Websites of the band - 5 things your site must have

Websites of the band come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Some are really slick, and some outright suck. Funny enough, the current appearance of the site really does not matter for the most part, (except that viewers may fork) is the feature that is important.

Here are the 5 things your band's website should include:

1. Your domain name. Make sure you register a domain name with the name of your group in it. Most people will be looking for you in particular, not a general search for "rock band", etc. to get something like yourbandname.com. If for some reason it took, modify it a little after your name, in this way: yourbandnamerocks.com, spelling or try that, as the band-your-name.com. Search engine give higher priority to domain names, so when someone is looking for you, your domain name is the first other things with the same keywords in it.

2. Your Own Web Hosting. It is not a cheapskate and use the material freebie site hosting. It looks amateurish, it's usually cluttered with advertisements and pop ups, and do not control it. If the site goes down, or change its terms of service and the boots you ... you're gone. Hosting is very cheap - get a dedicated account and host your new domain name there.

3. A Web Site. I know, this one seems kind of obvious, but I'm talking more about the type of site. There are many ways to get a site built. You can get some software and build it yourself, you can hire the neighborhood geek, or you can go online and find a web site template band, which is already designed and ready to add your logo, photos, etc. Try to avoid anything also deceptive, as a lot of flash, etc. Flash is not collected with the search engines, so they are better to have a band website that allows you to add text on the home page.

4. An Autoresponder. An autoresponder allows you to capture email addresses from visitors of your site, usually by offering them something in return. This could be a few songs of example, a newsletter, etc. The form must be on your home page, and once the person enters their email address being added to a mailing list that is kept and maintained by a third party. Why do you want a list? To market, promote and sell stuff! Once you have your list, or fan base, will inform us about shows you're playing, when your last album will be available, and where you can buy goods (see below). Further information on autoresoponders for the band's website can be found here: http://www.squidoo.com/BestAutoresponder

5. Merchandise! You must have something to sell to fans, right? To sell stuff that you can put shopping cart software on your site, or you can place a link to another site where you can buy your stuff. If you do not have the money now for the goods, nor the shopping cart, there is still hope for you. Vai in http://www.cafepress.com and configure a database freely. You can sell hats. T-shirts, all kinds of things and manage everything, including transport. I send you a check once someone has bought your stuff. Your store will give you a link to it that you put on your site for fans to get to it.

One more thing would be a contact page so that people can be hired. (I was going to add on top of it, but "5" sounded better than "6!")

There is, of course, much more you can put in a band's website, such as photos, music, bios, etc., but these are the basics and allows you to promote and market yourself .......