Your new album is out. You finally got your website exactly how you want it and it’s live.
But it’s just sitting there. No visitors. No activity …just hanging out in cyberspace.
What separates an active, engaging website with a steady stream of traffic from one that just sits there?
Blogging.
People hear that word and they either cringe and disconnect or ask this question…
What do I blog about?
I’m glad you asked. In the presentation below I share 10 topics you can use over and over again to create engaging content for your band’s website.
Actively blogging is an important aspect of your content marketing strategy as well as a key element in successful SEO (aka ranking in search engines).
Bonus Topic Idea
List posts.
Take the top 5 music videos you saw this week and create a post out of it.
Make a top 10 list of your favorite one hit wonders, your favorite albums from the 1960s, or the best venues in your city or region.
Sky’s the limit.
To see this in action check out our Spotlight posts or visit my band’s website to see how we use our blog.
I have been using these ideas on various blogs for years to bring in steady streams of traffic. The more engaging and valuable you can make your content; the more it will be shared, the more likely people will come back later, and the higher search engines will rank your pages.
For more ideas and inspiration, I have found Sherice Jacob’s book Blog Prompts: 101 Creative Topics that Attract Customers, Invite Discussion and Help You Create a Loyal Legion of Fans (affiliate link) to be quite helpful.
Transcript (from above slides)
- 10 Reusable Topics for Your Band’s Blog ideas you can recycle to create a stream of new and engaging content for your band’s website Middle Tennessee Music.com @midtnmusic
- Why Bands Need to Blog Give people a reason to visit your website. Think of yourself as a content creator and curator. Collect email addresses to engage audience and build community. SEO purposes = blogs that publish more frequently rank higher in searches. More blog articles means search engines more frequently crawling your website indexing pages for a wide(r) array of search terms and phrases. Give fans and visitors a behind the scenes look into your music and creative processes. Allow them to become a part of your career as it unfolds. Build Your Tribe.
- News and New Releases Report news, events, and new releases via your blog first – then spread across social media and your mailing list. New singles, new merchandise, new art, big announcements, tour or gig bookings, and anything newsworthy related to your music is fair game for your blog. Anytime you are featured or reviewed by another media outlet, share an excerpt and a screenshot on your blog and link back to the original.
- Behind the Scenes Use photos and videos to share life behind the scenes. Ideas include: recording in the studio, footage from tour or backstage at events, opening your box of freshly pressed CDs or merchandise, blooper reels or scenes deleted from music videos… Give fans and potential fans a look into your career and the madness that goes into making it happen.
- Lyrics A lot of bands are not taking advantage of this but when you release a new single or an album; include the lyrics on your website or blog. Lyrics provide a substantial amount of text for search engines to crawl. Having your lyrics available on your website simply gives search engines more pages, more terms, and more phrases to consider when ranking pages of your website. More importantly, fans appreciate access to lyrics. If you publish them yourself, you can ensure the lyrics are accurate.
- Gigs, Festivals, Tours Pre-show content, during the show content, and post-show content can provide you with valuable blog fodder. Publishing flyers and event details as well as sharing music/videos from performing acts can produce multiple articles while promoting the event. During the show, use social media to post photos and video clips in real time; then go back and aggregate them to create a blog article. After the show – take photos, conduct interviews, hang out with the crowd and use this content to create a show review or recap post.
- Music Reviews Do you listen to music? Review it. Are your friends indie musicians releasing music? Review it. Your favorite artist just released a new project? Review it. Albums, Singles, Videos and Remixes/Mashups are all fair game. Make it fun. Engage and build community. Expose yourself to other bands’ fans.
- Show Reviews Attend local shows and events? Review them. Attend shows of acts touring your area? Review them. Attend festivals, house parties or other events with live music? Review them. Take photos (of performance and with band if possible). Capture video and add it to the review. Link to featured band’s website and encourage support.
- Gear Reviews Instruments, pedals, cables, amps, strings and anything you use to make music is worthy of being reviewed. Hardware, software, virtual instruments, beat machines and studio equipment are fair game. Tutorial websites, books and courses you take to learn more about using the gear are also worth reviewing. If you take the time and effort to write an in-depth and thoughtful review, send a link to the company who created the product.
- Misc Reviews Venue or sound engineer do you wrong during your last gig? Hire a PR firm, marketing, or other agency that let you down? Have a bad experience with a label or a studio? Have an amazing experience with any of the above? Review it! Save others from the same woes you have suffered. Use your blog to report, discuss, and analyze. Build a community by sharing your experiences and knowledge.
- Interviews Text, audio, video – create a podcast. Interview peers and fellow indie musicians, people involved in the business, authors of books you’ve read, bloggers that featured your music, bands you have previously reviewed, other band members, or people you have worked with professionally.
- Tips / How Tos / Tutorials Learn a new piece of gear? Learn a new recording trick that saved you a lot of time? Figure out a way to build your FB following without paying for advertising? You are not the only one facing these challenges. Sharing your knowledge, tips, and tricks can further build community and allow potential fans to feel more connected to you.
- Summary Publish news, music, and other content to your blog first; use social media and your mailing list to spread this content across the web. The more frequently you publish the higher search engines will rank pages from your website. This is known as the freshness factor. Blogging gives people a reason to visit your website, makes your career look healthy and active, and it can be used to connect with like-minded individuals so you can build an engaged community around yourself and your music. Find more Tips and Guides as well as reviews, interviews, and more at MiddleTennesseeMusic.com