(slay-ger-z)

Blog, comment, comment, answer comment, comment, blog.

1) People who leave comments on blog posts that have nothing to do with the post.

2) Bloggers who spend as much time posting comments on other blogs and answering comments on their own blogs as they do writing blogs.

The internet is the biggest playground that music artists have ever played in.

It can also be our largest resource.

HOW NOT TO SOCIAL NETWORK: Broadcast only about yourself.

Yet, we tend to think of messages from artists (and bands) on social networking sites, as so much spam. There’s a reason for this. There’s a reason why MySpace is an internet ghost town: Artists just aren’t getting it!

And there’s also a reason why—as a completely unknown artist—I accrued over 25,000 followers in MySpace. (That number would have been over 50,000 if I hadn’t lost access to my account twice, essentially starting all over again.) Now, to be honest, I really don’t like talking about myself, so the key to social networking success came to me quite accidentally.

HOW TO SOCIAL NETWORK: Have a conversation with your community.

Call me old-fashioned, but I’ve always gotten the impression that social networking meant exactly what it describes…being social, networking with friends, colleagues; open conversations taking place.

So, every time we see another artist posting “Come listen to my new beats…,” or “Check out my new video,” we can’t help rolling our eyes. We’ll get right on that.

Visit any celebrity MySpace page and you’ll see a long string of comments just like these, from

some dude who’s recycling loops in his basement and calling himself a producer. Here’s why the only sound coming out of these shout-out artists’ pages is chirping crickets…

1. We don’t know who you are.

2. We don’t have the time.

3. You have made no effort to make a connection with us.

4. You’ve just littered our page with more unsolicited advertisement (and poorly done, at that).

5. And…what was it you were trying to sell us again?

At best, these artists are being ineffective. At worst, they’ve just created more annoyance, making it harder for the next musician who’s struggling to get noticed.

Now—to be fair—these artists just want to be heard, much like you and me. And how are they supposed to be heard, if no one knows they are out there?

The answer is SO simple. And it’s been right under our noses the whole time!

Just. Be. Social.

Encourage a conversation. Get others to talk about themselves. (Because—yes—most people really do love to talk about themselves.) Yep…get people talking about what interests them most (themselves). And before they know what hit them…BAM! They’re curious about what YOU do, and will come to listen to your music. And you haven’t even asked them yet. You may not have even told them you make music!

When I was busily whittling my time away on MySpace, I was secretly grateful for every artist who left an advertisement on my page. I knew I could use them to my advantage, just as they were using me to theirs. There were more shout-outs pouring into my page, than minutes in the day! But every shout-out was an opportunity to go to another person’s page, leave a genuine comment about the artist’s page layout or music, or pictures…anything I could honestly comment on in a positive way.

It wasn’t enough to simply “stop by,” or to say, “thanks for hittin’ me up.” Artists need to feel that someone actually hears their music, and notices what sets them apart. (Cause we’re all unique, right?) A few seconds is enough to give you a feel for the quality of music. Every once in a while, the music is really good, and an entire song gets listened to…and then raved about!

Done properly, one comment is enough to get a conversation rolling.

Ok. Now I’m talking to YOU. About YOU…

If you think you don’t have the time to engage in conversations…think about all the time you’ve wasted away, daydreaming about being famous (…sipping a cold iced tea with Madonna while she flirtatiously praises you on netting $500 mil for Maverick’s bank account this year) and lamenting over why no one is listening to your music.

Consider for a moment, that public conversations can easily be converted into:

1. People who want to know more about you, and what you have to offer.

2. Participation from readers who see your public comments.

3. Word-of-mouth referrals. (“You should go make friends with Arainia, because she seems sooooo nice!”)

4. Fans who are awed by the fact that you take the time to talk with them.

And finally…Bah-Dah! Drum roll please…

5. Listeners!

So go get busy, putting the “social” back into social networking and see what it does for your player’s hits. (Oh, and be sure to post a really cool, really interesting or super-cute profile pic.) But that’s for the “to be continued…”

–Arainia is a singer, songwriter, musician and composer working with Kayaz Kollektiv. She also teaches in-depth methodologies for social networking as well as strategies and effective techniques for “seeding” your name all over the internet.

There are so many amazing blogs out there. You can find a blog on everything from cooking to crafting, photography to rock climbing, zoo animals to politics, etc. Whatever you are interested in, there is bound to be a blog for it. If you do a web search (using Google or Bing or another search engine) you can find blogs of all types. You can also randomly select the blog links to other blogs from the ones you normally follow. Most blogs will have a blogroll or favorite blog list that will link you directly to some other blog sites. You should check out those links. After all, if you like the blog you are reading, you will probably like the blogs that the blog owner likes too.

I like to randomly blog surf every now and then, and have found some very interesting ones that I have then signed up for the newsletter or the notification of new posts, so I can keep track of them. It is very easy to find a fun new blog and then forget how to find it again. So I always sign up if it is an option. I love the eye candy of beautiful photography so I enjoy those blogs. I also enjoy the artsy blogs about techniques or ideas so I can be inspired. The everyday life ones are often entertaining, and I find myself laughing or crying about shared life experiences. Whatever you like, you can find it.

This week’s challenge is to visit some blogs (new ones or old favorites) and to leave a comment. That is the crucial part. Lots of people read blogs, but don’t comment and the blog owners don’t even know you have stopped by. I love it when somebody leaves a comment, even if it is just to say hello. So even if you usually are only a blog lurker, this week try to post a comment so the blog owner knows you have been by.

PS: You could start by leaving a comment here.

This page is a place for sharing ideas, news, tips, successes, failures and learning. I’ll be adding to it on a regular basis as time passes.

I love to hear your experiences – and so do others. This group of retired, soon-to-retire and teachers looking to leave teaching behind is spread far and wide. You have much experience and so much to offer each other. So please add your comments – and have a look at the post on my Code of Conduct before you do so. Politeness counts for a lot in my world!

And if you haven’t signed up for my first four tips you can do so here.

Click here NOW to sign up for TOP TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL RETIREMENT FOR TEACHERS

Warmly

Tilla

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1. Take responsibility for your own words. Please don’t post anything you wouldn’t say to my face or to other members of this tribe.

2. I love free speech, and please use reasonable language and don’t offend. Please check BEFORE you press POST COMMENT. It’s so easy in this cyber world to write in haste and repent at leisure!

3. Please use your name – I teach the skills of good communication, and one of them is to own your feedback. I may remove anonymous comments.

4. Please don’t be a troll. What’s a troll? Click the link to find out!

5. If you have something specific that you want to raise with me by all means do it here. I welcome open debate. If your comments risk breaching your confidentiality, or someone else’s, please consider dropping me an email or picking up the phone.

Google Alerts - Idea Girl Consulting - The Idea Girl Says - Linda Randall

Google Alerts – Idea Girl Consulting – The Idea Girl Says – Linda Randall

Every blogger should have “google alerts” set up.

This is where you go to do it.

http://www.google.com/alerts

It tells you where your posts, youtube videos and tweets are being repeated on the internet.

I always visit the sites that come up on my GOOGLE alerts and post a thank you comment.

I leave my URL there for my OTHER blog that way people will get both links.

If people like your comment or the article that is posted on the OTHER website

they will come and visit yours too.

It’s a great way to connect and find good backlinks

and it’s a great way to add to your social network.

Often I’ll leave a message like this.

IF YOU FOLLOW ME

I WILL FOLLOW YOU

youtube – http://www.youtube.com/ideagirlconsulting

twitter – http://twitter.com/theideagirl

Blog Catalog -http://www.blogcatalog.com/user/ideagirl

Face Book – http://www.facebook.com/ideagirlconsulting

First of all, I apologize for having to turn word verification on again; I have been getting comments written in Chinese, even though I state on my comment form that I only allow comments written in English, -it’s the only language I speak- and if I can’t understand what is written, I won’t subject my readers to such rudeness. So if the person who leaves Chinese comments would care to come on and leave a comment in my language, fire away!

A while back i started a group on facebook, named it “as little design as possible“

In the description field i wrote;

The last of dieter rams’ ten principles on good design was:
“good design is as little design as possible”
If you feel you understand this,
you’re one of the few…

So, Hello…

You need to know that I’m a simple guy who likes simple and simple-looking things, what most people don’t know is that simple is not always as simple as they might presume…
In a lot of cases simple doesn’t even look simple enough, let alone the fact that simple, or good simple, is never understood by simple-minded people…
This group will contain some works by my friends and myself, anyone is free to post almost anything related to design stripped naked of all it’s unnecessary accessories…

…

After that i begged asked everyone to join and be active for a change, because commenting is easy on last night’s dinner party, or what degree of bronze a friend’s tan is, or even how good a girl looks on that pixellated-under lit-excuse of a photo she took of herself in the bathroom!
But when it comes to serious comments, or inquiries at least, you’ll find that most annoyingly opinionated people in the real world, don’t have the same skills on blogs and groups…

What happened was that a very few people joined, fewer commented (one or too), and no one contributed…

Then comes a very good friend of mine, and says this:

I agree somehow on what you’ve written, but dont you think you might have patronized non-design oriented people by branding them as ” simple-minded people”? plus werent everything created in couples? extremes might be appreciated! maybe it’s not the era! 80s for example. further, didnt you over complicate the description trying to over simplify it? am not attacking, dont get me wrong, just merely contributing, hence the request!

In my opinion; his reaction is justified, the point he raised about over complicating simplicity is one of the major points discussed in minimalism, minimal design specifically. And now there another thing that i can talk about:

How simple is simple really!?

…

Now it turned into the start of an actual debate between “designers” and “non-designers” if i can call them that! Instead of me now caring about the group i started wondering why the hell people aren’t that interested in almost anything interesting?

…

So now you are familiar with this particular scenario, let’s see if after all this rambling you can form an opinion and post it on the comments box down there…

Do those annoyingly opinionated only voice out their concerns in public? is it an image thing? what?… I’m rambling I know, but it’s been such a mindf**king experience trying to come up with answers…

…

Peace!

In order to post a comment to this blog, you must first obtain a username from http://www.wordpress.com, Once you submit the form along with your email address you will receive an automated email response from WordPress.com asking that you validate your request for a username.  Once you have validated your request, you are free to post comments to this blog.

The URL for my blog is: http://www.robertdbell.wordpress.com . Once you have a username your may return to this url and post a comment.

If that is too much, I can create a basic user account and give out the login in and password so that everyone can use it, but the downfall of that would be that other users would not know who posted what because it would seem that all posts were created by that one account.  I will do that just in case people don’t want to hassle with creating their own account. 

Thanks for your interest, I would really appreciate your posts as everything helps.  Also it would be great if you can help get the word out about this blog because the more users we have, the more events we can find out about. 

Thanks so much!

Here you can find some other effective ways to promote your site:

1. Article Submission: Article submission is really an important and effective way to promote your site or business in a optimistic way. Some article submission directories allow articles for re-distribution to many publishing sites, as well as provide a capability to promote your site through resource box where you can include a link back to site, which you want to promote.

2. Posting Comments: Posting comments to other articles and blog posts is also an simple way to promote a website. It is recommended to post comments on articles or blog posts which are related to your site or business. Make sure to have a link back to your main site in your every statement.

3. Social Networking: You can also use social networking to promote your site. find other people with same business having same interests, create a society and discuss your issues related to your business.

Online social networking sites already have different type of communities so you can join communities related to your business and promote your site through sharing ideas and participating in discussions about how to be succeed in your particular field etc.Freelance Seo Delhi

If you and want to post a comment, look at the blue tags under the post for which you want to comment. There is one that says “no comments” or “3 comments,” etc. Click there. A dialogue box will open to comment. You can also click on the top right corner, where it says add to blogroll, and leave your link.”

Thanks

Light and love,

Maria Mar

The Dream Alchemist

http://www.writetodream.com

Hope you all had a splendid weekend. I spent the greater portion of yesterday re-organizing my train wreck of a studio…it’s finally all coming together and looks like I’ll still have a place for my brother to sleep when he comes to visit…lol!

I am in the early stages of a few new projects, and will post pictures as soon as I get back to the drawing board.