This is a continuation of my previous Post! Go here to read it.

You have to be your biggest fan!

Wear your Merchandise, be the loudest and most active member in your forum, be confident in what you do, and do it everyday.

Practice what you preach

OK, I tell my students that they have to practice everyday. that’s why I blog, email, Ustream, and do what I do everyday. it shows them that its possible - and the best teachers are the ones who lead by example.

Be everywhere

TubeMogul, drive places, knock on doors, join forums, and more

Make the best Video/Audio quality possible

I notice that content is important, but I also notice that a video that is in High Definition is almost always going to get tons more hits than its Low Video Quality Counterpart.

You Can’t create a Market!

Think you got the big idea? Great - but don’t think you can force people to enjoy it or use it. The demand has to alreay be there BEFORE you thought of the product or busienss model. Even back in 1980 there was a demand for an iPod… we just didn’t know it yet. Back in 1750 there was a demand for a car… but nobody knew it yet.

Here’s what I suggest for an effective Podcast:

There’s nothing more difficult to do than doing something everyday. We’ve all had New Year’s Resolutions, and goals that we’ve wanted to accomplish, but they eventually fade away. the one’s who stay focused and stay dedicated are the one’s who get out what they put into it.

There’s 2 Wordpress sites. Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org. There’s nothing better than using a self-dedicated Wordpress Blog on a Linux Hosting Account (Which is Wordpress.org NOT wordpress.com). Not only is it easy to set up and use, but Wordpress also has an amazing SEO ranking for your blog, and tons of SEO ranking for your blog, and tons of Plugins, and an effective Forum to always refer to.

If I write a post about Guitar Solos and happen to refer to a musician named Joe Satriani, then it would be smart for me to link to him. The reason for this is simple: As I link out to posts then my website gets better search results too. In addition, one of my readers may not know who Joe Satriani or Steve Vai is, so it acts as a kind gesture allowing them to immediately be informed of the article you’re writing about. But see, I didn’t link to Steve Vai, but maybe someone wants to know about him, so it would also be smart to link to him, too.

I can’t explain how amazing this tool is. I remember I setup an account last January 2007 and never used it.. ever. Then after South by Southwest I heard alot about it through Ustream.TV and AlanaTaylor and a few others and while attending Podcamp New York City I realized how resourceful it is. I now have over 1,100 followers and counting. Not bad for someone who just started using it, it seriously is amazing. Social media is important, not because I get to connect with people, but because I get to STAY connected with people

Become part of the internet community. Leave comments on blogs, link to other people. If you use a picture, give someone credit. Help others. @Reply on Twitter. Basically, no man is an island. And if you think otherwise, then your gonna be left stranded.

What if you could be everywhere at once? And while doing so, you actually saved about 3 hours worth of work? Enter TubeMogul. When I shoot a video for Revision3, or anyone else, thn I can’t spend hours uploading. Tubemogul saves me serious time.

If all I do is gain one new student/subscriber/fan/friend on one service, then it was successful. Using Seesmic is important. It makes you human, it draws you inside the community, its 1-on-1. This is important, because although its a small website, its important to mention that I’ve connected with nearly a hundred people on the site. And that’s huge, because their now my friends, and I’m part of their community now, which in turn has connected me to other communities, too.

Change up your show a bit. Have specials. When you create content, things can get old after a while, so spice things up. I teach music lessons, but now I’m beginning to take the show on the road, and include interviews, etc. It makes everything more fun for the host (You), and ultimately the viewer.

This topic is so important to me I even wrote a post about it for MXTabs.
It takes a while for things to work out. I once heard that Amazon.com, having started in 1994, didn’t have its first profitable year until 2002 (or something along those lines). All these things take time. Some of the biggest websites like Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Ustream, etc are still trying to figure things out… but it’ll happen. It’ll all happen over time. You know that new song you’re having trouble with? Yea, you gotta be patient with that, too.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog, and let me know your thoughts! Thanks guys, hope this helps you all.

A few weeks ago I blogged about my experiences at Podcamp Pittsburgh 3. While there I did 3 effective presentations on New Media, Scaling, Building Sponsors, community, and more as a full time job. This post will explain what I have done in order to build everything literally from the ground up. I was thrilled to learn that those who attended were thrilled with the outcome, so I decided to share my thoughts:

Photo by Pomona

So what goes into an effective Presentation?

Well here’s what my presentation consisted of:

I’ve done presentations with nothing more than just me. No internet connection, no computer, no excuses. In fact, some of the best one’s I’ve done were the one’s where there was just me. you have no slideshows to cover up, you have to speak from your heart, and from your mind. Those are the most meaningful, and the most informative sessions.
but let’s say you have internet, computers, electricity, slideshows, etc. OK, so we have the setup… now what?

Photo by Denis from BarCampPhilly

CONTENT!

Whatever it is you do in life you HAVE to be passionate about it. It can be recycling, cars, chairs, music, books, eating, wine, computers, girls, boys, blogging, wordpress, video, whatever!

Let’s take socks for example: There’s 8 Billion people in the world, which means there are 16 billion potential feet wearing socks RIGHT NOW! Imagine, so even 1/10th of 1/10th of 1% of the number of those people is still a HUGE market for that. Got it? Good. So here’s what my presentation basically consists of, although it continually progresses with new and better content, so read on…

“Building a community as a full time job, here’s what I had to say”

“Making it on Your Own” consists of 3 things: Content, Sponsors, Community
Community is the goal, not sponsors. People have to ‘identify’ with you, so you have to be REAL. No one likes a mean person… no one.

You MUST create good content. “Do it well, and do it often” is one of my favorite quote by Viral Video Genius ‘Kevin Nalts‘.

Let the community become friends with each other, and promote that. Promote friendship, promote community, promote sharing. Make your videos Creative Commons, give your music away for free.

Be the Last Man Standing

If I were to have given up on this idea of teaching music lessons I would have never survived to see the benefits of my labors. Just when I wanted to give up, I made the front page of Youtube, then I was written up in the Guardian Newspaper, then things started happening. My Subscribers and mailing list and more started growing, and the community began to take shape. Revision 3 was interested in doing a Music Lesson Show, and more things happened.

Its important to mention that as time goes on your content gets better, you network more, your community grows, and you work smarter and more efficiently. So the first step is the hardest, and everything after that is exponentially easier.

It’s been 8 months and I’ve had ups and downs. In fact, I remember wanting to end my show multiple times. Either because I wasn’t confident in its success, or because I had bills to pay and I couldn’t survive any longer. Everybody has doubts, and you have to learn to take those losses and emotions and build off them. YOU have to those emotions, they don’t control you.

I left my job, no looking back. This is an important step in order to force yourself to succeed. I know of a few people that work like this. When your back is against the wall, you realize that its survive or die. So this was a big step for me in my drive, passion, and work ethic in order to succeed. on the same note, Robert Kazorowski of ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad‘ often stated that he would spend more money than he made knowing that when push came to shove he’d HAVE to find a way to make the money by the end of the month to pay his rent, etc. Its psychology, so use it to your advantage.

The way you Build your Community is by Word of Mouth. That’s it. Done. No argument here. I’ve tried every form of advertising out there. Let me save you months of trial and error: Simply answer every email, phone call, advertising out there. Let me save you months of trial and error: Simply answer every email, phone call, Myspace, Newsletter, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Seesmic, Emails, Forum response, Network Parties, RSS Feeds, etc. If all you did was get three new fans a day, you’ll have a self-dependent community within 3 months. That’s 90 people who are ACTIVELY on your side. But it doesn’t stop there. Those 90 people over the months may tell 2 or 3 of their friends, who may then tell a bunch of their friends about you. So in 3 months its very possible to sustain a community of 500-600 people, who all got word of month from the original 90 you reached out to.

More on my Next Blog Post! Go here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog, and let me know your thoughts!

Back in August I went to Mogulus to be on Pop17 with Sarah Austin. These past few months have been so clouded that I forgot to post it. My apologies, but you can check it out below for those who couldn’t make it that day.

We talked about my Ustream show, technology, social sites like Twitter, and more. She does her show every Friday, and stays on top of her blog.

More videos both at my Video Archives page, and my Revver page.

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Thanks guys for the support, and to Sarah for having me on!

Here’s a screenshot of my new Twitter followers the morning after BarCamp Philly.

So what do you think? Yes, No? Maybe…

Twitter is an amazing website, I have over 1,100 amazing people that I keep in touch with. I’ve quickly learned it has some serious advantages in my networking and social connection that other sites can’t possibly stand up against. But one has to wonder, how will the company make money? In the beginning, most people thought you’d have to pay for it, but website like Read Write Web starting writing their own Twitter Business Model Thoughts. In fact, even Jason Calacanis wrote an article about 3 ways Twitter can make money, basically he said it comes down to 3 things, which are:
1. In feed advertising
2. SMS Advertising
3. Subscriptions

But these would all bring horrible results, and would create the Myspace Effect, referenced here by Brian Alvey:

Overbloating the user-experience, in both Brian’s Twitter Business thoughts thoughts and Jason’s is incorrect. Evan Williams, founder of Twitter, has the right idea - make companies pay for the metrics/traffic data. This can be much, much more profitable in the long run, and it doesn’t interrupt with the visual or usability of the website.

So the other day I asked my followers if THEY would pay for Twitter.

Here’s what my Twitter Followers had to say if they’d pay for Twitter:

pcnerd37: I would not pay for twitter since there are so many other free services out there that I use and could easily move to.

SSADMA: I think a Wikipedia approach could work well (i.e. donations) or perhaps we could pay to follow certain luminaries?

RockinPRGirl: Why pay for something that has been free all this time? If Twitter were to go paid, someone will come up with something else.

reyes: I think power users would and others who don’t want to see the service go away, but it would not bring in new people.

reyes: forgot to add that I personally soul pay for the service but only since I have been using it. I wouldn’t as a newbie

douglasderda: oh hell no. not as long as i have Plurk.com

jenando: I wouldn’t pay for it, but I am probably also not maximizing Twitter to its fullest potential either.

rorowe: Yes, but I wouldn’t pay anymore than $25 a year, and I’d have pretty high demands for quality service for that price.

mpete510: No. I don’t think people would pay for it. Twitter would need to add a ton more functionality like Pownce to be worth the $.

BradLeclerc: I would pay a bit for twitter if it had more consistant uptime and wasn’t so prone to extreme lag at times…

disposablepal: possibly. There would have to be some additional features or a very good price.

ElliotGarciaJr: Depends on the pricing model and features offered for paying. I am still on the fence but I would pay based on current results.

ftomee: good question. I would. a max of around 3$ a month though. Maybe more if the SMS forwarding came back for european countries

ftomee: I have to read the new FAQ & twitter help, I admit :-/

ropiko: if it’s not too expensive

scheffxp: Never would I pay to twitter… in this day and age.. everything needs to be FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ~ SCHEFF

paradisoparadis: Hmmmm…. maybe. Depends on how often I would use it.

JonWho: No, I don’t think it’s such a major part of my life that were it to need payment, I would give it.

Julianne_Jewels: I wouldn’t pay for twitter, I have myspace and facebook and everyone pretty much on here is on them.

pomie: pay for twitter? Do I get reliability? More features? More control? Support for different accounts (group vs indiv)…yeah

Personally I wouldn’t pay for Twitter. I love it, but it would be a deal-breaker. Don’t forget to Follow me on Twitter and keep in touch, and let me know your thoughts!