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Splatcat Records

What Makes a Great Artist Website?

by Pinky Gonzales of Artist Media Group
page 3

COMMUNE - SOCIAL INTERACTION

This is one of the most important, yet most overlooked, elements of a great artist site.

As Bonnie Raitt once said, "give ‘em something to talk about." As Pinky Gonzales says, "Give ‘em SOMEWHERE to talk about [you]!" Provide your fans with a forum. You’ll be amazed at how many people come back to your site just to gab! InfoPop.com provides one of the most effective and least expensive message board systems currently available. For a custom message board, try Elance.

CONTACT - WHERE TO SEND THOSE LOVE LETTERS

This in another very important area, too often left out of an otherwise great site. You should provide a way for users to contact the artist and/or webmaster using a simple form. Visit www.countryartist.com and click on "Contact" for a great example. Not only does this artist receive messages without giving away his address, he’s also capable of storing user info in a database for future email announcements. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

FAMILY - JOIN THE CLUB

Saving your best content for those ravenous fans that’ll buy anything you throw at them is the key to turning your site into one of the most potentially lucrative portions of your career. (no - seriously.) Thousands of artists have fan clubs, but very few provide an official fan club online. In addition to the elements listed above, you can entice users into joining a fan club by offering message boards in which the artist participates, autographed paraphernalia, a space on the guest list at select shows, custom or autographed CDs, private chat sessions with the artist or even streaming audio and video recordings not available anywhere else.

The Web makes it very easy to accept people’s credit cards in exchange for exclusive access to an artist. Consult your Website hosting provider or www.Indie411.comfor additional info on credit card processing and secure pages for your site.
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