Kurb Promotions NZ - web 2.0 and internet marketing for bands and brands

Febuary 2008: Your website matters more than your album
By Matt Turner. Copyright 2007. Don't steal without asking.

Future revenue for artists: Your website matters more than your album Okay I been getting these hunches and yknow I've been railing on about how your website is more important than your CD now - and I think a little bit of crystal ball stuff is okay as long as yknow – this is technology we're talking about so you got to keep your options open. NEWSFLASH: Google releases adsense for video!!! And you thought I was being silly talking about revenue from videos in 2008. Of course revver and metacafe are already sharing revenue with content generators, and Kurb is of course developing methods to create, promote and open revenue streams from video on the cheap!!!

But what I want to draw your attention to is that all these revenue streams will be so tiny you're going to have to be onto it – and have someone onto it like me – opening up as many channels for revenue as possible, who knows how to turn the constant – at least WEEKLY – stream of content you'll need to be creating into $$$

You see that popcrunch web tv show? I just wanna get straight to my point. They namedrop top search engine and probloggers . . . why? To give these geeks a headswell so they'll link back to it. Look everyone, I got mentioned on a Hollywood/ pop culture internet tv show. Because when these guys link to you, get ready for a stampede on your site. These are the guys (here watch me do it, everyones doing it) Darren Rowse, Shoemony, John Chow, Graywolf etc. who just make a lot of money from blogging, They do 5 figures a month easy. These guys maintain subscriber lists of 50,000+ - I'm not going to go over it in detail but I guess these guys inspire people because they have become rich in proving that you can stick some words on a page and sort out some ads to go around the words.

These guys make hundreds of grands a year. It took them a few years, writing most days. But that's all it was. Writing, and ads around the words. Oh sure – every second day theres something good and new on their site and that takes work keeping it fresh and new. They probably gave away a free ebook. And of course now that theyre rich and kind of famous, they get paid to speak and no doubt constantly being offered deals to endorse stuff and be involved in new projects.

What did I hear? Perez Hilton, the worlds most popular blogger does like 45k a week? 3 million hits a day?

Can you see why I'm saying your website is more important than your album? Can you see why if a year goes by now and all you've got is 12 audio tracks on a bit of plastic that's pathetic? Have you posted on your blog this week? I honestly don't want to be repeating myself in 6 months time saying "You should really start a blog to help get more traffic."

I got approached by these cats in NZ who wanted to play 5-30sec audio ads on my site. I'm illustrating this because there will be many ways to open up revenue as soon as you created enough interest in what you're doing. I've said that 2008 is all about preparing for 2009 when we can expect to see some decent opportunities and who can really say what they will be but its gonna be long tail stuff. You're going to be opening up dozens to hundreds of income streams and digital products dripfeeding you dollars or for the early years maybe only cents at a time. The internet is taking us into a new era of information, entertainment and advertising communication.

I've managed to succeed outside of the usual industry networks that have always existed because I've learnt to use the new tools. I realised what was possible a couple of years ago but it was a useless waste of time – at the time - because there just wasn't the amount of people using online networks and the platforms and systems available.

But there's a new way of doing things. Do not underestimate how much you're going to have to bleed and give – and bleed and give innovatively at that – to earn peoples attention and trust your authority. But by the time music is practically free in 5 years time and they stop making CD players . . . you're gonna have a hell of a time selling mp3's for a dollar and CD's for $10. So lets get smart about this now! Your website matters in the new model but your CD and your album and just more other things you'll be using to make money off whether through retail or advertising. So that's why I'm running around saying your website is now more important than your album!!! And creating a website that makes money involves so much more than looking pretty. But that's something we can talk about another time. Or of course we can talk about that right now if you want to pay me.

There's lots of advice on the Kurb blogs on what smart musicians should know about using the internet to promote your music, so subscribe here on myspace oh and leave a comment with a link to your site on our official blog it'll help to get better google search results. So whats new @ Kurb? Still the cheapest CD and DVD duplication on runs under 500, with free posters and free graphic set up costs! But now we've released digital coaching packages to help musicians and artists build income online. And we're doing video production as well as promotion, making it easy for musicians we work with to make videos and promote them online real cheap! Check out our youtube Remember our Kurb site is full of articles, videos and ideas for promoting bands and brands.

Please contact me, Matt Turner either by email: kurbpromo@gmail.com
Or reach me on my mobile - +64 (0)27 684 8250

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