Indie Music Marketing – Website Basics

Posted in Entertainment Website on November 30th, 2010 by admin

Many musicians are very creative and prolific; releasing albums by the minute and performing nonstop at local and regional venues. After a couple of years of this, the artist begins to realize that he or she is not going to get that big label contract. Some give up on the dream of being able to make a living with music. That need not happen and the artist need not starve forever.

The major music industry has been in decline over the past years due to the rise in the internet music industry. The internet provides artists with an alternative way of promoting their music with minimum investment while retaining the bulk of the income. Consequently, the need for major record labels is diminishing. Indeed, many major music artists are abandoning large record labels for the lucrative internet market. The problem is that most small and moderate indie artists do not know how to capitalize on the popularity of the internet marketplace and lack the knowledge and skill set necessary to launch a successful marketing campaign. Internet Marketing is not as difficult as it appears and the process can be broken down into several concrete steps.

The first steps is setting up a personal website. This is the store where you sell yourself and your music and the home page is the storefront. The home page; the first page a visitor sees, is the key to your internet success or struggle.

Your home page needs to be creative enough to capture the attention of the viewer in less than 30 seconds. If the viewer likes what is seen they will stay or bookmark the site for further review. If the viewer does not, they leave the site right away. This is called a “bounce”. A good web server will give you the “bounce rate” of your site, or how many people left your site in less than 30 seconds. If you have a high bounce rate, consider redesigning your home page to one more appealing to the average consumer.

Keep a few things in mind when designing your sites. Studies show that most people bolt from sites with lots of dark colors so think twice before using these. We all love black, but the truth is most people still associate too many dark colors with “negative” things. the average consumer is not a Goth and prefers whites and color. If you do use the “dark theme” look, your text needs to be light and your graphics must be spectacular, colorful and bright enough to capitalize on contrasts with the background.

Make your site is as easy to negotiate as possible. Your links need to be obvious and clearly state where they will take the visitor and go where they say they will go. Include a back back to the home page on each page you post. Nothing is more frustrating than getting “trapped” in a site and not being able to find home. Your user will eventually close the tab and never come back to your site. Furthermore, they will tell their friends and you end up with a bad rap from the start. Create a user friendly site and much of the battle is over.

Include samples of your music on your site. You do not need to have a whole album. One or two good samples at least 45 seconds in length will catch the attention of your visitor. You can use this single track technique to create visitor returns to your site by building anticipation for your next release.

Your sample clip should include the “meat” of the track. Long introductions that do not have good musical development may cause the viewer to get bored and leave the site. If you have not captured the listener in the first 20 seconds you are not going to: So take time setting up quality samples.

More images and fewer words is a rule I have learned and will pass on. People like pictures and videos. Show them, do not just tell them what you do. The highlight of my marketing debut was when my stats showed 80% of my visitors staying at one of my sites over an hour because of the addition of videos, images and directive captions. I have found that if visitors choose to stay, they will eventually choose to pay. Viewers who linger on your site will tell their friends about your music. The saying, “Word of mouth is the best marketer…” still applies in internet marketing. Use interesting graphics, images and videos.

Your text should be concise and to the point. Consumers do not like to read long texts nor small print. Remember to break up long text into shorter paragraphs. Long, rambling, and overly mysterious sentences confuse and can agitate your reader so make your point, quickly, before your consumer becomes angry and turns away.

An Indie musician with a track record of solid performances can improve the business aspect of his or her art. We indie artists do not fail because of our music, we fail because we do not know music business. We can enhance our business success by utilizing internet marketing strategies and tools successfully utilized by commerce for years to access the global marketplace.

A well designed website is the first step in a successful internet marketing campaign. A site that is attractive, user friendly, and well written can be the Indie musician’s best friend on the journey towards creating a successful music business.

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Best Gambling Websites

Posted in Entertainment Website on November 30th, 2010 by admin

With so many different online gambling websites out there today, it can be very difficult to find a site that is well trusted and safe, along with providing one of the best gambling experiences possible. The following paragraphs will help give you an idea of what to look for from a gambling website and how you can make sure you find the best ones without too much trouble.

The first thing that you are going to want to make sure of is that the website that you choose is a well trusted and reputable name among the industry. Just because an online casino has great graphics doesn’t necessarily mean that they will provide you with the safety and security that you are looking for. hen gambling with your own money, you always want to be sure that you and your finances are well taken care of and you won’t have to worry about where it is.

The next thing that we would recommend taking a look at is the gambling website‘s bonus offers. Many of the well established and top sites have the best bonus offers because they can afford to offer them to their customers. Websites like Bodog and Sportsbook.com offer unlimited bonus offers, while others offer excellent bonuses of as much as a $1000. It is important that you find a casino that gives you money back just for playing at their website.

The last thing that we are going to mention when searching for the best option is to look at their graphics and software. No one wants to have the casino experience online without having the graphics to bring them to life. In order to really enjoy your online experience, it is important that you are drawn to the games because of good graphics, rather than being bored by them. Many of the best gambling websites have the technology and software to bring these games to life and all you need to do is find them.

So all in all it is important to look at these three areas when determining which website to start gambling online with. Things like safety, bonus offers and graphics are just the main things we would suggest looking at. When you are further along in your search you can start looking at more of the specifics that pertain to your own wants and needs.

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Website Designing – The Amazing Popularity of 2D and 3D Animation

Posted in Technology Website on November 29th, 2010 by admin

Animation is quite a common term when it comes to website designing. With the development of technology animation has evolved to a great extent from hand drawings to the most popular forms of the computer that is 2D and 3D animation. It refers to the animated graphics used to create cartoons, movies, games and websites. For building an exclusive and amazing website it is imperative to hire a good web designing company who are specialized in graphic designing.

Today advanced software is used for complex and specialized designs and the designers should have proper understanding regarding the steps of graphic website designing so as to attain the intended results. The software provides various features that help the beginners to make an initial start with the website designing program. 2d and 3d animations have revolutionized the entire animation industry and its popularity and importance have been recognized by both the internet world and the entertainment sector.

Differences between 2D and 3D designs

Animation is popularly categorized into two chief categories that is 2D and 3D and basically these two differ on the grounds of dimensions. These animation tools help to communicate faster and portray complex ideas into virtual reality. 2D animation tools are widely used for designing a website and the designers require great artistic skills to develop an amazing creation. In 2D animation, everything appears in a 2 dimensional platform and the pictures appear to be flat without any depth, offering only one perspective. Object that are created here are usually without the soft shadows that appear in real life and the colors that are used do not have a varying shade. But till today many web pages are created using 2D designs. In 3D animation the objects appear in a 3 dimension platform and they have a depth and offer multiple perspectives. They have shadows; reflections that are observed in real life appear to more practical and lively.

To create powerful animated objects, the web designers have to be astute in various fields like creating characters, soundtrack, the story board etc. with the advent of the computer everything has become very easy as a wide range of animation software are available in the market. They play a big role in website designing when it comes to creating attractive games and other objects and to become an expert at 2D processes, one has to be familiar with Flash. This particular software helps you to compose the images and animate them the way you want and once it is complete, the format can be released on the internet. 3D software has features that provides views from different dimensions and has the ability to visualize the movements and create flawless images. Objects that are created using this technique create a lasting impression on the viewers.

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Top 7 Reasons Why You Should Have a Wedding Website

Posted in Technology Website on November 28th, 2010 by admin

At this day and age when technology is easy, fast and within-reach, many couples are becoming more fascinated with the idea of maintaining a wedding website. Since websites are easy to set-up nowadays and hosting fees are quite reasonable, there is an increasing number of couples who decide to set-up their own wedding website.

Why have a website for your wedding?

1. Since the internet has attracted more and more visitors from around the globe, this is the easiest way of keeping your family and friends updated. By putting the details of your wedding from the start of the planning and as you progress towards the day itself, you are allowing your family and friends to be well-informed.

2. There are many website hosts that offer guests to RSVP via wedding websites. Responding seconds or minutes after receiving the invitation is possible and you don’t have to wait for snail mail to arrive at your doorstep. Most websites have tracking and review features which are utilized once an RSVP is received by the system. You can see this by logging into your website.

3. Creating wedding gift registry on your website is also a good feature to look at. This feature enables couples to list the gift items that they wish to have without having to leave and/or create another dedicated website. It will be easier for your guests also to pick the gift that they want to give you and at the same time you check the list and see which items have already been selected.

4. A wedding website should not be too difficult to create online. Nowadays it is fast and easy to create a website that can be built from scratch. You have many options to choose from such as templates, special features, music background and many others, without even going to other websites for additional resources.

5. Another reason why wedding websites are great to have is because it’s universal. Creating pages upon pages of your stories and posting them minutes after can reach your family or friends from afar. You can also ask them to write testimonies by providing a page for your guests to write.

6. If you love blogging, don’t look further since there are many wedding website hosts that provide a blogging platform within their program. There you can write your regular wedding updates such as activities from planning, to scouting for dresses, to going to the church, to talking to the caterer, and so on and so forth.

7. Wedding website hosts/providers have also included social networking that allows many couples to exchange tips, guidelines and advices to other couples who are just starting with their websites. It is advisable that you avail these features [forums or message boards] so you’ll have an idea how others approach their wedding planning activities.

A wedding website is a great platform for keeping yourself, your family and friends updated from the onset of your wedding planning to the last minute of your unpacking from your honeymoon. There are so many other reasons why couples prefer to have their own wedding websites, but the idea is to keep the memories and share them with the people who are important to them.

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