I have a music website, the URL is in my signature. To sum it up, my site is basically a social networking service for musicians to find bands. Musicians or bands sign up, make an account, and search. It also has a forum, music articles, and blog. Now my type of site isn't exactly a new idea. THere are other sites out there that offer similar services -- but it is a niche market. Will doing a press release be a good idea? I've been stuck on 1,000 unique visitors a day for awhile, and I'm not sure how to increase traffic. I've already tried the following: - submit articles - request link exchanges - submit to directories/search engines - SEO - a bit of myspace marketing I've covered most of the basics except for a Press Release. Just not too sure if a PR would be suitable for my site. Will it capture public interest and drive more traffic?
Well its not a new idea but I would consider it a valuable resource. I see no harm in giving a press release a go.
I have a music site too and I'm getting ready to do some press releases for it this week. I'll try to remember to come back to this thread and let you know how things went.
If the site is unique (stands out from the competition) then you will be able to capture public interest...which will bring traffic your way. You have nothing to lose with a free press release, you'll even gain a few backlinks. On the other hand, if you know that your site offers nothing new to the public, I wouldn't spend money on submitting the press release...you will get little or no coverage.
Just do the press release also make sure your site have something that is unique..apart from any other music site
Thanks for the replies everyone. Well, I would lose time and some money, as I plan to hire a PR writer. Care to share your website details? PM me.
I took a quick look at your site and I do think that getting word out about what the site offers is worth hiring a PR writer to do. Make sure that you spend a little time discussing what you want to get from the press release and also ask the writer if they see any possible alternative methods to further expand the reach of the PR (like hitting MySpace with it, there are a ton of indie bands on there that could use your site's service and link to it or mention it on their MySpace pages, giving you more hits.) BTW, your site looks great. Nice use of color and layout...the only thing that I would have liked to have seen right away was a link where I can search for a band by the area I live in. Also, have you thought about opening it up for people actually looking for a band to play at an event they are throwing? It could be a way to get more visiability.
Have you considered advertising like Google Adwords. You can bid on many keywords at low prices ($0.05 click or lower in some cases) and only pay for traffic they send you. Press releases will help over the long term but your site might do well with paying for some traffic.
From experience both in PR and in working with indie musicians, I can tell you they're not an easy target audience to reach with a press release. You would need to actually get picked up on some high traffic, band-targeted (not fan-oriented) sites or in a major music publication to catch most of their attention in the first place. Sure, you might get plenty of blogs to mention it... but they're usually targeting fans again... serious bands are usually swamped between work/school and practicing/recording/shows. When they look for new members, they often go to their inner circle first, and then reach out to their own larger network. Right now it looks like a classified site on a social networking platform. The good thing is that you give them a networking tool. The trick is to get them there using it before they need to use the classifieds for band members and such, so it's already a regular stop for them on the Web. I haven't dug through everything there, but if you don't have other features networking-wise to keep them coming back, it might be a good idea. More specifically for the press release idea... what's newsworthy about it? There are already band classifieds sites. There are already band networking sites. What makes your site a must-see? I'm not saying it's not... just saying that you have to be able to answer that question in a press release. Remember, if you're going to give a release a try, you need to write it targeting the people who can reach your audience, and not the audience themselves... otherwise you'll just end up with irrelevant backlinks and poor quality traffic, b/c you won't reach the people you actually want and need on your site (meaning they won't post or respond to ads, or otherwise contribute to the site's growth).
My brother is a very accomplished muso, so have some insight and everything that Jenn has said rings true for me as someone who also knows how to milk the media well also. The only thing I could say more clearly about your website is to 'solve a problem' and do it better than other sites do.
I think jhmattern has given some good points, it is important that your news must be news and well written to attract readers if you opt for publishing in PR related sites. Also social networking sites would help you a lot.
Hi, I run a website that indexes free music videos off youtube. There is about 5000 impressions per day. Most are unique, and not impressions. This is because the site loads videos using JavaScript without creating a new impression. I can put your link on the site, and have it scroll down with the video for a price. I would put the link where the Google pack and Firefox tool bar banners are now. /videos/video.php 1,278,582 <--hits for video.php /videos/videos.php 194,895 <-- For videos.php Those stats are from the 1st to the 27th (two days ago). I estimate around 200-300 clicks per day off the link. PR For cyber-knowledge.net is 4, if that matters.