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I had an email in my inbox this morning “Someone Ordered Your Title on CD Baby!” I don’t sell many anymore so this got me reminiscing about how I started making money on the internet.
Back in 1998 I was in a rock band, Sticky Pistil. We were located in the remote artist community of Taos, New Mexico – it is no LA or Austin – it is very isolated with limited venues. But I realized the potential the internet had for getting exposure, on the internet it didn’t matter where I was.
So I got busy. I recorded a CD in my small home recording studio. I also invested in dreamweaver, fireworks and flash and taught myself how to make a website. I got good at making flash animations and I made the band a really cool website. I offered our songs for download on sites such as MP3.com and Amp3.com and some other popular music sites. I started chatting up a storm about the band and our cool website, I solicited music review sites and publications to write reviews on our music, I did link exchanges, I started webrings, and I did anything else I could to get more exposure and traffic. Then good things started to happen. This internet thing was amazing.
Soon after this our songs were in the top 10 on MP3.com , Amp3.com, and a few other sites. We were getting tons of downloads and our website was getting huge traffic. It was amazing actually. We also started selling our CD on the internet at sites like CD Baby and Amazon. It was great, a new frontier.
I almost lost it when Amp3.com said they were looking for a few bands to play on the emerging artist stage at Woodstock ’99. I had played big gigs before, my previous bands Sonic Bloom and Z-Groove had opened for bands like Michael Franti’s Spearhead, Fishbone, 2 Skinny J’s, etc – but Woodstock ’99, this was huge. Our CD was getting good reviews but our live show was even better so this should be a done deal for us.
We had to submit a video so we had a professional put together a slick mix of some of our live show footage. We submitted it and waited, and waited, but didn’t hear back? So I called to make sure they received the video (always follow up on opportunities like this). The girl on the phone was very sweet (and beautiful it turns out – a former Miss Texas – I met her at Woodstock), she said they did receive it, they watched it, they were familiar with it, and they were considering us, but they thought the video was too polished, too produced, too much like an MTV video. So I told her we were playing a gig that weekend and I would get a loud, live, raw, uncut video recording of the show and overnight it – no frills, no editing, just us live. I made sure she knew who I was and would make sure this new video I was sending got to the powers that be. She did and it did and they liked it.
Out of the 1000’s of bands that submitted videos we got the gig. It was pretty damn exciting. Woodstock ’99 went down in a flaming riot but we had a blast and we were taking off. We got lots of publicity, free sponsored music gear, more gig offers than we could play and all the other cool stuff that goes along with almost being a rockstar.
Our website won some awards and I started getting offers to make websites. I got a big money offer to create a new music site at Woodstock.com. I got a big money offer from some tech department at GE – they really liked what I was doing with flash – specifically the last part of this where you roll the mouse over the band members and they get up and dance: http://stickypistil.com/livetour3.html. They had not seen flash used like this before. The concept of rolling the mouse over or clicking a menu item and creating a related action became a flash standard for commercial websites.
By now our website was getting mega traffic and I was making more money on banner and sponsor ads than I was with the band. This ironic twist of fate got me started doing research on internet traffic, affiliate programs and domain names which is how I discovered Rick Schwartz and his domain names and type in traffic philosophy. The rest is history. This is how I started making money on the internet. Now domains are my main source of income.
How did you start making money on the internet?
brilliant stuff
something interesting on domaining for a change!
you forgot to mention the aerosmith years though lol
j/k
sounds amazing years you had
did you end up nailing the former miss texas, thats what everyones waiting on?
Good question but some things are best left unsaid – especially when you’re happily married. I will be doing a “How I got Into Porn On The Internet” post and maybe I will include some pics, lol…
Dude!!!!! You did not finish your story!!!
What happened to the band???
Your right, I wanted a happy ending to this story so I didn’t finish, I love happy endings, lol. But seriously, the same thing that happens to most bands: sex, drugs and rock and roll got the better of us. I broke my neck in a car accident and was paralyzed from the neck down, ouch. But I can walk, chew gum, and wipe my ass again, so it’s all good…
Marijuana is your cure!!!
Now you can have your active sex life back.
Enjoyed your post! Like you I was in bands for years and like you got to play festivals etc. so it seems we have two things in common music and domain names.
Had a look at your music site and was impressed. Sadly my life is much more domain names than music these days and I’m figuring I should do something about that rather than keep procrastinating.
best,
Andy
“Sadly my life is much more domain names than music these days”
LOL. Mine too.
re how did I start making money online I put it entirely down to chance. I happened upon a site (I can’t even recall which) around 12 years ago that listed a few domain sales (nope it wasn’t dnjournal)
That made me check out where to buy names and just like so many others I went on a crazy spending spree and maxed out my creditcard to $10 k handreging 1000s of available domains.
I hit lucky with two sales within a month that put me in profit (a small profit) and kept on keeping on to this day.
Awesome. Waiting for the hard cover book!!
It’s actually in the works…
Wow! What a breath of fresh air. Thanks for sharing such a rocking story=)
I started online in domains (regging mostly crappy domains) but never had any guidance or knew what type in traffic was. So I switched to affiliate programs and network marketing for a few years, but then got back into domains when I came across a DNJournal article and learned how to do it right. If I had known how to do domains right in 2000-2003 I’d be a lot further ahead!
Back in 1997, first day of university, all the credit card companies were offering free gifts for signing up for credit cards, got approved for 3 of them, about $7k in credit, maxed them all out buying domains, bought some crap, some tm’s, and some good ones. Well those few good ones fueled a house purchase in 2001 33% cash down, new car, and slowly I would sell a few at end user pricing, and swap that money in the reseller drop market for better inventory, kept trading up. Graduated got busy, lost interest, started buying back in a few years ago, when the stock market/banks started crashing, sitting on 4000 solid domains, 95% .com. I don’t give my domains away, I can sell 10 domains at $500 each, or 1 for $5000, the art of the sale, I know M.Berkens is very good at this, and commend him for keeping his minimum sale pricing, unlike afternic, and huge domains who are just dollar store domain sellers.
Nice post Tom…
Great post and interesting story. It was pleasant to learn some background.
Finally a dude story in domaining, very cool many thanks
……hooray for rock music and all it’s stories !!!
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Life is a ruthless bitch, but even with that, there is always a silver lining.
At least you almost got to be a star. That’s more than most of us will ever get to experience.
Glad to hear domains are worked out for you.
It’s all good here. No complaints. I am making lemonade…
“almost being a rockstar.” Isn’t that the story of so many people?
I think most entrepreneurs that are successful on the web fell into it by accident. Most of the skills I have acquired were by trial and error. Lots of hours of figuring it out, reading, breaking something, and making it work.
Regarding music, I’ll never be the musician I hear myself as or I want to be (doesn’t everyone say that?) but I still like playing saxophone just for fun. Selling a CD once a year is nice validation. I hope at this point in your life you just enjoy music just for fun too.