Online Music Promo - Engaging, Email Lists and Actually Monetizing: Lucky 7 Final chapter

Okay on we go with the very last episode of our 3 part series on getting your head around online promotion basics and then it just mutated into a seven part whopper!

In today s stunning conclusion it’s just all business. It’s not basic anything anymore because we’re actually engaging fans and we’re actually monetizing it.

Here's whats happened so far:

Part 1 is here: In digital we trust - preparing for digital music marketing and promotion

And part 2 is here: Are you ready? Content you need for your digital online promotion campaign

And part 3: Google and the importance of words on the web: more “who’s going to write our blog copy” now then “who’s going to direct our video”

Part 4: Getting your head around using social media and web 2.0 to promote your music

Part 5: Setting up a music artists website

Part 6: Music Artist Website promotion: Marketing and Sales

And don’t forget: Our new artist community has launched @ http://www.newmusicmarketing.com/ - it’s still free to join in July and we’re starting to add new in depth content already.

And of course tomorrow @ The Depot in Devonport I’ll be be giving a presentation on all this stuff Check it out if you’re in auckland.

So it was cliffhanger end last time when we suddenly discovered while we were promoting our websites and building the power of our musics brand message to connect with audiences – it was the good old email list that formed a fundamental strategy for monetizing all along!

There are many unique propositions you can be using to monetise this valuable, influential brand you’ve built up and these relationships you’re building with your audience, but your potential fans don’t want to be bombarded by what you want to sell them. That's not real. They want to connect with a message that makes them open to having you earn their trust. And this is where the proposition of having new fans sign up for an email list is probably one of the most successful strategies to create income long term, because the relationship is based on respect for a fan who welcomes your interactions, and will be prepared to spend money as the relationship and the unique value grows.

As the music industry evolves, I always say well . . . the last time I saw the rulebook on making money, it was flying out the window. Only one thing holds true and that is creating value for the fans and managing the relationship leads to artist success.

I think most of the old music industry think Radiohead was just a bad dream. They need to wake up.
Okay so lets wrap up this thing by describing some different ways you can innovate to create revenue from your website and email list – and remember what I’ve said about new music business models – its not a horse race! You can ride every income stream that is worth the effort.

The idea is to continually innovate and optimize so that you are enhancing the value of your most profitable interactions and minimising the effort of your least profitable interactions. This is fundamental in guiding the innovative process.

Lets look at some areas for innovating monetization:

Pricing structure: Trent Reznors last Nine Inch Nails release was remarkable for the number of pricing iterations he created on different products available, so there was a product for fans at every level from a basic $5 download all the way up to a limited edition item valued a $300 that netted him $750,000 over the 48 hour period they took to sell out. The remarkable thing was also that this was an instrumental album, that though creating further options for licensing and synching, however was not really NIN's core content. But NIN's core fanbase is fully engaged and they dont care.

Income streams: The asian music market, where rampant piracy cripples the value of physical goods and copies, has led the way in showing how developing wide and deep ranges of products and service under the brand of an artist can actually leverage the effects of piracy.

The opportunities here to innovate abound. Maybe you need to have a serious and open minded think about what kind of products and services you can provide. I realised I could go to 6 year old’s birthdays and play pirates for $200 a pop, there’s this guy I heard about who offers to write and record love songs - mainly for the wedding market.

There's Bob Baker's buddy who sold 15,000 CD's on the pier playing cheesy love ballads twice a week for 18 months.

What have you got? Is it your raw technical skill? Is it your charisma? Is there are specific message around a common issue that peopel conenct with through your music? Do you have prolific output?Do you make a fashion statement with what you wear or a sexual statement with what you don't?

You need to identify exactly where you can creating the most value with your specific skills and doing those things that you love that dont seem like work and leverage it!

Fan supported: In the fan supported model which has already been demonstratably successful, the artist set up a system by which there was increasingly personalised rewards for example - $10 pre ordered a copy of the CD, $500 gave you a thank you in the CD liner notes, $5000 gave you a trip from anywhere in the US to stay courtesy of the artist for a weekend during the recording and participate on the backing vocal of one of the songs.

Ad supported revenue: We often talk about the digital revolution creating an “attention economy” that is, in a digital environment where copies of content cease to have financial value, the value is then transferred to the attention created through content and the opportunity that remains to create revenue from attention through advertising.

Advertising networks online are getting increasingly sophisticated, and although I hold fast to the assertion that in 2008, 1000 page views should equal 1000 cents earnings - and currently after blogging for over 9 months, that’s about what I earn from my blogs in a week – I honestly believe that conditions for online advertisers will improve across the board as the medium continues to improve and show its effectiveness. First, muso’s will start out with Google adsense ads, before looking into joining an ad network potentially capable of delivering more lucrative and more consistent targeted ads charged per impression, finally a successful established musician should be able to attract sufficient interest to be able to cut out the middleman and sell advertising directly to niche partners.


Affiliate marketing: Affiliate marketing is a lucrative form of online marketing that drives online sales with high commissions, thus attracting many like a modern day gold rush. Those with online products will join an affiliate network that will provide its “partners” (bloggers, webmasters etc.) with ad offers. The tracking of these sites and offers is a highly sophisticated commercial operation and once a sale can be traced to somebody who once visited your site with the corresponding ad displayed, you will be accredited with a 40%-75% commission on the sale value. As I’ve discussed before the range of products is staggering, and sure, miracle diets etc. do tend to sell better BUT what you’ve got to realise is that there are free offers that pay out. This means you can leverage your email list to present a variety of offers to your fans. But the fact that you are able to collect 75% commission on digital products does raise possibilities about relative product value.

E.G. – Buy a month worth of digital movie rental for $US40 (of which the band gets $US30) and get our new album (worth $10) free!!!

You getting me? Things could get interesting.

Monetized communities:

So monetizing communities is based around the concept that the content that drives your promotion and monetization through advertising etc. becomes exponential once you have harnessed fans to actually create content for you.

Discussion about you, discussion with you, discussion about content, interaction with content, deconstruction (“mash up”) of content . . . when your fans are doing this for you, you’ve now got a a wild freeform content generating, web ownaging machine!

You want them designing their own t-shirts and selling them to one another and taking a cut. “c2c” means “consumer to consumer”.

The way we do business is about to be fundamentally changed online.

But yes. Artists must accept relinquishing control.

In 2013 If some kid photoshops your face on a dogs body and sells 50,000 t shirts online then you’re going to have to take your 25% cut and massive exposure and sulk in the corner.

But on communities gotta touch on what I’m doing personally with kurb – as a working model – so you can see in practice the model of a high value online community that is monetized. And the fact that you can see that I’m doing it, it’s not some huge leap for you. Cost me a few hundy.

With http://www.newmusicmarketing.com I’ve set up a forum platform from which to distribute high value content. In my case it’s content that I feel is to valuable to share freely – in your case it’s most likely your music. But in creating a platform on which to monetize premium content and your fan relationships you can create dynamic propositions.

You can build a list of 1000 hardcore fans who are happy to commit to paying $1 per week ($1 per week????) and be part of a premium experience that gives them premium access (you stop in the members over the week to interact) and access to premium content: your music, videos, special exclusive content, giveaways, competitions and prizes, special free gigs, seriously, innovation can run wild!

BUT

like I said. It’s just one horse in the stable. Your making $1000 p/week of your premium membership sites – your also making pocket money out of advertising, digital retail, royalties and licensing, your gigging of course – even your good old CD’s and merch . . . y’know? The futures not dark.

But you gotta get started now. It’ll take years for your online presence to dvelop and mature.

Okay, So I hope you’ve enjoyed this series!

I’ll be doing a post soon about going back over your blog and editing it for optimisation as a clean up each of the articles in the series.

Part 1 is here: In digital we trust - preparing for digital music marketing and promotion

And part 2 is here: Are you ready? Content you need for your digital online promotion campaign

And part 3: Google and the importance of words on the web: more “who’s going to write our blog copy” now then “who’s going to direct our video”

Part 4: Getting your head around using social media and web 2.0 to promote your music

part 5: Setting up a music artists website

And don’t forget: Our new artist community has launched @ http://www.newmusicmarketing.com/ - it’s still free to join in July and we’re starting to add new in depth content already.

And of course tomorrow @ The Depot in Devonport I’ll be be giving a presentation on all this stuff Check it out if you’re in auckland.

It’s time for me to get on with developing my community at http://newmusicmarketing.com

And I’ve got work to building my blogs presentation to build a more powerful brand and develop more and new ways of monetization.

Look for me at http://musicmarketingblog,info as I'm getting my act together here!

And make sure you subscribe by RSS because I just know I’m going to be talking more about branding, engaging fans and more about developing these relationships and monetized interactions soon.

Cheers!

John Reese’s Traffic Secrets: A music industry perspective on internet marketing

“Finally.

The time has come.

4+ years in the making.

A small fortune spent.

Thousands of tests conducted.

A valuable system made even better.

“Traffic Secrets 2.0″ gets officially released
today at Noon EST!

If you’re serious about making money
online and growing an online business
then this is the course for you.

And I’ll stake my reputation on this… this may
very well be one of the last traffic-generation
courses you’ll ever need to buy.”

 

 

 

So today is the launch of John Reese’s “Traffic Secrets 2” and it is a big event in internet marketing.

This should be a great post because not only can we learn from John Reese in regards to applying online promotion ideas from his amazing free video material . . .

. . . but we can reflect on how John was able to create such a huge buzz for his product in an already overhyped and oversaturated market.

I understand the reason a lot of musicians come to me is because they understand the importance of promoting themselves and engaging fans online, but they’re not really interested in learning and practicing “IM” or internet marketing themselves, they wanna do their music.

Which is cool, that gives me a job to do, especially as there seems to be so very few music industry people interested in IM.

Which seems pretty strange to me, I mean call me crazy but if you were say in the recording industry and you kinda figured your whole industry was shifting to a digital, web enabled environment and you were wondering how to make money . . .

 

You’d probably start by looking at people who were already making money in a digital web enabled environment.

And I don’t mean like bill gates. I mean like garden variety twenty something geeks with a handful of computer skills (who me? haha), who to which the idea of not having to leave their bedroom to make money appeals.

You see no one who is involved in IM is interested in the music business because these kids are just trying to make quick bucks and there are no quick bucks in music.

Quick bucks are in diets and porn and peddling get rich schemes, and don’t forget the cornerstone of IM, the ebook. And when people are focused on one thing such as making fast, easy money selling whatever they can online, they begin to get very good at it. And a whole economic ecosystem has sprung up to support those who either work full time as a professional or part time or as a hobby earning extra cash as an internet marketer, and the industry has become ever more streamlined.

And it’s true that a lot more people are interested in miraculous weight loss cures than they are your music, but given that people make so much money out of weight loss online and anything else you can think of probably with a lot less resources then you have - while you’re still thinking about how to quit your day job - kinda suggests there’s some things we can learn.

And so that’s what I’ve been doing. Watching and learning from the ways that marketing is carried out on the web for RESULTS.

As in money results.

And I don’t mean results for Bill gates or Radiohead or anyone who doesn’t need my help.

 

I mean for you, at the arse end of the music industry, in a sinking ship with the rest of us, working out how to turn a crust.

 

So you can focus on your music, and I will focus on getting you to the best place online to get paid for it.

Lets get back to John Reese’s traffic secrets. I think the thing about Traffic Secrets is that it’s done a radiohead. Or is it a led zep reunion? The point is, within the internet marketing and blogging world people are hyped up about his product.

People that are masters of hype are hyped. Why?

Well the whole point of this post was to highlight his Free videos.

He has 3 free videos totalling almost an hour of free material where he discusses several in depth online promotion strategies and techniques.

You should watch them because theyre great, they’ll teach you a lot . . .

But - If you want direct access to these free videos then you have to jump into our new artist community.

http://newmusicmarketing.com

 

It’s free to join, (currently the whole site is free but there’s not much happening just yet, early days – by August should be a different story)

So back to this massive launch campaign. The first thing I noticed when I heard about this was that a lot of top IM people were blogging about the free videos from their friend John.

 

What if you had a dozen top bands all telling their fans you had a new album coming out?

 

But it wasn’t just talking about the videos it was what they were saying. Needless to say the free videos were packed with info and insight, they were distinctly authentic and valuable in content. In fact its only in the last half of the last video he even starts talking about the product itself.

 

But it wasn’t just the content. These bloggers and IM gurus couldn’t stop talking about the quality of the presentation, as although video has been growing in IM for the last 18 months, the general consensus was that he had risen the bar in promotional videos for internet products with the standard of his presentation.

And this is what many of the marketers touched on: They were personally excited about the product.

What they had seen and been given free was of such high standard they couldn’t help but be connected with the product and feel confident about purchasing it.

And this is the world we’re now living in. In order to stand out, you have to demonstrate superior value in a way that is accessible before you even create the opportunity to realise significant revenue.

Interesting aside:

I saw an ad emblazoned “John Reese is a scammer and owes me $30,000” I clicked through to a sale page for . . .

 

Traffic secrets . . .

I guess that’s one way of advertising. I don’t see myself running a “Matt Turner is a scammer and Kurb ripped me off” campaign . . .

Sign up now! Kurb Online Music Management Clients are Getting $US250 Worth of Free Advertising

Yes that’s right.

When I say that Kurb is an outfit preparing artists for the future, I seriously mean it.

When I’m talking to potential clients I always emphasize that it’s not just the technology we have access to or our experience in digital and web 2.0 strategies.

It’s not even just deep awareness of opportunities that are becoming a reality due to the digital revolution.

It’s that me and my team – yes, that’s a team now as we welcome Altaf on board who will be our new specialist Myspace and Youtube promotions person, which means more time for me to work one on one with artists developing strategy and Altaf being the man who executes said strategies on Myspace and Youtube.

But as I was saying – I was stressing the point that we are the ones who are online day in day out ready to jump on top of the opportunites that are opening up everywhere in the digital economy.

Kurb is the digital early bird getting the juiciest worms online.

That’s why I’m really excited to be offering our clients a free $US250 facebook pay-per-click ad campaign.

I’ve touched on pay per click advertising before with google adsense (for content providers) and adwords (for advertisers) and how it is the most effective form of advertising due to the way it can be targeted and that you only ever pay when someone actually clicks through the ad to your website. That is you only pay when your ad has been effective in getting someone interested and you can see why this is the future of advertising.

100% of my marketing budget (which is fairly modest given that I am afterall, a marketing expert) I spend on PPC.

I also insist when working with clients that although ppc marketing, when you use your head a bit, can be extremely effective, you need a bit of sales nous.

Getting a hundred people to come to your website is only going to be effective if you understand how to convert that attention into value, which maybe as simple as selling them something, or maybe building a relationship thats a bit more complex.

The point is that all kurb clients are getting the opportunity for $250 worth of free advertising.

Did you know that could equate to up to 2500 targeted clicks through to your website? And don’t forget this is Facebook so you’ve got the middle class 18-35 market nailed. Gee what if that turns into 250 new fans? Not bad at all!!!

Of course further good news is that technical clouds we’ve endured attempting to launch our brand new artist community seem to be clearing, we’ve got Altaf on board taking care of Myspace and Youtube, The http://newmusicmarketing/ site should be launching in Beta next week SO . . .

If I were you I would get an email off to me at kurbpromo@gmail.com so we can start discussing your online strategy, pronto!

Packages that have just now reopened for the first time in 6 weeks start at

US$500 for a full 3 month online campaign

While we still have an ultra special starter pack deal for New Zealanders @

NZ$400 for a basic 3 month digital coaching consultation period


And of course for those are hearing what I'm saying and understanding how important it is for artists to get involved now with the kind of stuff I'm talking about - creating a dedicated online promotions and revenue strategy - we're launching a new artist community for resources and tools at http://newmusicmarketing.

It'll be free for an initial trial period, and then be $US37 p/month from that point though I may consider a special $NZ37 rate for kiwi muso's.
If you are one of my clients expect an update in your email soon giving you instructions on how to grab your $250 worth of free facebook advertising, and an update on how things are getting moving again with our expanded staff and new artist community.

Kurb is an online promotion company specializing in digital music marketing and artist management.

Follow our blog at http://musicmarketingblog.info for cutting edge web promotion as we launch http://newmusicmarketing.com - the exclusive artist community putting artists in control of their online promotion and revenue management.

Within New Zealand we also provide low cost and hassle free CD DVD duplication and printing as well as poster design print and placement in Auckland.

A Marketing Campaign Plan for an Online Music Service Launch

Wow Matt I hear you’re getting ready to launch your new artist community.

That’s right. I’m launchin’ it good and proper!

I have to, my clients probably think I’ve bagged off with their cash and I’m hiding out in Zimbabwe til the heat dies down.

So you’re going to be doing a campaign, a launch campaign?

Sure. I’m pretty confident with my strategy so I’ll let you know how I ‘m going to be doing my launch campaign:

Firstly you got to remember the product I’ve created is strictly limited to 100 people so it’s kind of exclusive – y’know instead of just trying to sell heaps of little plastic discs you’ve got to think of new ways to bring value to people and what that’s worth.

With the new artist community I just wanted the value to be exceptional in addition to the fact it is still a scarce commodity and that’s the main marketing point – persuasive value.

That’s not to say I’m stupid enough to let the thing try and sell itself.

Wait. Consider this. What if you as a musician did what I’m doing and decided to charge $40 per month to complete access to your work?

Limiting it to 100 people would be silly wouldn’t it?

Maybe Charging $40 would be a bit steep?

I mean if you had 1000 people paying $10 p/month to download everything you have and continue to do, as well as getting to make chit chat with the illustrious artist . . . well I wouldn’t be complaining.

That’s only one way of making money from content!

Lets get back to my marketing plan:

Email: Emailing all the contacts I’ve built up and discussed online promotion with.

Yes it’s going to take a whole night to organise my email list but I’m pretty sure this will be a cracker just in itself. Contacting at least a couple of hundred people who I’ve discussed providing service for to tell them we have a new service available at $10 per week AND we’re bringing back the $100 p/month deal and it’s sweeter than ever.

Of course I know what I’m doing with this whole “creating value” thing so I’m just going to be inviting people to join for free at first.


So being that this is my main strategy you can see the value of having a large amount of email contacts who are identifiable as already having expressed a direct interest in my work and then respecting them enough to allow them to check it out at first without paying.

Blogging:

As I’ve already mentioned, expect plenty of posts like this, framing my new product.

If your product is good you should be able to talk about it and tell stories. Stories that engage, like this story I’m telling right now that sort of compares my online service launch to an online album launch campaign but its not an album is it because albums aren’t worth anything and no one wants them so you better figure out what it is that YOU’RE launching that people actually want to buy!

Myspace:

Yup we’ll give myspace a go. If there’s one audience still on myspace its other musicians. And I have a rule with myspace that I only do a campaign if I’m really promoting value.

Facebook, forums and online PR

Publicity is a dark art and I will be happy with some neat, short little posts around some of the relevant gather points online – a few facebook groups, forums, local music communities, that should do it.

I might consider an online press release or maybe I might save that for a second launch once I'm happy with the initial user testing.

I’m actually trying to keep it low key because I can see some people thinking I’m trying to act like a scammy guru selling my secrets or something when I’m just trying to develop a more effective system that addresses problems artists are having right now – cheaply - but I simply don’t have the capital to go . . . look! All done! $37 p/month, all your problems are solved!

Adwords

Adwords is . . a perfect system, as I’ve said, it’s the beginning of the future of advertising.

Often I have compared the power of digital promotion to the Death Star. Awesomely powerful, but only to be deployed in operations once every preparation has been made.

And a perfect system demands a perfect product. A perfect target.

It’s like this. Until we’ve learnt how to make 10 clicks into 1 sale, I don’t want you to pay $5 for 10 clicks. There’ll be plenty of time for pay per click, Google’s not going anywhere.

Video:

Gotta do a video. I’m a hypocrite if I cant just push record and tell people what I think I’m doing and I expect that’s something an artist should be able to do each week.

What I wont be doing:

poster campaign: There’s probably about a million committed music acts in the world.

Probably only about 50 walk around up town Auckland.

CD promo: I’d love to write a song for the launch and treat it like a faux single release. But I’ll be struggling just with a video.

Affiliate marketing: My goal is not to become some rich dude reaping in profits from my “system”, it’s actually because I believe I can create a system that puts the artist in control of their online promotion and revenue management, with all the support they need.

If I can make it work, or actually any way of making a new band famous that doesn’t involves a reality tv show I’m sure I’ll be fine for cash.

Mainstream media: Sure you gotta spend money to make money. But I'm not that stupid!

Kurb is an online promotion company specializing in digital music marketing and artist management.

Follow our blog at http://musicmarketingblog.info for cutting edge web promotion as we launch http://newmusicmarketing.com - the exclusive artist community putting artists in control of their online promotion and revenue management.

Within New Zealand we also provide low cost and hassle free CD DVD duplication and printing as well as poster design print and placement in Auckland.

kurbpromo@gmail.com

lon tail, flat tail, free tail: free the music already!

The long tail is a term that describes the effect of a digital economy on the former impositions caused by actual physical retail stocks of products sucjh as books, CD's and DVD's that gave a lot of hope to the little guys in a new online marketplace.

But just recently there’s been more discussion – a Harvard Business Review article suggests the long tail won’t deliver a “music middle class” as described by hypebot:

http://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/2007/10/the-rise-of-the.html

from http://www.coolfer.com

Anderson's theory of niche-over-mass culture is based upon the belief that the mere availability of niche products spells doom for hits. Given the choice, he argues throughout the book, people will make different purchases. Not only are CD sales down, he wrote, but customers are "losing their taste for the blockbuster hits."
But consumers, Elberse has found, still opt for hits:

No matter how I slice and dice the customer base, customers give lower ratings to obscure titles. A balanced picture emerges of the impact of online channels on market demand: Hit products remain dominant, even among consumers who venture deep into the tail. Hit products are also liked better than obscure products. It is a myth that obscure books, films, and songs are treasured.

In the book, Anderson wrote that "we're seeing a shift from mass culture to massively parallel culture," or "millions of microcultures." But that doesn't appear to be the case. Mass culture is alive and well on the Internet. Consumers know the bad from the good. They know what's popular and they will gravitate towards the hits. Niches will continue to exist, and heavy users will continue to dabble in niches, but the level playing field of digital distribution isn't going to do away with mass culture.


from http://digitalaudioinsider.blogspot.com

Elberse touches on one of my pet themes -- that the ease of online distribution for virtually any piece of recorded music is resulting in increasingly fierce competition for the attention (and dollars) of listeners -- and provides some stats that spell out the improbability of meaningful digital sales for most "long tail" musicians:

“My research suggests that the tail is long and flat, and therefore that content providers will find it hard to profit much from it. It remains to be seen whether the new media environment will indeed make many previously unprofitable niche products profitable. Online channels lower the barriers to market entry for such products, and thus introduce the possibility of additional sales -- but they also lead to a flood of products all competing for consumers' attention. In my most recent correspondence with managers at Nielsen SoundScan, I learned that of the 3.9 million digital tracks sold in 2007 (the large majority for 99 cents each through Apple iTunes), an astonishing 24% sold only one copy, and 91% -- 3.6 million tracks -- sold fewer than 100 copies.”


But over http://www.mediafuturist.com

A post quoting the Long Tail's Chris Anderson on Prince’s little experiment with the daily mail is used to once again highlight – forget the flat tail, it'a all about the free tail!

“He says: "A) Prince spurred ticket sales. Strictly speaking, the artist lost money on the deal. He charged the Daily Mail a licensing fee of 36 cents a disc rather than his customary $2. But he more than made up the difference in ticket sales. The Purple One sold out 21 shows at London's 02 Arena in August, bringing him record concert revenue for the region. B) The Daily Mail boosted its brand. The freebie bumped up the newspaper's circulation 20 percent that day. That brought in extra revenue, but not enough to cover expenses. Still, Daily Mail execs consider the giveaway a success. Managing editor Stephen Miron says the gimmick worked editorially and financially: "Because we're pioneers, advertisers want to be with us..."


My own commentary is that we all know a single track is no longer worth 99c, I think it’s time for the acceptance that recorded music is inevitably moving toward free and that that should inform the discussions on what our best efforts to realise the value created by music and musicians will lie in the not too distant future.

My feelings are that we are in a era of great opportunity for artists and we should reflect on where else creating value online and with digital products, services and partnerships has been already proven to be significantly profitable for creators, and the “free tail” methods being used to do so.

Your Signature is a Great Web 2.0 Promotion Tool

In my last post here I was reviewing a musician’s blog and talking about how using a signature or a footer can be a really effective way of prompting people to take further action on visiting your blog, and of course email, forums, and other online communications.

Blogs and other forms of social media are driven by users generating content and drawing other users who find it and put value in it toward that content. This is called “pull” marketing and it mainly applies to the internets ability to draw other people toward you who are interested in what you have to say and perhaps, what you have to sell also - as long as they know that much!

But executing sophisticated online promotion is not treating people as if they’re stupid and trying to hard sell them on some product or service - it’s giving them a story, giving them a taste and putting something out there for them, then leveraging the attention created by your free content to be able to make them aware of the next proposition - the next event in the chain which leads to you as the artist getting paid.

This is why using a signature that you attach to your blogs, forum posts, messages, emails, comments etc. wherever appropriate can be an effective way of introducing your proposition to an audience without being seen to be using blunt traditional hard sell marketing.

I can blog about what ever I please, but that’s not going to stop me slipping in the fact that I do the cheapest DVD duplication in Auckland and New Zealand.

Of course you know I do heaps of stuff other than dvd duplication but you see I’m really focusing in on the dvd printing and dvd duplication because that’s where I create the most value, and the value is passed on to my clients in savings and to me in increased profitability.

Similarly, you might decide to follow my advice and just focus strongly on building up your email contact list as the first step of your online promotion efforts. So rather than being all like “We’re a band from blah blah and we make music that sounds like blah blah blah . . .”

You go straight for the throat all

DON’T MISS OUT! EXCLUSIVE FREE MP3 GIVEAWAY LIMITED TIME LIMITED EDITION – ENTER YOUR EMAIL NOW TO RECEIVE YOUR FREE GIFT!

DISCOVER NOW WHY THEY CALL THIS MAN MADAGASCAR’S MOST EXPLOSIVE NEW NOSE FLUTE TALENT. PLEASE ACCEPT THIS SONG AS AN OFFERING IN SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE WHO SUPPORT THE ENDANGERED MADAGASCAN POLAR BEAR

Or something like that.

Maybe you'd be a little more subtle but the point is you they're not going to know about this whole free mp3 when you join the mailing list thing if you don't take ample opportunity to mention it.

So I stopped including my footer/signature/"link family" ad thing at the beginning and end of each blog – mainly for my own sanity because I was actually trying to tone down my marketing to take the opportunity to improve the efficiency of my operation here at kurb – the result of that of course being a new artist community I am launching soon at

http://www.newmusicmarketing.com/

Also don’t forget this blog is also getting settled into it’s new home at

http://www.musicmarketingblog.info/



Now I'd like to point out that a really professional footer ad or signature thing would probably have a little graphic going on, the links are the most important as always, but ultimately I'd like to be using a lot more panels and banners that give off a snazzy visual vibe.

Okay so lets look at what I WAS working with:

Kurb is a media promotions company providing a regular blog on digital music promotion, marketing digital content and creating revenue from new media online.

Kurb also provides online promotion and revenue management services for musicians and artists internationally And the best value fast turnover physical media services in New Zealand including CD / DVD printing and duplication and poster services.

Our physical media services come with free graphic set up and support, free delivery, and free promotions advice and support for musicians.

http://www.kurb.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/kurbpromo
http://www.youtube.com/user/kurbpromo -
http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com
http://kurbpromotion.blogspot.com
http://www.squidoo.com/kurb

All the best with your project, from Kurb
For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo

DIGITAL COACHING AND ONLINE MANAGEMENT STARTS @ $NZ250 P/MONTH P/ACT



Oh no no.

Okay there's quite a bit wrong with that. First, obviously it's way too long, it just drags!!! And it's mainly too long because it's stuffed with stupidly useless anchor text especially this:

blog on digital music promotion, marketing digital content and creating revenue from new media online.

stupid. Pick a few keywords - sensible keywords - and stick with them!

As a musician that’s going to be your genre affiliations, your region, any appropriate subcultural or genre based reference points and maybe a handful of key acts that represent the concept of your sound. Narrow at down to the most important niche terms, defining your target, defining your niche.

And this is on the terms of your audience! Do you know anyone other than me who talks about free mp3's as “digital content” in everyday conversation? No. So say "free mp3's".

And all those links are just too much. Sure have links but remember its always about attempting to create value so provide links that create value – provide links to the good stuff, not just everything that could possibly matter.

Let’s have another go

Kurb is an online promotion company specializing in digital music marketing and artist management.

Follow our blog at http://musicmarketingblog.info/ for cutting edge web promotion as we launch http://newmusicmarketing.com/ - the exclusive artist community putting artists in control of their online promotion and revenue management.

Within New Zealand we also provide low cost and hassle free CD DVD duplication and printing as well as poster design print and placement in Auckland.

kurbpromo@gmail.com

Okay now that's better.

Blog review: Discussing an artist's blog.

Okay while we’re bloggasminginging lets start catching up with some of those posts I promised last week.


First we’ve got our very first Kurb blog review!!! I was doing some posters for Tono’s tour and went by his site blog at

http://www.tono.co.nz

I actually got a good vibe off his blog it took me a couple of hours to realise it was definitely worth posting about the examples of what he’s doing right.

Great design – he’s got a wordpress blog and he’s using it as his whole site as I described in a past post, because that’s how awesome wordpress platforms are.

Also looks really professional, looks like he takes himself seriously as an artist and to me that says the music is likely to be of a standard also.

When you’re used to seeing a lot of blogs like I have – its like myspace – you get real sick real fast of seeing the same old busy cluttered blog designs, and if you’re trying to implement a marketing strategy where getting traffic through the blog is part of a chain of events that will lead to leads and sales then you got to have clear focus on desired reader outcomes such as

SIGN UP FOR OUT MAILING LIST AND DOWNLOAD AN EXCLUSIVE FREE MP3!!!!


Tono’s using a classic blogger technique of making “flagship content” readily available - via a little dashboard that lights up in orange when you mouse over. That means it doesn’t matter how people end up on his site it’s easy to get to that page where you can find out all the basic information, extra content and back story about what this blog is and is all about without getting frustrated, bewildered and heading off because the ramblings have no context.

This is the thing I particularly find with blogs is that you never know how or why someone will find you and what page they will land on.

That’s why when I talked about bloggasming and wild unhinged blogging in my last post, well, that’s okay when you’re starting out because weird crazy posts are going to bring in visitors who are searching for weird crazy things if you know what I mean.

And I also talked about bad blogging habits like going off on a tangent which is quite ironic.

Back to Tono’s blog.

Tono’s blog also has a great voice, great narrative and storytelling – There’s a narrative, there’s stories coming through in Tono’s blogs. As a marketer we get drilled about stories. What are stories? Stories connect us to the person telling them.

There’s great examples, Tono reports on his tour describing venues, support acts etc. but he also reports on incidental events such as his journeys from place to place as he goes. There’s also associated content and themes which is something I encourage all my clients to do – connecting with themes outside of music. Tono’s got a number of reoccurring themes in his blog including some overt discussions on green politics.

You see it’s not about being safe and broad any more. You’re not going to sell a million records. You want to be connecting with that proportion of the population who are going to respond positively to your message on a number of levels. Where choice is so prevalent, you’ve got to go for a deeper connection with people than just having cool songs.

But now there’s one big issue I have with Tono’s blog and this is the kind of second tier optimisation that you start to recognise once you’ve got the basics right.

You see Tono has got the basics right and his blog looks lovely and it’s behaving as a proper blog should. But lets go back to the outcomes that I touched on before.

What are we trying to achieve here? Basically we’re trying to sink our hooks in by making a memorable impression and hopefully leaving the visitor with as much to take away as possible.


So there is a very high chance that the high proportion of casual visitors to Tono’s site are going to put 2 and 2 together like I did and realise Tono is a musician.

Instantly it begs the question. What does Tono’s music sound like? We need to hear this music immediately before we lose interest in a split second and decide to do something else.

Tono’s got a player there, but I just don’t think that’s enough! People got to know that they must check out this music!

It’s the most important thing

It reminds me of one other really important thing I really want to mention. Remember when I used to put my “link family” in every blog post? Most top bloggers – in fact most bloggers worth their salt full stop – will have some kind of signature or panel or banner or SOMETHING in each post that gemerally advertises the bloggers own products or services.

The big money bloggers will often have a free thing they are giving away, most usually an ebook, if you sign up to their email list. Sound familiar?

That little signature/footer thingee is a prime example of an area where you will be endlessly tweaking, just coming back every few weeks and saying . . .

In fact lets do a new one for me right now. Coming up next post.

online promotion and revenue on south park

“We thought we could make money on the Internet, but while the Internet is new and exciting for creative people, it hasn’t matured as a distribution mechanism to the extent that one should trade real and immediate opportunities for income for the promise of future online revenue. It will be a few years before digital distribution of media on the Internet can be monetized to an extent that necessitates content producers forego their fair value and more traditional media.”


This is essentially true and I wouldn't argue with it.

BUT there is already a small group of people who are making a 6 figure yearly income just from blogging!

It proves content producers can sit at home and earn a living. It's not impossible.

But this can take literally years of work. I know, Kurb's turning 4 later this year!

And although South Park suggests it take years before the digital economy has matured enough to support a large number of content producers, my honest feeling is that artists I'm working with now are building themselves into position that will favour them to be making triple figure incomes from online revenue sources by next year.

Our new music marketing forum is launching soon. It's going to be a private forum strictly limited in membership where you'll be given detailed instructions on each process involved in building your online entertainment empire!

And full premium clientele will also have access to staff who will carry out both day to day mundane tasks, support you directly in implementing aspects of your online promotion, and carry out specialized tasks such as graphic and web design.


TWITTER UPDATE:

Had an enlightened moment in regards to Twitter also.

Posting to a 140 character limit is the challenge of microblogging. If you find you have the ability to create value or stimulate conversation through a 140 character post, you could get a lot of leverage from twitter by cutting through the noise with some thoughtful statements.

For someone who isn't a great written communicator this could a lot less challenging than standard blogging.

But on the other hand for me, for whom written communication is a cornerstone of my marketing, it's a chance to tone down my rambling for a different audience who don't really want to delve quite so deeply into the realms of online promotion.

Preparing artists for the future: The meat in the digital promotions sandwich

www.kurb.co.nz website still down! two days now!!!!


If there wasn't a line of business out the door I'd be freaking out.


That website is like my instrument, I cant really make a living without it!


Just a recap on the last few posts - I actually realised my latest description of what it is we actually do wasn't too shabby so I thought I'd take the chance to cut the fluff and go over that again.



Remember, we don't specialize in overnight success. We specialize in creating exposure and revenue around content and growing a long term career in the music and related creative industries.




Our digital services are based on the following concepts:

Automation: We are experienced using a wide variety of exclusive software, services and techniques so we can maximise your exposure through many common internet channels, Myspace, Youtube, Google Searches and much more. Our focus is on targeted, useful, fan friendly interaction and functional, efficient content distribution, not thoughtless spam.



Implementation and Support: Often artists have specialised needs, that's what unique about Kurb. Our experience using all the latest digital and online trends means we work with you to establish all the elements of your online platforms for distribution and sale of mp3's and other digital products, your website, blogging, advertising platforms, p2p – everything you need to develop online as a serious artist now and in the future. There are also practical areas of photoshop, web coding, copywriting, profile design and other areas of consulting which we can support you with depending on the specific needs of the artists.



Coaching Strategy: Building a strategy starts to happen at least a month or two into promotions. Initially I answer artists questions and offer tips specific to the artist in developing habits that will produce a momentum – for example blogging advice is a biggie.



But once platforms are established and automated promotion tools are ticking over its time to really focus and examine the use of these platforms and tools into strategies based around certain goals, where we want fans to go, what we want them to do, and building hooks and propositions around those outcomes.



Research: Being ahead of the pack isn't enough for us – our unique and forward looking service is continually developing. New promotion tools, strategies, techniques and offers are becoming available as the digital revolution rolls on and I truly believe one of the best reasons clients should get involved with kurb is not just what we're doing now, but because we are the promotions company preparing artists for the future.





Also I'd like to add cross promotion to that. Because as we become a fixture in the music industry it's giving us the opportunity to access and create projects that increase exposure for my whole stable of artists.



People who are passionate about music are coming to me offering help and opportunities. While I'm pursuing opportunities to innovate and create platforms more suited to the modern music industry.



I'm developing kurb music as an entertainment platform for my artists as well as exploring CD projects.



For example, I have more clients in Melbourne than anywhere else now. Which gives me the opportunity to create a project focused on raising the awareness of artists I'm working with within Melbourne.




Close to announcing our first 50/50 deal with a local band!!!! Watch this space.






Mailbox blogging bonus round!!!!

Join Twitter. Don't ask me why, just do it.



When there's heat online, don't muck around, stake your claim early!

I'm not going to pretend I know why twitter is so wonderful, but that I have joined, because I have learned to recognise that when there is heat on the internet around a site, you make yourself a part of it.



If you weren't on myspace in 2005, 2006, you'd be kicking yourself.



If you weren't on facebook in 2007, you'd be kicking yourself.



And if you're not on twitter in 2008 . . . could be ow ow ouchies.



Don't forget little reverbnation to is still getting heat.





also wanted to tip you off about www.stumbleupon.com

the whole social media/social bookmarking scene is something I want to get you into in the future - it kind of goes hand in hand with blogging, but just like myspace or anything else you cant just sit there and wait for it to happen.



If you start bookmarking sites that other people think are cool as well, your "stumbles" (web pages you like) will increase in authority and that will include stumbling your own pages, I willl be stumbling my artists pages, as well as building networks of stumblers who support each other.



See? I learn a lot of stuff from doing marketing on the computer.



If you can get this right, it becomes very powerful when 500 people turn up on your site out of nowhere. Again, the result of this could be nothing. But if you have advertising on your site the result is likely to be $US5 if nothing else.



There are tonnes of sites like these but stumbleupon is really the big boy, so start there.





If you missed it: Bob Baker interviews Derek Sivers!!!!

Mr. Guerilla Marketing Vs. Mr. CD Baby!!!

Derek, Bless 'im, has been using the same material for years but it doesn't really take away from the fact that you got the two big guns of DIY music nattering for over an hour.

I was following these two guys way before myspace and their knowledge and understanding of the independent music scene is unparalleled.

http://www.bob-baker.com/musicpromotionblog/2008/05/derek-sivers-of-cd-baby-audio-interview.html

Ad supported music revenue rampage: Amazon associates etc.

Interested in making money off your music or other digital content? Kurb provides online promotion and revenue management services for musicians and artists internationally And the best value fast turnover physical media services in New Zealand including CD / DVD printing and duplication and poster services.


I WAS waiting to post about a bunch of stuff thats going on including youtube promotion and stuff but coming off the back of my big time $10 Adsense earnings this month as a blogger I've just embarked on an ad supported revenue rampage. I'm sure me being proud as punch of my $10 raised a few sniggers of indifference but now I've got my foot in the door I'm going for the jugular!

I earnt this money doing nothing other than what I'd do otherwise. Write on my blog. I'm wading into this big time to help musicians and other content creators get paid for what they do.

It's a brave new world.

Monetizing free content people. That's the name of the game. No money changes hands between you and your fan base theres no hard sell because theres no sale! Attention is the value that artists and creators offer advertisers.

So my first effort in ramping up my ad supported revenue earnings as well as knowledge and experience was taking the next step - into affiliate marketing, and signing up as an Amazon associate, so I can run their ads on my sites and blogs, and if any one clicks through the ad and amazon makes a sale I get 10% as commission!

you can check out my ad units here:

http://kurbpromotion.blogspot.com/

http://www.kurb.co.nz/

Now this code is 3rd party javascript which a lot of sites like myspace won't allow, not only because its easy to slip in something nasty but also the last thing myspace wants is YOU making advertising revenue of their site, because their site is designed for them to make revenue off you!!!!

And so similarly now AGAIN we're having a problem on wordpress!!!! Blogger is an immensely popular, useful and basic platform which allows pretty straightforward integration of this advertising stuff but all the action is on wordpress!

What's to be done? What I've done for myself and most of my clients is signed up for a free wordpress blog, when what I really need to do now is learn the free wordpress software platform and the technicalities of maintaining wordpress blogs myself because by using the software platform instead of the free online platform it allows you acces to a endless host of awesome free designs and plug in applications - just like facebook - yknow - that will allow you to add all kinds of functions to your wordpress and all importantly java boxes for us to ram full of ads!!!! arhahaha

Okay so back to these ad units.

Google serve thier ads based on relevancy to the content on your page and the demographics of the person viewing the ads it's all very clever, I guess it's why they're the biggest generators of ad revenue in the world - theyre very good at it, and of course they have all the data.

We have to recognise the expanding role that such data will play in connecting users and consumers with content and products. Yes big brother is watching. But he's really only interested in selling you something.

So like Google, Amazon offers a whole range of ad unit options and I chose the "Omakase" unit because it runs on the same premise of responding to the content and the user in selecting which products to display, and also like Google, you have to cross a $100 threshold before you get your first cheque, so if you're starting from scratch thats a good 6 months away as they only pay directly on $10 threshold to US based partners.

This was the point I started rampaging and adding google adsense and amazon associates to every blog and decided with the Kurb site doing so well as a result of my SEO work, it was time to tool that up too.

You see it's important to build and mainatain your relationship with your "true fans" over time but for every true fan - especially if I do my job well - theres going to 10 or maybe a lot more people who are only passing through or who are casual fans, who are not there to make any kind of investment in what you're doing, and if while they're checking you out there's an opportunity to make 20c, I'd suggest thats opportunity, because its only a matter of perserverance over time before thats happening 100 times a day.

That way the work I do, and other promotion spends you employ to promote your website - such as adwords for example which has become a marketing staple here at kurb - not only builds your exposure and brand, not only gives you the opportunity to connect with those few rare fans who will support you directly by purchasing your music and other related products and services, but allows you to recoup from less accurately targeted traffic who click away through ads.

Now Google is what I'll be using on my website because theyre excellent at connecting your traffic with little ads just for them, but for Amazon, and Ebay which also has a similar program which I will be checking out - to make you money its about connecting your audience with stuff theyre actually likely to want to fork out for and in the future I think smart bands working with smart people (like me! haha) are going to be able to put together offers featuring the kind of products (I mean just imagine anything on ebay) that the kind of people who love your music are just going to be snapping up!!!!



Andrew Dubber from new music strategies has just gone and opened his own online music store - why wouldn't it be an excellent idea for you to sell other music from your site and recieve a commission? THEN what you're actually doing is creating value as an OPINION LEADER!!!!

This is basically ad supported revenue madness!!!! Let's crank that content people, lets get thos platforms rockin' and lets monetize!!!

Now that we're stepping up the ad supported revenue onslaught delvinging into the affiliate game, you gotta realise theres still much more to come! Learning about CPM and CPA adds, lets not forget about paid leads like myfuncards that I discussed earlier that could be used to seriously leverage a committed fanbase into a decent earn.

I still don't know what a chitika minimall is nor have I checked out clickbank but once you can show decent data for the traffic on your site (100+ unique visitors per day) even more options become available from using more specialised and high reward programmes like and even selling advertising space on your site or blog to a locla business or auctioning it online!!!

Okay. I'm excited. I'm not saying cover your sites and blogs in huge ugly ads so they look cheap and nasty. I'm not saying ad supported revenue will create a windfall.

But for musicians who are willing to persevere with creating regular consistent content it might just be a lot more rewarding and a lot less painless than pushing those little plastic discs or hauling your show around every watering hole that will take you.


AD SUPPORTED MUSIC REVENUE IS SO HOT RIGHT NOW!!!

For more, check out Marc Cohen's Ad supported music central:

The Ad-Supported Music Central blog provides news, analysis and opinion about the market for free, listener selected, recorded music that is supported by advertisers. The blog is written by Marc Cohen, founder of Lirix, Inc., www.lirix.net, the developer of on-device dynamic ad insertion and a pioneer in the field of advertising supported music.

He JUST blogs about ad supported music. His bag is more about integrating and including advertising into the download of digital products such as mp3's but i'm telling you, it just shows the scope of this new paradigm!!!




Kurb is a media promotions company providing a regular blog on digital music promotion, marketing digital content and creating revenue from new media online.

Kurb also provides online promotion and revenue management services for musicians and artists internationally

And the best value fast turnover physical media services in New Zealand including CD / DVD printing and duplication and poster services.Our physical media services come with free graphic set up and support, free delivery, and free promotions advice and support for musicians.

All the best with your project, from KurbFor direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromoDIGITAL COACHING AND ONLINE MANAGEMENT STARTS @ $NZ250

spampaign ads, no biggie

Keep your blog fresh ya'll!!! Nothing to see here but a couple of posts from our new spampaign in NZ/Australia.

Like Seth Godin says . . . better to "start a conversation" as they say in web 2.0 marketing and make connections now then to wait til I really need them!!!!

I think there's something empowering about using your marketing to NOT scream "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR MONEY"

NEW ZEALAND TARGETED COMMENT

Hey Y’know Digital Promotion helps the environment AND the economy?

Promoting, selling and creating new revenue streams online requires no manufacturing process, and without physical shipment, creates no “carbon footprint”.

As a musician, digital products and services give you access to a global market, and the value that is created comes back to our local economy. Now you don’t need to have industry contacts - build connections directly with fans worldwide.

We’re encouraging New Zealand musicians to get out there, get online, and take their creativity to the world. Develop content on your own websites, develop your blog, develop and expand new ways to connect and create opportunities online.

The future for creative New Zealanders is just around the corner. Make sure you’re up to date with the latest online promo news and tips by subscribing to our digital music promotion blog here on myspace

or Check out our official digital music promotion blog and subscribe by RSS

New zealand digital and web 2.0 marketing services
Kurb online music artist promotion services
cheapest nz cd/dvd services
cheapest nz posters – free delivery

kurbpromo@gmail.com

AUSTRALIAN TARGETED MESSAGE

Hey just letting all the musicians on our list know whats going on with Kurb Music Promotion!

Interested in how the music industry is changing and learning how to create income online from your music? Then subscribe to our blog to be updated everytime we post!

Either here on myspace http://blog.myspace.com/kurbpromo

Or use RSS on our official blog http://kurbpromotion.wordpress.com

Digital promotion and commerce helps the environment AND the local economy.

Promoting, selling and creating new revenue streams online requires no manufacturing process, and without physical shipment, creates no “carbon footprint”. But as a musician, digital products and services give you access to a global market, and the value that is created comes back to your local economy. Now you don’t need to have industry contacts - build connections directly with fans worldwide.

A time when musicians will generate more opportunities and earn more revenue from downloads, advertising and partnerships online than from CD sales is approaching and Kurb is leading the way forward.

Our readers know that new opportunities, techniques and connections being made in new music media and behind the scenes, are changing how artists earn money now and in the near future.

On top of offering free advice on our blogs, we also offer online promotion services supporting musicians one on one with essential basic tools and strategies for the digital era starting at $200 p/month or $500 for a 3 month campaign and we also offer CD duplication and poster printing services alongside.

As a special offer we will be giving away 1000 CD’s and promoting heavily as a free download a CD project featuring bands we work with. Sign up now for a digital promotion package and you will automatically have a song included in this cd.

Thanks for your time, all the best with your music and please get me at kurbpromo@gmail.com

Please check out our site for more info and heaps more features and articles on online promotion.

http://www.myspace.com/kurbpromo
http://blog.myspace.com/kurbpromo
http://www.kurb.co.nz
http://nz.youtube.com/user/kurbpromo