Larry Whitler - 12 String Poet: Blog

I noticed for the past week that my numbers have spiked considerably on my website as well as on my other sites like Soundclick and Reverb Nation.  At first I thought it was just another wave of increased web traffic that most of you probably have noticed from time to time (especially if you sell music or books online).  Now I think there's a connection between those increases in visits and the fact that The Beatles are now on I-Tunes.

Here's my theory:

When I-Tunes finally cleared up their legal obstacles that prevented them from having the Beatles music on their site they heralded that victory with hype.  Lots of hype.  That hype led to lots of on-line chatter in the form of articles, blog posts, Facebook and MySpace chatter, and who knows what else is out there!

Most music sites ask the artist to list their influences and so, among others of mine, I always list "The Beatles."  Simply by typing in their name I instantly "tagged" my site and, consequently, whenever anyone was searching for Beatles there was the potential for my sites to be included in the search. 

My theory is not without concrete evidence, by the way.  Two of my sites offer detailed analyses of the traffic to those sites that include where the traffic is coming from.  Both sites had numerous entries indicating that visitors came to my site after searching for "Beatles" on Google or Yahoo or some of the other search engines.

The good news is that the numbers of visits is WAY UP!  The BETTER news is that I've even sold a few CDs (all of them virtual, by the way, as downloads).

So, thank you I-Tunes and thank you Beatles.

And that leads to this thought: I am one of MILLIONS of fans who made the Beatles rich.  You probably contributed to them also.  So it's nice to see that there is a bit of reciprocity happening now.  I probably won't get rich from it but maybe I'll have a few extra dollars for Christmas gifts.

Of course now I'm wondering if maybe this experience has revealed a way to increase traffic on a regular basis.  If "tagging" my websites with words and phrases will attract visitors maybe I need to change those tags more often and see if I can actually ride more waves like the one I'm riding currently because of the Beatles.

That "Ah-ha" revelation is something I wanted to share with you because I'd love to know if I'm the last kid on the block to realize this!  Also, just in case it is an eye-opener for you too, maybe you can benefit from it somehow.  I suppose it would mean knowing what topics are being searched but I'm guessing it would only be a beneficial strategy if those topics were music related.  Still it's something to think about and something to try.

When I was younger and I first stumbled onto the college market it was another "ah-ha" moment that totally changed things for me.  I went from playing bars for $40 a night to colleges for $400 a night.  It was always a lot of work getting gigs whether they were in bars or colleges but at least it was worthwhile effort once the "take-home" pay was greater than my expenses!

I remember stumbling through my first year playing colleges trying to figure out how to streamline the process.  Maybe this new revelation about today's virtual music business that I just learned from The Beatles and I-Tunes will change things the way they changed all those years ago shifting me from a lounge performer to a college performer!  (You can learn more about my college gig strategy, by the way, in a little 48 page booklet I wrote some time ago.  Here's the link to that booklet: http://quillandkeyboardebooks.moonfruit.com/#/touring-musician/4546039936)

So the lesson for me (and for you, if you think my theory is correct): TAG TAG TAG!  And tag smart and with a strategic goal.  Let me know your thoughts on this.

Okay, that's all!

Larry