in search of your magic spells.
Below are the last 30 days of Wikipedia page views of a semi-active band with no website (I’m not saying who):
That’s 3,022 page views that you could’ve been on a band’s website, where fans could have:
Bought an album or shirt
Signed up for your email list
Bought a ticket to an upcoming show
Having a website means controlling your story with a bio, linking to official merch (or selling it directly to your fans), and collecting email addresses to build a relationship over the next few years.
Sure, maybe that 3,022 isn’t 100% accurate, but even if it’s just 1,000 page views, I’d sure as heck take it.
And if you don’t take it, the shitty lyrics site will.
WEEKEND TASKS
Here’s four things you can do before Monday that might help.
Do a Google search for your brand / band / service and see what comes up. If you’re not at the top, get to work!
Don’t have a website? Get one. Take a few hours and set up a Square Space site with your logo, photos, and links. It ain’t much, but it’s a start, and you could have it done by Monday.
Oh, you don’t have a domain name? Head to Hover and buy one today (that’s a referral link).
Read my interview with Matt DeBenedictis, the Manager of Compliance from Mailchimp, and learn how to make sure your email marketing campaigns don’t end up in the Promotions tab (or worse).
LISTEN UP
No website (hah!) but I found ‘The Parasitic Chambers’ by Conjureth via Bandcamp, and here we are, enjoying some old school death metal on a Saturday while drinking our coffee.
Please take all my ideas and guidance and further your career and get that pay raise. But also maybe think about upgrading to a paid subscription for HEAVY METAL EMAIL so I can keep buying old film cameras, thanks.
Not the “subscribing” type? I also accept cups of coffee via Ko-Fi, Venmo (@Seth-Werkheiser), Cash App ($ethwerkheiser), or PayPal.
Or just support bands and labels directly and buy me an album from my Bandcamp wishlist. Everybody wins that way.
P.S. Coming to NYC the week of Feb 20th if anyone wants to meet up over coffee and / or donuts. Hit me up.