The one tool you need in your toolbox as a band (which basically makes you a small business owner) is to install and configure Analytics on your website. Do yourself a favor and get off of MySpace. At the very least MySpace should just be used as another avenue to reach fans, not your only or primary point of contact. For this particular tutorial, we use WordPress as our content management system of choice. I recommend WordPress to anyone who asks me simply because of how easy it is, and how easy it is to integrate Google Analytics.

If you’ve already setup Google Analytics you can skip down a ways on the page as I go into the aspects of Google that will mean the most to you. It’s a good idea to look over the initial setup to make sure you’ve done everything properly. The way I setup Google does enable tracking on a few more important items that you don’t get by just copying and pasting the code Google supplies to you.

Get WordPress or a something similar CMS

With WordPress you have two choices to setup your site:

1. Download the software and install it to your web host (Recommended)
2. Host your website remotely on yourname.wordpress.com (less freedom)

Some hosting providers like Media Temple have a one click install for WordPress. This helps things along considerably. If you can’t afford your own domain name and/or hosting. Signup for an account on WordPress.com. Your name will be YOURNAME.wordpress.com to start, but you won’t be able to have complete freedom over the look and feel of your site.

If you have no other choice, start with option 2. You can always export your data and import it to your own web hosted .com later.

Signup for a Google Analytics account using your Google account name

I’ve had a Gmail account for awhile now so all I had to do was go to Google.com/analytics and sign up for an analytics account.

Setup your profile

Setting up your profile is as simple as putting in your website address for each website you have. If you want to setup e-commerce tracking for your online store you have to enable this option later. For now, just enter in the basic information for your site.

Our site already has a profile so the additional site we just setup appears below that domain name. (assault.it.com) You’ll also notice that the status icon is a little alert. That’s because we need to actually setup the embed code on the site.

Click on the edit link on the right, and then click on the Check Status link over to the right

Now you’ll see what we need to get our hands on which is the Google Tracking code. (On the right) You can just copy and paste this into your site if you’re not using WordPress, but it’s better to integrate it with the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin so you can enable additional features not offered with just copying and pasting the code.

If you just copy/paste the code into your site you won’t get any of the additional benefits setup like goal funnels so don’t do that.

Leave this window open for now, and I’ll explain how to implement this code with the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin in the next step.

Download/Install/Activate The Google Analytics Plugin for WordPress to your blog

You’re better off using the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin for a 3 reasons:

1. The plugin will track outbound clicks to see where people are leaving your site and what links they are clicking on when they do leave your site.
2. The plugin will automatically put the proper code on all aspects of your site, and when an upgrade is available it’s as easy as clicking upgrade.
3. Your downloads will automatically be tagged as /downloads/wp-content/uploads/your-file-name.zip so you can get an idea of how many downloads you are getting.

To download the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin you can either add it through the administration interface by going into your WordPress Admin area: http://www.whateveryourdomainis.com/wp-admin and then click on the arrow next to the Plugins link and click “Add New”.

Then, do a search for “Google Analytics for WordPress” and it should be the first result. Install and move on to the next step or install it manually via the directions for installation on the plugins’ WordPress page which I have pasted below:

Input your Google tracking code

Remember the code we left open in another window from before? This is where we need that code again.  You just need the id off of your tracking code which I’ve highlighted below, not the entire copy/paste code that Google gives you.

Copy that part of the code and paste it into the configuration text box like I have below.

Set up your settings similar to how I have to ensure you’re tracking downloads as well as outbound clicks from your site.

Collect the data!

Gather several weeks worth of data before you really go in and analyze where people are coming from and what parts of your site are most popular.

What’s important?

Depending on how you are using your site there are a variety of things that could be of importance to you. (Besides just actual traffic of course)

If you’re using your website as a place where you can push your music to the fans with downloads then that’s going to be one of your most important areas to pay attention to. To view your download statistics go to the content report, and then “Top Content” section.

Then filter your content by downloads by typing “/downloads” into the text box as I have below:

Another thing to pay attention to is your  traffic sources. How are users finding you? Google searches? Reverbnation? MySpace? Twitter? Blog posts?

Want to increase/decrease the date range?

Been a few months since you installed the plugin code? How about increasing the date range from the past month to the past few months? Or past few days? Do that on the dashboard where you see the calendar:

Setup Goals (AKA Super Fucking important)

After you’ve ensured your data is being collected you’re going to want to setup goals.

Goals allow you to setup a flow on the site for how they find you up until they actually do something. (For istance,  download a file off of a specific page)

There are 3 types of goals you can setup, the most important to us being the URL destination which allows us to set a user path for a visitor coming to our site. Name the goal and select URL destination and you’ll see the rest of the Goal Details options that I have in the screen capture below:

“Goal URL” is the second have the the name of the page the user should end up on, and goal value is something to set up if you’re setting a monetary value for something like a digital download. For instance, if you have a file uploaded to your site as I have above, your goal URL would be downloads/wp-content/uploads/name-of-the-file-you-uploaded.zip

Note: You can take this link from the information in your Top Content section like I showed you how to do above.

If you want to track users from say, your homepage to your downloads page you can enter in the separate steps a user would take to get from your homepage to your actual file download.

If I had 4 pages I could enter them all in each field and name each step to determine how many users are able to make it through the entire goal funnel.

At Assault’s online clothing store, we use goals to track our user’s sticking points in our shopping cart check out process. If we find there are a lot of users abandoning their carts after they get to a specific step in the checkout process, we know there must be some sort of usability issue.

One of the coolest aspects of the goals and e-commerce tracking is that you can determine where your actual converted sales/downloads are coming from most. (Meaning the websites that send you the most downloads and money!)

Google analytics goals are critical when determining what social networks to push your music to the hardest, which blogs to keep pimping your free gear to cause their audience buys digital music, which twitter users are giving you shoutouts, etc. etc.

I say again, setting up Goals and Goal Funnels will give you visual proof of where you are having success with getting your music downloaded. I can’t stress this point enough!

If you find most of your users aren’t getting to your music downloads, then you need to give them a clearer call to action on all your pages.

If you’re users are bouncing after :20 seconds and only visiting one page, then they’re not finding what they came to your site for.

There are HUNDREDS of things you can learn from all the data Google gives you. Are your fans primarily hitting the page on the site with your pictures? Are they coming to the free download of a song you offered them that got plugged by a blog? Are they looking at your bio because you have a hot chick lead singer and they want to see if she’s single? (Assault‘s top viewed page on our store is for our zombie t-shirt. Go figure.)

Analytics is the key to your online strategy. It tells you what you’re doing right, and what you’re doing wrong. It’ll also tell you what your fans want more of, and if you’re getting them to the right place in the fewest amount of clicks.

Want more info? Did you get stuck at a certain point? Want some one on one advice? Send me a message on Twitter or post in the comments. I reply to just about everything that comes my way.

Let’s face it, unless you have a full time person to make your MySpace totally  bitchin, it’s time to look into another platform to use as your main contact point with your fans. I understand MySpace has always been a necessary evil, but when it comes to actually getting a decent return on investment from your time spent, MySpace will never make the cut.

You cannot track where your fans are coming from

While you can boast a high pageview count, high friend count, and high play count on your songs, you’ll never really know who is doing what on your profile.

You don’t know who the talkers are

The most important part of getting good word of mouth is identifying the talkers. Who is bringing people to your shows? What regions is your music being downloaded the most from based on those “talkers”?

What blogs and twitter users have pimped your page?

Other bands are not your primary source of attendance

According to the statistics I’ve heard, there are roughly 8 million bands on MySpace, and you have 15,000 of them as friends! Unfortunately, those people are probably not buying your albums or attending your shows. While they may be good to do a show swap with, or bro down with for a tour some day–they’re not helping you pay the bills and put butts in your seats.

The 10% of users that are real people more than likely COMPLETELY ignore the “bulletins” that you can blast out to everyone. When was the last time you went to a show based on a bulletin you saw on MySpace?

Controlling your brand is impossible

You’re a band, but the day you decide you want to try to make a living off of your passion you are a brand–a product. Even if you have created a badass theme for your profile, you still can’t control the look of any of the other subsequent pages associated with MySpace. (Add me as a friend, send a message, blog etc.)

This doesn’t even consider the sheer bombardment of advertising you have on the top and bottom of your profile page. Best part is, if you figure out how to hide the advertisements, you’re in violation of MySpace’s terms of use and risk getting your profile deleted.

You can do everything MySpace  does outside of the MySpace universe

Just to prove my point, you can do everything that MySpace does for you, I’ll post a few of the other places that offer the same services. (For free of course)

Embed your music
Imeem offers the ability to upload and create a playlist that you can then embed on your site, for free. Best part is that other people can embed your songs as well. Last.fm also offers this service

Fucking blog
My number one tip to anyone who does anything these days online is to WRITE. MySpace’s blog platform sucks ass, and offers no clean way for users get your content without being at a MySpace page. WordPress is easy to find/create templates for and is a far more dynamic platform to control/track your band’s internet presence. Commenting, subscribing to your RSS feed, and integrating with newsletter platforms is almost entirely drag+drop on WordPress.

Bulletins
Twitter.

Local Concerts iPhone Application. (opens in iTunes)

Tour Dates
With Last.fm you can post your tour dates which will then show up on their website as well as on their concerts iPhone application which I never leave home without. Last.fm also integrates with Livekick which sends users notifications of when your band is playing in the users’ area.

Last.fm also recently released one of my personal favorite iPhone applications Local Concerts. (Opens iTunes) Which will send you text messages when a concert has been posted by you. You’ll never miss another show again.

Sell Music and Merchandise
Last.fm allows you to sell your music that you upload which can also be embedded–oh and you can track it too. WP-E-commerce and Storenvy are two tried and tested ways to sell your merchandise and/or music in your own customizable store.

WordPress may require a bit more of advanced skills, but Storenvy allows you to host an online store on their servers where they handle everything from site setup to checkout. I highly recommend them. (Not to mention they’re the best printers we’ve ever worked with. We should know, we still print our clothing line with them.)

Disagree with me?

Feel free to post it in the comments as well as any other resource sites I may have missed.

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get to check out the New Music Seminar in Chicago, and a question was posed to the speakers, “What iPhone applications should I have?” There was a bit of confusion, and some suggestions–none of which that I felt were really helpful applications for touring bands. Links open up in iTunes.

I’ve put together a list of the 5 applications that I have used in the past that I feel would be incredibly helpful to any touring musician, without including the obvious like Google Maps, Facebook, or Myspace.

Loopt

Want your fans to see where you are without having to update via Twitter? Loopt lets your fans see where you are in the country at the time, and allows you to update your status with what you’re doing there.

Cost: Free

WordPress

Need to write a message to your blog directly from your phone and include pictures? WordPress is by far the most popular blog platform, and this application integrates seamlessly with it.

Cost: Free

iSwipe

Want to take credit cards at your merch booth? Have a Paypal account? No need for a bulky credit card terminal, iSwipe integrates directly with several popular payment gateways and is great for a band on the go. It’s easy to use and easy to setup. (We used it at all the Assault Shirts live Summer Events.)

Cost: $0.99 (UPDATED!)

Pixelpipe

Taking lots of video and photos with your phone, and need an application that integrates and uploads media to virtually every service on the net? Thought so. Pixelpipe easily integrates with just about every major service out there and is great for publishing on the go.

Cost: Free

Tweetie 2

If you’re in a band, then you better be on Twitter. If you’re on Twitter, you better have Tweetie. It’s the best application out there for interacting with your Twitter followers, and it’s affordable too!

Cost: $2.99

Know of any applications I missed? Post them in the comments. Like lists like these? Follow me on Twitter here. I’m always posting helpful tips and links.

One major skill that I’m relieved to have learned while in college is how to take good quality pictures. One of our ideas with Assault was to get pictures of our shirts on rock bands rather than on stock mock ups like every other apparel company. We felt it was the one thing to set us aside in a small way from everyone else that would also be a great way to network with bands that we were fans of.

Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that live concert photography is probably one of the hardest forms of photography. You can’t depend on your camera’s automatic mode if you want your photos to look professionally done. You can’t use a point and shoot camera. After a few practice shows though, and with plenty of practice and tips from our friends, we were finally able to nail down our process which we’re going to share with everyone, cause we’re awesome.

Lookout! Giants at the Metro Chicago

Account for lighting & other variables

If you’ve been to Assault’s Online Store you know that we try to get photos of people wearing our clothing during rock shows where there are any number of variables that you can’t account for. Such as:

• The crowd
• The amount of lights
• The layout of the venue
• The variation in color and intensity of the lights

To help you get started doing your own photography under these conditions I’ve prepared a few tips and techniques that will help take your photos from sorority party-girl self shots to Rolling Stone worthy concert photography. (Maybe not THAT good, but close)

As always, we’ll try to accomplish quality results as cheaply as possible.

Equipment: Digital SLR Camera

Your little party camera, aka the point and shoot, isn’t going to cut it. I’m sure it’s got plenty o’ megapixels, but the most important thing is that you get a large image sensor to capture more color information. I started off with a Nikon D70 DSLR that I bought off my friend Dennis Burnett for $300 bucks. It’s older than my little sister’s point and shoot, but the photos still look ten times better.

If you shop around I’m sure you can find a decent used SLR. Try Craigslist, or Ebay. (Does anyone use Ebay anymore besides Nigerian scammers?)

Not only is the camera body important, but it’s important to have a decent lens on your camera. I stuck with the zoom lens that came with my camera to start, but eventually purchased a Nikon 50mm prime lens to help in the low lighting situations.

Equipment: External Flash

A Hero Named Hope live show at the Metro Chicago

The quickest way to make your photos look like an amateur Kenny Powers photo shoot is to only use the built in flash. Buy a decent external flash. You’ll be able to shoot from further away. You can also get a better amount of light around your subject. Along with a softer light, you’ll also be able to adjust the intensity of the light so your shots aren’t washed out and overexposed.

I bought the Quantaray QDC 900WA for my Nikon D70 for $99 bucks. It looks like you can buy the same one online for the same price. Google it.

External flashes can also have a diffusion cover of some sort put on them to reduce over exposure and ensure that your subjects are softly lit.

Chris Huebner from the band, From the Broken

Camera Setup

Put your camera in manual mode. When I first started I asked my friend Dane Sponberg for some settings to start out at. Here’s what he had to say:

Try using these camera settings as a starting point:

• 800 ISO
• F4 or 4.5
• 1/30th of a second shutter speed
• Flash set to +1

If the stage lights aren’t coming through, either bump your ISO up and turn your flash down, or leave the shutter open longer, like 1/10th of a second. Just watch that, cause the longer the shutter is open, the blurrier it will get.

A few additional pointers, tips and tricks

A few of my personal additional settings/tips that you may also benefit you are to:

• Shoot in uncompressed raw mode
• Try not to overexpose, digital imagery picks up more color information in the blacks which is more easily fixed in post than an overexposed shot
• Bring an extra CF or SD card
• Charge your damn camera. I can’t count how many times I’ve been burned on this
• Use Lithium batteries in your flash so it charges up faster
• If your camera is older like mine, clean off the contacts with rubbing alcohol to ensure the external flash will work
• Shoot LOTS of images. Many will not turn out.

Some final thoughts

If you’d like to see how most of my early photo sets turned out you can look at our Flickr Photo feed. The most important thing to do when getting the shots in the show is to make sure you are shooting in NEF Raw mode so you can edit the files later in Photoshop.

The more color information you have the easier it is to make your photos look even better in post. My next tutorial will cover how to edit the photos and color correct them to make them look even better.

In the past few weeks I’ve taken over responsibility of our Twitter account from Craig with the goal of networking with as many people as possible in our industry whether it’s bands, t-shirt bloggers, designers, and web celebrities. Thankfully there are quite a few lists of designers, and t-shirt bloggers who are on twitter and there are even great utilities like Mr Tweet that help you find friends to follow in your industry. The one list I have yet to see (and maybe it’s cause I just didn’t look hard enough.) Is a list of bands that actively participate in Twitter. This is my attempt to list all the ones I have found so far:

The Glitch Mob
16Volt
CombiChrist
Words Now Heard – Also known as Chris from Merchspin
Bella Morte
Henry Rollins
Genitorturers
Dizmas
Sean from Harvey Danger
Atomic Love Bombs
Seven Day Sonnet
Bloc Party
Jimmy Eat World
Colin of The Decemberists
Jeff Finley
John Roderick
Band of Horses
Brian Eno
Andrew Bird
Bjork
Bonde Do Role
The Cardinals
Questo of the Roots
Kristin Hersh
Shaquille O’Neal – That guy from Shazaam, the genie.
Coldplay
Common
Rivers Cuomo
Dananananaykroyd
Duke Special
Snoop Dogg
Funeral For A Friend
Josh Haden
Hadouken
Calvin Harris
Imogen Heap
Tay Zonday
Hot Hot Heat
Dave Matthews
Muse
Oasis
Amanda Palmer (The Dresden Dolls)
Pearl Jam
Jack Penate
Peter, Bjorn and John
The Raconteurs
My Brightest Diamond
Q-tip
Jay Reatard
Trent Reznor
Soulwax
Britney Spears
Regina Spektor
Guy Sebastiam
Sonic Youth
The Streets
Willie Nelson
The Subways
The Teenagers
Ani Difranco
Tokyo Police Club
Timbaland
Jason from Mates Of State
Roger McGuinn / Lead singer of The Byrds
Tom Waits
Lil Wayne
Weezer
Patrick Wilson
The Wombats
We Are The Physics
Broken Records
Nick Cave
Roots Manuva
Kanye West
Boom Bip
Robert Smith (The Cure)
AC/DC
Erykah Badu
Lily Allen
Port O’Brien
Ghostface Killah
Gnarls Barkley
Bondo do Role
Chris T-T
MC Hammer
Ocean Reid
Jonathan Coulton
D.A. of Chester French
Manchester Orchestra
Cathi Bruns
Razorlight
Air Traffic
Beastie Boys
Mos Def
Sean Lennon
Sigur Ros
Panic at the Disco
Interpol
Death Cab For Cutie
Anberlin
Bad Religion
Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear
Dave Allen of Gang Of Four
Ben Kweller
John Vanderslice
Ingrid Michaelson
Wendy and Lisa
Yoko Ono
John Tesh
Soulja Boy
The Cab

Thanks to these guys for helping with the list:

• Musicians you should follow on twitter, and some you shouldn’t
• Gen from Genitorturers

Seven Day Sonnet @ The Fuel Room in Libertyville, IL

After going to a great show this weekend by a local Chicago band called Seven Day Sonnet, I realized a few mistakes that all indie bands make, that they should avoid at all costs. Besides having actual talent, of course, there are a few other things that I think you should or should not do:

Don’t Sell T-Shirts

Nearly all the bands at the show had merchandise of some sort that I don’t think anyone would have bought unless it had a “Budweiser” logo on the side of it and was drinkable. Despite probably being broke, all the bands at the show were still trying to sell some sort of apparel. Now I know that the company I run is geared towards “rockers” and t-shirts so shouldn’t I be trying to peddle my shit to them? I suppose that is true yes, but if I was in a band, and was working some shitty dead end job, there’s no way I’d hand my hard-earned money over to some t-shirt printer to put my logo on some silly hanes beefy t-shirt. Save your money, stay away from the shirts for now.

Don’t Use Friend Blaster

Most bands run their own PR these days, primarily through MySpace. As much as I hate MySpace, it can be used for good, but most of the time new bands use it to spam the HELL out of everyone who’s got a public profile.

I understand it’s tempting to use those Friend Blaster programs when you first start, simply because you can’t get anyone to listen to you, but there’s no quicker way to get everyone to ignore you than to yell louder and louder. As an alternative, I recommend using Myspace as an outlet for networking with other bands, as well as to act as a vehicle for your fans/friends to contact you as opposed to a way to spam anyone who has ever friended you.

$200 bucks towards an identity can go a long way

If you want to look a bit more legit, buy yourself a cheap domain at Godaddy, and try out a service like Crowd Spring to help you with a logo and a simple design. $200 dollars there will get you a lot further than $200 bucks on hanes beefy t’s. If you have enough money leftover, use it to get the best instruments/equipment, not some crappy apparel that only your mom and groupies (girlfriends?) want to wear.

Use your time and money creatively/wisely

I know that it seems weird to defy the predefined rules of rock, but you can party once you’re headlining your first venue. For now, you should try running your band like a business. That means calling up local venues, and putting yourself out there.

Have a simple demo CD, (or better yet a cheap USB stick loaded with music) and make sure to only give it to people who have expressed some sort of interest in your band.

“Bravery is all about people being willing to take a chance on themselves and their ideas: Are you willing to put yourself out there and risk seeing something you invented die?”

-Seth Godin

You’re going to have to put yourself out there, and email venues and other reputable rock periodicals. You’re going to have to stalk the local House of Blues owner, but putting yourself out there is going to pay off ten fold as opposed to handing out flyers outside of the local rock venues.

Strangely enough, I’m sure you can find some good PR people to friend on MySpace–Send them a friendly, personal message and see what they think of your band.

Assault custom guitar pick

No flyers, try custom guitar picks

One of the best things we’ve ever done for Assault was to giveaway free guitar picks with our logo on them. People are alot less likely to throw  those away, and they’re alot cooler than some stupid flyer. Surprisingly, custom printed guitar picks are cheap. I’m willing to bet if you spend about $200 bucks like we did you can get around 1000 picks and they cost about the same thing as a 5×7 post card. (Around .18 cents)