Archive for the ‘Our Services’ Category
Take FanRising for a Test Drive
Our wonderful programmer, Nathan, has set up a Demo Site for our FanRising street team solution. You can check out the demo here.
Word of Mouth Rules
This is why we do street teams. The best form of advertising is word of mouth:
According to a recent Nielson survey:
…while traditional media still makes its mark on consumers, the most powerful determinant behind purchasing decisions for a whopping 78% of respondents is word of mouth.
78%… that is a LOT. And that’s why street teams can be such a valuable tool to musicians and bands. Street teams put word of mouth in the hands of your fans and those fans take it to their friends and family and make other fans who take the word and put it in the ears of their friends and family and so on and so on and so on…
More about the Nielson findings can be found here:
Advertising? Forget It. Word of Mouth Reigns!
Truly Affordable Custom Websites for Bands and Musicians
I just saw a bulletin on MySpace of a group that offers custom website design at “affordable” rates for bands and musicians. I looked at their prices and was in shock! A three-page website for $750 is not what I would call “affordable.”
For those of you who aren’t in the know, Sunrise Promotions will do a custom basic website design with 6 pages (home, shows/tour, bio, music/downloads, gallery, and contact) and it will cost you a lot less: $225 (MUSICIANS AND BAND RATE ONLY). And that comes with free hosting, free custom email addresses, a news updating tool, a shows updating tool, a message board, streaming MP3 player and a Flash media player. For $100 more, you can get a Flash animated header and/or navigation added to the site.
Or even better, if you’re looking for that “wow” factor and want a site done completely in Flash, let us know, because we can do that as well (although it will cost a bit extra since building a site in Flash is time consuming).
We can also help you set up a shop on your website to sell your merchandise, CD’s and MP3’s.
And the best part? The site will not only be user-friendly, but it will also look good, too. Take a look at some of our work:
http://sunrise-promotions.com/services/webdesign.shtml
Why do we do the work so cheap for musicians? Because we know that being an independent musician means living on a very tight budget. We also think that a website is probably the most important part of a musician’s or band’s promotional efforts and want to make sure that you have the opportunity to get a good site without breaking the bank.
Interested? Send us a message here on MySpace or an e-mail to robin@sunrise-promotions.com – we’d love to build a web presence for you!
MySpace Vs. Websites
From Online Fandom:
Form and Function in Web Design?
When you visit a band’s website, does the design play into how you perceive the band?
My opinion is that design is as equally important as content because a band should use their website to brand themselves online. You can’t easily do that with your MySpace account so the website should not only tell in words who you are, but also through images and visuals. And this is where I differ in opinion from many of the marketing experts I read. But my difference is that my background isn’t just in marketing, but also in commercial web development.
I tell the artists I work with that my goal is to let people know WHO THEY ARE the minute they view their website. Because most of us net surfers are ADD and aren’t going to read and click through the whole thing. The marketers do stress putting things on your site like an e-mail list, which is important, but they don’t get that the way the information is organized and presented is equally as important. If a band has an e-mail list, that should go on the home page, no questions asked. You do not put a link to the list and expect people to click on it. Because there’s no guarantee getting anyone past your home page.
And forums? Where are the forums? Have they not heard of all of this Web 2.0 talk? I mean, we’re in Time magazine, for goodness’ sake!!! Establishing a community gives bands an excellent way not only to connect with fans, but give fans a way to connect with each other and to keep coming back to the site and to keep interacting with the band and its fans.
Maybe I’ll have the opportunity to address this on the call because I feel that these are the kind of people who tell bands they don’t need to hire designers to make their websites look nice, to make their websites look like them. They just need to pay a cheap $50-$100 and get a crappy looking site that may be functional, but at the same time, that’s all it is. I know when I see sites like that, I usually don’t look any further because they don’t grab my interest. But are all internet users now that savvy? I’m thinking the answer is yes…
I’d love to hear what others have to say on this subject.