But where do you get one? What exactly do you need? More importantly, how much is it going to cost?

Once again, just for you guys, we’ve scoped out the best deal! We’ve done a deal with the guys at Income Passport to offer all unsigned bands and musicians a free website! Not just a crappy one page site with your contact details on it; we’re talking a fully functional, content management system, which you have complete control over.

Sounds awesome, doesn’t it?

So what’s the catch? Well, there’s no “catch” .. you don’t pay for the website at all; you just need to buy a hosting account to host the website (less than $100). When you buy the hosting account recommended by the team at Income Passport, they get a referral fee from the web host. Then, just send your hosting details to them and they install the content management system and hand it over!

Your new website:

• is completely customizable by you
• allows you to create as many pages as you like
• comes complete with a blog
• allows you to upload songs and photos
• is search engine friendly

Get all the details at their website:

Free Website Click Here

For all intents and purposes, once a name is taken on the Internet, it’s gone forever. This isn’t entirely accurate – when you grab a domain name, you generally only have it for a year or two, and if you don’t renew it, it becomes available for anyone else to purchase – but for the most part, accounts on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter etc, remain yours forever, even if you are inactive for extended periods of time.

So once you’ve settled on your name, or “brand”, you need to grab as much Internet real estate as you can!

1. Domain Name – the most important Internet “property” is your domain name. Never let anyone else buy your domain for you – always do it yourself, because whoever’s name is on the registration is the legal owner. If available, buy the “dot com” domain that matches your band name, with no hyphens (eg. yourbandname.com). We recommend GoDaddy for your domain purchases; they are one of the largest, most trusted names in domains.

2. Myspace – Once you’ve signed up to Myspace, you can claim your customized URL (eg. myspace.com/yourbandname)

3. Twitter – You can claim your customized Twitter URL when you first sign up; during the sign up process, you are asked for a “username” which will become your customized URL (eg. twitter.com/yourbandname)

4. Google – Google provides a free email address on the domain gmail.com so sign up and secure yourbandname@gmail.com. You’re not just signing up for an email account, but signing up to all the Google webmasters’ tools, which are brilliant when promoting yourself online.

5. Facebook – On June 13, 2009, Facebook began allowing you to create a customized URL for your profile. Instead of using the typical form facebook.com/profile.php?id=123456789 for your profile, you can create facebook.com/yourbandname. This is especially useful for solo artists, but less important for bands – they can create a Facebook “Page” instead.

Even if you’ve never used Twitter, Myspace or Facebook, set up these accounts – they are invaluable when marketing yourself as an aritst. These are the most important items to grab, but don’t stop there – we’ll go into more detail later, but look at signing up to as many social networks, blog sites, photo and video sites as you can. Some of the more important sites are:

Youtube.com
Wordpress.com
Flickr.com
Ping.fm

Traditionally, if you were to record a cover song for an album, you would need to pay a mechanical license fee (also known as a “royalty”) for each CD you plan to press. This fee must be paid in advance, and is usually less than $0.10 per song, per CD. I think you’d agree, that’s quite reasonable, except of course you’ve just shilled out for recording costs, pressing, design and artwork etc.

Luckily, you live in the age of digital downloads!

My Song Store is a website that allows you to sell MP3 downloads of covers that you have recorded, totally legally, and with no up-front cost to you; the royalty is paid per download, only when you make a sale. They also provide a nifty widget to install on your website!

They are currently offering a Limited (Free) Account, which allows you to sell up to four songs; the first level of paid account is $3.95 per month for 100Mb.

There is usually a one time sign-up fee of $9.95, but I’ve gone and got you a promo code. Use the promo code “aussie” when you sign up to have the sign-up fee waived.

See? I look after you guys!

PS – this website is run by a guy with one of the most rock ‘n’ roll names in the business: Gene Gibson! They really look after their artists, so if you have any problems, don’t hesitate to hit ‘em up.

Building your mailing list is the key to success. This is what your music career relies on because it contains the names of people who will keep coming back to see you perform. These are people who will buy your CD, merchandise or anything else you sell. Basically, these are the people who will continue you support you.

You might already have a Myspace or Facebook page for your band and are thinking “Who uses email any more?” The fact is, everyone has an email account. You need an email account to sign up to Myspace and Facebook. You don’t want to lose contact with someone because they don’t use Myspace or Facebook.

So start collecting email addresses today. The absolute easiest thing to do is grab a couple of clipboards and some sheets of paper, make three columns and title them:

• Name
• Email
• Location

Your mailing list is now your gold mine, and your success will be dependent on exactly how you use it.

My name is Andrew Marks and I’ve spent the last few years learning exactly how to do just that.

I am an aspiring musician and a self-confessed computer nerd. My partner, Anna Weatherup, is an Australian singer songwriter struggling to make a living as an unsigned artist. I used to watch her get up early and sling coffee in the mornings, and then gig until late at night. It’s a hard way to live.

So I started getting online, researching ways of building her profile and ultimately selling more albums. It took some trial and error, but before long, I realized the Internet brings you a world-wide audience – you just need to figure out how to find your niche and harness it.

Today, Anna is still unsigned, but living off the sales of her albums and gigging only when she wants to. This could be you too! With a little effort now, you can set yourself up as a professional musician. And with a built-in audience, not only can you live comfortably, you actually become more attractive to the record labels!

Take control of your future and take the first step towards becoming a self-sufficient, professional musician.

PS – I would hardly call myself a professional musician, but I’m riding Anna’s coattails to success! lol… The photo above is me playing with Anna at The Second Gateway Bridge Community Day in Brisbane (Australia) last weekend. More than 170,000 people walked the bridge that day! While we were playing, our street team were selling CDs and collecting email addresses.