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and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own and I do it for free :)

Target Fan Profile Checklist

From your 10 true fans (who tend come to gigs) and 10 other loyal fans, create a target fan profile of your ideal fan by investigating their similarities. Use social media and the art of conversation to extract the information, you will soon build up an intimate understanding of your target fan :) Here are a few ideas:

• Where do they live, is location important to you? Postcode information can be helpful!
• Do they live in a little village or a big city?
• Where do they hang out? Birds of a feather flock together ;)
• What about climate, is that an issue?
• Age (average & range 25 - 60), sex (males% females%) and marital status?
• Occupation and education? Income is difficult to acquire!
• And other demographic factors like, habits, attitudes, tastes and moral standards?
• What is their fashion style? Where do they buy their clothes?
• What is your target fan’s general personality like?
• Their behaviour and life-style choises, do they buy their music from iTunes and listen to it on their iPhone?
• How do they normally listen to music?
• Are they consistently active users of social media, do they have a favourite like twitter?
• How many friends/followers have they got?
• If they work, are they on the net at lunchtime, what time, when?
• When (what time of day) are they active on social media?
• What type of internet connection are they using?
• When you release a new album, are they excited - in what form do they buy it?
• How did they find out about your band?
• Is there a third party online/off-line who recommended them?
• Do they look for and talk about other independent blues bands?
• Are they listening to and following other blues bands? - who are they?
• Are they knowledgeable champions of blues music?

Got an email from PayPal today:

Dear UnsignedBandPromotion,

Thank you for referring JACK HOFFMAN to PayPal. Because JACK HOFFMAN just signed up for a Premier or Business PayPal account, you are now eligible to receive a Merchant Referral Bonus.

Here’s how it works:

As soon as JACK HOFFMAN has used PayPal to receive a total of $200.00 USD in payments, you will receive your initial bonus of $1.00 USD, which will be deposited directly into your PayPal account.

In addition, once you’ve received your initial bonus, you will receive a residual payout based on the total amount of JACK HOFFMAN’s PayPal payments for 12 months after JACK HOFFMAN’s initial PayPal account creation.

PayPal encourages you to assist the new merchant get started with their account so you can get your money faster.

Yours sincerely, PayPal xx

Do you know, I’ve never received a fucking penny and I’ve been an affiliate for ever! Maybe it’s because I’ve never assisted the new merchant with their account? But I doubt that.

Anyway, if you want a PayPal Merchant Account - Click Here.

Oh BTW,  Jack Hoffman isn’t his real name and I can’t see peoples Accounts!

Measure Website Performance - Yahoo! Marketing Dashboard

Chris and Rich from the The Refinements contacted me last week looking for a link from UBP’s link page. I’m not really keeping that page up-to-date, so, I thought I do a little blog post about them :)

The Refinements are a six piece ska tribute band band from London who, according to their blurb, play unadulterated two tone from the likes of Madness, The Selecter, Bad Manners, The Beat and The Specials. Band members are: Alan - vox. Anthony - bass. Chris - keys. Paco - sexy Sax. Rich - drums. Sean - guitar. Who’s the bird on the trumpet? Judging from their videos, they put on a polished and professional performance that is totally upbeat and absolutely British mod culture - Brilliant :)

The Refinements have played functions, parties, festivals, pubs and clubs accross the country from Farmyard Party Festival (Yorkshire), to The Banbury Club (Birmingham) and The Poison Bar (Basingstoke). And they have a long list of testimonials from the likes of Ronnie Barbour at BBC Three Counties Radio who says The Refinements are, “Fantastic… Magnificent.” …True, they are.

Hook-up on Twitter: @therefinements

I was recently introduced to a young local alt. rock pop-punk band called Run To Me. The band members: Adam Blake - vox, rhythm guitar. Charlie Wescombe - drums. Josh Poole - bass guitar. Danny Harvey - lead guitar. all hail from the Bracknell Forest area of Berkshire.

I was very struck by how much I gelled with their sound, it reminded me of another band. Thinks. Yep, then it came to me; I think Run To Me sound a little like my good friends Menendez who are a post rock band from Farnborough!

Compare Menendez’s Beef Jerky (whos opening line is "Come To Me" - Spooky) to Run To Me’s Too Late To Pretend, see video:

Visit Run To Me on the Internet

Myspace
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Unsigned Punk
ReverbNation
EP on BandCamp

Good Luck Guys

TURN UP THE VOLUME
Unsigned Band Promotion
UnsignedBandPromotion.com
Helping musicians and artists get their websites noticed by fans, search engines
and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own.

I was talking with Dan, a friend, about making money from his band’s website - which is in desperate need of updating BTW amigo ;) This is what I basically said during our conversation, “Dan, the main factor in making money from your band’s website is getting loads of incoming traffic; selling stuff from your website is a numbers game, the more visitors you get, the better the chance of a favourable outcome. Successful ecommerce websites also attract repeat visitors - as first time visitors often don’t buy. It’s quite easy to get the visitors to return by giving them high quality, relevant content and by creating the right environment; yeah, it really is that simple! Then it’s just a matter of constantly fine-tuning and updateding your website until you get a decent level of sales.”

“Of course you’ve got to have something to sell other than your music; T-shirts are a very popular product, and they’re a good way to advertise your band at the same time; Rachel should be able to come up with a brilliant design. The Eton T-shirt Company 60 High Street, Eton, Berkshire, SL4 6AA, are a good local T-shirt printing and design company! They said to me that they’d print short runs to keep the cost down. Sales can be made from your website by using PayPal. A couple of online T-shirt companies that make it easy to set up an online store are CafePress.co.uk and Spreadshirt.co.uk.”

I would recommend Spreadshirt. Oi Dan, PUNKS NOT DAD is my featured band’s T-shirt shop :) …actually it’s easy to create an attractive shop like theirs with Spreadshirt.

Spreadshirt’s YouTube Channel

Spreadshirt’s YouTube Channel is worth a gander, some of it’s in French and German, but there is English too! I think the main advantages with using this type of online store Dan, is that there are no costs, it’s free to get up and running :) they offer an extensive range of quality apparel - no to be sniffed at - and most importantly, Spreadshirt handles the processing, customer service, payments and shipping, meaning, the only thing you’ve got to do is the initial setup. I’d also recommend that you run the shop using Spreadshirt’s platform (i.e. YourBandName.spreadshirt.co.uk - you don’t have to have your own website people), it’s easy to create a distinctive look and feel by adding your own header and footer graphics.

Go on Dan, open your own free online T-shirt shop now! NOTE: go to nav. tab SELL then Open a Shop for more information on their website - Let me know how you get on and I’ll give you a shout out - Good Luck :)

In Conversation With Bands
Unsigned Band Promotion
UnsignedBandPromotion.com
Helping musicians and artists get their websites noticed by fans, search engines
and the music industry in half the time they could do it on their own.

Where To Post Your Gig Dates & Gig Resources

Playing live gigs is very important for music marketing

1. BBC Music Going Out goto [IN YOUR AREA]: the latest music news, reviews and features in your area. Plus: BBC 6 Music - Gigs. [UK]
2. Alive® entertainment guides are a series of monthly local and regional multi-media magazines, published continuously since 1993 and providing unrivalled free coverage of a wide range of entertainment and leisure persuits for Young and Young Middle Aged (Y/YMA) readers.
3. Aloud.com Online tickets.
4. Ents24 Tickets UK entertainment guide, covering live music, comedy, theatre, shows and days out.
5. Gig Events Guide UK The free online Gig Events Guide is provided to enable the independent music industry to advertise their UK gigs or events.
6. Gig Guide Ltd UK Gigs, band listings and music information… it’s got the lot!
7. GigMaven Streamlines the booking process for musicians and venues. [USA]
8. GigsWiz A ticketing company for venues and promoters that pays artists to promote ticket sales online, providing instant and seamless updating and synchronization across all social media platforms. (UBP: a bit of an annoying website, sorry guys!)
9. Lemonrock a dynamic live music gig guide updated directly by 1000s of bands, artists and venues.
10. London Gigs they’ve got a big list of London venues.
11. National Gig Guide for live music gigs and events across the UK.
12. NME.COM :)
13. Rave Magazine Publish your press releases, gig listings, classified ads and more…. all for FREE!
14. SplitGigs a social network that helps emerging bands or musicians find gigs to play, through a simple but highly effective idea: the "SplitGig" i.e. I let your band play at my gig, then you return the favor by letting my band play at your gig.
15. Ticketometer Lets concert organizers create shows that only take place if a minimum number of tickets are sold. Propose a concert first and book it after selling tickets – the audience has your back. [USA]
16. Tourdates A gig listing website for signed and unsigned bands.

Sell Your Music Online – Digital Music Distribution

There are loads of websites that give bands the opportunity to sell their music online. Watch out for Terms & Conditions and costs!

1. CDbaby is one of the most popular Websites for selling your music.
2. Emubands a digital distribution service which allows unsigned bands and artists to sell their music through major online stores such as iTunes, Napster, HMV Digital, Virgin Digital, Tunetribe…
3. INgrooves Digital distribution of music. Global distribution service, access to over 400+ online and mobile partnerships all over the world.
4. IODA Independent online distribution alliance. Comprehensive services for record labels, physical distributors, artists, and filmmakers.
5. ONErpm A global digital music distribution service and a direct-to-fan social commerce solution for musicians and record labels. Sell Your Music on Facebook. Distribute to iTunes.
6. Overplay is a music Website dedicated to the promotion and exposure of unsigned bands. It’s a full blown Website that offers a good chance to sell your music online, and yes there is a growing music community.
7. PayLoadz A secure Digital Goods eCommerce service for anyone to sell downloadable goods online - Sell Downloads - Click Here.
8. Spotmeup Simple Spotify distribution. Free way of adding your own music on Spotify.
9. Trackseller manages paid music downloads for musicians of any kind and all around the world. Buying music from trackseller means buying directly from the artist. Trackseller lets you add a buy download now-button to your website in minutes. Upload files, add pricing - ready for sale …that’s what They say, anyway ;)
10. TuneCore sell your music, not your soul (good strap line)! Get your music into all the leading digital stores: iTunes, Spotify, eMusic, AmazonMP3, Google Play… fast and easy, and keep all your rights.

Sell Downloads with PayLoadz

PayLoadz offers another outlet for bands to sell their music online as a download. There is a free demo account so you can try, before you buy :) I’m an affiliate I hope that doesn’t put you off! The Payloadz platform supports PayPal, Google Checkout, 2Checkout, Amazon Payments and TrialPay - the coice makes it easier for both you and your fans to use ;)