Web Hosting Blog

In a perfect world, everything would just work correctly all the time. But sometimes they don’t and you will want to contact us for a little help. Here are some tips to help us help you faster.

Read the rest of this entry »

There are many scammers out there on the internet. You may receive an email that appears to be legitimate, but it isn’t. Here’s an example.

Subject: yourdomain.com account notification

The contents of the email will contain the following, with your email account domain inserted in order to increase the credibility and to also attempt to evade spam filtering systems:

Dear Customer,

This e-mail was send by yourdomain.com to notify you that we have temporarily prevented access to your account.
Read the rest of this entry »

In order to have a website, you need a domain name so people can find you on the internet. For example, ours is Hostbaby.com.  Your domain name registration is totally separate from your monthly hosting fee. It’s an annual charge of about $10 or so, to maintain your domain registration.

You may have purchased your domain name through Hostbaby, or through Godaddy.com or Namecheap.com or any of the other registrars out there. Regardless of where you purchased the domain name, you do have to pay to renew it annually.
Read the rest of this entry »

A good quality email list is an excellent tool to use to market your music career. The big questions are, how do you build that list and how do you use it effectively? Here are some good ideas I’ve used.  Please share your ideas in the comments!

Grow Your List

• Offer a signup sheet at your live shows. I’ve made you a basic blank one you can print out and use. You could also open the .doc version in Word and add in your band name and any other info you’d like to collect. (Email list signup sheet: .doc or .pdf)  Bring it to the show on a clipboard ($1.89 at Office Depot!) and tie a pen to it so that folks don’t have to go digging for one. Mention it during your set, ask folks to stop by your table and put their name on the list. Promise that you won’t spam them, and tell them it’ll make them one of the cool kids if they sign up. You could even offer some incentive if they sign up, such as a free song download or a drawing for comps to your next show.

• Have a “join the email list” signup box on every page of your website, so it’s easy to find. On the site, you can give an incentive to sign up for the list too. Again, a free download is ideal, you could also run a monthly contest of some sort, drawing for a free t-shirt, comp tickets to your show, a free CD–whatever you have available to build some excitement about being on the list. Here is a tutorial on how to give a free download if you are using our Listbaby.

• Use other social networks to promote list signups. Mention it on your Myspace/Facebook/Twitter feed. You can have a link straight to the list signup from your page. Most folks can just link to http://yourdomain.com/list.html (replacing yourdomain.com with *your actual domain name*. Here is a tutorial on how to link it from your Myspace page. Feel free to email us if you need help with this!

What To Do

• Send emails to your list regularly, but not too often; only send a message when you actually have important things to say. No one wants to know that you had toast for breakfast, but everyone wants to hear about upcoming shows, CD releases, any other newsy info you have to share.

• Keep the email short, paragraphs should be about 5-10 lines. People are often in a hurry and they scan through email messages, so make sure your email has the most important point in the first sentence of each paragraph.

• You need an exciting subject line! You want your email to be opened and read. Don’t make it sound like hype.  Simply state a benefit the reader will get for reading your message.

• Let your personality show in the email. People don’t want a sales pitch, they want to know the inside scoop about you or your band or your music. Try to make the reader feel like they are an ‘insider’ with special knowledge of your music because they are on your list.

What Not To Do

• Do not buy/rent/borrow lists from others. Even if it’s being sold as “100% safe opt-in list” – it’s not; it’s spamming. Folks on your list need to have asked to be on *your specific list*, either by signing up at your site, or on the aforementioned signup sheets at shows.

• Be cautious about mailing to your list if the topic isn’t you or your music. Topics like politics, religion, get-rich-quick schemes, etc. are probably not good topics for your messages unless your music is specifically about one of those subjects. Definitely don’t forward chain emails, jokes, etc.  Instead, stick to the purpose of the list – you and your music!

• Don’t send messages with spelling or grammar errors! Use spell check and grammar check or have a brainy friend read it over for you before you send it out.

What techniques have you used to grow your email list and to use it for effective marketing?

Why do I need a domain name?

A domain name is like a brand name – it identifies your website and helps make you findable on the internet. A domain name lets visitors type your domain name right into the browser’s address bar and arrive at your web pages directly, without having to search for you.

Shorter is better!

Try saying your proposed domain name out loud. Do you have to spell it out for people to get it right? Does it send you diving for a pen and paper? Imagine saying it into the microphone at your performance. Will your fans still remember it when they get home?

Try to avoid hyphens and abbreviations in the domain name, if possible. If you are going to use an abbreviation, use the most common version of it – don’t make one up.

Also type out the domain name and see how it looks in writing. Is it possible to misunderstand the words/meaning by breaking the words up differently?

For example – Mole Station Nursery – www.molestationnursery.com comes out reading like “molestation nursery” which is really bad. A hyphen would have helped that – mole-station-nursery.com might have been a better choice in that case. So check out your domain name in writing and make sure it reads ok.

.com or .net or …?

Ideally, you would get the .com version of your domain name. If the name that you really want is not available as a .com, you’ll want to look at the .com site before you choose .net or another extension. That is because people usually think of .com first, and if they are looking for you and put .com in by  mistake, you want to make sure they do not end up at some porn or scam site.

If you are a Hostbaby customer, or are thinking of becoming a Hostbaby customer, feel free to contact us for help brainstorming the perfect domain name for you. We are here for you!