Let's say you have a band, you have a name, but you need a web presence. How do you come across as professional?
Well, the first thing you should do is try to grab your band name url. Rock Star Mom has been around the online block a few times. She was there when CompuServe was the only game in town, then when AOL came online, when Netscape first launched its web browser, when blogs were born, before MySpace (gasp!), etc. The one constant is that the free "web" ie, your own url, will never go out of style.
Now, since most starting bands have a definite lack of resources, you want to find the host with the cheapest cost but the best service...
I have always used www.GoDaddy.com and I continue to recommend it. Depending on the site name, it is less than $10 a year to get your domain, an email address with 25meg storage with a great web based interface, and a five page blog, which is just fine to get your band web page started out of the box. This is just a "no brainer." You look professional right out of the box. In a future post I'll talk about how you can use other web services, but you do need the url first.
- So, go here: www.GoDaddy.com
- Type in your choices into the search box to see if the domain is open.
- Sign up with a credit card.
- Fill out your site with their blog software (or point the url to another if you know what you are doing) by putting up information that should be on your website. (Click here for what should be on your rock band website and click here for what should NOT be on your rock band website.)
Now, once you have your own url, you need to go down the musical aggregator list and post your band name and a brief bio (if you have a logo and pictures, great, if not, just put up text and I'll put up future posts on this):
- www.purevolume.com (I love this site! Clean, no nonsense interface, a fabulous way to find local gigs! Rock Star Parent will do a complete review soon.)
- www.myspace.com (Despite problems, you gotta have it. We'll discuss how to promote through it in a later post.)
- www.garageband.com (This is THE most confusing mixed up site ever... but...)
- www.ubl.com
and
- local directories available through local alt weekly newspapers, ie, The Boston Phoenix.
Make sure you put pointers back to your "official" band website.
In addition, depending on where you are on your band timeline, you should check out Sonicbids. More on this later.
