Get the Hits That Really Count!

Here’s something to remember: if you receive 1,000 hits a day on your web page, it won’t mean a thing if only one of those visitors is interested in your product. Use your time and energy to generate publicity that brings you a meaningful, targeted audience! Don’t worry about getting thousands of random hits on your site. It’s the targeted visitors who will buy your product that you really want!

Internet Press Release

Why and where?

If you’re doing anything worthwhile at your web site, you ought to be sending out press releases on a periodic basis. These press or news releases can be sent to your music fans, subscribers to your e-mail list (covered in detail later), or the music industry at large. However, be careful who you target your press release to. The last thing you want to do is start sending your press releases to people who don’t want them. The line between an appropriate press release and spam can be a very thin one.

For example, the press release for your band’s new CD would not likely be considered real news to the music industry at large (sorry, but unless you’re a mega-star, it wouldn’t), so you should avoid sending e-mails to announce your new CD to the major record labels and A&R people. That would likely irritate the very A&R people you wish to attract! I myself receive unsolicited press releases from artists that, after the umpteenth time, I really don’t want. Their e-mail address has permanently been placed in my ‘nuisance’ spam filter. That’s exactly the kind of thing you don’t want to do!

If you want to send out a press release about your brand new just-released CD, ask yourself the question, “Who cares about my new CD?” Your fans do, so a news release sent to them would be appropriate. Any time you prepare a press release or news announcement, ask yourself “Who cares?” The answer to that question is a good test to determine whether your news item is worthy of widespread distribution.

When I release my brand new CD, who cares? My fans do, so the news release would be sent to them, as well as those who have subscribed to my personal e-mail list.

So, are you working on a project worthy of widespread recognition? Do you have an event or news you want to get the word out about? Here are a few places online to consider sending your press release:

Mi2N: The Music Industry News Network (http://www.mi2n.com/input.php3) is the first place to go
to find out what’s going on right now in the music industry. Every day, you’ll find dozens of new stories,
and you can submit yours. Some items also get published in MusicDish (http://www.musicdish.com), which is owned by the same people. Don’t miss this one.

Mi2N: Express Release News Service (http://www.mi2n.com/expressr.php3) is the same company as above, but this service is for those who want more widespread coverage and are willing to pay a bit
more for it. For just $55, you can have your release sent out to over 20 music sites on the MusicDish Network.

Beat Wire (http://www.beatwire.com/submit) is a press release service designed specifically for musicians that I’ve consistently heard good things about. Your news is delivered directly to the desktops of over 10 000 music editors at daily newspapers, magazines, news agencies,
top Web sites, radio stations, and other outlets. You can submit your press release to music critics, journalists, editors, and radio programmers. The cost is $99.95.

Finally, EWorldWire.com (http://www.eworldwire.com/) is interesting as you can target very specific groups, which includes major newswires, trade/industry specific, local distribution, top 100 newspapers, European markets, college & university press, and pretty much any ethnic group. Their fees start at only $99.

There are many other press release distribution services out there, many of which overlap in terms of who actually sees your release. Check out the above services and if you want to compare these with others, simply search Google.com for ‘press release distribution.’

Victor Newton
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/music-marketing-promotions-101-what-you-need-to-know-731324.html