How Do You Find Blogs & Forums Packed With Potential Music Fans?

I just got a message from Greg Rose better known as badass DIY musician Skilf. Here is what he wants to know…

“Hi Chris,

Really appreciate the advice, just one more question: I know this might seem like an obvious one, but how do you find the blogs/forums that yield good traffic? I know that there are thousands out there on google, if you search for example rap blogs, hip hop blogs etc. But you get hundreds of results and it’s hard to know how to separate the wheat from the chaff…

All the best

Greg”

So I thought it would be a cool to jump on the cam and give Greg a couple of examples, and also help out anyone else who is interested in finding great big fish ponds full of targeted fans.

I also suggest that you sign up for Greg’s mailing list because he really does send some cool fan emails that hit all the right buttons.

So now onto the video…

- Chris

Resources mentioned in the video…

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Leave A Reply (3 comments So Far)

  • http://howtorunaband.com Chris “Seth” Jackson

    Great and simple tips! I’ll definitely use this.

    I’d like to add that you might have more success by narrowing your search. Competing with 20 million other rappers going to the same site kinda sucks and makes it hard to break through the noise. But narrow it down to “political hip-hop” or something local like “rap YourCity”. Sometimes it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond.

    Another thing is to analyze what your music is about. If your music is about geeks, maybe you should target sites for geeks instead of rap. Being a rapper about Cloud Computing on TechCrunch could get you further than competing with thousands of other rappers on a music site. For instance, Jonathan Coultan pitched his geek music to Slashdot and is now getting $200,000 a year.

  • http://www.promoteyourmusic.net Chris Rockett

    Hey man, been thinking about the idea of tapping into other markets a lot myself.
    I think we might be brain connected or something!

    In other types of marketing talking about one thing and trying to sell another is called “interruption marketing” I think, and people find it kind of sucky.

    But with music and songs anything goes…

    There is no reason why Weird Al Yankovic would not write a song about “car tires” or even “shearing sheep”.

    ….and I don’t think tire enthusiasts or sheep shearers are going to hear the tune and think…”this is blatant promotion” as long as the tune is good.

    They will probably think, “cool I’m into this, let me pass this onto my other sheep loving friends”.

    This also gives you endless opportunities to write songs about all the weird and wonderful things that you’re into.

    These are kind of extreme examples but I think this is a great way to find new pockets of fans.

    You don’t have to always do funny stuff either.

    My second album was filled up with all kinds of strange music and this concept is an exciting new way to look at marketing it.

    TWO LITTLE RULES

    - only do this with topics that you really have a deep interest in.

    - never write a song with the sole intention of taking advantage of a market. Because it will be totally transparent.

    I might do a blog post on this.

    Also agree with your google keywords tool stuff. I was doing it live so I got itchy fingers and just went for the big numbers ;-)

    Talk soon,

    - Chris

  • http://howtorunaband.com Chris “Seth” Jackson

    “Also agree with your google keywords tool stuff. I was doing it live so I got itchy fingers and just went for the big numbers ;-)

    Uh-oh. What did you do? What insanity have you unleashed? :)