Kyle Ritter

But I like using basic simple tools with few bells and whistles.

I still use simple text to write HTML, I don’t update IM clients much, and I don’t have a fondness for many new versions of software. It’s been awhile since anything truly significant was changed in Photoshop, I only use Fireworks for slicing and optimizing images. Even though I don’t like to use it for web projects, every new version of Flash has been the only upgrade that I significantly found more useful.

This stemmed from a conversation about upgrading MSN Instant Messenger to include more stuff. Nah.

With some of my websites I have found that the image search function for both Google and Yahoo has generated a significant increase in traffic. In fact, I have one website that increased it’s daily uniques by over 300 visitors a day, just because of image searching. I watched my sales and advertising clickthrough rates skyrocket, as well as my conversion ratios.

Let do the math: 300 uniques average x 30 days per month = 9000 new targeted visitors per month.

The key, like any other search optimization techniques, is relevancy. Those alt tags parameter that can be included in the <img> helps the search engine understand the content of your images. Otherwise, they are seen by spiders big block of pixels with no real meaning.

Your image naming conventions also help. Let’s say your website is about guitars and you have photos of various Gibson Les Pauls. Naming your image “1979-gibson-les-paul.jpg” is far more beneficial than say “picQ13F344.jpg”.

Couple your image naming with the alt tag: <img src=”images/1979-gibson-les-paul.jpg” alt=”1979 Gibson Les Paul”>

Image size is also a concern. I have found that images larger than 150 x 150 pixels do quite well, as they are large enough to illustrate a clear picture. I believe this is factor in the search algorithm, however, it is difficult to substantiate that claim. I do know my luck has been good when they are over 150×150. Likewise, if it is a thumbnail that clicksthrough to a larger image, give the larger image the arbitrary name, while giving the thumbnail the descriptive name. This will help cut down on your bandwidth while keeping your traffic flowing.

Now naturally, you’ll want your surrounding text to also be topical. Surrounding it with a brief overview of the the 1979 Gibson Les Paul will help favor your image even more.

Many image searches open their results in a frameset. Sometimes, this can have a detrimental effect on how your website is displayed. I personally use an external javascript to break out of all frames, including those generated by links in hotmail accounts. I haven’t had any problems with the search engines, however, some may frown upon this use and choose not to include your website. If you go this route and get banned, please do not blame me. I am just relaying my experience.

Taking the time to utilize these simple tactics can yield impressive results overtime. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but certainly it should help you generate enough traffic to do something with.

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For musicians, this technique can work wonders for their search engine traffic.

One suggestion I have made to clients is to request permission from photo copyright holders to include pictures of musicians in your genre that you enjoy on your own website. If you are given permission, or if you have photos that you hold the copyright to, build a separate pages dedicated to these musicians. Use the above image search optimization techniques in conjunction with these pages and make sure you have links pointing to the pages from at least one or two linked pages on your main site.

If you would like more information, read my article How to Promote Band Websites.

Joe Griffin puts it best in his article entitled The Google Economy

Google makes friends with the popular people (used in metaphor to represent websites). Google does not care about the new kid in school.

If you can understand his simple principle, you will be well on your way to laying out a solid foundation for generating google traffic. Get links. From popular sites. Build your network. Simple.

So you built your beautiful website about your band. You have some MP3s uploaded, you have your show date calendar, and maybe some biographies and photos posted.

Operating under the assumption that you are in local garage band that plays a gig or two every few months, you are going to have a daunting task. Since you are a “no-namer” no one is going to be looking for you. You’ll have to get a supply of fresh traffic who would be interested in your music, but that has not yet heard of you. Prepare yourself, building your site was only the first step. The hard work has yet to begin.

First off, let’s take a look at your website – Is it graphically heavy? Is your website primarily using flash? Loading content in frames or pop ups? Do you have graphical splash screens, or indecipherable or hard to find navigation?

If so, scrap it – It will be one of the most difficult websites to promote.

Instead, use clean HTML, text based links, and HTML text where ever possible. If you are trying to promote yourself, it is best to not block search engine spiders and users with slower machines. This is not to say you can’t doll-up your site a bit, after all, you are an artist, but tone it down. Wait until you are a bigger name to do the fancy stuff.

Now, you have rebuilt your site, right? Okay, your are using clean HTML, going lighter on the graphics and tighter on the text.

Now take a look at your content. Make sure your pages include

Okay – now it’s time to get to work.

Trade links with other websites
Trading links is a valuable tool when it comes to website promotion. Build a links page and place a link to it in your current navigation. Include links to sites you like, and bands you like, naturally. Here is the kicker. Send and email to the webmaster of the sites you are linking too. Ask them if they will put a link back to your website in exchange. Trading with musicians of a similar niche can generate a new stream of surfers who have an interest in the type of music you play.

Link trades also are valuable for scoring points in the search engines. Google and Yahoo both use links as factors in determining how relevant a site is to a search query. Having many websites of similar style pointing back at you can help boost your rankings.

If you make it a goal to get one new quality reciprocal link a day, you should be getting a steady stream of traffic from interested surfers within months.

Submit to Directories
Submit your website to categorized directories. One of the largest directories that can positively influence your rankings is DMOZ. It’s worthwhile to submit to the appropriate category. If your website meets their guidelines, and human editor makes a decision of whether to include it or not. Sometimes this can take up to 6 monthes to get reviewed, and timespans of over 2 years are not uncommon. In one case, the band Shamelady was listed 5 days after submission, but this is a rarity.

Submitting to specialized local and niche directories are also a valuable source of linkbacks and traffic.

Press Releases
Write a press release about your newest band news. Include it both on your websites, and submit it to other news oriented sites such as Music Industry News Network . These often get re-published by other outlets and help spread your name.

Persistence and Consistence
Promoting your website is much like getting gigs. You must maintain a level of persistency and consistency. Your hard work will pay off in the long run, there is no such thing as a short cut to success

Lately, I’ve had a little extra time building up between now and my next project, so I have been surfing craiglist heavily looking for projects to fill in the void. While I’ve found some promising stuff, most of the things posted are pure crap.

Henceforth, I felt the need to take a look at the 3 worst types of people who offend us gig-seekers.

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3. The Portfolio Freeloader

The Porfolio Freeloader usually post ads that read as follows:

I am seeking a professional, high quality designer to do my website. I can’t afford to pay, however this would be an excellent website to put on your portfolio.

Basically, they want a professional to do the work for free. Sounds enticing!

Lets say you are looking for a prostitute. Really, you are looking for the highest quality professional who makes her living in the world’s oldest profession.

I suggest that the Portfolio Freeloader tries posting another ad: ” I’m looking to get laid, I want a professional hooker to screw my brains out. I can’t afford to pay, but it would be an excellent lay to add to your experience”.

Any hooker or web designer who responded to this ad believing that it would be in their benefit would only hurt themselves and their credibility to a certain extent. If you want to do free work, build your own site first. Figure out what works, and what doesn’t. If you are going to do free work, intern a bit with a reputable company. Don’t work for free for too long though, long enough to learn the ropes, the ins, and the outs.

This of course doesn’t include donating time to your favorite local charity’s or social organization’s website, which I have myself have done in the past. Didn’t see any hookers offering free sex for charity workers, but it’s a novel idea.

Portfolio Freeloader, please stop posting your ads. You make our neighborhood look dirty and cheap.

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2. Equity Sloth

The Equity Sloth has the “Coolest Product” and the “Best Idea” for a website, ever. In fact, they have so much faith in their product’s badassness, that they don’t think they should have to do any work…at all.

A typical Equity Sloth’s ad looks like this

I a great idea for a website to sell my unique product. I am looking for a web designer to take charge of this excellent opportunity for a share of equity in the company.

Translation: I lack the ability or motivation to sell my product in the traditional marketplace, therefore, I don’t have money I’m willing to risk by extending my reach onto the internet. You will do everything, marketing, construction, maintenance, and I will sit there and daydream about how great my idea is! You get 20% of any profits made! What a fabulous opportunity for you!

Usually the idea is this “I am afraid of germs and I made a toilet seat handle that makes it so you don’t have to touch the toilet seat to lift it. Now, you only have to touch the pee encrusted handle!”

Oh Equity Sloth, will you ever learn?

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Reaching into the depths of my memory, I will now talk about the number one single worst client to work with in the world.

1. Graphic Designer Primadonna (GDP)

I can’t count the number of foul metaphors I could use to describe this dastardly villian. The Graphic Designer Primadonna is so convinced of his aesthetic rightousness that no matter what the medium, his visual commercial design rivals of the masterfulness of the Sistine Chapel.

When it comes to websites, the GDP will unleash his frenzied yet inspired web designs on his 1200×1600 Photoshop canvas.

After several unsuccesful attempts at uploading this monstrosity of billboard proportions the GDP will post the following ad

Wanted – Web guru to help finish a website for a client. The website is designed, I designed it, so I really just want someone who can make it work. This is NOT a design job, I designed the website. I just want it to work.

Translation: “I am god. Just because I don’t understand the technical aspects of the web, I DESIGN a superior website because I am an artist and you are more technical. ”

So where did the GDP go wrong? First off, when he told a client “yes, I can make you a website.” Then, operating under the assumption that web design was kind of like designing a magazine ad or bus stop billboard, the GDP goes on to create a Frankenstein that he can’t control. Obviously, when the GDP has to contact someone, he wants to keep it exactly how he designed it, and wants a web professional to do it.

GDP projects become a nightmare, often because of unworkable design, egos, as well as being a piece of work that you really don’t want to put in your portfolio.

My advice to Graphic Designer Primadonnas: Stick to designing individual graphic elements until you have learned some of the fundamentals about web design, or let the web designer do his job.

Not hours after I launched this and another blog, a whole series of comment spam came flooding in – You know, the usual sort: Casinos, pharmaceuticals, porn, and more.

So in an effort to combat this, I have made it a requirement for anyone who wishes to post to have cookies enabled in their browser.

And if you use Wordpress, here is the code I used:

Paste the following on the first line before ‘require(‘header.php’)’ in index.php

setcookie ("hell_no_jerky",time(), time()+36000);

Now, in wp-comments-post.php go to line 51 or so and paste this:

if (!isset($_COOKIE['hell_no_jerky'])) {
die('You need to have cookies enabled to post comments here. This is to prevent malicious bastards running automated scripts from spamming the comment sections with useless links to websites about Hair Loss, gambling, and Russian Teen Mud Wrestling.');
}

What are these guys thinking, anyway? Google PageRank is dead. They would be better off searching for relevant backlinks and working on strong anchor text.

After getting off the phone with a potential client today, I realized something: There are many dishonest and shady web designers and developers out there that are taking peoples money even when they don’t have the skills necessary to complete the project.

To me, this is unethical, and a horrible way to conduct business. However, if you are honest with them, and decline a project that is out of your league, you can gain wonderful future references, and even more work from that same person.

The particular client I was talking to had an ASP.NET shopping site that was 85% complete. If it were just some minor bugs, I could handle that, but after looking at it, it was way out of my league. I told her so in a forthright manner “I can not do this project. Here is why: ”

Her reaction was nothing but appreciative for my honesty. We discussed her site some more, on things she could do to help with search engine positioning/traffic generation, and how she would go about finding a skilled and reputable ASP programmer.

While I gained no immediate revenue from this, I believe that I was able to gain a strong degree in trust from her. Perhaps at a future date, she may require some design work, or some help with search engine optimization. I can’t help but think that I will be a consideration at that later date.