When I launched my first single back in January 2021 I was like a shrinking violet. The song was My Guardian Angel and I had no idea how to promote it, whether it was any good or not or what the reaction to it would be.

Two years later I have learnt a lot. A big lot. And I’d like to share some of what I’ve learnt with you because if you’re making music you probably don’t want to make the same mistakes that I’ve done and waste a whole lot of time that you could more profitably spend making music, or just having a life.

The very first thing I would advise any musician to have is a website. But – if all you’re going to do is bang together some generic thing from Wix or even WordPress without any thought then don’t bother.

Look at it like this. You’ve spent a lot of time, effort and money putting your songs together and now it’s time to present your art to the world. If you don’t make every effort to ensure that your presentation is as good as you can make it then why on earth should anyone give your music the time of day? After all if you don’t give a toss why should anyone else?

My website back in January 2021 was OK but it didn’t reflect what I wanted to do with my music. Not just presenting my songs but also telling my story, showcasing other artists, being a news outlet for my music, in short all the things my website now does. The January 2021 website wasn’t fully thought through, I spent all my time on the music and not how I wanted to present my music to the world. That was a huge mistake and cost me a lot of time and effort.

You may or may not like my website but it does present my music and my ‘brand’ to the world in a way that I’m happy with. It gives my music a focal point, everything feeds off from the starting point of my website.

And it’s mine 100%. I’m not dependent on Facebook or Instagram telling me how I can post, how I can present my music, everything on here is my decision, my choice.

My advice to anyone trying to get their music out there is to first get your website right. Get the right domain name, spend time and effort getting the layout right and if you can’t do it then do what I did and get a professional in to build your website.

Your music comes first but without the proper platform to present your music to the world then, in my opinion, you’re wasting your time. The starting point is a professional looking website that reflects exactly how you want to present your art to the world.

If your website is professional it will also give you the confidence to properly present your music to the world. It’s your statement – this is me and this is what I do. And people will start to take you and your music more seriously, they will realise that you are serious about your art and treat you accordingly.

Once you have a great website learn how to use it. Learn how to post onto it. Learn how to be critical of it, to change it, to tweek it. This is your window to the world, the one people will look through to see who you are. Get your website right and everything else you do has a solid foundation.