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

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, being in the top number one spot for the listing doesn't mean much anymore.

Taking a moment to make a well written, clearly thought out description for your band or your listing could actually mean the difference between 10 fans a day and 100. Here are a few tips on writing a great description:

• The most common mistake we see are people submitting descriptions that were cut off by our system for too many words. Remember that your description can only be 500 words max, and this should be enough to let a fan know at a glance what they're in for. Once you submit your listings using the Listing Tool, always check the results page to verify you typed what you meant to. If not, you may want to hit the back button on your browser and correct the error before submiting it to editorial for approval.
  
  
  
• Remember that your description should just be an honest, objective summary of your band, usually in third person. Think of it as a fan would read it on their end. "Meg Stryjer is a Jazz vocalist from Helsinki, commonly compared to Billie Holliday, Nina Simone, and Eva Gabor. Click here to download MP3s from her website and learn more about her and her band" -- this is going to draw a lot more genuine clicks than "Hi there. i'm a singer from finland whos just getting started. Call me at +73 939 222 and let me know what you think. I hop you like my music thx"
  
  
  
• And another thing -- you should never put your phone number or email address in your description. Aside from being incredibly tacky, you should remember that your listing is being shown live on the Internet. This would be akin to placing your phone number on Google. A better place for this would be at your website.
  
  
  
• Please keep in mind that BandFreaks is a PG-13 rated site, so it never okay to use profanity or other dirty, dirty, naughty things in your description. You should probably save this for a daily webcam show.

And finally, a poor description is usually better than no description at all. Fans scan their results pretty quick, and results without any description get skipped often. A quick tagline is at least going to draw your fan's attention and get them to click on your listing.

If you're not sure what to write, try a few searches and take a look what other bands are doing. There are some really great ones out there. To change your description for your keywords, follow the instructions on our Getting Started F.A.Q. and take a moment to make your description count.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to contact Band Finder support at support@bandfreaks.com, or contact us for help via the forums in our Help & Support section:

http://www.bandfreaks.com/support