4 Reason Why Independent Artists Should Have Their Own Website

Even though I touched this subject a bit in 3 Tips on How to Obtain Your Domain Name, I think it deserves an article of its own. After researching some of my favorite artists and their non-existing website, I decided to give my reasons why all indie artists MUST have a website.

1. Social networking sites aren’t your website. Think of Facebook and Myspace as a marketing strategy. This is a place to drive traffic to your site. Web 2.0 exists to make it easier to recruit your target audience.

2. It’s about you. A website should be custom made just for you. You tell it what you want in it, how it looks and how much content you can put it. Give us something memorable instead of another Web 2.0 page that can get lost in one’s memory because it’s like everyone else’s profile.

3. You are a professional. Every successful artist has an official website along with a few social networking pages. Why shouldn’t you?

4. You want to advertise to those outside of the social networking circle. That’s right, folks. Not everyone has an account on the same Web 2.0 atmosphere. Trust me, I always hated when I found someone by googling their name and then I was asked to log into an account or register to a site just to leave a comment or an email.

Remember, social networking is the craze on the internet right now. However, if you depend too much on one site that may last only a few years because a better Web 2.0 came along (like what Myspace did to Friendster and what Facebook is doing to Myspace), you might wind up working twice as hard. At least if you have your own website  it will always be there even through the changing trends.