“This is the one component to my business that I’ve been looking to have for a long time” said Senior Web Strategist Eric Hebert. “The key to everything these days is conversion. I can drive traffic to your website all day long (Hebert has over 8+ years in Search Engine Marketing & Viral Marketing experience), but if your website isn’t converting, then what’s the point? Adding the video element drives conversion rates through the roof, we’ve proven it in the short time we’ve worked together. The problem is most small businesses think they can’t afford quality video production. The guys at Reel Stuff provide just that, so it was a no-brainer that we join forces and offer our clients the full package, at rates they can afford”.

Reel Stuff Entertainment has produced more than 600 videos for broadcast and New Media applications since being established in 2003. Among these have been original series for The Discovery Channel and The Travel Channel, and original content for a roster of clients that includes Simon & Schuster, Harvard University Press, Lexis Nexis, AT&T and others.

Steve Jesper & Jesper Olsson, the duo behind Reel Stuff, specializes in travel and reality programming. In 2007, Reel Stuff produced the 15-episode original series “Living Tomorrow” for The Discovery Channel, and in 2009 delivered a 20-part series of travel videos about the city of Philadelphia to The Travel Channel for distribution on Mobile, Video-on-Demand and Internet platforms. The Company continues to work with both The Discovery Channel and The Travel Channel on new projects.

Eric Hebert formed Evolvor Media in January 2007. Since 2004 Hebert has been actively involved in the online marketing sector, spending thousands of hours understanding the constantly evolving Web and learning the various techniques on how to promote and brand yourself using them. After offering B2B consulting in areas such as SEO, Social Media, Web Analytics, and other marketing techniques, he decided to move his business to Philadelphia in late 2011 to build a local team of creative & tech savvy individuals to offer a full suite of services to his clients.

“Eric is a marketing rockstar” says Janas. “We’re just an affordable video production crew and that’s what we want to focus on. Eric has proven he knows what he’s talking about and we can’t wait to see where our business is going to be in a few months. With our video work and his web strategies, clients are going to fall in love with what we do for their business and bottom-line”

The two companies will continue to operate as separate entities while working out the ownership details of their new venture, which in addition to client work includes several joint-ventures with local companies and a television show the duo produced that is being shopped to various advertisers. The group are also currently waiting to close an initial round of investing from a private investment group to fund further growth.

After the first article was published, a well known celebrity/gossip/lifestyle blog picked up the post and it since has gotten almost 40,000 views, over 700 facebook likes, plus hundreds of Tweets. That’s one hell of a pop to get people talking about her and her new book.

And yes, book sales are up quite a bit, but that’s not why I’m talking about this. What I AM here to talk about is how content rules in the online marketing world. Once you embrace this concept you can use it to drive eyeballs to your content and ultimately your product. I’ve been preaching this for years to musicians and most of you didn’t want to listen to me. While it’s taken my client lots of time and energy to network with the right people, you can see how this is finally paying off.

Oh, I forgot to mention that with every e-book purchase, you get a free download of the album. So not only is she using content as a way to gain exposure for herself and her book, but she’s using the book as a way to get exposure for the band. Content used to expose more content.

THIS IS HOW YOU MARKET YOURSELF KIDS!

Yeah that’s right, I used the big ole’caps. I cannot drive this technique home to you guys more than I’ve tried to for the past oh 5 or so years now. In order to really build a fan base who is interested in your product, you have to create content on a constant basis. Articles, audio, blogs, video, the works. You have to constantly share this content. And you have to find opportunities to leverage other people’s audiences to help get you more exposure.

Think about it this way. How many bands dream of playing The Late Show With David Letterman? What an awesome opportunity to reach a huge audience, huh? The same concept applies online, except your opportunities are more realistic. Instead of trying to get featured on a late night TV show that you have a one and a million chance of actually getting on, find 10 big name blogs to get featured on and bust your balls networking until you get your feet in the door. Once you do, you create killer content that gets people talking about you. THAT’S HOW THINGS GO VIRAL!

But hold on – if you think one little pop on a blog is going to take your career to some new heights and sell a ton of product, you need to get your head out of your ass. Nope, it needs to continue to happen on a regular basis. In time, if you keep engaging the audience with kick ass content, they’ll eventually want more. But you have to create that demand through constant exposure.

It’s just like advertising. How many times to you see an advertisement ONCE and then run to the store to buy a product. NEVER! Marketing music is all about EXPOSURE – the more you get, the more of an opportunity you have to get in front of people more often. I’d say it usually takes about 5-10 instances of exposure before someone officially checks you out.

Here’s another way to think about it. Let’s say you see a cute girl or boy walking down the street. 9 times out of 10 you’re not going to stop and ask him or her out on a date (there are those of you who will when you’re extremely intoxicated so we’ll forget about you for the time being). But then you see her at the coffee shop a few days later. Or catch him at the supermarket. Then again at the bar – that’s where you finally make an approach. It’s even more powerful when you have a friend who introduces you.

The same applies to making new fans. They’re not going to get into bed with you right off the bat, and they sure as hell aren’t going to do it because you have a fancy website or Facebook page. They need to get to know you first, and the only way you’re going to make that happen is by….wait for it….creating engaging content.

So what are the next steps, you ask? Well that’s what I’ve been trying to teach people for years now, and it’s not something I can just layout for you here in a blog post. It takes time, and there are lot of factors you need to consider in order to make it work for you.

Most of you won’t do it. You’ll cling to the dream that one day your CD will fall into the hands of the right person, you’ll be handed a big fat check and your career will just take off.

A select few of you get it, and after reading this you’re waking up to the fact that you need to do something about it. It’s you that I want to talk to, one on one, over the phone. It’s you who, after our initial phone call, will be pumped up about getting started in the content marketing game.

But it’s gonna cost ya.

I’m not trying to sound like this all-important dude who’s too good to have a conversation or something. If you can catch me at the bar or coffee shop, I’ll be more than willing to chat with you and talk your ear off. So if you live in Philly, hit me up and we’ll grab a cold one.

For the rest of you, I have to ask for a payment. I’m working 12 hour days running a start-up marketing agency and have a lot to do, and work is my life. But money does indeed talk, and in order to get me to talk, it’s gonna cost you a cool $100. I offered this a few weeks ago at half the price and no one took me up on the offer – time is up and let’s just say the $100 offer won’t stand for too long either.

The first call will be to assess your currently web strategy, and figure out what you need to do to fix what’s wrong and what direction you should take. After a few weeks, we’ll schedule and additional call to answer any questions you’re bound to have and give you a roadmap to follow.

Whattya waiting for? Time slots are limited so get me on the phone today! The longer you wait the harder it gets to play in the marketing game.

*In case you were wondering, those numbers I gave you are real – I did not want to include any links or name drop anyone to not ruin the efforts we have put forth. But if you do some simple snooping, you’ll find out what I’m talking about.

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Debra for a few years now and she’s one of my biggest supporters, so when I found out the book was being released digitally, I had to pick her brain about it and share it here. We’re currently collaborating on using various SEO and Social Media strategies (check out what she’s doing on Twitter to promote the book), which are kind of interesting when you think about all the phrases that she defines throughout the book.

This book is authentic, raw and raunchy. It opens with “alcorub”–the drink of last resort for desperate alcoholics, explores gender switching in the blues with “cock” and “lemon,” and closes with “zuzu,” which means cookie, and is “perhaps the most wholesome word in the entire book,” according to Reuters.

The lead singer/guitarist for DEVI put down her guitar long enough to interview over 20 blues legends and dig through obscure sources to discover the meanings and origins of terms like “mojo,” “hoodoo” and “killing floor.” Now Guitar International has released a $9.99 eBook version that includes new color photos and a free download of DEVI’s powerful debut album, Get Free.

The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu is blurbed by both Bonnie Raitt and Ministry’s Al Jourgensen–which neatly bookends the incredibly wide influence of the blues on American music.

This book has tons of cool stuff in it, including a sharecropper’s contract, entertaining stories from the author’s interviews with bluesmen (Hubert Sumlin, Little Milton, Bob Margolin and others) and a foreword by Dr. John in which he discusses how he learned to use street language to write songs. Discover the meaning of Robert Johnson’s “stones in my passway”, find out why Willie Dixon wrote “Wang Dang Doodle”, and learn the African-American game of insults called “the dozens.”

Ministry singer Al Jourgensen says “Finally one can understand the mechanics behind the overwhelming viscera of the Blues. Debra Devi’s work is a true guide book to the soul.” Bonnie Raitt adds, “What a great resource…as fascinating as it is informative. Debra’s passion for the blues shines through.”

Although though she’s a rock artist, you can hear the blues in Debra’s soaring guitar solos on songs like “When It Comes Down” and “Get Free.” I definitely had some questions for her…

Evolvor: What possessed you to write a book about the blues?

Debra: I grew up in Milwaukee and a lot of great Chicago blues artists would come through town. In fact, one of the very first live music shows I ever saw was Koko Taylor, with Son Seals on guitar. I was blown away by the emotional power of both of them and have been a blues fan ever since.

I had a job for awhile as the associate editor of Blues Revue magazine, and the editor-in-chief was Andrew M. Robble, who’d been a very close friend of Chicago blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield. Andy told me some wild stories, like the one in The Language of the Blues about a young Bloomfield being shocked to hear his mentor, Muddy Waters, talk about how much he liked to “suck cock”…until Bloomfield realized Waters was referring to female genitalia!

I became very curious about the meanings and origins of words like “mojo” and “hoodoo.” Since I’m a musician, not a scholar, I thought maybe I could make a contribution by talking to blues musicians directly.

Evolvor: Who are some of the artists you interviewed?

Debra: I interviewed as many legendary blues artists as I could find, including Robert Jr. Lockwood, Henry Gray, Hubert Sumlin, “Little” Milton Campbell Jr., Alvin “Red” Tyler, Mardi Gras Indian Chief Howard “Smiley” Ricks, and Jody Williams. I also interviewed next-generation artists, like Dr. John, Bonnie Raitt, Jimmie Vaughan, Robben Ford and Bob Margolin.

Lockwood was one of my favorites. At age 91, he was still extremely sharp and shed real light on a seminal blues figure, Robert Johnson. Lockwood was Johnson’s common-law stepson—his mother lived with Johnson for seven years.

Lockwood said Robert Johnson was a voracious reader who was always getting ideas for his songs from things he read. That really counteracts the romantic view of country blues musicians as illiterate modern primitives.

Evolvor: How did Dr. John wind up writing the foreword to your book?

Debra: I’d interviewed Dr. John in the past and was struck by how knowledgeable and deep he was. I called him when I was working on the book and he was able to answer questions I’d been tussling with for months. Like, where does the word “gig” come from? He knew that it came from the lottery business – a gig was a three-number (like a musical trio) bet and you didn’t know if it was going to pay off (like a musical gig!). I still can’t believe he wrote the foreword!

You can read his foreword and other excerpts from the book, plus the rest of the blurbs (from Joe Bonamassa, Hal Willner, Jimmy Vivino, Ed Sanders and Bob Margolin) at www.devi-rock.com/thelanguageoftheblues.

Evolvor: The Language of the Blues includes a free download of your band Devi’s album, Get Free. Is Devi a blues band?

Debra: No, we’re a rock power trio with a heavy ‘70s vibe. We’ve been described as “Sheryl Crow meets Queens of the Stone Age.” I think The Language of the Blues readers will dig Get Free, though, because my love for the blues kinda soaks through the whole thing.

Get your copy of The Language of the Blues here (this is not an affiliate link for me, I highly endorse it!)

Social SEO Has Been Around For Years

To start, I’d like to point out that much of SEO has been very heavily influenced by the “social” aspect of the web for years now. First, us savvy marketers used social bookmarking and news platforms like Delicious, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon to get our content in front of the “linkerati” as a means of obtaining those ever-so-important links that are the backbone of SEO. If you’re reading this thinking that spamming comment forms, directories, and article submission sites are the answer to your Google ranking woes, jump in a time machine and meet me at a bar circa 2007 so I can buy you a beer and set you on the right path.*

At this point in time, links were all-the-rage in Google land. While the algorithm was very advanced, and not every link was worth the same (remember this little tidbit), the only way to really gauge relevance of a web page was the link algorithm, and it made sense. The pages with the best links, and more of them, deserved to rank high in search results. And just like the techniques that came before them, us SEO soldiers figured out ways to get them. The smarter we got, the smarter Google got, and the game continued to get played with no end in sight.

As Facebook and Twitter rose to heights that nobody saw coming, it become apparent that the way content was being shared on these services was a solid indicator of the quality of said content. Now instead of just Google’s algorithm determining the importance of a web page, people we’re determining this via sharing on these social networks (instead of just linking from their own sites). The better an article or blog post was, the more likely it was going to be shared, “liked”, or tweeted. Google acknowledged this and soon these signals became part of the algorithm.

Google+ Is NOT the Facebook Killer…It’s a Twitter & Linked-In Killer

Google isn’t stupid, and so it began toying with it’s own social network. It screwed up royally with the launch of Buzz a few years back, and “we the people” helped that die a fast death. But low and behold, last summer, Google launched Google+. Everyone went into a frenzy, labeling it as a “Facebook killer”. I quietly laughed at that notion and checked it out. While it had some cool features, I kind of thought it was pretty redundant. I mean, the whole world uses Facebook and we all love it, so much that we complain every time they update the service, yet spend more and more time on it. Why would Google try to compete with that? And the more and more I started playing around with it, I realized what was really happening. Google wasn’t trying to kill off Facebook. No, it was going after Twitter. And now it’s taking that war to the battlefield that it just so happens to own, the beloved search engine results page. And it might prove to be a formidable foe.

How is Google+ more of a threat to Twitter then Facebook? It’s simple really. Facebook, for the most part, is a closed, friends and acquaintance-only social network (forget that “subscriptions” bullshit – anyone who really uses Facebook and is not a celebrity would cringe at the thought of this). Facebook is all about stupid status updates and pictures if you and your friends getting drunk. It’s not something we want shared with strangers.

This mindset goes against the way Google+ was set-up, where people would add you to “circles”. It’s not like a “friend request” – people add you if they want to. Depending on your settings, if your sharing updates publicly, then those who added you get your updates in their news feed. People can be very open with things on Google+. Sound familiar? Yeah, that’s cause it’s pretty much exactly how Twitter operates, just with some added, Facebook-y features. It’s a far superior platform to do the kinds of sharing of information that Twitter allows you to do (which makes the “circles” concept so damn good).

Now, of course Google+ did take the one thing Facebook provides as far as social signals are concerned – the “Like” button, and incorporated THAT into the whole platform as well. The “+1″, Google’s version of the “Like”, is the perfect and final reason why its platform works so damn well. Now Google can take the content sharing/network that works so well on Twitter and combine the “like” aspect of Facebook to completely change the way the algortithm deems content worthy of ranking. And, as stated earlier in this article, it makes total sense. 5 years ago it was links that make content relevant (and early form of what we consider “social”, even though it was always social – links were given by people, right?). Now, as social signals have evolved, Google is just doing what it does best – delivering the best possible results that it can that are relevant to the user.

And why do I call it a Linked-In killer? Because, as you’ll find out below, Google+ will very much become the “professional” social network. I’ll saved the Linked-In rant for another day, but I see it as becoming obsolete.

So here we are with the news this week that Google has introduced the Google+ and +1 signals as an integral part of their algorithm and user experience. Yes, users have the ability to opt-out of the service, but methinks that’s not going to really affect the masses of Google users who login to the service on a daily basis, which makes this integration VERY powerful for those who want to take advantage of it.

Let’s start by talking about your personal Google + profile and how it can affect SEO. Now, it’s really easy to hear all the hype surrounding Google+ and to just start going on a friend-addding frenzy, or to start +1′ing all your content (and begging others to do so). For just a minute, sit back, take a deep breath, and understand the following, otherwise you might screw your future success up with Google+ right from the start.

From my analysis, here is how Google is going to look at you via your Google+ page, and how it affects SEO now that Google + Your World is in full effect.

Connections are key. Every social network to rise up has it’s early adopters who figure out a way to spam their way to lots of friends (I know, I toyed with that myself with Twitter). However, this is king Google we’re talking about here – they’re not stupid. Google is going to look at who you add to your circles, then analyze all the factors of their profile as well. This includes their own connections and the quality of the content they share or +1 on their own Google+ profile. Make sense? Let’s use the following example:

Joe adds everybody and everybody to his Google+ circles, he has 1000 people. He’s never met these people, and about 60% of them are either fake accounts or users who don’t even use the service. The friends who DO use their Google+ account are spammers or affiliate marketers who are just pushing links out to shady products.

Now Jane, on the other hand, only adds people she knows or follows closely to her circles of connections. She only has about 200 of them, but most if not all use Google+ on a regular basis. They all share quality content and conversations and +1 good content on the web.

See the difference here? While Joe has more connections, it’s Jane who has the more valuable Google+ one account. Google’s algorithm is going to favor those who actually use the damn thing to make their search results more valuable for all users.

So that’s the real advantage to using Google+ for SEO & marketing. It’s all about building a valuable community of people and sharing the right kinds of content. YOU have the power to have a very powerful SEO signal if you create a Google+ profile that Google deems authorative, and the +1′s you give to content will have a profund effect on their search rankings.

All sound familiar? That’s because the ecceence of Google+ is the same as it’s link algorithm. The more +1′s you get from highly authuratative Google+ users, the higher you will rank. It’s not just quantity, but quality. Power will come with those who network well just like Digg/Reddit/Social Power Users.

Finally, even with all that has been said regarding Google+’s influence here, at the end of the day, if you’re trying to rank for keywords in search, you have to have quality content. I know it’s been preached about here and everywhere for years, but none of the SEO and social signals you read about mean a damn thing if you don’t have the content first. Create it, and then get it in front of the people who have the power to give you the links and Google +1′s (and Tweets and Likes and so on), and you’ll have a shot to play in the SEO game with the rest of us.

So, if you don’t mind…can you give me a +1 up in the left hand corner?

The Industry Weighs In on Google+

I figured I’d include the following articles from those who have been hiding in a cave to see what the reaction about Google+ has been from some of the sharpest minds in the game.

Real-Life Examples Of How Google’s “Search Plus” Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy

Search & Social – you can’t get the cream out of the coffee by Joost de Valk

Are You Trusted by Google? by Bill Slawski

Google + 1 Votes Checker Tool

Why Google+ is an Inevitable Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy – Brian Clark

*If you’re having success using these “golden-era” methods of getting links (crappy directories & article submissions), good for you. I hear they can still work for some of those non-competitive niches, but that isn’t going to last much longer. Social is taking, or already has taken, over. If you want to do your clients/projects a disservice, then continue building links this way. I’ll see you at the top of the search results, or at the bar wooing your clients away.

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past 6 month’s you probably missed Fitz and the Tantrums, who have been getting serious press and just got done a long cross country tour. I was a little ticked off that I missed them earlier this month at the TLA because I know the next time I see them, it will be in a much larger venue. This is by far the coolest pop act I’ve seen in years and I love their classic sound.

One of the things they’ve done a good job at is giving away their singles (using my chosen platform Topspin of course!). First it was the tune that really broke them into the main stream, “Moneygrabber”, who’s video hit VH!’s charts a few months back. Now the band is promoting their latest release, Don’t Have to Work it Out.

I’m sure the band is doing pretty well in the album & single sales department, and maybe I can snag an interview to back that up. Yes, you can both give away music and sell music at exactly the same time!

But their main goal in the whole campaign is to get you on that email list. Ten bucks says it has a lot to do with them selling out most of their shows along the tour. Think about it.

Anywho, download “Don’t Gotta Work it Out” and you’ll be hooked on FATT in no time!

The past year has had it’s ups and downs, with the latter half being the hardest 6 months of my life. Trust me, I know what it’s been like to be a “starving artist”, or in this case “starving entrepreneur”. For the last 6 months I’ve developed a lot of different projects to help artists and musicians learn about this crazy world of digital music we live in. And all of these projects crashed and burned.

That’s what being an entrepreneur is all about, and I’m not looking for anyone’s sympathy. As a matter of fact, the experience of failing is one of the most thrilling things to look back on. You ever heard a story of how someone had a brilliant idea that was successful overnight? Ok, I’m sure you have, but those are rare. Besides, I always found something “romantic” about those who failed miserably for what seemed an eternity only to redeem themselves with some amazing idea or product. That’s me, that’s where I’m going, and very soon I’ll be telling you all about it.

So I’ve packed my bags. Literally and figuratively. I’ve moved to a new city and am now focused on building a solid marketing & branding agency, working with start-ups, and more. I’m also “packing my bags” from wasting my time helping out stupid musicians.

That’s right I said STUPID musicians. I’ll forever be helping out artists in every medium, because that’s what I was put on this earth to do. However, I’m going to be VERY selective with those who I work with in the future.

This isn’t about money (although it plays a little part, don’t get me wrong). It’s about MY SANITY!

I’ve spent more than 8 years understanding how people find out about new things, whether it be a product, service, or a new band to listen to. I know how to build a brand from the ground up, to turn an idea into a following, and to build a business around that following.

You could say I’ve been conducting a “study” on musician behavior for quite some time, what with all the musicians I’ve had a dialog with over the years. Yet the thousands of different people that my voice has reached simply don’t “get it”. I’m sure I can do a better job of trying to teach and articulate the method behind my marketing madness a little better, and everyday I try to improve that. But after focusing my energy for the past 5+ years in teaching all this marketing/business knowledge to the music sector, I’m realizing that I’m just way ahead of my time.

Musicians are going to continue being stupid for a few more years, until the CD is completely gone and we’re all in the cloud. There’s no reasoning with them. Everyday I get emails from stupid musicians, who think they can just hire some “marketing expert” to get their “music heard” and the magic fairy dust will take care of the rest.

Those can prove to me they are not one of the stupid musicians will get my attention. I work with a handful today, and I adore them. They are the musicians who love what they do and do it out of love, who aren’t trying to sell a plastic disc that no one wants. Instead, they’re just focused on playing shows and getting heard by as many people as possible, and they know that, in time, and if they keep at it, that someday maybe they can do what they love to do and make a living at it.

In a few hours I’m going to begin yet another transition for evolvor.com. I’m pulling my music-centric service pages and products. I don’t want to get another email from a stupid musician.

Earlier this fall I re-vamped and launched the Music Marketing Machine. There’s so much great stuff in here I could sell it for a $1000. And I’m going to – I’m re-vamping it again to sell to businesses and that will be a major focus of my business in 2012.

So you have about 24 hours to grab access to the Music Marketing Machine before I pull the switch on the offer – trust me it’s some really fantastic stuff that will point you in the right direction (and make you less stupid)

Stay tuned for some new updates about the new direction for evolvor.com. I’m not leaving you behind by any means – just moving on to take things to the next level. Hope you can join me for the ride.

P.S. If you’re in the city of brotherly love, contact me and let me know about your project!

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are plenty of you out there that indeed “gets it” when it comes to building a brand and marketing on the web. You’re probably the ones out there that have engaging blog posts and don’t spam the hell out of your Facebook fans and Twitter followers with some lame message.

As the for rest of you, a big portion of you, I’m gonna bet with confidence that your idea of marketing is completely and absolutely 100% wrong. And it’s hurting any chance of success, whether you’re a musician trying to spread the word about your music or a new business trying to hawk your product. If you don’t learn how to re-think the way a message is spread online you’re gonna fall behind the competition.

Here’s the problem, one that I have to tackle on a daily basis when dealing with new prospects: that marketing = advertising. They are two different things, but get mixed up with each other all the time. So to quickly summarize:

Marketing is creating value for your brand. Advertising is the process of purchasing media to promote the brand.

The problem with most of our mindsets is that marketing on the web is using it to advertise your product. This is not how marketing should be approached. You’re not building any sort of value by purchasing any advertising (especially in the music space). You’re not building value by using social networks to constantly plug your new show or CD, if that’s all you’re using them for. You need to change this mindset!

If you really want to understand how to successful market yourself online, start by getting out of the “advertising” mindset – that works on TV and in print and other traditional media, but it’s not how you should be thinking about using the web.

Let’s go back to my definition to marketing – creating value. That is the mindset. In all your marketing efforts, you need to constantly be asking yourself “how can I utilize this medium to create value to the people that are going to be interacting with it”?

Take your website for example. Is it valuable to a visitor who lands there? I betcha it’s not. I betcha it probably is just a big advertisement for your music or your new gizmo. I betcha there’s nothing there to teach the visitor, or really engage them to learn something about you or your brand in a deep way, or some tool that makes their life easier.

The same could be said for your Facebook page or Twitter profile. Go look at it. Is it really useful to anyone. And if you answered “Yes cause it helps fans remember our show dates” go jump off a bridge cause your missing the point.

It’s my job to get you to change the way you’re thinking about using the we to promote yourself. To get into the Evolvor Marketing Machine Mindset.

If you’d really like to learn more about this, then I’ll make a bet with you. You sign up to access the Marketing Machine Mindset tutorials, and I guarantee you’ll look at the web in a completely different way. If in 30 days you’re not happy with the tutorials and killer content we’ve created for you, I’ll refund your money.

Just ONE of these tutorials is loaded with awesome insights that will change the way you think about the web. Check out the details here to get started.

The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) is now accepting entries for the 2011 competition. Now is your chance to enter what the NY Times calls “the competition to take note of” with $150,000 (US) in cash and prizes – including $25,000 (US) cash for the grand prize winner alone and the most prestigious judging panel of any songwriting competition worldwide.

ISC, now in its tenth year, is an annual competition whose mission is to provide the opportunity for both aspiring and established songwriters to have their songs heard in a professional, international arena. ISC is designed to nurture the musical talent of songwriters on all levels and promote excellence in the art of songwriting, and to provide the opportunity to have these talents heard by the most influential decision-makers in the music industry.

Artist Judges:

Tom Waits; Jeff Beck; My Morning Jacket; Kelly Clarkson; Tori Amos; Massive Attack; Darryl McDaniels (Run DMC); Robert Smith (The Cure); Keane; James Cotton; Wynonna; Craig Morgan; McCoy Tyner; Michael W. Smith; Black Francis (The Pixies); Chayanne; John Mayall; Alejandro Sanz; Mose Allison; Toots Hibbert (Toots & The Maytals); Robert Earl Keen; Jeremy Camp; Billy Currington; Trombone Shorty; and more…

Industry Judges:

Monte Lipman (President, Universal Republic Records); Ric Arboit (President, Nettwerk Music Group); Allison Jones (VP A&R, Big Machine Records); Dan Storper (President, Putamayo World Music); Angel Carrasco (Sr. VP A&R, Latin America Sony Music and President, Discos 605); Kim Buie (VP A&R, Lost Highway); Bruce Iglauer (Founder/President, Alligator Records); Steve Lillywhite (Producer – credits include U2, The Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel, etc); Brian Malouf (VP A&R, Walt Disney Records); and more…

Submissions are judged on the basis of the following criteria: Creativity, Originality, Lyrics, Melody, and Arrangement. Production/Recording quality and vocal ability are not criteria.

For more information please visit their website at songwritingcompetition.com

I remember being a kid listening to my favorite bands of the day and wondering, “how do they do that?” It seemed totally amazing to me that someone could take an instrument and create this piece of music that made me have so many strong feelings be it happiness, anger, joy, and write these words that seemed to speak to me.

I still have that same feeling sometimes when I hear great new bands, except now I understand after my many years of studying music, writing music and performing it in front of people there is more to it then just writing for writing’s sake.

I used to sit on the edge of my bed as a teenager dreaming of writing a good song, trying to come up with something that sounded good and that would make people want to listen to my music. I had no concept or idea what I was doing; I just knew what I liked. That method of working works for some people but not for me. I had to learn why a song has appeal, why it was easy to sing, why the lyrics related to people, why the beat just made me want to jump up and dance. I had to get into the guts of my favorite songs and come up with a plan. Twenty years of digging, application and testing later, I think I finally have some answers, although not a panacea, a starting point for those of you wishing to write your own rock songs.

In the next few minutes I will run through my preferred method for coming up with songs and how I constructed Fear Zero’s song “Are You There” (although I have written songs many different ways and as many different ways as I have written songs, there are dozens of other ways to be sure). I will go through an approach that you can follow too, and hopefully you will come up with some good stuff that I can be inspired by.

To start with, you are going to need to have a basic knowledge of music and be able to play a chordal instrument (I guess Sting would argue but then again, he does play piano, guitar and other instruments) which will give you the best overall picture harmonically of what you have going on within your song. I will not go into the above suggestion as it would be beyond the scope of this article, but needless to say, there are many great music books and instructors available to help you gain the basic knowledge and chordal/theoretical vocabulary to enable you to become proficient enough to compose on your instrument of choice.

Ideas

Okay, you are sitting with your guitar in front of a blank page, tape recorder or Pro Tools ready to go. Now what? Well, some would say you need a concept, a direction to get an idea on how the music will affect your lyrics and vice versa. That way can definitely work, but I prefer writing music first and having that suggest the concept to me later.

The Intro/riff

There are many ways to start a song. You can start with a drumbeat that you come up with that you can’t get out of your head (if you have a drum machine or program). Something like this or your song can start with a chorus or my favorite, your song can start with a guitar riff that you have come up with that you think sounds cool.

When writing a guitar riff intro, my way is the same as heroes of mine such as Eddie Van Halen or Chris Cornell. I jam, jam, jam until I either stumble upon something I like or I try to have a recorder ready at the side of my bed for when I wake up. I find a substantial amount of ideas come to me in a semi sleepy state and this enables me to just roll over, click and hum the riff into the recorder and later listen and laugh or listen and go, “Cool, I want to develop that!” The one thing I can say about this subject is, if you want the riff to be catchy, have a repeating rhythm or melody idea within it that will stick with the listener. If you are more of the “art” school, completely ignore that and just come up with any idea you deem original.

Once we have that main riff, we can start to see whether this will be just an intro, or maybe we can sing a melody over it and turn it into a verse, or maybe it will be a chorus. I usually determine this by the length of the section/feel. As I wrote earlier, the song I am going to use as an example is Fear Zero’s latest single, “Are You There” a mid tempo ballad in the pop rock style.

Here is the riff I first came up with when writing this song.

When I wrote this, I liked the sound of it because of the nice contour in the melody and I liked the way the chords complemented each other. It reminded me of something; I couldn’t place my finger on it but now after time I realize it was this song. Not that the entire riff sounded like that but I find a small section of the main riff to “Are You There” sounds like the instrumental tag at the end of the chorus at 1:15 in “Burden in My Hand”.

Melody For Verse

Once I had that riff I thought about what it made me feel; what images it conjured up to me visually. That period took a while, but eventually I focused on the concept of redemption, going back to your past and trying to right some wrongs.

I began humming melodies over it, searching for something that would sing easily but that had some arc, meaning a high point, not too many low points. When I went to music school, I remember learning about classical melody. There was a checklist they had for whether your melody was a winner or not. It probably doesn’t necessarily translate to the pop music idiom, as so much of pop music is based on things other than the song such as the image of the artist etc., but I have always strived for some of those classical ideals with the melodies in my music. Just for your interest, here are the finer points of writing melody for classical/jazz music:

• Try for one high point per sentence (melody). A melodic line should build and decay, not sustain one intensity throughout;
• Avoid too many repeated notes;
• Avoid too many low points;
• Melodic rhythm should activate weakness (this means it should be harmonically/rhythmically more adventurous near the end of the phrase);
• Notes approached by leap are usually best left by step in the opposite direction.

I know not all of these apply to writing a rock song, but there are some you should definitely try out. For me the first three are essential with the melodies I try to write although the rules can always be bent.

Melody/Chords For Chorus

The choruses in many rock songs take the melody to a higher point and have more repetition melodically than the verse. There are many tricks to this. You can take whatever key you are in and just move up a minor third and voila, you have a lift harmonically which will bring out the chorus. Some songs that do this are “Rocking In The Free World” by Neil Young , “Working For The Weekend” by Loverboy, “Misery Business” by Paramore, and many more.

A song can stay in the same key but have the melody do the jump, taking the singer into a more exciting part of his or her range such as “Second Chance” by Shinedown, “The Fixer” by Pearl Jam, “Learn To Fly” by Foo Fighters. In pop rock music, the chorus has to be the punctuation point on your song.

I decided the former would be the route I would take. In this case, “Are You There” is in E major during the verse (E mixo. mode with a borrowed b6 major chord at the end of the phrase technically), so when I segue to my new chorus key, I go to G major which adds a lift. I had my chords for the chorus, which were as follows:

C G D Em C D Emaj

Another thing that will add life to your chorus is to speed up the amount of changes per measure, meaning play more chords per bar then in other sections of the song. In the verse of “Are You There,” the first chord lasts a bar and the second bar has two chords. In the chorus there are two chords in every bar, and that adds momentum to that part of the song, helping it come alive.

I started humming melodies over that and then luckily was able to come up with one that had a repeating rhythm that was easy to fit words into. This part of the process is a bit mysterious but really, if you just sit and play the chords over and over humming things, you will eventually stumble across something that could work as a chorus. Try to follow some of the guidelines I laid out earlier. One other thing I look at is, if my verse has long held notes and a bit of a long melody, I try to use shorter phrases in the chorus. If my verse has shorter choppier phrasing I try to hold notes longer. You want to have that juxtaposition to keep the interest of the listener.

Changing your vocal phrasing between sections is a good thing. It keeps the listener engaged. “I Stay Away” by Alice In Chains, “Sex Is On Fire” by Kings Of Leon, “The Fixer” by Pearl Jam and many other songs use this premise. Songs that repeat something too often become boring fast.

So I got my chorus melody/rhythm together for “Are You There” and as I was humming, the words “Are You There” came to me. It was at this point that I had to start thinking about the dreaded topic of lyrics.

Lyric Writing

The topic of lyric writing is always a touchy one. Some say lyrics really don’t matter and that as long as you have a great melody, the song will be fine. This really depends on whether you want a song that has some sort of staying power though. Rhymes help make the song have a consistency that will allow the listener to quickly grab the hook phrase, which, in the business of music means $. This however may not apply to you if you are writing purely for fun or to make art as I said before. I prefer to have rhymes be a part of my writing as I do enjoy the challenge of saying something within such a rigid structure and trying to say something in my own way.

The first order of business I find is to get down on paper what you are trying to say. Does the music you wrote have a certain mood that it evokes? Sad like say Metallica’s “Unforgiven”, happy such as Weezer’s “Buddy Holly”, angry like “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” by Smashing Pumpkins? It should be giving you a direction to go in. That being said, there have been lyrics written with music that seems to be the polar opposite of the mood being evoked by the music and that can work by way of the irony involved.

I start by brainstorming for ideas. Put yourself in the singer’s shoes and start writing to see where that takes you. What happened, where did it happen, how is the situation going to be resolved or can it? There are many great lyric writing books if you are stumped for ideas that can get you jump started on this topic; The Craft Of Lyric Writing by Sheila Davis is one I have used in the past as well as other titles by Eric Beall and Pat Pattison.

After writing down how the singer is feeling about the situation, I try to put some phrases together, fitting them in with the melodies I have already written. Sometimes this works great, and other times you have to alter your phrases and decide if the lyric is so good you have to change the melody idea or vice versa.

After I wrap up a chorus (if I do this first), I try to lay out the back-story in the verse. The verse needs to more fully explain the plot, give details. The first few lines are particularly important and should give you a direction that pushes toward the payoff in the chorus.

Bridge/Solo

A song does not have to have a bridge although many rock songs do such as Bryan Adams “Summer Of 69” or “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. Solos are sometimes seen as passe but hey, if you have something you can say on your instrument without just noodling for the sake of noodling, I think a nice thematic solo can only add to a song’s appeal.

For “Are You There” I decided on a solo going to a short bridge and utilized another key change to lift the bridge/solo to a new height. I re-used the modulation idea from the verse to the chorus (raising the key up a 3rd) by taking the key up from G in the chorus to Bb for the solo.

Eb F Dm Eb Dm Cm Ab Fsus4 F Gsus4 G C

This can be a tricky thing to do unless you either have a respectable understanding of intermediate theory and/or a lot of time on your hands to experiment! Following the solo, I needed to get back to the original key of the chorus and I did so by utilizing an Fsus4 to F major chord followed by a Gsus4 to G major chord which lead me back to the first chord of the chorus, C major.

Sus4 chords to major on the same root are a great way to quickly modulate and sound great no matter where you put them. If you have a 2.5 or 3 octave vocal range, I would recommend staying in the new key to add life to the third chorus. To surprise the listener, I added a fourth section to the song by singing a new melody over the chorus chords and elaborating lyrically on the idea the song is trying to evoke.

Outro

When writing pop music (I have written many styles including classical, country, blues and jazz) I always try to wrap up a tune with a repeating phrase or some hook that imprints the song in the listener’s mind that will hopefully stay with them for a while. In “Are You There,” after the chorus repeats 2 times I came up with the repeating phrase of “Are You There” and also used an old blues technique known as ‘call and response’.

Of course, many songs just repeat the initial chorus over and over or even have a solo tag at the end or maybe even go double time to raise the action level to a fever pitch. Whatever you do, make it something the listener can look forward to. A producer friend of mine calls those parts “gifts for the listener.”

Wrapping up

Well, hopefully you got a few ideas out of this; it was a lot of fun to write. I can safely say that through my many years of performing music, practicing music, learning about music, etc. that writing a good song has and will continue to be the most fun/challenging process to me of any facet of the music business. Best of luck!

When developing the new tracks for Whole Damn Nation, the management of Fear Zero asked frontman Ed Sadler to show us his musical prowess; the result was the guitar solo Octane, which echoed some of Sadler’s favorite guitar solos including the likes of Eric Johnson and Eddie Van Halen.

Ed Sadler & Fear Zero Biography

If it’s true that there is nothing to fear but fear itself, than Fear Zero has taken its name wisely.

“Fear Zero doesn’t mean fear,” insists leader Ed Sadler, “It’s sort of an anti-fear. Don’t be afraid of taking chances.

Fear Zero’s latest album, Whole Damn Nation, is an example of chance taking. It incorporates a wide variety of styles from hard rock to simple pop to reggae.

Although Sadler grew up listening to rock and metal, a few years at Capilano College taught him to accept all kinds of music. Not to fear it but to follow instincts.

“I would say it comes from a place that is a love for music,” Sadler adds. “I tried to write songs that made me happy. It’s just ideas. You collect ideas as time goes on. If it’s a good idea, I’m all for it. If one were a genius, they might have an iron fist, but to me all that matters is whatever makes the song better.”

Thus Fear Zero has developed. Although there has been a Fear Zero for eight years, it has taken time for Sadler to realize his ambition. “It was my project.” The singer/guitarist recounts. “I wanted to start a band. In the early days, I’d write a song but I didn’t know where it was going. Eventually, I zeroed in on a direction.”

The first Fear Zero release was virtually a one-man do-it-yourself undertaking. Sadler had the songs but didn’t yet have a band. He hired the musicians, did the radio tracking, handled the distribution, and the bookings.

“Finding players that are on the same wavelength was tough. My technique has been honed by my jazz experience so I was trying to find guys who were technically good and could do their own thing.”

“I basically knew what I wanted,” says Sadler. “I did the arranging and called upon much of my musical experience. The album is a fair representation of the band. It shows what we can do. It incorporates a lot of the elements I was interested in. Anywhere I can get my hands dirty on the creative side of things is where I want to go.”

Sadler set out to make the album he always dreamed of making with the help of a couple of Victoria investors, “’Without whom this CD would not have been possible’ is an understatement,” Sadler says of the liner notes in the new CD.

“We were able to work with guys like Mike Fraser (ACDC, Aerosmith, Hinder) and Darren Grahn (Metallica, Crossfade, Third Eye Blind) and let me tell you, when you get to record in a famous and great sounding room such as Hippowest (formerly Mushroom), it just inspires you to play and write in the best way possible.”

You can subscribe to updates through thier RSS feed, join the street team at Reverbnation, and even follow Ed’s personal updates at Twitter.

And if you haven’t done so yet, download the album Whole Damn Nation

Add banjo to the moody organ and poetic vocals of the Doors, shake in the rock beats and riffs of the early Kinks and Rolling Stones, stir in the playful darkness of The Cramps, add a dash of the Preservation Hall horn section and indulge yourself in the swampy rockin’ good time spirit of the Dance Hall Pimps.
Stay tuned for the release of their debut album!

“I’m No Prince Charming” by the Dance Hall Pimps live from the Good Hurt in West Los Angeles, October 2010. Audio recorded by Rob Hill at Casa de R&R. Video Edited by Justin Davila and Produced and Directed by Anthony Rutovicz.