How To Build A Blog Or Website

There is a huge reason you need to know how to build a blog!

It is probably the most vital key to your success as a serious artist for prolonged success.

Without your blog and website set up properly to retain the fans you worked your ass butt for, you’re potentially losing $100,000+ in the long run.

We will go over all of that in this article on how to build a blog.

I built this blog myself in 2 days using YouTube Tutorials. After that it was just tons of slight tweaks to finally get my blog JUST how I wanted it.

Then my ideas for the blog grew more and more day after day and finally it became what it is right now.

If I can do it, you can do it.

I’ll even link you to the how to build a blog tutorials I used.

I have a how to build a blog tutorial I made that will show you how to make your own blog like mine in 3 minutes below. 

The Extremely Major Benefits Of Having Your Own Blog

1) You own your blog name and your competition doesn’t!

 

This alone is a MAJOR reason you NEED to have your own blog as a rapper or music artist of any kind.

 

You don’t want other people buying your artist name domain before you do. They can re-link your blog name link to their own blog  and steal your potential fans! Don’t think this doesn’t happen, people in the industry are sneaky and conniving.

 

A side from that, some people just purchase domains so they can sell them to people who need them. There are a lot of site name ideas I had for Smart Rapper first. Unfortunately people were just pirating the blog names, sitting on them, trying to sell them for thousands of dollars once someone needs them. In my opinion that should be completely illegal to do. But since it’s not, you need to buy your rap artist name domain like YESTERDAY!

 

If not your artist blog, at least get your record label blog name before someone else snatches it.

Everyone is a wanna be artist nowadays and you need to own these things before other people take them.

If someone sees that you have the blog domain for a your record label name or your artist name, they probably won’t try to name themselves or their record label that name.

2) Come up in Google faster than other artist with your blog

 

Another very very very serious reason you need your own blog is so your rap artist name comes up in Google and Bing searches WAY EASIER. If there is other content with similar names to your artist name, it will come up before your name comes up. Owning a domain gives your rap artist name site authority in Google and makes you bigger in search engines almost immediately.

 

When someone types your name in on Google, wouldn’t it be great for the first link to be to YOUR blog? Then your YouTube, then Twitter, Instagram and Facebook? It leads right to something YOU own. The place where you tell people who and what you are and stand for.

 

3) You’re the boss! No one can take down your music and content but you. Because you own the site!

 

On other sites, be it Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. If you break their TOS (Terms Of Service) they can remove your picture or video. When you own your own blog, no one is taking anything from you! Post whatever you want!

4) You can post ANY content you want in ANY way you want to ON ANY PAGE. 

 

You can do anything you want, there are no limitations when you own the blog.

 

Once you start gaining a fan base you can do anything you want and reach all of your fans at the click of a button. Unlike Facebook and Twitter where you are charged to reach your own fan base after you’ve built it.

5) You can sell your Music CDs, T Shirts, Concert Tickets, Autographed anything and keep 100% of the money. 

 

When you use iTunes they take 30% of your music sales, Amazon Takes 20% and when you use other sites to sell your artist merchandise they take some percentage. On your own blog you keep 100% of the money you make.

 

That is why I only sell merch through my own websites and always have. And I am always SOLD OUT of clothes because fans buy everything so fast.

6) You get to tell people to go to your blog where you can show everything instead of one thing

 

Why tell someone just to go to your artist Twitter profile or Facebook page? They get distracted and wander off doing something else because of their own notifications. Directing them to your blog you can show all of your social media profiles at once, as well as your story and more things about yourself and your music.

 

Plus when you tell them to visit your music artist blog it’s not Wix.com/ThisLooksAmateur. Sites like that look super amateur and no serious music artist would have a webpage like this.

7) You can collect E-mails which is one of the most important things as an artist.

 

We will talk about this below. It is one of the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU WILL EVER DO AS A RAPPER OR MUSIC ARTIST. It’s a must for a long term career. Every major artist on the planet has an E-mail list for a reason.

8) Your blog will never be affected by the changes of dying social media sites 

 

Social media websites like Facebook and Instagram that spend years building a fan base on, will change their platform overtime and charge you to reach your own fans. Right now Facebook charges me $500 PER POST to reach my own fans. Only 2% of my hard earned fans see my posts organically (without me paying). That’s complete BS, who can afford that?!

 

Owning your own blog will never die, change or charge you money to reach your own fans. Consider that for a second. 

9) You get your own PROFESSIONAL E-mail address 

 

Answer me this, which one of these E-mails would you rather give someone who you just told you are a serious artist. YourName@Yourblog.com or YourName@Gmail.com It’s not hard to know the right answer. 🙂

 

Having your own E-mail when you make a business card or send it to someone online makes you look A LOT more official as a rap artist. It is almost intimidating to a wack rapper to see that you have your own true E-mail. Trust me, I’ve tested the two.

 

For a whole week I gave out BOTH E-mails to anyone who had Collab/Business/Brand request and for some reason 16 of the 20 people E-mailed the Gmail.

 

0 of the 16 people who Emailed the Gmail were serious artist and didn’t carry through with anything they said.

BUT, 1 of the 4 people who E-mailed my personal blog E-mail actually sent me $200 for an Instagram post.

 

That tells you something.

A little blog info so you understand it

Having a blog is FREE if you already own your the domain. The only thing that costs money is for a company to host the blog domain online. Basically it’s like owning a house but you still pay the electric company to power it. 🙂

I recommend BlueHost, they are who I used to make this entire site.  They are top 5 in the world for blog hosting. With them you can make a site that looks like nearly any other site you’ve seen on the internet.

Building a blog with Blue Host is less than $6 a month. With sign up you get the domain FREE which is usually $12-$15 and they have a 30 day money back guarantee.

That’s 1 Star Bucks Coffee a month.  Not bad 🙂

Please note that when you build a blog, Blue Host  has 1 year for the $6 a month rate.

NOTE: I’d also like to mention that it comes with $100 FREE Google Adwords and Bing marketing. So you can advertise your site with $100 for free.

Get a blog like mine in literally 5 minutes

This is How To Build A Blog and it’s really not that complicated at all.

For A tutorial on how to build your own blog like mine, in literally only 5 minutes check the video below that I made with step by step instructions.

They have a 1 click Word Press install built into their blog for you.

I don’t know if I would have this blog right now with out them.

At first I was scared to even try making a site since I didn’t know a single thing about blogs except how to browse them lol. I was on the edge of yes and no but I’m sooooo happy I decided on yes. Making a blog wasn’t that hard after I got used to it and now I can inspire people with this site. 🙂

You can click here or the image above to check out the site I recommended for How To Build Your Own blog As A Rapper.

It is super easy to navigate and set up. 

Don’t let another person or enemy take your blog domain.

Even if you’re not going to build the blog , at least get the domain today so you own it and won’t be worried.

 

Then after you have the domain for your name, redirect the domain using the big ‘Redirect’ button on the control panel page so that when people visit the blog it sends them to your Instagram, Twitter or Facebook page. 🙂

The Hosting Gator Option 

The benefit of Hosting Gator is that you can do a month to month plan instead of paying for an entire year outright like Blue Host. It will cost about $14 to start your blog. Then you have to pay $7-8 monthly. Use the code I got for you ‘2016Rapper’ to get 25% off of your sign up deal.

 

You also have 45 day money back guarantee with Host Gator which is amazing! So if you change your mind you can just get your money back. No harm no foul. 

 

Check the video below for a step by step guide on setting up using Host Gator and even installing your wordpress site in less than 4 minutes.

Click The Gator

How to name my blog as a rapper or singer

If you don’t know what to name your site here are some great tips

 

1) Use your actual artist name. Try not to use something that ends in ‘Music’ or ‘fans’. For instance you don’t want YourRapperNameMusic.com you want YourRappername.com
The only reason you buy the YourNameMusic.com is so you can redirect the blog to your real blog and so no one else can buy it.

 

2) Buy potential names or nick names you will go by later. You can redirect those blogs all to your main blog.

 

3) Buy Your Start-Up record label name blog before someone else buys it.

 

4) Have a clothing line name idea? You better buy that too while you’re at it! Everyone seems to be starting those too. I have 6 clothing line ideas and tons of T shirts for each one. I also own each domain name.

How To Use WordPress
An Inside Look For Understanding Making Your Blog

 

 

THE MUST HAVE SUPER STAR MUSIC ARTIST TOOL

The E-mail List

The Major Benefits Of Having An E-Mail List For Your Blog

1) An E-mail is as good as a phone number! It goes straight to their cell phone! And it is your music…. How is this not amazing?

2) You don’t have to randomly catch their attention on Facebook, Twitter or your Subscriber module on YouTube. There are timing issues and marketing issues with those sites. Instead it goes straight to their phone! HUGE ADVANTAGE!

 

If they aren’t online when you post your status…. How will they know you released a song? If you E-mail them, it sits in the top of their E-mail until they see it and click it. Duh!

3) Imagine you built a solid email list of 10,000 people. Every time you released a song you could email all 10,000 people at the click of a button.

 

That’s 10,000 people that may actually buy your music or check out your new video. That’s 10,000 views….. And if you’re selling it… that is possibly $10,000. 😀

 

Let’s put this in a better way, you come out with a new T-Shirt. You are selling your I’m Your Favorite Rapper T-Shirt Please Support Me T-Shirt for $20. Let’s say just 20% (1 out of every 5 people) of those people buy your $20 T-Shirt, that is $20 x 2,000 = $40,000. Yes that math is correct.

 

You Can See Why This is EXTREMELY important! That’s why I included it in How To Make Your Own blog As A Rapper.

 

You never thought of it that way, did ya? Neither did I, that’s why I started getting serious about building my E-mail list lol

 

If you’re wondering what an E-mail list is: It is a list of everyone’s E mail who is a fan of you. You won’t find one major artist who doesn’t have one.

 

If you’re trying to set up an email list for rappers, your E-mail list is set up through your blog. You must have a blog to get the E-mail list started. So before you as a rapper can take advantage of having your own E-mail list you need to go to Blue Host By clicking here and starting up your blog . 

If I was building my E-mail list when I was super buzzing getting 20,000+ views a day on my YouTube channel, I never would have stopped buzzing because I could have kept ALL of my fans attention at the click of a button with the E-mail list. This is one of my BIGGEST career mistakes. PLEASE Take my advice and start learning how to get yours created right NOW, before you even have fans. Let your fans build with you and be able to stay in contact with them.

 

Yes it may costs you a tiny tiny bit of money now… but it will make you A LOT more money later AND keep your fans interactive with you.

 

Omg I have to show you this…. This was literally yesterday. I saw a kid messaged me on Facebook and asked me if I still make music…. I never stopped…. And if I had him on my E-mail list he would have known I never stopped. Look

I also responded to him right now as I went to take the screen shot for you. Notice how I gave social proof that I HAVE been releasing rap music and doing it successfully.

 

The last time he had messaged me was 3+ years ago when I was super buzzing from a song I released.

 

Also notice my one line annoyed response of “Yes.” like…. Of course I still rap, it’s annoying that you are asking. But I can’t be mad at him because Facebook doesn’t show my posts to his news feed.

 

That’s why we need an E-mail list. That is also why I made this page on How to make a blog for rappers and How to set up Email list for rappers! It is a must! You’ll see more why below. 

Notice in the picture above, you can see that I was manually sending my 2nd album link to EVERYONE, ONE PERSON AT A TIME on Facebook in 2012….

 

Why? Because I didn’t have a f***ing E-mail list set up. 😀

 

Start your E-mail list, Now, Or you WILL regret it. TRUST ME. Please. Trust me. Do It. Now.

 

Which E-mail list provider should I use as a rapper?

There are a couple of sites that are good. I have used a bunch of major E-mail websites. The reason I always come back to knowing Aweber is the best choice is because they are the industry standard in E-mail list. Number 1 across the board. They have the best services, the best tools, the best auto responders and more.

 

The other blogs have great tools as well but unfortunately, I learned that when I grow a LARGE fan base, the other E-mail list providers didn’t have the tools I needed to properly take hold of my fan base. Since Aweber has the best tools, they can start with you and be great no matter how far you make it. With other providers there are limits and things they cannot do that you will wish they could do when you blow up.

 

I learned this the hard way, so listen! When you start an E-mail list, people sign up to the list and are sent an E-mail to verify that they joined your list! This is a GOOD THING. Because if too many people start getting E-mails that didn’t verify to be on your list, they will mark your E-mails as spam and NONE OF YOUR FANS WILL GET THE E-MAIL. This is why you have to build this list carefully and at a healthy, REAL pace.

 

The reason I am telling you this is because if you start an E-mail list with another E-mail provider and gain say 10,000 subscribers to your E-mail list. They all opt in on that provider. But if you try to switch later to the bigger service like Aweber, they by law have to send out another opt in email to each subscriber. Each Email subscriber has to AGREE to join your list AGAIN! What if they don’t see it? Or what if they just ignore the E-mail or delete it they don’t get signed back up. That means you could lose a TON of your E-mail subscribers.

 

I had 4,000 over E-mail subscribers from my Reverbnation profile from being Number 1 in Chicago for years and tried to swap them to another provider, only 500 people resigned up. 🙁

 

So it is best to stick with one E-mail provider for the long run. And the best one is the best choice so you don’t regret it later.

 

Aweber also has amazing tools like SPAM CHECKERS that let you know if your E-mail is likely to look like spam or be marked as spam before you even send it out. That is just one of the great tools they have.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT AWEBER

When you go there, go top right and sign up for a FREE Trial to check it out.

 

After you get an Aweber account, you can simply install plug ins into your Word Press blog like mine. It collects the E-mail and sends them an E-mail to opt-in, BOOM they are on your list. You can use great tools like Opt In monster to create pop ups that ask fans who visit your site for their E-mail in cool ways.

 

After you have an E-mail list, you create Ask your current friends for their email addresses and get started! Okay? Okay! 😀 By the way, join my E-mail list for more great articles like this 😛

 

DISCLAIMER: Just so you know I am an affiliate of all of the companies above. That means I get a small commission if you do decide to use them. It helps you and it helps me as well. I have used these companies before and everything above is true. This is to be up front and honest 🙂

 

Good Luck! 

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