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Web 101 - Creating Your Internet Identity

A Step by Step Strategy

The Basics

First you'll need a Macintosh or a computer that runs Windows or Linux, and for a plain old telephone ISP, a v.90 compatible 56k modem (Buy one with fax capability and you can send PR and contracts with it to people who don't yet have electronic mail.), some software, and an ISP (Internet Service Provider). There are hundreds of ISPs, including many inexpensive local companies. For a comparison of nearly 2000 of them, find someone who is already online and browse over to The List at the URL http://www.thelist.com/. Most cable and DSL providers bundle the appropriate modem with your connection.

If you just want to get online quickly or if you travel a lot, pick one of the national providers. They have local telephone dialups in hundreds of calling areas. Beware of companies which promise 800 access, one way or another you always wind up footing the bill for these "free" calls. Two popular national ISPs that I currently use are RoadRunner (703-345-2500) and Earthlink. (1-800-395-8425). I used to use AT&T Worldnet. (1-800-967-5363) , but their system wouldn't let me check my electronic mail thru anyone elses dialups. This was very inconvenient so I had to let them go and I can no longer recommend them.

I also maintain an account and several web pages with America Online (1-800-827-6364) , but I no longer recommend them as a service provider because their software interface is poor and their customer service isn't the best. They are the only free call alternative in some areas and they do have a lot of online help and a large base of satisfied users. I think that you can do better though.

All of these will allow you to pick an easy to remember, plain english email name. Earthlink began on the west coast, but thru alliances with Spring and a merger with Mindspring, they have acquired an extensive list of local dialups thruout the US. Many people think that they are the best ISP in the business. They now offer DSL service in many markets.

Roadrunner and the local baby bells offer access to high bandwidth individual services using cable mode or DSL technology. Though this carries a higher monthly charge, the time savings of using these super fast, always on connections quickly justifies the extra expense for all but the most casual user. If you are a travelling performer, you may find that Earthlink DSL is the best choice for you home ISP as they also offer dialup access while you are travelling. I maintain my earthlink membership so I can have modem access on the road while I use Roadrunner cablemodem access at home. Provider choice doesn't have to be a forever thing. It's pretty easy to switch later on, just be sure you get email and WWW access. Most service providers will provide you with free software to access their system.

If you are a total cheapskate, you can check out NetZero http://www.netzero.com who offer free internet access in exchange for reading their advertizing while online. Their software currently only supports Windoze, but they have promised Macintosh support for the future. My experience is that, while you don't always get what you pay for, you NEVER get what you DON'T pay for, but your mileage may vary.

The latest greatest internet connect technologies are cable modem and DSL. These premium connect services aren't available everywhere and they cost a bit more, ($30-150/mo depending on your provider and location, but they are fantastic. I'm a TimeWarner RoadRunner subscriber at home and the transfer rate can be as much as 100 times faster than the Mindspring modem connection I use on the road. If you spend a lot of time on the internet, they are well worth the additional expense. Call your local telephone and cable TV providers to see if these are available in your area.

Once you are online:

Establish your internet identity

Most people find that they switch ISPs (Internet Service Providers) from time to time. Sometimes this is absolutely unavoidable. (For instance, if you move, and your old provider has no presence in your new town.) When you change ISPs, it usually means a change in your email and World Wide Web addresses. Since you are going to be doing business on the internet, this is not a great thing. It is best to set up address redirection for your Internet personna right from the beginning.

The simplest form of this may be to get a free lifetime email redirector from Mail.com, iname.com, or Telebot.

If you are a performing artist, this may not be enough. For only $15 a year, you can get from pobox.com a redirector for not only your email, but also your worldwide web page. This used to be a real bargain. Nowadays there are some powerful alternatives. You can also get free web URL redirection from Surf.to, but this is less cool because they embed your page in a frame that carries their advertizing along with it. Who knows what kind of ad they may pair your page with???

Another part of your digital identity will one day be your digital signature. This technology is still immature, and right now it is very simple for someone to say they are you on the internet and difficult to prove that they are not. For now, it is important to remember to know that identities can be spoofed on the net. In the very near future, this will all change. For some information on this fledgling, but crucial, technology visit the Verisign website.

Master of your own domain?

If you intend to make a lot of money fast or to stick around as an artist, you'll want to bite the bullet and register your own domain. This will provide email and URL redirection for the future. It is more costly, but still very affordable and these days, I recommend that most anyone doing any sort of business go ahead and register their own domain. Typically it costs $70 to register the domain name for the first two years and $35 per year to renew it afterwards, but it costs less than a vanity license plate for your car and it is much better to be known on the net at http://www.joebiz.com than http://members.aol.com/~jbisignano.

There used to be just one registrar for the .com, .net, and .org domains, but in the past few years they have opened that field up to a whole bunch of domain name vendors. I have used several and my current favorite is NameSecure because they offer free Virtual domain hosting and free email redirection as well as access to your own DNS records if you require it. They don't offer a free POPmail box as Domain Direct does and I thought the Domain Direct site was obtuse in the description of their other services. The grandaddy of all the registrars is Network Solutions, but they charge extra for URL redirection, so if you don't have a dedicated IP number for your webhost (If you don't know what this is, you probably don't have it...) you may want to choose a different registrar. There are changes afoot in the domain registration system, to read about what's happening visit this US government NTIA page and the ICANN page where they are tracking the progess of opening up new TLDs (Top Level Domains). Top level domains are the extenders (like .com, .org, and .net) on the URL names. ICANN will soon be approving a small number of additional TLDs, including (most likely) .web and .shop.

Before you can even register a domain, you should decide on a "virtual host" provider. Most ISPs charge extra for this valuable service and some (like America Online) don't provide it at all. If you are strapped for money, you can use a company like Virtual Avenue, who will even throw in a free 20mB Website, but they finance this by piggybacking your message with floating ad windows and I just hate that. There are a bunch of webspace providers like Prohosting and SimpleNet, who will provide you with web space and host your virtual domain for less than $25 per month. As little as $6.00 a month for a 2mB site from StarProductions. You could even put your basic page on this site and host all of the graphics, soundbytes, and other data from free webspace. With virtual domain redirection, you can use most any webspace to host your site, but you need to be sure that you register with a registrar who affordably offers you this valuable service.

If you only do ONE thing on the Internet...

Post ALL of your concert dates to Musi-Cal , the online concert calendar. The proprietor, Skip Montanaro has a plethora of ways for you to submit calendar information, including his recently launched "Gig Gopher" You can also get information on Musi-Cal by sending an email message to concerts@Musi-Cal.com with the body "help"

Join The Circle

There are two discussion group metaphors in widespread use on the internet. Mailing lists and usenet news. Join a couple of the listservs that sound interesting to you.

• Folk_music is a high traffic, listener oriented information list focusing on contemporary singer songwriters and their music. You can get a taste from their online list archive.
• FolkBiz is a discussion group by and for musicians covering business and creative topics. They cover everything from promotional strategies and where to buy 8x10's all the way to info on educational conferences and songwriting schools. They have also have an online archive.
• Folktalk is a much more broadband unmoderated group, adding support for traditional music and more philosophical discussion.
• FolkVenu is the list to join for venue operators and presenters, as well as musicians who are looking for gigs and tour routing.
• FolkDJ-L is the folk radio list, but many performers and managers also have joined to interract with radio programmers.

These are just a few of the music lists on the net. To find others, consult www.folkmusic.org or your favorite search engine.

RTFM

Once you have signed up, read each listserv FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document. For example, take a peek at the folk_music FAQ You should also spend a week or two reading messages on the list. Every list has a different tone and temperament. Get a feel for your list's "netiquette" before you post any information. When you are comfortable, share your knowledge with your fellow listmembers. Ask questions, but remember to stay on the topic of the list.

Find out who's out there

The absolute best place to start is the www.folkmusic.org. An outgrowth of the Folkbook project, it is the online encyclopedia of folk and acousti music. Pay special attention to the artist pages, if you are a singer songwriter you will want to create your own World Wide Web page and link it to the Folkbook. You will need a WWW space provider. Most ISPs offer 2 -10 mB of free WWW space to their users and there are numerous free web space providers on the net. The most popular of these are Angelfire, GeoCities, The Globe, and Tripod, but there are many more. If you start doing a lot of business on the web, you may need a more highpowered commercial site from a provider like Pair.com, Mindspring, Fortune City, or Simplenet.

Create a World Wide Web page

Think of it as your online promo pack and press kit. AOL has tools to help you build your web page and you'll meet countless friends online who can help you. There are also numerous consultants who hire out for this kind of work. Prices fluctuate wildly. Writing web pages is not just for gurus though. Anyone with a little patience can figure this out. It requires no special equipment or software, just modest computer experience and a little perseverence. For tons of info on the WWW and creating pages, set your browser to http://www.boutell.com/faq/ The coolest thing is that web source code is always available thru your standard browser. When you visit a page you like, you can always go to your browser menu to view the source code of the page and see how they did it. Why don't you try that right now? Did you find the secret message I hid for you in the browser code?

In the time since I first created this FAQ, dozens of programs have come onto the market to help you build WWW pages. Some of the better known ones are Claris HomePage, Microsoft Front Page, Go Live, Adobe Pagemill, DreamWeaver, etc. HTML export features have been added to many of the programs that you are already using like ClarisWorks, Microsoft Word, Aldus Pagemaker, and the Netscape Communicator. DreamWeaver and Adobe Go Live are the ones that most of my friends use. I still do almost all of my design in the free Mac program, BBedit. It's powerful, fast and easy.

Many of the online services offer online "wizards" which interrogate you and build a home page for you out of your responses. None of these techniques are as difficult as good desktop publishing, so don't be afraid to step in and design your own home page.

Your web page should answer all of the obvious questions about you. First and foremost it is an electronic business card and should have all of your contact information, including your phone numbers, fax numbers, email address, snail mail information, booking information, etc. I strongly recommend that all of your contact information be on the first page so that someone can easily print it and give it to a friend without WWW access who may be interested in you and your music. Beyond that, it should also answer all the frequently asked questions about you like:

• Where are you playing? (I recommend that you include a custom Musi-Cal link on your page)
• A way for them to get on your mailing list.
• What recordings do you have available?
• Where can they be purchased?
• A brief musical biography
• Online photo Album
• etc.

To get some ideas of what a homepage looks like, check out the artist links at folkmusic.org. One mistake a lot of folks make is using a lot of black and white photos on their sites. Black and white is a lot cheaper to reproduce as promo, but color doesn't cost you anything on the web and the limited black and white reproduction of most color monitors makes the B&W look especially bad. Wherever possible use color photos on your site.

If you want to sell product from your site, you'll probably want some form of online payment for your customers. Credit Card processing can be very expensive, but it's not out of the question for most artists. Check out my mini-FAQ on inexpensive charge card processing and getting UCC barcodes for your albums. Anyone can afford to use PayPal, a new and very cool way to send payment securely across the Internet. For a limited time, they have a signup bonus program that pays each new user $10 and gives the referrer $10 for the referral. That's good for you and good for the people who want to buy your CDs.

Tweak it

You can enhance your WWW page with graphics and sound bites. Tom Loredo has created a little binhexed archive on the web that gives step-by-step instructions on how to use freeware to create MPEG Layer 2 soundbites on the Macintosh. You can also use SoundJam MP or Media Cleaner to create MP3 files on the Macintosh. I'm sure that there are similar programs available for the PC, but since I use only Macintosh, I'm not sure what the best programs to recommend are.

Many sites are now storing their audio files in Shockwave or RealAudio formats. These will play thru popular internet browsers using a free plug in that many people have already installed. On some servers these files can even play on the viewers machine as they are downloading. Both companies offer free encoders for Macintosh, Unix, and Windows machines. MP3 compressed audio files are also growing in popularity on the net and there are several encoders for each platform to create these compressed files. For info on all things MP3, you'll want to visit www.mp3.com. You can also use MP3.com to host your MP3 files to augment your standalone website.

In some cases you may need to use a "CD Ripper" first to get the original digital data into your machine for encoding. My favorite is the Toast Audio extractor included with Adaptec Toast CD burner software. Others I have used for the Macintosh include AudioDeck and SoundApp.

Don't forget that your WWW page is also a great place to sell your merchandise. Remember to add links to other pages that you like. At the very least, I would suggest that you link to Musi-Cal and the folkmusic.org sites.

One thing that you have to watch out for is that many people still have slow access to the internet. Keep your overall file sizes small and don't overload the page with graphics. I try to keep all of my inline elements very small and test pages with a 28.8 modem to keep loading times under 20 seconds. (Actually the big guys all recommend a maximum of only 6 seconds of latency in low bandwidth connections) You may also want to check your code with an HTML validator that can tell you if you've made any grievous errors in writing your page. You should also look at the page online from several different machines and browsers to be sure that everything looks as you would like it to. Many of the newer pages are designed by people with big monitors who forget that many people brower the web in a 640x400 window.

You can also use Bobby to check your pages for accessiblity to disabled visitors.

I'm a musician, not a computer geek. Is there another way?

There are a few professional services on the internet who can design and maintain your WWW site. In some cases they may also function as your publicist, your record company, and much more. In return, they will charge you commensurate fees and/or take a percentage of your record sales. Some of these organizations are very selective about the quality and style of artists that they will consider for their site. If you are currently selling CDs briskly, you owe it to yourself to take a peek and see if you are a good fit with one of them.

My personal favorites (described in their own words) are:

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The main goal of FolkWeb is to make recordings by independent artists available for on-web purchasing, thus expanding the distribution channel for CDs and Tapes of unsigned/undistributed artists whose current distribution is limited to sales at their gigs or from the trunks of their cars! FolkWeb features full-length songs in both the Shockwave and RealAudio formats from presented albums, along with short reviews of the albums and bio materials on the artists.

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Fortissimo Folk Music is an almost free service that provides many artists and venues with web space. Visit the site for more details.

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Other popular "birds of a feather" sites include: IUMA , Kaliedospace , The Creative Musicians Coalition , or the Music Alive! Homepage.

And don't forget, you can always hire a web designer to create a standalone site for you, or partner with friends to reduce costs and amortize ecommerce options.

Tell the world that you have arrived

Once you are happy with the look of your page, announce it to the folk lists and register it with Yahoo (connect to http://www.yahoo.com/ Then pick "Add URL" and fill out the form.) and Lycos (Pick "Add Your Site") You should also submit a link to your page with folkmusic.org and you might want to join the Folk Music webring. Promotion of your new web site is a key issue. For a complete discussion of how to accomplish this, visit Netscape's Website Garage.

How do I make sure that my concert dates link to my Web page?

Once you have a web page up, you should connect to the Musi-Cal static database and create an entry that will link each and every one of your concert dates to your home page. Musi-Cal is a much better place for your concert dates to reside than your own home page, as it gets hundreds of hits a day from people who have never heard of you and are searching for musical events by geography, date, or musical genre. The best scheme I have seen is to put a Musi-Cal button into their home page to deliver their dates and do all their data entry into Musi-Cal. You can glean sample code from the folkbook pages, or email the nice folks at Musi-Cal for help.

Leave a trail of breadcrumbs

Don't forget to put your URL (Web page address) and email address on all of your printed materials and album inserts. Be sure to check your email frequently in case people are trying to get in touch with you. Things move fast on the internet and folks have learned to expect a timely response.

Stay in touch

As time goes by, you'll want to compile a list of fan email addresses and another of media email addresses. Tickle these periodically with information with news of your upcoming dates and record releases. You should also update your WWW page with new pictures and media reviews as they become available. Your mailing list is your most important promotional tool. If you want to create an electronic mailing list, there are several free providers on the net who will host one for you in return for a little imbedded advertizing. The one I use is EGroups, but you may also want to visit Coollist or check out this list of mailing list alternatives. Customers of some hosting services (like Pair.com) may also be eligible for list hosting thru their webspace provider, though this is more the exception than the rule.

Going on the road?

When planning a tour outside your region, take a peek at Musi-Cal to search the areas that you'll be visiting. This will show you not only where the venues are, but what kind of acts have been working there. After you have booked what you can from that list, you may want to post queries to the FolkVenu and FolkDJ list for help in filling in empty calendar dates and getting radio exposure while you are passing thru. Once you have booked the dates, be sure to get the correct information for your tour into Musi-Cal at least 2 weeks before the concerts.

Are there any extra credit assignments?

You may also want to submit your concert dates electronically to Dirty Linen magazine for publication in their online and paper concert calendars by mailing them to sched@dirtylinen.com

There are also registration service pages that will register your URL at *many* sites with one form. Try http://www.submit-it.com/
I had the best experience with the free version of the Register-It service offered by the Website Garage. The drawback of these sites is that they may not let you properly categorize your URL (esp. in the case of Yahoo, where you can put the URL directly in the Entertainment/Music/Artists pages, or something like that).

When you are travelling it can be surprisingly easy to find a place to log in and read your email. Most public libraries now have some sort of internet access. They may not always have the right mailreader software installed though. Now you can access most email systems directly thru a web browser by visiting Mailstart.com or HotMail. America Online Users will need to go directly thru AOL's WebMail interface. If you or someone you know wants a free email address, there are lots of people who want to give you one. Take a look at this list for starters.

Want a free fax line that follows you when you are travelling? You can get this kind of service from eFax or jFax. They will email scans of the faxes to your email account. How about having free 800 number voicemail messages emailed to you as sound files while you are on the road? That would be Telebot. I don't publish mine as I'm only alloted 5 one minute messages per day at the free rate, but it is key if your family or manager needs to get ahold of you and they don't have a computer handy.

Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt

If you are comfortable and happy with all of this material. I think that you're ready for my next tutorial Web201 - I've got my web page, What next?

That one gets into more advanced subjects like Meta-Tags, Search engine strategies, and accepting online payments. It also delves into more sophisticating programming techniques using CGI, SSI, Java, etc.

It's not always easy to find what you are looking for on the World Wide Web. Three of my favorite general purpose search pages are Google, Dogpile and Ask Jeeves.

There are other approaches

You can go at this a lot of different ways. This is a simplistic outline of one effective strategy. I want to maintain this as a living document, so please write me if you have comments or suggestions.

See you on the net!

This document morphed out of "Getting your music on the Internet" which was first created on Feb 8, 1996 by Alan Rowoth for presentation to the Folk Alliance 1996 National Conference
It was last modified on Nov 7, 2000

This Folk Music Web Ring site is owned by Alan Rowoth.

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Alan Rowoth
P.O. Box 307
Liverpool NY 13088-0307
alan@alanrowoth.com
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