# Promoting website advise



## Guido Negraszus (Feb 8, 2022)

I just started a new sideline with meditation music. My website and YouTube channels are ready. I already got some promotion for the YouTube channel going (Fiverr). I am not sure what would be the best way to promote the website. I keep reading about SEO. Is this something I should look into? Did anyone try this with success?


----------



## Guido Negraszus (Feb 8, 2022)

Thanks mate. 

Are you saying I can't reach clients via SEO without social media?


----------



## doctoremmet (Feb 8, 2022)

Clients will likely not do a Google search, find a website and cold call anyway. It’s all about building relationships. I think having a good showreel and spending time and effort towards your personal network will yield more results than having a website. I could be wrong, and my experiences have nothing to do with being a pro composer (hint: I am not) but relying on people trying to actively search and then find YOU… I don’t think even the meditation music world works like that.


----------



## wunderflo (Feb 8, 2022)

I work in Online-Marketing and here's the deal: You probably don't have the resources to successfully do SEO, Social Media, grow a YouTube channel and maybe run some paid ad campaigns. Doing everything just a little bit sporadically here and there is likely a waste of time/money. I'd personally pick one organic strategy (combined with a paid ads campaign) and go all in, simply because it's so hard to compete in any of these fields nowadays. And it's quite unlikely to grow a channel on social media or get organic traffic through Google without also investing in paid ads. 

In terms of SEO (for a website): For a new, small website, it's super hard to rank on page 1 in Google for a quite general, competitive term like "meditation music". And to make it really worth it, you'd actually have to rank among the top 3 organic search results. Everything below the first page (top 10 search results) won't get any noticeable traffic. If you still wanted to try this, you'd have to build a content hub/cluster around your topic. So if "meditation music" is your main topic, you then have to identify all the sub-topics (based on long-tail keywords) and produce content on these. Tools such as ubersuggest.com, answerthepublic.com or keywordtool.io will help you identify these keywords and questions. You basically pick the ones with the biggest search volume and/or CPC and lowest competition that fall into your niche and suit your product. They are just hints, though. It's not about producing content containing these keywords anymore. Instead, think about the topic and search intent behind those keywords, and try to give the users what they're looking for. In other words: Your focus should be on understanding your target group and producing what they are interested in. As a solopreneur/artist I wouldn't worry about advanced SEO tactics. They'll be outdated as soon as you mastered them.  On the technical side, just try to keep your website as simple, mobile-friendly, light and fast as possible.

Looking at the SERP (search engine result page) for "meditation music" all the top results are YouTube videos, so this seems to be the preferred battle arena / format for this topic (I don't know anything about the meditation music scene). Hence, I'd focus completely on YouTube in the beginning. Regularly upload meditation music content, learn how to optimize the titles, tags and descriptions (YouTube SEO) and advertise it using Google Ads (for example, you can pay for your video to be included in the suggested videos on the right next to similar content from others - experiment with the different ad formats to see what's most cost-effective). Only after you have uploaded a couple of videos (try to experiment in the beginning with slightly different durations, styles, formats, sub-topics, etc. to see what performs best) and gained a significant amount of views (and hopefully subscribers) through paid ads, it'll make sense to check your YouTube stats to analyse your target group and find out what they like best (or simply ask them in your videos).

The online-marketing process is: experiment, wait (often a couple of months), analyse and repeat. You need lots of patience, while you constantly keep producing content.


----------



## Guido Negraszus (Feb 8, 2022)

Thanks guys. A lot of info to digest.

@wunderflo I think focusing on YouTube might be the best option to begin with. I was thinking that too, Meditation Music is very generic and there must be millions of entries by now. So maybe I drop this whole "website advertising" for the time being.

I already paid for some YT promotion and I got 6K views for one video within the first week. Looking at the analytics is rather sober: average time spend on my videos is 30 seconds. The tracks are 15 minutes long. Either my music is soooo bad or these people are not really looking for meditation music. 

There is one YT channel with meditation music that had 39m plays (uploaded in 2017). How on earth does one get that?


----------



## wunderflo (Feb 8, 2022)

I actually skipped some of the first and most important steps in coming up with a marketing strategy... asking yourself what's your goal(s). What do you actually want to sell? Why? To who? To solve which kind of problem? And so on... 

Without knowing anything about meditation music, my guess would be that people on YouTube just quickly want to find some background music that helps to focus them on learning for school, doing household choirs or getting work done. Other might need it as background music for yoga exercises? Those are all completely different target groups, though. To separate myself from the probably tons of general meditation music clips on YouTube, I'd focus on one of these groups and ask myself, how I could connect specifically with them. This begins with choosing the right title ("meditation music to calm anxiety while learning for your next math test" ... just an example ... the title should be shorter, though...), and also includes connecting with the right cooperation partners/Influencers (e.g., a Yoga class instructor). In the last example, as @doctoremmet said, start small and first try to connect to the Yoga instructor down your road. Offer him/her to promote the course, by filming the class and uploading it to YouTube (obviously, scored with your music, on-screen credits and with a link to your channel in the description, etc.)

Just some random ideas.. good luck!


----------



## Guido Negraszus (Feb 8, 2022)

Sorry, should have mention that in my initial post. My target group are professionals. This could be people who do guided meditation. They license my music and do there own voice-overs. They can then sell their own CDS etc. Background music for health spas, Sleep Therapy, Hypnosis and the list goes on.

The question is: how would these people look for meditation music? My first thought was "they google it" but who knows?

This is my website if you are interested: https://dreamtime-meditation.com/


----------



## doctoremmet (Feb 8, 2022)

Guido Negraszus said:


> My target group are professionals. This could be people who do guided meditation. They license my music and do there own voice-overs. They can then sell their own CDS etc.


Seems like a group that is somewhat “targetable”? In a quite direct sense? Distributors of CDs like that? Labels? Do they gather together somewhere? Some forum?


----------



## labyrinths (Feb 8, 2022)

You might want to consider selling them on Bandcamp. Meditation music can do quite well there. You'll lose a percentage of the revenue you'd get from direct sales, but lots of sales are driven through the various discovery and community features, which could make it easier to establish a foothold.


----------



## Jeremy Spencer (Feb 8, 2022)

Guido Negraszus said:


> Sorry, should have mention that in my initial post. My target group are professionals. This could be people who do guided meditation. They license my music and do there own voice-overs. They can then sell their own CDS etc. Background music for health spas, Sleep Therapy, Hypnosis and the list goes on.
> 
> The question is: how would these people look for meditation music? My first thought was "they google it" but who knows?
> 
> This is my website if you are interested: https://dreamtime-meditation.com/


I used to sell and produce meditation and "new age" music on CD and cassette (yes, tapes!). These days, most consumers (including spa's) subscribe to services like Stingray, Apple Music, etc, as they get non-stop, unlimited music in that genre. I personally don't think there's much of a market for selling albums anymore.


----------



## GtrString (Feb 8, 2022)

Your target group probably find meditation music though music libraries, and royalty free libraries. 

Try to subscribe to those competitors through another unbranded profile, and see what they do, who they subscribe to, what hastags they use, how they do their stories and posts, and then position yourself a little differently to carve out your niche. 

That way your page may also get suggested when clients are looking, because you get associated as similar. Its all about utilizing social proof. 

Maybe do Shopify, and brand a few items to sell, that way you get material for a lot of posts.


----------



## ed buller (Feb 8, 2022)

Jeremy Spencer said:


> I used to sell and produce meditation and "new age" music on CD and cassette (yes, tapes!). These days, most consumers (including spa's) subscribe to services like Stingray, Apple Music, etc, as they get non-stop, unlimited music in that genre. I personally don't think there's much of a market for selling albums anymore.


Harsh but true...and good to know now.

e


----------



## Guido Negraszus (Feb 8, 2022)

I'm not looking to sell CDs or anything like that. Just online, ready to download license meditation music, so professional therapists can produce their own products. My research has shown there are indeed a few composers who do that and seem successful (just guessing). I found them via google search, like this one: https://enlightenedaudio.com/

So that's why I was interested in HOW to promote a website that when someone types "meditation music" my site pops up on the first page.


----------



## Jeremy Spencer (Feb 8, 2022)

Understood. My point is that streaming has become the norm. I know a few therapists who just download from streaming sites for $10 per month, it’s a no-brainer from their perspective. One of them uses RF music for her videos. 

Not sure Who you use for website hosting, but with Wix (who I use for my band) there are a lot of settings for optimizing google searches. Here’s a link…









Wix







seoguide.wix.com


----------



## Guido Negraszus (Feb 8, 2022)

My host is Bandzoogle because they offer full template/store solutions. Wix looks interesting. Have to ask Bandzoogle whether they do something like that. Bandcamp is another option. I already have a page with them for my other music. I also offer meditation tracks on Audiojungle. As I said, my plan is to give it a go for one year. If it's not producing any revenue I'll shut it down.


----------



## joetuckeruj (Sep 1, 2022)

Thank you for sharing! I found a lot of interesting information about promoting websites. But you haven't mentioned SEO marketing strategies. They are extremely effective, especially when promoting a website that has been developed and needs first to gain at least five thousand visitors a month. For example, to promote my website, I have used the services of saasb2b.com. In the first month, my website was visited by six thousand of new users, which increases every month with thousands of new visitors.


----------



## tressie5 (Oct 24, 2022)

Here's a slippery slope that makes me cringe. You can pay promotion companies like UseViral to buy YouTube likes and subscribers. You can also use their network for promotions to other social media platforms and your website traffic as well.

The reality is, to grow your brand organically in this day and age is VERY difficult because of the competition. It's an ultra-crowded field. You can wait till people find you, but by then, you'll be on your deathbed. This whole idea of buying subscribers leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe that's the nature of the beast.


----------



## tressie5 (Oct 24, 2022)

Addendum: I did some digging around and found these social promotion sites are scams. They have no presence on BBB or Trust Pilot. They "like" and "subscribe" to your website/channel for a few days then your likes and subscribers mysteriously disappear. My suspicion is they do this before the social outlets find out because that kind of swarm tactic is banned. It's why you can't buy reviews on Amazon, even from Fiverr.


----------



## Guido Negraszus (Oct 25, 2022)

I ended the whole meditation project. I didn't get anywhere. I used services like Fiverr, Sprizzy and Prodvigate. I also tried Facebook for a while. Honestly, I don't understand how this works. It's so complicated, I decided to read Einstein's Theory of relativity instead. I spent around 2K within 3 month, mainly YT channel promotion. I got "great" comments like "Looking forward to more such amazing ones" or "Great job man, this was actually so cool" and my favorite "Glad that I watched this one it was so amazing". 
As soon as your advertising money stops the views and plays and likes stop too. Not so organic in the end. Sure, I could have tried harder and keep doing this for some years and maybe I would have got somewhere but then again: I'm 56. I don't really need it. I have a life.  If I were 20 it would be a different story. I think if you want to organically establish a YT channel you need to put a serious amount of hours per day into it.

On a positive note:
I also advertised a couple of my Guido Negraszus (New Age / Electronic) tracks via Fiverr about a year ago (for Spotify). Quite reasonable prices. Before that I had about 9000 monthly plays average. But ever since my average plays are between 15000 and 24000 plays even though I'm not advertising anymore. I also noted an increase in sales. So I would say this works.


----------



## rgames (Oct 25, 2022)

My experience tells me that social media is useful for communicating with an existing audience, not building a new one.

My experience also tells me that a composer/producer website is great for attracting other composers and musicians but not clients.


----------



## Allen Constantine (Oct 25, 2022)

Guido Negraszus said:


> On a positive note:
> I also advertised a couple of my Guido Negraszus (New Age / Electronic) tracks via Fiverr about a year ago (for Spotify). Quite reasonable prices. Before that I had about 9000 monthly plays average. But ever since my average plays are between 15000 and 24000 plays even though I'm not advertising anymore. I also noted an increase in sales. So I would say this works.


By using Fiverr for Spotify, was that legit streaming I guess, right? 
If so, do you remember who's service did you use? 

Cheers! 
A.


----------



## Arbee (Oct 26, 2022)

Guido Negraszus said:


> I ended the whole meditation project. I didn't get anywhere. I used services like Fiverr, Sprizzy and Prodvigate. I also tried Facebook for a while. Honestly, I don't understand how this works. It's so complicated, I decided to read Einstein's Theory of relativity instead. I spent around 2K within 3 month, mainly YT channel promotion. I got "great" comments like "Looking forward to more such amazing ones" or "Great job man, this was actually so cool" and my favorite "Glad that I watched this one it was so amazing".
> As soon as your advertising money stops the views and plays and likes stop too. Not so organic in the end. Sure, I could have tried harder and keep doing this for some years and maybe I would have got somewhere but then again: I'm 56. I don't really need it. I have a life.  If I were 20 it would be a different story. I think if you want to organically establish a YT channel you need to put a serious amount of hours per day into it.
> 
> On a positive note:
> I also advertised a couple of my Guido Negraszus (New Age / Electronic) tracks via Fiverr about a year ago (for Spotify). Quite reasonable prices. Before that I had about 9000 monthly plays average. But ever since my average plays are between 15000 and 24000 plays even though I'm not advertising anymore. I also noted an increase in sales. So I would say this works.


Yes, Google Youtube advertising is good for likes and encouraging comments but the streaming ROI is <1% in my experience and stimulates no album sales, unless/until you can get "that track" that is sticky with people and becomes somewhat viral, or you have the X factor to build a celeb following. Mainstream pop genres may be different but instrumental music is a hard slog without film/TV/game support.


----------



## Guido Negraszus (Oct 26, 2022)

AllenConstantine said:


> By using Fiverr for Spotify, was that legit streaming I guess, right?
> If so, do you remember who's service did you use?
> 
> Cheers!
> A.


No, not really. I would have to look it up but I used at least 3 or 4 different ones. As I said, my impression was that it worked (higher royalty payments) and I will use it again with future releases. Having higher Spotify views really helps creating impressions no matter how they were created.


----------



## Jeremy Spencer (Oct 26, 2022)

rgames said:


> My experience also tells me that a composer/producer website is great for attracting other composers and musicians but not clients.


I guess I'm lucky. Most of the work I've obtained for years has been a direct result of a client checking out my website....and of those website visits, many were directed there from a Google search. I also have my links on social media platforms, which also attracts traffic.


----------



## tressie5 (Nov 9, 2022)

I checked out your YouTube channel. Your videos are fairly successful. Beautiful calming music, too.


----------



## Guido Negraszus (Nov 9, 2022)

Thanks mate. That video is actually not from my channel. But it's my music! Lol. There are tons of videos like that. They do a better job than me in regards to views.


----------



## Guido Negraszus (Nov 21, 2022)

It's certainly a good compensation for trailer music.  In 2020/21 I only produced trailer music. Suddenly I just got so tired of it. Producing meditation music for a a few month was just right.


----------



## nellywilk (Nov 25, 2022)

tressie5 said:


> I checked out your YouTube channel. Your videos are fairly successful. Beautiful calming music, too.



Agree! The music is great!
My best advice about promotion - don't send too many emails to your customers as it can be pretty annoying sometimes. It makes much more sense to use microsoft 365 business voice sms instead . That is something new and clients gladly listen to that, not like with the emails which end up in a spam box mostly.


----------

