A Premium Web Site

by John Eberhard

Everybody wants a good looking web site, but what are the factors that create a really top notch web site as opposed to a boring or mundane design?

I have been doing a lot of web design lately, and I want to present my opinions on what factors go together to make up a really stellar web site design.

Color
First of all and possibly the most important, a good web design has to have a good color scheme. There is a fair amount of technology on how to combine colors correctly, and you have to know the color wheel and what it means and how to use it. One technique is to combine color opposites on the color wheel, i.e. blue-orange, red-green, or yellow-purple. Usually you have one color that is the dominant one and the other is there to a lesser degree. I also think it is important to include contrast in terms of light and dark. You want to avoid a boring, monotone look.

Size
Size does matter on a web site Virginia. 3-4 years ago everybody had screen resolutions of 800 x 600, so all the web designers were making web sites 700 to 800 pixels wide so you wouldn’t have to scroll back and forth to see it all. Today those web sites look hopelessly tiny in the middle of the screen since everyone today has screen resolutions of 1100 pixels wide or more. So I think web sites today should be 1000 pixels wide or more.

Backgrounds
Most web sites today are designed with a centered text area and sidebar of fixed width, with a background around that. Some people prefer a white background and lots of white space, but often today you see the text area and sidebar in the middle with a colored background of some type around it. I tend to favor making the background some kind of pattern or color gradation, i.e. light at the top going to dark at the bottom or vice versa. You can also make the background a large picture.

Slide Shows
Many sites today have some kind of slide show on the home page. I like to make these big, usually going across the whole screen, which then gives them really good impact. I used to do these in Flash, but recently started using a program called the Nivo Slider, which gives some cool transition effects between the slides.

3D
Not everyone likes this and I don’t use it all the time, but one useful technique is to use Photoshop effects to make things in your header, navigational bar and sidebar look like they are in 3D. This includes beveling, drop shadows and other 3D effects. I think 3D effects can really add a lot to a web site.

Forms
This is not an aesthetic consideration but an effectiveness consideration. With a web site you want as many of your visitors as possible to either call you or fill out a form of some kind on the site. In online marketing we call this a conversion. So it is smart to offer something on the site and get people to fill out a form with minimally their name and email to get it. Lately the trend is to put a response form right in the sidebar so it is visible on every single page. It’s also smart to put your phone number right in the header so it’s very visible on every page.

Sidebars
It’s common for web sites today to have a sidebar, i.e. a bar that starts below the header and goes the rest of the way down the page. Sometimes you can leave this out on the home page. Then this content is visible on all or nearly all of the pages. Common sidebar contents can include:

• Your address and phone
• A response form
• Small pictures linking to various pages inside the site
• Links to social media accounts
• Business hours
• Testimonials
• Links to various free offers or things you are selling
• Links to your other web sites
• Sometimes navigation buttons are placed in the sidebar, though some content management systems like Wordpress make this difficult
• Share or like buttons

Movement
It can be interesting to add Flash animations or scrolling text or other things moving on your page. But be careful as this can easily be badly overdone.

Transparency
I have just started experimenting with having a large picture go all the way across in the background, and having the main text box and sidebar be partially transparent, so you can read the contents, but you can also still see the picture in the background. Stay tuned to see the results on this.

Text Box
The main text box in the middle of the page can be white, but it can also be a color, or it can even have a background pattern or gradation like the overall background of the page. This can work really well but you have to make sure it works in combination with your overall page background, and that it doesn’t detract from the contents of your page.

Summary
All these factors work together to make up your web page, and you have to work with them and try things and combine them until you come up with something that works and looks great. So don’t settle for mundane or mediocre. Go for greatness.

Posted via email from Real Web Marketing's Posterous

Writing Relevant Content

by John Eberhard

If you have a web site, a blog, a newsletter, or any printed promotional materials for your business, you need to be able to write good, relevant content. This is also called “copy,” or the text in your promotional materials.

Not everybody is a good writer, and if you have tried and tried and haven’t been able to write good material, then hire a professional copywriter. But if you are involved in writing for any of your promotional efforts, here are some tips to help you.

First of all I want to divide copywriting into two categories. First there is the openly promotional material you write to get someone interested in buying your products or services. This includes most or all of your web site, promotional emails, and any printed promotional materials such as brochures and direct mail. Second there is writing informational material such as articles for use on blogs, newsletters, article syndication, or writing free reports or white papers.

This article will cover more writing for informational material. This is where you are not overtly promoting for people to buy your products or services. Instead you are offering information that the reader will find helpful. I wrote an article about this last October; “Becoming a Trusted Information Source.” The idea is that you put out material that is helpful to people, and by becoming a trusted source of information, you become more trusted in general and people are then more willing to and interested in doing business with you.

Although I think this strategy is not necessarily for everyone, it can be a powerful way of generating trust with the consumer today. And especially on the Internet, where someone has not heard of you or your company before, it is vital to develop that trust before the prospect will be willing to buy from you.

Solving Problems

One of the things I do with my writing is consider what problems the prospect may be experiencing, and write about how to solve those problems. In my case I write an article once a week. Sometimes it is hard to come up with a new topic every week, but I find that interacting with clients and prospects during the week, usually gives me ideas for article topics.

If a client or prospect problem gives me an idea for an article, I will write that down, so that on Tuesday I have a topic ready to write about.

Bleeding Edge?

In my field of Internet marketing there is a new technological development about every 30 seconds. Although you may not be in a highly technological field like mine, there are always new developments in your field. So the question is, should you write about the new, bleeding edge stuff?

I approach the brand new stuff somewhat warily. I see some writers in my field that are always writing about the brand new technology, even if it is untested and speculative. I tend to find such articles somewhere between mildly interesting and extremely boring. So I stay away from that.

Instead, I try to write about things that I know actually work and that people can use, not just the latest gadgets. One of my friends routinely criticizes me for not picking up on the new stuff fast enough, but my readers seem to really appreciate that the information in my articles is actually useful. The key to me is, do I know from personal experience that this new technology or solution actually works? If so I will write about it.

Tone

You have to select a general tone for your articles and pretty much stick with that. I use a down to earth, informal style, with a little humor thrown in now and then. You have to select a style or tone that is right for your business and your industry, and that reflects your personality. For some businesses, like say legal or insurance, a more formal style might be better, but don’t make it so stuffy that no one wants to read it. For some really serious subjects (like handling debt for instance), a more humorous approach can diffuse some of the tension of the topic.

If you’re in doubt about the correct tone to take with your writing, check out the articles or newsletters of competitors in your industry, and select the approach that is right for you.

Summary

A strategy of writing and disseminating informational material can be very effective today in making you or your company a trusted entity, i.e. safe to buy from. And the more you write, the easier it will get.

Posted via email from Real Web Marketing's Posterous

Handling Negative Search Engine Listings

by John Eberhard

One of the perils of life today is that people can criticize you on the Internet.

So you hand out a business card to someone, or they hear an ad on the radio about your company, or they receive a direct mail piece or email about you. And they want to learn more about you. So they bring up their favorite search engine and enter your name or company name into the search bar.

What are they going to see on page one, two or three about you? Or about your company? Well unfortunately those listings aren’t always going to be what you would most like them to see.

So let’s say that you have a problem. Let’s say that when someone does a search using your name, or the name of your company or organization, page one has a number of listings that are negative about you or your company. Maybe most of them are negative. What can you do?

Well if there are listings that go to web pages that have actually false information about you, i.e. libel or slander, that’s a legal matter. You can legally force those people to take down false or slanderous information. I am not an expert in this area, but a letter from your lawyer to that person will probably go a long way. If this is your scenario, consult a lawyer.

But let’s say that the listings that appear when your name is searched aren’t libelous or slanderous per se, but they’re negative. So what can you do?

The basic handling for this type of situation is to put up lots of content on the web, that will rank highly when someone searches your name or company name. The idea being that these new listings will rise to the top and push all of that garbage down in the listings and off of page one.

The Handling

So here is the “Overwhelm the Garbage” program. Some call this "reputation management."

a. Write press releases and submit them to multiple online PR sites. See my blog or my book for advice on how to write press releases for online PR sites. These sites tend to rank highly on the search engines, so your press releases will tend to appear on pages 1, 2, or 3 when you search your name or company name.

b. Create social media accounts for the entity on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites. On Facebook start a personal profile and if for a business, put up a Facebook fan page. Your listings on these sites tend also to rank highly in the search engines. It also helps if you are putting up status updates on the sites regularly.

c. If it is a local business you can put up listings on Google Places and other local directory type sites like Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Hotfrog, Yelp, Insider Pages, Merchant Circle and others. There are dozens of sites like this and they all tend to rank pretty well.

d. Get videos produced about your company and post them on YourTube.

e. I have gotten good results by putting up multiple web sites, each with specific purposes related to my company. For instance, I have an articles blog on a separate domain, another blog that is just for press releases about my company, and another blog that is for press releases about my clients. I have put up several web sites and blogs for my political commentary.

c. Start multiple blogs and post items to them regularly. Include free blogs like www.blogger.com, www.blog.com, www.posterous.com, and others. When you post things there, include links in the articles linking back to your main site.

d. Write articles and post these to article directory sites. These tend to not rank as highly as some of the items above, but they’re great for volume.

This is a bit of work but it is an extremely effective program. I have done this program for myself and for one client. The client had quite a few negatives and now has none on the first five pages of Google.

Posted via email from Real Web Marketing's Posterous

Pay Per Click Advertising in 2012

By John Eberhard

Pay per click advertising (PPC) refers to advertising on Google AdWords, MSN Ad Center, Facebook or LinkedIn. It is so called because you create ads that are then displayed online to people under certain circumstances, and then if the viewer clicks on your ad, you get charged.

Pay per click advertising is extremely effective in generating leads on a regular basis, and you can get them going fairly quickly.

Google and MSN

Google Adwords and MSN Ad Center function very similarly. Both allow you to put up ads that appear when people enter certain specific keywords. You can also select the geographical area where your ads will be seen, so if you have a local business that only services people in a certain geographical area, you can have your ads only appear to people in that area. You can select what your budget is going to be per day and thus control your expenses.

With both services you decide what your bid is going to be, i.e. how much money you will are willing to pay whenever someone clicks on your ad. Your bid, along with some other factors, will determine how high up on the page your ad appears. So if there is a lot of competition for the keywords you have selected, you may have to bid higher to have your ads appear near the top.

Google AdWords is the largest service, meaning they have the most traffic, and so in using them you will have the potential of generating a lot of traffic to your site. MSN, which merged a couple of years ago with Yahoo’s PPC program, has quite a bit less. And strangely the merger with Yahoo doesn’t seem to have raised their traffic much. The advantage with MSN is that you will not have to bid as high and so the overall cost of the leads you produce will be a lot less. You will just get fewer of them per given period of time.

Facebook

Facebook has a PPC program. These appear as small display ads with a little bit of text in the right hand column.

With Facebook you can select who sees your ads according to geography, age, sex, and according to who has certain keywords on their info page. So for instance, if you have a local dance studio, you can select a certain geographical area, then select girls between certain ages, who have the word “dance” or “ballet” on their info page. Once again you set your bid, and your budget.

I have found that Facebook’s PPC program works pretty well. It’s especially good if their demographic targeting factors work well for your business. You won’t get as much traffic as on Google, but you’ll probably get more than with MSN.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has a relatively new PPC program. Once again you can select geography, bid and budget. But here you can target people according to membership in certain groups on LinkedIn, by job title, by working at certain companies, and by age and gender.

I have had only one client on LinkedIn’s PPC program so far, and it has been low in volume but the cost per lead has been very good, because we are able to really tightly target people who would be interested in his services.

Conversions

As I said earlier PPC is great for generating a regular flow of leads for your business. In my opinion it works better for generating leads than for generating actual online sales.

So you want to get people to click on your ads, but beyond that you want them to fill out your form on your web site and become a lead, or specifically in PPC what we call a “conversion.” A lot of this has to do with what you have on your landing page, how effective your sales copy is, and what your offer is.

Only a certain percentage of people who click your ad and come to your site will actually fill out the form and become a conversion. Supposedly nationally this works out to 3%. So if you are paying $1.00 for each click (not unusual today) and for every 100 clicks you get 3 people to become a conversion, then your cost per conversion will be $33.

Who Should Use PPC?

Because of the amount of competition in PPC today, which drives higher bids and higher cost per conversion, PPC does not work for low ticket items. If you are selling a CD or book, PPC will not work for you, because the cost per sale will be higher than the price of your product.

You could possible make PPC work for a low ticket item on MSN, Facebook or LinkedIn, but definitely not on Google.

I find that PPC works extremely well for home improvement companies, because the cost of their services is high enough to be viable with the cost per conversion on Google AdWords and the other providers. Those types of companies need leads and PPC provides a steady stream.

It’s difficult to give a hard and fast rule, but in general, high ticket items of say over $500 will do really well with PPC.

In 2012

I have noticed what appears to be a lessening of interest in PPC over the last year. I cannot personally see any lessening of effectiveness in PPC overall during that time period in generating a regular flow of leads for my clients. But I have noticed that there is a lot of competition, which in some cases leads to higher bids, and higher cost per conversion.

I also notice quite a few players in the market who are making many elementary mistakes in running their campaigns, which will cause them to get poor results and eventually drop out of the PPC market and conclude that “pay per click doesn’t work.” Just as one example, I see many PPC advertisers having the visitor land on their home page. This makes the visitor have to spend time figuring out your navigational scheme and find what they are looking for on your site. The correct action is to have the person land on a detail page for the specific product you are promoting with your ad, or even better, have them land on a custom page that is specifically for that ad.

PPC does work, but there are some basic rules that you have to know and apply. I believe it works best if you have a consultant manage your campaign.

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How Blogging Drives Traffic

by John Eberhard

Most people would like to have more traffic to their web site. So it should be good news to everyone that you can do something right now to drive more traffic to your site. And it’s free.

Here is how posting to your blog drives traffic. Every time you post something, you send out a notification (called a “ping”) to all the blog search engines via www.pingomatic.com. If your blog is a Wordpress blog, it does this automatically. If you have a blog on Typepad, Posterous, Blogger, or Blinkweb, you have to do it manually.

You fill in the name of your blog and the blog address. You don’t need to fill in the RSS address. Then check all of the blog search engines in the bottom left block. Then send the pings.

Once that ping goes out your new blog post will be indexed, or included, in all the blog search engines. So people who are searching for the topic you are writing on will see the listing for your blog post, click on it and come to your blog. So it makes sense to spend some time figuring out what the popular keywords are that people are searching for in your industry. Then include those in your blog posts.

I employ this strategy and write one article per week, and my blogs produce more traffic to my site than any other source.

So I’ve Got Traffic – Now What?

If your blog is located on your regular web site and has the same navigational structure, now people will wander around your site and see your product or service offerings.

If your blog is on a separate web address from your main web site, then you need to have sidebars on the blog and include various links to your products and services back on your main site.

If you are selling things like books, put a picture and link to the book in the sidebar of the blog. If you have any free reports or white papers that you are offering, put a picture of the cover and link to the free offer in the sidebar of your blog.

If you have a free email newsletter, put a form right there in the blog sidebar that allows them to sign up.

In other words, provide links and enticements that will lead them back to your main site and especially that will entice them to either buy something or at least give you their name and email address.

You can see how I’ve done this on one of my blogs:
http://www.realwebmarketingblog.com/

What to Post?

Some people start a blog and then get bogged down in trying to write long articles for the blog, and so they never post anything. Here are some tips that will get you posting on your blog.

Articles: The general length for an article to post on a blog is 400 words or more. But there is no hard rule on this. The article should be something that is informative and not just a plug for your services.

Shorter Content: You don’t have to write 400 words. You can post a comment about something that is 50 or 100 words or even less.

Link and Comment: You can link to some other content on the web that you found informative or interesting, and add a comment about it.

Video: You can post a video in your blog so that the video appears right in the blog and can play right there. YouTube provides embed code for this. You can post a video about your company and services, but you can also post a video about anything else that is of interest.

Note that any of these posts, even the shorter ones, will end up in the blog search engines, if, of course, you send pings to them via Wordpress or via Pingomatic.

One caution is that if the blog is for your business, all your posts should be related to your business and your industry. Keep it consistent. Don’t post one day about affordable solar panels, and the next day about your dog. Save the stuff on your dog for Facebook.

Good luck with your blogging.

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Picking Features for a New Web Site

By John Eberhard

Whenever you set out to have a new web site designed or have an existing site re-designed, it makes sense to spend a little time at the beginning figuring out what features you want on the site.

Responsive

With the popularity of smart phones, pads and other mobile devices today, you should consider whether or not you want the site to resize itself to respond to the size of the mobile device being used to view it. They have now come up with a new buzzword for this, because as you well know, we don’t have enough buzzwords. A site that is set up to resize itself based on the size of the device is called “responsive.”

You should consider whether you will need or want this feature. If you are a local business and people are going to be searching for you while they are out and about, a responsive site is probably important. So make sure you work with a web designer who can provide that.

Wordpress or Other CMS

More and more clients today are requesting to have their sites built in a content management system (CMS) that allows them to log in and make minor changes to the site themselves. The three most popular CMSes are Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal. I have chosen to work mainly in Wordpress as I find its interface pretty easy to learn. So it has evolved to the point where most of the web sites I am designing today are in Wordpress, and even my own site is now in Wordpress.

Wordpress has a number of utilities, called “plugins,” that give added functionality, and which can include things like SEO functions, Google Analytics, forms, photo galleries, forums, calendars, slide shows, social media interaction and more.

I started using a purchased, highly customizable theme called Catalyst, which allows the site to be responsive as well.

Slide Show

Many sites today have a slide show, usually on the home page, less often at the top of every page. I think this is a good feature, especially if you have things to show that are visual in nature.

I believe that when it comes to images, bigger is usually better, so I most often set up these slide shows so that the images span the width of the site. And most of my sites today are 1000 pixels wide. A slide show 1000 pixels wide has pretty good impact.

I have made these slide shows in Flash for years. But recently I started using a program called the Nivo Slider, which offers some interesting transition effects between the slides.

Navigation

It’s smart to figure out how your site navigation is going to work at the beginning of the project. I favor and recommend a navigational structure whereby you can reach any page from any other page on the site. This strategy involves a set of navigational buttons that usually make up the general categories, with dropdown menu items below some of the main buttons.

This strategy with a set of buttons with dropdown menu items below them has become the common strategy today and has more or less replaced the idea that you click to go to one page and that page has more menu items on it that you can’t reach unless you are on that page.

A note on Wordpress. For some reason Wordpress and many purchased themes make it difficult to have a menu along the side. You can do it but it is much harder. If you’re going with Wordpress it is better to plan to have your navigation buttons along the top.

Forms

It’s important to have forms on a site, minimally on your contact page or newsletter signup page. But in the last year I have more been favoring putting a form into the sidebar, so it is on every page of the site. This prompts the visitor to contact you on every single page, and contact is what it’s all about.

Contact Info

Of course you should have a “contact us” page, but I am in favor of also putting the phone number and contact info on every page, once again encouraging the visitor to contact you.

Identity Capture

It is important to have things on your web site that prompt the visitor to respond and to give you his name and contact info. Of course you should have a contact page and an email newsletter signup page. But it is also a good idea to have other items on the site that get the visitor to give you his name and email, mainly for the person who is not ready to buy from you right now.

One good solution is to offer free reports (also called “white papers” which sounds more fancy) on topics related to your products or industry. This then prompts people who are interested in the topic to give you their email address, which allows you to then market to them periodically. When you create a free report or white paper, always offer it in such a way that the person has to fill out a form and give you his email in order to get the report. Never just give a download link on the site.

By getting the person who is interested in your topic (and therefore presumably a potential customer) but not ready to buy now, to fill out the form and give you his email, you are building an email list. Then you can keep your name in front of him so that when he is ready to buy, yours is the company he thinks of.

Good luck with your new or revised web site.

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Promoting an Original Band: Michael Duff

by John Eberhard

Recently I wrote an article about promoting yourself as an artist. This is the first of a series I will be writing, interviewing artists who have had some success and getting their take on how to succeed in the marketing of their particular field of artistic endeavor.

This first article is an interview with Michael Duff, whose band Chalk FarM was signed to Columbia in 1995.

1. Can you give us a rough timeline of your band Chalk FarM, when it started, when you got signed, when you toured, etc.?

I left a band in mid 1993 & formed my own.  We played coffee house type places as a 3 piece (Acoustic Gtr, Bass & Drums) and in early '94 recruited an electric guitarist because the sound was evolving.  We got hooked up with a Producer who offered to record 3 songs for us - and we ended up doing 9 because it was so much fun.  That was Matt Hyde who we had produce the Columbia CD. 

We recorded these songs in the Spring, and a buzz began to happen through Matt.  He was telling his Industry friends and they were coming down to listen. 

We were playing shows in the wake of this buzz (summer '94) and found other people coming down.  We got one of the songs played on 101.9 "Local Licks" during the summer as well which helped. 

We were actually offered a Publishing deal - kind of loosely, but they told us to get an attorney.  We did and by December we were signed to Columbia.  It was fast.  And in February of '95 we were back in the studio with Matt to record the debut.

1. Before you got signed to a record deal, aside from putting together quality music, what did you do to market or promote the band, that was successful?

Performing was the best thing we did.  This was WAY before the Internet.  It was flyers from Kinkos passed out to everyone we knew and a pretty aggressive collection of addresses for the post-cards we'd mail out before shows.

1. Do you think that there is a formula of promotion or marketing that bands should follow today to get signed?

All that I hear is that it's all about Social Media, and I think that is a really good thing to do.  The interaction you can have with fans - and building a base is incredible.  But it's also important to play a lot.  That will only help in every way - musicianship, writing, people skills and building your fan base - getting the word out “on the street."

1. What do you think are the most important actions bands should take in order to reach the point of getting signed?

Well, what's interesting (depending on who you read or talk to) is that there is a different paradigm now for bands.  "Getting Signed" is not always the end you're after.  I do, however, feel pretty strongly that Major Labels still have a lot of power and if nothing else they have a staff and money to do promotion you wouldn't be able to do on your own.

But as far as the things I think are most important - I'd say:

1. Great songs.  I'm not talking about good songs.  I'm talking about GREAT songs.  There is a real need to step back and do the hardest thing for an artist - be objective.  Listen to other bands who do what you do.  Are your songs just as good?  Yes?  Brilliant.  No?  Then keep working at it until you feel they are.

2. Let people know you're there.  Read books and articles on Promotion - like you'll find in this blog.  Get the information and then USE IT!  And talk to other bands - what are they doing that is successful, what can you offer then that will help them?  It's not as cut-throat as you think.  Some of the best "Scenes" have created many big bands from within - their friends, etc.  It’s a community.  And from this you can build fan bases that are complimentary - do shows together and build together.  But all the while make yourself known!  You can do that so much easier now than even 10 years ago.  Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (do LOTS of videos!) and interact with everyone!

3. Network.  Yep.  It's a business and you need to treat it like one.  Go out when you're not performing.  Meet INDUSTRY people.  Go to other bands showcases - seminars, etc.  Meet and build relationships with INDUSTRY people.  Folks like to do business with who they like.  It's the way the world is.

We had 2 different people at Columbia bring tapes of ours to an A & R meeting.  They had no idea the other had a tape.  That was a big deal for them.  That occurred not by a master plan on our part, but by people we knew who liked us giving our music to people they knew who liked them and so on.

1. Can you tell us something about the whole process of performances that are done principally for record industry A&R people (“showcases”), and how to put on successful performances like this? Also how important is it for a band to do these performances?

I think this depends on the band.  If they're a gritty, dirty type band (death metal, punk, etc.) a showcase may not work as well since they tend to be a little more controlled and even a bit stiff.  If you're a great live band - do it in a club.  Make it one that you've played many times before and have a good following and you like the way the room sounds.  Industry types should be able to hear you.  :o)

If you're new - don't do a showcase.  Just go play.  And play a lot.  Unless you have someone close footing the bill for your whole record, etc., then the people who are thinking of investing in you (it IS a business and that's just what Labels do - even though it doesn't seem like it), will want to see you play live.  If you don't have it, they may well pass.  So play A LOT!!!  Find little dives and don't tell anyone.  Do out of town shows - play a lot and get good at it.  Then no matter where you play people who come will "get it."

1. How important do you feel social media is today for bands in promoting themselves?

See #4 above.  It's a method of getting yourself known.  Use it - and every other method you can find!

1. Do you think it is important for a band to have a website?

110%.  You won't be taken seriously if you don't have one.  As I said - it's a business.  And since all businesses have one, you need one too.  The music business website is just a really artsy version of a regular company one!  You need it to sell yourself, your music, promote your shows.  It's vital.

1. How about videos and YouTube?

I have 2 words: Justin Bieber.  Need I say more?

1. Any other advice you’d like to give to musicians who’d like to put out CDs and tour?

Do it.  The world NEEDS new music all the time.  Music evolves.  Help it along.  Take a chance and express yourself.

1. What’s your opinion of the practice of self publishing your own CD and selling it yourself?

It's more work than anyone should ever have to do.  However, if you are performing a lot it becomes a lot easier.  If you have a band it is easier still.  There is strength in numbers and that goes across the boards - numbers of hours performing, number of songs written, number of times your CD has been rejected by someone (seriously - that means you're getting yourself out there!).

Fortunately, there are lots of affordable places to do this all on your own if you want to go that route.  If you do it well and have the time and energy (bands do this best because there are more bodies to put forth effort in the right direction) it can be a profitable affair.

1. Has iTunes changed the recording industry?

Yes.  And not necessarily for the better.  But the Industry as a whole has that to blame, not Steve Jobs.  I think people got tired of paying $20 for 1 good song and 9-10 crappy ones - they were feeling ripped off - so a change was inevitable. 

I think the idea of an album is a good thing and iTunes changed that for good.  We've gone back to a "singles" mentality, like in the days before Sgt. Pepper made the album really cool (that's The Beatles, kids!). 

This is my name-dropping section of my answers: I was at a party talking to Lars of Metallica about this very issue.  It was a few years ago, not so long after the whole Napster fallout, and he was saying that after all the years they've specifically written an album as a whole unit - each song had a place and purpose within the whole, now they had to take a totally different approach and think along the lines of individual songs.  I don't think that we would have had "Master of Puppets" or the two that followed and made them famous if they had today's mindset.  Who knows?

But a lot of great music came from that "singles" mentality too, so it'll be interesting to see where we go from here!

1. What’s your opinion on the illegal free downloading of music and how this has impacted the recording industry?

This is a tough one.  I've heard a LOT of different takes on this - I've heard from one "Insider" that illegal downloading was the reason for a boom in the music business.  Turns out he was a criminal (went to jail) so I guess you need to consider the source.  Folks who illegally download will say it's great.  But I think most people want to exchange with the artists - it's a form of applause, actually. 

What I know is that the overall sales of music has been declining for many years and those are the numbers from which artists are paid.  If you can't make a living doing something, guess what?  You have to stop doing it and do something else.  What if Beck had to stop playing to go sell shoes or something?  What a loss that would have been, you know?  No offence to shoe salespeople!

The bottom line for me is a question I ask people when this issue comes up: "If I have a stack of CDs on my desk, would you take them?"  They always say no.  Then I ask them what is the difference between that and getting songs for free online.  There are an unlimited number of justifications.  Don't get me wrong, I'm good if your pal Jay-Z emails you a new track he's just finished but most people don't fall into that situation where they have permission of the artist. 

There are artists who do give away their music.  That's fine if that's what they want to do.  It never made sense to me, but that's fine if they want to.

At the end of the day I guess I just don't think stealing is good, whether it's from the Internet or my desk.

1. We hear that Chalk FarM has gotten back together recently. What are your plans for the band?

Yes, we emerged from our 12 year hiatus, reformed with all 4 original band mates and have been having a great time!  It's really fun.  We are all in very different situations now however and so our focus is not (as it once was) to jump in a van and tour.  Everyone has a family and grownup-type bills!  So we're looking at things from the standpoint of writing for placements - film and TV.  But even before that, we're doing it because it's a blessing to be able to do it.  And there are still some Chalk FarM fans out there who are interested in hearing more - which is also a blessing.

1. Any upcoming performances or events you’d like our readers to know about?

We just released 8 new songs on iTunes (see, it's not even a full CD's worth!) in a collection called "Into The Night"  We'll be playing some shows later this summer in LA, but mostly we're in a writing and recording mode.

See the Chalk Farm web site.

Good luck with with music marketing.

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