Doesn't matter, you can't just make a website over night and expect traffic... And furthermore, leads. That's not how life works. And actually, businesses DO tend to make a loss until their second or third year. The difference between you and a typical business is that they make a sale and earn say 3% back of their initial investment, while with one sale you probably make 50% or more. Your investments are probably relatively low, and you probably have no traditional overheads. Therefore, it takes you less sales to earn back your investment. (Also, I was originally referring to your online marketing efforts... Which is all I had to go on)
In regards to your questions, the answer is very simple. Bring them to you. I'm literally in the process of writing about techniques for my marketing blog.
Firstly, you have a lot to do, so I won't overwhelm you with a bunch of things you can do. But do you have a newsletter? No? Get one. Once you stop everything I said you were doing wrong earlier, and set the newsletter up ready for your website. You'll be in a much stronger position.
Come back to this next part when you're ready. Give it a couple of weeks. Save it in a Word Doc or something. I find it's a lot more productive to concentrate on one aspect at a time.
Now you have everything set up... You have your blog and newsletter. After that it's all about the content you put out.
What to write about? Your ideal audience are customer prospects, i.e. PAYING artists. So what should your content strategy be? Whatever artists want to read about. Best mics to buy, how to set yourself up for a studio session, etc. (Note: both topics regard things artists are looking to PAY for - giving you a higher chance they'll be interested in paying for beats)...
You e-mail your mailing list every time you post a new blog post. Doesn't matter how often you post by the way, though 4 a month is a good number to aim for, but more or less isn't wrong. If people tell you "You NEED to keep it consistent and to 2 posts a week", it's generally bollucks advice. If you push yourself to post strictly once or twice a week you'll face burn out/lack of ideas. If your content isn't great, people will think "Oh, he's been posting a bit too much lately" while you leave them wanting more if you post great content. (So don't rush it).
In terms of starting personal conversations, at the end of each post you can write a call-to-action. I.e. "Give me a tweet about which mic you went for". Build a friendly relationship from there, and politely remind them after a couple of interactions that you make beats. Make sure to keep in touch with them, and be genuine. No one likes someone who just comes around when they want something from you.
After that, it's really about optimising your website. All of which can be a long process. I'm currently looking at a difference in numbers for one of my friends website (an artist). I'll probably start writing about optimisation in the next couple of weeks for my marketing blog. If you'd like me to let you know when I do, let me know. I shall private message you or you can sign up to my newsletter (Which'll make my life easier). The blog itself will probably launch next week as I'm still sorting out the design.
