Play Open Mics
Great for experience, plus you'll have an instant audience. And the audience part is important. If you book a show and all the promotion is up to you and nobody knows your band yet.... well, let's just say you're setting yourself up for an audience in the single digits (Yes, that can and does happen). You'll get lots of feedback and promotion, and be on your way to building a fan base.
Open for other Bands
Get in touch with other local bands that are more established. Offer/ask to open for them (for free, at least at first). You'll get a built in audience and promotion is what it's all about at this point. But make sure you pick a band with fans and music similar to yours or you'll be falling on deaf ears. Plus, it's a great way to learn the ropes from the established local indie bands.
Festivals, Battle of the Bands
Big audiences, which is both good and bad. If this is your first show and some people in your band are a little sketchy on where the changes are in a few songs... well, you don't want to let several hundred or thousand people know that you're just starting out. Practice a lot, make sure you're tight on every song, and have your set list ready. And put on a good show. Be fun to watch on stage (practice this part, too). Yeah, your music might be great, but if your lead singer just stands there and you don't make a huge impression, then you've wasted a great opportunity. And again, don't play festivals with a crowd that's wrong for your band. Pick shows that make sense, not just the first thing that's available.
Play for Free
If you're in this to make money right away, start playing weddings (seriously). Otherwise, realize that clubs and bars have no idea who you are, and assume that you can't draw anyone to your shows (which is probably true). If the club or bar owner is trying to make a profit, they want people to come pay a cover charge and drink/eat. With no draw, just booking you is a risk. Are they really going to want to pay you to play as well? Most will give you a percentage of the cover (if there's a cover). But once you do start drawing people make sure to mention this to the club/bar owners. Then you have some room to negotiate (and if you're drawing, most likely they've heard of you by now). Be honest. Don't say you normally draw 50 when your best draw was 40 and all the rest were 10. You might get that first show, but you won't get any more.
Booking Agent / Band Managers
If you live in a larger city you can consider getting a booking agent. Of course they will take a percentage, but that's the good part. More money for them by getting more shows for you. If you live in a smaller town be wary. Your choice of agents (if you can locate any) will be pretty slim and their credentials may be non-existant. Judge based on their past results and make a detailed timeline of expected results over the next month, six months, and year. Without letting your agent know your goals, you won't get the outcome or the agent you want. Re-evaluate your agent periodically. Are you currently playing as many shows and are you as well known as you want to be? Does this match what the agent said 6 months ago?
Get a Website
Make sure your domain name is easy to remember. If it has more than one slash (/) in it, it's too complicated. Include a list of your upcoming shows, and update this part regularly. How can you expect fans to show up if they don't know when you're playing next. And include details (the location of the show, directions if it's hard to find, time your band is expected to go on stage - especially useful if it's an all day festival). Check your e-mail and answer it. The last thing you want is to send out a buch of presskits and not respond to an e-mail from a label until 2 weeks later. Or get a last minute offer to play a big show and miss out because you didn't read your e-mail. And don't forget blogging, which is a great way to get feedback from fans. (Check out .mac for easy website design and blogging setup). Don't overcomplicate your site. If you know you don't have time to update the site every day, don't make a daily news section.
Get Promo Merchandise
Mention your website at your shows and have promo material with your web address on it. Stickers are a great tool - they're cheap and a great giveaway at shows. Yes, give them away. Would you rather charge $1 or $2 to try and make up the cost of the stickers, or would you rather have hundreds of people visiting your site and advertising your band on the back of their car, bookbag, etc.? T-shirts are a great way to promote your band and website, too. For these you do want to charge, so make sure you get a good graphic designer to come up with an awesome design. Be objective. If you wouldn't pay $15 for your shirt, why should someone else? Because they like you? You're not that famous, yet. Charge enough to cover the cost of the shirt with maybe a small profit. And always give away a few shirts to some lucky fans in the crowd. Makes the crowd like you plus it lets you promote the fact that you have merchandise for sale.
