I frequently see young fledging artists and businesses using Flash to make a fancy- looking website thinking it will allow them to play in the big leagues, and set them apart from your average upstart. But this strategy is like playing in a beautiful stadium with no-one in the audience.
Here’s some reasons why that can be a Very Bad Idea:
1) Flash is hard to properly optimize for search engines. While there have been some advances by the search engines in this area, you will not be able to optimize your site in the depth and detail that you can an HTML site.

2) This means that, sure your site might come up first in Google if someone types in your company name, but that means they are already looking for you and aware of you. What about all the potential visitors you miss out on because your site does NOT rank for a slew of other related keyphrases?

3) With an HTML site you can optimize each page according to its content, for different phrases/words – this is the best way to do it. Flash does not allow you to do this – essentially your homepage will be indexed but not much else.

4) When you are a new artist/business looking to raise awareness and expand your target audience, you need to make yourself as accessible as possible to targeted traffic, and that means SEO in addition to other promotional avenues. Don’t make an already uphill battle even harder by starting out with a Flash-site that immediately limits your audience.

5) Because of all the above, your organic search traffic will be relatively low, at least to start out with, leaving you to rely on other methods to get traffic, such as your own promotional abilities to spread the word, slugging away on Facebook etc.

6) Loading pages, especially when they take too long are an obstacle to people getting to the good stuff. You risk losing people before they even see your site, never to return. And if you do get repeat visitors, it’s a bit annoying to have to wait for the site to load every time.
My personal advice for using Flash is to limit it to adding cool, but functional design features or flourishes, but not to build an entire site only in Flash.

It’s easier for well-known brands to use Flash, or even sites that are very text-light, and still rank highly because they receive a lot of incoming links from many other sites which helps them compensate for the lack of text on their own site. Using an example I saw on an old post at SEOBook.com, we can see this demonstrated in a search for “coffee” or “chocolate”. At the time that post was written, Starbucks ranked #1 in a search for ‘coffee’ despite having very little text on their site, and Hershey’s and Godiva ranked top in the chocolate search. This was attributed to the amount of incoming links for these brands which proved them to be relevant. These brands still rank highly today, but in both cases the #1 spot is now taken by pages on the distinctly un-flashy Wikipedia.

Visit www.WebTrainingWheels.com for more posts like this.

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A Guide To Online Marketing Terms – Part 1

I put this simple guide together to clarify some of the terms that I throw around on this blog. I’m finding that many people have heard these terms, but aren’t necessarily 100% sure what they mean or why they should care. If there is a term you have heard that is not included here, drop me a line [lucy AT webtraingwheels.com] and I’ll consider including in a future installment of the guide.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 describes the evolution of the internet from its early days of static web pages that waited to be discovered by web surfers (web 1.0), to dynamic, portable, social web content that lives in multiple places and can be easily shared and consumed in multiple ways.  You can copy and paste simple code to place a video on your website, you can subscribe to a website via email or RSS, you can vote for content you like on sites like Digg, or you can bookmark it and share it on sites like StumbleUpon and Delicious. All these things are part of web 2.0

Why you should care:

The way content is created is different now. You can work with video and images as well as text. Your content has the possibility of ‘going viral’ by being shared, re-posted and reaching a wider audience than you can reach just from your own website. By choosing what sites to subscribe to, users filter and customize their content to suit their own tastes so there are plenty of niche markets and communities you can discover, be part of and cater to.

What is Social media?

Social media is a huge part of web 2.0. It began to be buzzed-about with social networking sites like Friendster (remember them?) and MySpace. You could create a profile and start making ‘friends’ with other people on the same website. From there it developed into sharing content and voting and now many websites offer the ability to create a profile or interact directly with other users, and the content, in some way. Social media also relates to the phenomenon of user-generated content. So instead of news, entertainment, or any other kind of content only being generated by specific media companies, now anyone can create and publish content, whether it’s a blog post, a video, photographs etc.

CONTINUE READING THE FULL POST AT WEBTRAININGWHEELS.COM

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“It was easy to feel overwhelmed by the big, bad world of bloggers. Lucy demystified it all and I’m now addicted to my blog! Thanks, Lucy!” – Andrea, Boli Bling Designs, LittleDesignerBook.com

If you would like to use a blog to enhance your business but aren’t sure where to start, I will show you how to do it from the ground up.
This workshop will show you everything you need to know in order to set up a blog, maximize both SEO (search engine optimization) and branding potential, and the basics of using your blog as a marketing tool. If plugins, widgets and RSS are alien concepts to you, I will enlighten you, demystify the process and give you the confidence to take control of your web presence.

Attend the next workshop on June 27th,  to learn in a comfortable, friendly environment, and network with other budding bloggers. There are a limited number of spaces available, so it’s necessary to register below to confirm your place.

Topics to be covered:
- How a blog can help your business
- How to install and set up a blog (using the Wordpress platform)
- How to use Wordpress and it’s features
- How to install key plug-ins
- The do’s and don’ts of blogging
- Marketing and attracting traffic to your blog
- Becoming a ‘blogger’ – integrating blogging into your business routine
- I also provide post-workshop support to help you implement what you have learned.

The next workshop will take place:
June 27th from 1-3:30pm in West Los Angeles (full location information provided upon registration)
The fee is $45 per person.
Non-profits get a $10 discount!
Email me at:  lucy@elemental-consulting.com with questions, for more info or to claim your non-profit discount code.

Register now and secure your place. Click below to use either Google Checkout or Paypal to make your payment. When payment has been received you will be sent a confirmation email.

Or you can use Paypal

I also provide 1-on-1 services, and consulting services for existing businesses looking to maximize their web presence.

“Lucy helped us update our blog by providing our team with best practices and areas for improvement.  We’ve seen increased traffic and greater customer engagement since we implemented her suggestions.  Lucy is very friendly, and a great teacher- we appreciated her approach and expertise.” Deborah, MyCorporation

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1) Just Do It! Take A Small Step, Any Step!
Starting is the hardest thing, but once you’ve taken that first step, it will become easier. It’s easy to come up with a laundry list of reasons why not to do something – I don’t have time, I need to redesign my site first etc etc. In reality however the most important thing to do if you are new to blogging is simply to BLOG and start building up your stash of content. Ultimately the more content you have the better, so start NOW with your first post.

2) Keep It Simple
Don’t worry about tricking out your blog with every little widget right off the bat. You can figure that out in time. Start out by just getting some posts up – short and sweet will do the trick. All the widgets in the world aren’t going to help if there’s no content.

3) Don’t Let Perfect Be the Enemy of Good.
I stole that concept from The Happiness Project but it works for blogging. Your writing style and voice will develop over time so don’t expect it to be perfect right away. This is YOUR blog – not a national newspaper so as long as you have something of interest to share, don’t worry about sounding like a Pulitzer prize winner. Allow yourself the luxury of practice – write some posts and the more you do it, the more comfortable you will get with the process. Get into the feel of writing and allow your own  style to develop.

4) Get Into a Routine.
This is necessary advice when trying to develop any new habit – essentially this is what blogging is. Try and carve out certain times during the day and week that you will reserve for blogging -30 minutes here and there, or whatever you can manage. If you leave blogging to the end of your already full to-do list, chances are you will never get to it. So make it a priority and make an appointment with yourself. Set yourself realistic goals – one post a week, for example – a goal that will motivate you without overwhelming you.

5) Who Do You Want to Come to Your Site?
This is one of the central questions that you should keep in mind when blogging. Who is your audience? Oftentimes your audience can be broken down into several different categories or segments, each with a varying profile of interests. Sometimes when you are stuck for an idea, it can be helpful to re-visit your list, pick one of these segments and think about something that would be interesting or of value to them that could be turned into a blog post.

6) Anything Can Be a Blog Post!
Don’t psych yourself out thinking you have to write an essay each time. Sometimes it’s ok to do something easy like posting pictures of yourself at an event, pictures of people using/wearing your product, a blurb about another website that you find useful or interesting etc. Any number of things can be short effective blog posts. Surf around other blogs you like in your niche and get some ideas and inspiration. Think about what you would like to share, or something you as a reader would find interesting. It could be directly related to your product, or perhaps it’s a news item related to your industry, or just a funny thing that happened on your way to the trade fair.  The possibilities are endless once you start thinking like a blogger. You can also join in the conversation of hot topics of the moment, whether it’s current affairs or something related to your industry. Bloggers often like to give their opinion, and people like to read that. So see what others are talking about and join in the dialog by posting your own thoughts. You can reference or quote other bloggers if appropriate (always give credit with a link).

7) Think Outside the Box
This seems like stereotypical advice, but sometimes it’s easy to not see the forest for the trees. It’s easy to get stuck in the rut of thinking only about the product you are trying to sell. But the good thing about a blog is that it gives you the chance to expand beyond your field and this will ultimately be good for search rankings. So instead of racking your brain trying to come up with a new way to talk about your product – let your imagination expand a little. Your main website is where the hard sell happens – your blog is where you get to express yourself and different aspects of your personality and business. Chances are, you are a good example of your target audience so think about the types of things you like to read on other blogs. If you happen to have a real flair for writing and have a distinct voice – perhaps you are funny, or have sharp insights on current affairs – these things alone can help you develop a following. Think about people like Perez Hilton and others who have developed audiences simple because they are entertaining – there’s no rocket science going on there!

8) Networking
Ultimately you will want to network with other relevant bloggers by swapping links. But don’t go crazy contacting tons of other bloggers until you have some good posts on your site and a good amount of content. If you request links from bloggers too early, before you have much posted, they may not want to link to you if it doesn’t look like you are regularly updating, or serious about your blog. But do keep a target list, or bookmark sites that you would like to connect with at some point. Also keep in mind that you shouldn’t target the most popular blogs right away because they may not see the value in connecting with a small blog site.

9) Don’t Ever Be Discouraged!
A common mistake of new bloggers is giving up too soon. Don’t assume that you will be an overnight success – this is the exception, not the rule. Give yourself some time to build up some momentum. And enjoy the process of blogging itself. The more you enjoy it, the more you will be motivated to make it a habit.
Your blog is not going to write itself and it only works if you work it. So it will take some effort and in the beginning it can feel like you are talking to yourself . But Rome wasn’t built in a day! You probably won’t get people leaving you comments the first day you launch your blog. But as you start to develop your content and attract visitors, those things will happen.  Also, just because people aren’t commenting or emailing you, that doesn’t mean they aren’t reading. After all, how many blogs do you read? And how many have you actually interacted with? Make sure you have a way to track web traffic to your blog so that you have real info about who’s coming to your site and where they are coming from.
But the most important thing is never to give up. Be tenacious and persistent in your blogging practice and it will definitely pay-off.

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• Search engines like regularly updated content. Many business sites are informative but not updated very often so are hard to keep at the top of the rankings, without buying keywords. Blogs can and should be updated on a regular basis with fresh content.

• Bloggers typically link to each other in their ‘blogrolls’ so once you start to exchange links with others, you will start to gain new traffic  as your site is exposed to a new audience. Additionally the more inbound links you have (ie other sites linking to you) the more the search engines will like you.

• The variety of content you post on your blog will naturally expand the number of keywords and phrases that will lead people to your site. On a purely informative business site, you don’t always have the opportunity to target keywords outside your direct focus but a blog gives you more range.

2) You would like to give your business a more personal voice and develop a relationship with potential customers.

• A blog is a great way to add to and enhance your brand. It allows you to craft a more personal voice for your company, which is engaging to the reader. If a reader likes what you have to say and reads you on a regular basis they start to trust you.  You can’t build that type of dynamic relationship with a static site.

• A blog allows you to share success stories from your customers, and engage with them through comments.  Once you’ve built a decent readership a blog can be a great way to do free consumer research – test out product ideas and poll your audience.

3) You would like to establish yourself as an expert in your field.

• These days a lot of information is available for free on the internet – it’s almost expected. So you may as well join the fray and give people a taste of what you are all about and the knowledge that you have.

• A well-written, informative blog may help you to attract the attention of other high profile people in your industry that you may not otherwise have access to.
• You may also be able to pitch yourself as a guest blogger on other popular sites and blogs, further increasing your profile and credibility.

4) You would like the opportunity to network with other people and bloggers in your field or related areas. Being part of the blogging community allows you a way to network with others in a friendly fashion, without having to push a hard sell. It’s easier to make friends with people when you have something to offer (a link exchange, good content), rather than something to sell.

DON’T Blog If…..

1) You really don’t have anything to say. If you’re not inspired about your subject matter or feel that you have nothing to contribute, blogging may not be for you.

2) You think it will be a quick fix. Blogging is not an overnight quick-fix to getting more traffic. It takes a little time to start generating traffic, although once you get going you may see a snowball effect.

3) You’re not in it for the long haul. To really get the most out of having a blog, you will have to spend some time working on it, writing and promoting it. There’s no real way around that, so if you’re not prepared to carve out some time for it, you won’t be maximizing it’s presence.

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What’s the difference between a strategy and a promotional/marketing campaign?
What I mean by strategy is a long-term vision, plan or direction that you have for your career as an artist, business or brand. It is not only the vision, but the roadmap that helps you plan your course. Your strategy may change over time or adapt to circumstances, but the point is that you are not just blindly plodding along hoping for the best.
In contrast, a marketing campaign is a short/mid term promotional plan, usually around a specific product or event, such as an album release, or a tour. Such a campaign would be one element of your overall strategy.

What I usually find is that a lot of independent artists think that their album marketing campaign IS their strategy. They hire publicists and promoters etc when they have an album coming out and know they need a promotional push, but what’s going on the other 9 or 10 months out of the year that are not part of that new release window? Many times, the answer seems to be, not much.
Why treat yourself as a seasonal business that must hope to make as much as possible from one release? Wouldn’t it be better to develop ways to create residual income with the bonus of spikes around album releases, tours and so forth?

This is where strategy comes into play.

Market consistently, not episodically
Just because you don’t have an album coming out every month of the year, doesn’t mean there aren’t things you can and should be doing on an ongoing basis.
Your online strategy should include branding yourself, developing a database of fans and marketing to them, developing relationships with bloggers and people that can help you, and generally being active enough to keep your name in front of people on a regular basis.

Particularly in the online world there is now a lot of potential power in your hands so you need a clear direction for what you are doing and how to make the most of the opportunities available to you. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the wealth of information, social networking sites and tools available to you – if you have a strategy it will help you maximize your time and energy. The more you feel you are drowning online, the less effective you will be, and most likely will run out of steam soon enough.

Repetition is key
Chances are you will not make the splash you think you can with just one album release particularly if it is your first one, or if you are not particularly well-known.  It’s becoming harder and harder to get the attention of bloggers and other editors to even listen to your music, never mind write about it, so you need to be engaging them on a long term basis. Essentially your strategy is what lays the foundation for a successful marketing campaign when you do have an album that comes out – people will pay more attention to your album if they already have an inkling of what you are about – that goes for folks on the editorial side as well as fans/consumers. Both sets of people need multiple impressions before they will pay attention to you and take any action or seek out further info. You will get more bang for your buck if you’ve already laid some groundwork before you invest in publicists etc since they will be able to make more headway.

Take charge of your relationship with your fans
One of your most important assets should be an opt-in email database of fans. These are people that have visited one of your sites, downloaded music, or engaged with you in some way and have decided you are interesting enough to warrant them being kept up to date via emails. Not MySpace bulletins but actual emails right to their inbox. So you need to proactively find your fans and develop a relationship with them. This is something that can be done year-round.

Additionally, the prevalence of social networks means that all your fans’ info is spread across various places and you don’t have direct access to them except through the tools that particular site provides. For maximum efficiency you should be channeling those people to your site, or at least collecting their email addresses so that you own those relationships – get their info and communicate directly with them. Turn them from “friends” into real “fans”.

The album no longer needs to be the only way you release content.
You can release content and music digitally as frequently as you choose, so you need a way to get it out there and promote it. Whether that is music you sell, or music you give away to gain ears, you have to create demand –get folks hooked on your music and be excited for more of it.  As we mentioned in “digital demand for urban artists” when done strategically over time, a steady stream of content released throughout the internet can help boost your career. Notice I am using the word “content”. Music isn’t the only form of content – it could also be a blog you write, photos your upload, videos you make etc. Content can take so many forms these days and all are useful in providing touchstones for people to engage with you. A digital strategy will mean that you have the tools to create and distribute this content in an effective manner, then harness the benefits of it.

Think long-term
Many of the tools now becoming available online have to do with social networking, which is most effective as a part of a long-term plan. The social networks only work if you work them and are best used consistently and not just for promotions otherwise you will turn people off with your advertising and lack of personality. Many labels I come across are guilty of this. They set up a MySpace for a particular album release and promote it for about 2-3 months but after that it languishes. It’s smarter to have profiles based around your brand and maintain them for the long term since they will reap greater benefits. Again, think strategically for the long-term. The nature of branding, is really that it only works over time, so this is something you commit to for the long haul.

Create systems for residual income
A digital strategy will help you realize that you can be residually generating revenue all the time through your own website where people can make a purchase. Not to mention continual demand will drive organic traffic to a catalog of releases you may have. Contrary to what major labels would have you believe, your catalog is valuable. Once people discover you, they want to have access to all your music, not just what you’ve released in the last 30 days.

Have I convinced you yet?
I want to hear from you if:
You have a strategy and would like to brag about it. Or at least share some insights.
You don’t have one and need help masterminding one.
You think I’m on crack.

I’ll get into some specifics of what the strategy actually looks like in another article…

—
Photo credits (in order of appearance):
http://flickr.com/photos/vascellari/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidking/

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“In two days more people have been exposed to my music than in the entire previous 12 months.”

While this type of promotion may not be the right choice for every artist, Fakesensations’ story shows that it can be an effective strategy, and more importantly that the option to utilize P2P should be up to the artists, not the major labels, ISPs or anyone else.

I recommend reading the full article here.

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So this is proof that the internet can work for some artists, but the common denominator in these, and other examples, is that it didn’t happen overnight. We’re talking months and years of consistent action and online networking in order to create the critical mass of online buzz needed to garner real attention. As I emphasised in my post on common Myths and Mistakes in Online Music Marketing, a digital strategy has to have a short and long term – it’s not a fast-track to instant success and I think this is where a lot of artists go wrong. This applies offline as well, but you have to be in it for the long haul and have a plan that makes best use of the tools available.

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So it made me very happy to see what Lucas Gonze has been working on with his own music. He has created a dedicated page for a song “Frog In The Well” which adds a tremendous amount of context and value. There’s video as well as audio files, blog posts, sheet music, and background info. This is smart from several points of view and I’d love to see more artists doing this:

1) Additional SEO-able content for your site

2) With the addition of comments, you can create community around one song and further engage your audience.

3) Adding all this value for one song adds an additional emotional appeal to your music. Not only can fans see the amount of care and attention that has been invested on the part of the artist but it broadens their experience of the song and their emotional attachment to it.

4) By using a Creative Commons license and encouraging derivations, the life of the song is extended.

These are just some of the benefits of this type of song – enhancement and I look forward to see what Lucas and other artists will continue to do with this type of experiment.

If you are an artist and are doing something similar, or implement a similar method to Lucas, feel free to drop me a line.

Lucas has also taken this concept a step further and published on his blog a manifesto for the song page which includes ideas for structured implementation of this concept. I highly recommend reading this

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“If I get x number of friends on Myspace, I’ll be a hit”
Most likely not. You’ll have an unmanageable and un-useful myspace account though. To my knowledge the number of friends you have has never been concretely linked to your sales figures. Usually artists are wondering why they have so many friends and so few sales. It’s not about quantity necessarily, it’s about quality. Learn from Tila Tequila – 1 000 000 friends still couldn’t make her music a hit. Myspace “friends” are disposable and pretty much irrelevant. You need Fans, not Friends. Fans are people that give you their email address to make sure they always get your latest news. They buy your music and attend your shows. They pay attention to your bulletins and blogs. You communicate and interact with them in some way on a regular basis. Myspace can be a great resource through which to connect with tons of people but you have to take that relationship to the next level otherwise it means very little.

Adding someone as a friend on MySpace requires such little effort on the part of the request recipient, that it doesn’t necessarily indicate a real interest in your music – that person may barely have checked out your page. But if you can get them to visit your official artist website, give up their email address etc then you have a more genuine sign of interest and a starting point to cultivate the relationship.

“It’s all about the internet, so if I do a 2 month online marketing campaign, my album will be a hit”
While the online world is very important for indies, there is no replacement for a well-rounded marketing campaign that contains both on and offline strategies and whose elements complement each other. Has there really truly been a band that has succeeded purely online with nothing else working in their favor? You should be playing shows, doing some kind of real world marketing, and being generally pro-active about your own career. If your music is really as good as you probably think it is, you will have found a way to accomplish some of these things and you won’t just be relying on myth #1 (having a lot of Myspace friends)

“Putting a video on YouTube = viral marketing”
Majors and indies alike are guilty of this one. YouTube and sites like it are platforms for viral content but just because you put your video on YouTube does not mean it will “go viral” and be seen by hundreds of thousands of people. You still have to drive traffic to it and create interest in order to hit that tipping point. And if the content is just not good, funny, stimulating, interesting or relevant, it won’t go viral no matter what. While it would always be nice to receive staggering numbers of views, that doesn’t mean that anything less is a failure. Focus on getting the right people to watch your video content – your fans, subscribers, people in the industry whose attention you may be trying to catch, etc.

“If we let people embed and distribute our content it will dilute our brand”
No, actually, it will make your brand more pervasive and more relevant.
I know of several large corporations who do web 2.0 completely half-assed. They want to be down, so they create, for example, video content and destination sites, but they are so afraid of losing control over their content and brands that they do not allow embedding of their content. In other words they want to work exponentially harder just to get people to go to their site and “interact with their brand”, when they could have thousands of people working for them and spreading their brand to every nook and cranny of the internet by simply enabling users to copy and paste videos into their blogs, profiles and emails.

Here’s a couple of culprits:
Def Jam blocked embedding of their video content

Universal prevented their artists from uploading full length streams of songs to MySpace

“If I have a page at every social networking site, I’ll be a hit”
Not exactly, but you will have a lot of pages to maintain. While it’s good to have a presence at most sites so that fans can potentially find you, it still takes time and effort to update and maintain those pages and drive people to them. And sometimes it’s ok to be choosy – some sites will be more appropriate for your brand or style of music than others, so you should pick and choose where you focus your energies. And be aware that just because you create a page, doesn’t mean you will instantly get a lot of friends on that site. Each page requires maintenance and attention in order to payoff. And don’t forget that each profile page should ultimately lead back to your own website where you have more control over the content. You should look at all your profiles as signposts rather than destinations – places where people might stumble upon you and then follow the trail back to homebase – your site.

“30 seconds or a minute is long enough for people to sample my music”
If this is what you think you are selling yourself, and the intelligence of your fans short. In this day and age there is no reason not to allow full length streaming for sampling purposes. Again, you can’t be rigid and controlling – go with the flow and give the people what they want otherwise you will frustrate and turn people off with your stinginess. And for some songs that are perhaps more musically complex than an average 3 minute pop song, 30 seconds probably isn’t enough to demonstrate all that your music has to offer.

“If I get on one of the top music blogs, I’ll be a hit”
Well first of all you probably won’t even get written about by any of the top blogs if you don’t already have buzz.
While music blogs are often hailed as the next generation of tastemakers, this is a bit of a myth in itself. Hate to say it but the Pitchforks, Stereogums and the like don’t bother that much with music that’s not already buzzing in some way. The more popular a blog becomes, the more people want to get on it, the more music they get sent, the more they have to pick and choose what gets listened to, never mind covered.
They are inundated with music and you have to make it through their filters to even be considered. Go take a look at their homepages and you’ll see that while the music they cover might be independent, there are a few other factors:
a) A lot of the music is signed to a label…
b) …a fairly well established one at that – such as Beggars, Def Jux etc
c) A lot of the blogs are talking about the same bands, with some exceptions. So the number of brand new or unheard of bands being exposed is relatively low compared to the number of blogs that there are.

And once you do get posted about – it probably won’t be career changing – you might garner a few more fans which is great but you should not rest on your laurels at that point. If you do get a favorable write-up, you should use a good quote in your promotional arsenal going forward – “Hailed by Pitchfork as the best white trash rap ever” etc

So one good blog post won’t be career-changing but if you can develop relationships with many bloggers and get posted about frequently across a range of sites, then you can perhaps develop some visibility that will work for you. The effectiveness of advertising is, after all, based on frequency – the number of times that someone is exposed to the same message/brand/music. You need to get on as many blogs as you can from the ones that are just starting out, to the ones with huge readerships. But don’t expect to get there in one shot and don’t be discouraged by non-response on the part of a blogger. It takes friendly persistence, but if you have great music, you’ll be able to catch someone’s attention.

“Flash is so awesome – make everything flash!”
Please no, no, no flash. It sucks for SEO (search engine optimization) and is often the web design version of hip-hop album skits – a self-indulgent waste of time that is not very entertaining – once you’ve seen that Flash intro once, no matter how fancy it is, you just want to skip past it next time. Flash can be good for navigation, or cool design touches, but please don’t create your entire site in flash.

“My music is so awesome I don’t get why people aren’t writing about it”
Your music might indeed be awesome. But that doesn’t mean other people care about it as much as you do. It might be your baby, but just like in the real world, most people will not love your baby in the same way or think it’s as cute as you do yourself. As mentioned earlier – you need to make it through many filters before people write about it or even listen to your music. You are a small fish in an ocean of other bands/artists trying to get attention. This is not intended to discourage you, but to let you know that if you expect everyone else to care as much about your music as you do right off the bat, you will be disappointed. Even if your music is great, you have to give people reasons to pay attention to you. And you have to understand that everyone you are trying to get through to has many other bands vying for their attention. So get creative about your approach and how to present and package yourself. See Derek Sivers’ guide for some ideas on how to try and stand out from the crowd.

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