Viral Marketing: Go Backstage for Free Music
If “Free is the future of business“, then the folks at Backstage have created an interesting marketing tool for all the Radiohead wanna-bes out there. They offer musicians a platform for sharing free music and gathering a database of interested listeners. For the rest of us, it means a few free tracks in exchange for our e-mail address and for recommending the page to a friend. You fill out a quick form, and the downloads are yours.
At first I was irked by the requirement to give a friend’s e-mail address in the form. But then I realized that’s the hook their model is hanging on. You probably have a friend who likes the same music as you, and since you’re recommending a freebie, and Backstage promises not to spam them, they’ll probably forgive you for sharing their address… Probably. There’s a bit of a leap of faith in that assumption. I think this requirement to share a friend’s address will affect their uptake on the offer somewhat but it also makes viral marketing more effective than it would be otherwise. So the net effect is probably a positive one for them.
What do you think?
Twenty Something Theatre presents SubUrbia
If you were one of the lucky ones who saw the highly acclaimed play “The Fever” earlier this year at the Beaumont you’ll be happy to hear that another Twenty Something Theatre production is now coming to theatres. SubUrbia by Eric Bogosian, produced and directed by Sabrina Evertt, is the story of a group of suburban twenty-year olds who gather outside their local convenience store to welcome home an old friend who is returning after a successful national tour with his rock band. His arrival in a limousine with entourage in tow precipitates an all night whirlwind of drinking, sex & violence.
This new production also comes with a new website for the Theatre company. Working with Andrew Lewis, a very clean, elegant design was put together and built using WordPress allowing Sabrina to make changes and updates as needed.
If theatre is of interest to you, be sure to catch Suburbia from August 19 – August 31, 2008 at the Playwrights Theatre Centre on Granville Island.
Tickets are available at the door, at Ticket Tonight or by calling 604-684-2787.
Adding Images to Your Blog
Making your blog attractive is paramount to pleasing your audience, attracting repeat visitors and in keeping their attention. One way to make your blog more user friendly is to add some eye candy to the site. By adding images to blog posts users have a fresh perspective - something new to look at each time they return.
Adding images is relatively easy. Simply go to one of the on-line galleries (those I use most often are outlined below) locate the right pic and upload it to your post.
istock photo
everystock photo
stock xchng
getty images
Flickr
Its common blog etiquette to mention the artist in your post and link back to them just as you would do for written work. Many of the sites that allow you to download free images also make it mandatory to contact the artist in advance to request their permission to use the image.
To add images from Wordpress, simply click on the “Add Image Button” (looks like a picture frame at the top left of the text box). You have two choices - which you pick will depend on the source of the image. If you have an image saved to disk then click “Choose files to Upload” locate, select and position the image. If you have located an image online then enter the details in the “From URL” form.
Et Voila, your picture is front and centre.
Which leads me to why there aren’t more images on my blog. My posts are often spontaneous and I don’t have time to find an image a week in advance - I simply don’t blog that far ahead. I also like images to have relevance and don’t always have time to do a spontaneous search for appropriate pictures. The one above is from my recent trip to Paris -its about as relevant as any of the free images I found online searching for “blog”. But I digress.
So why bother with images at all? Because they do give a certain newness to a site: when someone returns to the blog there’s something different to catch their eye. Images make blogs more attractive and they also provide a valuable opportunity to link back to your site (the more links you have the better in terms of search ranking). So it might be worth the effort. Note to self - add more images.
The survey for people who make websites
Now in it’s second year, the annual A List Apart survey is seeking your input. If you work in the web industry as a graphic designer, SEO consultant, copywriter, project manager, programmer, etc… do your part and be counted. Once the results in and compiled, A List Apart will publish the results which will give us a better idea of what’s happening in our industry. The survey only takes a few minutes. I took it and so should you.
Overloaded with too much info?
I had lunch with Rob a few weeks ago and we both agreed that keeping up with content is becoming more and more difficult. I only have 54 subscriptions in my Google Reader, yet every day I have 50 or so posts to read and I could easily add another 50 subscriptions. I’m not even sure if the 54 that I am reading are the ones I should be reading and fear that I’m missing out on vast amounts of information and just can’t keep up.
This can be even more challenging if you are starting a web business and not sure if you grasp all of the terminology. How are you supposed to find out which headline will bring more traffic to your blog, or what will prompt your website visitor to buy your product? I could tell you to go and read such and such blogs, but sometimes there is just not enough time to read all of that stuff.
So what can you do instead? How about checking out Sean’s cartoons? With very simple illustration Sean’s blog is full of advice with accompanying cartoons that clearly explain complicated subjects. I’m not saying that by reading his blog your products will fly off the shelf, but you’ll probably learn a great deal and his cartoons are very clever.
Here is my favourite:
The lesson here: Your users don’t have that many eyeballs. Cut the crap from your site.