It continues to boggle my mind how many bands don't take the time to come up with a decent description of their music. It's extremely important, and when you're marketing yourself online, it's essential.

So grab some paper, we're gonna create two simple band descriptions that will help you earn you web traffic and help you with all aspects of your music promotion. Whether you're looking to promote your band to someone in an elevator, on the phone or submitting to a directory, these two descriptions will serve you well.

2. Your Band in 500 Characters Or Less I publish the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine, and I can't tell you how difficult it is sometimes to find out Exactly what bands are all about. I have to search through the site, read the biography, etc. That's fine, but I don't have the time. I'm a musician first and foremost. So it's always impresses me when I can go to a band's homepage and find out who they are in 500 characters or less.

If you can describe your band in about five hundred characters you are a head above the rest. That's really all you need to describe your music, talk up your band, and offer a benefit for exploring the site further. Post that info on your homepage and not only does it make it easier for the media and fans to learn more about, but there are other music promotion advantages.

You see, many websites, like mine, use scripts like the one offered by Gossamer to easily compile links on their website. Gossamer Links gives you 500 characters to describe your music. You can copy and paste that info straight from your homepage.

Do you promote your music on webrings? Webring.org gives you room to describe your site in just 400 characters. A little trimming and you're ready to submit.

There are numerous opportunities for you to submit up to 500 character descriptions of your band. Yes, you could just submit an Elevator Description, but any good copywriters will tell you that more text is better.

You see, your job is to convince people visit your website. Then it's your website's job to sell them on your band. But the first step is to get them there. And short descriptions usually are not interesting enough to compel visitors to look further. Just visit the Best Band Music Award links. What use is it to put your band name with a description that says "great music". So?! Who cares!?!

There's an additional benefit to having a good, long descriptions on your homepage--search engines.

Search engines love text content. And if the first words on your site are "Enter Site", you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. Describe your music in your first paragraph, and search engines will add those keywords to their search algorithms so that your site will rank higher for "hardcore metal" than someone elses "enter here."

I designed the Brobdingnagian Bards paragraph to include pertinent information about our musical style, to offer benefits for the band, and to do well in search engines. "The Brobdingnagian Bards are The Original Celtic Renaissance music group from Austin, Texas offering free Celtic mp3 downloads. They perform a unique style of music combining Scottish and Irish folk songs with music inspired by the Lord of the Rings, performed on non-traditional instruments--autoharp, recorder, and mandolin. In just five years, they've completed six studio albums and performed coast-to-coast. Ask their fans, and they'll tell you The Bards are just plain 'fun!' Which makes sense since, after all, they just love the music." This description tells the casual visitor exactly what kind of music we perform. They see a benefit (free mp3s, and 'fun' music) and even mentions a few accomplishments.

This concise description has helped make my band one of the top 20 bands searching for 'celtic music.'

The point is if you really want to gather any interest, you need to learn how to describe your band quickly. So create your description and email me. I'll be happy to review it for ye.