DONT…

1. Spam others people’s walls with your event, video or website. We wouldn’t put this down as #1 if it weren’t still happening…alot! Now there’s a difference between telling a few people and posting the link on 100 fans walls in one day.  Don’t use other people’s Facebook accounts like their your bulletin board.
2. Post a pdf file of your upcoming shows. And again, this wouldn’t be #2 if people didn’t still do it all the time.  Got a show? Send a link to your online calendar. No pdfs. Especially no pdf attachments.
3. Send a non-clickable link.  I personally get annoyed when artists try to promote something, but don’t “help” their fans.  Unfortunately, as we’ve said many times on this blog, people are lazy. They are more likely to click google.com  than to copy/paste google.com into their browser. Both go to the same place, but only one will get you the desired traffic you’re looking for.
4. Expect people to scavenge your website until they find the specific information they’re looking for. People hate that. Send them directly to the exact page. Don’t make them search.
5. Send a newsletter through your Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail account (or any others).  Yes, there are still people doing this.  If you’re sending out any type of regular mass email, make sure you’re using an email provider like YMLP (Your Mailing List Provider), Fanbridge, Constant Contact, or a handful of others. See: “10 TIPS FOR WRITING A GOOD EMAIL NEWSLETTER“
6. Drop off the face of the earth. If you’re trying to actively build a fanbase, you can’t just disappear for weeks at a time.  In talking over the phone with someone today, I told the person, without Facebook, Twitter, and the ever-so-important mailing list, independent musicians don’t have a chance of making a career out of music.  The reality is, even when you’re not making music, you need to remind people that you still exist.  If they remember you, they will remember your music.  See: “WHAT EXACTLY DOES A FULL-TIME ARTIST DO ALL DAY?“
7. Create Facebook Invites and invite everyone to everything. Yea…this still happens quite alot too. Know that the more often you send people what they consider to be SPAM, the sooner they will tune you out and opt out of reading anything you send.
8. Assume that just because someone likes your Facebook page, that you’ve got a fan for life. Like does not equal Love.  Just because you have 600 fans doesn’t mean you actually have 600 fans…or at least not 600 committed fans. This is where #6 comes in hand – maintain your web presence.
9. Don’t pick the money over the fans. Ok this is hard one. But remember, money will come and go. A good fan will last you a lifetime. If you’ve got a really great fan-building gig, take it and make it worth the risk.
10. Do Nothing. Might sound like a no-brainer, but many people sit and do nothing because they don’t know where to start. Just start somewhere. DREAM BIG, START SMALL