SellMyBeats-The-Producers-Handbook

Transcription

says www.AudioFanzine.com
Prologue.................................................................................................08
Chapter One: Getting Started
Why the Niche Exists....................................................................................09
History of the Niche......................................................................................10
Ethics of Selling Beats Online.......................................................................11
Other Beat Selling Courses............................................................................12
Placements Vs. Selling Online.......................................................................13
On-Foot Sales Vs. Online Sales......................................................................15
Why People Fail to Sell Beats........................................................................16
Selling Beats and E-Commerce......................................................................18
Marketing is Everything.................................................................................19
How Important are the Beats?......................................................................20
Competition Vs. Saturation............................................................................21
Chapter Two: Free Market
The Sensibility of Free Beats........................................................................23
Foreign Buyers (Internationals)...................................................................25
iTunes Strategy ($0.99 Beats).....................................................................26
Deciding a Price...........................................................................................30
Premiums & Charm Pricing...........................................................................31
Managing Discounts.....................................................................................32
PayPal Basics................................................................................................33
Dealing with Chargebacks............................................................................34
Audio Content Protection.............................................................................35
Chapter Three: Media Marketplaces
Pros of Marketplaces....................................................................................39
Cons of Marketplaces...................................................................................40
Soundclick Is a Culture.................................................................................41
Understanding Soundclick Charts.................................................................43
Analyzing “Vybe Beatz”.................................................................................45
Soundclick Bots............................................................................................47
Soundclick Vs. Google...................................................................................49
Soundclick; Future-Tense..............................................................................51
RocBattle is a Coliseum................................................................................52
Understanding RocBattle Politics.................................................................53
RocBattle; Future-Tense...............................................................................54
Hidden Marketplaces....................................................................................55
Upcoming Marketplaces...............................................................................56
Stock Music Marketplaces...........................................................................58
Music Production Libraries...........................................................................60
Performing Rights Societies.........................................................................61
Taxi Music Licensing.....................................................................................62
Pump-Audio & Other MPL’s............................................................................63
Chapter Four: Building a Beat-Store
Becoming a Webmaster................................................................................65
Personal Page vs. Soundclick Page..............................................................66
BeatWebsites Review...................................................................................67
Choosing a Hosting Company........................................................................69
Bluehost Review............................................................................................71
HostGator Review..........................................................................................72
Content Management Systems......................................................................73
Website Builders............................................................................................75
Working with Themes.....................................................................................76
Additional Graphics.........................................................................................77
Using Plugins..................................................................................................78
Music Players/Shopping Carts.......................................................................80
Chapter Five: Ranking Keywords
Search Engine Optimization..........................................................................82
Belly of the Beast.........................................................................................83
Keywords......................................................................................................84
Keyword Research........................................................................................85
Ranking New Websites.................................................................................88
Ranking Soundclick Pages............................................................................89
SERP Positions..............................................................................................90
Being Number One.........................................................................................92
Algorithm Changes........................................................................................93
Doing SEO Yourself........................................................................................94
Hiring a Freelancer........................................................................................95
Chapter Six: Paid Advertising
Pay-Per Click.................................................................................................98
PPC Platforms...............................................................................................99
PPC Or SEO...................................................................................................100
My Experiences with PPC.............................................................................101
Adwords Vouchers........................................................................................103
Media Buys (Buying Media).........................................................................106
Ad Networks................................................................................................108
Ad Network Reviews....................................................................................109
Chapter Seven: Mailing Lists
E-Mail Marketing...........................................................................................110
Building Lists.................................................................................................111
Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule).......................................................................112
E-Mail Scraping..............................................................................................113
Buying E-Mail Lists........................................................................................115
What’s a Squeeze Page?................................................................................116
What’s an Autoresponders?...........................................................................118
Setting Up an Autoresponder.........................................................................119
Setting Up an Autoresponder+Squeeze Page.................................................123
Chapter Eight: Social Platforms
Social Media Traffic......................................................................................131
Social Proofing.............................................................................................132
Optimizing your Fanpage...............................................................................133
Facebook Ads................................................................................................135
Strategy for Facebook Ads............................................................................136
Spamming Vs. Communication......................................................................137
Optimizing your Twitter Page........................................................................138
Twitter’s Search Engine................................................................................141
Soundcloud...................................................................................................142
Soundcloud and Selling Beats......................................................................145
Soundcloud Shopping Cart............................................................................147
Reverbnation................................................................................................149
Reverbnation Bots........................................................................................150
Social Bookmarking.......................................................................................151
Chapter Nine: Scaling 101
“Scaling” Selling Beats Online....................................................................152
“Scaling” via Organic Traffic.......................................................................153
“Scaling” via Paid Traffic............................................................................155
“Scaling” via Mailing Lists..........................................................................156
“Scaling” via Social Traffic..........................................................................157
Epilogue.................................................................................................158
Glossary.................................................................................................159
Prologue
Opening Words ...
S
elling Beats Online was never intended to be a career. Still, you’ve got people like
me (and most notably Johnny Juliano and Vybe Beatz) who’ve managed to wing-it
and cook it into a livelihood. Meanwhile, at any given moment everything I’ve worked so
hard to accomplish can be destroyed. That isn’t Selling Beats Online, that’s business and
entrepreneurship period.
(My PayPal account showing a balance of $12,783.61 USD)
Now, as surreal as
it may seem; hundreds of beats are
being bought on
a weekly basis.
I’m speaking from
experience. I sold
close to 900 (860 to
be exact) during the
month I was writing this book alone. People are buying beats. Everyday. Often several at a time. With that
being said, the same 50-150 producers (from millions) get the lion’s share of beat sales. There’s
a really small demographic that makes up over 80% of ALL beats sold online.
“Selling Beats Online is an extreme example of a Superstar Economy
in which a small number of people take home the biggest share of income.”
Still, it’s hard for people to
grasp JUST how many instrumentals are being bought all
over the world. Selling Beats
Online is a profitable niche.
It’s been that way for almost
a decade now. I believe it’s
only going to grow larger over
time.
(My PayPal account showing the actual beat sale transactions)
wwww.SellMyBeats.net _ Making Beats Make Money ™
8
Chapter One: GETTING STARTED
Why the Niche Exists ...
The market for beats being sold online exists because of the BOOM in prosumer-level
electronics. “Prosumer” is a portmanteau formed by combining the words professional and
consumer. Prosumers are hobbyists who’ve reached a level of sophistication that rivals those
of professionals. I’m sure we’ve all heard tracks from online producers that compete with
what’s on the radio.
Professional-grade microphones, pre-amps and recording software became affordable
to the working-class citizen. We were within the last days of needing recording gear that
cost upward of $5,000. Long gone would be the treasure-chested ‘mystique’ of recording
studios. Fast-forward ten years, and Hit-Factory studios were being boarded-up due to the
rise of ‘DIY’ studios.
We’re at a point in time where Home Studios are
largely considered the norm of Modern Recording
Shortly, music production priced ‘similarly’ for artists using said recording gear came
about. Bedroom producers would soon have beats that stood alongside anything heard on the
radio in terms of quality. Artists would eventually have thousands of beats at their fingertips.
People looking for instrumentals began using the Internet as a resource instead of working
with local producers.
Prosumers are common in many fields that were once the sole province of professionals. One of the areas where the “prosumer” has gained a high degree of visibility is in
the Home-Improvement Industry. A number of household tasks are now being done by many
homeowners. Tasks such as plumbling, handling major appliances, wallpaper hanging and
installing duct work.
“ The only clients that just NEED to be tracked and recorded in
big studios now are the ones using acoustic instruments honestly.”
9
History of the Niche ...
It’s worth mentioning that the niche of Selling Beats Online only dates back to 2004 at
it’s furthest. So it’s still relatively new. It’s still less than a decade old. Over time it’s become
more mainstream and it’s shaping up to be a candid stream of revenue for music production.
Selling Beats Online is only going to become more popular as time goes on.
And as this happens, the competition’ll become stiffer too.
If the producers that were established in 2005-2006 tried to break into this niche for
the first time today, they wouldn’t be successful. At all. They’d get crushed. A few even
admitted this. The niche has changed drastically. The sheer number of ‘How Many People
are Trying to Do This?’ alone would make most people throw in the towel.
The fact that no one seems to know the steps to really be “successful” Selling Beats Online
Make most producers stay down for the ten-count after they’ve been uppercut by reality.
In 2005, the top producers on Soundclick didn’t have anywhere near the competition
they have today musically. Beats weren’t nearly as complex and intricate as they are today.
Things were wide-open back then. There also, wasn’t anywhere near the amount of saturation on Soundclick as it is today. Vybe and Johnny Juliano were innovators.
They were ahead of ANYTHING heard online and rivaled everything you heard on commercial releases.
It wasn’t until later when time went on that people “caught up” to them and plagiarized their sound.
In 2005, the top producers ranking on Google didn’t have nearly as many things to
worry about as they do now. Sites could be ranked by keyword stuffing, spun content and
Xrumer alone. That isn’t really the case anymore. Page Rank is practically dead and Domain
Authority seems to have taken it’s place. Google Updates run rampant now.
Seems every few months there’s a new update to Google’s Search Algorithm.
Its starting to make long-term rankings almost impossible to have.
10
Ethics of Selling Beats Online ...
People have always questioned the ethics of Selling Beats Online and I never understood why. Maybe because Selling Beats Online challenges the way things are done for producers? At one point, I think the idea of selling the same piece of music multiple times was
just too new a concept for people. Even when it’s a practice that’s been a staple to Music
Licensing for years now. “Leasing” isn’t a new concept at all.
In different circles “leasing” is known as “non-exclusive licensing” which has absolutely
been a staple to TV Shows, Movie Productions and so on for decades now.
Leasing gets a lot of flack for not being in the same vein as (traditional) producing.
People complain it isn’t “personal” enough. But do people not realize songwriters and producers shop the same concepts, hooks, and beats to MULTIPLE artists until something sticks?
Things literally get passed around for MONTHS until a check gets cut. Now is that really any
different from having multiple people lease the same beat?
“People that knock producers for leasing aren’t being realistic
Especially when 75% of songs made today take place through e-mail.”
Producers say they’d rather get hundreds upfront in an advance (from placements) as
opposed to getting $20.00 for a lease. Great. But what commercial artists are lining up to
pay those producers what they feel they’re owed? Whose knocking down doors to work with
them? Is anybody even lining up to pay them for music at all? If not, how could they fault
anybody who are genuinely making money from their music?
In my eyes, they’re lower on the totem-pole than the people who get constant lease sales at $20.00!
Because at the end of the day, we’re all making an attempt to make a living off beats. Period.
“Most artists get less than 20 cents for a CD, so $20.00 for a non-exclusive
beat that I retain my rights to sounds fair to me, honestly.”
11
Other Beat-Selling Courses ...
I’ll admit, at one point in time I caved into the pressure and bought a few ‘How To Sell
Beats’ courses. Thinking maybe they’d help me gain some insight on how this whole thing
works. Because I needed strategy. I wanted a blueprint. I needed a course-of-action. There
ARE success stories for Selling Beats Online, but the journeys aren’t documented.
There isn’t a lot of public information on doing this the right way.
Meanwhile, every “course” I bought was a scam.
The thing is, producers know exactly how desperate others producers are to succeed
when it comes to Selling Beats Online. To the point where they’d go as far to market scams
to make a few dollars. A tall-tale sign they aren’t selling a high number of beats themselves.
Sad. Then again, it’s easier monetizing other people’s dreams than it is your own.
Because 98% of these “courses” didn’t hint at anything you couldn’t
have already found or nose-dived into from surfing Google.
These ‘How to Sell Beats’ courses were written in the dinosaur ages of Internet Marketing. At best, they’re going to (briefly) mention e-mail marketing and list-building. But they
won’t yield you any real game-plan. They won’t give you any real perspective on our niche
in 2012 and beyond. From experience, what worked in 2006 doesn’t work in 2013.
Unless you know how to modernize each and every approach,
you can’t use the exact same methodologies from 2006.
These courses are assembled by pseudo (fake) marketers. They’re put together by failed
producers themselves. Sure, they may have “some idea” on how to make it work __ but
they have no real expertise on getting there. Some even write these “e-books” (pamphlets
is more like it) deliberately leaving important things out. Why? Nobody really knows.
Maybe to come out with more “Beat Selling Courses” for re-occurring payments
Maybe to deliberately lead people in the wrong direction? Who knows?
Whatever the case __ steer clear.
12
Placements Vs. Selling Online ...
I feel ‘leasing’ is arguably the best thing to happen to producers in the last ten years.
Nothing really compares to Selling Beats Online when it’s scaled into a business. Nada. It
becomes something that can truly rival a white-collar job with a legitimate salary. A great
alternative to sitting on your ass waiting to land placements.
Selling Beats Online signifies control. It’s a bold statement for a modern producer. It
shows authority. It’s stating you don’t need any middle-men to shop your music or to get it
to the people who’d be interested in it. An artist wants to do business with you? They simply
handle it through a Secured API like PayPal or Google Wallet.
Managers and A&Rs are obsolete here.
“When you sign a publishing or production deal
you’re an employee. You work on the terms provided.”
“ You submit records to projects under a criteria
and buy a lottery ticket of landing on one.”
I always chuckle when I see producers try to make ‘chasing placements’ seem more
“noble” than it really is. People would have you believe it’s more “honorable” for whatever
reason. Maybe it’s the allure of flying to different states, staying up all night in the studios
and meeting your favorite rappers, producers and celebrities?
Whatever the case, whenever I’ve shown my PayPal balance to other producers
they’ve always warmed up to the idea of Selling Beats Online.
“Having made money doing everything imagineable with music,
Nothing really came close to selling beats online when I scaled it.”
13
Placements Vs. Selling Online ...
More and more I’m seeing commercial producers start websites and soundclick
pages to lease beats. Cardiak, Cardo, Slegdren, and DJ Mustard to name a few. What’s
crazy is theses are mid-level producers with HUGE placements. Seems like more people
are starting to see the “possibility” in non-exclusive licensing.
The number of “big name producers” leasing is only going to increase as the years go by.
Due to the placements that actually pose a DECENT-sized check becoming more and more scarce.
With the way track submissions are handled today it’s easier than ever to get placements. Managers and music supervisors are more reachable than ever before. Thanks to
networking hubs like Twitter. Truthfully, you stand a better chance of getting commercial
placements than you do making a career Selling Beats Online.
“Placements take time. You’re looking at
a couple months for processing paperwork alone.”
“The split-sheets have to be documented.
Then, said song has to actually be released to generate revenue.”
“ This is assuming it’s an album placement with a budget for production. ”
I’ll take the guy who’s been seeing $4,000 a month on Soundclick over the producer
that’s signed to a publishing deal with unreleased (vaulted) placements. Placements that
aren’t ever going to find their way to a retail release. Likewise, I’ll take the career of
Dr.Dre over the teenager selling leases with no traffic to his site.
Things aren’t as black and white when it comes to music.
A winning situation is a winning situation.
“The goal’s always been to make a living doing what you love;
Regardless if that comes from huge placements or by waking up to
30 leases sold every morning.”
14
On-Foot Sales Vs. Online Sales ...
From time to time you’ll hear people say there’s “more money” to be made selling
beats locally and in-person. I beg to differ. I’ve mingled at open mic lounges, had meetings with A&Rs and had lunch with DJ’s. I’ve handed out business cards (most of which got
disposed-of), followed up leads and produced for well-known local acts.
Conclusion: These people can’t be serious. The people who repeat this belief out loud
Probably haven’t succeeded doing either. Or at least not to the extent I have.
Understand that when networking in-person you’re dealing with real people. Real
people who have to spend their money in “real” situations. They have priorities. Things
like food, shelter and bills are going to trump whatever $$$ you’re asking for music. Beats
are a novelty. Gas prices are rising. The cost of living is higher than ever.
People aren’t going to be lining up to “buy beats” from you locally.
They just aren’t.
Selling Beats Online and off- are two completely different worlds. Two different planets. One gaseous the other rocky. One relies on marketing, the other confides in networking. The range we have online is wider. We’re comparing a targeted global search-of-artists
(hundreds and thousands) to a local search-of-artists (less than a hundred).
People forget you have to “discover” the serious artists when working in person.
It isn’t as easy as just typing some keywords into Google or Youtube.
I approach producing offline by building genuine relationships with people. I willingly
give out free material. I don’t make the exchange about money. That makes things awkward and puts people in uncomfortable positions. Because there’s some people that just
flat-out don’t see the point in “buying music” and nothing can change that.
Going out and legitimately “producing” local acts has worked for every successful producer
in the past and continues to work for them today. Just don’t expect to get paid right away.
15
Why People Fail to Sell Beats ...
What’s an entitlement attitude? It’s that really annoying ambience that screams:
“I deserve this, even if I haven’t earned it.” It’s louder than any cologne and perfume
known to man. Over the years, I’ve learned said attitude doesn’t really fuse well with
business. Entrepreneurship is a learning experience.
1. Entitlement Attitude
2. They aren’t true entrepreneurs
3. They havent attached “value” to their music
4. Failure to market themselves
Nobody genuinely understands how much work goes into making a living Selling
Beats Online. The moment you realize that tree you had to climb was really Mt. Everest
decides if you’ll start hiking or move on with life. I attended Trigonometry classes that
were more straight-forward than Selling Beats Online.
Thinking people should be lining up to buy your beats
cashing the worst “reality check” ever.
Producers online are free-lancers and self-employed composers sure, but they still
have to conform to the market’s needs musically. So more than anything, your beats
have to solve a problem for the people who actually buy beats. Otherwise they won’t be
buying anything! People want to write songs. Good songs.
People want to write songs that’ll launch their careers and get them positive feedback.
You have to make music that people would want to write to. Music that’s inspiring TO THEM.
“Everything that can
go wrong, probably will,
__
and if it doesn’t consider yourself lucky.”
16
Why People Fail to Sell Beats ...
To succeed at running a business takes confidence. Unwavering confidence. You make
decisions in a hurry, often with imperfect information. That’s the real-life aspect of it in a
nutshell. Sorry, but the majority of producers you meet aren’t “mentally ready” to become
entrepreneurs. They don’t really understand the concept of investing.
Producers think “investing” is paying $20.00 for a VIP account on Soundclick
and finding a matching page design. Ugh. Next.
Marketing is everything. It’s literally what makes or breaks producers that Sell Beats
Online. Less than 60% of producers actually market themselves. They aren’t actively seeking
people to buy beats. If they are, they probably aren’t going about it intelligibly. It’s not about
posting a beat and waiting for someone to find you. That’s quicksand.
It’s about putting yourself out there to be found. Thinking outside the box to keep them “there”
when they find you and giving them QUALITY when they’ve shown they like how you do business!
17
Selling Beats and E-Commerce ...
I hate to be superficial, but money makes shit happen. You’re absolutely going to have
to hurl hundreds of dollars into this to make it work. I’ll never understand how producers
can start businesses so clumsily. Or why producers weasel their way out of start-up costs.
We don’t have any staff-workers or employees to pay. We don’t have any retail distribution
chains to pay either.
Hell, we don’t even have a “real” product! We literally, sell the rights to use a .mp3 file
Producers have to start seeing their online businesses for what they are. Legitimate
E-commerce companies that specialize in digital goods. Companies that are going to rely
heavily on strategic Internet marketing to make income. E-commerce is the culture of buying
and selling goods & services online. Embrace it. Because new trends in E-Commerce work
their way down to us.
“I’ve had people that run businesses that sell physical,
tangible merchandise tell me we have it easy.”
Studies say small-business owners on average, spend $5,000-$10,000 starting their
businesses. Don’t panic __ those studies included businesses with physical goods and inperson services. Startup costs of an online production company aren’t going to be nearly as
much. I like to think I did pretty well with the $2,500 I oozed out of a 9-to-5. I did it with
a little elbow-grease.
I didn’t have a business plan drawn out. I just knew I was going to “toss money”
at it until my website started to generate revenue
“The success of our companies is really a dry-case of GREAT marketing.”
18
Marketing is Everything ...
In a perfect world, the people with the best music would get the lion’s share of beat
sales. In said world beats would also, sound off an alarm once uploaded to instantly alert
buyers they’re for sale. Sadly, neither of these actually happen in the real world. Something I’ve come to terms with is that the tech-savvy people own this niche.
The Internet Marketers, software developers and so on. One way or another,
they’re the ones making the most money here. Not the producers.
It seems our biggest hurdle as producers online is attracting new customers. Most
people fail at Selling Beats Online because they aren’t able to produce the traffic necessary to create sales. The reason marketing is so climatic to us is because that’s exactly
how we get customers. Marketing is what makes or breaks us here. Period.
Nobody’s going to magically land on your web page and buy your product.
Marketing ourselves helps us become visible to the people genuinely buying beats
Marketing helps us generate leads to be turned into sales. This is something you’ll
want to invest in heavily if you intend to make any money in this niche. It’ll allow people
that buy beats to know your storefront exists. Afterwards they’ll decide whether or not
they’re interested in your services based on how you’ve marketed yourself.
They’ll choose to do business with you based on a number of factors
Your actual music isn’t even the biggest factor.
Clearly, an online business calls for online means of marketing and promotion. Business cards are dead. Print media was replaced by social media. Vehicle wraps are ineffective here. Cold-calling is stupid. Along with local beat-battles and conferences. Craigslist
Ads aren’t targeted enough to catch people buying beats. Stop the madness.
I talk about my experiences with nearly every medium of traffic and marketing in later chapters.
“ The whole point of marketing is to sell
to more people. There is no other reason to do it.”
19
How Important Are the Beats? ...
A few pages ago I *hinted* at the significant of promotion for producers. Implying
that if you aren’t working on a marketing campaign this very second, you’re showing early
signs of defeat. While I’ve seen ‘sales strategies’ work miracles (that otherwise seemed
bleak), we shouldn’t downplay the music. Understand there’s still millions of free beats
available to download.
So it’s crucial to give artists something WORTH buying.
Something that can’t be gotten somewhere else without charge.
A lot of producers try to bring a product to the market before they’ve tuned their
craft. They aren’t ready. Everybody’s worried about “selling themselves” before they even
have something anyone wants. One of the main reasons the Selling Beats Online niche is so
saturated. You STILL have to make music artists can enjoy. You STILL have to have music
available that sell itself.
At the very minimum, you should be able to make superior music to your competitors.
Having “Good music” is damn near a prerequisite to Selling Beats Online.
The last thing you want is to have grade-A traffic from beat buyers and not actually
deliver on the goods! Horrible! You shouldn’t even think about Selling Beats Online until
you’ve gathered a strong catalog. Atleast 40 high-quality instrumentals and the engineering
plays a huge part overall. Loudness is a must. Artists want records that sound like they’ve
been mastered already.
__
“While there are a large number of politics Oddly enough, the music is impotant.”
“It doesn’t matter how hot you think a beat is. Because an artist has to listen to
it and hear him or her writing something to it.”
“If they can’t hear themselves recording over it,
there’s really no point in buying it.”
20
Competition Vs. Oversaturation ...
People say there’s a lot of competition Selling Beats Online. I say define competition.
Just because there’s an endless amount of people doing something doesn’t mean they’re
all competing with you. Some producers (a lot actually), are merely taking up space. It’s okay to
step over them. It’s okay to make giant leaps over the people whom are stagnant and have
no course of action.
Do I think it’s competitive? Sure, but what I think people really mean to say is
hat the niche and market as a whole is oversaturated. Big difference.
1. There’s probably about ten million producers worldwide trying to do this. About three
million of those people are under the age of 18 and don’t have any source of income.
Their parents aren’t going to fund their production companies for them. Their parents
aren’t going to give them the thousands it takes to market their music online to buy
ers. So it’s safe to say that in time, they’ll eventually enroll into secondary education
and probably move on with their lives.
2. Another four million of those people are still trying to make GREAT music. Music that
artists would even WANT to buy in the first place. On average, it takes a producer any-where from 2-10 years to really become articulate with their craft. I’m afraid lot of
people pursuing this will have moved on with their lives given that time frame.
They’ll have finished school, started families, landed full-time jobs and so on.
3. Something close to a million of those people already make music that’s worth selling.
So what’s their problem? They don’t have the knowledge, discipline or dedication to
really make it work. It could even be that they don’t have the budgets in place to get
the traffic necessary to make Selling Beats Online work. For whatever reason, they
just haven’t taken it forward.
4. The remaining two million are fair game. The market is far more “open” than most
will really give credit for noticing. With a little sound reasoning one can see how m-ost people are going to be eliminated early on. There really isn’t a lot of competition.
People shouldn’t get intimidated by the numbers. The producers whom aren’t 100%
siamese with making this work will be weeded out. Period.
21
Competition Vs. Oversaturation ...
By sheer numbers alone every producer isn’t going to make a living Selling Beats
Online. The thing that’s always made a career producing music so elusive was the fact it
wasn’t something that any and everybody could do. Being a successful music producer
wasn’t in the same vein as going to school and getting a degree.
It’s always been a life-calling and luck-based line of work. It’s always been the kind
of field where “passion” is put above all else. So from the beginning you have to adopt
a survivalist mentality. There has to be that ‘struggle’ a work ethic amongst those who
intend to make something as chancy as making beats a livlyhood.
“I actually love the fact it’s becoming harder
to make money selling beats online.”
“A career in music isn’t for everybody, and it was never suppose to be.
I think the difficulty restores balance.”
“In the 90’s being a music producer wasn’t something
anybody could do either. There were barriers.”
22
Chapter Two: Free Market
The Sensibility Of Free Beats ...
Producers have to understand not every recording artist is pursuing music seriously.
A huge number of people you meet will only be doing it recreationally. Music’s just a hobby
to a lot of people. So to them, spending money on something apart from the bare essentials
(i.e - a microphone and software to record with) isn’t going to happen. You aren’t going to get them to buy
a beat from you.
They simply, do not rationalize nor care about buying beats. Hence me not losing sleep
over people who were never going to be customers to begin with!
But it was bound to happen. Free beats were destined to become a household name.
They’re a fan-favorite among starving artists. Retail albums with million-dollar budgets can
be gotten (for free) in under a few clicks, and mouse hovers. Multimedia in general isn’t being
sold and “appreciated” like it once was. Entertainment as a whole’s become devalued to a
lot of consumers.
While people may not necessarily be lining up to buy beats; they also aren’t lining up to buy
Compact Discs, DVDs, Pornography or Video Games either.
I don’t really think giving out free beats subtracts from potential sales. Not at all.
Because people seeking freebies and -freebies-only- were never paying customers to begin
with. People seeking freebies download the material we’re offering (as samples) out of convenience. Convenience of it being free. It doesn’t mean they’d buy that same instrumental if
it were for sale.
It takes a lot to actually make someone go in their wallet and
make a purchase. The people in question were never going to do that.
“I think producers should let artists have a few free
beats. This builds fellowship and familiarizes them
with your production process.”
23
The Sensibility Of Free Beats ...
Producers are afraid. They’re afraid other beatmakers will steal their material.
They’re afraid artists’ll take their beats and use them without consent. They’re afraid they
won’t be able to “control” the records made from their instrumentals. Giving away free
material simply doesn’t register with a lot of Producers.
Producers let anxiety red-light whatever positive could’ve
come from giving away a couple free beats.
What helped me get over my doubts and butterflies was to simply watermark my
material. Producers have to find ways to “imprint” their brand into their music. So when
people do run off with our beats; our involvement with the music can’t be denied. Usually
producers insert their signature voice tags throughout.
Others like myself have gone the extra mile to add meta-tag information to the .mp3 file itself
“If you’re selling something for $19.95, and you give one
away for free; the customer sees that as: A). them saving
$19.95 and B). they got something WORTH $19.95”
“Ultimately free beats give artists a chance to demo your material. Something we as
producers have to understand is, that if you produce an artist’s most noteworthy songs;
they’ll be coming back to you.”
24
Foreign Buyers (Internationals) ...
Selling Beats Online falls victim to a lot of things; one being digital music consumption. Digital music consumption refers to the rampant amount of streaming and downloading
in the post-Napster “iTunes” era. Americans consume more music than any other nationality,
and America consumes more entertainment than any other country. These behaviors weigh
on how people buy music.
You’ll soon realize everything that’s happening in music and audio
is happening to every medium of entertainment on a larger scale.
You’ll find people internationally won’t have as much of a problem buying beats.
Because music’s still very much appreciated in other parts of the world. More-so than in
North America. That’s why certain artists can spend so much time performing their material
overseas. Their music is still valued there. Whereas in the US they might’ve been written
off as a one hit wonder.
I’d argue it’s easier to actually sell beats to people outside the US
as opposed to ones whom reside in the US.
The “Free-mium” mindset is mostly an American phenomenon. I regularly sell beats
in Germany and Russia. There’s even people in Africa I’ve sold to before. People would have
you believe Selling Beats Online is “dying” due to American Consumer Habits. Whereas a
producer Selling Beats Online could make a 6-figure income easily off the markets outside
the United States alone.
“Music consumers are found to substitute legal music
consumption for illegal music consumption”
“BUT much of what is consumed illegally would not have
been purchased if piracy was not available.”
25
“iTunes” Strategy ($0.99 Beats) ...
$0.99 Beats is downward pricing pressure at its finest. It’s like producers get more
desperate by the day. I’ve seen the price of beats see-saw from $49.99 to $19.99, to $9.99,
all to ultimately nose-dive to $0.99 Cents. Amazing. It seems beats are literally, on track to
be a dime-a-dozen. Completed songs are sold for $0.99 on iTunes. They even sell completed
songs for $0.59 on Emusic.com. $0.99 Beats are a reflection of the times.
What’s so horrible about beats sold for under a dollar? Producers get worked up over it
but is the guy selling for $0.99 even getting any sales? Hmmm.
I’m even seeing people wanting to start unions and feminist groups to try to keep
prices above a certain threshold. While that may sound good (it doesn’t) on paper, you have to
respect the fact Selling Beats Online is a free market. The buyers ultimately determine our
prices. Producers that sell high and sell low can both coexist together. $0.99 beats aren’t
“destroying” our niche. They aren’t“ruining” anything. False alarm people.
“I actually think the people shopping for beats respect the fact
YOU respect yourself to charge more as well. Rappers see producers dropping
prices as a sign of desperation.”
Producers should stop worrying so much about other producers. Pricing matters, __
but it’s probably one of the least important things that determines whether you’ll land a sale
or not. Producers should worry more-so about generating their OWN sales. Because that’s all
that really matters. Another vendor’s prices aren’t going to affect your unless every artist
coming to your website is leaving your page and going to his right afterwards.
Producers online spend too much time worried about other producers who could frankly,
not even be making any sales. So how could they be “taking money” out of anyone’s pockets
... if they aren’t even making money to begin with?
“Lower prices don’t always translate to more sales.”
26
The iTunes Strategy could work if done right. You’d need a huge catalog of beats (hundreds easily) for it to be lucrative. If all you have is 20-30 beats on display that means all it’d
take is $20-30.00 for a buyer to hardly visit your site again. Due to a low number catalog,
your customer retention would be “dry” at best.
Because people shopping for $0.99 instrumentals usually scoop about 5-15 of them
When they actually DO make a purchase.
You’d also need traffic. Shitloads of it. I mean thousands of unique visitors a day.
Otherwise you couldn’t really turn a profit; even though you’d be making more ‘sales’
than the next guy. Sure enough, $0.99 beats can more easily convert into sales. BUT the
real dilemma here is making a worthwhile return.
So more than anything, $0.99 beats is an attempt to try to “convert”
any and everybody that might stumble upon said beat website.
I personally believe $0.99 Beats is a phenomenon best left to Soundclick. I don’t
really see it being the most effective pricing or ‘business model’ anywhere else or on a
personal website. It works on Soundclick because people are already conditioned to free
beats, and at $0.99; you aren’t too far away from that.
You can already see them using $0.99 beats to take advantage of said traffic
under the monikers “demo downloads” and “.Mp3 downloads”.
“If you don’t have the above things in your favor you’re honestly,
wasting your time selling beats at this price.”
“It could be an amazing business model. It’s just very few are in an actual
position to take advantage of it! I just don’t run across a lot of people
who can execute it.”
27
It’s worth mentioning that if you’re a US vendor, PayPal reports your earnings to the
IRS under either two events:
• You gross over $20,000 annually
• You make over 200 transactions yearly
This specifically spells trouble for the people who sell HUNDREDS of beats at
$0.99. Simply because the IRS is going to take somewhere between 13-16% of earnings.
This is taken from GROSS sales, not NET sales (after PayPal takes their cut).
PayPal will take either 2.6% or 35 cents from your sales as a ‘transaction fee’.
Sellers pay a fee for PayPal to handle their transactions. PayPal will decide whether it’s a
2.6 or a 35% deduction depending on which number happens to be ‘greater’.
For those selling their beats for $0.99 this poses a concern. Because you’re being
deducted $0.35 rather than the modest 2.6% the rest of us are being charged with. Meaning $0.99 producers are forfeiting 48-51% of their GROSS sales to fees alone.
PRODUCER A
•
•
•
•
Sells 500 Beats @ $1 each ($500 Gross)
35% PayPal Fee ($175 Fee)
16% Taxes (Thanks to exceeding the 200-transaction threshold)
Walks Away with $245 in pocket
PRODUCER B
•
•
•
•
Sells 10 Beats @ $50 each (Same $500 Gross)
2.6% PayPal Fee ($13 Fee)
0% Taxes (Under the 200-transaction threshold)
Walks Away with $487 in pocket
28
Both PRODUCER A and PRODUCER B made the same $500 gross sales. PRODUCER B
who sold fewer of the more expensive products, walked away with $242 more in his pocket. Even
if you were trying to be as legitimate as possible and pay taxes (that even PayPal considers too
small to report) __ you’d still walk away with $407 by selling fewer of the more expensive product.
Which is still $165 more than the guy with the iTunes sales strategy.
29
Deciding a Price ...
Different prices work for different producers. Some people have success selling
instrumentals dirt-cheap. Others have more success selling for higher. You really have to
assess your own situation. If you can’t “move volume” using other people’s prices, then
stop using other people’s prices. Experiment. Find the price-point people are willing to
pay to license your music.
But If you can’t make it lucrative for you then it’s pointless.
I know producers that steadily make sales at $39.99. It works for them. Likewise, I
know producers that only push exclusives on Soundclick for $200.00-$300.00. It’s lucrative for them. Wouldn’t we all like to believe our beats are worth thousands and thousands
of dollars? Sure. But if the people with the money and the budget-to-spend don’t see it
that way, are they really?
Don’t the people who actually “buy beats” have the last say so in all of this?
It goes without saying a Ferrari costs more than a Ford. New, used, salvaged __
whatever. Ford and Ferrari both mass-produce automobiles. Yes, but they’re different cars
for different markets. They co-exist together. You don’t see Ferrari trying to launch a fullscale war against Ford for offering cheaper shit. Ferrari doesn’t care. Ford is entry-level
and Ferrari is premium.
Even with multiple Ford dealerships in the same city,
People still manage to make down-payments on Ferrari’s with no problem.
Fly safe. Don’t end up letting the market dictate your price. If you’ve got your prices
set in the clouds, neighboring the moon and stars, people aren’t going to fuck with you.
Artists’ll start looking at you as a “high-risk risk low reward” investment and find someone
cheaper. Producers have to grasp the fact that Selling Beats is based largely on customer
needs and satisfaction.
“I my found my sweet-spot where I can sell lucratively.
It works. Not a lot of people haggle me on my prices.”
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Premiums & Charm Pricing ...
Something that’s not done nearly enough in my opinion is price points. Most businesses
that sell goods and services have some kind of sliding scale for their products. Even at McDonald’s you’ve got price-points running rampant through the entire menu. You can order a
sandwich by itself, or you can order it with different sized fries and drinks for added value.
This is “Options Marketing”. You can kinda see this “clumsily” done by producers
already when they place their lease/exclusive prices next to each other.
The point is to offer “added incentive” for additional price. Cellphone providers do
this day-in and day-out with add-on services. You’re probably asking how could a producer
accomplish this with “beetz” of all things? Be creative. I’ve seen producers advertise a beat
with a chorus(hook), and then offer the same instrumental without one for significantly less.
“Psychological pricing or charm pricing is the theory
that certain prices have a psychological impact. Prices
such as $1.99 are associated with spending $1.00 rather than $2.00 ”
Before I switched players I used different price points for my leases. I had one version
of a .mp3 tagged to death for $14.99. Another .mp3 untagged for $19.99, and finally an
untagged .wav version for $24.99. To my surprise, I actually sold a lower number of $14.99
leases than I did anything else! People completely disregarded the cheaper license I offered.
My $19.99 and $24.99 licenses sold more at the end of the day.
“The theory that drives this is that lower pricing such as
this institutes greater demand than if consumers were perfectly
rational. Psychological pricing is one cause of price points.”
31
Managing Discounts ...
The biggest reason people have a hard time buying something like ‘beats’ is because
there’s no perceieved value in actually ‘buying’ a beat. To most artists, beats are more of a
commodity than anything. They aren’t a necessity. Beetz don’t rank as high on as something
like food or clothing on a list of priorities. So buying beats in itself, is taboo here.
The fact the entire transaction is entirely digital (and not physical) puts us at even worse odds.
Believe it or not, running discounts adds to the ‘perceieved value’ of buying beats to
people. If someone was halfway skeptical at first, but knew they could get 2-3 more instrumentals for the price of one __ they’d be more inclined to shop with you. Discounts make
things a little more worthwhile on their end. You’ll probably lose money at first.
However, the fact you’ve converted someine into a customer in a niche where people aren’t
just lining up to purchase from most vendors (producers) far outweights that.
Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that a 100% of zero is still zero. Nada. Zilch.
There’s nothing wrong with holding out for how much you feel you deserve. Just know you’ll
be waiting until someone else agrees that’s how much you should actually get. At the same
time, nothing’s stopping you from driving buyers into your business “right now”.
Honestly, Beat buyers are scarce. Run a few discounts and make people a bit
more inclined to make a transaction with you.
“You’ll see this more often being the case on social media than
anywhere else. sales and negotiation can get you far there.”
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PayPal Basics ...
The sooner you get acquainted with PayPal the better. PayPal is, in the eyes of many;
the fastest and safest way to send money online. I encourage producers to put more stock in
PayPal (over alternatives like Google Wallet and Western Union) because PayPal’s the golden
standard for online transactions. It’s been that way for over a decade now.
Not to say you wouldn’t get the occasional sale or two using Western Union,
Just that PayPal will account for over 90% of your business easy.
Producers can get started by setting up a standard merchant account on PayPal’s
website. The Standard Merchant Account is free and will do everything we’ll need to run our
beat stores hassle-free. PayPal’s Pro Account is more-so for big brand retailers like Walmart
and Neiman Marcus that need their own API and shopping cart solutions.
Honestly, I’ve never found the two paid accounts offered to be necessary for Selling Beats.
PayPal doesn’t reveal credit card information. When someone uses PayPal, their financial information isn’t shared with sellers. Meaning we as producers never see our buyers’
credit card details. PayPal acts as a third-party to reduce fraud in online transactions. When
a transaction is complete, the money will appear in your PayPal account.
From there, money inside said account can be transferred directly to your bank account.
There’s even PayPal Credit and Debit Cards available.
33
Dealing with Chargebacks ...
Selling ‘digital goods’ is tricky. Because there’s going to come a time when you’ll come
face-to-face with your first chargeback. It’ll be a heart-breaking experience. A chargeback
is basically when someone tells their credit card provider to reverse a transaction that’s already happened. This means a payment you’ve already receieved can be reversed. Yes, even
if you’ve already sent over the product/goods.
So basically people can jinx our system, “shop-lift” our beats and still keep their money
at the end of the day. The seller also has to pay a fee for the chargeback too.
My first chargeback sent ripples through my entire business. It felt like the sky was
falling. I wondered how could anybody make a living doing this with such a huge backdoor
open?! On top of that, when it comes to financial disputes such as this PayPal usually rules in
favor of the buyer. However we do have a little saving grace: If an item was purchased 120
days ago __ a chargeback can’t be authorized.
I’m grateful enough to say I’ve only experienced one true chargeback
the entire time I’ve sold beats online.
Here’s something to think about: Superstar-O, Vybe and Johnny Juliano have been
Selling Beats Online manually since 2005. Years before the homecoming of automated beatstores. They had to physically e-mail every beat, and their customers would often have
to wait up to 24-48 hours to receive said beats. All on the faith that the fore-mentioned
producers were good, __ honest businessmen.
So while chargebacks happen, they aren’t a doomsday event. Think about retail stores like
Walmart that get shop-lifted daily. It happens. It’s a part of business.
34
Audio Content Protection ...
The biggest threat to our businesses are people who rip beats from music players, bypassing the checkout process. Thanks to devices like DownloadHelper (Firefox) and FVD Video
Downloader (Chrome), multi-media can be downloaded from ANY source playing through a
web browser. Though it’s still a covert practice, these browser extensions are quickly becoming household items:
(In the above picture I was able to download music from Soundclick, Music Centro, PMPWorldwide and BeatStars among other places.)
Fortunately for us, if most people aren’t interested in buying beats they usually just
leave the page. It’s also worth mentioning most rappers struggle with computer basics and
would have a difficult time using the tools necessary to steal music. Also, this is still largely
a taboo practice. Using browser extensions to rip music is, right now, considered a “nerdy”
tech-savvy phenomenon.
The same way there’s software available to rip music, there’s software available to
make music more SECURE. We need to not make it so effortless to download our music.
You don’t want to leave the keys in the car making it easy for people to steal said car.
Park the car in the garage and if they want it bad enough __ they’ll have to break into
the house and steal them.
35
I conducted a lot of research. I put myself into the shoes of artists whom only want to
rip and stream our content. I must’ve ripped over a hundred beats to prove my theory, but it
was worth it. As I found and condluded what I needed to. We really only have two players that
are secure enough to ward against ripping.
The first secure shopping cart I ran across was The Euphony Widget. A cluttered and
robustly designed Flash (with an HTML5 counterpart) widget that looks like a standardized
test you took during High School. Visually I wasn’t impressed, but Euphony lets subscribers
customize the music player to their liking.
(found on EuphonyBeats.com)
To my surprise, the second secured (and more secured than Euphony) beat player
I ran across was myflashstore. Anybody who hasn’t been living under a rock for the past
four years most likely are already aware of MyFlashStore. But most of us probably didn’t
realize it’s our best bet against Audio Theft.
I tried numerous MyFlashStore profiles and Soundclick Pages but I wasn’t able to
download anything from it. MyFlashStore could single-handedly be the best widget on the
market for this reason alone. It seems beats played through Euphony and MFS are impervious to everything except hard audio capture.
“I’ve tried the usual tools used to rip mp3 or videos from Flash.
Any teenager knows the workarounds to rip mp3 from flash players.
It didn’t work on MyFlashstore.”
36
Something I’ve been seeing a lot of producers doing is only uploading snippets of their
beats. While this is still risky, it isn’t anywhere near as ‘chancy’ as having the entire instrumental exposed via music player. The snippets are then faded-in and faded-out to prevent
obvious looping. The snippets themselves are small and range between 20-45 seconds.
Another homemade remedy I’m seeing producers do is looping acapellas over their
instrumentals. While a lot would argue this is tedious and too time consuming it serves as a
valid form of content protection. This is accomplished by the a capella being played over the
display version. As it’s technically “unusable” to rip since it already includes a mono track.
(and another less mainstream method of protecting audio) :
Voxengo’s Beeper is a VST that plays over your audio file to create either a short beep,
moment of silence or a noise burst. You may specify signal’s duration, beep frequency
and the period between signals and the amount of random variation of all parameters.
NOTE: The plugin doesn’t actually perform any processing on the audio file itself.
“Ever since I got rid of the websites that weren’t secure and stuck with a
beat store that was actually secure, my sales went UP. This tells me people
were just downloading the beats and calling it a day.”
“Securing our profiles and beat players should
be our #1 Priority now.”
37
Audio Content Protection
It’s funny, because a lot of people would argue artists streaming+ripping our music
is karma for producers. Karma because we (as a whole) don’t actually purchase the DAW’s,
VST’s, drum loops and sound banks we often use. So what truthfully gives us the right to
profit and build careers off things we’ve never rightfully owned to begin with? Nothing.
A lot of us are sitting on $2-10,000 worth of stolen software. Acknowledging
that helps us keep things in perspective when talking about this subject.
These browser extensions weren’t created to attack our niche. They weren’t. They
weren’t made to vandalize and ruin Selling Beats Online. People usually have these extensions tacked onto their browsers to download YouTube Videos, Pornography and new music
from their favorite artists. It just so happens our product is being caught in the crossfire.
The crafty people are using them to rip music from our music players but that
wasn’t their original intention at all. At least not from a micro-level anyways.
38
Chapter Three: Media Marketplaces
Pros of Marketplaces ...
Media Marketplaces are sites where people are offering a service in a location people
wanting to buy said services frequent. This is where our Soundclick’s and RocBattle’s come
into play at. It makes sense to be on as many websites that sell beats as possible. Logically,
this increases your odds of actually selling beats.
The allure producers have for said marketplaces is that they have their own traffic.
They’ve got people actively looking for instrumentals. Targeted traffic. Traffic these same
producers wouldn’t have been able to get on their own. So it makes sense for them to become dependent on these sites as they can make their businesses profit.
Producers have made household names alone just by maintaining
HUGE presences on these marketplaces. Johnny Juliano comes ot mind.
A lot of times these marketplaces have their own audio players for subscribers to use.
RocBattle and Soundclick both offer widgets that makes listening to songs possible without
being sent to a third-party site. RocBattle’s taken it a step further than Soundclick and even
handles the sales and transaction portion of their clients as well.
Another advantage people see is that media marketplaces often have their own Charting Systems. They have promotional packages the members/subscribers on the sites can buy
to gain visibility to the beat buyers. Everything is in-house. For a lot of people, this stands to
be a “safer” investment than having your own domain/hosted website.
It allows producers to take less responsibility. Whereas having your
own hosted domain means you’d have to become a full-time webmaster too.
“ Being active on several of these marketplaces is what a lot
of people refer to as a Hit & Run style of Selling Beats Online.”
39
Cons of Marketplaces ...
The reason producers fly stray from Media Marketplaces is because of the lack of control. Things just aren’t in your favor. There’s always hundreds of other producers active on
these sites. Hundreds of producers, all swimming in the same cesspool for beat sales.
There’s also “stiff” competition on the majority of these sites musically.
So you may or may not be able to justify your prices
If the next guy has a superior product for less.
If you take that and add it to the “Questionable Management” a lot of marketplaces
have been said to have; it puts you in an awkward situation. Especially if your livlihood
depends on Selling Beats Online. If the website as a whole becomes ‘unprofitable’ to the
webmasters and the people who’ve founded it? They’ll let it stagnant.
It’s not uncommon for these websites to go years without updates.
Soundclick is currently where MySpace was in 2008.
The one thing that turned me away from these marketplaces was once it’s over, __
you have nothing. Because when it’s all said and done, you’ve ultimately been driving traffic
to someone else’s site. If you ever decided to do your own thing, it’d be like starting from
scratch. Because ‘your page’ wasn’t really owned by you. It was borrowed.
“At one point or another I realized websites like Rocbattle don’t
really care about their Subscribers. They only see us as a re-occuring
bill statement every month.”
“All you can really do is register a domain name
and make the best of it on these kind of websites.”
40
Soundclick is a Culture ...
To the people who buy beats online; Soundclick is an authority. Soundclick is the go-to
sanctuary for producers. Soundclick is also, a culture. Very few people realize that. The
charting system, the hi-passed mixes, the vague contracts, “leases”, excedra. Soundclick is a
culture. Everything about it is themed. It’s changed a lot over the years, but in a lot of ways
stayed the same.
Soundclick was never designed to be a producer haven. It wasn’t supposed to be the
host bed for selling beats online. It was never intended to be Team Hitz’s bitch. It morphed
into that over time. Originally, Soundclick was just a music sharing community with a silly
charting system. A few (smart) producers realized this and used it as a platform to sell their
beats to artists.
Soundclick’s a sea of producers. All with the intentions of making money from their
music. But there aren’t really 4.5 million producers “competing” with one another. Truth
be told, most of the user accounts you see on Soundclick are simply the ones people’ve left
behind over the years. However, I would say producers easily make up the greatest population over there.
“Soundclick really is a culture when you think about it”
41
Soundclick is a Culture ...
People romanticize this idea of becoming this huge producer on Soundclick. Having
a crazy cult following. Somebody others’ll spend days gossiping about on message boards:
“Where does So’n’So’s get his drumkits from? Did So’n’So attend a music college? Where’d
he learn how to play piano and layer sounds?” __ The list goes on.
Unsuccessful people mirror and mimic successful people. People want
to sound and market themselves like the hottest producers on Soundclick.
News flash: There won’t be another Johnny Juliano on Soundclick. You won’t see
another SuperstarO on Soundclick. You won’t see another Vybe Beatz on Soundclick. Those
people flourished when Soundclick was really celibate to the way they attacked shit. (and
that Soundclick is dead). They were insanely innovative for their time.
As long as people follow in their exact footsteps they won’t surpass them
You have to understand that there was a point in time when everything Team Hitz did
was innovative. Their entire approach to Soundclick was eventually copied and made the
blueprint. From the branding to the weekly graphic updates, to the over-the-top drum-programming. Looking at them today, it’s easy to overlook their influence.
Make no mistake Team Hitz were fore-runners during their prime.
They were the ones who drove Selling Beats Online to mainstream popularity.
42
Understanding Soundclick Charts ...
If you’ve paid any attention to message boards over the years, you’ve probably heard
a few people bitching about the charting system on Soundclick. The Charts are famous.
Soundclick’s “Charts” are celebrities themselves; and there isn’t a handbook to getting to
high chart positions. There aren’t a lot of cheat-codes either. Most people who were using
“Gamesharks” had their Memory Cards cleared already.
Traditionally, it took great music, intense work ethic and a lot of money for promo.
Nobody truly knows the exact algorithm Soundclick uses to come up with its chart positions. Similarly to how no one really knows Google’s algorithm for it’s SERP Positions. While
Johnny Juliano himself said he believes downloads account for more than song plays, no one
truly knows for sure. However, it’s safe to say that Soundclick’s charting system is based on:
unique plays, song downloads, ratings, and page views.
Page views of one individual beat, not your entire profile itself.
“ More song plays = Higher on the charts = More people will actually
see your songs = More lease/exclusive sales ”
Being high in the charts is your ‘all-access-pass’ to converting traffic. The eye of the
storm. Thousands of customers who buy beats only look at the charts. They assume the cream
has risen to the top and the producers worth the money, are well, right in front of them! If
you’re going to BUILD a fanbase on Soundclick __ it’s going to happen with you having high
chart positions sustained over a long period of time.
That’s when you’ll really get people to buy beats on Soundclick.
When you reach the Top 10-20 of their respective charts
The Top 10 Charts aren’t really reflective of talent, but
hard-work and resourcefulness. These people are driving
traffic to their pages and Soundclick is rewarding them via higher
positions. If the Billboard 100 Charts aren’t based on talent,
then why would Soundclick’s? Talent doesn’t run shit.
43
Understanding Soundclick Charts ...
Now, IT IS realistic to make a side or full-income from Soundclick. Despite what you’ve
heard, more unbelievable things have happened. There’s numerous producers with fullfledged careers off non-exclusives. (leases) Most people fall short because they have no real
business acumen. People are hesitant when it comes to investing money into Selling Beats
Online, but it takes money to get targeted traffic.
Their production companies stagnate, or sometimes never even leave the runway.
all because producers would rather not invest any money on means of promotion.
“To really thrive on Soundclick you got to have a Combination of Circumstances.
It isn’t just your traffic. It isn’t just your music. It isn’t just your page design.”
“It isn’t just your tag or how you protect your music.
It isn’t just you offering free downloads. It’s all of these things.”
“Failing to really lock down any one of these means you’re setting
yourself up for a disadvantage.”
44
Analyzing “Vybe Beatz” ...
Vybe wasn’t the first (nor the only one) on Soundclick to use this exact marketing pyramid. But he was without a doubt, the one who broke all Guinness World Records by doing so.
Do I think Vybe “cheated” to move up the charts? Sure, why not. I mean; define “cheating”.
Because last time I checked, this wasn’t a game. and we were all trying to run businesses
and make careers off something we love.
The ethics of moving up the charts shouldn’t even be a concern. The only people
who care about the morality of it are the people at the bottom of them anyway!
When Vybe uploads a track, it gets hundreds-of-thousands of plays within 48 hours. So
it goes without saying he’s going to be number one. Traditional play boosters couldn’t have
done this for the sole reason of Soundclick counting “Unique Plays”. Unique meaning, if I
were to play one of his tracks 100 times __ Only the first play would count as it’s logged my
IP. So the other 99 plays wouldn’t matter.
So to be within the Top 3 of Soundclick’s Charts then meant you’d have to have
a huge enough audience for that many people to press “Play” on your song/music.
Around the time it was Team Hitz mania, these guys basically uploaded a beat-a-day.
Sometimes even three-to-four beats daily. People would subscribe to them and join their
mailing list and be notified when a new track of theirs was uploaded. Which, you guessed it
__ resulted in more plays. This continued for years. Because what launched Team Hitz into a
“legendary” status was their consistency.
They maintained this work ethic for half a decade.
“More than anything, this is the real reason why they offer free
downloads. Because it aids in Soundclick chart visibility. Downloads
are an integral part of Soundclick’s algorithm.”
45
Analyzing “Vybe Beatz” ...
Social Media’s always been critical to “Soundclick Success.” Producers on Soundclick
would spam MySpace with Friend Adders, and Friend Blasts to funnel page views, downloads
and unique plays to their Soundclick Profile. Around the time, had you have gone to any rapper’s MySpace you would hear Vybe tracks, tags and all.
Obviously, Myspace is the trojan hourse it used to be, but it still gets
MILLIONS of visitors daily. It still has it’s diehard audience from 2005-2008.
So how does one get an influx of plays the way Vybe did with MySpace? Think outside
the box. Theoretically, it should be EASIER today than it was then seeing as you have MORE
social networks to spam and manipulate. They automated the process with FriendAdders and
Play Boosters. (ones that actually worked) It’s still possible today.
What’s stopping someone from using a Facebook Friend Adder or a YouTube
Private Message Blast? Or a Reverbnation Private Message Blast?
“Have you noticed how many people rate his songs? Soundclick works on how many plays
/ratings you get. The second he uploads something it gets rated by thousands. Everyone
plays his stuff. You hear him on the MySpace’s, Youtube’s, Soundclick’s, everywhere online.
He gets thousands of Downloads. ”
46
Soundclick Bots ...
For years we’ve heard myths and wives-tales of Bots taking people to the top of the
Soundclick Charts. You can find this kind of ‘chatter’ on every music production message
board. But what you won’t find, is concrete evidence they exist or how they work. You
won’t find any bit of information that would point you in direction of “finding” these
Soundclick bots.
This is an example of ONE Soundclick Bot that works __ it isn’t the only one
nor can I confirm it’s the EXACT one used by Soundclick’s Top 20.
I want to take a moment to say the Soundclick Bots that are currently working their
magic on the top twenty positions of the Soundclick Charts were custom-made. They aren’t
VPNs, regular traffic bots, nor anything like the services offered on Maxvisits.com. The bots
being used by producers: Tony Fadd, VicJonesBeats and Cash Jordan were developed by
Indian programmers.
Believe it or not, developers have been making one-off Soundclick Bots for close to a
decade now. Quick searches on all the major Internet Marketing forums (i.e - Warriorforum,
BlackHatWorld, etc) will reveal people have registered there asking developers to build
them. So Soundclick Bots (that work) aren’t a new phenomenon at all. They’ve been
“in-use” since 2006.
“They’ve been around but only the extremely tech-savvy
knew they could be useful at all to Sell Beats Online.”
47
Soundclick Bots ...
UBot Studio is a very world renowned tool used by developers to AUTOMATE tasks online for bots created. It just so happens an (unnamed) indian developer programmed a bot in
this software which was designed to give hits towards soundclick tracks, downloads and page
views at a high rate with L1 Highly Anonymous US Private Proxies.
Regular L1 public proxies or shared proxies are almost immediately banned from
Soundclick’s servers. You’d have to purchase a large amount of Private Proxies which can
get damn expensive. The developer stated that you would need 1000+ proxies to solidify
yourself in the top 20. US Elite Private Proxies can be expensive.
If you do your research on US Elite Private Proxies, you would know that
would be around $800-$1200.00 MONTHLY for a service like that.
At the time, this specific bot retailed for $350.00. Which wasn’t bad given the return
it could yield if the plan was carried out. Most freelancers would gladly take $350.00 for a
custom bot. Even today, If you search through Internet Marketing message boards; footprints
and traces of a “$350.00 Soundclick Bot” shouldn’t be too far away.
“UBot Studio + Elite Private US Proxies”
48
Soundclick Vs. Google ...
If all I wanted to do was blindly get people to buy my beats and instrumentals, I’d just
turn lemons-to-lemonade on Soundclick. Because the traffic’s targeted and it’s already there.
Nowhere else are that many people actively interested in hip hop instrumentals on one website. The traffic converts-to-sales if you’re “visible enough” to those willing to pay.
Basically, If you’re high enough in the Charts.
Having your own domain means you’d be dealing with REAL means of Internet Marketing and I don’t know if a lot of producers can handle that yet. You’ve got things like SEO, PPC
and Media Buying to leverage as opposed to the few methods of Promo Soundclick offers. One
could argue “Soundclick Promo” is easier for the average producer to deal with.
With that being said, a lot of producers online neglect using
the Search Engines to find people wanting to buy beats.
Sure enough, there’s hundreds-of-thousands of visitors on Soundclick. The amount
of traffic on Google quadruples that. Google’s within the Top 3 most visited websites on the
internet. Soundclick doesn’t even break the Top 100. Google has it’s own beat buyers. You’ll
see the buyers on Google and the beat buyers on Soundclick are wired different.
They’re groomed different. They don’t have the same behavior as consumers.
They’re more forgiving. Soundclick visitors tend to be freebie seekers more.
“Either platform really works,
So long as you’re constantly working towards an end-goal.”
“Search engines like text. They like rich, text-based content.
So if all you’re going to give them is a MyFlashStore and a logo,
you might want to re-think selling on Google.”
49
Soundclick Vs. Google ...
What’s becoming more common is producers having both: A personal website and
a Soundclick Profile. They’re using Google to funnel traffic to their personal website.
Then linking buyers to their Soundclick page when they’re ready to purchase. Soundclick
rewards them for the incoming page views and downloads with higher chart positions.
If you wanted to be a part of both, the Google+Soundclick strategy isn’t a bad idea.
You make strides on both whenever you promote your brand.
50
Soundclick; (Future-Tense) ...
I’m not so sure Soundclick’ll retain the influence it has today in the ‘Beat-Brokerage’
scene. The ship’s sinking. Producers and artists alike are swimming to nearby islets (other
beat websites). What this means is producers are going to have to be in “more places” (i.e have beats posted on more sites). As the acclaimed traffic that used to represent Soundclick,
is diminishing.
Then again, being stagnant and not growing with the needs of the market
and the audience of people who visit your site will do that.
The owners and webmasters of Soundclick seemed to stop updating it somewhere
between 2009-2010. Seems they’ve either moved on or lost interest. A huge overhaul was
promised, but nothing really came out of it. Meanwhile, they’re still banking off Soundclick
as people purchase the promo packages. Not to mention the VIP accounts which are monthly
reoccurring.
So while the owners may not necessarily be concerned with Soundclick,
The entire operation still generates money on auto-pilot.
Websites come and go. MySpace vanished and drowned in the mote that surrounded
it. So I don’t see how a website like Soundclick could be immune. More beat marketplaces
are popping up. A lot of them are providing us what Soundclick used to provide (but better!).
Whereas Soundclick is becoming more of an after-thought. Nevertheless, Soundclick is still
an authority.
It’s been here for years and it’s where people’ve gone to buy beats for more than a decade.
Given the amount of authority it is, something would have to “gradually” phase it out.
But it could happen.
51
RocBattle is a Coliseum ...
Unlike Soundclick, RocBattle was actually founded by a hip-hop producer. RocBattle was created by Grammy-award-winning Producer Rockwilder. RocBattle is the
other, extremely well-known marketplace (that’s seemed to always play second-fiddle
to Soundclick). Rocbattle plays “second” because the beat buyers aren’t plentiful.
RocBattle plays second-fiddle simply because the number of beat buyers
and the number of producers are dangerously lop-sided.
Rocbattle always struck me as a fight club with the opportunity to sell beats in
the lobby or after the show. I think the top earners on Soundclick are always going to
out-perform the top earners on RocBattle. The ratio of genuine artists looking to buy
beats on RocBattle is lower than it is on Soundclick actually, from my experiences.
I think RocBattle’s a great place to challenge yourself. But I’m convinced it’s too ‘deceiving’
to be the heart of your beat selling strategy alone.
You’ll see a lot of producers disregard RocBattle in entirety. Because for a lot of
people, it’s too competitive. It’s battle-centric. The charting system doesn’t work like
Soundclick’s. It’s “alien”. RocBattle reminds me of that big arena battle in Attack of
the Clones __ because you’re constantly battling and taking on the inner circles there.
If your beats aren’t just insanely hot, you might find yourself voted by populari’s sake.
I’ve won battles there before, but lost a lot more when I finally caught wind of the BuddySystem™.
52
Understanding RocBattle Politics ...
I’ve heard and experienced nothing but horror stories from the customer support on
Rocbattle. It takes no more than a few Google searches to see huge 5-10 page discussions on
message boards with people dissatisfied with RocBattle. Ouch. People were already turned
off by the fact RocBattle only issues earnings from sales on the first of the month.
You only get paid if you’ve made more than $20.00 for that month. I had to delete my PayPal
Subscription from Rocbattle because the whole time they were under maintenance, they were
STILL taking money from my PayPal account (without refunding).
These were my 2011-2012 experiences with RocBattle. Since then, they’ve apparently
undergone a huge revamp. They’ve recently rolled out “RB4” which is a massive overhaul to
their design, policies and everything about RocBattle. While I was never really thrilled about
RocBattle at least they’ve continued to update their service for longevity’s sake.
You know, unlike Soundclick. They’ve also secured some HIGH ranking positions for
GOOD beat-buying keywords in Google so I’m going to assume the number of “buyers”
is more-so than it used to be as well.
As of “RB4,” RocBattle voters are picked at random. They’re picked anonymously to
vote on whatever battles are taking place. What this does, is eliminate the piggy-backing
and inner circling that manipulated RocBattle’s chart system in yesteryears It’s great to see
company take suggestions on improving seriously. It shows they’ve listened to us.
Since the new overhaul, one producer told me he sold 15 beats without any real promotion.
I chalk a lot of this up to the new changes they’ve implemented with “RB4”.
53
RocBattle; (Future-Tense) ...
Halfway through 2013 I was approached and made aware-of that RocBattle was for
sale. According to rumors, RocBattle had gradually earned less profits year-in and year-out.
Apparently, the webmaster decided to cut his ties from it. All of this, sadly, on the heels of
the “RB4” re-launch. RocBattle has a $40,000 reserve price.
However, RocBattle being for sale doesn’t mean the website’s going to up and “van__
ish” because RocBattle’s still a profittable business. It simply means the owners and
management would change. Websites being auctioned is actually, more common than most
realize. Especially if it’s become a legit business over time.
Allen Brown has other business ventures as well. I know he’s particularly
working on the BeatWebsites project that just recently came about.
“A lot of producers I interact with considered RocBattle to
be a sinking ship well before RB4 rolled out.”
“I think the huge wait for them to unveil RB4 is what killed a lot
of their momentum. Timing basically. There’s more marketplaces
than Rocbattle and Soundclick now. It isn’t 2007 anymore.
54
Hidden Marketplaces ...
If you’re into the “Hit & Run” strategy of selling beats __ it’s probably best to have
music posted on as many marketplaces as possible. Because buyers are scattered everywhere. So learning about a few lesser-known marketplaces can only help. No, they aren’t as
mainstream as Soundclick, but producers still manage to squeeze regular sales out of them.
I also know they get their fair share of targeted traffic because me
(and the same sites) were ranking for similar keywords on Google at one point.
You might’ve ran across a Soundclick page or two that had a giant ass “BeatBrokerz”
tab at the bottom of the screen. www.BeatBrokerz.com is credible. I can say they’re more
hands-on with helping producers than a lot of other websites. Like any good marketplace,
they’ve got targeted traffic. They’ve legitimately got traffic that browses and buys beats.
BeatBrokerz handles the entire sales process of instrumental music
(including licensing) for the producer. From the shopping cart to the file delivery
www.Shadowville.com was established in 2006 and serves to be a popular name in the
beat licensing scene. I’ve known producers before who’ve depended on Shadowville to make
up 65% of their sales. Unlike other marketplaces, Shadowville screens producer submissions
before allowing producers to sell music on their website. It’s pretty difficult to get accepted.
Non-exclusive licenses (lease) start at $39.99 on Shadowville. I’ve seen exclusives
being sold there for as much as $600.00. Shadowville has regular customers too.
A producer I knew personally told me about www.International-Beat.com and how he’d
made some sales there in the past. International-Beat is a reserved marketplace. It doesn’t
have the special effects BeatBrokerz has. (It also isn’t a complete dud when it comes to
targeted beat buyers like MyFlashStore’s marketplace). International-Beat has no gimmicks.
It’s a real cut-and-dry website (that looks like it was designed in 2003) where some
dedicated artists go to buy beats. It gets decent traffic.
55
Upcoming Marketplaces ...
The only way I can describe MusicCentro is by calling it Soundclick 3.0. www.MusicCentro.com is everything Soundclick should’ve been 2-3 years ago. But it isn’t just another
place artists browse around and “hopefully” buy beats. MusicCentro is more like DatPiff
meets Soundclick. It’s a unique angle to involve both: artists and producers.
MusicCentro knows if it has any chance at all at having artists frequenting
their site regularly, they have to cater to THEM as much as they do producers
MusicCentro’s caught a lot of attention lately due to the (influential) names attached
to it. Vybe, SuperStarO, Anno Domini, and DJ Mustard to name a few. It was pretty surreal
to see multi-award winning platinum producers on-board for it. As well as Team Hitz. Similarly, to Soundclick, producers have their respective “charts” within subgenres.
Selling boutique services like mixing, sound banks and drum-kits are more
openly “embraced” and integrated here as well. (as opposed to Soundclick).
“The GUIs and widgets on MusicCentro are modern.”
The people brainstorming for MusicCentro were never really big on PPC, SEO, or Affiliate Marketing. Because most of them are just successful Soundclick Producers. So they
aren’t really in-tune with the true mediums of Internet Marketing. They’re used to beat
sales coming from huge mailing lists, social media and inhouse promotion packages.
“I think MusicCentro definitely has a bigger SOCIAL
presence from the other beat marketplaces ”
56
Upcoming Marketplaces ...
BeatStars has only been around for three years and has already made a splash in the
producer communities. www.BeatStars.com is becoming the Swiss army knife of Selling Beats
Online. I seriously believe it’ll be the best marketplace in the future. Because BeatStars is
going above and beyond to provide producers with new tools and methods to make money
from licensing.
BeatStars isn’t shoving unnecessary services down your throat either.
I think everyone has the wrong perception of BeatStars. I think everybody thinks it’s
just another “Beat Brokerage” site. They aren’t. BeatStars are in the business of giving producers the tools they need to monetize their music on ANY website. Whether it’s a personal
domain, social sites or so on. They were one of the first to offer a HTML5 solution for shopping cart widgets.
“Beatstars is more-so aiming to be a MyFlashStore
competitor more-so than being the new Soundclick”
BeatStars is shedding light on the not-so-known revenue streams for the modern
producer. They’ve recently, released a mobile app for Android and iPhone platforms. Before
that, they announced their streaming music distribution project. Where producers can earn
and collect revenue from their beats being posted anywhere on the Internet (YouTube,
Spotify, Last.Fm).
To make matters even more cutting edge, they’ve started filtering sync placement
opportunities to their subscribers.
“ BeatStars also offer mobile apps to help producers sell music. I was particularly impressed
because they seem to be steering producers in the synchronization side of music licensing too.”
57
Stock Music Marketplaces ...
What if I told you there was a completely different demographic for non-exclusives
and “leases” besides rapper’s lolly-gagging on sites like Soundclick? What if I told you there
were marketplaces where composers sell their music that few (if any at all) producers have any
know-abouts of? __ Because these places exist.
( And it’s important to know there’s a real demand for instrumentals outside of mere recording artists )
Enter: Stock Music and Royalty-Free Music Licensing sites. These music licensing
sites are catered to a crowd that needs royalty-free music. Stock music. They aren’t
really browsed by artists __ but more-so freelance videographers, music supervisors,
video game developers, and lone film-makers.
The words “royalty-free” and “stock music” attracts different audiences.
Audiences usually, working with some kind of budget in mind.
“ To prevent composers from undercutting each other like crazy ALL music-beds on these
sites are the same price. I’ve seen some where all instrumentals started at $24.99 and
others where they were $49.99. For everybody across the board. ”
58
Stock Music Marketplaces ...
Shockwave-sound, RevoStock, MusicLoops, AudioSparx and Muziko are the biggest
stock music libraries I’ve encountered. There’s less competition from hip hop producers
here because the sites themselves aren’t “urban” at all. They aren’t using “Hip-Hop” as
a selling point like Soundclick and others. Because of this, they attract different crowds
entirely.
You won’t find words like “beats” and “producers” on the page copy of these websites
But more-so, words like “music beds” and “composers”
However there’s one thing: these sites house hundreds of different genres. It isn’t
like SoundClick. Where you’d have “Drake-beats”, “Jeezy-beats” and sampled beats. No.
Instead you’ve got genres like Ambience, Ethnicity, World, Rock, Heavy Metal, Dubstep and
so on. Music on these sites is even categorized by “mood” and what instruments appear in
said beat.
So the more variety you have in your discography, the better the chances
you have of landing sales ont hese kinds of marketplaces.
“What this means is, there’ll be less competition musically from beat makers you would find
on our own marketplaces. You don’t have to deal with Vybe or Johnny Juliano
being the biggest cash-cows here, use it to your advantage.”
“A producer can’t upload 100 trap beetz to these sites and expect to inherit
some mytical pot of gold your music isn’t being bought here to be recorded
to, but to “sync up” with film, or some kind of interactive arts.”
59
Music Production Libraries ...
I think music production libraries are something EVERY producer should fit into their
repertoire. It’s not “tapped into” nearly as much as it should be. Especially for the amount
of music we all have sitting around our hard drives. While submitting to these libraries is
still technically “non-exclusive” licensing, it doesn’t work (at all) like leasing.
I’ve been getting synchronization placements through YouLicense
and other libraries for years now. Makes for great side cash.
I believe submitting music to production libraries at its best, is supplement income.
Simply because it doesn’t happen as instantaneous as leasing does. Leasing is like a full-on
sprint while submitting to music libraries is like a casual jog. The process is more rigorous
and requires you to land HUGE placements to make it a livelihood on it’s own.
Either that, or have hundreds of songs submitted to multiple libraries for better odds.
“Once your song is uploaded it has to clear our rights management (publishing) department. This
makes sure the rights you claim to have are accurate. Once it has cleared this department, it goes to
a music review team. A member of that team listens to the song from front to back and tags it with
between 200-300 different tags from BPM to vocal themes to instruments to mood and so on. Once
reviewed, it enters the catalog and becomes ready for clients to listen and license.”
“With leasing, there’s a PayPal button, followed by the actual transaction.
When submitting to music libraries, there’s paperwork. There’s cue-sheets.
There’s real contracts, and there’s performing rights organizations involved.”
“I haven’t seen a producer make a living off non-exclusive placements like
I’ve seen them do with selling leases.”
60
‘Performing Rights’ Societies ...
A Performing Rights Organization’s (PRO) concern is collecting royalties from “performances” (television, radio, nightclubs, stores, restaurants). Basically, PRO’s monitor their
members’ music when it’s performed. For television and film performances, PRO’s use what
is known as a “cue sheet” to keep track of whose music is used in which broadcast or film.
These cue sheets are filled and submitted to each PRO who has a member
represented on the cue sheet.
There are two PRO’s that pretty much reign over everything. Most people on the music
side-of-things have heard of them before: ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors
and Publishers) and BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.). Often called the “Coke and Pepsi” of Performing Rights Organizations. ASCAP and BMI both have their similarities and differences.
Ultimately, both serve to do the same thing with different means of doing so.
The real question is not whether to join, or which one to join; but rather WHEN is the
right time to join a PRO. Many people who are new to the industry think they should sign
with one or the other as soon as they can. The lavish events that both ASCAP and BMI host
make one think that joining means there is an immediate chance to collect money. Not True.
“They will make it sound as if your music is already out there earning money
and the PRO is just holding it for you. Like a bank waiting for your application. But the truth
is, unless you write a hit song, or do a soundtrack for a TV show like The Simpsons
you are unlikely to see any real royalties.”
61
Taxi Music Licensing ...
Taxi has a team of experts who screen all the submissions for each opportunity. They
listen to every song and write a report about it. They rate the main aspects of the music,
such as, musicianship, lyrics, marketability, production, and more. They determine if a submission is on target or not, and they write a few lines of their personal review.
Finally, they decide whether or not to forward the submission to the “Industry”.
My final conclusion is that Taxi might work for some people, but I have a strong feeling
that the percentage of people who make a positive return of their investment with Taxi is
very small. Taxi advertises this small percentage (to seem like the majority) when it isn’t.
I realized Taxi goes through great lengths to make it’s services seem appealing.
Unfortunately, I really can’t recommend using them. I don’t know any Taxi
members who’ve recouped their membership fees or landed any HUGE placements.
“Taxi is a music licensing firm that shops instrumentals
to music supervisors and project directors .
“I was a Taxi member for two years. Which means I spent $500 just in
membership fees. I submitted 79 songs at $5 a piece, $395 total. My total spending was
$895. 32 of my songs were forwarded, which is 40%. What did I get in return? Nothing.
I haven’t gotten any work through Taxi.”
62
Pump Audio & Other MPL’s ...
Rest assured, there are plenty of free music production libraries around. Ones that DO
get crawled regularly by music supervisors. So placements DO happen. I’ve been with both
MusicDealers and PumpAudio for a few years, neither of which are paid services. These kind
of libraries are plentiful and can simply be searched for on Google.
You can make contact with other composers and see if they have a list,
as these kind of libraries are all around us really.
I’ve been sending music to PumpAudio since late 2010. Back in those days the split was
50/50. I selected five songs to send to Pump for the first time. Pump accepted four of them.
The following year I sent remastered versions of the songs I had previously sent, together
with a new instrumental song, resulting in two songs being accepted.
Pump Audio is one of the better reputed and lucrative Music Production
Libraries a composer or songwriter can join honestly.
PumpAudio wants you to physically mail them a CD (with your music) for it to be placed
into their library. I think the only time you can send them .mp3’s is during the audition.
Although it may seem “robust” and unnecessary to us producers, it serves a purpose. For
starters, it “weeds out” the people who’d try to abuse their services.
It removes the tyre kickers who submit every song to anyone they
think will listen. Having to physically mail a disc keeps PumpAudio
reserved to the serious composers.
“ Later the split changed to 35/65, diminishing the artist’s income. Nevertheless, this past year I decided to send more songs but this time I sent nine songs; two main
songs along their instrumental versions and five alternative versions of one
of the songs. They were received, but they are yet to be reviewed. ”
63
Pump Audio & Other MPL’s ...
I never got a word from Pump for the first year or so. But in 2011 I randomly received a check for about $420.00 USD. Cue sheet details stated the $420.00 was made
from small placements I had gotten from 2010. I suppose the reason why my royalties
had taken so long to come was that Pump generally takes up to six months to review
songs and add them in their catalog.
“ During 2012 my income was significantly less, around $55.00 USD. One
small/big detail: they never asked me in which form they
should send me the money.”
64
Chapter Four: Building a BeatStore
Becoming a Webmaster ...
In the early days of the Internet, agencies would charge anywhere from $500.00 to
$1,000 to build websites. These quotes were considered “fair” and to this day, similar rates
are still being used. I guess that was fine. When you took into account the amount of hardcode that went into building a website back then. Everything was raw HTML, Javascript and
CSS. Things are much more streamlined in today’s times.
Creating websites now, is far less painful than it was in 1999. Or even 2004 really.
Not too long ago I was reaching out to designers to build my other website. The quotes
were ridiculous. One even invoiced me $5,000 to design what is now, www.ShadezOfBlue.
com. I politely told him to fuck off. No offense meant to web-designers, but the only thing
spending hundreds-and-thousands on web design does is exhaust resources. It eats away
from a budget that could’ve been better spent elsewhere.
I’ve been building my own websites because truthfully, it doesn’t take a lot of effort anymore.
I covered most of my ground with free plugins and themes.
No, I don’t have a background in any programming languages. I don’t know a single lick
of HTML. I don’t know how to read Javascript and no; I’ve never worked on computers before. I’ve simply, built and half-assed enough websites to know which shortcuts we can and
can’t- take. I have the resources to where I can build a website that rivals a corporate one in
two hours tops, while spending maybe thirty dollars at the most.
“If you ever get stuck building or working on a website,
a simple YouTube video or Google Search usually bails you out.”
65
Personal Page Vs. Soundclick Page ...
Let me start by saying I know producers who have their own websites that aren’t
getting any sales. Likewise, I know people who’ve been on Soundclick for years that are
constantly making sales. (With no intentions of leaving Soundclick). Don’t get bamboozled
by those who preach: “You need your own website!” There are no absolutes here.
To me, the argument of Website vs. Soundclick Page boils down to
how much effort you’re willing to invest to reach more or less, the same goal.
Another attitude I’ve seen to sway producers towards hosting their own sites is: “What
if Soundclick goes down?” __ Then obviously your business goes with it. But what if Google
chooses to de-index your website? What if Google penalizes your site and sends it to the
30th result page when it previously ranked on the first one? What’s the difference?
You’ve legitimately got to start a website because you feel it’s where YOU
stand YOUR best chance of Selling Beats Online.
Because it takes more than you can imagine to really make a website successful. Some
of the biggest and most well-known websites visited daily haven’t completely found out how
to monetize their sites. It’s hard work. At the end of the day, I really think getting a Soundclick VIP account and buying in-house Soundclick Promo is more straight-forward.
Whereas with your own website you’ve got to leverage SEO, PPC and Media Buys.
These things have learning curves and are foreign to most producers.
I personally chose to build my own website, but it had nothing to do with wanting to
appear “more professional”. It had everything to do with one of my peers being extremely
successful in the realm of SEO. He gave me a specific blueprint to use and I produced similar
results. I considered ‘Being Successful on Soundclick’ to be a myth at the time.
“Most producers would be EXTREMELY lucky to drive even 1/3 of the traffic
Soundclick gets on a daily basis to their own websites hosted.”
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BeatWebsites Review ...
I don’t consider setting up a website to be too hard, but it can be a little daunting if
it’s a first-time experience. Especially for producers whom aren’t really tech-savvy. Before
we dive head first into the cogs & bolts of building a website, it’s worth mentioning a few
shortcuts. Shortcuts that could save hundreds down the road and simplify the entire “webbuilding” process.
Enter: www.Beatwebsites.com. A service that allows producers to buy ready-made
websites (in the form of templates) that takes care of layouts, automated shopping carts
and PayPal Integration. Beatwebsites is a one-stop solution for the modern producer. Allowing beatmakers to quickly get off the ground without diving too deep into the “nerdy side”
of building websites.
Beatwebsites sells us three different “licenses” (Basic, Pro and Enterprise) each
varying from price to flexibility. What sets them apart is the amount of music that’s allowed to be uploaded. For example, Basic allows for up to 250 beats uploaded before
suggesting you purchase the Pro Package. Each license can either be “leased” monthly or
owned out-right.
“BeatWebsites was easily the best investment I made so far. It allowed
for me to get off the ground selling leases really quickly.”
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BeatWebsites Review ...
Beatwebsites even takes care of domain names (www.DomainName.com) and hosting.
As well as unlimited e-mail accounts. I think a lot a lot of producers would have more success
in this arena than building a website from scratch. Simply because it’s plug-and-play. I’ve
talked to a couple people on MyFlashStore who’ve bought the Basic Package with no regrets
whatsoever.
I was extremely impressed to see that the shopping cart offered at Beatwebsites was
automated. Making it the perfect in-house alternative to something like MyFlashStore. It’s
competent. It’s able to run discounts as well as setting multiple licenses. This means we can
sell both non-exclusive (leases) and exclusives together. It can also set custom genres for
tracks.
Beatwebsites took it a step further by offering it’s subscribers a built-in squeeze page.
Pretty thoughtful considering you’d spend monthly payments to services like Aweber and
MailChimp to do the same thing. Beatwebsites’ squeeze page + autoresponder is a one-time
fee. It’s calculated into the standard pricing of the package bought and comes at no additional fee.
“Beatwebsites also came with tutorials on setting up Adsense on my website.
The tutorials were great. I got my blog and beatstore running in a few days easy”
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Choosing a Hosting Company ...
First things first, we need to choose a hosting company. Yes, it’ll cost us money but
hosting can be gotten for as little as $1.99 a month. Every website that you can physically
type into an address bar is being “hosted” by a hosting company. A Hosting Company basically places your website onto “the Internet” to be seen by the rest of the world.
Hosting Companies typically charge users either monthly or annually for their services.
Hosting companies are everywhere. Of the most reputable, we usually hear three
names: BlueHost, HostGator and GoDaddy. I personally decided to go with GoDaddy. However, I’m writing this chapter assuming funds are limited so I won’t draw much focus on
them. If I weren’t with GoDaddy, I would probably lean more-so towards HostGator.
I’m hearing that BlueHost seems to work better on personal sites that receive
less than a thousand visitors a month (not ideal for a successful beat store)
“When choosing a hosting company, it’s best to look at the features first.
THEN compare the prices.”
Pricing varies from hosting company-to-hosting company, but I’ve never seen anything outlandish. Everything always seemed pretty affordable, even on the most “bargain
bin” budgets. I think with hosting we get what we pay for. Jumping on the cheapest offer
isn’t necessarily the best idea, especially if you REALLY rely on your site to make money.
Things like non-outsourced support and quality hardware cost money, and a hosting
company that charges $1.99 monthly most likely won’t offer these features.
“Hosting is easy...Just register a domain name with a hosting company
and build some kind of website from there.
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Choosing a Hosting Company ...
A lot of people disregard the significance of good tech support. Customers WILL
want to talk to you if they believe you can solve their problems. If my website vanishes for
unknown reasons, I would like to have a bona fide reason WHY from my host provider. I’d
also, like to call and be able to get a English speaking person on the phone.
The tech support was the reason I chose to go with GoDaddy.
Webspace is also important. Webspace is quite simply, the storage space for data on
the Internet. Everything you upload to your website from text; images, audio, video and
excedra take up webspace. So obviously webspace is important to us as producers. There’s
a certain amount of webspace administered by your hosting company.
Whereas most websites use less than 25mb of webspace, our websites are different.
We’ll be regularly uploading audio files so we’d abuse much more storage space.
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BlueHost Review ...
BlueHost is one of the most successful web hosting companies around today. The
company was established back in 1996; and quickly became one of the best and the most
popular web hosting service providers available in the market. The fact that they’ve
managed to survive in the cut-throat web hosting business says a lot about the quality of
service they provide.
BlueHost guarantee 99.9% network uptime which means their server is guaranteed to
stay online 99.9% of the time. BlueHost seems lightening fast as they have 3 datacenters
with more than 70,000 square foot of hosting space to multiple 10 GB fiber lines. They also
have a strong power backup system to ensure servers remain active even during power
failures.
You have a limit of 200,000 files and 1,000 MySQL tables per account. You cannot exceed 2GB in any single MySQL database and 3GB in all your MySQL database. This is a very
huge limit for 98% of the websites online. If you are really breaching them, you should be
doing very well in your business, and you can sign up for a second account or upgrade your
account.
Unlike other web hosting companies, BlueHost offers only a single shared hosting plan. You wouldn’t have to waste your time comparing web hosting plans and their
features. BlueHost provide all necessary features in their one and only one web hosting
plan. BlueHost’s standard web hosting account is for 6.95$/month (if you choose 12-month
billing cycle).
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HostGator Review ...
HostGator’s plans are more expensive than it’s competitors. Because of this it’s fair to
expect better service and quality from them. From my observation, they host significantly
fewer accounts on one server compared to competitors. Other companies might host up to
2,000 websites on one server alone; whereas I notice HostGator will host less than 500 on
one server.
It’s worth mentioning you don’t get a free domain name with HostGator as you would
with other hosts. You’ll have to pay an additional $15 for a .Com name if you need one (and
you do). You’ll also, need to renew it for $15/year after that. I don’t really find that expensive as much as I do unnecessary. At the time I registered my domain name elsewhere to
save a few bucks.
“Their prices are similar to BlueHost’s and others in regard to the month-to-year ratio.
Except you get a bit less than you would with BlueHost.”
HostGator offers some of the best customer support I’ve ever witnessed. Be it live
chat or email or phone. The few issues I did have, were resolved with 100% satisfaction. The
reason I was willing to pay more for HostGator (contrary to it’s competitors) was due to the
customer service. I can honestly say if I weren’t with GoDaddy today I would definitely still
be with HostGator.
Hostgator’s been around for over 10 years. It has grown into one of
the best known and best loved hosting providers with over 5000 servers.
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Content Management Systems ...
Once upon a time anyone wanting a website would’ve had to hard-code it in HTML,
Java, PHP, and so forth. Either you knew these mystique programming languages or you hired
someone who did. Web-Design Firms became gatekeepers. Fast forward ten years and we’ve
simplified the process to where anyone’s grandparents could do it.
Well, if they watched enough YouTube videos that is.
“CMS” is short for Content Management System. A Content Management System is a
web application designed to make it easy for non-technical users to add, edit and manage a
website. Not only do content management systems help website users with content editing;
they also take care of a lot of “behind the scenes” work.
The two most applicable Content Management Systems for producers in this case
are WordPress and Joomla.
WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool. WordPress is hands down the most
popular CMS on the market. What really boosted the popularity of WordPress was it’s free
installation. You can run WordPress with zero cost, provided you own a domain. We’ll be
using WordPress as the “chassis” of our website in this chapter.
It’s worth mentioning that most hosting companies will have a very
straight-forward method of installing WordPress onto your domain or account.
You have a limit of 200,000 files and 1,000 MySQL tables per account. You cannot exceed 2GB in any single MySQL database and 3GB in all your MySQL database. This is a huge
limit for 98% of the websites online. If you’re breaching said limit, you can always opt to a
superior account. But rest assured, the free account will suffice.
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Content Management Systems ...
I’ll also take this time to mention Joomla, __ an award-winning content management system in its own right. Joomla allows you to easily make websites on it’s architecture similarly to WordPress. It’s been acknowledged for it’s ease-of-use and extensibility.
Third-party developers also port their extensions to the platform as well.
Why’d I choose to go with WordPress as opposed to Joomla? Simple. Wordpress has
a MUCH larger plugins/extensions library than Joomla. From what I’ve seen Joomla has a
steeper learning curve than WordPress. Plus most Hosting Companies already have WordPress integrated to where you only have to press a button to install it.
Furthermore if you have an issue with something regarding WordPress
you can probably find an answer or solution to it in minutes, really.
“Wordpress has a HUGE sub-culture behind it. Joomla always
struck me more as a novelty than anything.”
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Website Builders ...
Website Builders (Wix, Weebly, Blogspot) are tools that allow us to construct websites
without needing manual coding. Although they aren’t CMS, they work towards accomplishing
the same goal. (A website, duh) . Website Builders are usually offered by whatever Web Hosting
company you chose as a means of getting your website up and going quickly.
They’ve progressively gotten better over the years, but Website Builders still reak of “amateur”.
Wix is a ‘DIY’ website builder that a lot of people gravitate to. Personally, I’ve never
liked anything I saw made or designed by Wix. Wix gets another thumbs down because they
heavily rely on AJAX to fetch content. AJAX is an indexing nightmare for Search Engines.
Because it uses AJAX and JavaScript to fetch content such as text and HTML.
Although Google is getting better and better at indexing AJAX,
I personally wouldn’t want to create any artificial problems using Wix.
Weebly is a web-hosting service that features a drag-and-drop website builder. This
brilliant web-building tool designed for ‘non-techies’ offers a simple step-by-step website
developing process that literally anyone can use to its fullest potential. Weebly offers an
easy and effective way to create personal web sites, with over 80 website layouts.
Also allowing it’s users to upload and personalize Flickr Photo’s,
YouTube video and Google Maps to name a few of the tools provided.
Blogspots probably has the best SEO value out of any of them. A lot of Blogspot blogs
are ranking well right now. Blogspots get scraped and shared all the time; giving a natural
flow of hijacked syndicated content juice back to them. The sidebar blogrolls on Blogspot
pages are pretty strong since most are on authoritative related blogs themselves.
I noticed it seems pretty easy for Blogspot websites to get backlinks
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Working with Website Themes ...
So you’ve managed to get hosting and install WordPress. Chances are, your site isn’t
anywhere near appealing to the eye. If memory serves me correct, the Default WP Theme
was a plain background with a slide-show as a header. Don’t get discouraged, we’re still
doing great. However now we’re going to make it something you’d actually want to look at
longer than 10 seconds. We need to get a new theme.
A theme is sort of like an outfit in that it makes a website (WordPress) look better.
What you have now (the default
WP theme) looks rather naked.
Having a theme means you can
change the way the pages are
arranged, the way the content of
those pages is laid out and other
aesthetic features. Aesthetics
such as fonts, colors and backgrounds. The tools that make
changes such as those possible for beginners are plugins and themes.
(There’s free themes, and there’s premium themes)
Premium themes offer a
number of advantages over free
themes. Such as easier customization, stronger support, additional
tools/widgets and regular updates.
They’re more exclusive in appearance as well. Premium themes are
often, made from scratch from the
developer and come loaded with
features. They’re intended to give an amazing experience to bloggers as well as your visitors, so typically they cost more.
“Themeforest, Elegant Themes and Wpzoom have all
the themes you could ever want honestly.”
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Additional Graphics ...
Not too long ago I stumbled upon the gold mine that is Fiverr. www.Fiverr.com is an
online marketplace advertising tasks and services (referred to as gigs and micro-jobs) at
exactly $5.00 USD per-job-performed. Customers needing services can use Fiverr’s search
to find and commission services directly through the site.
Entrepreneurs and freelancers use Fiverr to cut down costs on things that
normally would’ve cost a fortune. I’ve gotten A LOT of graphic work done there.
You’re probably wondering why Fiverr is important in this case. Simple. Every
‘graphical task’ you could ever imagine can be shopped and outsourced on Fiverr (by
professionals) for $5.00 USD. Fiverr is where I had my logo done originally. I also had
matching YouTube and Twitter background skins done there as well.
The main advantage Fiverr has over others is these same jobs,
would cost 3-10x more being handled on elance or a Web design agency
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Using Plugins ...
We’re going to use (free) plugins to extend the functionality of WordPress. Plugins allow
us to use add-on features so that we can tailor a website to ‘specific needs’. There’s a plugin
for practically anything you would want done to your website. Everything from having a Facebook Like Box to having a Twitter Widget embed on the sidebar. WordPress.org conveniently,
has a HUGE portal for WP Plugins on their website.
1. Askimet
Akismet is one of the most popular anti-spam filters on WordPress, and is one of the first plugins that every blogger installs after
installing WordPress. Why? Because spam is bad for your blog. It
reduces blog credibility, and by extension, the visitors to your blog.
Always good to have an anti-spam filter. Once a visitor submits a
comment on your blog, it is moderated via the Akismet Web Service. Akismet then tells your blog, whether the comment is actually
relevant, or just someone trying to spam your blog.
2. WPTouch
We live in a digital age where even top-of-the-line laptops are
becoming obsolete, replaced by mobile phones and tablet PCs. So,
it helps to be future-ready. WPTouch automatically transforms
your WordPress website for mobile devices, complete with smooth
effects when viewed from popular mobile web browsing devices
like the iPhone, iPod touch, Android mobile phones, BlackBerry
OS6+ mobile devices, and more!
3. WPage Navi
Are you bored with the old “Older posts | Newer posts” links?
Want to replace them with a little awesome? WP PageNavi Style
provides an amazing solution! WP PageNavi Style lets you customize the look and feel of the Page Navigation buttons according
to your needs. And it doesn’t stop with just your blog; you can
extrapolate this feature to your comments, archives and tags as
well. Note: You must have the WP PageNavi plugin installed first.
WP PageNavi Style is free.
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Using Plugins ...
4. WPSuperCache
WP Super Cache can help optimize your WordPress website.
WP Super Cache will enable your website to load faster and use
fewer server resources. As with most plugins, you can install WP
Super Cache in the WordPress Dashboard. When a web page is
served without any caching in WordPress it will load up PHP then
grabs the data via MySQL. These are both the slowest and most
intensive portions of a web page. The images, CSS files ect. are all
served nearly instantly by the web server, and it can serve a lot
more of these static files per second then PHP pages.
5. Yoast’s SEO Plugin
WordPress SEO is the most complete WordPress SEO plugin
that exists today for WordPress.org users. It incorporates everything from a snippet preview and page analysis functionality
that helps you optimize your page’s content, images titles, meta
descriptions and more to XML sitemaps, and loads of optimization
options in between. Yoast’s SEO Plugin is what I’ve used to handle
ALL of my on-page optimization factors minus actually writing
great unique content.
I want to take a moment to put an emphasis on the maintenance and general upkeep
of plugins. You absolutely MUST keep your plugins “fresh” and up-to-date. Because vulnerabilities are being found, exploited, and bug-tested around the clock. One time I had a
defect with W3 Total Cache. It left a HUGE back-door for hackers. Upgrading to the latest
version ridded the issue and re-secured my website.
WordPress will actually check for you to see if there’s a new versions
of a plugin you’ve got installed already.
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Music Players/Shopping Carts ...
There’s two shopping-carts that seem to have a choke hold on the producer community. MyFlashStore being one and Tripict’s Zinsta being the other. I’ve had experiences
with both, but later settled for MyFlashStore for a number of reasons. There’s WordPress
plugins that can serve as Audio Players, but I haven’t investigated them thoroughly.
I wasn’t sure if there was a WordPress music player that also served as a automated shopping cart.
Not to imply there aren’t more player/shopping cart hybrids __ these two are just
the most popular. Both widgets do more or less __ the same thing. They both automate
the beat-selling process, send people directly to PayPal, and later send invoices after the
transaction. Why I chose one over the other came down to minute differences.
Zinsta comes at an affordable one-time fee ($69.99). It’s an attractive widget that’s
streamlined and pretty easy to get the hang of. One thing that bothered me is that it had
my customers’ order confirmations e-mails going into Spam folders. But if I were recommending first-time buyers a widget? I would probably steer them towards Zinsta.
MyFlashStore comes at a monthly re-occuring fee of $19.99. Which I can imagine has
put some people off. However, I believe MyFlashStore is the best widget on the market.
Period. MyFlashStore is BY FAR the most secure shopping cart available. They’ve recently
released an HTML5 counterpart that can be displayed on tablets and smart-phones.
Zinsta has a HTML5 shopping cart available as well.
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Music Players/Shopping Carts ...
There’s cheaper ‘work-arounds’ to having a shopping-cart also. We could always embed a ReverbNation or SoundCloud Player on our site. ReverbNation and SoundCloud both
let us place their streaming widgets on outside sources if the embed code is supported.
All you’d have to do is have a profile account on either site and attach the player to your
actual domain.
Lastly, go to your PayPal and look to create a Pay/Buy Button with Merchant Tools.
This will serve as a payment button for people interested in your music.
Something else I’ve seen producers do is use a Soundclick Player on their personal
site. This is sometimes done to avoid the expense of purchasing third-party shopping carts.
Easily done as Soundclick gives the HTML embed to use the widget off-site. Interestingly
enough, the ‘plays’ you receive on your website from the widget would also make you
move up said Soundclick Charts.
These work-arounds cost absolutely nothing, but the only drawback is
you wouldn’t have an automated store anymore.
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Chapter Five: Ranking Keywords
Search Engine Optimization ...
Search Engine Optimization is the practice of getting your website in a search engine’s
organic result listings. Generally, the higher-ranked on the first page a website ‘appears’ the
more visitors it’ll receive from people searching for that keyword. It helps search engines
find and rank your site alongside millions of others in response to a search query. It helps us
get traffic from search engines.
Targeted traffic can be gotten anywhere. With that said, SEO offers us some of the
best traffic imaginable for Selling Beats Online. I’ve witnessed Search Engine Optimization
scale companies like nothing else. Using SEO to rank keywords is the traffic medium I chose
and I believe it’s the most concrete way honestly. I’ve sold more beats from SEO than almost
any other means of marketing.
Search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing index pages on the Internet by using what
are known as spiders. Spiders travel from website to website by following links on pages.
When search engines find new pages __ they’ll typically use spiders to crawl pages and
transport them back to their data-centers. Spiders may visit “indexed websites” everyday
in order to keep the index fresh.
Search Engine Optimization is a producers dream come true when ranking successfully.
Except SEO is always shape-shifting and may have too steep a learning curve for a lot of producers. Especially just starting out or when ranking for competitive keywords. Truthfully SEO
from 2012 and SEO in 2013 or 2014 are world’s apart in themselves. I could honestly, write a
hundred page book on SEO alone.
“However with that said, it is really hard to rank #1 for competitive keywords.
and there are only so many “top spots” in Google for keywords in this niche.
“SEO is still one of the best ways to sell beats
because you can target people who are looking for your exact product.”
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Belly of the Beast ...
SEO will rage war and wreak havoc on your sanity. You will be depleted of mental
stamina. I’ve had long distance relationships that were less mind-rattling than SEO. Search
Engine Optimization will turn your emotions into a puppet-show. Words can’t describe how
intense it was getting ranked from position’s ten-to-one for my first few competitive keywords. I truly did not understand “patience” and “persistence” before I decided to launch
a full-scale SEO Campaign.
Search Engine Optimization simply, takes time. It takes time to see results. It takes
time for googlebot and spiders to crawl websites. It takes time for Google to index new
backlinks. It takes time for 301s to pass over link-juice. It takes time to weed out the
great freelancers from scam-artists. It takes time for freelancer optimists to deliver their
services (turn-around times). SEO is measured in weeks, not days. It honestly, takes time
to enter competitive niches.
There was a point in time I became addicted to checking the SERPs. (Search Engine
Results Page). Every 15-minutes I would literally refresh on different browsers to see if my
rankings were “cemented” and anchored down. I remember feeling paralyzed when I saw
my site drop to #12. When just an hour ago it was ranked #9. I felt relieved and at-ease to
see it shoot up to #8 hours later. And I remember being devastated again to see it ranking
#14 the next morning. Ugh.
SEO is an agonizing game of chess. If you approach it like it’s tick-tack-toe, you’ll be
slaughtered and sand-boxed. It’s a game of patience and resourcefulness. SEO is truly an
art, and you don’t really want anyone less than an “artist” to be painting your canvas. It
takes a acumen most common folk probably wouldn’t understand. If you’ve got the budget,
and you’re a particularly clever individual __ you’ll find that things can
work in your favor here.
“Nothing was solidified. It felt like all the work I’d done and paid to have done, didn’t even matter.
I couldn’t stay on the first page longer than a day at the most. I felt like my
website was “paper-thin” and all the competing sites were cardboard and
card stock. Data change fluctuations, and Google Dances were tearing me to pieces.”
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Keywords ...
When you want to find something on Google; you type a keyword in the Search Bar.
Press enter and Google’ll return relevant search results for said keyword. What we’re aiming to do with SEO, is position our beat-stores at the TOP RESULTS returned for keywords
centered around buying instrumentals and beats.
In a nutshell, that’s how producers are going about using SEO to bring
money into their businesses.
You’re probably asking yourself: “Where can I get or find keywords that are beatoriented?” __ Well, you could do what I did; which was take the keywords my competitors
were targeting. It’s never been a bad idea to imitate. Especially if you know for a fact your
competitors are selling beats online successfully.
Alternatively, you could learn how to do Keyword Research and create or find
beat-related keywords whenever you please.
Something I regret doing when I first started Ranking Keywords was going after kewords
that were too competitive. For a new website anyways. I didn’t know how much work would
be involved in getting ranked for them. I didn’t know how strong the domains occupying the
top positions were either. I learned the hard way.
“With a few keywords I wanted to target before, I noticed the entire first page was occupied by
HUGE websites like Amazon, Wikipedia and Ask.com. I wasn’t going to outrank those sites.”
“ For people just starting out with seo I would recommend them target smaller
volume words somewhere around 200-1000k exact match search volume. Why?
Because the competition hopefully won’t be as fierce. ”
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Keyword Research ...
Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable and high return activities
in the search marketing field. Ranking for the “right” keywords can make or break your
website. Keyword research is a practice used by search engine optimization professionals to
gauge how STEEP the competition is for a particular keyword:
1. Find a Keyword you’re interested in Ranking for:
2. Enter said Keyword into Google’s Keyword Tool for Adwords:
Google’s Keyword Tool will fetch information about your keyword. Everything from
the number of monthly local searches to the number of global searches.
“I think picking the right keywords to go after is half the battle when it comes to ranking a site.
Because different keywords have different difficulty. Some are just a waste of time
trying to rank for.”
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3. Put “&start=990” at the end of your returned Google Search to see
how many pages Google is returning for your Keyword.
4. Insert “Intitle: Keyword”and press Search to see how much of your competition
has done on-page SEO and have the keyword in the title of their page.
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5. Insert inurl:”keyword” inurl”keyword” and press search and you will see how
many people have done proper SEO and are REAL competitors for your keyword.
6. Lastly, we’ll need to see the PR+Age+Backlinks of all Competing Domains.
I personally use a registered version of Traffic Travis, but SEO Spyglass would
be a great alternative for someone wanting to use a trial version only.
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Ranking New Websites ...
I’m going to assume producers reading this chapter either have brand new sites or
site’s less-than a year-old. If so, congratulations! You’ve got your work cut out for you.
Because Google doesn’t really trust new sites to rank. Newer sites don’t have the authority
older domains have and that’s something Google craves. Google wants to display sites it
thinks are relevant and trustworthy.
They measure “relevance” by analyzing page content and by examining
the other authority sites linking back to yours.
So how does a new website gain authority? Well, before SEO blossomed into a
multimillion dollar industry people “accidentally” became authoritative. They’d write
a 300-500 word article a day for about 3-5 years straight and Google would reward them
a High PR (Page Rank). Even in today’s time, this is how Google wants webmasters to go
about making authoritative websites.
However this approach is an ‘antique’ at best. A digital dinosaur. I didn’t have
time to wait years, I needed my business to profit. Now.
My website was fairly new when I first started Ranking Keywords. Probably around
six months old. I was able to bypass the crutches and training wheels most newer-domains
inherit. How? A 301 Redirect. A 301 Redirect is a method webmasters use to permanently
direct one site’s URL to another. However 301 Redirects have a powerful value within the
realm of Search Engine Optimization.
They’ve been known to pass 80-90% authority, link-juice and backlinks to the new URL Domain.
I was able to find an aged three-year-old PR3 Domain on GoDaddy’s auctions. It had
about 1500 links (they weren’t spammy) and the best part about it all? everything was
niche related. It was a Hip-Hop blog the webmasters simply deserted. It was abandoned.
An authority hip hop site on auction during the same time I was building my online production company? Timing was spot-on.
I ended up paying $500.00 for it, but the value was worth 3 times more than what
I would’ve gotten from using that same money to buy individual backlinks
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Ranking Soundclick Pages ...
There seems to be some kind of myth or urban legend floating around that Soundclick
Pages don’t rank well in Google. While Soundclick Pages don’t boast the on-page content a
genuine website or blog would have, the above statement isn’t true at all. I think it’s mostly
said by people who haven’t actually ranked a website in this niche themselves. People who
repeat what they’ve heard others say in-passing.
Actually, a lot of producers would be better off ranking their Soundclick Page rather
than starting fresh with a freshly hosted website. Especially if the Soundclick Page’s been
around for a few years and has decent Domain Authority and Page Rank. Because older
Soundclick Pages tend to have authority if they’ve been dormant for the past four-to-five
years. All you’d need to do is start link building.
During my time ranking www.ShadezOfBlue.com, I had to climb over a lot of Soundclick
Pages (that had great positions). I easily had 20-30 pages of keyword stuffed unique content
on my site. Yet I was being out-ranked by Soundclick Pages that had no text content whatsoever. While great on-page SEO and unique content matters; I think the actual backlinks and
link-profiles are the deciding factors in the end.
“Once upon a time Soundclick Pages might not’ve been able to rank well in Google,
but I wholeheartedly believe those days are in the rear-view now”
“I actually had a hard time out-ranking a few high authority Soundclick Pages in Google.
I think if you have an aged Soundclick Page to SEO it could be even better than a brand new
domain in a lot of cases.”
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SERP Positions ...
I still remember the first time my site landed on Page 2 (#15) for a competitive keyword. I was ecstatic. Milestone achievement I thought. Because two-to-three months ago I
wasn’t even indexed in Google at all! Meanwhile, I quickly found out that while moving from
500-to-15 was an improvement. Moving from ten-to-the-first-four positions was where the
workout really got intense.
So my dream car wasn’t going to come crashing down from the heavens into
my driveway. Not yet anyways.
I thought surely being number fifteenth in Google would yield me some beat sales.
Wrong again. Being on the second page (out of millions of competing sites) wasn’t enough.
I wasn’t getting sales. Nothing. The worse feeling you’ll get from this shit is having decent
traffic that won’t convert into sales. I had around four thousand plays and over two thousand page visits when I was #15.
Yet I sold a grand total of two beats. And those were before I started
link-building and SEO.
I reached out to the Gurus and
read maybe a zillion blogs. Come
to find out, being anywhere
other than the first four results
was considered “pointless” by
many. Studies showed the first
result received 36.4% of a keyword’s traffic. The second result
received 16% and the third
somewhere around 9%. Meaning
the guys in the top three positions were the ones taking home
the bulk of the sales.
“I wasn’t even on the radar honestly. I was getting maybe 1%
of all the monthly searches for that keyword, __ if even that.”
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SERP Positions ...
Months passed by and I eventually, washed ashore as number nine. There wasn’t any
applause. There weren’t any fireworks in the sky. My family members weren’t waiting in the
backyard to scream “Surprise!” with wrapped gifts. I reached the first page and there wasn’t
any celebration. There weren’t any beat sales either. The only thing that kept me going was
the “maybe” of getting a shitload of sales if I hit #1. Honestly I wasn’t convinced.
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Being Number One ...
This was that magic moment where I had climbed Mt. Everest and undeniably ranked
#1 for a competitive keyword. Amazing. It compared to ejaculation for the first time. I
always thought the “Sell Beats on Autopilot” sales pitches were urban legend. Or pipedreams to say the least, but the fantasy became my reality. I had no idea so many people
were actually buying beats on a daily basis.
I knew this keyword was a profitable keyword because other producers
who ranked for it and said they received some decent sales from it.
Although I was ranking #1 for one keyword, I felt like I was still underachieving. If I
really wanted to supercharge my beat sells I needed to rank for more keywords. If I could
regularly bring in X-amount-of-sales ranking first place for ONE keyword, imagine what
I could do ranking first place for SIX keywords? Astounding. Organic traffic and SEO have
been known to scale businesses like nothing else.
So I believe a powerful SEO Campaign should be something every online producer
considers. I feel the producer communities are largely ignorant of it.
At the end of the day Search Engine Optimization is merely a means of getting targeted traffic. Although Selling Beats Online IS a game of traffic; SEO can’t make a guarantee
of sales. Making sales depends on deeper factors that come into fruition on your end.
Things such as sales-page design, load times, proper payment-integration, having a quality
product, pricing and so on. So don’t envision sales.
Envision and expect nothing but “traffic” when you reach a number one position
on Google. Because traffic is the only thing promised.
“Old domains without penalties__are GOLD. They’re SERP magnets.
Things just seem to work. They’re the golden egg chicks.”
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Algorithm Changes ...
Make no mistake; Google isn’t really flattered by the idea of SEO. The monopoly
doesn’t really like the idea of people manipulating its search engine for financial gain.
To put it simply, Google has an agenda against SEO. Which is why Google’s SpamTeam
releases a “refresh” (algorithm change) every 3-7 months to combat ‘abuse’ from renegade Search Engine Optimists.
These changes affect us all, because they give the Search Engine new
parameters on how an individual site should be ranked.
Any form of link-building is a gamble. It could all be used as “ammo” for Google
if they decide to penalize your site. Google doesn’t care. Their main source of revenue
is in Paid Advertising (Adwords). So websites getting penalized and knocked out of the
organic search is 100% advantageous for them. Because then if you want traffic __ you
need to pay them for it.
There really isn’t a schedule or calendar for when Google runs these
updates or algorithm changes; a lot of the newer ones aren’t even announced.
SEO is still my bread and butter, but it’s so unstable these days you have to have
a back-up plan incase “the worst” happens. The worst __ being Google penalizing your
website and rankings dropping significantly. Sometimes they de-index websites and prevent them from even appearing in the Search Engine. Everything about SEO now has to
be fabulously strategic.
Even though I’m currently ranking high for multiple keywords, I’ve already
begun diversifying my income. Incase I become a casualty of a new refresh
or update.
“Keeping up with Google and new trends in SEO is a full-time job. SEO can outdate
itself in a matter of months. It’s very organic. Almost like a living thing in its own right.”
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Doing SEO Yourself (“DIY SEO”) ...
The first 1500-or-1700 backlinks sent to my site were hand-done. I did them manually.
I didn’t have any software to automate anything. All PR0-PR6 Rap & Hip-Hop relevant links
with varied anchor text and raw URLs. But somewhere around my 1300th backlink or so I hit
a revelation. Doing any link-building yourself is a waste of time; a waste of energy.
The deeper you dwell into SEO, the more you learn to respect it’s intricacies. I feel
link-building is a task better left to someone else. Someone qualified. Someone with experience. There’s more to building 3-4 tier link pyramids than simply “leaving a link somewhere
on a website.” I had went about it intelligibly, but I was only delaying the inevitable.
You need to deal with people who have life-long callings to be ‘Search Engine Optimists’. SEO can become as intricate as Sound Design or Music Theory in it’s own right. Deal
with people whom are passionate about it to ensure you’re getting someone with some real
expertise in this field. Because producers don’t know about Xrumer. Or Scrapebox.
They’re going to hit a ceiling at some point. Just like I did.
Producers opt to do their own SEO for a lot of reasons. One obviously being trust.
A lot of people can’t rationalize with putting their business or livelihood at the hands of a
freelancer or company. The other being $$$. The thing about SEO is, it can get expensive
quickly. I spent about $1000.00 on link-building services alone before I reached #10.
“In order for a Producer to truly be great at SEO, he’d have to dedicate years
of his life to learning it like he did with music production. SEO is an art
and discipline in itself.”
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Doing SEO Yourself (“DIY SEO”) ...
The only Search Engine Optimization I would suggest producers do is "on-site" truthfully. Get your own website indexed. Setup Google Webmasters Tool and Google Analytics on
your own. Get Yoast (if you're using WordPress) and submit site-maps and properly do title/
meta-tags. Write a few keyword rich articles for the homepage. Mow your own lawn.
And finally, hire a freelance SEO Company to handle all the off-site link building.
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Hiring a Freelancer ...
I’m a big advocate of producers not doing their own SEO. However, you still need some
kind of knowledge or experimentation with it. Even if it’s just to know whether or not you’re
about to hire a freelancer who’s actually going to do the job or not. Over time, I’ve become
knowledgeable enough about SEO where I can weed out the best freelancers in maybe 2-3
conversations at most.
After enough rendezvous with scam-artists ... I developed this marvelous ability.
You need to see referrals and reviews. You need to see real-time testimonials of
the services at hand. Going to someone’s website doesn’t cut it. They can easily fabricate
reviews and make shit up there. For that reason alone I believe message boards are the best
place to shop search engine optimists. Places like BlackHatWorld’s BST section or the “Warriors Special Offer” on Warrior Forums.
You can guarantee if someone’s offering a service to forum members
those same members would raise hell if the service wasn’t delivered as promised.
You need to see backlink reports at the completion of the job (usually in an excel
sheet) to verify if work was even done. Most freelancers who are worth a dick already opt
to send reports at the end of an order. I made the mistake of paying a freelancer I found on
Craigslist $300.00 monthly with “the promise” of hundreds of backlinks a week.
His methods and links were to remain a secret and my “proof” would be an increase in rankings.
End result? Paypal chargeback. Huge Amount.
Having already spoken about a craigslist horror story, I’ll state again -- avoid Craigslist
at all costs. The best SEO Services I’ve found and were satisfied with were all gotten from
Internet Marketing-specific message boards. Fiverr is “okay,” but be realistic about your
expectations. You aren’t going to get someone on Fiverr to do what it took me spending
thousands to do.
Why? Because no freelancer in their right mind would take $5.00 for something
they could offer for $500.00. Be weary of SEO services on Fiverr
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Hiring a Freelancer ...
Some SEO services are “come as you need it”, others are monthly subscription. None
of them are bad, but different budgets, and ranking strategies require different things. Don’t
freak out if you run across a freelancer asking for $300.00 monthly to get started. These
rates are normal even though I personally stray away from monthly services.
Just be aware of the various business models and link strategies freelancers operate under.
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Chapter Six: Paid Advertising
Pay-Per Click ...
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is an online advertising medium used to direct traffic to websites.
Advertisers (producers in this case) pay website owners, or search engines when their Ad is
clicked on. Farris et al have defined PPC as simply, “the amount spent to get an advertisement clicked.” PPC is sometimes referred to as CPC (Cost-Per-Click), as most search ads are
sold on a CPC/PPC basis.
Google came up with a revolutionary idea __ they suggested that you pay for performance. This meant that only when someone actually clicked on one of your ads would you
pay for it. If no one clicked, you wouldn’t pay a penny for the ad to be shown. This turned
out to be better for both the publisher of the ads and the owner of the websites. This soon
became the standard.
Google revolutionized the Internet when they created the Adwords program. Until
then, everyone would sell Online Advertisements in one of two ways: They would either sell
advertising based on the number of impressions (i.e. you pay a certain amount per 1,000
impressions of an ad), or you would pay a flat fee regardless of the number of impressions
for a set period of time.
“With PPC, you can rank in Google almost instantaneously for a keyword and all you have to
do is create a campaign in Google Adwords. Pick and group your keywords, write an
ad, set a budget and CPC (cost-per-click) bid and voila, there your result is on Google.”
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Different PPC Platforms ...
Adwords is the grand-daddy of PPC networks, it’s by far the most prevalent. I’ll share
my experiences with PPC and more specifically, Adwords shortly. I’ve found two huge advantages with Adwords over other PPC mediums. First, Adwords ads appear next to organic
search results in Google, which is a huge plus that no one else can match.
FaceBook recently launched it’s own PPC platform showing GREAT potential. I’ve heard
good things about the service. The advantage Facebook has over Google is that they know
more about the people using their site. The biggest disadvantage of Facebook is that they’re
pricey. They’re expensive and the ROI using their platform is still in the air.
Yahoo! isn’t the leading search engine it was in the late 90’s and early 00’s. Today it
plays second (or third) fiddle to Google. But the fact of the matter is, Yahoo! still has an extremely impressive audience for it’s Pay-Per-Click platform. Yahoo! still manages to average
686 million visitors regularly according to a trusted source of online news.
Bing is owned by Microsoft. Bing as a search engine, is growing, but it’s still worth
mentioning it’s behind both Google and Yahoo! in terms of popularity. It’s been documented
to have somewhere around 151 million impressions and visitors. Like other major search
engines, Microsoft offers a means of advertising (PPC) through their network.
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PPC Or SEO ...?
Choosing between PPC or SEO always comes down to your needs and advertising budget. If you want traffic “fast” and are willing to pay for it __ then Paid Advertising might be
right for you. If you’re working on a shoe-string budget it may make more sense to invest in
organically Ranking Keywords.
If you’ve got no budget whatsoever, then you’ll most definitely end up sticking it out
with a long, drawn-out SEO campaign.
Pay-Per-Click is legendary for burning through advertising funds. I wouldn’t want anyone to think it’s somehow a “cheaper” alternative to Search Engine Optimization. Because
truthfully, it isn’t. What you’d spend on crazy link-building pyramids is about what you’d
spend running a PPC campaign.
Adwords themselves advises a marketer have at least $300.00 to spend
monthly to detail a REAL return on investment.
The beauty of having keywords ranked organically (SEO) is that once you’ve done the
__
work you’ll have rankings that’ll last for a while. They won’t just up and vanish. Meanwhile, when your PPC spending budget is depleted, your ad disappears into thin air. Because
Pay-Per-Click is paid advertising.
As soon as the funds are exhausted so is the ad!
One major weakness coming from ranking organically (SEO) are the algorithm changes.
The Google Updates. When that happens, the rankings you’ve worked so hard to accomplish
can literally be annihilated within minutes. Someone could lose all their rankings, traffic and
sales within the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, if you pay for traffic (PPC/Ads) you’re practically immune from
said changes in organic search results. PPC can be updated immediately.
“PPC is seen as a short-term solution whereas SEO is seen as something to
pursue and work your way up with for the long haul.”
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My Experiences with PPC ...
The biggest piece of advice I got in regards to Pay-Per-Click was to not let a Adwords
Team Representative manage my campaign. It seems their entire mantra is based on getting you to increase your bid amount. One of them intently tried to get me to bid $5.00
per click. Asinine. That made no sense if you took into account the conversion rate and the
price of my beats.
Had I followed his “wisdom” it would’ve bankrupted me, all while making more
money for Google in the process.
Adwords is Google’s bread-and-butter stream of revenue. So I should’ve expected
that much really. On the other hand I learned Pay-Per-Click is one of those things you’re
going to have to venture out and conquer on your own. It’s too convoluted to dive into
unprepared. You have to use every resource available, otherwise you’re putting yourself in
a bad proposition.
There were times when “PPC” and “losing money” seemed to go together
like rain and thunderstorms.
Admittedly, my first PPC campaign wasn’t that great. I did however, manage to get
a free Adwords $100.00 Voucher while I was on the phone with the Adwords Team. This
allowed me to get some play time running Adword Campaigns without spending too much
of my own money. These vouchers are a little more scarce, but Google still issues them out
to their affiliates.
“I had received my first Adwords Voucher by simply
signing up to Godaddy for Web hosting.”
“With PPC, a marketer can quickly change a campaign’s keywords and where they point, often
within minutes. Changing SEO keywords, which are woven into titles, copy and anchor
text, takes much longer. On average changes in an SEO Campaign will take weeks.”
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My Experiences with PPC ...
I tried a bunch of different strategies with Adwords. My overall score with them was
pretty decent. My website was already optimized for ‘those’ words so my CPC wasn’t high at
all. Even though I made a “few” sales, I can honestly say I didn’t get much out of Adwords.
My profit margin was too thin to say I made a return on investment.
I spent around $200.00 and made somewhere between $50.00-80.00 in a two week interval.
Mind you, I targeted both keywords with large traffic and keywords with smaller traffic. I think Adwords can be a Godsend for certain niches, but I don’t think it’s the answer
producers online have been looking for. Not to me anyways. Still, I know a few producers
who swear by using PPC/Adwords and blackball all mention of SEO.
There isn’t a doubt in my mind that PPC can do wonders for Selling Beats Online,
but it takes more experimentation than most are willing to put forth.
I would say out of all the traffic mediums and platforms I’ve tried; PPC had the steepest learning curve BY FAR. Everything with Adwords is trial-and-error. You just really have
to learn any and everything imaginable about PPC in order to launch a successful campaign.
You really have to read countless articles, bulletin boards, and blogs.
You’re even going to find yourself watching videos on the subject as well.
The more prepared you are with PPC the better. Otherwise you’re going
to lose money.
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Adwords Vouchers ...
Adwords Vouchers (sometimes called ‘Coupons’ or ‘Promotional Codes’) give advertisers credit for starting Advertising Campaigns. Vouchers allow people to try and benefit
off PPC without having to dig deep into their own pockets. The most common vouchers are
for $75.000 and $100.00 budgets.
Once upon a time Adwords Vouchers were given away to anyone wanting to try
Google’s PPC Platform. It was as simple as calling Google’s Adwords Team or finding one online. Said vouchers would usually let you run a small $100.00 ad campaign (free of charge)
to test the waters with Adwords.
You used to be able tog et these Promotional Codes from Hosting Companies
like GoDaddy or HostGator. Sometimes by even personally calling the Adwords Team.
To combat people abusing free coupons Google eventually made it where you had
to PAY to use said coupons. By making a small $25.00 deposit, users of Adwords can have
up to $100.00 (sometimes more depending on the specific Coupon) in spending budget. A
small revision to their old policy.
Google decided they were leaving too much revenue on the table
by allowing people to continue using FREE VOUCHERS
“Everybody should get into PPC by means of vouchers first. Only because
it’s too easy to lose money advertising. These vouchers give you a chance
to see what PPC is all about, really.”
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There’s a few underground methods of getting Adwords Vouchers as well. It’s actually
common-practice for online marketers to sell vouchers to other marketers. The most important thing to be concerned about when buying Adwords Vouchers from other people are the
expiration dates. If the Voucher expired a month prior to purchasing it, it can’t be used to
start a PPC campaign.
Fiverr is riddled with merchants selling Adwords Vouchers they’ve obtained. Although
the chances of scams happening on Fiverr are slim, it’s still a good idea to exercise caution.
You’re still going to want to pick the gig that has the best rating. You’re still going to have to
read the most recent reviews. Because if the vouchers have expired, you can bet someone
mentioned it in a review.
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A few people have recommended me to www.buy-adwords-vouchers.info in the
past when I wanted to buy vouchers. Although I’ve personally never bought their services
(which seem affordable), people I trust have said good things about them. There’s websites
that sell these vouchers, but it’s probably safer to stick with Fiverr due to the fact we can
read real-time reviews.
Vouchers can only be used on accounts that were opened in the last 14 days
with a new billing address located in a specific country.
“For each voucher I create a new Adwords account. Period.”
“I’ve had to use multiple accounts sometimes when using a lot of
Vouchers before. It’s something Google’s cracked down on but it’s
still really easy to slip through the cracks.”
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Media Buys (Buying Media) ...
Adwords is great __ but Paid Advertising goes wall-to-wall and if you haven’t dived
into Media Buys, it may yield the results you’ve been looking for. A Media Buy is the
purchase of advertising space in a media venue. Print Ads in newspapers, Commercials on
prime-time TV, Banner Ads on websites __ each can be considered a ‘Media Buy’.
Buying Media is one of the oldest forms of advertising
in it’s pureness. It’s definitely been a staple longer than Adwords has.
Media Buys still require the same market research Pay Per Click does. What are you
selling? Who are your target customers? What websites do they tend to visit and WHERE
are you likely to reach them? Media Buys from websites are commonly priced by thousands
of impressions. ‘Impressions’ meaning appearance or how many people see said ads.
Media Buys aren’t PPC, but they’re still Paid Advertising.
You’re paying by the impression, regardless of how many people click said ad.
Adwords was okay, but when I crossed over to Media Buys it felt like I got drafted to
the National Basketball Association. I can honestly say I’ve had better experiences placing
my ads on (relevant) Hip Hop blog/media sites as opposed to Adwords. Buying Media allows
the advertiser to see a higher ROI if the Websites+Ads+Products are in agreement.
I’ve flat out had more success Selling Beats using Media Buys
than I have using Google’s Adwords Network.
“ Websites like DatPiff, AllHipHop, SOHH, HipHopDX and such are good
places for producers to start inquiring Media Buy quotes from. ”
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Media Buys (Buying Media) ...
You really don’t need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to reap the benefits of
Media Buying. In fact, it’s probably better to start with a smaller budget. Spending only enough
to see what works for you and what doesn’t. Meanwhile, as with anything involving CPA/CPC,
there’s going to be a learning curve. So once you’ve got the right Banner-Ad and Media location
that makes a return you’ve got leverage.
As with all Paid Advertising, it’s imperative that we do research.
Paid Advertising is always a GAMBLE and has been known to leave funds exhausted.
We have two options for getting started. We can either reach out to an Ad Network, or we
can Buy Ads directly from websites. An “Ad Network” would align us with websites that want us
to buy ads on their webspace. So Ad Networks are basically middle-men, or “managers” here.
I’ve always bypassed them and found relevant sites on my own. Buying Ads directly on websites
from my experience, yields better results.
Depending on the site, we can reach out intended demographic
easier on the webmaster’s terms.
“I bought ad-space on DatPiff and sold about 30 beats by the end of the week.
When people think of Paid Advertising they usually only think
of Adwords __ which isn’t the full picture.”
“Once you find a winner (easier said than done), it’s just a matter of scaling
up crazily. There are also no surprises such as sudden Google slaps.”
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Ad Networks ...
When people choose to dive into Buying Media they usually have to go through an Ad
Network. Advertisement space can be bought through said networks. It goes without saying
that you’d want to display ads on related sites. (i.e. - Hip-Hop, Rap, & Music sites). However, these networks may or may NOT have a big enough catalog of websites to advertise on
depending on the niche.
Ad Networks are great, but I’ve had more success going directly to webmasters and
gathering quotes. I think it works better here (Hip-Hop, Rap, Beats, etc) due to the HUGE
number of authority blogs we have such as: HipHopDX, AllHipHop, DatPiff, SOHH and others.
You’ll notice they’ve all got their own independent advertising structures that don’t really
rely on big Ad Networks.
You can make Ad inquiries on these sites by looking for a link (usually on the footer
or main menu) that reads about “Advertising”.
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Ad Network Reviews ...
BuySellAds is probably the leader in direct banner advertising. BSA lets advertisers buy
ad space for a fixed price for a fixed amount of time. A ‘fixed amount of time’ of usually 30
days. One benefit from dealing with BuySellAds is your site gets exposure to more advertisers who in turn may just make up for that 25% or even get you more. I’ve always liked
BuySellAds’s rates more than other networks.
BuySellAds works for people as a ‘middleman’ getting their ads on websites. They
charge 25% of the transaction as BuySellAds keeps a percentage of your commission. If you
are setting $100 for 30 days then expect to have $75 only according to the scheme of commission charges. So it’s advisable to start from minimum cost and then increase slowly once
profit is likely to come on a regular basis.
BuyAds is probably my favorite Ad Network. I’ve seen more Hip-Hop
and Rap related websites here than on other places.
When I’ve used BuyAds in the past, I controlled exactly how I wanted my ads to run.
Everything was transparent and incredibly easy for me to use. Running a campaign with
them was as straight-forward as starting a campaign with Adwords. Instantaneous. Other Ad
Networks had processes where I would have to wait days for my website to be reviewed. I
didn’t wait days for my ads to go live either.
“BuySellAds worked for me because other networks didn’t
really have many websites in their catalog for Rap music.”
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Ad Network Reviews ...
AdEngage is another popular advertising network. AdEngage is the network usually
recommended to those on a tighter budget. Advertisers are offered plenty of versatility with
thousands of websites to choose from, direct purchases on sites for a period of time and
targeted PPC campaigns. I think it’s worth mentioning that I saw more niches on AdEngage
than I did BuySellAds.
However, AdEngage is not at all ‘flowery’ as it seems. Based on some of the user reviews expressed in some webmaster forums, AdEngage has a bad reputation atleast over the
past for poor-quality traffic and low performance of Ads. The fact is that AdEngage like most
other advertising networks, worked for some and not for others. Thus bringing about mixed
feelings about the service.
At the end of the day, Ad Networks are plentiful. They aren’t limited to the few
discussed here. BuySellAds and AdEngage are merely some of the more mainstream names.
However, AdBrite.com and Advertising.com are equally (if not more) embraced as the ones
covered here. A simple Google search will return both larger and smaller networks you probably never knew existed.
“AdEngage works fine for me. My average CPC is 0.13,
and they have that small icons that make people to click on them.”
“As an advertiser, I love adengage, because I will buy $3 in text links
and make $10 on adsense. but as a publisher, I hate ad engage because
nobody will click on their ads.”
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Chapter Seven: Mailing Lists
E-Mail Marketing ...
In a nutshell, a Mailing List is a collection of names and (e-mail) addresses. Mailing lists
are usually used to send newsletters and periodicals for advertising purposes. Generally,
if you build a responsive list of buyers and build a good relationship with them __ they’ll
often be the people who convert into sales and purchase your products.
If you were to send e-mails out (to mass addresses) in your mailing list, they’d automatically broadcast to everyone in the list. So if you had a healthy, yet small mailing list
of 500 people and sent an e-mail to the entire list; all 500 would receive the same e-mail.
When we’re sending out newsletters to lists it’s always an automated process.
For producers Selling Beats Online, a well-groomed mailing list is invaluable. Mailing
lists are how producers have been able to sell hundreds of beats without taking so much
as a single step towards PPC or SEO. Mailing Lists are known to convert into sales leads. If I
only had one traffic medium to choose for my sales, it’d be E-Mail Marketing.
I think a lot of people struggle with the mechanics of list building when making their
first list. Mailing Lists appear to be straight-forward, but there’s still a lot of things to know
and take into account. Thing bcome complicated fast. Especially when dealing with Openrates, Click-through-rates and loading Autoresponders with follow-up messages.
Mailing lists are how your favorite Soundclick Producers’ have single-handedly
kept their income without having to be in Soundclick’s Top 10 24/7
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Building Lists ...
Usually, mailing list campaigns fail due to the list itself being premature. Mailing lists
have to be developed. They have to reach a certain “maturity” to be effective. The Law of
Averages is a science that weaves it’s way into anything pertaining to numbers. Simply put,
the more people in your list, the better chance it has for conversions.
I recommend no less than 1000 subscribers or addresses be mailed in order to
give yourself the maximum possibility of success.
If you live in the United States you’re definitely apart of a few companies’ mailing
lists. Surely you’ve received e-mails in your inbox trying to advertise a product or inform
you of new offers of a service somewhere? You might’ve even opted-in and responded to a
few of these e-mail blasts before? Or bought a service being advertised?
Once you begin to realize the true power of a mailing list you’ll begin to
look at Advertisements in your Inbox differently. It’ll become Research Material.
“I love all the Junk Mail I receieve as I’m always looking for new and
innovative ways to market my newsletters. I study the design, format,
copy, header, images __ everything.”
“There are plenty of ways to build your own mailing list, but everything
starts with giving people a reason to give you their contact information.
This “reason” could be anything from holding a contest to a simple
survey or Q&A form.”
“Producers have to look for creative ways to provide value to their subscribers.
Maybe it’s exclusive content? Maybe it’s special offers or giving them special
access to something they care about.”
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Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) ...
The 80/20 rule (also known as the “Pareto Principle”) is one of the most consistent
truths from the world of statistics. The rule states that 20% of your input is responsible
for 80% of the results you’ll obtained. Basically, 80% of effects are brought forth by 20%
of causes. For example; 80% of the comments on my blog come from about 20% of your
audience.
Go deeper yet and you’ll find out that 80% of your conversions come from
around 20% of the people who clicked on your e-mail.
The 80/20 rule isn’t tangible. So don’t expect your numbers to reflect this principle
precisely, because they won’t. That’s not the point of the rule. The point is to get you
to realize the largest chunk of your engagement is driven by a fraction of your audience.
Therefore you can get more ‘opens’, ‘clicks’ or conversions by identifying this 20% of your
mailing list.
Find out what makes them click and give it to them. Then, find out how you can
convince the remaining 80% to join the elite fifth.
You will likely find that about 80% of your SPAM complaints come from about 20%
of your audience. You might even find this audience to be smaller, (maybe around 10%)
but the principle still applies. Find out what is causing this vocal minority to sully your
name and fix the problem. The 80/20 rule shows us that most things in life are not distributed evenly.
“The key is to work out the few things that are really important
and the few methods that will give us what we really want.”
“80/20 Thinking is inherently optimistic. Because it reveals
a state of affairs that is seriously below what it should be.”
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E-Mail Scraping ...
Admittedly, when I first started building my list I scavenged for e-mails. I’d go to
Rapper/Singer specific hubs (message boards and artist social sites) and go through every
profile to collect e-mails. Then, I’d send newsletters to all the addresses I harvested advertising my music. In my eyes it didn’t matter if they weren’t actively looking to buy beats.
Because they were STILL targeted and I considered Selling Beats Online
to be a numbers game. I knew I was going to sell a few off probability alone.
I collected about 1000-1500 e-mail addresses from Reverbnation alone before I
eventually took what I was doing to the next level. I started looking into software programs to help me automate the e-mail snatching I was doing. At first, I found Scrapebox.
A software used by SEO’s to gather URL’s for link building purposes. It just so happened
Scrapebox could also harvest e-mail addresses.
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E-Mail Scraping ...
I think it goes without saying that if you’re randomly taking people’s addresses
and sending them e-mails (i.e - spamming) you’re going to get a few Spam Complaints.
Spam Complaints in general are a common part of E-Mail Marketing. Hell, you’ll even find
people who’ve joined your list legitimately reporting your messages as spam at times.
If you put yourself in the shoes of the people receiving these newsletters
it’s not hard at all to see why they’d Report foreign e-mail addresses.
In certain countries it’s illegal to take the e-mail addresses of people and send them
e-mails (again, this is considered “spam”). The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 specifically aims to
control the unsolicited act of marketing taking place in e-mails. However, you generally
have to send hundreds-of-thousands of e-mails to be pop-up on CAN-SPAM radars. I didn’t
receive any citations when I was scraping e-mails.
“When someone marks one of your emails as spam or junk, it leaves a black
mark on your reputation as a sender. If you get too many black marks, your sender
reputation falls into a ditch and takes your delivery rate with it.”
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Buying E-Mail Lists ...
At the time I also, swapped my mailing list with other producers. Producers that I
could verify were actually making sales themselves. We’d trade .CSV files (a PayPal log of
transaction e-mails) and later bid farewell. There were times when producers didn’t want to
trade, that’s when I offered to buy their lists. I would spend close to $50.00-$100.00 for a
.CSV file of around 1500-2000 buying prospects from producers.
I would literally go
to MyFlashStore’s
website, contact
the producers making the
most sales and
negotiate a price
for their list. I
didn’t expect
complete honesty,
I understood no
one would give
me 100% of their
customer information. I didn’t care. If I could get 1000 (targeted, buying contacts), or even
500 I’d be able to make 2-3x what I paid for the list to begin with.
“If a producer tried to scam me and didn’t send the .CSV files? I’d simply,
do a PayPal Chargeback. I never felt I was in danger at any time I was
purchasing people’s mailing list.”
It wasn’t until I ventured deep into Internet Marketing circles that I realized buying
mailing lists was a common practice. There’s even companies that build and scrape lists to
sale them BY NICHE. I’m not ashamed to admit I bought a few Hip-Hop mailing lists from
fiverr either. It may be taboo to sell your mailing list in the producer community, but internet marketers have been doing it for decades now.
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What’s a Squeeze Page ...?
Have you ever visited a website and within the first five seconds of landing on the
homepage __ a pop-up occurred? A pop-up that prevented you from doing anything else
until you addressed whatever it is the pop-up requested? (Usually they ask for your name
and e-mail, other times they may opt for you to fill out a small questionnaire). These are
squeeze pages.
( NOTE: A squeeze page is a landing page created to solicit opt-in e-mail addresses from subscribers. )
The purpose of a squeeze page is to capture the information (of visitors) to follow-up
for marketing purposes. Quality squeeze pages use success stories that the prospect would
relate to when making a buying decision. They also use things like color psychology, and
catchy sales copy. Generally, people keep the content on squeeze pages to a minimum.
“Too much information could distract the user or make them
click away to a different website.”
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What’s a Squeeze Page ...?
Squeeze pages are often used in union with an E-Mail autoresponder. The autoresponder is used to send a series of follow-up e-mails, or to provide an immediate download
link to get information. Promising some kind of information (or in our case free beats) upon
completion of confirming their e-mail address.
“Squeeze Pages help us get e-mails from people, to later have them
added to our mailing lists. Squeeze Page opt-ins and Autoresponders
go hand in hand.”
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What’s a Autoresponder ...?
An autoresponder sends (automated) messages to an e-mail address,They‘re a
sequence of strategically pre-written, pre-scheduled emails that get sent to your email
subscribers in the order and frequency you want. You can choose the exact time of day you
want them mailed. You can also, choose triggers that begin the mailing sequence.
Aweber and MailChimp are well-known autoresponder we can use
to send newsletters to our mailing lists.
Basically, Aweber will help you to send out newsletters. Aweber will handle the e-mails
and all kinds of other things to your mailing list and even automate the process. We can also,
use Aweber to create a Squeeze Page that’ll get people to sign up and opt-in to your mailing
list. I’ve taken time out to write a tutorial on making a Squeeze Page using Aweber.
For the purpose of this publication I’m going to be walking people
through using Aweber, as it’s the cheapest yet most professional service.
Aweber, although inexpensive is still a paid service. (You’ll find the best autoresponders to be paid services). Aweber is a modest $1.00 for the first month, and $19.00
monthly thereafter. MailChimp is what I personally use and is free up until you exceed
2000 subcribers in your mailing list. When this threshold is met, you’ll be billed.
“I think Aweber and MailChimp are two of the best
Autoresponders available, personally.
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Setting Up a Squeeze Page ...
The first step in building your squeeze page is to create a new list. So, click “Log In”
in the top right hand corner of the Aweber screen and then follow along:
1. Sign into Aweber and click on “My Lists”.
2. Click “Create a New List” at the bottom of the screen at the right-hand side.
3. Put in a name+description for you list (in our case, “sqpagetest”).
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4). Be sure that your E-Mail address is listed in the “Notifications” Tab
5). Select “Confirmed Opt-In”. This will allow you to have people confirm that
they want to be on your list. It helps to cut down on possible spam complaints.
6). Setup your e-mail message in the confirmed Opt-In section.
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7). Enter a “Success” Page if you want. The “Success” page is just a page which
people go to once they’ve succeeded in signing up for your newsletter. It’s not a requirement; however you can simply set up a page which says “thank you.” Or, you can send them
to a page where they can download a free report or program as a thank you for signing up
for your list (more on this in a moment).
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Squeeze Page+Autoresponder ...
1). Sign into Aweber and click on “Web Forms”.
2). Create a New Web Form
3). Select “Popular” under “Templates” section of the page. This will show you a
variety of choices. We’ll pick “Money Bag” for our purposes, though any of these
would’ve worked.
4). Click “Load Template”.
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5). Click “Edit Header.” This will allow you to put your own customized text into the
squeeze page you create.
6). Enter some catchy text into the header section which will entice people to buy
your product. Be honest and true when mentioning earnings.
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7). Change the font and size to be a bit more exciting. You can play with the different
settings and come up with something that you think looks nice:
8). Click “Save.”
9). Click “Resize” to stretch out your new page so it will go into the whole web page
when you create your Squeeze Page.
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10). Remove the “Powered by Aweber” line from your squeeze page by click the “X”
next to it (not required, but it looks more professional).
11. If you need additional information from your prospects (this is optional – generally
you just want to go with name and e-mail address) you can add requests for other information by going to “Create a New Field” and adding in the fields for whatever you want.
12). Name your new field with whatever additional information you want it to have
and click “Save.”
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13). Choose what kind of information you are asking for (generally you can just leave
it as “Text”) and then click “Save.”
14). Click “Go to Step 2.”
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15). Give your web form a name. You can generally leave the other two settings with
their defaults. However, you can optionally change the other settings also. For example, on
the “Thank you” page, you may want to include a download of a product you offer for free.
You can also set the “already subscribed” page to anything you like. This page will display if
your potential customer has already signed up for this list.
16). If you would like to enable people to register with their Facebook accounts (very
useful and likely to get more people to sign up), just click the box where it says “En
able Facebook registration form.”
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18. Choose “Have Aweber host my form.” While you can host the form on your own
site (and will still put a link in from your own site), this option keeps things simplest.
19). Right click on the box with the new web address and click “Copy.”
20). This web address will now show your brand new squeeze page:
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If you have your own website, you can optionally host your own page by simply click
ing “I Will Install My Form.”
1). Click “I Will Install My Form.”
A JavaScript Address will appear:
2). Right click the JavaScript address and select “Copy.” Now, simply paste this into
your web page.
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Chapter Eight: Social Platforms
Social Media Traffic ...
If you’re expecting Social Media traffic to rival the traffic coming from Media Buys,
Pay-Per-Click and Ranking Keywords you may as well be playing Russian roulette. With that
said every business would STILL be better with a huge Social Media presence than without.
The exact metrics of Social Media being used on businesses are still being measured, but
make no mistake about it; Social Media works.
It works for businesses of all sizes, but it isn’t a magic bean.
It won’t sprout a sky-scraper in your backyard. It could lead to some sales however.
Sure, you may’ve sold a few beats in the past on Twitter or Facebook, but for the
most part the people browsing these channels aren’t looking to buy anything. They’re
looking to pass time, interact, share photos and maybe even play games. Social Media isn’t
a Google substitute. People have to be realistic about the traffic they’re expecting from
social media. Especially in regard to ‘buying beats’.
I say “especially” because a lot of things depend largely on the niche, and the actual product for a sale.
Social Media doesn’t
work to directly create
sales. I’ve particularly
found it useful for interaction, engagement
and awareness. I’ve
personally found social
media incredibly effective for brands that
are not already well
known. Social media is
amazing for increasing
awareness and bringing
brands such as this
to greater attention. It’s probably the fastest and most effective way to do that. Expecting
Social Media to yield the sales mailing lists, ranking keywords and paid advertising would is
unfair. Both to your expectations and to Social Media.
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Social Proofing ...
In a nutshell, the most powerful influence over a person is other people. People really
do have sheep-like qualities. In the sense that they adopt a herd mentality, and follow what
others are doing. Internet marketers and bloggers who employ the concept of ‘social proof’
effectively are easily able to influence their audience into doing something.
If a person randomly comes across a blog while surfing the web and they notice
said blog has 500, 5000 or 50,000 subscribers __ they’ll perceive the blog to be valuable.
If you’ve been promoting yourself online for anytime at all, you’re familiar with Social
Proofing. Surely you’ve seen advertisements to buy YouTube Views & Subscribers, Facebook
Likes and Twitter Followers? People buy these all the time to increase “their perception” of
being important online. Social Media thrives off peoples’ metaperceptions.
You’ll find two school of thoughts on buying such things: People that understand why
you’d do it; and people who think it’s stupid, lame and hate the very idea of it.
The “likes” and “followers” people purchase come from bot accounts. Bot accounts
have the power to misrepresent a website’s page traffic and create a skewed perception of
what is influential. Twitter is infested with bots. Fake, computerized accounts that follow
thousands and repost countless stories flooding the social media network.
By interacting with people and getting a response from them, users can tell
that followers are active.
“Social Proofing works because people are influenced
by people similar to them.”
“On the flip side, if someone comes across a blog and they see that there are
only 2, 3, or 4 subscribers they’d be less likely to subscribe.They’d perceive the
blog to not have “the value” of the other. Although the blog could in
fact, be very valuable.”
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Optimizing your Fanpage ...
There’s going to come a time when you want to harness the power of Social Media to
sell beats. Is it possible to sell a plethora of beats on Facebook? Of course! I know people
who’ve had a lot of success using Facebook Groups to locate targeted traffic on their personal Facebook Pages. However, this current strategy is a model that I’ve seen work for the
bigger, more established producers. It works for them because they have fanbases.
Although you can add targeted user groups of rappers on your personal page, your
production company needs a fan-page. Having a fanpage isn’t just a “free way” to advertise
to people on Facebook. It isn’t something you set and later forget about. It’s important to
understand why businesses should use Facebook as a way to engage customers and clients.
Be it through starting conversations on timelines, uploading pictures or Facebook Ads.
Next, we need likes. Thousands of them. Organic, natural “likes” coming from real
people. I’m all for people buying likes to “jumpstart” their social presence but in this case,
we need roughly 80-100% of them to be genuine people. The whole premise of this is being
able to interact with “fans” who’ve liked our page to begin with. It’d be pretty hard to “interact” with the bot accounts you’d get from paid views and subscription services.
This works. But only if you have at least 3,500 active likes. You need thousands of
subscribers. You also need to be posting enough content to stay on people’s timelines.
“We’re striving to build a HUGE fanpage that moves like the Meme Pages
except targeted towards artists and producers. 1. You’ll build a surplus of traffic/likes by
offering them relevant pictures and statuses. 2. You’ll advertise your services.”
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Optimizing your Fanpage ...
So, you’ve reeled in some fans. Now you’ve got to keep them coming back for more.
There’s nothing worse than getting past a welcome page only to find that a business’s fanpage is just a page for Advertisements. Yawn. What fans should find after they hit “like” is a
community of other fans sharing and responding to posts by the business. If you operate a
fanpage you absolutely have to post regularly.
When producers get tons of likes and subscribers on Facebook, they usually drop the
baton. Most of them make their mistakes by spamming the page (and the timelines of their
followers) to death with “New Beat Uploaded!” When you see this, take note of how few
likes, comments and shares these posts get. People on Facebook don’t want to see that.
They want real engagement and interaction.
Lastly, we need to be using some kind of Flash Player widget (MyFlashStore or BeatStars for example) that has Facebook App Integration. Once activated this will appear on
your fanpage as an extra box/column. The beauty of this is that it’ll allow the fans you’ve
amassed to buy beats from you organically. We’re basically aiming for the targeted traffic
we’ve created to convert into sales leads.
From there, conversions will become a numbers game depending on how targeted
your fans are and how much you interact with them.
“Everybody who has a fan-page on facebook should be using related meme’s
by default to get shares and to funnel new people to their page. because
meme’s are viral by nature, they’re always being shared”.
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Facebook Ads ...
Facebook has a fascinating reach. Internationally there are more than 1 billion active
users there, and the majority of these people visit the website several times a day. For
someone planning to advertise, Facebook couldn’t be a better option from a social standpoint. Seems like everybody whose anybody has a Facebook account. Meanwhile, the massive reach isn’t what makes Facebook a unique advertising platform.
(This is where Facebook Ads appear on your timeline __ You’ve probably seen them already)
Since Facebook
users fill in a lot of
information about
themselves (– starting
with basic information like where they
live, their gender,
their age, etc) an
advertiser can be
quite specific when
deciding who to run
ads for. But a user
carries much more
information than that. He/she likes different pages, has different interests and is part of a
network of friends, all of which is vital information when you’re planning to advertise on
this social network.
(Facebook’s Social Parameters is what makes it different from most PPC networks)
Facebook’s promise is
to invent a new, organic
form of advertising that
uses human relationships
as a vector for marketing
messages. Bearing the
imprimatur of friendship. This information allows an Advertiser to target exactly the right
people and advertise his product or service to the right demographics.
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Strategy for Facebook Ads ...
Before starting anything you need to do market research. You absolutely must learn
your demographic because it’ll save you more money than you could imagine. If you mess
that up, you’re done before you even begin. If you’ve done your market research properly,
your ads will communicate to people better.
You have to target the right interests, demographics, activities and “Liked” pages
of people on Facebook to plant successful ads in front of them on there
Facebook’s dual CPM/CPC platform has a learning curve. If you plan on having any success whatsoever you’ll need to test the waters. You’ll have to experiment to see what works
and what doesn’t. It’s worth mentioning that sending traffic to your fanpage will cost will __
but will ultimately be harder to monetize.
However, it’d probably be better to send people directly to your website.
At least then they could opt into your mailing list.
Facebook’s advertising platform shouldn’t be taken lightly. I’ve known people to lose
THOUSANDS in one night advertising on Facebook. While Facebook supports CPM, but it’s
truly more of a PPC medium than anything. If you try to pay a low CPM (say 0.05 per 1000
impressions), they don’t really show your ad.
Whereas if you go CPC, they show your Ad more as CPC makes Facebook money
faster if you want to be technical.
“You can get your CPC down to $0.01 on Facebook, but first you have to spend
HIGHER to achieve a solid CTR. I’ve started campaigns and sent people to my fan page but I
wasn’t really able to monetize the whole page per fan. I genuinely believe
it’s best to send them to your website”.
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Spamming vs. Communication ...
How often would you say you eat Spam Sandwiches? Hardly ever? Hmm. How would
you feel if someone forced you to eat a Spam Sandwich every time your stomach growled?
Or every time you sat down at a dinner table? At some point in time people thought it’d
actually be worthwhile to fill people’s entire timelines up with non-sense and spam.
There’s etiquette for sending people to your music and randomly tagging or throwing
links at them isn’t it. Spamming is one of the worst things that can happen to your music.
I believe Spamming leaves a negative connotion about something before it’s heard.
Music is listened to passively to most people. Spamming makes it a “chore” for people to
listen to you rather than it being an exciting, new discovery. Artists want to admire producers. A lot of artists yearn to have a deep connection with their favorite producers.
Spamming kills that idea instantly. Because it’s needy.
People always talk about building relationships via social media if you want to sell
beats efficiently. While that sounds good, that doesn’t always (sometimes hardly at all)
translate into sales. People start to see you less as a company and more as a “friend” or
“associate” than anything. I think it devalues and destroys the image of your company.
Because there’s no guarantee once you “become buds” they’ll see your worth
as a service provider. It’s a shot in the dark really.
Selling Beats Online successfully doesn’t revolve around networking. It revolves
around marketing. Marketing is our make or break factor here. Not friendships. Now, can
you network on these social avenues? Sure. What people forget is you’re still SELLING a
product at the end of the day. You have to have assertion to be a salesman of ANY kind.
Maybe if we were artists trying to gain fans “being friendly” would account for something,
But more times than not, it doesn’t because producers are trying to SELL something.
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Optimizing your Twitter Page ...
Let’s start by making sure your profile has a URL to your beats on it. I see so many
producers without URLs on their profiles and it kills the chance of someone checking out
your material for curiousity’s sake alone. We live in a microwave era of information. People
shouldn’t have to go to your YouTube, Soundclick, or Reverbnation. People don’t want to
type your name in a search bar.
Give them a hyperlink to click that’ll take them there instantly.
You aren’t going to get any business from Twitter without following people back. Let
go of the “Twitte Celebrity” mantra. Let go of having 90,000 followers while only following 12 people. It doesn’t work here. Mainly because those kind of accounts aren’t “selling
beats”, they’re using their influence or just having a lot of fans interacting with them. We’re
engaging people to CREATE sales.
We don’t already have ‘an audience’ like the people with Celebrity Accounts
Twitter Celebrity Mantra isn’t going to propel you into selling beats in any kind of way.
It’s too reactive. It’s equivalent to sitting around waiting for something to happen. You’ve
absolutely got to let that go. Too many times I’ve heard producers say they want to market
on Twitter, but they never go about it efficiently. You can’t really expect people to be
thrilled about following a nobody.
Well, news flash: __ they aren’t going to do that.
Start by targeting people’s topical interests. Target people with similar interests as
yours. This works better than just randomly adding people for the hell of it. You’re shopping
instrumentals. Specifically, hip hop instrumentals. So it goes without saying rappers and
singers are whom we’re looking for here. What’s in our favor is that ‘musicians’ probably
make up 1/3 of all Twitter users.
The fastest way to accomplish this is by simply adding them and asking
them to follow you back. (You’ll find in most cases, they do exactly that).
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Start by finding the most influential people in niche. Celebrities, parody accounts
and so on. Follow those people. After that, go through their followers and look for recording
artists. Follow “those” people as well. It’s recommended you don’t follow more than 200
people a day. What you’ll notice is, that after 2-3 days a lot of the people you followed will
naturally start to follow you back.
When enough time passes, unfollow the people who didn’t follow you back.
This is the tried-and-true way to get targeted followers in a short amount of time.
Be sure to keep an eye out for a person’s “followers” to “following” ratio. If a person
has 100,000 people following them, and they’re only following 20 people; chances are you
aren’t going to be followed back in return. Accounts like those are boat anchors. However, if
you ran across a tweeter with 100,000 followers whom was also following 60,000 people, __
you’d stand a far better chance.
Be aware that some people use automation tools that practically follows anybody
who follows them.. You probably don’t need these kind of followers.
Believe it or not, as with any social media platform; Twitter is all about keeping up
with appearances and perception. So there really isn’t any shame in pretending you’re
selling beats like clockwork when you actually aren’t. Hyperbole is everywhere on social
channels. People on Twitter like to think they’re following and interacting with people of
importance. Tweet intriguing things.
Dwell into trending topics and creatively, find ways to mention your hip hop instrumentals
to funnel people who may be interested.
I think the people on Twitter spend too much time talking at people and not enough
time actually engaging in conversations with them. So take it a step further and actually
retweet your followers. Regularly. Even if you have little-to-no interest in whatever the hell
it is they’re talking about. What we’re aiming to do is build fondness here. Engaging them in
conversation wouldn’t exactly hurt.
“Especially if they’re already tweeting about going to a studio or working on a new project.”
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Understand that when dealing with people on Social Media, you have to be open to
negotiate. It really isn’t the same kind of traffic you’d get from Ranking Keywords or Paid
Advertising. These are real people we’re dealing with. Be emphatic. If you’re approached
by anyone whose serious about actually buying music, __ make it worth their while.
Them being a frequent customer at $5.00-$10.00 is more beneficial than them
being a one-time-only phenomena at $29.99
People are more likely to purchase your music when you attach more ‘value’ to it.
Ironically, I’ve sold MORE hip hop instrumentals faster than expected when I tweeted sales
and discounts to my followers. People like the idea of buying beats in bulk. Bulk orders are
our friends. I’ve seen “5 for $15.00? or “5 for $20.00” work in a matter of minutes.
Present it as a limited time deal. The people reading your tweet need a
“Call to Action”. So make it seem urgent.
“When people have followed me back, I simply gave them a reply of
“Thank you for following. Much respect from [insert producer name] at [insert URL].”
“I’ve gotten people saying they checked out my site and liked my beats
and were looking to buy a few.. and BAM, chat with them, they buy,
and a sale is born from Twitter.”
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Twitter’s Search Engine ...
Twitter is a search engine. People are searching for news, and Brands are searching
for feedback. To those actively promoting services, sales leads DO happen. In 2011 Twitter
launched a personalized search experience to help our users find the most relevant Tweets,
images, and videos. So how does one go about using Twitter Search to shop their hip hop
instrumentals or music?
“You search through hash-tags to find tweets relevant to people needing
Instrumentals. You look for people who record on a consistent basis.”
You really have to play word association to get good artist relevant search terms: Rapper, Studio, Mixtape, Shows, and so forth. Things that you know artists are going to put in
their tweets. I’ve seen Producers tell other producers to search terms like “Beats for Sale”
and “Buy Rap Beats”. Which sounds like solid advice, but it really isn’t. Because when you
go search those terms ...
You reach:
A) A list of producers and beat makers marketing their beats
B) A whole bunch of people mocking producers and beat makers
C) Beats By Dre promotions.
“Searching out “Beats for Sale” and “Buy Beats” aren’t going to bring you artists.
Because only producers use those phrases and that kind of wording.”
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Twitter Automation ...
Believe it or not, gaining a following on Twitter doesn’t have to be as “vigorous” as
most think. There’s plenty of developers who’ve cashed in on Social Marketing to make the
job of those wanting larger audiences easier. For example, I’m starting there’s a Twitter
Software for practically every task you could want done.
SocialOomph, HootSuite and TweetAdder are probably the
premier Twitter Marketing Softwares available.
NOTE: Growing a large following of like-minded people can be done for free. You don’t
have to spend anything in order to do this. But I’ll ask this, what’s easier spending 5 minutes
a day on something like TweetAdder or spending weeks looking for the right people to follow? Then unfollowing those who haven’t followed YOU?
The twitter softwares/apps that are marketing centric are probably
going to cost money. again, you don’t have to pay but it’ll make things soother.
TweetAdder is one of many automated Twitter marketing software. At the moment it’s
probably the best all-purpose tool Tweeters have. TweetAdder allows you to find targeted
followers and follow/unfollow them automatically. TweetAdder also lets users automatically
greet their new followers with a custom direct message.
Now, you don’t have to use TweetAdder specifically, but know there are things available
LIKE TweetAdder that automate Twitter Marketing to make it less time consuming.
Socialoomph does pretty much everything TweetAdder does. Everything from tweet
scheduling, automatic follow-backs, auto-DM’s and so on. One huge advantage Socialoomph
has over TweetAdder is it supports more Social Networks. Socialoomph allows it’s users to
automate their Facebook and LinkedIn accounts as well.
“What I usually do is get people to follow me then send a DM
asking about the projects they’re working on and what kind
of beats they like rapping over”
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Twitter Automation ...
HootSuite isn’t considered a marketing tool as much as it is an accessory. It isn’t
BlackHat. It’s aiming more-so to be a convenience to the user rather than be something
to enlarge your audience. HootSuite for the most part, schedules posts (on multiple social
outlets) and manages your social media network.
HootSuite can be great __ especially if all you’re looking for is
something to schedule your tweets, Facebook posts or Google+ posts
TweetDeck is Twitter’s own client, and is available as a desktop program for Windows
or Mac. It’s a fully-fledged Twitter program you can use to tweet, read tweets, manage lists,
favorites, etc. Similarly to HootSuite, TweetDeck aims to put a convenience to managing
Twitter accounts. It also supports multiple accounts.
From my own experience, TweetDeck has made it extremely easy to schedule tweets for later.
As I was never really the biggest Twitter fan to begin with.
Using Twitter is really about the ‘here and now’. You find an interesting article, a cool
picture, or maybe you just want to share something you’ve just thought of. You’re suppose
to write your tweet, send it, and repeat this sequence every time you want to share again.
As you already know, this can get time-consuming.
Leaving us with two main options: Become a Twitter addict; or use
a specialized app to schedule tweets for the sake of sanity.
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Soundcloud ...
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution
platform that allows collaboration, promotion
and distribution of audio recordings by users.
Soundcloud is arguably the best audio platform
of social media around today. Head-and-shoulders more popular than BandCamp and Reverbnation. With that being said, I don’t believe in “Selling Beats” on Soundcloud, personally.
Soundcloud’s always struck me as a leisurely audio-only equivalent of Facebook.
Not somewhere to truly “setup shop” to sell music.
Something else to keep in mind of is how easy it is to rip media from Soundcloud.
Probably the biggest reason you won’t see a lot of sales from Soundcloud. There are websites dedicated to turning Soundcloud links into downloads with a simple copy+paste of a
URL. Sites like www.Soundcloud-Download.com are pretty mainstream for this.
It doesn’t just stop there, there’s Smart Phone apps that alone listeners to
rip directly what’s being heard from their phones.
Soundcloud has enough perks to make a paid account worthwhile, but I don’t think
it’s “mature enough” to be a viable platform to sell beats on yet. It really isn’t a Soundclick
substitute. I believe it’s a great platform for streaming and networking. I just think the jury’s
still out on it being something where a lot of transactions and money can be had.
Similarly to Soundclick, it wasn’t created with the “intent” of selling anything.
However, it gets targeted traffic __ which means we have something to work with.
144
Soundcloud and Selling Beats ...
You probably didn’t know it, but Soundcloud puts a red or blue star next to the names
of people who have paid accounts. This means before contacting an artist on Soundcloud,
you can know beforehand if they have a PayPal account or credit card. If you’re wise and
want to seriously avoid interacting with freebie artists; only contact the artists you see with
a red or blue star attached to their names.
Most of the targeted traffic you’ll find from Soundcloud exists in the “groups”. We
can easily search out terms such as “unsigned artists”, “rap beats” and so on. From there,
you can go down the list and see the artists with the paid accounts and follow them or send
them a message. I’ve found thousands of rappers in lone groups before and some of the
interaction even converted into a few sales.
When it comes to Soundcloud this is a cheap and easy solution to lease quickly and
effectively. Most importantly, the “Buy” button appears across all platforms when embedding via SoundCloud. What does this mean? It means the potential for a conversion (a sale)
is MORE likely. Especially if you’ve got people sharing your Soundcloud on multiple places.
(Such as other websites, blogs, et cedra).
145
Soundcloud and Selling Beats ...
The interesting thing about Soundcloud is that you can leave comments on certain
areas of a song. Most producers don’t think twice about how this can be useful aside from
artists just leaving positive (or negative) feedback on a beat. I found a way to promote any
link you want while an artist is listening to you beats. Did you know that you can leave clickable links on comments?
Have you ever thought about commenting on your own beats? While an artist is listening to
some of your music, the comments will pop-up in real-time as the time elapsed moves across
the point where they made that comment.
Whynot leave a comment such as
“Download 3 FREE beats here: tinyurl.com/mailinglistform”
Since you can leave comments on your own beats and they are visible to anyone listening to your beats, this is a great opportunity to remind them where to buy the beat (since
Soundcloud’s Buy Now button just isn’t really good enough) and to give them an actual link
they can click on to buy. “Buy this beat for $19.99 here: myflashstore.net/beats4real” Treat
your comments like a Tag.
Post 3 comments throughout the beat. One in the beginning, one in the middle and one
at the end. So every 45 seconds or so they’re reminded where they can purchase the beat
and for how much.
“You can place any kind of link. So you can get creative.
If you want to build your mailing list then you can use this strategy to do so.”
146
Soundcloud Shopping Cart ...
There’s actually a way producers can have a beat-selling widget on Soundcloud. No, it isn’t a
all-in-one solution like myFlashStore or Zinsta. Yes, IT IS pieceed
together using third-party apps,
but that isn’t the point. The
point is hardly any producers on
Soundcloud have found a means
to create the feeling of a “storefront” on the social giant.
It’s mostly viewed as a
streaming platform, but I believe producers there could set themselves up
to snag a few sales along the way. (If they’re stubborn enough to even want to sell beats on
Soundcloud that is).
For starters we need a means of distribution. We need something that can digitally
distribute our instrumental files (.Mp3, .Wav, Track-out stems, etc.) We’ll also be needing
something to receive said payment of beats once the transaction’s occured too. I found
FetchApp to be exactly what I was looking for in this case:
(PulleyApp works as a swell alternative too). It’s worth mentioning that FetchApp
is a paid (monthly) service with a few different data plans to choose from.
147
Soundcloud Shopping Cart ...
Begin by making an account with FetchApp. You’ll notice FetchApp will have you select
different “plans” depending on whether or not you’ll need your own .Mp3 storage. I personally decided to go with the $10.00 1GB plan (as I didn’t have my website or file storage) at
the time. FetchApp offers the ability for you to host your own music using your own storage
for the same amount ($10.00) monthly.
We’re done with FetchApp at this point. Log into your Soundcloud account and either
upload a track or create a set. From there edit the track information and click “Show More
Options”. Clicking Show More Options will probably reveal options you never knew were
there. In the example below you can see the Custom Link Title Field renamed to “Buy This
Beat ($49.99)”. Pretty convenient.
(Fill in the Buy Link Field with the link FetchApp generated for the Upload)
This method is obviously going to feel “limited”. Especially if you’re used to fullblown shopping carts and music players like MyFlashStore. Then again, Soundcloud was
never supposed to be a platform for buying/selling music to begin with. It’s a platform
meant for streaming music. I do however, think this does a decent job of giving us a solution for selling music on Soundcloud.
148
Reverbnation ...
Reverbnation is a haven for recording artists. One of the most mainstream “music
social media” websites one can be on. It’s
a central site for musicians, venues, labels
and industry professionals to collaborate
and communicate. The company offers
web promotion, fan-relationship management, digital distribution, sentiment
tracking, web-site hosting, and concert
booking.
Artists from all genres are actually getting signed off www.Revernation.com. It’s search
engine is targeted to every zip code in the world. A&Rs type in a particular city+zip code and
instantly, they can see whose making the most noise. Because A&Rs in the 21st century rely
on the internet to find and cultivate talent.
As with any kind of music-prominent site, there’s a charting system (and a means
of paid promotion). We won’t dwell on that as much; but I think the producer community
underestimates just how much of a goldmine places like ReverbNation and Bandcamp are. I
feel like they’re being neglected honestly.
I really could see an out-sourced “e-mail blast” type of service working to drag
traffic from ReverbNation to your Soundclick page or Hosted Domain.
“Cold-calling and basic networking seems to work on Reverbnation. Genuinely
reaching out to artists and telling them about your music and asking
them questions about theirs.”
“ I’ve actually been quite surprised at how willing people are to not only “friend” you
but they actually go to your music and listen on ReverbNation. I’ve gottan a lot of inquiries
and made a few sales since moving up the charts on there. ”
149
Reverbnation Bots ...
I’ve always considered Reverbnation to be largely under-utilized (or “untapped”) by
producers Selling Beats Online. I say this because aside from DatPiff, you won’t find another
website with as many rappers, MC’s, and urban vocalists. Producers disregard these places
because ‘marketing’ on these websites require them to think outside-the-box.
The chart positions on Reverbnation are based on a lot of metrics. However I’m sure
the most valued is tracks listened to by other Reverbnation users. RootJazz’s Reverbnation
Bot allows you to use proxies to shoot up the Global Charts similarly to how the new Soundclick Bots work. People perceive accounts higher up the charts are more quality.
Automation is the name of the game. RootJazz’s Reverbnation Bot aims to increase
your chart position with Likes, Comments, Track Plays and so forth. It can even scrape the
e-mails and profile information of other Reverbnation accounts. When using this thing I was
actually amazed at how quickly it broke through Captcha’s and handled Spintax.
This is truly one of the best kept secrets I’ve found Selling Beats Online.
While everyone chased after Soundclick I was marketing heavily on Reverbnation.
150
Social Bookmarking ...
You’re probably wondering where sites like Digg, LinkedIn, Pinterest and so forth fit
in. Sites far less popular than say, Facebook and YouTube; but obviously “social” in nature?
Well, those are Social Bookmarking sites. These are different from mainstream social media
sites. Social Bookmarking is like saving favorites on your browser, except you’re saving to a
website that you can access from any computer in the world.
Said bookmarks can either be set to public (to be viewed by other users)
or to private; to be seen by you only.
The demographic of people using Social Bookmarking sites usually aren’t “urban” at
all. You may have people into Hip-Hop or music production on them but usually it’s too casual of a user experience to churn into sales (like you’d want anyways). Don’t register new
accounts on Digg and LinkedIn expecting to find some kind of hidden resource for beat sales.
Guess again. Social Bookmarking is extremely casual in nature.
Also, social bookmarking sites are spammed beyond belief by internet marketers.
Marketers often use social bookmarks as a means of indexing links or backlinking
“The bookmarking is the ‘Social’ part. Everyone can look at everyone else’s bookmarks
too. This means that you can browse and search through content that other
people have already decided is worth looking at”.
151
Chapter Nine: Scaling 101
“Scaling” Selling Beats ...
Something we’ve all wondered is when does ‘Selling Beats Online’ become a career?
When does it replace a nine-to-five? When does it stop being random sales and start being
a profession? __ Well, It has to be scaled. If it isn’t scaled it’s going to fail. Otherwise you
could make a couple sales this month; hit a drought then MAYBE manage to get another sale
a month down the road.
If your revenue stream is THAT unpredictable it isn’t a business you can depend on.
It isn’t scaled. It isn’t going to be a long-term solution for you.
Being able to scale Selling Beats Online is what separates the guys on the message
boards from icons such as Vybe and Johnny Juliano. They’re celebrated as such because
they’ve managed to succeed doing what everyone else is failing to do. They made the
impossible possible. Being able to ‘scale’ such a mountain will make you the admiration of
every producer online.
Turning it into something you can safely depend on for clothing, food and shelter
is always a monumental thing. But you have to develop a “system”.
I’ve learned the process really works in stages. Starting out, you’ll pretty much have
to hustle until you’re actually making a profit Selling Beats Online. That’s the part of the
movie where most of us get killed, unfortunately. Most of us struggle just trying to get a sale.
After that you have to immediately take your financial earnings and re-invest them for the
growth of your company.
That’s Scaling 101 in a nutshell. The entire purpose of it is to grow
the monetary earnings of a company and nothing more.
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“Scaling” via Organic Traffic ...
I know what you’re thinking. How can someone possibly scale a company into a longterm business using something as moody as Google? Doesn’t Google update and flip-flop it’s
algorithm every 3-4 months? Where’s the longevity in that? How can someone’s livelihood
safely depend on Google when they’ve shown webmasters how erratic they can be?
Well it’s simple. Stay 3-4 steps ahead.
For starters, you prep your website to be an authority site. As opposed to a (trendy)
‘sling-shot’ website that’s going to rank for a little while, get re-evaluated, and later penalized. You probably haven’t noticed, but Aged Domains with ‘BIG’ authority backlinks practically have a key to the entire search engine. Domain authority replaced page rank.
The more authority your site has, the more Google looks at it as “a force”
in your particular niche. Authority is the new Page Rank now.
“Becoming an authority site isn’t easy and will definitely take some time.
But they usually handle Google updates the best.”
I still link-build on a monthly basis, even with Top 3 first page rankings. Usually I’ll
have about 10-15 uniquely written articles posted on different private networks. I don’t target any keywords to rank for in these articles. Instead, I use raw URLs and branded-anchors
to build my site’s authority. I’ve avoided over-optimization penalties this way.
I used to buy social signals as well, but now a lot of them I get naturally.
While Social Signals are important, powerful backlinks are going to triumph everything.
”If you want to be an authority site, you have to act like one.
That means having some real content and providing some real value you can’t do that
with 20 posts on your site.”
153
“Scaling” via Organic Traffic ...
Something else I do when the chance permits, is buying High Authority Backlinks.
Usually these range anywhere from $250.00-$500.00 for a single link. If they’re dofollow
they could SIGNIFICANTLY boost rankings and domain trust. Because they’ll typically be on
domains such as: ireport.cnn.com, voices.yahoo.com or medium.com.
Usually these kind of backlinks can only be gotten on the extreme Backhat Markets.
Because It takes certain “connections” in the webmaster world to get a backlink from
www.ireport.cnn.com.
If you’re feeling heroic you could also invest in a Private Blog Network. A small 2050 website network that wouldn’t be spammed and could have ALL link-juice sent to your
money site. Google would have little-to-no footprint said network exists because it wouldn’t
be whored to multiple clients. This network would exclusively be yours.
I found expired domains that were related to my niche and rebuilt them each into
credible websites (Unique IP’s, server names, CMS and themes, etc).
“It’s worth mentioning that companies like www.SEOBuffer.com specialize in
building private networks for people that aren’t as tech-savvy enough to do so on their own.
It isn’t cheap, but having your own private blog network is
kinda like having a VIP-pass on Google.”
154
“Scaling” via Paid Traffic ...
I think Pay-Per-Click is something that isn’t fully understood in our niche. Because it’s
commonplace for other businesses to depend on Paid Advertising for the bulk of their traffic.
Whereas I don’t know any producers that rely only on Adwords to create leads. Still, I don’t
write-off PPC’s potential. I don’t deny Adwords could be advantageous for us.
There isn’t a doubt in my mind Selling Beats Online could be scaled with Adwords
alone or by paid ads on relevant blogs.
You really have to experiment to make PPC/Media-Buying worthwhile for you. Watching tutorials and reading articles won’t substitute actually running ads themselves. It takes
trial-and-error to dial-in the correct Keywords/CPC/Ad Copy and so on. Producers burn
through their budgets before they really learn the ins and outs of Paid Advertising.
So we as a whole never truly explore the traffic medium to it’s potential
since it’s so expensive just to conduct research on.
If your meta-tag content matches the keywords you’re targeting, your CPC shouldn’t
*completely* be highway robbery. I’d personally target keywords that get a decent amount
of exact-search-matches, but aren’t as mainstream. Because you may not want to end up
bidding $4.00-$6.00 per click on the usual suspects for online producers.
The usual suspects being keywords such as “beats for sale”, “buy beats”, “rap beats”, etc
Run multiple ads and gauge which ones are and aren’t effective to you.
“If you have the budget to blow running ads for the more competitive words go for it! They’re
expensive for a reason. The first beat I ever sold was running an ad targeting [Beats For Sale].
155
“Scaling” via Mailing Lists ...
It’s been said before that a stellar Mailing List is the life-blood of a online business.
Repeated customers are the backbone of any business and having a mailing list gives you the
chance to retain these customers. Producers should be building these sooner than later. I
can even name a few local businesses (off the top of my head) that only rely on mailing lists
for 80% of their sales.
Ever wonder how producers like Vybe and Johnny Juliano retain their income and customers without being anywhere near the Top 10 Soundclick Charts? It’s simple. They’ve all
harvested and amassed HUGE mailing lists over the years they’ve been in business. If they’re
smart, they’ve used the e-mails of their past customers to build their lists as PayPal openly
gives you this information.
“The money’s in the list.”
Building a GREAT mailing list (that will convert into sales on command) should be
the end-goal and final destination for every producer online. Having a little black-book you
can call upon at whim to give your sales a spike is a God-send. Unfortunately, so many of us
struggle *just* getting traffic to begin with we forget that. Building a solid list is something I
wished I had done sooner.
“ One of the producers from www.JeeJuh.com was talking me, and as of
2012, their mailing list had 50,000 people in it. ”
“I know plenty of people who were HUGE on the search engines (that were
going strong for YEARS) that’ve pulled back, stopped relying on Google and
now rely solely on the mailing lists they’ve built”.
156
“Scaling” via Social Media ...
While it’s possible to have a influx of sales coming from Twitter or FaceBook, I don’t
think Social Media scales our businesses. Not like the other forms of traffic anyways. People
browsing popular social outlets aren’t looking to buy anything. They’re looking to stream,
be entertained, and interact with people. So it won’t rival what can be attained from Ranking Keywords or Paid Advertising.
Having a huge presence on (multiple) social outlets increases our chances of baiting
buyers. Being active on just “one” isn’t enough. So yes, you need a Twitter following with
thousands of followers. You need a Facebook following with thousands of likes or friend-ed
rappers. Period. Fresh content will have to be posted to all of your social outlets daily (or in
the case of YouTube, weekly).
You’ll find Facebook, YouTube and Twitter all cracking down on automation software.
It’s an ongoing battle for them. Don’t be surprised if most of your efforts with Social Media
come from hard manual labor. Because you’re probably going to have to put in hours promoting your pages and profiles. Tools that I’ve used to gain THOUSANDS of followers previously are vanishing into thin air.
“There’s studies done regularly that hint that Social Media may not
be the best traffic to rely on solely (for businesses)”
157
Epilogue:
Closing Words ...
Selling my first beat, (at the time I was dabbling in PPC) was a monumental thing for
me. One, because it showed me there actually WERE buyers in this niche and everything
wasn’t wolf-tickers and fairy-tales. Two, because it showed me the music I made was good
enough to be purchased. I needed that. I still remember the $16.95 price tag and the exact
instrumental it was. That event alone set off everything and pushed me to give Selling Beats
Online 200% of my time.
It took me somewhere around 9-12 months before I was really able to “see money”
coming in from Selling Beats Online. Hell, it took almost a year for me to get ranked on the
first page of Google alone. By the time it was all said and done, I had spent thousands on my
website and marketing efforts. Which is fine __ because when running a business, there’s
room for trial-and-error. You learn as you go. You can’t be afraid to make mistakes. Nobody
really “gets it” on the first try.
The hardest part was getting it off the ground. Getting traffic, and getting to the point
where I was selling 1-3 beats-a-day minimum. Scaling came naturally to me. All scaling really
comes down to is re-investing time, energy, and money to growing your business. Things that
should seem common-sensical if you were in a position “to scale” to begin with. But it isn’t.
Because I’ve seen many producers get to the point of Selling Beats on ‘auto-pilot’, nose-dive
and take a crash landing. Ouch.
Realistically, what I accomplished in 6-12 months would (and will) take most people a
few years to do. I’m pretty sure I’m the most ‘overnight success’ story in this niche. Which
to me, still felt like an eternity. But to the people on the outside looking in; seemed like a
case of overnight celebrity. All the more reason I felt obligated to detail my exact journey
with the exact steps I took. Nobody promised me it’d be easy, but I say completely, all of it
was worth it.
158
Glossary
Appendix ...
301
Moved Permanently - The website has been moved permanently to a new location.
This is the preferred method of redirecting for most pages or websites. Depending
on your site authority and crawl frequency it may take anywhere from a few days to
a month or so for the 301 redirect to be picked up.
302
Found - The website has been found, but is temporarily located at another URI.
Generally, as it relates to SEO, it is typically best to avoid using 302 redirects.
Some search engines struggle with redirect handling. Due to poor processing of
302 redirects some search engines have allowed competing businesses to hijack
the listings of competitors.
404
Not Found - The server was unable to locate the URL.
Above the Fold
It refers to being on the first page of Google above the 5th result.
AdCenter
Microsoft’s cost per click ad network. While it has a few cool features (including
day parting and demographic based bidding) it is still quite nascent in nature com
pared to Google AdWords. Due to Microsoft’s limited market share and program
newness, many terms are vastly underpriced and present a great arbitrage oppor
tunity.
AdSense
Google’s contextual advertising network. Publishers large and small may automat
ically publish relevant advertisements near their content and share the profits
from those ad clicks with Google. AdSense offers a highly scalable automated ad
revenue stream, which will help some publishers establish a baseline for the value
of their ad inventory. In many cases, AdSense will be underpriced, but that is the
trade-off for automating ad sales.
159
Appendix ...
AdSense
Google’s contextual advertising network. Publishers large and small may au
tomatically publish relevant advertisements near their content and share the
profits from those ad clicks with Google. AdSense offers a highly scalable au
tomated ad revenue stream, which will help some publishers establish a base
line for the value of their ad inventory. In many cases, AdSense will be under
priced, but that is the trade-off for automating ad sales.
Adwords
Google’s advertisement and link auction network. Most of Google’s ads are key
word targeted and sold at a cost per click basis in an auction which factors in
Ad click-through rate as well as max bid. Google is looking into expanding their
Ad Network to include video ads, demographic targeting, affiliate ads, radio
ads, and traditional print ads.
Authority
The ability of a page or domain to rank well in search engines. Five large factors
associated with site and page authority are link equity, site age, traffic trends,
site history, and publishing unique original quality content.
Black Hat SEO
Search engines set up guidelines that help them extract billions of dollars of
ad revenue from the work of publishers and the attention of searchers. Within
that highly profitable framework, search engines consider certain marketing
techniques deceptive in nature, and label them as black hat SEO. Those which
are considered within their guidelines are called white hat SEO techniques.
Below the Fold
It refers to being on the first page of Google below the 5th result.
Blog
A periodically updated journal, typically formatted in reverse chronological or
der. Many blogs not only archive and categorize information, but also provide a
feed and allow simple user interaction like leaving comments on the posts.
160
Appendix ...
Bookmarks
Most browsers come with the ability to bookmark your favorite pages. Many
web-based services have also been created to allow you to bookmark and share
your favorite resources.
Brand
The emotional response associated with your company and/or products. A
brand is built through controlling customer expectations and the social inter
actions between customers. Building a brand is what allows you to move away
from commodity-based pricing and move toward higher-margin value based
pricing.
Branded Keywords
Keywords or keyword phrases associated with a brand. Typically branded key
words occur late in the buying cycle, and are some of the highest value and
highest converting keywords.
Broken Link
A hyperlink which is not functioning. A link which does not lead to the desired
location. Links may broken for a number of reasons.
CMS
Content Management System. Tool used to help make it easy to update and add
information to a website.
Conversion
Many forms of online advertising are easy to track. A conversion is reached
when a desired goal is completed. Most offline ads have generally been much
harder to track than online ads. Some marketers use custom phone numbers
or coupon codes to tie offline activity to online marketing.
Copyright
The legal rights to publish and reproduce a particular piece of work.
161
Appendix ...
Crawl
The action of Search Engine Spiders (or GoogleBot) scanning your website for
fresh (new) content.
Crawl Depth
How deeply a website is crawled and indexed. Since searches which are longer
in nature tend to be more targeted in nature it is important to try to get most
or all of a site indexed such that the deeper pages have the ability to rank for
relevant long tail keywords.
Crawl Frequency
How frequently a website is crawled. Sites which are well trusted or frequently
updated may be crawled more frequently than sites with low trust scores and
limited link authority.
CTR
Click-Through-Rate - the percentage of people who view click on an advertise
ment they viewed, which is a way to measure how relevant a traffic source or
keyword is. Search ads typically have a higher clickthrough rate than tradition
al banner ads due to being highly relevant to implied searcher demand.
Dead Link
A link which is no longer functional. Most large high-quality websites have at
least a few dead links in them, but the ratio of good links to dead links can be
seen as a sign of information quality.
De-Indexed
When s Search Engine chooses to stop showing your website (which previously
ranked) on their result pages altogether.
DNS
Domain Name Server or Domain Name System. A naming scheme mechanism
used to help resolve a domain name / host name to a specific TCP/IP Address.
162
Appendix ...
DoFollow (links)
When Google bots are crawling a website, they look for external links point to
other websites. If this links is “do follow” then search engines will follows the
link and so link juice gets passed.
Domain Name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative
autonomy, authority, or control on the Internet.
Duplicate Content
Content which is duplicated or near-duplicate in nature. Search engines do
not want to index multiple versions of similar content. For example, printer
friendly pages may be search engine unfriendly duplicates.
Feed
Many content management, systems such as blogs, allow readers to subscribe
to content update notifications via RSS or XML feeds. Feeds can also refer to
pay per click syndicated feeds, or merchant product feeds. Merchant product
feeds have become less effective as a means of content generation due to im
proving duplicate content filters.
Fresh Content
Content which is dynamic in nature and gives people a reason to keep paying
attention to your website. Many SEOs talk up fresh content, but fresh content
does not generally mean re-editing old content.
Google
The world’s leading search engine in terms of reach. Google pioneered the
search by analyzing linkage data via PageRank. Google was created by Stan
ford’s students Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
GoogleBot
Google’s search engine spider. Google has a shared crawl cache between their
various spiders, including vertical search spiders and ad targeting spiders.
163
Appendix ...
Google Dance
In the past, Google updated their index roughly once a month. Those updates
were named Google Dances, but since Google shifted to a constantly updating
index, Google no longer does what was traditionally called a Google Dance.
Major search indexes are constantly updating. Google refers to this continuous
refresh as everflux.
Google Keyword Tool
The Keyword Research Tool provided by Google, which estimates the competi
tion for a keyword, recommends related keywords, and will tell you what key
words Google thinks are relevant to your site or a page on your site.
Google Sitemaps
Program which webmasters can use to help Google index their contents. Please
note that the best way to submit your site to search engines and to keep it in
their search indexes is to build high-quality editorial links.
Hosting
Store (a Web site or other electronic data) on a computer connected to the
Internet.
HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol is the foremost used protocol to communicate be
tween servers and web browsers. Hypertext transfer protocol is the means by
which data is transferred from its residing location of a server to an active
browser.
Inbound Link
Link pointing to one website from another website.
IP Address
Internet Protocol Address. Every computer connected to the Internet has an IP
address. Some websites and servers have unique IP addresses, but most web
hosts multiple websites on a single host.
164
Appendix ...
JavaScript
A client-side scripting language that can be embedded into HTML documents to
add dynamic features.
Keyword
A word or phrase which implies a certain mindset or demand that targeted
prospects are likely to search for.
Keyword Density
An old measure of search engine relevancy based on how prominent keywords
appeared within the content on a page. Keyword density is no longer a valid
measure of relevancy over a broad open search index though.
Keyword Research
The process of discovering relevant keywords and keyword phrases to focus
your SEO and PPC marketing campaigns on.
Keyword Stuffing
Writing copy that uses excessive amounts of the core keyword. When people
use a keyword stuffed copy, it tends to read mechanically (and thus does not
convert well and is not link worthy).
Landing Page
The page on which a visitor arrives after clicking on a link or advertisement.
Link Farm
Website or group of websites which exercises little to no editorial control when
linking to other sites. FFA pages, for example, are link farms.
Long-Tail Keyword
Phrase describing how for any category of product being sold, there is much
more aggregate demand for the non-hits than there is for the hits.
165
Appendix ...
Manual Review
All major search engines combine a manual review process with their automat
ed relevancy algorithms to help catch search spam and train their relevancy
algorithms. Abnormal usage data or link growth patterns may also flag sites
for manual review.
Meta Description
The meta description tag is typically a sentence or two of content, which de
scribes the content on the page.
Niche
A topic or subject which a website is focused on. Search is a broad field, but as
you drill down each niche consists of many smaller niches. An example of drill
ing down to a niche market
NoFollow (links)
Attribute used to prevent a link from passing link authority. Commonly used on
sites with user-generated content, like in blog comments.
Organic Search Results
Most major search engines have results that consist of paid ads and unpaid list
ings. The unpaid / algorithmic listings are called the organic search results.
Organic search results are organized by relevancy, which is largely determined
based on linkage data, page content, usage data, and historical domain and
trust-related data.
Outbound Link
A link from one website pointing at another external website.
PageRank
A logarithmic scale based on link equity, which estimates the importance of
web documents. Since PageRank is widely bartered Google’s relevancy algorithms had to move away from relying on PageRank and place more emphasis
on trusted links via algorithms such as TrustRank.
166
Appendix ...
Penalty
Search engines prevent some websites suspected of spamming from ranking
highly in the results by banning or penalizing them. These penalties may be
automated algorithmically or manually applied.
PHP
PHP Hypertext Preprocessor is an open-source server-side scripting language
used to render web pages or add interactivity to them.
PPC
Pay Per Click is a pricing model which most search ads and many contextual ad
programs are sold through. PPC ads only charge advertisers if a potential cus
tomer clicks on an ad.
Registrar
A company which allows you to register domain names.
Relevancy
A measure of how useful searchers find search results. Many search engines
may also bias organic search results to informational resources since commer
cial ads also show from the search results.
Robots.txt
A file which sits in the root of a site and tells search engines, which files not to
crawl. Some search engines will still list your URLs as URL only listings even if
you block them using a robots.txt file. Do not put files on a public server if you
do not want search engines to index them!
ROI
Return on Investment is a measure of how much of a return you receive from
each marketing dollar. While ROI is a somewhat sophisticated measurement,
some search marketers prefer to account for their marketing using more so
phisticate profit elasticity calculations
167
Appendix ...
RSS
Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication is a method of syndicating
information to a feed reader or other software which allows people to sub
scribe to a channel, they are interested in.
Search Engine
A tool or device used to find relevant information. Search engines consist of a
spider, index, relevancy algorithms and search results.
SEO
Search engine optimization is the art and science of publishing information
and marketing it in a manner that helps search engines understand your infor
mation is relevant to relevant search queries.
SERP
Search Engine Results Page is the page on which the search engines show the
results from a search query.
Site Map
Page which can be used to help give search engines a secondary route to navi
gate through your site.
Social Media
Websites which allow users to create the valuable content. A few examples of
social media sites are social bookmarking sites and social news sites.
Spider
Search engine crawlers which search or “spider” the web for pages to include
in the index. Many non-traditional search companies have different spiders,
which perform other applications. For example, TurnItInBot searches for plagiarism. Spiders should obey the robots.txt protocol.
168
Appendix ...
Splash Page (or Squeeze Page)
Feature rich or elegantly designed beautiful web page, which typically offers
poor usability and does not offer search engines much content to index.
URL
Uniform Resource Locator is the unique address of any web document.
WhoIs
Each domain has an owner of record. Ownership data is stored within the
Whois record for that domain.
White Hat SEO
Search engines are not without flaws in their business models, but there is
nothing immoral or illegal about testing search algorithms to understand how
search engines work.
Word Press
Popular open source blogging software platform, offering both a downloadable
blogging program and a hosted solution.
XHTML
Extensible HyperText Markup Language is a class of specifications designed to
move HTML to conform to XML formatting.
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a simple, very flexible text format derived
from SGML, used to make it easy to syndicate or format information using
technologies such as RSS.
169
“I feel like if there was an actual handbook on SELLING BEATS ONLINE, this would
be it. I’ve tried LiveOffBeats and all that other crap and it didn’t come close.”
- Open Fyre Productions
“I’ve got a few COMMERCIAL PLACEMENTS (Young Jeezy, Slick Pulla, Young Joc, )
but I always wanted to get into selling online. This taught me everything.”
- Ice Boy Beatz
“This thing reads and feels like a REAL book. It doesn’t seem like something
someone put together to make a few bucks. It got me my first sale.” - Anonymous
SellMyBeats™ is quite unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. It’s the FIRST-HAND account of someone
whose explored this niche to all ends. Someone whose dealt with things that’ve been kept secret from
the producer communities for years . SellMyBeats™ uncovers an “under-side” to the niche a lot of people
never even knew existed.
SellMyBeats™ is an interview with someone whose been on the other side. For the first time producers
get a TRUE account of what it takes and what all goes into making it work. The author seems incredibly
honest with his claims. Re-telling of times where he dealt with SEO scam artists and wasted THOUSANDS
marketing himself online.
Making Beats Make Money www.SellMyBeats.Net
“SELLING BEATS ONLINE might not be the same after this book ... I can easily see
this
SellMyBeats ™ becomes a household name.”
-- becoming “the standard” when
- JD On tha Track
SellMyBeats™ assumes you know absolutely nothing about SELLING BEATS ONLINE and later goes to detail
EVERYTHING. For the first time you’ll have strategy and perspective on actually selling beats. SellMyBeats™
will give you a solid blueprint on how to go about amassing customers. The author does a pretty descriptive
job of filling in the gaps.

SellMyBeats-The-Producers-Handbook

Transcription

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