Evening all, and welcome to another edition of the BandFreaks Band Finder Member Magazine. This is emailed to all bands and artists who currently have a listing in the BandFreaks Band Finder. This Magazine is mailed no more than two times a month with tips, tricks, news, and updates about the Band Finder and your account. The full Magazine is available in HTML format at: http://www.bandfreaks.com/support/band_and_artist_newsletter_07_26_05.shtml

Information on how to unsubscribe from these important updates are available at the bottom of this email.

Now that BandFreaks has taken off and our nifty Finder has found a popular place with many music fans out there, a lot of our bands and artists are getting some great fan activity at their websites. Now at thousands of searches and outgoing fan hits a day, people are pouring through the Finder and actually getting connected to the music they want, and our bands are getting fans that are interested, buying their music, and getting involved -- which is what we're all about. MANY changes are afoot at the bandfreaks.com Band Finder right now, so be sure to read over this edition to get a better idea of what is changing and what has already changed.

FIRST OF ALL, TO ANSWER A QUESTION WE'VE BEEN RECEIVING LATELY FROM A FEW OF OUR BANDS -- WHAT IS HITCLICK?

1 -- BandFreaks is NOT another MP3 site. It's a Band Finder, which is an entirely new concept that's designed to target fans to your music and then get them to your band's website. BandFreaks is targeted to music fans as an indie review site, music community, and Band Finder. Fans visit BandFreaks for music news and reviews and to seek out new new bands and music, and is quickly becoming a popular alternative for music lovers to find new bands and artists. On the other side of things (the "backstage"), many bands also use BandFreaks to get fans to their artist pages, which is a good way to get your music in the charts through tons of actual plays by tons of actual fans.

2 -- It's designed to allow you, the artist, to "sit at the helm" of your fan traffic. As things get busier and busier, it's going to be more than possible to spend the day just unleashing fans to your website and watching the activity stir around on your end. It's also entirely possible just to "set it and forget it".

3 -- The Band Finder is FREE for bands. Our Finder works on a keywords and credits system, so your account is reduced by at least one credit (one cent) every time a fan clicks on your listing. Each band in our system gets free credits added to their account every month to get continuous traffic from the Finder. Bands bid a certain amount of band credits for each keyword, and listing positions are based on keyword bids. This allows bands to decide where they show up in the search results. On top of the free monthly band credits, bands can also add additional credits to their Finder account by depositing funds into their account through the 'Backstage' area.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE NEW F.A.Q.s FOR MORE ON WHAT THE BAND FINDER IS AND HOW TO MAKE USE OF IT IN OUR NEW SUPPORT SECTION AT:

http://www.bandfreaks.com/support/faq

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MAKE AND SELL YOUR BAND'S T-SHIRTS ONLINE FOR FREE -- NO STOCK REQUIRED! CHECK IT OUT AT:
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/storeref.aspx?refby=bandfreaks

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IN THIS ISSUE:

CHANGES AND MORE

1. bandfreaks.com To Become BandFreaks.Com
2. New Support Section for Bands
3. More Mood, Mods, and Genres Available for Keywords
4. New Search Options Added for Fans
5. Member's Area Redesign
6. More Fan Traffic Than Ever Before

COMING SOON

1. Updates to the Band Finder coming soon
2. BandFreaks.Com to launch extensive offline campaign

TIPS AND TRICKS

1. GETTING STARTED: Using the Support Section
2. A Good Description Counts
3. Adding Keywords to Your Account
4. Advertising for Bands
5. Getting Reviewed By BandFreaks

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CHANGES AND MORE
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FIND OUT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON AT HITCLICK THIS MONTH!

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bandfreaks.com TO BECOME BANDFREAKS.COM

The BandFreaks Independent Music Network is slated to change name to BandFreaks.Com later this week. This transition comes complete with a new updated look and improved functionality for our renowned"Band Finder", now increasingly growing in popularity.

BandFreaks.Com will provide the same independent music news, independent music reviews, indie band and artist coverage, and the same Band Finder found at bandfreaks.com. However, BandFreaks.Com marks a definite shift in the future of the site and the BandFinder. The change will be completed by August 1st.

Many of you have probably noticed or see the changes throughout the website -- BandFreaks has been given a new 'skin' to accomodate the change in identity and to prepare the new promotional campaigns (both online and off). Our admins have been making the changes in small phases throughout the website in order to make the transition over to BandFreaks.Com both seamless and immersive.

For bands and artists in our band finder, this means more marketability and traffic to your listings. We currently don't expect any downtime with the change, however we do expect small chunks of the old bandfreaks.com to still be hidden around the new BandFreaks.Com site following the transition. We will be working around the clock to smooth over the changes to make this switchover as error-free as possible. Please be sure to update your bookmarks and tell your friends and other bands about us here at BandFreaks.

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NEW SUPPORT SECTION FOR BANDS

Recently, we've added a new support section for bands and artists in the Finder. This Help & Support section is currently available and should answer all your questions about how to use the Finder, adding keywords to your account, managing your traffic, and getting help when you need it. The new support area will help you understand our Band Finder and help some of you get more fan traffic than you're probably getting.

The Band Finder support section is now available at http://www.bandfreaks.com/support

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MORE MOODS, MODS, AND GENRES AVAILABLE FOR KEYWORDS

As part of our updates, we just added a slew of new genre keywords, mood keywords, and genre modifier keywords for fans to search with and for bands to add to their accounts. If you haven't already done so, now is a really good time to log into your account, open the listing tool, and take a look at the new keywords that are available to add to your account.

REMEMBER that fans will be searching for bands using these keywords, so staying on top of new keyword updates will help draw more new fans to your website through the Band Finder.

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MORE SEARCH OPTIONS ADDED FOR FANS

Also new (lots of new stuff these days) are several added search options for fans at the website. Many of the search forms have been revised over the past few weeks, as well as the search logic behind the method fans actually use to search for bands. Several of these are huge developments, including eight new search options that allow fans many more concepts to use to sniff out new bands. This addition has increased our popularity tenfold, and generally magnified the traffic our bands have been getting through the Finder. More ways to search means more people having fun with the Finder.

Several of the new searches include the "The Hometown Heroes" search, the "Two-Fer", the "Three-Fer", the "Sounds Kinda' Like These Guys" search, and more. We're always looking for new search ideas, so keep them coming.

As part of this development, we added a "Sounds Like" type of search. While this is mostly a reflection of the "Good Ol' Days" of searching for new bands, it has become pretty popular; so be sure to log into your accounts and check your bids for your sounds-like artist keywords.

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MEMBER'S AREA REDESIGN

We have revamped the band's backstage area and cleaned things up a bit to go along with the changes in the rest of the website. Among the changes are updates in navigation and functionality, a cleaner layout and a new look. The whole idea was to make everything easier to find and to manage. with more tips throughout the system and a keen eye towards working out the kinks in the backend.

If you haven't been back to the site for awhile, be sure to log in to your account and have a look around.

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MORE FAN TRAFFIC THAN EVER BEFORE

This month, traffic at BandFreaks has reached an all-time high. Fan searches have jumped over 5000% from last month. Searches in July are well over fifty times what they were this time last month, which showed only a 300% rise in traffic from the month previous. Our band finder is quickly becoming a popular way to search for new bands on the Internet. Many of our bands are noticing this increased activity at their website. We've also now got tens of thousands of band keywords in the Finder, as opposed to the thousands we had last month. Due to this increased popularity and surge of new bands adding themselves to the Finder, a lot of you might be buried in the listings. If you're still only getting a trickle of traffic, you may want to log in to your account and check your keyword and listing rankings. Also, be sure to read over our new help tutorials in the Band Backstage area of the Finder to learn more about how to get your band noticed alongside the competition.

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ARTISTLABEL - YOUR NEWEST MP3 COMMUNITY WITH FREE ARTIST PAGES AND MORE! ADD YOUR BAND TODAY AT:
http://www.artistlabel.com

COMING SOON
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FIND OUT WHAT'S IN STORE FOR YOUR FAVORITE BAND FINDER!

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Updates to the Band Finder coming soon

The BandFreaks / BandFreaks team is, first and foremost, about getting more music to the people, and more people to the bands through the Band Finder. For this reason, the handy search tool is constantly under scrutiny and changes to ensure the best possible search options results through tiny, consistent improvements. The time has come to go "under the hood" and take a look at improving some of the functionality of the Finder and finding ways to improve the results for fans the the usefulness for bands. Making sure bands are getting the BEST POSSIBLE targeting ensures that our Finder is providing a value that bands needing an Internet presence can't live without. The same is true for fans. Every time a fan actually FINDS what they were looking for, that's one more fan coming back to Finder for more searches, one more fan telling their friends about the Finder, and one more fan reading reviews and getting involved all around. For every band that attracts a fan through the Finder, that's one more band getting involved, adding more keywords, spreading the word and making the tool better for everyone.

Some of the coming improvements include:

- Allowing bands and artists to upload an image with their listings
- A full-integrated system for the website and Band Finder, including fan member voting, comments on articles and reviews, and integrated forums
- A different weighting system to match up results more intuitively with the INTENT of fan searches

For those who like to look 'under the hood' with us, we'll be setting up a coming soon page at the new BandFreaks website this week. Remember, The BandFreaks Independent Music Network will be changed to BandFreaks.Com later this week. The 'under the hood' page (which, ironically, is also coming soon) can be see at:

http://www.bandfreaks.com/dev

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BandFreaks.Com to launch extensive offline campaign

Following the transition from bandfreaks.com to BandFreaks.Com, the BandFreaks team will be coming to your town! We'll be traveling around the country, passing out info, merchandise, stickers, tee-shirts, cards, and generally spreading the word about BandFreaks.Com! We'll be showing up to shows all around the US and Canada, getting even more fans to the website and promoting our new Band Finder concept.

We're also recruiting street teams who want to get in on the action! People interested in finding out how they can help promote BandFreaks.Com are invited to email us at street.teams@bandfreaks.com

Be on the lookout for the BandFreaks Street Team in your town!

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TIPS AND TRICKS
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GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR BAND FINDER ACCOUNT

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GETTING STARTED: USING THE SUPPORT SECTION

If you've just signed up and haven't added your information yet, be sure to make use of our new help & support section in your Band Backstage area. The support area has handy getting started tutorials .

The new BandFreaks Band Finder support section can be found at http://www.bandfreaks.com/support

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A GOOD DESCRIPTION COUNTS

Know Thy Band:

Sure, it's great to be at the top of the list for "Female alternative grunge punk pop in Alaska", but what does your listing say? A great description could actually draw more traffic than a #1 spot.

Article by Katie Price
BandFreaks Support Team Member

As a BandFreaks staff member, I tend to see a lot of keyword submissions. We usually get hundreds of new submissions each morning. Many of these listings are perfect -- straight, to the point, easy to look at and understand. At the same time, a good third of the keyword submissions we get from our bands contain all sorts of description no-nos. In fact, some of them don't have any descriptions at all!

A good description is key when it comes to your listing. It's what fans are glancing at when you come up in their search results. Sure, they care that you were first in the list; but if you're at number one with no description (or a description that's really difficult to read or understand), and the person or band in the second spot has got a great description that summarizes their project well and invites people to click (...)

Read the entire article at http://www.bandfreaks.com/support/power_users/article1.shtml

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REMINDER: ADD KEYWORDS TO YOUR ACCOUNT TODAY!

Nearly 1 in 5 bands in the Finder aren't receiving any traffic yet because they haven't added any keywords. Keywords are an important part of how the Band Finder works. Without keywords, your listing will NOT be visible in the Fan searches.

During recent updates, a few bands may have experienced technical problems adding or changing keywords. If this happened to your band, simply log back into your account and try again. If you need help or instructions for adding keywords, be sure to read the "getting started" tutorial in the section at:

http://www.bandfreaks.com/support/getting_started/getting-started.shtml

Also, don't hesitate to contact BandFreaks Support for any troubleshooting issues:

support@bandfreaks.com

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ADVERTISING FOR BANDS

ARTISTS AND BANDS: Be sure to grab a 'BandLiner' ad and increase your band's exposure!

Advertising at BandFreaks works the same way that the Band Finder works, and is based on bids and credits. All new accounts receive $5.00 to use for their campaign with NO obligation to continue advertising once it's run out. This is a great opportunity to get some free advertising and put your band's headline on our MP3 review pages, our Artist Review pages, our Independent Music News updates, and all of our Band Finder pages -- these receive thousands of page views every day!

Bands are more than welcome to make use of ANY of our advertising campaigns, and it's very easy to get started and set up. Go to:

http://www.bandfreaks.com/advertiser-signup.shtml

to open up your advertising account and get started.

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GETTING REVIEWED BY HITCLICK

A music review is a GREAT way to get tons of free exposure for your band ... for better or for worse. Music reviews are permanently linked and archived from our main page, and spend a fair amount of time on our front page and main review page. This is an awesome way to keep fans interested in your music and keep your band in the presses.

Q. How do I submit my music for review? Who do I contact? What kind of genres do you review?

A. We review ALL GENRES OF MUSIC. To get reviewed by us, we only have a few requirements:

1 -- Make sure you've added our graphic or link to your site. You MUST have our link or graphic already in place at your site before submission.
2 -- You must have a website or artist page devoted to your band. Soundclick or PureVolume type pages or any other artist page works fine.
3 -- There needs to be some kind of a band photo we can use for the review. 300x300 works best.
4 -- And finally, the song we review HAS to be downloadable or stream-able from your website.

We're promoting the "Internet Indie Scene", so these things are important. To submit your songs for review, just go to:

http://www.bandfreaks.com/submission-contact-form.shtml

Reviews are usually assigned to a reviewer and published within 2 - 6 weeks after submission. Please read the guidelines on the submission page for more info, and good luck!

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ARTIST BLAST! GET YOUR BAND NOTICED -- STREAM UNLIMITED MP3s FOR FREE AT:
http://www.artistblast.com/

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AGAIN -- REMEMBER TO ADD KEYWORDS, CHECK YOUR LISTINGS, AND KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR TRAFFIC STATS IN YOUR BACKSTAGE AREA!

Thanks to all of our bands and artists for making our new Band Finder concept a great success. More fans and more bands can only be a good thing for everyone. More bands means better searches, which means fans are that much more likely to really get into the Finder. More fans means more interested listener finding great fans through the Finder and actually getting involved in the music. The Finder Works! Be sure to spread to word to bands and fans alike, and do whatever you can to help the BandFreaks Band Finder Project become the #1 way to hunt out new bands and artists on the Internet.

See everyone in two weeks or so, and be sure to update your bookmarks to reflect the change from bandfreaks.com to BandFreaks.Com this week.

Comments? Suggestions? Ideas? Testimonials?

Feel free to contact us at feedback@bandfreaks.com!

Avallon DeBrill
BandFreaks(c) Editor
http://www.bandfreaks.com
support@bandfreaks.com

(Formerly The BandFreaks Independent Music Network)
http://www.bandfreaks.com
support@bandfreaks.com