As you start to develop as an artist and achieve more success, it’s a good idea to start thinking about your professional image. Once of the best ways to cultivate a good public face is through a website. Here we look at just how to go about that process.
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Guest post from Picket Media. This article first appeared on the TuneCore blog.
Are you growing as a artist? It is a good time to cultivate a better professional image, and a well-designed website can help considerably.
For any band or artist, a website can be a great way to connect with their audience and improve the professional image. There are plenty of other benefits of having a website that will be discussed later; let’s find out what you need to make your website successful first.
TIPS FOR BUILDING A GOOD-LOOKING PROFESSIONAL ARTIST WEBSITE
Since your website is an opportunity for your audience to see your talent and learn more about you as an artist, you should ensure that it has all the elements to become successful.
The main mantra for a fruitful artist website has been keeping it fast, simple and organized. If you own a website that is poorly designed, strenuous to navigate and slow loading, visitors will lose interest in it.
Here are some tips you should consider when building your website.
- Invest in a reliable web hosting provider, as making the wrong choice may affect page load speed of your site to a large extent. People can’t expect a professional website to load slowly.
According to Google, users abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Therefore, it is crucial that you take your time to find the best fit hosting service according to your needs. It advisable that you go through blogs that review leading hosting providers of the industry. It will narrow down your research process for the right web hosting.
- Choose a design complementary to your genre or the kinds of songs you’re writing and recording. Great music evokes feelings, so it is necessary that your website tries to capture a bit of that as well. Your music website should be a true reflection of your art. Don’t forget to add a sense of professionalism to it. Choose complementary background colors and proper navigation. Avoid unnecessary flash or animation
- An artist website should be pleasing to the eyes, elegant and make an artist’s talent shine. On different pages of your website, your artwork should be the most important element. Moreover, as the majority of people view a website from mobile devices, make sure your website renders well on different mobile devices.
WHAT SHOULD YOUR WEBSITE INCLUDE?
A professional artist website must be designed to generate new fans and keep the current fans engaged.
Make sure your website includes:
– Upcoming shows and events
– Latest news about you
– Online store for merchandise
– Rich media content such as images and videos
– Newsletter/email list sign-up
IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A PROFESSIONAL-LOOKING WEBSITE AS AN ARTIST
Standing Out In the Crowd
It does not matter at what stage of your music career you are at, standing out in the industry is important. Having your own professional website can help with this.
Although social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are ideal platforms to post about your upcoming events/promotions and connecting with your audience, they’re also being used by other independent artists, and it can be tough to cut through the static.
A Platform to Sell Merchandise
As you likely already know, artists have bills to pay. A well-designed website gives you an opportunity to add a revenue stream via selling merchandise. Offering merch sales on your website is a great way to attract new and current fans, all while sticking around on your site to check out all of its other features.
Improves Searchability
Another major advantage of having an artist is that it helps with your ranking on search engines. Even Google gives more privilege to official web pages over third party profiles.
In addition to this, having a website and linking it to third-party profiles like Facebook, Twitter, etc. may give a boost on Google’s search ranking. When you place links to your preferred content around the world wide web on your official site, it educates the Google spider where your main networks are.
Your Website is Your Domain
When you create your own website, you get to make the rules. Most social media platforms need you to agree on different terms of use that may hinder your professional image.
For instance, Instagram enforces many rules on posting inappropriate photos and videos. But since your site is your own domain and you make your own rules, you get a space where you can express yourself free of outside guidelines.
PLATFORMS TO BUILD YOUR WEBSITE (WITHOUT USING CODE)
There are various methods and platforms out there that you can choose to create your artist website, and oftentimes you don’t need to invest a hefty budget. If you have a basic technical knowledge you can go with easy-to-use CMS platform like WordPress. WordPress supports a wide range of themes and plugins that can help in creating a professional artist website.
On the contrary, if you’re entirely new to website building, website builder like Bandzoogle may prove useful for you. Founded by Chris Vinson in 2003, Bandzoogle is a niche-specific website builder that provides various tools for musicians to create their website.
The website builder has many templates which may help you get started very well. It allows you to stream music directly on your site. If you want to showcase your artwork in general and generate an additional income stream, this platform can be an ideal choice for you. It supports selling of physical and downloadable albums without any commission fees.
There are also options for promoting events and selling tickets directly from your site.
Both website building platforms look ideal for independent artists who might not have a ton of technical skills and/or budget to hire a team of web designers and developers.
Before you start building your website, head out on the internet and have a look at websites of some of the successful musicians for inspiration. It can give you some ideas on how you can proceed with designing part and keep your fans engaged.
A forum on the website allows social interaction between fans while storefront that sells the brand’s schwag generates an additional revenue stream.
As an artist, you put your soul into your music, and it should be carried over to your website as well. Hopefully, this post gives you some great ideas on how to better present yourself as a professional artist via your new website