First things first!

If you are new to promoting your band,  don’t have a lot of money to spend or just need some additional ideas, you will need to start with some kind of online presence.  Having your own website seems like a logical place to start.  This can be a little daunting especially if you have never built or owned one before.

1.  You can pay someone to build a website for you.  Your costs will include the yearly price of a domain  (This amount can vary depending on  the service you choose).  Then there is the additional investment required for building the site, which can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Sign up first with Wealthy Affiliate To get your free websites and start learning 

2.  You can get a free site to host your music.

 Here are some of my recommendations:

ReverbNation  -I recommend this one first because I have been using it the longest.  It may not be the best, but it is a great place to archive your music without paying for the service.  You can also get access to a mailing list which may be invaluable to you for building your fan base.

Facebook  -Add a band page to your profile and then link it to your ReverbNation page

Google+  – I highly recommend getting a G+ profile if you don’t already have one then make a band page and link it to your Youtube page.

It has proven to be an excellent marketing tool for my businesses.

3.   Buy your own domain name.                                     You can create your website easily with low cost or free tools and resources

You can buy a domaine name from companies like GoDaddy but they only allow you one single free page.  You must upgrade to a hosting service or another service that provides these types of services. Not really enough to do anything with.

Update 1-2-2016 ——————————           Instead of using any 3rd party software to make your sites I strongly reccomend that you get an account with Wealthy Affiliate and use the powerful WordPress tools that they have

If you already have software to build a website like Serif web design software and you know how to use it then you could build your website yourself and upload it.

I believe that Windows also has a program to build web pages but I stay away from their products.

There is sometimes a long learning curve to using these kind of options and support is often difficult to get when you need it.  I would only attempt this if you are good at learning computer software.

Wealthy Affiliate

The best combined resource I have found is Wealthy Affiliate.  It costs nothing to get started and has all the tools you need.  There is no pressure to upgrade.  You will have the option to get your own domain name for a very reasonable price when you are ready.

 Until then you can begin with two free domains that are hosted at Wealthy Affiliate. The best part is the amount of resources available,  They will give you a chance to learn how to build, promote and start making money with your website.

The online community support is an extra added bonus as it gives you access to an incredible amount of valuable information.

I wish I would have had these resources available when I first started making my websites.  I struggled with learning the things I needed to know along with having very little money to invest.

I think it can be a good idea to have a small amount of money budgeted towards future endeavors. It can be useful to upgrade or buy services or products.  There are ways to make money without any investment at all, yet this can be a difficult way to go.

If you want to save yourself a lot of trouble then try Wealthy Affiliate at no cost and see why I recommend it so highly!  You can find my complete review here.

After you build a website you can link it to all of your social networks.

Okay now that you understand how to have an online presence the next step is going to be promotion.   I would not spend a lot of money on marketing at first.  You might want to wait until you spent hours on rehearsals, know the material inside and out and have a complete working set.  You should also have some experience playing local gigs and have all original material copy written.

I have found that you shouldn’t even worry about an agent until you have at least 1500 fans and you have a following.  If you can’t get noticed locally then you are probably going to have a hard time getting noticed on the internet.

Here are some additional resources that are very helpful!

http://www.musicthinktank.com/

http://passivepromotion.com/

There are many resources available.  My intention is to slowly review and list all of the best options for musicians and artists.

If you have any resources that you have found to be really valuable please share your thoughts with me in the comments section below.

My passion is producing and performing my music.  I fully support other musicians and artists in realizing their dreams

Peace

Tom