If you’re a student of online music marketing and follow what people like John Oszajca, Greg Rollett and many others teach – you need a squeeze page setup to begin building a list and taking control of your music career.

The thing is, this is often easier said than done – especially with WordPress.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love WordPress (the self-hosted .org version). It’s easy to use, powerful as hell and there’s a plugin that you can find to handle just about anything you can dream of using a website for.

But one thing that WordPress can’t do very well out of the box is create a squeeze page.

Sure, there are themes out there that you can buy like Optimize Press or the Profit Theme, but the problem is these will cost you $97 or so and will change the entire look of your website. If you’ve already customized a WordPress site to look the way that you want, using a theme-based solution will mean you’ll have to give it up just to have easy squeeze page capabilities.

So what can you do about this?

Well, if you don’t mind putting in a little elbow grease and have some time to spare, you can FTP an html squeeze page to your hosting account and send traffic there. If memory serves, both John Oszajca and Greg Rollett have offered free squeeze page templates in the past that you can modify and use for your own purposes.

But that won’t help you very much if you want to run everything out of WordPress.

One thing I’ve tried that has worked with limited results is to open an html-based squeeze page inside a free html editor like Komposer and then paste it into the html tab inside WordPress.

From there, if you’re using a WordPress theme like 2010 – you can also choose a 1 column post page to eliminate all the distracting widgets and links along the right hand side of your page .

Squeeze pages need to be clean and completely focused on giving your prospect the chance to opt in or leave for maximum conversions.

Now, when I’ve tried this in the past I’ve ended up with an okay squeeze page.

The biggest problem is that WordPress doesn’t handle tables very well and most html squeeze pages (that I’ve come across anyway) have invisible table columns as ‘spacers’ to center the squeeze page properly and allow for elements like a video on one side directly beside an opt in on the the other.

Getting these tables to work, especially for someone like myself who isn’t a ‘code monkey’ is a challenge.

I couldn’t make it work with Komposer for whatever reason. I think I found a tip online to create the graphic using Google Docs and cut and paste it into the WordPress html tab in the editor and it did work better.

That’s just an example of some of the hoops that you’ll have to jump through to get a basic squeeze page online and working in WordPress. If you can manage that – hats off to you.

However, if you want another option and a serious shortcut to this whole process that is 100% WordPress friendly I want to share this cool resource I discovered.

It’s called WP Squeeze Pro and it’s from a highly respected internet marketer (and former rapper) by the name of Jason Fladlien and his business partner Wilson Mattos.

What it does is create a squeeze page for you in WordPress in seconds flat. You won’t have to worry about messing around with tables or trying to convert an html squeeze page into one that works (just barely) with WordPress.

What’s more is it comes with 24 squeeze page templates that have been tried and tested by Jason in his own business. You can easily test each squeeze page type against each other until you find one that trumps them all to give you the best possible conversion.

Jason’s had over 100,000 people sign up to his list and has garnered conversions as high as 72.6% with these squeeze pages. Why not borrow some of his effort and expertise to start building your list sooner as opposed to later?

We’re talking awesome looking squeeze pages that you can set up in minutes instead of hours that will work with any theme so that you can keep the current look of your site intact.

So what’s the catch?

Well, WP Squeeze Pro costs $97 which isn’t cheap.

Also, it currently only works with 3 different Auto-responder services: Aweber, Get Response and Inmica mail. However, when you factor in the following:

• 24 proven templates to choose from – plus you can customize you own
• Works with any theme (because it’s a plugin)
• Can use on as many as 20 different instances (unlimited squeeze pages per instance)
• Have your squeeze page up in minutes instead of hours
• 30 day guarantee

As far as building a squeeze page in WordPress goes – it just doesn’t get any easier than this as far as I’m concerned. I wish WP Squeeze Pro was around before I wasted all of my time trying to get my first squeeze page to work in WordPress!

And heck, Jason Fladlien is a former musician turned marketer – so you can feel good about buying from him.

Just think about how good it will feel to finally have your squeeze page set up and converting visitors to your list.

Think about how easy it will be to change and test your squeeze page for maximum conversions using and testing each of the 24 different templates.

Imagine what it will be like to see your online audience growing bit by bit every day as you focus on promoting your music instead of getting lost and wasting time with the techie stuff.

• Learn more about WP Squeeze Pro

Anyone that’s been paying attention to my last few posts has noticed a lot of content about WordPress, and so the launch of Band WP Themes is timed just about perfectly for me.

Band WP Themes is the brainchild of Greg Rollett (of Label 2.0, GenYRockstars.com and The New Music Economy – review coming soon) has partnered up with a dude named Brett to create awesome WordPress themes for bands. Like I said, this is the perfect timing because I’ve been showing you guys how to use WordPress to build a band website (if you’ve checked out my DIY Band Website training). I’ve been doing my best to find some great themes for musicians to use, but I’m sad to say that there isn’t a heck of a lot to choose from.

Greg and Brett are hoping all of that is about to change with the launch of their Band WP Themes product on June 7th. So far the details are few and far between, the features, price and even the look of the themes have yet to be revealed, so I can’t say whether I recommend them or not. However, if it meets up to the same quality level of Greg’s New Music Economy training, then I have high hopes that WordPress will finally have some kick ass themes for bands, DJs and artists to use.

I’ll update this post when I learn more, for now you can check out the video on why you need to host your artist site.

UPDATE:

Greg & Brett revealed their new theme yesterday on the GenYRockstars.com site (check out the BandWPTheme in action). If you visit the page you’ll see that Greg actually walks you through the install process (again for WordPress – Brett already showed that step) plus tweaking out the them. The theme is clean and has a right sidebar with customization options for setting up your newsletter, hooking up a photo gallery and a place to bring in your Twitter feed. However, I’m left a little underwhelmed at this point in time; most of the videos show Greg using the standard features that come with WordPress. Aside from the sidebar (btw, I’m not too keen on how the photo header doesn’t run all the way across the top personally) I haven’t seen anything new from this theme in terms of customization – maybe Greg’s waiting for the next video to show us that stuff? He promises another video on Sunday – the day before the launch.

Here’s what the theme looks like – what do you think?

The other curious omission at this point is the price. Nothing has been said of how much it will cost to get this theme. Rather than just sell a theme, it sounds like they’re going to offer a membership of some kind where you get all the extra training and perhaps more themes, but I’m not 100% on that. I’m uncertain whether they plan to release one uber-customizable band theme or just a whole slew of different band themes that you can choose from. I guess we’ll find out soon.

Bottom line – right now it looks like this theme is geared to the complete technophobes that either don’t want to learn how to use the text widget in WordPress or are completely ignorant of what you can do with it. It’s really not that hard guys – trust me! Having said that the BandWPTheme will live or die based on its price – right now I like it, but I’m not sure that I’d shell out cash for it unless I see some more features. However, I’ve been playing around with WordPress for close to three years and messed around with Microsoft Frontpage for a half dozen years or so prior to that – so I’m probably not the target market for this product!

More updates to follow as the price and further details are released!

FINAL UPDATE: The price was released last Monday – $27 for the theme only or $37 for the theme with WordPress training videos and support. As I said before – I don’t think I’d buy the theme, but I already know my way around WordPress pretty well. However, for those that don’t know how to use WordPress, the $37 option is obviously much cheaper than attempting to get a designer to build a site for you.

For those that are looking for some great training for free, I just made a decision to provide the first module of my DIY WordPress Band Website training for free as part of the free membership level of the Indie Band Alliance. Membership is closed right now – but will be opening soon.

UPDATE: April/2011 The video that was on this page (along with 8 or so others) has been lost. I’m in the process of recording and doing a re-release of the videos. I’ll add a link once it’s ready…

Okay, we’re back to our regularly scheduled indie band website coverage. This is part 8 in my band website series where I reveal two great companies to get your hosting from if you want to save yourself anywhere from $15 or more each month without missing out on the main features offered by Hostbaby.

This video clocks in at a little over 21 minutes, sorry…but I took a little time off from recording these videos and my long-winded-ness returned with a vengence! However, it’s worth it to find out how to save some money and still create a kick-butt website right? You can watch the video below.

Click Here to Get Hostgator Hosting for less

For those that watched the video and were wondering about the surprise I mentioned, here’s the scoop: if you’ve decided that Hostgator is the right webhosting service for you, you can get your first month for only 1 cent! All you need to do is click on my sponsored link (or if you’d rather I don’t get a commission for sharing this info with you, go straight to Hostgator.com to bypass my link), choose the plan you want and enter the coupon code “404PAGE” (without quotes) and you’ll automatically get the first month of your hosting for only one cent – pretty cool. Here’s the link again:

Click Here to Get Hostgator Hosting for less

Just make sure you put enter coupon code 404PAGE in while your going through the shopping cart or else you’ll miss out on the discount!

If you’re looking for quality web hosting with lots of features, limited storage and for less cash – make sure you visit Geekhosting.com – you’ll want to click on the “Linux” page at the top of the page, then click on the “Classic Geek” plans and choose the one that’s right for you. In the video I mainly talk about the Mini Geek Plus web hosting plan, but if you want to save even more money and don’t want more than a single domain you can get the Mini Geek web hosting plan for about $2 per month! You’ll only have 150 megabytes of storage and 5 GB of bandwidth. You can get by with this if you don’t have hundreds of visitors everyday and if you go lightly on the rich media files (photos, videos and music) on your site.

Remember, you can always start small and scale up as you go.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the video and learned that you don’t need to spend a ton of money to have a feature-rich and fully functional band website!

Click Here to Get Hostgator Hosting for less

UPDATE: April/2011 The video that was on this page (along with 8 or so others) has been lost. I’m in the process of recording and doing a re-release of the videos. I’ll add a link once it’s ready…

Okay, we’re half way through the indie band website series as of this video. In this one I share some of the research that I’ve uncovered regarding finding musician-friendly website creation and web hosting packages out there. I compare what I feel are the two main contenders in this realm while suggesting that there may be a better solution that is much more cost effective – if you’re willing to put in a little work!

Anyway, check out the newest video and again, let me know what you think about this video series I’m putting together for you. Have you learned anything yet? We must be getting close to an hour worth of videos already, who knew there was that much to learn? Thanks for watching.

UPDATE: April/2011 The video that was on this page (along with 8 or so others) has been lost. I’m in the process of recording and doing a re-release of the videos. I’ll add a link once it’s ready…

Hi everyone,

I hope you’re digging this video series that I’ve been working on. We’re up to video number 4 already which explains what you need to consider when building an ideal website for your band. An ideal indie band website will be findable, easy to use (for the band to create content) and easy to navigate for your visitors. You should be able to access it from anywhere in the world with an internet connection and have the flexibility to add things like membership areas, music, video and even e-commerce so your band can start making some money!

As always, check out the video and let me know what you think of this video series? Leave me a comment below the video!

UPDATE: April/2011 The video that was on this page (along with 8 or so others) has been lost. I’m in the process of recording and doing a re-release of the videos. I’ll add a link once it’s ready…

Great news, part 3 of the Indie Band Website series is the shortest one yet – squeaking in at just under 13 minutes. You can watch Indie Band Websites Overview and Indie Band Websites Domains as well if you haven’t already.

This is a basic explanation of what webhosting is and why you need it. I explain a little about bandwidth as well, so if you’ve ever wondered what these things mean, check out the video below and let me know what you think.

UPDATE: April/2011 The video that was on this page (along with 8 or so others) has been lost. I’m in the process of recording and doing a re-release of the videos. I’ll add a link once it’s ready…

As promised, I’ve recorded part 2 of my Indie Band Website video series (you can also check out part 1: the indie band website overview) this time covering the basic information that you need to know about acquiring your own domain for your band. The video is a little bit long, but besides running through my “Mind Map” presentation, I also pay a visit to 4 domain registrars, a few of which you may never have even heard of before.

I walk you through some of what you can expect when you go through the buying process and what to avoid. I still ramble on a bit, but hopefully you’ll come out of the video with a deeper understanding of what to watch out for before you commit to buying your own domain.

I realized right in the middle of this video that I didn’t actually show you how to point your domain name to a website, so I’ll include that somewhere else down the line. This video was intended as an overview of what you need to know about domain names before you go out and buy.

My bandwidth is holding up okay right now – so I’m going to keep embedding the video on this blog – but for how much longer? This video is also almost 2 minutes shorter than my last one, so for those that think I talk too much – I’m at least headed in the right direction!

UPDATE: April/2011 The video that was on this page (along with 8 or so others) has been lost. I’m in the process of recording and doing a re-release of the videos. I’ll add a link once it’s ready…

Indie band websites – fully explained. Well, not in this first video, but I have outlined a series of 10 videos that I’m working on to explain the inner workings of indie band websites. By the time you get to the last video, you’ll be able to make an informed choice on how to create a band website that will help people find you and stay up to date on the latest news.

I apologize for the screaming child in the background, I guess my youngest son wanted to get in on this recording as well! Also, this video was a long time coming because I encountered some technical difficulties while recording the video a few weeks ago. I’m planning to get at least one new video per week until they’re done.

Anyway, watch the video and let me know what you think. Do you like this style of presentation or would you prefer an MS Powerpoint presentation? Do I provide great insights or do I just talk too much? Leave me a comment below and let me know.

Check out the video by clicking on the image below:

UPDATE: April/2011 The video that was on this page (along with 8 or so others) has been lost. I’m in the process of recording and doing a re-release of the videos. I’ll add a link once it’s ready…

All has been quiet on the Indie Band Alliance front, and then I stumble onto a post on another music business related website forum and I’m inspired to act. The post was about band website issues and I was truly amazed at what I was reading.

The band in question was asking a question about their website, they weren’t sure if it was good enough considering that they paid a couple hundred dollars to someone from a third world country to set it up for them. On top of that, this person wanted to charge the band $100 for any updates!!!!

Now, I went and visited the website of (name witheld) and thought it looked decent – and to be perfectly fair…the band is quite young, so I can excuse them for making a terrible mistake when it comes to setting up a first website. I’ve been inspired on following up with another ebook – but this particular post totally derailed me. I lurked around the forum and found more questions related to websites and hosting and decided that I need to help my fellow musicians out.

When I first started this site over two years ago, one of my first posts was about why bands need a website, and how to get a basic one setup quick and easily for next to nothing. I’ve learned a lot since then and have decided that now is the time to share it with everyone. Furthermore, I investigated some of the solutions out there for musicians and found them to be a little on the pricey side.

I’m currently working on something that I hope will give even the newest or most technophobic musicians the information that they need to make the best choice for themselves and their budget. I’m going to kick it all off with my first video post as well. Check it out:

The fact of the matter is that when it comes to services like website creation and webhosting, many companies are more than willing to sell you what you want rather than what you need. I’m not selling anything – so I’m willing to share my opinion of what a band needs to have in a website and how to get it for the least amount of money possible without sacrificing quality and functionality – but functionality has to come first!

Stick around, check out my post and stay tuned for more in the coming weeks!