I hope this is interesting reading. I’m blogging about ‘Social Networking’ as I blog my way through Ariel Hyatt’s book. I’m really glad I signed up to do this as I feel just the act of reading the book and thinking of ways to use the information has been helpful, and it’s prompted me to take action. And IMO, anything that makes us 'do' instead of 'talking about doing' is worth it.In Chapter 4 of “Music Success in Nine Weeks” Ariel suggests researching 50 blogs that might be interested in reviewing your music. Since I’m not really, at the moment, pitching myself as an artist with music to be reviewed, I put that aside. But it did make think about how I could broaden my internet presence. So I tried to be creative in my approach.
I looked for blogs on shyness, read several, and I added a couple to my blogroll. I sent notes to the authors to let them know I’d visited, and was impressed enough with their information and philosophy to include them on my resource list.
I also rewrote some older blog posts, then set-up an account, and submitted two articles to Ezinearticles.com, @ http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Vikki_Flawith So far one has been accepted and published.
I had added my blog to http://www.mybloglog.com when I first read Ariel’s book, but I wasn’t keeping up to date. I revisited my account and updated my information. I added the widget to my blog as well.
I’ve been on twitter for some time now, and I’m active in the local twitter community. I attend “tweet-ups” once or twice a month, local tweeps have attended some of my gigs, and I was pleased to participate as a performer in a ‘twestival’ fund-raising event last fall. I also noticed that I’m now on 116 lists on twitter, mostly as a blogger. http://www.twitter.com/vikkiflawith
I have a flickr account and had uploaded some pix to it earlier last year, but hadn’t posted anything new recently. I took a picture of a drawing I did and uploaded it to my account @ http://www.flickr.com/people/vikkif and then posted the link to twitter and facebook.
I applied to canadiantalentfarm@me.com to be on the site.
I added my blog to www.blogcatalog.com and posted a widget on my blog to keep track of visits.
On to Chapter 5, then. Ariel says we need to think of ourselves as a commodity. I think that’s hard for many of us. We don’t want to be ‘marketing’ or ‘selling’. Yet we have these things we spend time, money and energy to create that we would like people to be interested in. Our music, our gigs, our books, our creative mentoring sessions, our voice lessons, etc. Ariel talks about creating relationships with fans, which is what I try to do. I’ve been blogging and sending out (occasional) newsletters for quite a while, and I have yet to ask anyone to buy anything. I might share where I’m playing or what I’m working on, or what I’ve learned. I haven’t been very good at keeping up with the newsletter distribution, I’ve focused almost exclusively on blogging. I have resolved to send out a newsletter once a month, just chatting about my journey, about what I’ve recently published in my blog.
Now, if you sign up for my fan list on reverbnation, you receive a free download of my song, “Wilted Heart”. And that means you’ll get the occasional newsletter from me. I had some nice emails back from several people after I sent out the January newsletter. I like that.
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*To get your own copy of Ariel's book: "Music Success in Nine Weeks"
*Want to be on my newsletter list? Add yourself here! Add me.
*Learn more about me and my story @: http://www.vikkiflawith.com
*If you're interested in getting some assistance with finding, managing and maintaining your creativity: http://www.theshysinger.com
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4 comments:
Wow, Vikki, you're doing great!!! I love how you're getting out there, and attending tweetups and twestivals!
That is a great idea to visit blogs with similar interests as yours. In my opinion, making friends with non-music bloggers who share your interests can often make a bigger impact than being one of many other musicians being featured on a music blog. If you're leaving comments on those blogs as well, you'll get a slew of new visitors too.
You are doing great!!!
Carla
I like you. Your blog is well written and interesting and the photo's are cute as can be. I found you while in the JPFolks forum where I am seriously searching avenues to promote my songwriting. I am Cindy of the songwriting duet ViCindy. We have 30 original songs on the Internet so far but I just don't know where to go to from here. We pasted the 50 year old mark but still can't quit writing songs, we've been writing for 3 decades and it is time to be noticed. I have time right now to do something as I am unemployed. You appear to be a very wise women and any advice would be appreciated. All 30 song samples are with cdbaby.com/vicindy
Hi Vikki,
Thanks for the friends invite.
I would absolutely agree that you have put in a huge amount of effort. It looks like it is paying off in terms of self confidence.
Al
Publish or Perish
@Carla - thanks for dropping in, and leaving such an enthusiastic comment! The thing is... I'm genuinely interested in what people are doing and thinking, so it's no hardship to explore connections with all manner of creative people.
@Al - nice to see you here! I enjoyed reading your blog - I also joined the Ning network for people who blog about books!
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