Make Your Site Sticky?

I have a list of sites that I visit daily. They are on a list that hardly changes. Hotmail, Blogger, My Website...and that is about it....it takes about 2 hours to do properly.

I also listen to music that I have downloaded some months ago.

When I go onto the Internet I don't want to buy something.

When I go onto the Internet I don't want to click on a flashy Ad

When I go on the Internet I have to delete 87 messages (counted today, it will be higher than that everyday after) telling me how I could earn $10k/ month.

Now out of all those things, many more I have left out, how do you make people go back to your site and how do you get them to actually download a music track?

If anyone says Podcasting or Blogging, you are right and wrong. I subscribed to a very influencial blog and after 6 weeks of 3 weekly texts I just couldnt be bothered. I found what I was looking for and it is such a chore keeping up to date with something that is hardley making a massive income.

This also becomes MySpace and Facebook, eventually that will become a chore, overcrowded and filled with marketing types.

Why should I bother searching for tracks that could be crap? Why should I use up my bandwidth to download a track on a weekly basis and delete my old music?

Unfortunately we live in a can't be bothered society and one that hasn't got time to actually do something.

Most of the sites on the Internet don't actually make any money- 3% do. CraigsList is massive but it only makes $4 million a year. Loads of cash to us but to a site that is invested in and has traffic coming out of its ears it is pretty poor. Most artists don't get contracts and the ones that do have to sell music, if not they are dropped.

These are the things you must think of. The only reason sites are profitable is that there is trust between the person buying and the person selling. I buy from Amazon even though many sites out there cost much less because I trust Amazon. Cold call selling- spam doesn't work. Emailing a bought list will not work well because of the lack of trust.

A marketer offered an email list $10 if they answered the ad...no one did. It was real as well.

So you need to gain trust with your prospects. This invariably means giving stuff away for free. If that is of good quality and is up to their expectations then you have passed a good stage. If you can get them to sign upto your newsletter then all the better- but don't use it as an advertisement medium and constantly sell. If it is not relevent or even slightly boring then you will have lost people.

You see, with newsletters once you have signed up and got their bonuses (what you subscribed in the first place for) what is the point of continuing? One of them I haven't had any tips yet- apart from two lines that repeated what they gave in the free subscription offer. However they are pretty good at packing the email with ads and affiliate links- stating they "highly recommend" the product.

I have subscribed to many marketing newsletters- 7 at the last count. I don't open them all. One offered one product another oftered another product. I went round picking them up and found what I was looking for. Also after 5 emails, they all became the same.

So this got me thinking. Your music newsletter must be relevent to you and promise stuff for the future. Obvious I know, but like the marketers have done- don't give away ebooks that release most of your ideas first time around. Don't go overboard. Offer a few MP3s that are not anywhere else but then list what can come up - tickets, discounts, albums, remixes, co-ops, internet meetings, etc.

This way you keep the people subscribed- they become special.