Di You Ever Think Of An E-Commerce Solution For Promoting And Selling Your Stuff?

[TheBrewer]

Hi guys!

I was browsing the web yesterday and i found this article who was pretty interesting:

Article

You might take a listen to the audio post there cause there's something we need to learn from this guy. My opinion on this is that an artist can probably succeed in doing what Jonathan did but there's 2 things i guess that were on his side to help him:

1- His music is really, i mean really universal cause he bet on the humoristic side of his songs rather than trying to impress with a 'commercial' side of them. My guess is it's probably easier to sell your stuff to somebody who never saw you by doing that way... What is your impressions on that guys?

2- This guy knows how to promote himself! Being in the computer industry, even as a technician, is probably a winner thing for him cause he has access to a lot of forums and a lot of communities on the web that are specialized in the subject. I mean, if he drops a post here and there in 'his' communities only to promote what he's doing, by the fact that his stuff is funny, he probably doesn't have any difficulty to sell his stuff, at least less difficulty than a lawyer would have, no?

I'm not trying by saying this to show any dislike of what Jonathan does, i wanna be clear on that. I mean, i'm really impressed about what he did and today, this guy is making 500 000$ a year, man he's my god!!

My question to you guys is do you think that it could be a way to live from our stuff? IMO, i think that the answer is yes, but only if we find an intelligent and strategic way to promote it over the web. I began to work on an e-commerce solution myself right after i saw Jonathan's stuff and you know what? It will be easier to implement than i thought... and cheaper too! I mean if you have basic knowledge in html programming, you can do it. There's a lot of 'turn-key' solutions offered on the web, but it will cost you something and at the end, you're not sure if you will make money or loose some. The solution i've chosen will cost me... 0$! The only cost will be the commission money that Paypal will earn by check-outs that will be done on my site, but at least, if i don't sell a thing, i won't pay a buck neither...

I'm anxious to see what you think about it guys! Let's see... Ciao!

Edited September 21, 2011 by TheBrewer

[john]

Hey

I am in the middle of preparing a course on this very subject, how to make a living from your music using ecommerce and internet marketing solutions, adapted for the world of music. I've been running Songstuff for 11 years now and have built up a good and indepth knowledge of both internet marketing and expanded upon my knowledge of the music industry to include the online music industry as it has developed. I've also been evaluating different solutions for some time now so keep an eye out for a Songstuff product focused on putting together an internet marketing solution, PLUS and this is a BIG PLUS how to market it across all the different avenues for getting your message out there. In addition it will be tailored for releasing and promoting your music, and believe me that is a bigger job than it sounds, including dealing with copyright registration, performing rights, PPL, VPL etc and cutting edge marketing plans. Hopefully that wil be of interest to our community!

Ok that was a long winded way of saying "yes". Although I haven't added anything major to Songstuff on this issue (while Songstuff is being upgraded) I have been writing a lot on my blogspot blog about just this. If yo uare interested, just follow the link to my blogspot blog in my sig.

Cheers

John

[john]

One thing to add, html coding can implement the basic pages required, but there is much much more to it. HTML pages are just the tip of the iceberg!

In saying that, if you have any questions just ask and I will see if I can help.

[TheBrewer]

Hey John!

Nice website you have! Thanks for the reply. Hopefully, i know that there's way more than html. The thing i'm implementing is more than this (PHP, MySQL, etc...) and it almost looks like your site. But what i'm adding to this is a cart plug-in related to Paypal and all this is not so hard to do with some editing tools. What i meant with HTNL is that with those tools, you need to know some html stuff anyway... But yes, there's more, you're right!

What about others thoughts?

;-)

[JamTimeMusic]

Hey The Brewer,

Cool post. Thanks for the inspiration as that is what it is for me.

I too am hoping to making waves on the internet but being slow about it.

His website is pretty simple. We could probably do this too as my co-writer is a programmer but at the moment we have started to use Bandcamp.com. It's simple, free and only take 15% which isn't so bad. It also looks way better and has great tracking, stats, billboard reports etc.

The most important thing about this artist is that he has a good product. Your website can be basic, snazzy, blah etc but if the product is crap then that's the end of it. After that you have to hope things will take off by working hard to get the word around.

James

[MikeVeny]

Here is an article I wrote recently on an e-commerce platform for singer-songwriters and bands:

Infusionsoft Is a Life Saver for Singer-Songwriters & Bands