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QuoteHi, I'm new to this well, a few weeks but, life keeps pulling me away from the project of implementing MMM. But, I remain determined to make this happen. But, I feel really lost on this and I am on a very limited budget to start.
So, I have a new squeeze page from editing John's template. That's about it. I also have a web site at http://www.fremontjohn.com hosted by LowestHosting.com for about 10 yrs (good prices and service). The site is a complicated, convoluted mess at this point. And, I think I should design a new web site. One other thing I use is the FanReach e-mail program at ReverbNation. Is there a way to pull all these things together or, do I start from scratch, new web site, squeeze page, new e-mail program, etc.?
I have my squeeze page edited and ready to load but I really don't know where to go with it. LowestHosting doesn't have a clue as to what it is I'm trying to do and I guess I don't either. What do I need from a host? What do I ask them for? How many URL's will be required? The squeeze page, the e-mail list, the web site, free mp3s and not sure what else, seem to all require a separate URL, right? How does it work? I really don't know how this all pulls together. I'm looking for step-1 here. Is it the new web site. Should I switch hosts? Will GoDaddy understand what I need since so many of you are using them?
This is a lot of questions but, I need to know. MMM seems so simple and it is well lain out but, if I have to learn several programs, web site design, WordPress, Aweber and all about hosting, there seems to be a much steeper learning curve. Any suggestion and/or assistance is much appreciated. Best, Monty
8:44 pm
June 10, 2011
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Hi Fremont,
Boy, do you ever sound like me a few months ago! I will agree, there is a lot of ground to cover, and it seems almost impossible at first, but it really isn't. Just remember that it isn't meant to, nor will it all happen overnight. Just take everything in small steps, a little at a time, and you will get there!
First, congrats on taking MMM 2.0 and joining this forum. Both have been a tremendous help to me, and I'm sure will continue to be. There are some very knowledgeable and helpfull people in this forum. I'll try to address some of your questions, at least as far as my knowledge goes, so hopefully you wont make the same mistakes I have!
You should have a separate domain name for your squeeze page that is completly separate from your website. In my case, my domain name for my website is http://www.gregparke.com, so for my squeeze page, I went to GoDaddy.com and claimed the url http://www.gregparkemusic.com. Each domain name costs about $10 per year. Just tell your hosting company that you have another website you need hosted. It will be your single page squeeze page, and you want your new url to direct to that page. Most decent hosting companies will allow you to have many, if not unlimited sites hosted for the same price. I recently switched my hosting to http://www.hostgator.com and I am very happy with them. I have my squeeze page and my website hosted with them for a total of just under $10 a month. I may add some more squeeze pages and websites in the future, and it will still only cost $10. They have excellent email and phone support 24/7. I think John also recommends Dreamhost for hosting.
OK, now for my "do as I say, not as I do" advice! Unless you are a real whiz at computers, don't try to build your own website! I did recently, because I was trying to save a few bucks. I did finally get a fairly functional website built using Wordpress, but it took me about 5 very long, frustrating, agonizing days.....and nights, and what I now have is a complicated, convoluted mess, to borrow your terms! And to fix it I need to spend some money to have it done right. If I would have listened to Johns advice, and outsourced it to begin with, I probably could have spent the time booking several gigs that would have more than paid to have a pro do it, I could have written several new songs, my wife and dog probably wouldn't have left me....(don't feel bad, they came back;>) We are fortunate to have at least one website designer as a member of our forum. I spoke with him on the phone the other day, and as soon as I figure out what I want, I'm going to hire him to clean up my mess. His name is Scott James, 425 209 7625. He posted his phone # elsewhere on this forum, so I don't think he'll mind if I post it again.
I would also go along with John and recommend going with Aweber to manage your list and auto responder. I have heard of many other similar companies, but I since I was so unfamiliar with all of this, and MMM 2.0 uses Aweber as an example, and John has such high praises for Aweber, I went with them. It is a bit of an expense, especially when you are trying to build up your list from scratch, but I think it will be well worth it in the long run. I buy 3 months at a time for quite a savings....buying a year in advance saves a lot more. As a side note, in just a few months following just some of the ideas in MMM 2.0, my list with Aweber has now grown to be larger than my previous mailing list that I spent ten years on!
I just took another quick look at your questions......You asked about how many URLs you would need. You should do just fine with 2, one for your squeeze page and one for your website. Your squeeze page should be for one thing only....to get people to join your list. Don't give them anything but an offer, and a call to action. Offer a free track, (or whatever!) and give them a place to sign up. Aweber has great webforms that allow you to do this very easily, and for someone like me to say it it easy, it really is! I am not very computer savvy! Your second URL should direct to your website, and this is for people to get all the good stuff AFTER they have gone through your squeeze page and signed up. You still want to have a place for signups on your website too, just in case someone finds your site. Again, you can use webforms from Aweber for that too.
Hope this helps. Welcome to the forum, hang in there, and ask more questions when they come up!
What would a jam session with Gordon Lightfoot, Collective Soul, and Damien Rice sound like?
Check out Greg Parke and you’ll have a pretty good idea!
8:49 pm
June 10, 2011
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BTW, "Timeline" is a nice song!
What would a jam session with Gordon Lightfoot, Collective Soul, and Damien Rice sound like?
Check out Greg Parke and you’ll have a pretty good idea!
3:04 am
June 9, 2011
Offline
Hey Fremont,
You will need more than one URL, but don't worry, that doesn't mean you need a ton of domains.
Just to be clear your domain is http://www.yoursite.com, but another url on your site would be yoursite.com/thankyou (thanks for signing up, check you email to confirm) and yoursite.com/freemusic (thanks for confirming here is your free music!)
That's all you need right now really is those 3 pages.
From there you can start adding sequenced messages to your autoresponder. I'm not familiar with FanReach to give any tips one way or another, but it is recommended to have an autoresponder where you get to own the list, as opposed to FanReach owning the list 🙂
-Steve
7:27 am
June 7, 2011
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Hi Fremont,
I hear you, and I totally understand that this stuff can be daunting in the beginning. But it's not as hard as it seems.
While what I recommend is having two domains, a squeeze page and a blog, and aweber for email management, you don't necessarily need to start there.
If you want to take the simplest step possible, all you need to do is tell your hosting company this...
"I have a web page that I want to upload to my site as an interior page (I don't want it to replace any of my existing pages). It's in a folder with the accompanying images and CSS files. If I send you the folder can you upload it to my domain? I don't really know how to do this." If they can't at least tell you how to do that then something is wrong with them and you should leave their company and go with Dreamhost or Hostgator. That is a very straight forward request.
You can just stick with Fan Reach for the time being until your confident that the system is working for you. You can plug the fan reach code right into the squeeze page if you haven't already. There are things that Fan Reach can't do so you may have to send some manual emails and you may not be able to track things as well, but hopefully you can get things working so that it instills the confidence you need to get going.
A couple notes...
Rename your folder that your squeeze page is in to something cool like "freetrack" or whatever... Because if they upload the whole folder then the folder name is going to be the extension where people will find your squeeze page. You don't want it to be called "squeeze page". Also make sure you are using the folder for the squeeze page itself, not the bulk folder I give out that has several squeeze pages within it. You also want to edit the thank you page and drop the html file into your folder as well. But if that's daunting then don't worry about it and just go with whatever teh Fan Reach default page is.
Doing it this way won't get you the best results but it means that there is almost nothing more you need to do to get started accept email your hosting company. Then you can get another domain and switch to aweber once you get your mind wrapped around the process and see some subscribers start coming in.
Hope that helps.
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.
4:06 pm
June 10, 2011
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Oops, sorry guys. In my previous post I used the term "URL", when I really meant "domain name". Still learning the language!
What would a jam session with Gordon Lightfoot, Collective Soul, and Damien Rice sound like?
Check out Greg Parke and you’ll have a pretty good idea!
Hey thanks to all, Greg, Steve & John. This does help me to know where to start and how to get off of dead-center. I keep having these interruptions to my schedule so again, can't take time now to try out your suggestions but, I'll be back on it. I am determined to get this up and running. I like the logic of the system. It just makes sense. And John, I have my list in a CSV file and can easily upload to Aweber so, I'll probably just do that. I don't think the FanReach system will handle the e-mail (relationship building) series very well and, I think that is an important aspect of all of this. I don't know yet, if I'll stick with LowestHosting. GoDaddy offers much more in the way of space. This is good. Seems that so long as one puts forth some effort, it would be difficult to fail with all this support available. Thanks again! I'll be in touch. FJ
4:02 am
June 10, 2011
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Cool Fremont! I suggest you follow John and Steve's advice way before you listen to mine.....they are light years ahead of me on this stuff! I just did my rant because nobody else had responded yet
. I have recieved so much help from these two guys especially, and sometimes I get carried away trying to contribute my fair share back to this forum!
What would a jam session with Gordon Lightfoot, Collective Soul, and Damien Rice sound like?
Check out Greg Parke and you’ll have a pretty good idea!
4:28 am
August 27, 2011
Offline
Just thought I'd also add that you should using a domain name registrar (like Go Daddy or Name Cheap) with a webhosting company (like Host Gator or Dreamhost) and not one company to do both. I'm sure that's been repeated on another thread but it's worth saying again; you want to have control of both so that if either company is not up to snuff you have full control to move elsewhere.
"All-in-one" companies sound more convenient - but often times it's not for the artist, especially if they decide the want to go elsewhere.
Just sayin'
2:59 am
June 9, 2011
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Greg Parke said:
Cool Fremont! I suggest you follow John and Steve's advice way before you listen to mine.....they are light years ahead of me on this stuff! I just did my rant because nobody else had responded yet
Don't discredit yourself, Greg. You actually dragged yourself through the shit, to the extent that most other people would have quit and gone home. Thanks for your contributions around here. That experience is priceless and should be shared.
🙂
3:29 pm
June 10, 2011
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Awww, shucks!!! And just when I thought I was never going to be able to beat you as "top poster", you default on me!!
(Congrats on teaming up with John!)
What would a jam session with Gordon Lightfoot, Collective Soul, and Damien Rice sound like?
Check out Greg Parke and you’ll have a pretty good idea!
12:20 am
October 27, 2011
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Ok, I know I should know, but I don't..What is RSS and how can I use it myself and add a "feed" to my web site?
Embarrased
6:22 pm
June 9, 2011
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Greg Parke said:
Awww, shucks!!! And just when I thought I was never going to be able to beat you as "top poster", you default on me!!
(Congrats on teaming up with John!)
Haha. Thanks, Greg. I appreciate that.Dave Barnett said:
Ok, I know I should know, but I don't..What is RSS and how can I use it myself and add a "feed" to my web site?
Embarrased
Dave,
I'm not sure of the official definition of RSS, but I've heard it explained as Really Simple Syndication.
Essentially, when people click your RSS icon (most wordpress themes have one built in), it adds your data stream to their reader. So every time you add content to your site, your feed will be picked up by people who have subscribed so, they can get the gist of your post at a glance, then they can click it to visit your site from within their feed reader.
Google has a service called Feedburner that will let your set up your feed. Just put in your domain and it should automatically detect your feed.
Then to check if it's working, set up a google reader profile and subscribe to your own feed. Then the next time you post, log in to google.com/reader and see if your latest post shows up.
11:03 pm
June 7, 2011
Offline
Also, if you have a wordpress site then you already have an RSS feed. Almost 100% of the time it's just yourdomain.com/feed
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.
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