Born In '88

At this point of the blogging wave, it’s (almost) safe to assume that artists and management understand the benefits of developing a self-hosted website or blog instead of the free mainstream option—artistname.wordpress.com. It is the shift itself from the basic free blog to a premium website that intimidates an artists’ camp.

As they weigh their options for maximizing their web presence this much is clear, a self-hosted website allows for better monetization and customization—there are few limitations. But for an artist who has developed a sizeable following on their blog, redirecting fans to a new website can impact their analytics bottom line—new visitors (read: listeners) gathered from search engines (i.e. SEO, page rank, etc for the analytics geeks).

WordPress recognizes this challenge and has developed a new feature for WP bloggers— offsite redirect. As artists grow and mature into the premium website arena, they no longer have to worry about capturing visitors from their old blog or the web clout they worked so hard to build. WP allows users to redirect their old blog to their new self-hosted site. The new feature can be found under “Upgrades” in the dashboard and will only run you $12/year. It’s that simple. Make the move.

With that said, many rap blogs –ahem- should take advantage and make the shift as well. The generic WP theme and sidebar ads are not gonna cut it for much longer as premium content will eclipse instant content in the hip-hop media realm. 

- @SincerelyJane 

Image/Source: Mashable