Music Promo Blog: 2004/10

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How to Write Testimonials that Sell Like Magic

"Which is your best CD?"

Ever get that question? My band has five CDs that we sell at shows, and I get that question all the time. People rely on the suggestions of others to determine what they are going to buy. They trust the opinions of others to help them make decisions. So having great testimonials to sell your CDs is essential.

The trouble is most fans email you something like this: "You rock! -Joe." They don't explain how your music affected them or why they came to that conclusion, and you don't bother to ask.

But if you want great testimonials, you have to ask for them. You can't be passive and wait for those one in a thousand great testimonials to come in. Instead, educate your fans.

That's one of the secrets to the success of the Brobdingnagian Bards. We have a lot of fans who are passionate about our music. Steven Hahn is so gung-ho about our music that he called a television station to tell them about a gig we had. And a camera crew showed up!

That kind of enthusiasm is contagious. But it's also been taught. You see, we educate our fans on how to help us.

That's also what you have to do when gathering testimonials. Educate your fans how to write them. Guide them step-by-step. Ask questions that will get you your desired response. They know they love your music. Now you have to get that into a format that will help you sell more CDs.

To write a testimonial, you need to know what makes a killer testimonial?

1. Great testimonials focus on benefits.
How did your music affect them? Have them tell a story about the drive home as they were headbanging in the car when a cop pulled up next to them on a motorcycle and gave them a disapproving glance.

2. Great testimonials are visual.
Could you see that cop in the statement above? That's the type of short story that will make your fans feel like they're back at the club nervously shaking your hand when they meet you.

3. Great testimonials evoke a feeling.
They should touch an emotion inside, whether it's joy, sadness, anger, tranquility, energy, excitement, nervousness, or whatever. That feeling should come across in the testimonial to connect with other fans.

4. Great testimonials create a positive atmosphere.
Not only will you sell more CDs, but your fans will also get a better feeling about your band. You want something that will connect to people, adding energy, excitement and goodwill to all around you.

Here are a few guidelines for creating testimonials that will make people take notice.

1. Keep it short. Cut the quote down to three sentences that really shine. You want it to grab them quickly, not something that is difficult to read.

2. Be specific. Fans can go on and on that "you rock" or "you're awesome," but those phrases don't personalize it. Instead, have them describe what is awesome about you or your CD. "The way you sang, 'The Bridge' on your CD 'Soul of a Harper' gave me goosebumps."

3. Keep it positive. If a quote is written with a negative connotation like, "I can't believe how cool you are!" Ask them if you can rewrite it in a more positive manner, like "I love how cool you are!" It will energize your site all the more.

4. Include a name. The most-powerful quotes include your fan's name, city and state (sometimes job or career can also been effective). Get permission to use as much information about the person as they are willing to give.

5. Clarify the situation. Get the five W's from your fan: who, what, where, when, why, and how. Weave that info into the testimonial. It will add personality to the testimonial and let the reader know there's a person behind it.

Of course, if fans don't really want to share more than "you rock," accept it happily. Sometimes even something that simple can be effective. If you're fans are writing from the heart, that enthusiasm will bubble over to their friends and your word-of-mouth will continue to spread.

--posted by Marc Gunn at Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Free republishing rights are available to all articles written by Marc Gunn. You can find a complete list of such music marketing articles here. You must contact individual authors to get their permission to republish their articles.

CD Baby pays $10 million to musicians for CDs sold

Independent online music retailer CD Baby has now paid over $10 million directly to musicians for CDs sold worldwide through their online store at cdbaby.com.

CD Baby's easy consignment system has given every musician access to worldwide sales and distribution, without having to sign away their music to a record label.

While record labels are blaming piracy for a lack of sales, music sold through CD Baby has almost doubled every year for the past six years.

"It's easier than ever for music fans to find great non-mainstream music," says CD Baby founder Derek Sivers. "So what's reported as a sales decline for a huge pop star is actually a sales boost for the less-famous but more-talented musicians of the world. We sell thousands of CDs a day by artists you've never heard, but will love
when you do."

Now, as one of the primary suppliers of music to digital download services such as Apple iTunes, MSN Music, Napster, Rhapsody, Sony Connect, MusicMatch, and more, CD Baby is helping artists everywhere get their music out into even wider distribution.

CD Baby has been a launching pad for later-famous acts such as O.A.R., Jack Johnson and Gary Jules. Other already-famous artists such as Thomas Dolby, George Clinton, Grant-Lee Phillips, and Beach Boy Al Jardine have chosen to use CD Baby's unique distribution service to release smaller projects directly to their fans.

CD Baby now represents over 75,000 artists and labels, making them the largest seller of independent music on the web.

For more information, interview requests, etc., please contact Alex Steininger at CD Baby alex@cdbaby.com or 503-595-3000.

==
About CD Baby:
CD Baby handles online sales and distribution for independent artists and labels. Founder and musician Derek Sivers was selling his own CD online in 1998, and as a hobby offered to let a few friends use his system. Friends told friends and now over 75,000 artists sell their music through CD Baby, making it the largest seller of independent music on the web. CD Baby has sold over one million CDs sold to customers worldwide, and paid over $10 million directly to the musicians. CD Baby's Digital Distribution program has deals with all major digital outlets such as Apple iTunes, MSN Music, Rhapsody, Napster, and Sony Connect, making CD Baby one of the leaders in the aggregation of digital content. For more information visit www.cdbaby.com.

--posted by Marc Gunn at Monday, October 25, 2004
Free republishing rights are available to all articles written by Marc Gunn. You can find a complete list of such music marketing articles here. You must contact individual authors to get their permission to republish their articles.

Passive Income for Musicians - My Top Music Affiliate Programs

Recently, there was a discussion on the MusicThoughts list regarding how to develop passive income as a musician. Of course, there are many types of passive income open to musicians, but this discussion in particular involved using affiliate programs to earn money.

For the newbie, affiliate programs are program online that allow you to earn money by selling products or services that you do not own. Companies like Commission Junction, LinkShare, ClickBank offer a variety of a affiliate programs on every subject. While companies like Amazon.com (books, music, and more), MP3DownloadHQ (free music downloads) offer more specific products or services.

Building a successful affiliate income is NOT easy. And as internet companies come and go, they are also not a hugely reliable source of income for the long-term. I prefer to focus on offering products and services for my active websites, but most of my websites were created with affiliates in mind. Consequently, I've learned the affiliate game quite well.

Most people don't like sharing how much they earn from passive income. So finding those stats Will be difficult. But frankly, I prefer helping folks with facts.

So, here's a couple notes on the various passive internet income sources I earn or have earned in the past:

1. Google Adsense.
Google CAN be great, but a lot of it depends on what keywords your site is focused on. Head over to PixelFast offers a great Overture Keywords and Bid Amounts Tool and you can find out how much people bid on certain types of keywords through overture.

Having done testing which got me banned from Google I learned a few things when I was using Google Adsense. I found on the average, I made about pittance on each of my random websites. Some however, did MUCH better. Namely the 'free music downloads' websites.

You'll note at PixelFast that companies bid heavily for those keywords with clickthrus averaging at about 45c per click. Seventy percent of the income I earned on Google was from one free music download website that somehow made it high on the search results. I'm not allowed to say how much I made, but you can do the math when a site gets approximately 500 unique visits a day and has a 5-10% clickthru rate.

The point is if you create and promote webpages with high impact keywords, you will do fairly well.

2. Affiliate Programs.
Since I'm no longer with Google, I've sense learned to find other alternatives using Google style ads. You can those on my Directory of Free Music Downloads as an example.

I've found other affiliate programs to fill the gaps lost by Google through:

Clickbank. I've focused primarily on free music downloads. The big problem I have with Clickbank is that my Mozilla browser at home doesn't like their redirects. But I still earn about $500 per month from Clickbank.

MP3Dollars. This is a free music downloads site for MP3DownloadHQ. Their affiliate links are good redirects. So I've made them much more prominent so as not to lose income that might've been lost from Clickbank. The affiliate program is solid paying 50% of the money they earn. So I earn about $500 per month from them. Best of all, it's paid weekly!

Amazon.com. Usually earns me about $50 a month. And this comes from a lot of heavy referrals from my Celtic MP3s Music Magazine.

Commission Junction. Their redirects seem to have the same problem as Clickbank. I mainly use them for web hosting services that earn about $150 per month.

Linkshare. I've used it for years. Earned no money (like the vast majority of affiliate programs I've tried). I did sign up for iTunes earlier this month. And we'll see if that changes matters at all.

I also earn another $100-150 per month from the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine's various affiliations with IMHO some of the best music marketers out there. Course, I also have a decent online CD sales income, and other artistic projects that earn me money (and I still have a day job for at least another year).

3. The Key to remember when you're making money with affiliate programs is really to blend it into your website.
For instance, if you go to thebards.net. You can download our MP3 "Tolkien (The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings)" on the homepage. It downloads from amazon.com using my affiliate link. So it creates another cookie which hopefully will earn me more income from future amazon.com orders from that customer.

Prominent ads also work like at my Directory of Free Music Downloads. Meaning, Google has really hit upon a great style of advertising. Oh, and Vertical ads out perform horizontal ads.

I'm also a big proponent of creating a website that will earn you income as well as popularity. Again, check out the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine. The site is designed for two purposes:

Promote independent Celtic music by luring in signed Celtic music fans of Enya, The Chieftains, etc. It's a technique I learned from David Nevue's How to Successfully Promote Your Music on the Internet and has proved exceptionally profitable, and
Promote my music. You'll see a lot of links and information about the Brobdingnagian Bards and my own solo Celtic music recordings.

There is one other aspect I would like to point out that will make whatever you do more money. It's sales letters. Quite honestly, I detest hard sales. I don't typically care for sales letters online. But they DO perform well.

Some of the best-selling webpages are composed of one long sales letter like some of the stuff you'll see at indiebiz.com. I've no doubt that David makes well-over $3000 a month for any of his webpages just from some of his passive income sales letters. By learning about copywriting, you can create webpages to perform just as well to promote your affiliate programs. It's an amazing skill to have.

One Last Important Note: I have NO Faith in most of my internet affiliate income. Sure I think Amazon will be there for years to come. But the passion for 'free music downloads' will die with the next internet fad.

My suggestion is to create a hard product that you can sell. For instance, create and sell ebooks using your knowledge and those sales letters I mentioned. People are willing to pay fo your knowledge of the most mundane things. It's not about being stupid, it's about ease. If you can compile that knowledge and sell it, more power to you!

You will constantly need to fine tune everything. And learn how the search engines work.

Passive money on the internet is not unreasonable. But it's also not easy. It takes quite a bit o'work and a lot of patience because it can take months for search engines to find out if you're website is important.

Hope that helps some folks, slainte!

--posted by Marc Gunn at Monday, October 11, 2004
Free republishing rights are available to all articles written by Marc Gunn. You can find a complete list of such music marketing articles here. You must contact individual authors to get their permission to republish their articles.

How to Double Your Fan Mailing List

Help them to Opt-In. Put a "Subscribe to my newsletter" sign-up form on every page of your website.

Show them all you've got. Add sign up instructions at the bottom of your list for the other lists you own.

Shout it out loud. Submit your newsletter to directories, lists, search engines.

Criss Cross. Swap ads and messages with other newsletters with a similar music market.

Sell them in your Signature. Add a subscribe@bardscrier.com followed by a brief statement about your newsletter to your signature file.

Share the love. Encourage your readers to share your newsletter with their friends.

Give it away. Offer a freebie for signing up. Free MP3s are always enjoyed.

Use the Buddy System. Team up with other bands with similar styles of music and share your list.

Take it to the streets. Invite people you meet to sign up. Have 'em sign up at gigs.

Make it a lifestyle. Get your fans involved. Have them ask their friends or, if they run a business, customers would like to subscribe.

--posted by Marc Gunn at Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Free republishing rights are available to all articles written by Marc Gunn. You can find a complete list of such music marketing articles here. You must contact individual authors to get their permission to republish their articles.