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Did you write your own bio?

#21
Yeah, sometimes it's effective marketing to repeat the band name (or part of it) numerous times to drill it into people's heads.

But I think part of the bio that was on the website also incorporated instructions on how to get into parts of it.
From the bio...

You can check out SideShow by attending any of their upcoming shows. Click on Shows for a list of upcoming shows.
Click to expand...
Not necessary within the bio itself.
 
#22
Thanks Sundogue, I like that alot, very professional. Although, I do plan on changing a few things. Not because it's not effective, but because it's on our website I need to have certain words to trigger search engines to hit our site. That's why some of the wording was a bit awkward. I'm going to take yours and try to make the trigger words flow a little better in it compared to last time. Thanks alot though, you really helped me out!
 
#25
Mike88T said:
"SideShow brings excitement and power to their shows with a command of the stage and a powerful presence."

looking at that again it should read.

SideShow brings excitement to their shows with a command of the stage and a powerful presence.
Click to expand...


SideShow's powerful presence and command of the stage brings excitement to the show.

There are so many possibilities even with a single sentence.
 
#26
Sundogue said:
SideShow's powerful presence and command of the stage brings excitement to the show.

There are so many possibilities even with a single sentence.
Click to expand...


yeah, true. I like what you wrote and I put it on the site. Thanks again! I just have a hard time writing about myself and I don't take the time to think about what I'm writing.
 
#27
fastplant said:
Thanks Sundogue, I like that alot, very professional. Although, I do plan on changing a few things. Not because it's not effective, but because it's on our website I need to have certain words to trigger search engines to hit our site. That's why some of the wording was a bit awkward. I'm going to take yours and try to make the trigger words flow a little better in it compared to last time. Thanks alot though, you really helped me out!
Click to expand...

You're welcome. Although you needn't change what words are seen to trigger search engine hits.

You only need to edit the META NAME keywords. It runs behind the webpage and you can put all kinds of relative words into it(and repeat them over and over). This way your webpage format and text looks clean and professional, yet the web bots find your meta tags and use that for search engine purposes.

For example...

META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="SideShow.SideShow.SideShow.music.music.music.bands.bands.bands.live music.live music.live music."
META NAME="description" CONTENT="Music.Bands.Live Music"

Just an example and some is left out or it won't show up in this post (like putting < and > around the words), but it keeps your site looking professional.
 
#30
xush said:
or put the words down at the corner or bottom of the page and make them the same color as the background- then it's there but you don't see it.
Click to expand...

Excellent point!!! I had forgotten about that.

Much better alternative than editing text to fit the search engines, but taking away from the professional look.
 
#32
alright, time to get over being timid and go for it.
Here's what I have so far.

I'd call it a semi-final draft, pending any changes you guys think it needs.
I think it's pretty dang close to what we're looking for.

http://xush.net/analog_missionary_bio.htm

this is just my idea for the printed bio fact sheet that will be part of our press kit. Pictures and press clippings would be included on seperate sheets, along with copies of the recordings. On the actual web-bio we might splurge a little. Maybe even an actual joke!
 
#33
xush said:
alright, time to get over being timid and go for it.
Here's what I have so far.

I'd call it a semi-final draft, pending any changes you guys think it needs.
I think it's pretty dang close to what we're looking for.

http://xush.net/analog_missionary_bio.htm

this is just my idea for the printed bio fact sheet that will be part of our press kit. Pictures and press clippings would be included on seperate sheets, along with copies of the recordings. On the actual web-bio we might splurge a little. Maybe even an actual joke!
Click to expand...

Very nice, I like how it has so much info. I have to remember to add some of our reviews on our site too. I like it.
 
#34
Cool. But the last line...
The fusion of these influences gives Analog Missionary a truly unique sound with musical imagination and creativity.
Click to expand...
...won't make any sense until/unless you add a bit of history before it, to put that sentence into context. Even just some references to music (or styles) played in former bands that help explain how the band came to be what it is.

Let me know if you do add some history to it. I'd like to see what, if anything, is added in that regard.

This sure has made a relatively boring day at work go better. I'm a network admin by day and an artist/musician/writer by night. Though I guess I'm a writer by day now too. ;)
 
#35
Sundogue said:
Excellent point!!! I had forgotten about that.

Much better alternative than editing text to fit the search engines, but taking away from the professional look.
Click to expand...


That doesn't work anymore. It was called "White Writting" back in the day and most search engines ignore it now.

Go here and it will tell you all you need to know about how to promote a web page to search engines and such.

Invalid Link Removed
 
#36
Sundogue said:
Cool. But the last line......won't make any sense until/unless you add a bit of history before it, to put that sentence into context. Even just some references to music (or styles) played in former bands that help explain how the band came to be what it is.

Let me know if you do add some history to it. I'd like to see what, if anything, is added in that regard.

This sure has made a relatively boring day at work go better. I'm a network admin by day and an artist/musician/writer by night. Though I guess I'm a writer by day now too. ;)
Click to expand...
Oops! missed the connective there, sorry. If they decide to go that way I'll let you know.

Thanks again for your help. Sometimes it's overwhelming when you're trying to promote your band, there's so many different aspects you have to stay on top of. It does keep you motivated though.
 
#37
xush said:
Thanks again for your help. Sometimes it's overwhelming when you're trying to promote your band, there's so many different aspects you have to stay on top of. It does keep you motivated though.
Click to expand...

No kidding. My new band is finally getting to the point of getting the website up, and all the marketing tools like posters, business cards, etc. Lots of work to do (including writing our own bio...:)).

But it does make it exciting and interesting. It keeps you focused on the band, even when your not playing the music. Another benefit is that it forces you to really define who you are as a band, in a way that the music alone doesn't do. A band plays and writes together, but when you are just playing music, you don't actually think, "Who are we?"

Promotion forces you to define yourselves. That can be a good thing that can also help the music in the long run, as your thought process is different visually (photos, the written word) than it is musically. It can make you think differently about your music.

Of course, many a band has fallen apart after it's been forced to define itself. Sometimes when bands get to that point individual members start seeing the band in a different way and it can cause problems as well. The band's identity is brought to the forefront and only then do some members see things differently, whereas when it was just the music, those differences were never apparent.

It's akin to a band practicing and playing local gigs a lot and they all get along well. Then they go on the road and are forced to live with each other 24/7 and only then do they see what shmucks they are playing with. :)
 
#38
good points Mark. I was thinking pretty much the same things today. Just didn't get a chance to type it yet.

This whole process really does help you focus on the band. You got a lot more invested when you are creating on all levels of the project you are involved in. Still have to do the best you can with what you have, that's pretty much why I started this whole thread. The more opinions you can get, the better.

I've always made fun of folks who came up with their band name before they even were a band. Seemed backwards to me. But now I'm not so sure. Maybe they have the right idea. Get the hardest part over with first, then learn an instrument and go from there!
 
#39
xush said:
good points Mark. I was thinking pretty much the same things today. Just didn't get a chance to type it yet.

This whole process really does help you focus on the band. You got a lot more invested when you are creating on all levels of the project you are involved in. Still have to do the best you can with what you have, that's pretty much why I started this whole thread. The more opinions you can get, the better.

I've always made fun of folks who came up with their band name before they even were a band. Seemed backwards to me. But now I'm not so sure. Maybe they have the right idea. Get the hardest part over with first, then learn an instrument and go from there!
Click to expand...

Yeah, every band I've ever been in has never had a problem finding musicians or music to play. But when it gets to promotion...things like band photos, websites, bios and such, that's when it seems the sh*t hits the fan.

And I really don't understand why that is. The whole process is appealling to me.
 
#40
I think some search engines will penalise you if you start repeating words in the meta tags - it used to be a technique used as a form of 'spamming': content="bob's country bunker sex sex sex" would probably get your site dropped out of many search engines rather than pushed to the top. The same holds true for 'white text' tricks.

The best approaches are straightforward. Use the description meta tag to give a short description of the page and use the keywords meta tag to highlight words that actually occur in the text of the page. See http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2167931 for more details... but note that this page also confirms that many search engines now ignore meta tags.

Other techiques that do help include making sure the title of each page is descriptive (eg. "Lovesjones Band Info" not "New Page 3") and getting lots of people to link to your site.

Wulf
 

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