How To Promote Your Band On Myspace

Step 1: Set up profile

To begin with, watch videojug's 'How to set up a band profile on myspace' to get you started.

Step 2: Customize your profile

Like any HTML webpage, your myspace band profile is customizable - meaning you can change colours, fonts, and layouts to make it personalised. This may sound confusing, but luckily there are numerous websites that help you customize your profile.

Here are a few sites that are free and easy to use:
www.profilejuice.com
www.myspacehun.com
www.strikefile.com/myspace
www.mywackospace.com
www.myspace-editors.com

These instructions refer to the website Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4 on www.strikefile.com/myspace. This website allows you to choose what preferences you like and then gives you an HTML code at the end, which you then cut and paste into your 'band bio' section to give you the design you requested.

In the website, there are a selection of tabs entitled 'background', 'text', 'tables', 'scrollbars', and 'code'. You can click on these and change any options you want. Make sure you pick colours and styles that reflect the image of your band and the type of music you play

Your code will appear in the "code" tab.

You can preview the code by hitting "preview this code" in the "code" tab.

When you're satisfied, you can apply the layout to your profile by copying the code from the "code" tab, and pasting it into your "band bio " section on your myspace band profile.

When you view your profile, your customized changes will be in place.

Step 3: Photos

You may have already uploaded some photos of your band for other users to see, but you can also upload as many as four CD cover images or other photos to accompany your songs in the music player. Go to 'edit profile', and 'manage songs' in the tabs bar. On the right hand side you will see the songs you currently have uploaded onto your profile. There is a photo option. Once you click on it, you can browse your hardrive for a photo, then click upload.

Myspace allows you to upload 16 photos onto your profile pics, but you can use free hosting services such as imageshack.com and photobucket.com to embed more photos into your profile page. Once you sign up with a photo hosting service, you can upload your photos with ease. The hosting site will then give you HTML tags which you can then cut and paste into you profile in the same way you did with Thomas' Myspace Editor.

Step 4: Videos

Showcasing videos of your band is another way to promote yourself on myspace. It could be a music video you've had made, or simply footage from a live performance. It doesn't matter, it simply gives fans another reason to hang around on your page.

You can either upload videos to myspace directly from your hardrive or embed them from another video hosting site - such as Youtube, into the HTML on your profile.

To upload, simply go to 'add/change videos' in your profile homepage and go to 'Upload'. Myspace will ask you to give a description of the video, a title, a category, and whether or not you want the video to be public or private - you'll most likely want it to be public to get maximum exposure across the web. Agree to the terms and conditions and click continue. Now browse your hardrive, and click upload. As it's a movie file, it may take a while to upload, so be patient.

To embed a video from another website first of all go to the video on its original site. Most Web 2.0 sites such as Videojug and Youtube have an embed code which you can copy and paste into your profile. This embeds the video player on your profile. So copy the code, open your 'edit profile' section, and paste the embed code in the 'band bio' section. Then click 'save all changes' and click 'view my profile' to see the film on your profile.

Step 5: Friends

Making friends is the most important thing you can do on myspace to promote your