Today we are going to be talking about the 3 things you need right now to start a beat selling website
It’s really important that music producers start with the basics, instead of trying to sell beats online without knowing what you need and what it takes to succeed online.
I want to show you how you can create your own beat selling website today and start building your own brand from the jump.
Most music producers skip building a website and go straight to using 3rd party websites which they don’t control.
I’m going to show you why using 3rd party websites as your main beat selling website is a huge mistake and how you can avoid that by creating your own.
Why You Should Own Your Beat selling website
I know you might have a Soundcloud page, Beatstars page or a Soundclick page, but we want you to build your own brand instead of spending your time marketing other peoples websites.
With your own beat selling website, you have the ability to:
- Get more potential customers coming directly to you by leveraging SEO (search engine optimization).
- Build a brand that attracts customers who are most likely to buy from you.
- Optimize your music producer website so that you’re converting visitors into loyal, repeat buyers (even while you sleep).
Without your own website, you lose the ability to have 100% control of your beat selling business.
Remember in 2018 when BeatStars got hacked and was down for an entire week?
There was nothing to do but sit back and wait for BeatStars to fix it.
Imagine losing an entire week’s worth of potential sales.
When you have your own beat selling website, all of this is in your control.
You’re never at the mercy of someone else.
How to create a producer website in 10 easy steps
- Get a domain name.
- Get Hosting for your domain.
- Build your website with WordPress or buy a pre made theme.
- Add a beats player to your website. We recommend Airbit or Beatstars.
- Upload at least 20 to 30 beats.
- Use an email marketing service for list building management.
- Create at least 3 pages for your website. Home page, contact page and about us page.
- Create a Google Analytics account and add the code to your new website.
- Learn about digital marketing.
- Drive traffic to your website.
Is Starting a Beat Selling Website Hard?
I know what you’re thinking:
- “I don’t have the time to build a website.”
- “I don’t know code and I don’t want to learn.”
- “I don’t have the money to build a website.”
- “Building a website is expensive.”
It’s true that you can spend a lot of time and money to have a website built.
That’s not the only way to do it, though.
Website builders have come a long way in the last few years.
You can build a website without a drop of coding know-how.
You don’t have to spend a fortune to build it and you can build a website that you love in a few days, not a few months.
So if you’ve dismissed the idea of having your website as too expensive or too time-consuming, it’s time to reconsider.
Okay. You know you need your own music producer website.
You know it’s possible without a lot of money and time.
But how?
Where do you start?
Domain Name and Hosting For Your Beat Selling Website
So, the first thing you will need when you decide to create your own website is a domain name.
The domain name is the www.Igotbeats.com for example.
These are really cheap maybe costing you anywhere from $6 to $15 per year.
There are a few things you need to keep in mind when you choose a domain:
- Don’t choose domains that are hard to pronounce.
- Shorter is better. No one wants to type a long website address.
- Don’t use anything else other than letters.
Next you’re going to need a hosting service to host your domain name which will cost you anywhere from 3 to 9 bucks per month, which is really cheap as well.
Hosting provides the server space for your website to be stored and makes it possible for it to be viewed.
For our website we went with Bluehost.
This service will give you a package deal with a free domain name which works great.
They also have tremendous customer service.
There are hundreds of options. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- You’ll pay for hosting on a monthly, ongoing basis.
- There’s a wide range of costs from $2 a month to $150 a month. Shoot for hosting in the $10-25 range.
What’s The Best Beat Selling Website Builder?
Next, you decide which website builder you will use. You’ll see these called a CMS which stand for Content Management System.
Simply, these are where you will build your website from.
WordPress is a great place to start because you can build a website for free and in a few days without any coding knowledge.
There are hundreds of templates that you can start from. You can also purchase premium templates at relatively low prices from themeshop.
WordPress also comes with the ability to install plugins.
These are like apps on your phone. You download a plugin and it’ll work right within your website.
There are hundreds of plugins that serve just about every purpose you can think of.
Your imagination is your only limitation.
[Tweet “WordPress is a great place to start because you can build a website for free and in a few days without any coding knowledge.”]
WordPress is also great if you do know some code or you plan to learn it.
Every template can be customized so if you know even just a little bit of code, you can do a lot to customize your website.
A simple Google search will teach you a lot.
If you don’t like WordPress or just want to explore, there are other options.
Wix, Squarespace, and Webflow are all popular choices.
Where you choose to build your beat selling website depends on your tolerance for learning some code, designing your website, and learning the tool itself.
Now that we have the website ready to go we need to upload our beats.
Which Player Should I Use For My Beat Selling Website?
The beat player service that we recommend right now is Airbit player. This service is great for starters. They take care of all the payment processing which is a good thing.
They make the beat selling process as simple as it can gets. Just load up your beats, connect your Paypal or Stripe account and you’re ready to start taking payments without any headaches.
Determine the pages of your beat selling website.
At a minimum, you want a home page, about page, licensing page, and a contact page.
Your home page will be the most visited page on your beat selling website so it needs to tell visitors quickly and clearly what you can offer them.
The top part of the page is crucial real estate for grabbing their attention and keeping them on your site.
This space is referred to as “above the fold” content.
It’s what they see before they start scrolling down the page.
I recommend adding your beats player in the above the fold section.
Your about page should help visitors to learn about you.
The goal is to build your credibility.
Help them to learn about you.
Tell them how many years you’ve been selling beats, how many you’ve sold, what known artists you have produced for, notable accomplishments and customer reviews…this is your resume and your time to shine.
This is your place to sell yourself. Don’t be shy.
Your licensing page is where you display your licensing options and make it easy for the visitor to buy beats from you.
Don’t distract with anything else. Simplicity is best here.
Your contact page can be simple and basic. It should include how they can contact you and a form that allows them to subscribe to your email list. (More about that on step 3.)
See our Airbit Vs Beatstars post here
See FL Studio Review
What About Selling Beats With Email Marketing?
Once we have that set up the next thing we will need is a email management service.
This is the way we are going to build our business, through email marketing.
We are going to use a service like aweber and add a sign up form to our website so we can start creating leads from the get go.
Get this done! believe me this will be the most important investment for your business.
There are many email management services out there like aweber, contant contact, get response, mailchimp, etc.
We recommend aweber cause that’s what we use, but it’s up to you to find the one that will fit your business and your budget.
Send Your First Email Newsletter Today – AWeber Communications
The primary things you want to look for are the different pricing tiers (does the basic plan to the premium plan jump from $10 a month to $60 a month?) and the ability to automate emails.
Most are priced upon the number of contacts you have.
You don’t want to get started with an email service that’s going to kill you in costs as you are growing your email list.
Automation allows you to have emails automatically sent.
For example, when someone downloads some free beats from you on your website, you need that email to be automatically sent to them immediately.
Then you want to put them on a “nurture” path where you send a series of 5-10 emails.
These all get sent automatically and are triggered as soon as they download your free beats lead magnet.
If you had to send these manually, you’d spend way too much time on email. It’s not sustainable.
Selling Beats with Email and SEO
“Build it and they will come” is not a rule you want to live by.
You need to help people know that you exist and get them on your website.
Then, when they are on your website, you need to help them to engage with you.
There are two key things you need to do to accomplish this: SEO and lead magnets.
If Google and other major search engines aren’t finding your website, no one else will either.
You need to signal Google that you exist and have relevant information for people searching Google.
You do this through SEO, search engine optimization.
Moz has free SEO courses that’ll teach you everything you need to know.
You can also learn for free how to use Google Analytics for free.
Building SEO takes time but it is one of the most impactful things you can do to increase your beat sales.
You have to know what is causing people to come to your website and what they’re doing when they get there.
It’s a numbers game. The more people you can get on your beat selling website the more chances you have to make a sale. And, it’s free.
Once they are on your website, you need a way to get their contact information.
Not everyone who visits your beat selling website will buy beats from you and because of that, you need to give them a reason to give you their email address.
It’s a wasted opportunity if potential buyers are leaving your website without a way for you to contact them again.
The way to do this is with a lead magnet (Free Beats) . A lead magnet is downloadable digital content that your potential buyers will happily give their email address in exchange for.
It can be a free beats, a checklist, or step-by-step instructions.
The goal is to entice them just enough to convince them to give them your email.
When you have your lead magnet created, put an opt-in form for this lead magnet on every single page of your beat selling website.
You can also use pop ups and put it in your footer. Ask them to leave just their first name and email address.
A lead magnet is one of your most valuable assets to getting more customers.
Here’s why:
- Giving our email address in exchange for valuable information is a form of currency.
- It’s a signal to you that this person has high potential to buy from you
- Email is the number way to get more sales
The more value you provide, the more they’ll be inclined to buy from you. Email is your ticket to building credibility, trust, and a relationship with people who are your most likely beat buyers.
So these are the top 3 things you need right now to create a beat selling website.
- You need a website you need to build your brand from the start
- You need a beat player to upload those beats and get visitors to hear them
- You need and email management service, this is key this will grow your business every single day.
Building your own website will require some work.
Don’t let that deter you.
If your goal is to grow your sales, then a beat selling website is the key to doing that.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much money does is take to create my own beat selling website?
The cost of creating your own beat selling website will range between $15 to $40 per month. This will include the cost of your hosting provider, domain name and Beats player. You can use the free WordPress site builder to get started.
Can I Use Beatstars or Airbit as my website?
Yes you can, but we recommend building your own brand on your own domain. Music producers should always be in control of their own business and not a 3rd party website. That being said, Airbit and Beatstars both have great features.
Is Selling Beats online Profitable?
Yes! Did you know that the online beat selling game is a 30 million per year industry? With all that money being made by online music producer it’s only right that you get your piece of the pie.
Is it Hard to Sell Beats Online?
It all depends on you. If you treat your beat selling business just like a business and be consistent every day you will succeed. Selling beats month after month does take work and determination. Being consistent is really important here.
