Setting long-term goals is essential in any business including music. As the new horizon arises in the land of entertainment, artists in every facet of the industry have been looking to many unconventional methods of generating income. Something that underground bands, artists, and groups need to consider is entertainment (for the last 30yrs) has only been extremely profitable to the top 20% of the industry.
A growing number of top-level professionals are switching to direct-to-customer business models. With concert attendance at a steady rise throughout almost the entire nation and continuously plummeting record sales, the paradigm shift (that everyone knew was coming) has finally began to bubble at the highest levels of the industry.
Keep your goals in line with what is happening on the internet and various other direct-to-customer channels. Truth is, your online network and fan clubs are most likely to be your biggest asset when dealing with promotion companies and record labels.
Also, make sure you are planning an appropriate roadmap for your goals. Breaking bigger goals down into a series of smaller goals is a good way of diving into how you plan on reaching them. Always make sure you write your goals down and grade yourself from time to time to make sure you stay on track. With the advent of the internet we all have every tool we ever need to plan the any future we want.
Utilizing your tags and blogs in your community websites can make a huge difference in how easily you can be found or discovered. These are actually among the first things that Google and other search engines scan first. Which if you look at logically makes perfect sense.
People tend to browse images, stories, discussions, and reviews from other people in the online communities they frequent. This increases the value of these community sites and their content to search engines. Now the real formula to Google is a secret, but people have been trying to keep up with their continuously changing format for years.
Properly tagged photos and blogs can also increase the search value to your own URL. If you are like every other band you have a diverse web presence. Multiple high value community sites that are tagged with your URL will eventually trigger the search engines to recommend your site through natural affiliation.
Blogs are especially important as well. Most underground bands and artists do not take the time to set up proper blogs and blogging habits. Talking about relevant subjects on your blog will increase traffic through basic web searches. Just make sure you use tags the way they are meant to be used, if search engines catch on to you using trickery to increase traffic it will drop your value ratings and it is extremely difficult to regain that status.
Also make sure to use a geographic tag with your photos, especially if you a traveling group. Heavy cultural relevance is given to web searches, as well as login location, and recently placed items and information.
