While there are hundreds of great ways to enhance your presence online as an artist, there are many common mistakes that musicians make that actually turn away potential fans. Avoiding these mistakes and measuring the success of your online presence is now a very important component of any online music campaign.

First, make sure that your music is easily accessible on your site since that is why people are visiting your website in the first place. Don’t bury your music under a tab or behind a link. Visitors to your page are not necessarily looking for a blog post, picture or tour dates. They are likely there for your music first and other content second so make sure your music is front and center. If your visitors can’t easily find what they are looking for in their initial visit to your site, they are going to leave your page.

Many artists and their websites have their music set on “autoplay.” Surveys have shown that most Internet users find this feature to be annoying. Not all site visitors are in a location where listening to music is possible, nor do they want to hear the same song for the 100thtime every time they visit your website, refresh the page or return to your homepage. Playing your song automatically also distorts your play counts because thousands of hits will translate into thousands of listens when your visitors might be stopping your song right away or not listening to it at all. On the other hand, if you don’t set your songs to play automatically, then you know that each play can from an authentic and interested fan.

This seems simple, but often goes over looked: make sure to test and update the links on your page.  Otherwise, it looks like you are just too busy to keep up your own site.  This is one of the most common errors that people make so take time to make/update your website.  You want to appear as professional as possible and having current information available says a lot about your seriousness as an artist.  Have your friends test the links also and double check the links in your newsletter before sending because the last thing you want to do is send it out twice.  Make sure to test your email as well.  Bounceback e-mails are very common, and you do not want to miss out on important e-mails from fans, labels or other businesses in the music industry.

Interaction with fans is most important, and if you are not building an email fan list, you should start today. Your fans need a way to contact you, and you need a way to keep in touch with your fans.  Email has quickly become the preferred format. Many websites have contact forms directly on the site for either messaging the artist or joining a mailing list.  Contact forms are becoming increasingly popular (instead of just listing your email address) since it avoids spam or robots sending you unnecessary e-mail.

In addition to the music, it is important to invest your time putting up photographs of you and the band.  Hire a professional photographer or have a friend take high quality pictures of the band during one of your gigs.  Seeing live photos from concerts will get fans excited and perhaps even motivate them to attend one of your shows in the future. Pictures are valuable content to support your music and uploading photos is a great way to keep fans coming back to your site.

Also focus on keeping your website professional, even if you are using just using a social media profile alone to represent your music.  Some artists have very long posts, random pictures, funny stories or other information that can be tiresome to read or make the site look disorganized.  Keep your biographical information short and to the point, and make sure the information on the rest of your page is relevant so that your site looks inviting. Consider your online presence to be your musical resume. Keep it short, simple and remember that sometimes “less is more.” If you have old content, random information or anything that is not directly related to your musical career, it should be removed.

Lastly, if fans are able to buy your music directly from your website, make it obvious.  Many sales are often lost because the option to buy is unclear or difficult to find. Do not be afraid to ask for the sale.  Your fans might just start responding.

Greg Gerla

greg@audimated.com

audimated.com