The site looks good. Very professional. (one of the guys in your band looks identical to one of my cousins! haha I did a double take, but then I remembered that he lives in Washington, not NY)
regular gigs are definately a step in the right direction.
Well.. first off: You've got no competition, only friends, or bands that you don't deal with.
Relentless self promotion. Make sure your band's logo is plastered in as many places as much as possible. The goal is to eventually make it a household word. Even if an ad doesn't work right out, it still works, because it will be stored in the sub-concious of the viewer...and subsequent ads will be that much more effective as a result.
Be friends with everyone. This goes a long way. It's not that feasible, unless you've got millions of dollars at your disposal, or willing to sell your rights away to a record label to go it alone.
You've already got the regular gigging thing down, so you don't have to worry about that. Keep that up.
Get in touch with as much college radio as you can. All over the world, there are millions of music fanatics who have "specialty shows" (usually genre specific) who would love nothing more than to play your music. Mainstream radio is a waste of time IMHO.
Observe what your fanbase most responds to and crank that shit up to the nth degree.
Get a street team together. It can be anything from you and a few drinking buddies going out postering on a regular basis, to actually organizing a fan-run street team.
Don't burn bridges or insult/piss off other bands. You never know who you could end up working with in 5 or 10 years time.. could even be someone that you don't particularly like right now.
Social Networking isn't something that should be knocked as much as it is. As long as you utilize it for that purpose, it can be a VERY good way to network...even if just with other bands. Plus, the MORE PLACES, you've got your music, the larger range of exposure you'll have.
A step backward from your goal is what you make it. If you take one step back, but two steps forward, you are still headed toward your goal... so there's no reason to let any setback get in your way. You know what you want to do: You have to go for it, and nothing can discourage you, hold you back, or stop you. You have to be totally single minded, and driven to achieve whatever it is that you want to achieve... which brings me to the most important thing of all:
Just keep at it. Keep doing what you feel is right for you, please your fans... and do it over and over, and your fan base will grow. Nothing happens over night, unless you're really lucky. Besides, if you've built up your fan base slowly, it tends to be a lot more stable, and loyal than what normally happens to a band who gets a sudden flash of success. The most "die hard" fans of my band tend to be the ones that trickle in slowly over time. Some bands can take a decade to start to see success. The entertainment business is an extremely long range game. If you're seeing progress, then you're on the right track... Just keep it moving in that direction, and you're good IMO.
Hope that helps.
