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Tallinn, Estonia

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January 18, 2013

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Hi,

Just wanted to share my story (which might seem like a classic broken record),
but I hope that sharing it will somehow help to keep me on the track.
Because right now I'm just on the cutting edge of quitting once again,
but I am so interested in getting results, that I do not want to give up either.

I am one of those who does not seem to progress too fast -
I seem to be somewhat talented at getting results very slowly - slower than a snail.

Here's my story:

Somewhere in summer 2011 I stumbled upon MusicMarketingManifesto,
which made me think about the possibility of making money with my music.

In October 2011 I got into online affiliate marketing, and managed to create a website

that promoted a simple computer software, earning me around $100 in commissions throughout

Dec 2011 till March 2012. This relatively small success

gave me more inspiration to try to make money online with my music.

In the end of January 2012 I began working on my debut album as well as

setting up my music website from zero.

From January 2012 till June 2012 I wrote 37 music related
articles on ezine, and have got about 4 subscribers from them so far.
I also wrote about my situation to John in August 2012, as I was in a deep desperation
(probably a typical feeling that comes with such endeavors) as whether
it would be sensible for me to continue or not.
I am still very grateful to John, as he took the full effort of writing
me a personal blog post on musicmarketing-manifesto homepage (which is here). It gave me more belief in myself.

From Oct 2012 till the end of 2013 I did the following:

1) as the content creation seemed psychologically a major task for me, I had a handful of articles written for me at iwriter.com

and I threw a couple of backlinks to some of them by using some backlinking services on fiverr.com

From my own experience: iwriter is a great place to get very cheap articles very fast (I got

my articles for a mere $5 a piece), but if you pay this lower price (you can pay more to get the

article written by more experienced writers), be ready to rewrite and correct the articles,

as the quality varies and may be relatively poor at times.

Anyway, the articles didn't get me much traffic also this time, as probably I was not publishing

them in the most efficient manner, and used many of them to build backlinks to my ezinearticles

by publishing the articles on web2.0 sites. They helped to rank a few articles better, but

didn't cause any increase in traffic.

2) Also, during this period, I continued working on my album, and
had it released in January 2013. After completing my album, I joined the insider circle,
to get more seriously into marketing.

As I hadn't had much success with content creation (although I understand,
that content creation actually works, and I just didn't do it the right way),
I decided to play with a couple of bucks by experimenting with Facebook ads.

And indeed, I got 16 new subscribers, for $142, from 4 different campaigns that I did
(the worst campaign being $18 per subscriber, with 1,3% landing page signup rate;
and the best campaign being $5 per subscriber, with 8 - 10% landing page signup rate;

the average click price ranged from $0,60 to $0,19 and

the average clickthrough rate from 0,026% to 0,070% or so).
Of course, this would never work out at this price, but I have no extra funds at the moment
to continue perfecting my campaigns.
Again, thanks John for the great facebook training! Really inspiring stuff.

as facebook didn't like the phrase "similar to band X" in the headline,
I got best results with a headline "music inspired by band X" or simply "inspired by band X"

---

Anyway, looking for a free advertising method,
I saw the 'mini-sites' training, and was instantly inspired by this simple content
creation strategy, which was suitable for my 'no-budget' situation. I threw up one site, at downtempoartists.com
and have written about 24 articles about different artists - that's one article
per day during the last 24 day period (it takes me around three to five hours to write one article).
I understand that this website is too new yet to expect any results, and it hasn't got any new signups for me yet.

Currently this site is on the 8th or 9th spot in google (for the keyword: downtempo artists),
and I'm anxious to see if it will pop up a few positions in the nearer future.

And in February 2013 I also started with a membership site, making it a place where I
upload my newest demo songs and material for those potential fans who might appear in the future,
and also to have a motivation for myself to keep on working on new songs.

I have been doing all this alone, which is why it has taken me a huge amount of
time just to program my website, get it up and running, do the designing and the programming,
not to mention the music.
Probably a very inefficient and wasteful way of doing things,
but I have freed up a lot of time for myself at the cost of earning no extra income from a potential dayjob.
So, time is currently my most valuable resource.

As of today my whole mailing list is 20 members, and I haven't sold a single album yet, which is understandable
with a small list like this. But boy,
I am so looking forward to the day when I will get the traffic coming,
and start to make steady sales through the list. The positive thing about getting results slowly
is that it should be even a more rewarding feeling when I finally do succeed.

I know that I'm relatively young (26) and inexperienced, and should not deserve to succeed at it for the
mere fact that normal people should walk through the fire of working at a regular dayjob
before enjoying any success from this kind of online business.
Nevertheless, I'm still hoping to make this whole thing work for myself.

Making it work means that I would be able to generate
at least $500 month, so that I can finally move away from my parents home
(yep, I'm still living home, and doing this music thing 'full time',
which makes me an official parasite as well). I realize that this doesn't happen overnight.

It just makes me sad that although I'm focusing on this with full effort,
and working on this from morning till evening for the last 16 months,
I appear to be in a situation where I have no results to show to people
close to me. No proof to them that I'm going to be a winner in this situation.
Everybody knows that I'm a steady loser, except for me...

And to be precise, probably 25 to 30% of the time and energy goes into fighting with the
inner and outer resistance, which paralyzes the willingness to continue. But
somehow I have managed to get myself back to the track again. Psychological aspects
seem to be a huge factor in succeeding at this.

In short, doing this thing full-time, without getting any results as fast as expected,
is probably the biggest challenge for me.

But then I go back to some motivational speakers (like Bob Proctor),
who say that persistence is one important key, and try to give more value to the fact that I'm still doing it.

Anyway, I'm really excited to share my story with you, and sorry for making it longer than
a standard 400 - 500 word ezine article.

If you have any suggestions to where I should focus my energy on,
I'd appreciate your thoughts. I personally thought of going and creating another mini-site,
while giving time for the first one to settle in the google's results.

Joonas

April 7, 2013
9:11 pm

Los Angeles

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Hey Joonas,

Thanks for sharing your story. I'm sorry to hear that you haven't seen the results you're looking for yet, but it sounds like you have the right attitude and are willing to work so I'm sure you'll be able to get there.

There was a lot of info in your post and I have a lot of thoughts on everything. Unfortunately I'm traveling at the moment and only have a little bit of time this morning, so I'll need to be somewhat brief...

In short, whenever someone is not getting the results they want the problem is in one ore more of three places. Traffic, Lead Capture, or Marketing (email follow up and sales offer). Because you don't have enough of a list yet we can't come to any conclusions about the marketing just yet. But looking over your site and hearing your story I think we can safely say that there are a few things wrong with the traffic generation and the squeeze page.

Traffic:

Everyone has their own skill set and different tactics come naturally to different people. Given that you have created a fair amount of contact and received so few subs as a result I think it's safe to say that its time to explore a new traffic generation strategy, at least for the time being. It does not seem like whatever you are doing with article marketing is getting you the results you need.

And as far as Facebook ads go, what you are paying is way too much. However your click through rate is far too low, which is likely why you are paying to much. You'll need to play with your ads until you get a much higher CTR. While it's possible to make a lower CTR work, you want to try and get up over .1 % CTR if you can. The higher the CTR, the lower the price you will pay. You want to try to be getting subs for less than $1 or so, and while not always easy, it's very doable.

The fact that you have taken the initiative to create a mini site, and that it's already ranking is great. However I think the call to action on the page needs a lot of improvement. You might try simply creating an enticing ad and linking to a squeeze page where you have more time and space to entice the visitor. I don't feel like that's currently happening with what you have. Like anything, you just need to keep experimenting until you get your conversion rate up. I also am not so sure about that keyword. It may be that I just have no connection to it personally but I don't know how much desire a keyword like "down tempo songs" brings with it. If there is desire there, then you want to really speak to those visitors with an offer that matches the search intent. As of now I'm not seeing that.

Lead Capture: I think your squeeze page has a lot of room for improvements as well. Your conversion rates confirm that. In my honest opinion, "Pour your guests a glass of wine, make yourself comfortable, and enjoy these FREE SONGS playing in your computer's playlist as a mellow background music." doesn't strike a chord with me. I don't know that the imagery of sitting back with a glass of wine quite matches with the intent of someone who is looking to listen to background music on their computer. It all sounds very unexciting to me personally (but remember, I'm just one person. Others might feel differently). I think that this headline is probably the thing most in need of improvement right now.

Have you tried testing it? have you tried testing different ad headlines, etc? It's very important that you do this until you get conversion rates on par with industry averages. While it may seem overly simplified, it's really the way you can fix anything. Just keep changing elements until you get where you need to be.

But whatever you do, hang in there. If you keep taking action towards better conversion rates and cheaper traffic, you (and just about anyone for that matter), can get there. Contact me if you need additional assistance, I really want to see you succeed.

Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.

April 9, 2013
6:58 am

Michael Pickett

Washington, USA

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June 10, 2011

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Hey Joonas...

I've had some of the slower showings you mention as I move things forward. My experience with ezinearticles.com is that I get about 5% URL clicks when I first release articles, and within about seven days, it tends to drop off quite a bit (which is why generating constant articles seems to be a key to making that kind of marketing work...which I haven't taken on yet...but I'll also defer to John on that topic since he has way more experience and expertise than I do there).

I will say this. As slow as it sometimes feels as I move my music career forward, I have learned to really celebrate the steps I take. I mean, recording an album is a huge undertaking! Taking the steps to market it and keep learning better ways to market it...that puts me way ahead of most people. You too!

But hey, this probably isn't the right thread for this...but if you send me links to your music/album, I'll give you a written review in the magazine I work for. It's called the North Columbia Monthly, and we have a monthly readership of about 10,000 here in Washington state (from British Columbia to Spokane, WA). I love to have and help indie artists by reviewing them, and it helps me too by having content no one else has.

So if it appeals to you at all, drop me a line and we can include your album in our pages (and I'll send you some copies of the magazine so you have some actual reviews to use as tear-sheets). Can't guarantee it will propel you to Grammy status, but it could be a nice shot in the arm and every little review helps.

all the best,

Michael

Preview the New Video Single, 'Beautiful One', Now!
http://www.m-overdrive.com/video

April 9, 2013
8:54 am

Tallinn, Estonia

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January 18, 2013

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Hi John,

Thanks for the honest and constructive feedback - it gave me ideas to work on and
helped to clear some things up:)
My previous post turned out to be somewhat emotional and rather long, as
sometimes there are just moments of hopelessness, when nothing seems to work out.
But once again, in every problem there lies a solution:)

I will keep on improving the squeeze page headline and experiment with facebook
campaigns, as these seem to be the key issues/solutions in my case.
Despite the fact that coming up with a headline which captivates the reader and
converts well hasn't come naturally to me,
I'm very motivated an excited to keep on playing with it.

Although the content creation might be a viable optional strategy for me in the future,
I realize that I'm currently not doing it efficiently enough:
it eats up the majority of my time and energy, without giving much back.
I'm not completely excluding it from my list of possible traffic sources,
and understand that it is actually a powerful method for driving traffic.

However, for the time being, perhaps it would be more wise (and also fun)
to use my time and energy for something that I'm more effective at -
such as live gigging and playing music -
and then have more financial resources to invest back in facebook advertising.

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the encouraging words - I really like the idea of celebrating smaller steps:)
Although I tend to forget and overlook the things that I've achieved so far
(having an album to sell, the website up and running, some experience from my current errors),
reminding of these details puts me into a positive mood and creates a sense of
achievement. This, in turn, gives more energy and motivation.

Regarding the magazine, I can only say that I am humbled by such opportunity -
I'm most interested, and will drop you a line.

---

Joonas

April 9, 2013
10:43 pm

Los Angeles

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June 7, 2011

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Hey Joonas,

Glad it gave you a few ideas. I normally recommend free tracking at first so that someone can get their squeeze page dialed in before spending money, but when someone is sort of stuck in the mud I think it can make sense to invest a little in testing. It really sounds like the first thing you need to do is get that squeeze page converting better. Keep in mind though, no single headline will work for all traffic sources, especially with music. You'll really want to match the headline to the intent of the visitor.

If you're stuck for headline ideas you might start a new thread here in the forum giving people a quick description of your music, your target demographic, and a sample link. Then ask for headline suggestions. Might be fun and you might get a few ideas.

April 11, 2013
11:33 am

Tallinn, Estonia

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https://www.mmmanifesto.com/in.....ueeze-page

Thanks for the suggestion John - I started a new thread in the forum asking fellow musicians for advice on my headline in HERE.

Matching the headline with the intent of the visitor is probably my most important task. To do this,

I understand that I have to

1. get clear on what the qualities and branding of my music is (for example jazz, trip hop, soft instrumental background music)

2. understand what is the intent of the people who I'm targeting (let's say I'm targeting fans of a specific trip hop artist)

3. Present those qualities of my music that match with my target audience

(if I'm targeting trip hop fans, then highlight the aspects of my music that are related to trip hop)

(but if I were to target let's say jazz music (or smooth jazz) fans, as my music has some jazz elements as well, then I'd focus my headline and copy on the jazz aspects and qualities of my music) ?

One of the posts that I found from the forum archives, and made me think about this subject is

where Frank described a similar situation with his music, where he saw his music being a mixture of various genres, and therefore felt a little challenging task to target his music to fans of a specific genre. But then again, I liked the response from Annie, who said that it is good to have a separate identity for each niche, and that having even a little bit of the targeted niche in my style makes those people feel safe to explore my music.

April 11, 2013
9:37 pm

Los Angeles

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Great, I'm replying in the other thread now. I have a few thoughts.

May 1, 2013
2:06 pm

Mike Ippersiel

Canada

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Hi Joonas,

I just discovered this thread and thought I'd chime in.

First of all I want you to give yourself a big pat on the back for three reasons:

You've taken action - you created several sites and written a bunch of content
You invested in your future with MMM, the Insider Circle and investing in advertising
You posted here to get further insights rather than throwing in the towel.

I haven't had the chance to review your site, but John certainly knows his stuff and will definitely steer you in the right direction. I do have a few things that I think may be helpful to you as you go forward.

1) Track everything. Get Google Analytics installed on your site today. It sounds intimidating, but it isn't that hard to do. It will show you were ALL your traffic is coming from. Set it up and review it once per month. Take action and at the end of the month see where your traffic is coming from and which converts the best - then focus on what works and do more of it.

2) Keyword research - I don't know how much keyword research you've done or what keywords you're targeting. If you have the wrong keywords - you'll put in tons of time for no return. Make sure you determine there is some interest for your topic before you build sites or create tons of content.

3) Time spent writing - 3 to 5 hours is way too long to spend on an article.

The best tip I can give you is to come up with an outline for your article of 3 different points, with an introduction and a closing and then say the article instead of writing it. The average person talks at approximately 150 words per minute which is much faster than anyone can type. Talk for five minutes and you'll have a good length article. There are transcriptionists on Fiverr that can do up to 12 minutes of audio for $5. If you time it right - that could be 3x four minutes of talking. You pay $5 and have 3 articles. You spent maybe 30 minutes of planning the content and recording it + 5 dollars.

4) Articles are one traffic source - Record yourself reading your finished article, add a photo and create a video slide presentation. Now you have an article, a slide presentation, a (hopefully unique) photo. Plus you can turn that slide presentation and audio (or just the image) into a video. Now you can spread it across video sites, podcast directories, pdf sharing sites, image sharing sites, social media...way more traffic sources than just Ezine articles. Again, you can find people on fiver to distribute your content for you to save time.

5) What about forums? Find a forum based on your genre of music, similar sounding bands, for song writing or for your instrument of choice. Make sure it has an active community of cool people, make sure you can create your own signature with a link to your landing page and take part in the conversation. You may not get hordes of traffic - but it should be targeted which is even better.

6) Use a timer. If you're on social media, forums or writing articles - you should be using a timer to stay disciplined and get out before you get distracted from your goals. Chances are you already have one on your smart phone or cell phone. Use an egg timer if you like and there are free programs that you can use online like Cool Timer. Pick one and use it. It will help you to build up the discipline to succeed.

I hope this helps and whatever you do, don't skip step one. It will help to validate all the other work that you do. For instance, if you did step 4 after installing analytics, after a month you'd be able to see which is the best traffic source for you...videos, articles, social media? Then you could laser target and focus only on what works for you.

Keep at it, I'm pulling for you.

May 13, 2013
9:12 am

Tallinn, Estonia

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Hi Mike,

Sorry for the late reply, I just noticed at this point that there has been a new entry on this topic.

Thanks for sharing your suggestions: I absolutely love them. Speaking or recording an article

instead of writing it is something I haven't tried, and I am excited about this idea, as well as the

timer approach to use the time more efficiently.

Joonas

June 2, 2013
3:54 am

Mike Ippersiel

Canada

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Joonas Kreen said
Hi Mike,

Sorry for the late reply, I just noticed at this point that there has been a new entry on this topic.

Thanks for sharing your suggestions: I absolutely love them. Speaking or recording an article

instead of writing it is something I haven't tried, and I am excited about this idea, as well as the

timer approach to use the time more efficiently.

Joonas

No problem Joonas - I also forgot to congratulate you on the important step of earning money online. It might not be a lot right now, but there's more where that came from once you 'crack the nut' on how to do it and scale it up. It takes time but will be worth it...it's what I'm working towards as well.

June 2, 2013
11:31 pm

Los Angeles

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