Soul Punk Swing.com

Music Website Tips for Bands!

Got a band? Want a killer website just like this? (Well, hopefully not JUST like this, or we'll be forced to have our lawyers call your lawyers.) Well, follow these simple steps and you'll be well on your way!

1. Register your band's domain name! Nowadays, it's so cheap and easy to have YourBandName.com, .net, .tv etc. that you're fool not to have it. GoDaddy.com is one of the best, hassle-free and inexpensive registration services on the web!

2. Get a good hosting website! This is where your domain name points, and you usually pay a monthly fee for space and bandwidth. While there are some free web hosting plans out there, it's worth it to pay a tiny bit more and have plenty of space and bandwidth to do what you need. Once again GoDaddy.com has a good, basic website for on ly $3.95 a month! Abe Lincoln Story.com uses Powweb for all our hosting needs and we find them very reliable.

3. Build your site! We're not going to delve into all the nuts and bolts of web design. Instead, we point you to Webmonkey - a site run by Wired that's chock full of cool tutorials!

4. Add some music! What's a music website without some tunage?! You should have at least a couple of tunes so people can hear what you sound like. While you can embed mp3 files one by one, we've found that the simplest, coolest way to get people to listen to your music is with Wimpy Player! It may take a little work to get it up and running, but once it does, it adds excellent value to your visitors' experience!

5. Sell your Schwag!! There are lots of ways to run a web store, with all kinds of cool things! The easiest way to get started is by creating an account with CafePress.com.
Okay, a little advertising... If you click on the above link and open a store, we get a referral credit! But then you set up your page, do the same thing, and get referrals from YOU links! (It's just like that bad Kevin Spacey movie without the acne or the kid!) CafePress is cool because you don't have to have any inventory and you can sell wacky things like lunchboxes!!

Another cool tool for buying and selling is, of course PayPal. You haven't HEARD of Paypal?! Good - then click this link! Paypal!

You can set yourself up to buy and sell items and even take donations from 45 countries! It's a handy tool to have, no matter what you're selling, be it a CD or a tshirt.

Want to get your CD onto the world's biggest online indie music store? Check out CDBaby! For around $50, you get a barcode, shopping cart and web page with music samples. While that may sound like a lot, your CD is exposed to an international community that loves indie music - maybe someone will stumble upon yours! And, best of all, your fee includes digital distribution, meaning you can get your songs in iTunes, Napster, and other digital distribution sites!!

6. Promote your music! Sure, most of it you have to do on your own, but there is ONE service out there that will help spread the word - MusicSubmit! - this site will send your info to dozens of indie radio, websites, search engines and more for a low monthly fee. It won't do all the work for you, but it certainly helps get your presence known on the web!

Be sure you have a links page, so when you run across a band you like, you can trade links! Remember, the more links to your site, the higher your ranking in the search engines!

And don't forget to join MySpace, which lets you post music and connect with other bands/people for free.

We hope these tips help... any other comments or suggestions, please feel free to email!