Starting a blog can be a rewarding experience. This can help you get ahead in your career. It can provide value to your audience by adding insights and information they find valuable. Also, let them know you are a thoughtful, knowledgeable person. Plus it’s fun and easy to do! Though you can rely on music producer blog sites for more help!
Here are the steps you should take to start your music blog:
- Pick a topic
You should pick a topic that you care about and are very knowledgeable about. One that you have lots of experience with. This will make it easy to write high-quality articles on a consistent basis. Also, try to pick a topic that you can write about week after week. If you’re writing about current events like the Eurovision Song Contest or the Presidential election, you won’t be able to come up with new stuff every day for months!
1a. If your blog will make money, look for an untapped niche that is still broad so there’s enough room for many bloggers in the community. The wider and more general your topic, the better your chances of building a community around your blog. Music is a good topic to write about because you can write about it from so many different angles (e.g. blues, techno, EDM). For help, you can rely on music producer blog sites.
- Pick a name
Your blog’s name should be clear and easy to remember. It also has to be available on the web if you want it on your website address.
2a. Avoid SEO keywords
Your blog’s name should not be like any keywords you want to rank for. For example, don’t name your blog something like “songs on Spotify” or “free MP3 downloads.”
- Register Domain Name
Creating a web address for your blog is super easy nowadays thanks to services like Blogger and WordPress. If you don’t already have one, create one to give yourself a unique address that is easy to remember.
- Pick a template
If you already have a WordPress installation on your hosting provider, that’s pretty much it. If not, your options will be slight. The most popular ones are WordPress, Tumblr, or Ghost. More personal blogs may use Movable Type as well. For more help, get in touch with music producer blog sites.
4a. WordPress
The default blog theme is Twenty Ten. It is very easy to use and maintain and has a strong community around it which helps with plug-in development and maintenance in general. But, it does need extra effort for things like category navigation and navigation menus with pictures.
4b. Tumblr
Tumblr is a blogging platform that allows you to create your blog on your own domain. The stored pf blog content is in a database on Tumblr’s servers. This means it can be fast. There are also many features you wouldn’t notice at first.
4c. Ghost
Ghost is a free blogging platform like Tumblr but has a more restrictive permission model (e.g., ability can’t throw up ads on his/her blog). As with all platforms, use these options at your own risk, and make sure you understand the pros and cons of these options.
- Pick a theme
There are thousands of WordPress themes available on WordPress’ official Themes page, but here are some of the most popular ones:
5a. Clean Blog
This is the simplest-looking WordPress theme out there. The design is to look great without much effort from you. But it does not get as much love from community developers as other themes do because it’s designed to be very clean instead of allowing for a lot of customization which one can do with other themes.
- Pick plugins
There are tons of free, premium, and paid WordPress plugins available to help you build your site.
Here are some of the ones that are most useful for setting up a music blog:
6a. Jetpack , WordAds and Google Analytics
If you’re running a music blog, you will want to set up some analytics. You can install one of these plugins via the WordPress dashboard, or you can use a hosted service like Piwik, Google Analytics, or Statcounter or buy an awesome service like Clicky or Piwik Pro. This way you’ll be able to track visits and create reports on how your blog is doing in comparison to other blogs in your niche.
- Pick a theme or design your site yourself
If you’re design-savvy, you can set up your own website. WordPress themes are great for this because they are such a flexible way to create a website and they can be easily modified if you happen to need to tweak something on the fly. Here is an excellent tutorial on creating a blog using WordPress.
- Pick content types
The WordPress dashboard allows for the creation of new posts of different types but we would recommend sticking with just one post type no matter what:
Blog- You can create posts that can be linked to a single song, or a full album or article. You should also set up post categories that make sense for your blog so you can target specific groups of people looking for music.
- Pick widgets
Some widgets display information about your blog including how many followers you have on Twitter and how many views you get each day/month/year. These are extremely valuable tools for building your brand online.
- Start blogging!
If you’ve read this entire post and you’re still worried, then it means you need more motivation! Though if you need help, music producer blog sites can help you with the best!
Here are some tips from my experiences as an indie musician:
- Plan ahead and don’t start working on your site until you have a rough song/album draft finished. Don’t start working on posts until after you’ve written the music at least 3-to 4 times.
- Choose your niche carefully. There are too many sites out there to list them all! Pick something that really “speaks” to you and try using Pinterest or Google if you need help identifying what subgenres of music are popular for your type of music (e.g., blues, country, Christian, dubstep).
- Do not post everything.
- Be yourself! It is hard to be fake and still be understood, so try to write from your heart and don’t worry about how the world will respond. If you can get people to connect with the song on a deeper level, then YOU WILL BE HEARD!
- Stay away from “me” posts. These are usually boring stories about how much work you’ve been doing or how this song came about because of this story about yourself or something like that. People want to hear about the music and not your life!
- PROMOTE! Online promotion is important but very time-consuming and difficult. Try contacting local radio stations, you might be surprised by what happens when you talk to a real person instead of leaving a message on an answering machine. Talk with other bands on Facebook or Twitter. You could also upload your music to sites like ReverbNation or SongKick . In addition, many popular bloggers in the music industry offer free promotion for artists who shout them out on their site (e.g., Stereoboard )!
- Make sure you include links on your site from all social media sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.); you don’t want someone to be able to find your site and not be able to hear your music!
- Don’t be afraid to create one blog post that is truly a “masterpiece” (e.g., a track-by-track version of all the songs on your album, or maybe a cover song in which you explain how this song is important for you). For help, you can rely on music producer blog sites and get the best help.
- Don’t write about politics! If your site is about politics, it will turn off people who do not share your views, which means that people who would otherwise read something interesting on another blog are likely to simply ignore it because they don’t agree with what the writer has to say.
What are the benefits of starting your own music blog?
- It builds your online brand
- It gives you an opportunity to engage as many people as possible
In addition, if you love music, then it gives you extra motivation to continue making music because you are becoming more and more obsessed with your blog!
Conclusion-
Making music is a very personal experience and should be pursued in an environment where it is not competitive! Remember that your music should speak to you, and not try to “talk” to everyone else. Also, understand that there is no such thing as a perfect song or album-just keep working on it until you feel that it has reached its potential! Enjoy your music and don’t forget to share it with others, using the social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. For more help, you can rely on music producer blog sites and get the best help!
