Our friends at Bandzoogle have released a free, 30 page ebook for bands and artists considering building their own promotional web site. You probably won’t be surprised to find some ads for their web building services in the book, but the information is precise and useful whether you plan to use them or not.
Building Your Website: A Step-By-Step Guide For Bands And Musicians covers topics like site navigation, what you need on your home page, the importance of a full bio page, how to spice up your tour page, why you need video on your site, how to set up an online store, and more.
It’s a quick read, and should be valuable to anyone asking themselves whether they might be able to create a site on their own, or take over managing it from someone else.
Social media is clearly an important element in any artist’s web presence, but with Facebook (in particular) changing how pages display on a whim, it may not be wise to count on someone else’s site as your primary portal online.
Bandzoogle, popular self-service web and domain hosting company, has acquired Onesheet, a similarly-situated company based in San Francisco.
While Bandzoogle offers artists and bands the ability to build a web presence with anything from simple, templated web sites up to fully-customized sites for a recurring monthly fee, Onesheet is focused on basic one-page sites, with easy connectivity for current social media platforms. Their services are also targeted at different segments of the entertainment industry; Bandzoogle – as the name suggests – is designed for bands, while Onesheet has been marketed towards individual performers.
David Dufresne, Bandzoogle’s CEO, says that they will continue operating Onesheet as a separate entity.
“Onesheet is a great product that tens of thousands of artists and entertainers already use. For artists whose major focus is creating content on their social networks, Onesheet is the fastest, easiest and free way to create a permanent, mobile-friendly web presence. We also believe the Onesheet product is a perfect fit for actors, comedians and the broader entertainment industry.”
The Onesheet site is currently down for some redesign, but anyone interested in their services is invited to sign up now and be ready for the upcoming relaunch.
Onesheet founder Brenden Mulligan is well pleased with the new home for his brainchild.
“The Bandzoogle guys have been leading the charge in helping musicians set up their own website for as long as I’ve been in the music business. There is literally no better home for Onesheet, and I know they’ll massively grow its value, as they’ve proven they can do with their own products over the past few years. I’m thrilled, and our users are in very good hands.”
Full details about Bandzoogle’s services can be found at www.bandzoogle.com.
Our friends at Bandzoogle have shared another set of critical factors for artists and bands to consider when creating or managing their web sites. This contribution comes from Dave Cool, Director of Artist Relations at Bandzoogle, and a recognized expert on online marketing.
The Magic 8: Essential Menu Options for Your Band Website
When you’re building your new website for your band (or just doing a bit of cleaning up), one of the most important decisions you’ll need to make is what main menu options to have. In this blog post we’ll go over which main menu options are essential for your website, how many menu options to have, how you should name them, and how to decide which sections are essential for you to have a complete website.
Make Navigation Easy
The key thing to keep in mind when deciding on your menu options is to make navigating your website easy for everyone who visits your site. And those visitors can be different persons and have different goals for visiting your website.
They might be loyal fans, who are just coming to read the latest news and check out the tour dates. They might be potential fans, who want to hear one or two tracks, read your bio, maybe buy your downloads or join your mailing list. They might also be industry people (labels, promoters, bookers, etc.) looking for specific information, or a blogger looking for a picture they can use, or a short version of your bio.
The best way to keep navigation simple and quick is to limit your main menu buttons to roughly 8 choices. You can push that to 9, or even 10, but after that, it starts to get really messy. On the flipside, if you only have 5 or 6, that’s fine, but less than that, chances are you’re leaving out some key information and content from your site, or that some of your sections end up being too cluttered.
Where should the menu be?
We’re big fans of nice and clear horizontal menus at the top of the page, which can be under or over the header image. We’re less enthusiastic about vertical, side-bar type menus because our brains are getting used to tuning out side-bars because that’s where ads and static widgets are usually found on most popular websites.
One Clear Purpose Per Section
When creating your menu options, a good rule of thumb is to have one clear purpose per section of your website. So on your Bio page, don’t add a Fan Forum or a Guest Book. On your Calendar page, don’t add a blog. If you have certain features/elements to your site that are important, they should have their own section.
What’s in a name?
When naming your main menu buttons, remember to keep it simple. People have very short attention spans, and not a lot of time. If they have to think about what content *might* be in a certain section of your site because the name is fancy/cute/artsy, chances are, they’re going to skip it. So stick to names like “Home”, “About”, “Music”, “Shows”, “Store” and avoid vague names like “Experience”, “Discover”, “My World”, etc.
So which menu options should you have on your website? Here’s the Magic 8, the eight that we think are the most important:
The 8 Essential Menu Options for Your Band Website
1. Home
Your Homepage is arguably the most important page on your website. It’s where people will most often land on your site first. This is where you can help guide people to which information you want them to see, and what action you want them to take. It is important to have it linked in your main menu as people often want to browse back to Home before exploring other sections.
On your Homepage you should include a short bio, a music player, your latest news, a strong call-to-action (to sign up to your mailing list, or to buy your latest album), and social media links. For a more detailed look at Homepages, check out our blog post “6 Essential Elements for Your Band’s Website Homepage”.
2. About/Bio
Next up is your “About” or “Bio” page. This is important for potential new fans to get to know your background, as well as for media and industry people to get your story. It’s important to have a few different versions of your bio (long and short), as conferences, festivals and media outlets have different needs. For some tips on writing a bio, check out our post “5 Key Elements to a Solid Band Bio“.
3. Music
Seems like a no-brainer, but some artists don’t put an actual “Music” section on their site because they already have a music player on their Homepage. You should always include a music section on your website. This is where you can include info about your full discography, showcase your album covers, have a free song for download, and you can even include lyrics in this section.
A music player is essential to have on your site, but give people the opportunity to get even more information about your music with a specific “Music” section. Also, don’t call that section “Media” as this can be confusing (is it a Press page for the media? Is it photos, videos, music?).
4. Shows/Calendar
Another essential section to have on your website is a “Shows” or “Calendar”, or “Tour” section. Make it really easy for fans to get info about your upcoming gigs, with details on showtimes, cover charges, opening bands, and even directions to the venues. A nice added touch to a “Shows” page is to showcase one of your best live videos, so people can get a taste of what to expect if they come see your show.
5. Photos
It’s no secret that fans love to look at photos of their favorite bands. So be sure to include a “Photos” section, which will also help keep fans surfing your website longer. To help organize your photos, create different galleries for promo shots, live photos, fan photos, etc.
6. Videos
We find that often artists simply send people away to their YouTube channel to watch their videos, but in doing that, you’re sending people away from your own website. Not only that, you’re sending them to a site that is filled with distractions, with tons of ads and lots of other unrelated videos (cats anyone?) to watch.
Instead, create a “Videos” section on your site and embed your best videos there. This also allows you to curate which videos people see, because on YouTube, there might be hundreds of live videos filmed by fans that might not best represent your band. Having your best videos on your site allows you to out your best foot forward and control the video content that visitors will see.
7. Store
So important, yet this is another section that is often overlooked. Instead of simply providing links sending people away to iTunes or Amazon, why not sell music and merch directly to your fans? You’ll get a higher % of the money (ahem, with the Bandzoogle store you get 100% of your sales), and also collect email addresses in the process. You can still include links to places like iTunes for those that are more comfortable shopping there, but don’t miss out on the opportunity to sell directly to your fans. And make it super easy for them to do it in a few clicks.
8. Contact
Last but not least, make sure to include a “Contact” page on your site. Some people bury contact info in the footer of their site, but you’ll want to make it easy to get in touch with you, especially for media or industry people. So create a specific “Contact” page and include info on how best to reach you for booking, media inquiries and fan correspondence. You can also add your social links and a mailing list sign-up to this section as well.
Our friends at Bandzoogle have created a free, downloadable, 30 page ebook designed to help independent bands spruce up their web sites and make them more effective.
It’s titled 12 Ways To Instantly Improve Your Band Website, and includes very simple tips like adding a favicon and turning off autostart music, plus more detailed upgrades like creating a digital press kit and writing your own blog. Pros and cons for each are discussed, along with how-to instructions.
Of course, Bandzoogle hopes that you will ultimately choose to utilize the tools they have created and host your site with them, but the suggestions explored in the ebook will be helpful without regard to where your site lives online.
Perhaps the most valuable suggestion they make is encouraging artists to decide what the primary “call to action” should be for their site. Are your trying to sell/promote a new release? Add names to your mailing list? Get promoters to listen to your music? This may change from time to time over the course of a career – or even a season – but setting one overarching goal for your web presence helps not only focus your mind, but also the attention of your visitors.
You can download the free booklet in PDF form from the Bandzoogle web site.
