Have You Ever Heard of Afformations

A while ago I read this book called The Secret Code To Success, by  Noah St. John, that was little different from the other “success books” out there that tell you to use affirmations and repeat them all the time to train your mind into believing they are real in the present although they may not manifest themselves until sometime in the future.  Things like, “I make millions of dollars every month selling my music online”, or ” I will lose 20 pounds in 2 months”…you know, statements like that. 

Well, this book basically says that making these statements doesn’t work for everybody, if they did then hundreds of thousands of people would be rich and skinny who buy these type of books everyday.  Instead this book said your mind sometimes, no matter how hard you try to train it, says, “you liar…you are not rich, you are not skinny.”  The way afformations are formulated, instead of the typical affirmation, they ask a quesion instead like “Why will I lose 20 ponds in 2 months?”  What that does, it claims, is then makes your mind answer the question which gives you a map to achieving that particular afformation.  You probably answer something like…because I am working out at least 4 times a week, I’m cutting out soda and replacing it with water or Crystal Light, I am riding my bike to work, etc…anything that gives you the map to actually achieving that afformation.  So, then you would go over everyday not only the afformation but also the “mapping answers”. You can get the first 3 Chapters Free by going to www.Afformations.com

Just wanted to share that with you.  Oh, and I know I haven’t blogged in a couple of days…I forgive myself:)

Be Cool-You Never Know Who You Will Meet

I wonder if people really want you to over hear their phone conversations in public places for them to let strangers know that they do importnant things or they really want people to get into their business?  Well,  I overheard this guy today talking about his deal going through with “Snoop” tonight as I sat waiting my turning in the nail salon.  of course it erked my interest.  When he hung up, I asked him if he was a music manger…he said yes.  I said I was looking for a someone to manage me and we exchanged info.  Well, I’ll keep you posted if he really gets back with me.  He was waiting on a beautiful model who my sister recognized from one of America’s Top Model series…she kinda looked like Eva Pigford.

After reviewing contracts for work during the day, I decided to take some “me” time to replenish.

What Are You Afraid Of…Uhhh?

Most people are crippled by negative possibilitites.  They question themselves with “What if’s”, which prevent them from doing things in their lives that they would truly enjoy, or that they dream of doing. I have got to admit that I used to be one of those people.  I don’t know why but for years after I stopped singing with my sisters in the music group Nik-Tash’tA, I had developed this terrible stage fright.  I think it stemmed from doing a couple of just really bad shows.  We had been exhausted.  I was in school full time, and so were my sisters.  We hadn’t really practiced that well.  I think that also, with one of the performances, I had totally syked myself out because it was one of those “comedy and R&B” shows.  So I created this FEAR inside me of what if’s”.  What if I totally choke and then the comedians make fun of us all night?  Man it was a self fulfilling prophecy.  Our rehearsal before the show was great but during the show my throat felt like I had eaten a box of salteens.  It was totally not me and absolutely aweful.  I heard a guy in the audience who was at the rehearsal say…”what in the world happened…they were great in the rehearsal.”

So years afterwards, I have had to face my fears to really live the life that I truly want to live.  I am a singer down deep in my soul. 

I began to think about this topic last week, but really got deep into this conversation of “fear” running your life, with my best friend.  She was dealing with the same issue, and was finally recognizing it for what it was and what many people have learned that fear stands for…False Evidence Appearing Real.  You have to face some of your fears head on, and to do so, you have to see the positive possibilies insted of the negative what if’s.  I’ve learned that time is going pass with or without me doing things that I really love so I might as well do them, while still be reasonable and ethical.  I’m not saying do something that will harm or injure yourself or someone else, but to move you to action with things in your life that will make your dreams come true or move you to happiness.  What are some of these things for you?

Video Helps You To Book More Gigs

I was reading about David Nevue, the pianist, who writes for the musicbizacademy.com website. He said that he does house concerts. I was looking at his website. One of the things he did was video tape one of his concerts. He then loaded each song that he performed, as individual videos that you could click on on his website. I am sure that this generates more interest in his house concerts. Some of the videos show him telling a little story about the reason or the story behind the songs.

As a matter of fact, I just remembered that I went to my friend’s house concert that was really “off the chain” great!. Her name is Raven Williams. I wonder if she has her performances up anywhere on the web. She held a concert at her house and invited people over…she created this little impromptu stage that looked great on video with shimmering curtains and performed with just a couple of acoustic players including a guitarist and a conga player. It was such an intimate experience…and the people she invited were real cool too.

I am going to do the same thing when I do my next house concert. I’ll post it up. When I do, let me know what you think. Have any of you already done this with some of your concert footage?

10 Tips For Email Marketing Your Music To Your Fans

How can you really keep in touch with your fan base, especially when they want you too…send them an email. Email marketing is not dead. Your family, friends, and fans who want to hear about what new in your music career and life want for you reach out an touch them with great current info to keep them up to date. Here are a my top 10 tips for creating a great email marketing campaigns.

1. Make sure your content is current. When you send that email out, make sure it does not refer to comething that happened 2 months ago in the news unless it has something to do with what your talking about today. Your readers don’t want “late” information.

2. Know the “vibe” of you emails and what you want them to do for you. Do you want the emails you send out focused on getting people to buy your latest download, or do you want to drive them to your website or both. Make sure whatever direction you decide, you convey that in your email message and make it easy for your readers to follow…like a link back to your site or an embedded buy button that takes them to the purchase page on your cdbaby.com page.

3. Make sure they also know its you all the time. Everytime one of your readers opens your email they should see the same logo for your music company or your band’s name, in the same place. You should make it easy for your fans to know who you are verytime, plus, you start really making name for yourself when your emails are designed this way. You “branding” your image in your readers minds.

4. Create a subject Lines that get them to open the email. What you right in the subject line is probably the most important part of your email campaign. It’s got to pop and appeal to the reader’s emotions and inspire curiosity. You can follow my lead by offering Secrets, Tips, and Tactics, or Little Known Stratetigies for…as some examples of lsubject lead ins for your campaigns.

5. Tell them right away What you want them to Do. You don’t want your message to get lost in the body of the email. Put it at the very top of the email, maybe in the subtitle. You might to say, “Download the band’s new song ‘YourSong’ now being offered as a ringtone.” Make sure you include the links to right pages.

6. Really be you, not the business. Make your emails personal. Your friends and fans want to feel that they really are special and have a connection with you on a personal level. I think that’s why Oprah is so huge around the world. From the start, she could relate to her audience AND she would share her personal experiences and struggles. Marketers have found that with personability comes a higher rate of emails being opened. Don’t be scared to let your hair down a bit. People feel comfortable with others who know they are only human. If you can, send your email that are addressed to the person’s name…Hi Jennifer…you know what I mean…it makes it even more personable.

7. Write mostly text…not too many images, but make it pretty. You want your emails to load quickly. Too many images, flash, video, etc…can slow down the loading of your email. Many people nowadays don’t have the patience for emails that load slowly. They will just click off of it and move to the next email and your email is lost forever.

8. Be consistent, follow-up but don’t bug. This is such a touchy area. Some marketers say that you have to have a frequency campaign before any viewers actually make a purchase on your site or after watching commercials or seeing ads. Supposedly, a fan needs to hear from you or see an ad at least 5 times before they may buy something. If they do, make sure you follow with a personal thank note email. Maybe send an email once a week for 12 weeks at first, then slow it down to once a month, if you have your campaign set up on auto-pilot.

9. Repeat the types of emails you find get opened. If you find that a certain type of email always gets opened every time you send it out, create more emails set up in that same fashion. Many email managers give you the ability to measure your results and see how many on your list actually opened the emails.

10. Track ‘em. Email marketing managers like Constant Contact and Aweber have email tracking so you can figure out what your fans like to read about. You can try to hone in on what works and what doesn’t by changing the subject headlines, or the format of the newsletter itself. You can also see if sending an email out Monday night is better than Wednesday morning, so can see when your emails are more than likely to get opened.

Much success to you in your email marketing adventures!