Basic Ways To Promote Guitar Lesson Site?

Dave

It looks like the only two options for monetization on your site is either your CD or a Donation. I would consider some premium content either by DVD, Digital Download or Members Area. Also consider an opt-in form on your home page. Then you would be able to do follow-up emails about your new premium material. If your releasing new premium content regularly (every month or every other month) and promoting it to your subscribers, you should see a noticeable increase in revenue.

Vinnie

I like your site I play guitar since I was 5 years old, 41 now Good job.

How about some review articles of gear coupled with Amazon affiliate links.

Couldn't you just post teaser videos with a link to your site on youtube, then charge to watch rest of lesson?

Dude, it's a simple problem.

Stop selling Guitar lessons, because NO ONE is interested in buying Guitar lessons.

Sell them WHY they would have to take Guitar lessons. The benefits.

"Learn how to impress your friends by playing AC/DC most difficult piece in under 2 weeks"

"Catch woman like flies when playing this simple song you could learn in under 1 week"

Whatever your audience NEEDS. The lessons are what they need to do to reach their benefit.

Dave,

In my opinion -- One of the most fundamentally effective ways to promote a creative arts business in the education industry is to implement news-worthy benefits for the target market. So, if you intend to steadily build a brick and mortar creative arts business in the education industry with remote teaching services as your main product, then here's an example:

Would you be interested in teaching blind kids or even blind adults to play the guitar? There's a significant real world demand for online guitar tutorial content aimed at blind people...

Well, I for one know that there's a significant real world demand for this around the world, so there may also be many opportunities for you to travel as you get invited by certain cause-oriented groups and organizations. Now, here's where my knowledge about this real world demand is based on:

I've been totally blind for more than 10 years now, after being gunned down twice in 2003. I play acoustic guitar and electric bass. Started in high school (played lead guitar for a local cover rock band), and also back in college (played original music with my bass for a hardcore metal band), and now, I play acoustic Spanish / jazz / what-have-you-Tuck-Andress guitar-bass-combo cover improvisations and compositions. And:

*** What I don't like is unnecessarily spending a lot of time "widowing" songs that I want to cover and improvise via an acoustic jazz / Spanish guitar-and-bass-combo rendition;

*** What I really hate is painstakingly reading guitar and bass tablatures using my screen reader when I lose patience in "widowing" a complicated song. Even if I knew how to read Braille (I only know how to write in Braille), then I wouldn't most likely be inclined to purchase a Braille printer, since it comes with a four-to-five-USD-digit price and I wouldn't be using it regularly, so I'd probably move forward to the next song that I want to play; and

*** If you had a service for transcribing the most popular songs, or premium services for songs on demand, into audio guitar or bass tablature material that can teach blind persons to play those songs, then I'm just one among thousands of blind people who'd most likely pay you good money or beer or kind words for your services... However:

If you want to teach beginner blind kids and adults, then that's even a more rewarding market, in my opinion. You could create a brief yet informative audio material that teaches blind kids and adults basic chords, fundamental chord progressions, simple scales and so on, along with a few practice sets that can allow them to play along and be satisfied with what they learn from your material. Then:

You can post this material as a free opt-in offer, in order to get a list of leads who could be interested in your paid materials, or in your paid audio guitar transcriptions of popular songs, or in your premium audio guitar transcription service for songs on demand, or in your paid online group guitar tutorial sessions, or in your premium one-on-one online guitar tutorial sessions in Skype; and

It'd be straightforward to promote your opt-in offer, paid content and services, locally and globally. There's Facebook PPC / PPM advertising, which is quite inexpensive, and you can network with organizations that look after the welfare of blind and visually impaired persons, locally and globally, which probably won't cost you anything except your time -- Let me know if you intend to do this, because I can hook you up with key persons in ICEVI (International Council on the Education of the Visually Impaired), Nippon Foundation, Asia Pacific Development Center on Disability of the United Nations and Vision Australia among other relevant global and local organizations, since some of these global and local organizations usually invite me to speak in their conferences, seminars, workshops and so on, anyway, and also since they distribute copies of my story in those conferences, seminars, workshops and so on...

Is your issue lack of traffic, not knowing what to sell or being unable to convert your visitors into buyers?

I think you're struggling to get visitors to your site but I'm not 100% sure so assuming that's the issue...

As with any site the trick to getting people to your site is to be wherever your target audience is in the niche.

Whether that be other sites, forums, social media groups, Q&A sites, on Youtube, Reddit or wherever.

You need to get "in your customers faces" in a good way, i.e. not annoying or spamming them, and get your content and / or ads in front of them.

How you do that is up to you and will take trial and error.

It could be paid ads (banner, PPC on Google FB, solo ads etc(.

It could be forum marketing - taking part in busy guitar forums with clickable signatures or that allow you to share your content. If you post often, are a good contributor and help people they will click your link. WF is my #3 source of traffic to my blog for example.

Blogs - through guest posting, syndication or blog commenting.

Social media - being a part of active groups and fan pages and posting your content when possible.

Video marketing - uploading videos to Youtube showing how people can acheive whatever problems they have and then directing them to your site for more information.

ETC. There are lots of ways.

Content is also very important. Your content should be top notch, the best there is on the subject and bigger and better than everyone else', regularly link out to others in the niche, feature them, link bait them, interview them and include quotes from them to name but a few examples.

This gets you noticed by others in the niche. If you do all this, effectively network with them so they know they've been featured, share and link to their content most will do the same back.

Networking is one of the #1 things you can learn to do.

If you are not already doing it funnel your visitors onto an email list so you can drive them back to your site over and ove again, build a relationship with them and market your products time and time again.

If it's not a traffic problem you have and it's just that people don't buy either you are offering them the wrong things or you're not good at converting them into buyers.

If it's a conversion issue you need to focus on making your offers more appealing. It could be as simple as changing the link / offer placement to different pages on the page, mixing up your calls to action.

Sites like KissMetrics, UnBounce, QuickSprout have good information on that.

You can do seo. If you know what you are doing you can rank safely since your website is aged and it has a little authority

I know someone who promotes a successful site in your niche using PPC (mainly AdWords) and an email list. The email list is the more important part of the equation, though you first have to get people to sign up, of course. In my own business reading I've come across the idea that when you're starting out promoting a business, use the same marketing techniques as your competitors. They've been around for awhile and have already tested what works and what doesn't. Not to say that your business will be exactly the same and there isn't room to change the game by trying something new down the line, but this method gives you some strong clues.

You already have an asset in your YouTube channel. Using something called remarketing you can serve AdWords ads to those who have watched your videos. Learn more about it at the links below. It's a relatively profitable method, since those who have watched your videos are more likely to be interested in buying something from you.

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2453998?hl=en
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2545661?hl=en

It can seem confusing initially, but especially as AdWords goes, it's not hard to learn.

Doing content partnerships with related sites (like guest posting, for example), is another powerful way of bringing in traffic that I'd suggest focusing on.

As for dealing with the overwhelm, I'd recommend identifying people who have done what you wanted to do and studying them, reading what they write on marketing, etc... It may be someone in the guitar niche, or it could be someone in a different niche who has achieved a different result. I find that sticking to one teacher and following the roadmap they lay out helps keep me focused.

If I can be of help, please don't hesitate to reach out and PM me.

Where do people go when looking for guitar lessons.

Only one place I know of.

YOUTUBE.

You need to be where those people are looking.

Some great ideas! THANK YOU THANK YOU! Been busy, but I'll look at these in more detail and try to make a better response. Peace, Dave P.

So all the money I make promoting video guitar lessons is not real? I'm shocked!

OP look into guitartricks.com. They pay $25 CPA for people who sign-up for a "free 14 day trial." Even if they cancel you keep your money.

I've been in this niche for years and GT is the only real money maker I've found. There are some membership sites on CB that occasionally sell but nothing compares to GT.

For promotion, as Will mentioned, get on YT.

Have you looked at what the major guitar lesson sites like True Fire are doing?

Yes there are more ethical things you could. Have you tried registering with music forums? You can even browse for guitar forums. There are some guitar students that just need help. Offering it to them on such forum might give other members opportunity to register and learn from you. Make sure your signature file is present in those forums. And please read their terms and conditions. Thanks

Another point that is worthy of mention if you haven't done so is a facebook fan page. You definitely need this. Grow up your fan page list and have your links embedded into your posts. You may even start teaching your fans how to play guitar. Example the first 3 lessons could be free. Then post a link telling them to register to enjoy the rest of the lessons. Hope that will help.