music success in nine weeks: new banner for this blog

OK, so technically it does not fall within the scope of Music Success in Nine Weeks – but I am trying to take action on lots of online fronts, and one of the things was that I wanted a custom header for this blog. Which it now has! And I am pretty happy with it – it creates a bit of a link between what I do with Offering and what I do as an individual musician – plus I love the way it looks!

So: all in all a good, productive day. Interesting that I had several weeks of struggles and not making much visible progress – I guess the progress was happening anyway, it just takes a while to become visible.

The next chapter in Ariel’s book: social networking. Which makes me very, very happy. I absolutely love Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites and love exploring new terrain there.  HAPPY!

music success in nine weeks: progress on website!

Today was a day working at home – which meant I had some time to work on our website. And while there is a lot left to do, I am pretty happy:

• I uploaded three albums worth of new pictures.
• Hubby and I improved our homepage.
• I am updating the band bio page with bios for new band members (every band member answers questions like what music is in their iPod/mp3 player at the moment, how long have they been with the band, and something as random as what their favorite flavor of ice cream is) as well as an updated band bio.

We’re working on adding a community forum – should be active later this week – which will be one of the first things on the site that is really interactive.

Phew. Hey, at least *something* is happening. This blogging contest is a wonderful kick in the you-know-where.

music success in nine weeks: snowstorms and websites

Here in the Mid-Atlantic we have been getting more snow than usual this winter, and *that*, ladies and gentlemen, is the understatement of the year! Here in Richmond we got 10 inches December 18-19, more than a foot January 30-31, another 8 inches this past weekend, and we’re expecting another 4 inches tomorrow. Yeah I know…. not as much as, say, DC has gotten, but it has been enough to give us many, many snow days (=days society comes to a grinding halt here). I for one love it (even though we had to postpone our CD release party this past Saturday) and it has given me some good time to work on all the marketing stuff. So, a few more website-goals:

• decide on a song we’ll give away on our site
• get a store on our site so people can buy CDs and downloads straight from our site
• work on our homepage – I love the design, but the text is clunky, I want that to be cool, too.
• work on a community action page: things people can do in/for their community. With a forum for feedback.

For some of these I will need our web designer’s help, and I’ll need some money for his services. But it all starts with a clear plan and a good description of what I want to adjust and change. So there. *That* is what I am going to be working on tonight. While I am still snowed in.

music success in nine weeks: more web site musings

I need an easier way to update our site. *Love* GoDaddy – but I don’t love updating my site through them. Problem: we don’t have any money right now to pay our designer  to change anything. And I cannot change it myself. Which leaves me a very frustrated singer……

Also, I need to get a bunch of things up to date – add new band members to the bio page (which means *getting* their bios first), add new music to the site, and add new photos (even though I have to relearn the process). These are all things I can do. And we’re snowed in. Which means I have time. So all I need to do: get my behind in gear.

music success in nine weeks: our website……

….. isn’t nearly as good as I had hoped/deluded myself/wished. We redid/redesigned it a year ago – or rather, had a designer develop the look of the site, and I still *do* love that. But as I have been looking at our site the past few weeks, I realize we’re not “there” yet. Not by a long shot.

The biggest problem with our website is that it is not nearly as easy to update as our Facebook site. So…. I don’t update it nearly enough. Add to that the fact that our fans overwhelmingly *live* one Facebook, and often insist on going there instead of email or our own site – and Houston, we’ve got a problem. For example, Facebook makes it so easy to upload pictures (straight from iPhoto, which I use), tag people (which engages them), and allows people to post comments – I wish I had a way to do that on our site, where we post pictures in pretty albums but I have no interactive functionality.

The same issue pops up with the blog: I write several blogs, all on wordpress. I’d love to just import them but I need them to look like our site. So far I have been unable to do that, leaving me with a blog I have to re-import through a very nasty and bulky import-function on GoDaddy SQL server (and believe me, it is UGLY). As a result, you guessed it: I don’t update the blog nearly enough.

To be continued….

music success in nine weeks: finally. the pitch.

It has taken me too much time, but I have a pitch – with many thanks to good friend and fellow singer Leslie Moruza Dripps:

Offering feeds the spirit with a soulful musical dish of two parts Sarah McLachlan, one part Lifehouse, a dash of  U2, and a pinch of Evanescence.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. And I can move on to week 3!

music success in nine weeks: aaaaaarrrrggh.

Working my way through week 2: creating the perfect pitch. This *should* be simple. I pioneered our band. I carry its vision in my DNA. I work insane hours for it, and I should be able to create this pitch. Quickly.

Not so much. At this point I will settle for a good pitch. Or an OK pitch. *Any* pitch. Because I have been struggling with this for a week and I (insert favorite expletive) cannot seem to do this. *epic fail*

I have the steps down. We sound like Sarah McLachlan, Sara Groves, Jars of Clay, a touch of KT Tunstall. We’re influenced – heavily – by U2, Coldplay, again Sarah McLachlan and KT Tunstall. We play acoustic rock, and sometimes just plain rock. Feelings and vibes we want to create and convey through our music: Intimacy. Call to action. Community. Passion.

So why can’t I write this pitch? Help?

music success in nine weeks: setting goals

It’s amazing and sad at the same time, how easy it is to get caught up in the day-to-day work for your music career, and either not write down goals, or not pay attention to them once you write them down. I guess that’s what you get for being a (largely) one-woman operation: the tyranny of the urgent raises its ugly head and I all too willingly give in.

So. Goal-setting. One of the reasons I jumped on this blogging project is that it will force me to focus on certain things, and this is a biggie.

First, eleven music goals for the next 12 months:

1. write a music marketing plan for 2010 and use it as a guideline for daily, weekly, and monthly tasks
2. redesign/program the blog- and news-sections for our website so they are easier to access and use – post at least 10 news items per month, and 4 blog entries per month
3. add 500 people to our email list
4. sell 1000 copies of our new CD, More Than This; sell 500 copies of our self-titled CD, Offering; sell 500 copies of our Christmas CD, Comfort and Joy; and sell 300 copies of our original music CD, No Shoes Required
5. sell an average of 300 downloads per month for all projects combined
6. add 40 quality Facebook friends to our Facebook page each month
7. create at least 6 videos this year to be placed on YouTube, Facebook, and other social networking sites
8. create a new website for Arts in the Alley (one of Offering’s big projects)
9. develop a podcast concept and produce at least one podcast per month, starting in March
10. pursue PR – get played on internet radio stations (25/month), featured in blogs (2/month), local radio coverage (4/year), local TV coverage (4/year), local print coverage 4/year)
11. Actively pursue Twitter and Flickr – increase Twitter followers from 1100 to 2500 this year, and tweet at least 3 times/day. Research Flickr and start using it more (need to flesh that one out more).

Why eleven? Totally random . I started with six (like the book suggests), then went to ten, and realized I had to have Twitter and Flickr in there.

Phew. Time to get to work.

music success in nine weeks: small victories

OK. Here we go. I am really excited about working through Music Success in Nine Weeks because I have owned the book for almost two years. And I have read it. Sort of. I have even done some of the exercises. But I have not systematically worked my way through the program. So I have missed little gems like this first one:

Write five small victories/successes down every day. That’s right. Every day. Ariel tells me (well, page 12 of her  book tells me, but you get the idea) that you should write down five positive things you do every single day. The cool thing: they don’t all have to be music-related. Which makes a lot of sense.

Five positive things I accomplished yesterday:

1. played a show at Cafe Caturra (a locally owned coffeeshop)
2. sent an email to the band starting the booking process for February/March (who is available when)
3. listened to 8 new mixes for our upcoming CD and approved 6 of them
4. cleaned out our linen closet
5. applied for ISRC codes for new CD

The list for today (so far):

1. started the Music Success in Nine Weeks blog
2. confirmed the date for a mini-band-road-trip to West Virginia the last weekend in February
3. assigned ISRC codes to all songs for our new CD
4. approved two additional mixes for the new CD
5. created a blogging assignment for my students at Thomas Dale High School tomorrow

More later.

music success in nine weeks

For the past few years I have been reading an amazing blog by Ariel Hyatt, who heads up an amazing company called CyberPR. She has put a challenge out for musicians to work their way through her book “Music Success in Nine Weeks” and blog about it for the coming ten weeks. I love the book, and I have read almost all of it, but it is one of those books you should read and then immediately put into practice – so I am joining the challenge! Stay tuned for at least weekly updates, but hopefully more frequently!