Doing Helps You Find Out What Works

The year 2005 or so was the height of the music blog explosion. Having started Buzzgrinder in 2001, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I just wanted to write about bands that I thought the “bigger sites” weren’t covering.

One day I checked our stats and was surprised to see our post about Warped Tour dates had like 10,000 views in a day, which was huge for us!

Turns out if you Google’d “Warped Tour Dates 2005” our site was near the top of the search results.

I had no clue, but I that’s how we found out how SEO (search engine optimization) worked.

And this is something I stress to all my creative clients – find it out by doing stuff, don’t try to figure it out.

We can plot and scheme and think we have a handle on things, but then when it’s out there in the real world, it’s not ours anymore.

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Before we launched Noisecreep in 2008 (other names we were considering at the time included Vection, Bedlam, and Crank Pit), I wrote out a whole schedule; Tuesdays will feature thrash! Wednesday will be doom! Thursdays will be…

Yeah, then we launched and that went right out the window, and it was entirely okay. We did very well without a rigid schedule like that.

All that to say – you don’t need to plan and figure out a perfect email newsletter strategy. You just need to start it.

Filmmaker Noam Kroll recently wrote (in his newsletter) “How To Not Finish Your Film” (subscribe here):

1. Be a perfectionist
2. Don’t set deadlines
3. Wait to be inspired to work
4. Be afraid of what people will think

The same can be said for starting your email newsletter, or dusting off your old list.

Just like writing a song, or shooting your first live show, those first few

So pick a name, and commit to sending something as often as you can muster, but start something this week, not next year.

You’re going to FIND OUT what works before you FIGURE OUT what works.

Your fans will let you know.

QUICK BITS:

“Just because everyone is telling you to take the highway, doesn’t mean you can’t take the side roads to get to where you want to go.”

From Maria Bowler’s email newsletter. Just because everyone is saying you need to be on TikTok (even though you haven’t posted anything in Twitter to your 1,943 followers in a year), doesn’t mean you MUST.

“Comparison anxiety is a common phenomenon that can be heightened through our access to the lives of others via social media. Seeing a rose-tinted view of another’s life may lead us to believe that everyone else is happier, richer, or more successful than we are.”

Don’t compare and despair – you’re right where you need to be (via Ness Labs)

It’s not IF Instagram implodes and you stop posting there someday (just like Facebook, and probably Twitter), but WHEN. And when that day comes, you lose access to all those fans that clicked “follow.” Today’s the day to start up that email list.