7 reasons why you may need a DJ Blog
1. It Gets Your Name Out there
Forget all that complicated SEO (search engine optimisation) stuff - if you write a blog, update it regularly, and speak about your scene, where you play, who you play with and so on, you'll naturally attract eyeballs online. So when someone types "electro in Birmingham", if you're an electro DJ from Birmingham your blog will over time become visible just through you talking about it! (By the way, it takes three to six months, so you need patience and you need faith.)
So is there a big secret? Nope. Make every post 200+ words, mention a different thing you want to be found online for a few times in each post, including in the headline (so if you want to do well for "electro in Birmingham", you'll use those words two or three times in your post and also in the headline - "Why I Love The Electro Scene In Birmingham" is good), and you're done.
Oh, and crucially, make it worth reading, and Google will get you indexed and visible. Can I let you into a secret? We spend zero time on SEO for this blog. Zero. We spend all of our time making it as good as we can for our readers instead. Google likes that.
2. You'd be foolish to rely on Facebook, Twitter etc for your online presenceThey are "branches", sure, but you need "roots". You need somewhere for all your experiments on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc to gravitate back towards. A home. How many people got
stung as MySpace crashed in popularity? Suddenly a feature-packed MySpace page with all your music etc on it didn't look so clever. Also, keeping your online presence centred on something you can control is a wise idea. It can change and grow as you do. And a blog is ideal.
3. It becomes your autobiographyThis has two benefits. Firstly, it pulls you to task. If you're not doing anything interesting, why not? It helps you to document your progress, and ensures that you actually make some - or at least, mirrors it back to you when you are being lazy or not trying very hard, as you'll have nothing new to add. And when you are working hard towards your goal, and posting your gigs, mixes, photos etc online, it becomes your scrapbook, your history, your timeline - and a great place for new fans to catch up with what you've been doing.
4. It can earn you moneyThe hard fact is that if you are serious about DJing, you need to get some cash in the bank. Doubly so if you're into DJ/producing, because producing is notoriously badly paid. But if you have a website, you have a bargaining tool. Yeah sure, you can sell ads on it, but think outside the box here - how about offering advertising to the venues who book you? Or getting your local DJ shop to sponsor you in return for an ad on your site?
5. It shows you are seriousWhen venues and promoters are booking DJs, they often want reliability and professionalism as much as talent and popularity. If you do a good job and always turn up, you're half way there. A website is a great way for you to put your best foot forward. A nice website stands you out from the rest of the DJs in your area who haven't bothered to get one set up.
6. It helps you build a list of fansLists rules. Even nowadays, email is king of interaction with your fans. Simply having a signup form on your website and gathering a list of email addresses, and then doing nothing more than emailing them every couple of weeks with a short summary of what you've been up to and links back to the relevant pages on your blog, will work wonders for keeping your fan base loyal. Staying as close to your fans as you can is paramount, and email is still the best way to do this - but you need a website at the heart of it.
7. It's easy!This is the thing. While it's not as easy as getting a Facebook Page, it isn't that hard to set up a blog. You may need a web-savvy friend to help you, but you can do it in a day. You need a domain, some hosting, the free software WordPress installed, a nice theme (pay US$30 or so for something you like from somewhere like Themeforest), and a logo (try 99designs).
Then you need to install a form for people to sign up for your emails (there are plenty of one-click add-ons for WordPress, including forms), and finally you should get your web-savvy friend to help you configure the look and feel.
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