Book III: Your Business
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The Online Music Business Crusher – Book 3: Your Business The Online Music Business Crusher Super Course Book III: Your Business This book was updated on March 15, 2014 © 2014, Paul Sedkowski and Charles Holland www.meermusic.com No duplication of this book, whole or in part, is permitted without the author’s permission Page 1 of 262 The Online Music Business Crusher – Book 3: Your Business CONTENTS Building Your Web-based Music Business - Now that you've had time to consider your music business from a birds eye view, it's time to start actually building it. Includes bonuses: IM Insights and Tips, IM Business Models. Setting Up Your Site - Your considerations when preparing to build a site. There are many options, some better for the short-term, others better for the long-term. Build Your Site – Buy a Domain - Everything starts with acquiring a domain address - the way people will find you online from now on. Build Your Site – Host Your Domain - Once you have a domain name, you need to place it online on a "web host". Includes bonuses: Hosting, cPanel Setting Up Wordpress On Your Site - Putting a professional-looking, highly functional and flexible site together is easy with a tool like Wordpress. Includes bonuses: Site Templates, Wordpress Mastery Configuring Your Site - Now that your site is up and running, it's time to fine-tune and tweak it a little. Includes bonuses: Wordpress Mastery Researching Keywords - Understanding keywords will accompany you throughout your online journey. Includes bonuses: Keyword Research Discovering Your Niche - It's critically important to know precisely what your niche, or rather sub- or even sub-sub-niche is. Here's how we discover it. Insuring Yourself: What Are My Chances, Really? - Being realistic in your expectations is fundamental to your success.Includes bonuses: Affiliate Links More About Your Competition - Your competition is probably much smaller than you think. Here's how you find out. What Is SEO and SEM and Should An Artist Care? - When working online you ignore SEO at your peril. It's not hard, so the sooner you get your head around it, the better. Includes bonuses: SEO Tips On-Page Optimization - There are two sides to SEO. One of them is optimizing your site content, a.k.a. on-page optimization. Includes Page 2 of 262 The Online Music Business Crusher – Book 3: Your Business bonuses: Site Optimization Off-Page Optimization and Backlinking - The other side of SEO is so-called off-page optimization, which mostly comes down to ensuring that other sites link to yours in a process called "backlinking." Includes bonuses: Site Optimization Extended Setup: Your Own Site Is Just The Beginning - Setting up your home page is only a part of the whole prep. Setting Up Social Accounts - Among the things you need to also set up are your social accounts, bookmarking accounts, etc. Includes bonuses: Google Mastery Subscriptions and Essential Services - A hugely important aspect of your success online is to set up essential services which will make your online business not only easier, but also much more likely to succeed. Includes bonuses: PayPal User Guide, PayPal SandBox Configuration Other Useful Tools A Musician Needs To Have - Some online tools are not an option but a must. Many newbie webmasters overlook those until it's too late. We'll look at the essentials here. Developing Content For Your Site - Your music is not the only content you'll need. You need written content on your site in order to make it easily searchable - and to enhance your visitors' experience. Copywriting, Copyrights And You - Copywriting skills are essential to have or to outsource. They're truly indispensable when writing ads, headlines or titles - and even content. Includes bonuses: Copywriting Writing Your Blog and Articles - Written content is an integral part of any website, and the more you know about it the better your music- promotion chances will be. Creating Videos - Today it's practically impossible to achieve any measure of artistic success without videos. We'll have a deeper look at this in this chapter. Includes bonuses: Video Marketing What Else Should You Have On Your Artist’s Website? - Videos, music, written content - all that is essential on your site. But there's more. The Look of Your Artist’s Website - The way your website looks is a hugely important component of how you'll be perceived by your fans. Includes bonuses: Autoresponder, Graphics Library, Site Templates Page 3 of 262 The Online Music Business Crusher – Book 3: Your Business More About Graphic Design - An important aspect of your site is your graphic design. Thankfully, there are excellent and very affordable (even free) solutions to this. More About Your Branding, Networking and Promotion - You insure the future success of your music business with branding. We'll have a look at this in this chapter. Getting Ready To Promote - Now that your site is packed full of content, it's time to prepare to promote it by all means available to us. The Magic of Paid Traffic - Paid traffic can be the fastest way to make your website profitable. We'll look at all you need to know in this section. Includes bonuses: RSS Networks, Mobile Networks, Social Networks, Video Networks, Writing Networks, Various Networks, Classified Ads, CPA & Affiliate Networks, CPV Networks, CPC/CPM Networks Calculation Considerations - Correct calculations are the foundations of any business, and music business is no different. We'll look at traffic acquisition here, when it does and when it doesn't make sense. How To Choose the Best Network For Your Music or Offer - Promoting music using paid traffic networks needs to be done advisedly. Not all traffic networks are equally good for you. Includes bonuses: AdWords, Facebook Choosing The Serving/Payment Model - There are many different ways to pay for traffic, so we'll look at the most popular ones in this chapter. What Kind of Ads Should You Use? - When promoting your music or your parallel products, you need to know how to structure your ads and what kinds of ads to use. Includes bonuses: Paid Traffic Test, Then Scale Up - Once your traffic campaign is rolling, as soon as you reach profitability, you only need to scale it up in order to achieve the financial results you're after. Your Income Sources, Your Music and Some Examples - There are dozens and dozens of ideas for how musicians can make money online. Here we'll look at only a handful of the most effective ones. Product Selection - When setting up your music business, you need to have more than just your music to sell. Here we look at parallel product ideas to bolster your bottom line. Page 4 of 262 The Online Music Business Crusher – Book 3: Your Business The Magic Of Multiple Income Streams - The surest way to fail in anything is to put all your eggs in one basket. In this chapter we look at how to set up multiple income streams for your website. Includes bonuses: AdSense What Is Your Product - Let's define what a product is for your music website. Not just your music. Let's delve deeper. Building Trust and Loyalty with Supporting Information - Your business depends on your relationship with your fans and website visitors. Needless to say, it's got to be a very good relationship! The Secret of “Extended Product” - The real secret of online monetization is not in the obvious product sales, but in the slightly hidden ones. The Most Popular Ways To Monetize Your Site - Here we look at a bunch of ideas and ways to monetize a website. Includes bonuses: Autoresponder, AdSense, Affiliate Marketing Selling Products You Fully Own - When selling parallel products or services, it's often a good idea to develop a product of your own. Includes bonuses: Product Creation, Product Launch, Local Market Your Relationship With Your Visitors and Fans - The driving force of your "conversions" (i.e. your ability to make sales or to engage your visitors) is the quality of your relationship with your fans. We'll take a closer look at this now. Understanding the Sales Funnel - It's nearly impossible to make reliable sales without a system in place. This type of system is known as a "sales funnel." Includes bonuses: Funnel Mastery Landers - When people visit your site, where to they land? There are many ways to make them land where you want, depending on what you're promoting. Includes bonuses: Funnel Mastery A Few More Words About Squeeze Pages - One of the simplest and most effective ways to build your subscriber list (fan base) is through giveaways. And you give stuff away using "squeeze pages." List Building – Your Fan-Base Is Your Lifeline - A registered list of your fans and subscribers will be your biggest asset throughout your online career. Includes bonuses: Autoresponder Page 5 of 262 The Online Music Business Crusher – Book 3: Your Business Elements of Autoresponder Campaigns - It's impossible to maintain a fan list of any substantial size without a tool known as the "autoresponder". Includes bonuses: List Building The Holy Grail: Optins and Conversions - When running a business online, it's critical to be able to convert as much of the traffic you receive to actions - optins, signups and sales. Includes bonuses: Optin List Interconnecting Everything - Your web properties are by now quite extensive and diversified. You need to be sure that you can control them as easily as possible, by integrating them all under one roof. Includes bonuses: Autoresponder, PayPal User Membership Sites and Continuity Models - One of the best ways to conduct a long-term business is using membership sites and the so-called "continuity" payment models.