Greetings... if you didn't already read items 1-10, please see the first 2 post in this series.
If you want to increase your exposure as an artist, get heard more, increase your downloads and streams, the please read on for the next five ArtistServer tips. Feel free to ask questions or post comments.
11)Use your ArtistServer shortcut link – Each artist on the site has a shortcut link that points at their site. Any time you want to post or publish your link or even if you want to yell it across the room – your shortcut link should always be used. What is a shortcut link? Well, let's say your artist name is “Cool Music” - you could then create a shortcut link in your artist profile (in the My Account area) that looks like this:
www.ArtistServer.com/CoolMusic – which is much easier for everyone to remember than:
www.ArtistServer.com/artists/index?a=2012
If you want to change or check your shortcut link – login to the site, then enter the My Account area – and click on Artist Profile – on this screen you may enter your shortcut link.
12)Adding Artists to your Favorite Artist Links – Both artists and members can link to each other and have the links and comments display on the artist's and member's sites. For artists the list is called 'fans' and for members the list is called “Favorite Artists and Friends.” The reason why you'd want to consider this, is that cross linking is always a good way to promote because it adds you to other artist's sites. After you add the artist, contact them and let them know you enjoy their music and that you linked and ask if they could check you out and maybe link back. It's called networking!
13)Do a Review trade – Here we have another form of networking – doing review trades. There are a few ways to do a review trade. Version 1: you review other peoples music and then later on, contact them and see if they would be interested in reviewing some of your songs. Or Version 2: you visit a discussion board/forum and announce that you'd like to do some review trades. Either way, it's a good idea to have already given a few reviews – just in case the person wants to check and see if your reviews are valid. There 'are' some people out there that take advantage of this and write 'fluff' reviews – so make sure you really listen to the song – be honest – and try to offer suggestions and point out what does work instead of just stating what doesn't. This is also a great way to get started in a forum – you join, introduce yourself, make a few posts, then hit the community up for a review trade. We all enjoy feedback – so treat others how you want to be treated... write some reviews!
14)Design your site – At ArtistServer, you have several ways to customize your site. We give you tools for designing your pages, picking colors, adding content and even a collection of settings for you to toggle on or off so your site doesn't look empty because you don't wish to use some part of your site.
So – how do you use these tools? What can they do? For starters, they won't make you look great unless you apply some good design concepts, nice colors and good layout. If you want some help in selecting colors – here is a great tool: http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
One aspect of the “site designer” that may need some additional explanation – is the “skin locking” option. You may or may not have noticed the item in the main site menu called “Site Skins” - if you click on this, you'll have the option of changing the way the site looks by selecting a new skin. Since each site visitor can select what skin they want to use, there's a chance that your artist site's design could clash with the colors in some of the skins we offer. If you want to avoid this, you can “lock down” the skin to the one of your choice. This means your artist page will look the same to every user because you'd override the user's own skin setting with your own. You can also set your artist site so it always uses the skin that the user currently has selected.
Whatever you do, be sure to check out the site designer in the My Account area and try experimenting with your site. If you need assistance w/ colors and design, stop by our forums – there's usually a few people around with sharp Photoshop skills.
15)Write a tutorial/article or concert review – This item may not seem like it would help maximize your exposure, but if done will, it definitely could bring more traffic your way. But what would you write? Here are some suggestions: a concert review, a product review, interviews with other artists, tutorials on how to create certain ideas in a sequencer or how to perform some aspect of one of your songs. The idea here, is to get your name out there – get people interested in your art and your perspectives – and to be proactive in the community. Just try to use clear and easy to read words and try to avoid slang – we have a truly international population on our site and while most speak/read English, it's always a good idea to consider the readers.
