I received Ariel's newsletter today and it highlighted 5 other artists that are also taking the 9 week challenge. I checked out their blog entries to just check in with myself and if I'm on track. Looking on target and lagging a bit behind like some of the others as well, good to know.
Before I get to the business of this blog I'll update you with some personal life stuff since that is part of the reason I have been slackin on some of these posts. August 8th I left my home in Austin, Texas to travel to Kissimmee, Florida and spend the next 2-3 weeks with my 92 year old grandmother who has dementia and now requires 24/7 supervision. She's still very coherent mentally, she is just challenged with walking and dosing her meds, preparing food, etc. So I am temporary caretaker till my aunt comes down from Massachusettes to take my place.
My priority has been to spend as much quality time with her as possible since I leave to go on tour in September and will be on the road till Thanksgiving. The next time I come to visit, she may not remember who I am. She is my favorite person in the whole world, next to my Beloved, and she's also the person (my mom too) that I get my musical talents from. She was a professional musician in her younger days and still plays the bass fiddle in a few bands to this day, pretty cool!
That all being said, I sent out an enewsletter today. I usually follow Ariel's formula for the most part. I have always been an open, honest, and direct person, laying it all out there for the world to see. My philosophy is this - if I'm in the public eye, I'd rather people hear my "dirt" directly from me instead of some third party with motives in selling something for their benefit at the expense of mine. Eh hem, tabloids are famous for this crap. I also believe that if I can share my story, it may assist someone else with something in their life.
Since today's email was the official tour announcement enews, I started off with my bit about being in Kissimmee with my grandmother, then announced the tour and some of the unique aspects about it. I'm branding it "The Rock Out & Recycle Tour 2010 Benefiting Dogs Deserve Better" because that is the shortest way I can sum it up and create interest as well.
It is my first real full on tour so I am very enthusiastic about it. I am also enthusiastic to be partnering with DDB, utilizing their 34,000+ facebook fan page and their main mailing list and any other social media they use. The gist of it is that fans bring their old electronics, ink jet cartridges, and jewelry to my show and drop it in the designated recycling bin. I handle the rest. The recycling company pays me for these items and I take that money and donate it to DDB. This is part A.
Part B is that I am creating a really unique audio/visual experience for the show attendee as well. This si way more than a sometimes rather boring solo acoustic show. I'm teaming up with an awesome videographer to make mini-movies of each of my songs. I'm composing percussion backing tracks to accompany my musical performance and the mini-movies will be playing behind me on a big projector screen.
I am creatively thinking of so many ways to generate press on this tour, and reading Ariel's book I was reminded of holding a raffle at my shows to collect names for my mailing list. Way back in the day I used this very same method to collect names, thank you for the reminder Ariel!
Oh yeah, I'm also livecasting my travels on my online interactive TV channel - One World (R)evolution TV. This will be a pay-per-view service. I charge $0.99 for a 1-week trial, then I automatically deduct $4.97 per month for your subscription. I expect BIG things when this tour gets rolling!
Since I explained all of this in my enews, it was rather long and decided to leave it as an info-email only with no call to action, well, other than to open my newsletter and read it. After reading chapter 6, I decided to take a look at some analytics of my enews. It was pretty sad! I have 215 people on my list and only about 30 of them actually open and read the damn thing! I was noticing that a lot of names I'd gathered from open mic night performances is that these people did nt open the emails. I'm thinking, "why sign up on my list of you have no interest in reading it?!?!?!?"
I believe my subject lines are pretty catchy so I am looking into increasing my open rate, maybe this is covered in future chapters of Ariel's book? I had to laugh because even my marketing consultant has a 0% open rate, nice! My mom & dad open about 60% of the time, nice, but they've never been big supporters of my career choice, especially my dad. I was glad to see my Beloved and my BFF had a 100% open rate otherwise I'd be throwin down! lol!
The one point in this chapter I find conflict with is Ariel goes into great length to assure your mailing list sign-ups that their info is confidential and will never be sold, then she suggests contacting other bands and swapping lists, huh?!??! I prefer to keep my peeps fully and completely private and confidential, they are my peeps and one of my high agreements in my life is truth and integrity. If I say your info is private and confidential, I mean it.
Oh yeah, I went to my Myspace page, which I admit I neglect these days with facebook taking over, it's all changed! I went to embed my google concert calendar into it and was unable to figure out how to edit my profile, wtf?!?!?! This is one thing I'd love to be able to synch with all my SN sites - tour calendar synching. With my tour coming up, listing my dates on every single site is very time consuming, programmers, are you reading this?
On that note, here is my call to action - please sign up on my email list. Your info is confidential, private, and never shared. You also receive a FREE MP3 download when you sign up. Visit http://www.oneworldrevolution.us to sign up today! Come join the conscious (R)evolution of awakening!
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