By far the most important skill to have if you wish to become successful with anything, is ATTITUDE. An old Chinese proverb once said, "90% of the journey towards success is over once you have stepped outside your front door". The reason many people fail, is because they'd rather stay in and watch the TV.
Of course, that first step outside is a philosophical one. As a musician or songwriter, you spend the vast majority of your time being creative. If you thought that writing a great song, or playing an instrument well, was the hardest part of being a successful artist, you are wrong.
Despite all the skills you need to know and perfect in order to make your music shine, this pales into insignificance compared with the hard work and other skills you need to learn in order to record, market and sell your art successfully.
Fortunately, most creative people also seem to excel at other things. The term "Jack of all trades" could quite easily apply to most musicians or artists. After all, the first thing most artists have to learn, is how to find time for their art whilst running a home AND holding down a Day Job in order to pay the bills! It is therefore not unusual to find musicians who are also Physicists, Engineers, IT Professionals or Teachers, to name but a few.
Most of these people are quite content to keep music as a hobby, at least whilst bringing up a family. However, we all get to a stage in our lives (usually once the kids have grown up and left home), where we want to cease working for a "Living", and instead, work for our own "Satisfaction".
There are few things in life more satisfying than being admired for something we created. If our creations also manage to influence others, then it is even more rewarding.
This "first step outside your front door" is taken when you decide to pause from the creative aspect (the ideas), and take a positive step towards learning new skills, or employing others who can do those things for you.
There has never been a better time in the history of mankind, to take those steps, either by yourself, or with others who would help you.
Where you used to have to pay for tutoring, or buy books, in order to learn the techniques of songwriting, or playing an instrument, you can now find scores of articles on the Internet (like this one!) that will help you for free.
Where you used to have to save up a considerable amount of money to pay studio costs and hire session musicians to make a decent demo recording, you can now find all the neccessary tools, and even the musicians, on the Internet who would help you for little or no cost at all.
Where you needed to sign a record deal in order to be able to afford a producer and a master quality studio, you can now buy your own PC and some music software, and collaborate with a producer online, who will give you the capability to make radio-ready recordings.
Where you needed a record company with a huge advertising budget to market and sell your recordings, you can now (with some hard work), market and sell your CDs to the Whole World for next to nothing.
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The Music Industry doesn't like the changes that the Internet has brought to the business. Digital media can be freely copied by anyone with a PC, anywhere in the World. No longer do the record companies just have to worry about the CD pirates who manufacture illegal copies to sell on the black market; they also have to now worry about every PC-literate man, woman and child, making their own copies too! This has led the music industry into a perpetual fight against filesharers (making enemies of many consumers in the process), instead of embracing the business advantages that the Internet brings to us.
The Music Industry still believes that 8-16 year-olds buy most of the records, so they are still catering primarily for that market. Recent industry figures are telling a different story, and the secret is the "Baby Boomers".
Yes ... The same people who created the above market perception in the 70's by buying the largest proportion of records ever, whilst they were teenagers, have now grown up! The largest age group to buy CDs TODAY, at 26% of the population, are over 45. Not only that, but they still like the same kinds of music as they did then. So there is no need to change your art to fit today's teenybopper market if you aren't that way inclined.
Now that we know the secret, we also know that the next big thing in music, isn't going to be another form of Hip-hop, Techno, or R'n'B; but a return to real music, such as was made during the 60's and 70's. However, we'll be creating it with modern tools on a Home computer DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) system, instead of in a multimillion pound studio complex!
So, whilst the Music Industry is still hesitating by trying to shun the new digital era in favour of antiquated business models, hardware in the form of CDs, and markets that still only cover limited territories; we can now jump ahead of them onto a more level playing field, find our own markets, and sell to the Whole World with only a simple website!
Sounds easy, doesn't it? ... Well, that is the first hurdle you will face. So many musicians think it is easy, that there are millions already doing it! So to be successful you will need, like any other business, a proper business plan.
CONCLUSION
The road to being a successful independent musician, begins with ATTITUDE.
You need to find enough time in your schedule to drop the guitar & scoresheet and use your creative energies towards developing a proper BUSINESS PLAN. This means taking a step back and listening to your music through Joe Public's ears. You need to think up a business name, logo, and short slogan that encompasses what you are, and what your music is trying to say to people
Register your business "name" by buying a domain name that suits you as soon as possible.
Pages on free MP3 sites and Free domains do not give you a professional image. You MUST have your own site, or at least something that offers you a unique look and features of your own. If you want people to find your music unique & special, then you also need an image that is unique and special. That goes for your email address too. Genuine business people don't use their Hotmail, AOL, or Yahoo addresses for formal communications
Make sure all your paperwork is in order.
If you are planning on making an eventual living from your art, you will need to be registered as a business or as a self-employed sole trader. You need to make sure your tax and income are all accounted for, so you may have to buy yourself an accounting package, or learn to use Excel Spreadsheets, or employ an accountant. There is also a lot to learn about how copyright systems work and whether you feel you need to form your own publishing company, record company, or register your copyrights with an agency. Much of this will depend on the laws of your home country. Alternatively, you can sign a non-exclusive deal with a small independent label or publisher to handle all the music-related paperwork for you
You need to either take the time to develop some basic web design skills, buy ready-made templates, or employ someone to design a site for you.
Make sure your logo and colour scheme is fluent throughout your site, your stationery, your CD artwork, and any other communications device, such as email. Make sure your site includes some way of gathering a mailing list, such as a response form or a "double opt-in" form of registration
Plan a marketing strategy.
Marketing is all about finding the right market for your product. This may involve a certain amount of consumer research. This can be expensive, so use the Internet as much as possible to find groups of people who like similar music to yours. Try to find out other things about these people so that you can get a clearer picture of who would be interested in your music
Plan a promotional strategy.
Gather contact lists of magazines, local newspapers, TV and radio stations. Plan an 8-week promotional strategy leading up to the release of your CD. Use any press, or airplay you get as a news item on your website. If you have some money to invest, plan a set of concert dates in local venues for dates close to any publication dates. Plan a poster or postcard campaign. Contact local charities, hospitals, schools and shops, in fact anyone who might be prepared to play your CD in a public place. If you want local record stores to stock your CD, you will also need barcodes and counter display boxes. Use the mailing list you have been gathering from your site to promote any news to your fans with a regular newsletter. Offer free tickets to gigs, or run competitions for free CDs. Use your fans as extra leverage to increase the momentum of your promotional campaigns.
Don't under-sell yourself.
Make sure that any music you decide to give away as a promotional MP3 is different in some way to the music you are selling. E.G. It will either be an early un-mastered mix (demo), or a different mix, or a song you are never going to release for sale. Otherwise, make sure all samples you make of your records, are either short clips, or low-fi mono samples. The price you set for your releases should never be too far below that of major record company releases. Your price tells your customer what "stage" you are at in the business. Price yourself too cheap and you are more likely to lose customers because they will automatically assume you are an "amateur
Make yourself and your CD easily accessible to your fans.
Always answer any emails promptly. Check your emails at least once a day and reply to any new enquiries immediately. The avarage time expected by most people for a response by email is 12-24 hours. Do not SPAM. Make sure you only send bulk emails to people who have opted into your mailing list, and if anyone wants to opt out, make sure you delete them straight away (not several weeks and 10 disgruntled emails later!). To contact businesses, you will need to write individually and personally to each of them. Always use a business "signature" with your artistic or business name, slogan, web site address, and possibly your telephone number, on every email you send. If you have released a CD, make sure you add the link to that too! If you have had your CDs duplicated professionally and are barcoded, you can also expand from selling them in internet stores such as iTunes, Amazon, and CDbaby, to high street stores. You must also sell them from your own site or at least provide links to the stores where they are available
Never stop "Networking"
Carry your business cards with you at all times. At every conversational opportunity, if someone happens to mention music, or gigs, make sure you advertise yourself as an independent artist. If you have a modern mobile phone or MP3 player, make sure your latest CD is on it! You never know who you'll bump into in the supermarket. The first thing someone will ask when you mention you are a recording artist is "What kind of music do you play?" If you have your MP3 player with you, you won't even have to answer! (This is always a difficult question for an artist). You can just play it to them! Also make sure you frequent all the music-related newsgroups, forums, bulletin boards, MP3 sites, chat rooms etc. at every opportunity.
Finally, my "Promotional Tip of the Week"
Familiarise yourself with all the P2P filesharing systems that the music business hates so much. You can use them to your advantage. Make ads or lo-fi samples of your music or CD and label them like this...
"John_Mckeon_Friends_SoundsLike_Simon_&_Garfunkel.mp3"
Make copies labelled with every well-known artist you think you sound like, and keep all the files in your shared folder. Then, whenever you are logged onto the service and someone searches for music by these well-known artists, your music will be on their list of results!
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Find out more about our artist services and recording contracts at http://www.WobblyMusic.net
Learn all the Internet marketing techniques that will help you be successful as a recording artist at http://www.DoThisToWin.com
Learn how to acheive a residual income as an affiliate to support you whilst you are building your music business at http://www.Music45.com
About the Author
Lynn Monk has experienced over 30 years in the music business as a musician, concert sound & lighting engineer, DJ and record producer; and is now the proprietor of Wobbly Music. An indie record company dedicated to supporting the "Mature Independent Artist". Lynn can be contacted at lynn at wobblymusic dot net
Thursday, April 26, 2007
The 7 secret keys to wealth - Key #4: Residual Profits
This article is one out of seven that I wrote about wealth. The whole series contain a lot of free valuable information about key factors that can help you become wealthy. The rich do things in a different way. That difference is the one I want to explain here. Let's scrutinize together these strategies that can make you more money and help you boost your income.
The whole series contain the following articles . . .
1. Add Value.
2. The Multiple Streams of Income.
3. Passive Income.
4. Residual Profits.
5. Leverage.
6. Specialization.
7. Compound Interest.
In one of my other articles on this series I share information about passive income. Here I will go one step further and I will show you how residual profits can boost your overall profits.
It is all in the multiplication. That technique can multiply your efforts the most. The more effective your leverage is the more your efforts will be multiplied. Streams of residual income are a perfect method to do this.
For example, let's say that you write a book. You realize that when you get paid royalties from your art you don't have to be present to get revenues from your efforts. This means that you make an effort once and you get paid several times, right?
If you write a book you are able to receive passive income but not residual profits. You can sell that product to one person once. That same individual may as well purchase one or two additional copies to give them away as gifts if they really liked the book. On the other hand, what I mean here is that the book is a product that is intended to be sold to one person once. On average every client you get will purchase only one copy.
So, writing books is a business that allows you to have passive income but not residual profits. The same happens with millions upon millions of other businesses out there. But what if you can find a way to receive residual profits while receiving passive income at the same time? The answer is simple: your income will be multiplied.
For example, let's analyze the web hosting business. Selling web hosting is a very competitive business for this same reason, because it can be very profitable. Let's say that you own a hosting company and you have about 1000 clients. These people will pay you monthly some money to have their websites hosted through your company. If the average client pays $4 per month then you will have a recurring profit of $4,000 every month.
This is income you receive month after month. As long as the client stays subscribed you will keep receiving profits. Most website owners stay subscribed for months and even years. So, if you use your available resources to get more clients, your income will simply grow exponentially.
This is just an example. The web hosting business is not as easy as it seems because of competition. The competition is fierce on this field as well as other highly profitable businesses on the Internet, but the way I see it is that when I can receive residual income, I don't need many clients to be profitable on these businesses. The secret is that I can sell the same product to the same client several times over and over again.
So, this is the key concept. No matter what business we are talking about, as long as you can sell the same product to the same client, several times every year, you can receive residual income. There are many businesses that operate this way. Membership websites are a very good example like dating websites.
The best businesses you can come up with are those that do not exist yet. If you can imagine a way to receive residual income that no one else have thought about before, it could be quiet profitable for you. What obscures the profits on these businesses is competition. They are highly profitable so they are also very competitive.
It is important to have imagination. Only you know what will work better for you. I will show you a few examples for you to have an idea. You can earn residual profits selling web hosting and memberships online as I said above. Another way is to own residential real estate, but this may require large investments on your part. You can also combine your streams of passive income and change them in such a way that you also receive passive income from them.
For example, if you sell e-books, you can post affiliate links on the text of their pages. Let's say that in one of the e-books that you actually sell you refer the reader to a hosting company where they can register a domain name and build a website. If that company offers an affiliate program you can join that affiliate program and when your reader registers with them, you can make money for as long as they stay subscribed.
You can join several affiliate programs and promote those products through your e-books. Furthermore, you may offer full resell rights on your e-books. This means that your clients after purchasing your e-books can resell them and your customers's clients can resell them again. This may lower the overall value of the e-books fast but it is a good way to have your affiliate links spread all over the Internet.
These are just a few ideas. Some may work better than others for you. Another method is to write articles and post a link to one of your websites. Then when your readers click on that link they will go to your website and they will be automatically redirected to your affiliate website. You may post the articles on affiliate banks and let thousands of webmasters use those articles. This is another way to let your affiliate links spread all over the internet.
You can post links on your e-books to other e-books you are selling. That way you can sell other products to the same client. If you sell hard copy books you can do the same thing. This is an effective marketing technique that can help you increase your sales.
In my opinion though, the best sources of residual income are those which allow you to sell exactly the same product, to the same client several times over. I think that this refers mostly to memberships of any kind plus other areas of the business world that I will explain bellow.
Notice that many times you don't need to sell the products yourself. You can be an affiliate for companies that sell these products and make a lot of money this way. For example, some hosting companies and dating sites offer the affiliates the opportunity to earn residual profits. They pay you a set amount of the membership profits for as long as the client stays subscribed.
This is amazing. You don't have to take care of the customers. You don't have to deal with refunds. You just advertise the products. Whenever a client purchase the membership, you get paid a portion of the profits for as long as those clients remain customers. This could last for just a few weeks or several months and even years.
Another way is using multi-level marketing programs. Multi-level marketing companies let you sell their products and train other people to sell the products as well. They will pay you a portion of the profits that your trainees (your sales people) generate. Not only that but they will also pay you for the profits that others bellow your sales people generate.
This multiplies your income exponentially and let you receive residual income because you make money not only from your efforts but from the efforts of other people as well. You may be receiving profits from the efforts of people that you don't even know.
This is not a pyramid scheme. Many people confuse this system with an illegal pyramid scheme. That's because this is exactly the opposite of what a pyramid is. A pyramid/ponzi scam requires you to make an investment to join the company and the only way for you to make money is to advertise the scam and convince more people to pay money to join the company as well. This makes no sense and it is mathematically inconsistent.
The idea behind multi-level marketing is the opposite. You join the company for free. You can sell the products and get paid for it like with affiliate marketing. You can train other people to sell the products too who can also join the company for free. You get paid whenever they sell something. If they train other people, you also get paid when one of those people sell something. This keeps going for several levels.
It is a win - win situation for everyone. Those who buy the products from the company receive a real product. It could be anything, from a book to a computer, to a CD player; anything that the company happens to be selling. So, the consumers are happy, the sales people are happy and the company selling the products is also happy.
This is an idea of other way to receive residual income. You receive residual income with multi-level marketing because while you won't be selling the same product to the same person several times, you can train some people to do the sales and make money from their efforts whenever they sell a product to someone else.
As you can see receiving residual profits is not only important but desirable. This is definitely one of the true keys to wealth. When you receive residual profits you leverage your efforts. Leverage is precisely the topic that I will be discussing on my next article on this series. You can find that article on my website.
I hope this information have been helpful to you. Since I started my business career I realized that I wanted to get as many streams of residual profits as possible. This is definitely one of the things rich people do to make money, and it is very profitable!
EasyWebRiches © 2006
About the Author
By Nathaniel Tabares - Visit his website at www.easywebriches.com for more details.
The whole series contain the following articles . . .
1. Add Value.
2. The Multiple Streams of Income.
3. Passive Income.
4. Residual Profits.
5. Leverage.
6. Specialization.
7. Compound Interest.
In one of my other articles on this series I share information about passive income. Here I will go one step further and I will show you how residual profits can boost your overall profits.
It is all in the multiplication. That technique can multiply your efforts the most. The more effective your leverage is the more your efforts will be multiplied. Streams of residual income are a perfect method to do this.
For example, let's say that you write a book. You realize that when you get paid royalties from your art you don't have to be present to get revenues from your efforts. This means that you make an effort once and you get paid several times, right?
If you write a book you are able to receive passive income but not residual profits. You can sell that product to one person once. That same individual may as well purchase one or two additional copies to give them away as gifts if they really liked the book. On the other hand, what I mean here is that the book is a product that is intended to be sold to one person once. On average every client you get will purchase only one copy.
So, writing books is a business that allows you to have passive income but not residual profits. The same happens with millions upon millions of other businesses out there. But what if you can find a way to receive residual profits while receiving passive income at the same time? The answer is simple: your income will be multiplied.
For example, let's analyze the web hosting business. Selling web hosting is a very competitive business for this same reason, because it can be very profitable. Let's say that you own a hosting company and you have about 1000 clients. These people will pay you monthly some money to have their websites hosted through your company. If the average client pays $4 per month then you will have a recurring profit of $4,000 every month.
This is income you receive month after month. As long as the client stays subscribed you will keep receiving profits. Most website owners stay subscribed for months and even years. So, if you use your available resources to get more clients, your income will simply grow exponentially.
This is just an example. The web hosting business is not as easy as it seems because of competition. The competition is fierce on this field as well as other highly profitable businesses on the Internet, but the way I see it is that when I can receive residual income, I don't need many clients to be profitable on these businesses. The secret is that I can sell the same product to the same client several times over and over again.
So, this is the key concept. No matter what business we are talking about, as long as you can sell the same product to the same client, several times every year, you can receive residual income. There are many businesses that operate this way. Membership websites are a very good example like dating websites.
The best businesses you can come up with are those that do not exist yet. If you can imagine a way to receive residual income that no one else have thought about before, it could be quiet profitable for you. What obscures the profits on these businesses is competition. They are highly profitable so they are also very competitive.
It is important to have imagination. Only you know what will work better for you. I will show you a few examples for you to have an idea. You can earn residual profits selling web hosting and memberships online as I said above. Another way is to own residential real estate, but this may require large investments on your part. You can also combine your streams of passive income and change them in such a way that you also receive passive income from them.
For example, if you sell e-books, you can post affiliate links on the text of their pages. Let's say that in one of the e-books that you actually sell you refer the reader to a hosting company where they can register a domain name and build a website. If that company offers an affiliate program you can join that affiliate program and when your reader registers with them, you can make money for as long as they stay subscribed.
You can join several affiliate programs and promote those products through your e-books. Furthermore, you may offer full resell rights on your e-books. This means that your clients after purchasing your e-books can resell them and your customers's clients can resell them again. This may lower the overall value of the e-books fast but it is a good way to have your affiliate links spread all over the Internet.
These are just a few ideas. Some may work better than others for you. Another method is to write articles and post a link to one of your websites. Then when your readers click on that link they will go to your website and they will be automatically redirected to your affiliate website. You may post the articles on affiliate banks and let thousands of webmasters use those articles. This is another way to let your affiliate links spread all over the internet.
You can post links on your e-books to other e-books you are selling. That way you can sell other products to the same client. If you sell hard copy books you can do the same thing. This is an effective marketing technique that can help you increase your sales.
In my opinion though, the best sources of residual income are those which allow you to sell exactly the same product, to the same client several times over. I think that this refers mostly to memberships of any kind plus other areas of the business world that I will explain bellow.
Notice that many times you don't need to sell the products yourself. You can be an affiliate for companies that sell these products and make a lot of money this way. For example, some hosting companies and dating sites offer the affiliates the opportunity to earn residual profits. They pay you a set amount of the membership profits for as long as the client stays subscribed.
This is amazing. You don't have to take care of the customers. You don't have to deal with refunds. You just advertise the products. Whenever a client purchase the membership, you get paid a portion of the profits for as long as those clients remain customers. This could last for just a few weeks or several months and even years.
Another way is using multi-level marketing programs. Multi-level marketing companies let you sell their products and train other people to sell the products as well. They will pay you a portion of the profits that your trainees (your sales people) generate. Not only that but they will also pay you for the profits that others bellow your sales people generate.
This multiplies your income exponentially and let you receive residual income because you make money not only from your efforts but from the efforts of other people as well. You may be receiving profits from the efforts of people that you don't even know.
This is not a pyramid scheme. Many people confuse this system with an illegal pyramid scheme. That's because this is exactly the opposite of what a pyramid is. A pyramid/ponzi scam requires you to make an investment to join the company and the only way for you to make money is to advertise the scam and convince more people to pay money to join the company as well. This makes no sense and it is mathematically inconsistent.
The idea behind multi-level marketing is the opposite. You join the company for free. You can sell the products and get paid for it like with affiliate marketing. You can train other people to sell the products too who can also join the company for free. You get paid whenever they sell something. If they train other people, you also get paid when one of those people sell something. This keeps going for several levels.
It is a win - win situation for everyone. Those who buy the products from the company receive a real product. It could be anything, from a book to a computer, to a CD player; anything that the company happens to be selling. So, the consumers are happy, the sales people are happy and the company selling the products is also happy.
This is an idea of other way to receive residual income. You receive residual income with multi-level marketing because while you won't be selling the same product to the same person several times, you can train some people to do the sales and make money from their efforts whenever they sell a product to someone else.
As you can see receiving residual profits is not only important but desirable. This is definitely one of the true keys to wealth. When you receive residual profits you leverage your efforts. Leverage is precisely the topic that I will be discussing on my next article on this series. You can find that article on my website.
I hope this information have been helpful to you. Since I started my business career I realized that I wanted to get as many streams of residual profits as possible. This is definitely one of the things rich people do to make money, and it is very profitable!
EasyWebRiches © 2006
About the Author
By Nathaniel Tabares - Visit his website at www.easywebriches.com for more details.
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