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Sneak Preview of Scott Kirsner’s New Book

Posted by Micael Bogar on Mar 26, 2009 at 12:03 PM

At our Making Your Media Matter event last month, new documentary guru Scott Kirsner shared insights with us on our panel Outreach and Connection. You can watch the entire conference here.Didn’t get enough? Good news. Scott’s new book Fans, Friends & Followers comes out next week and we’ve got a great sneak preview.

Fans, Friends & Followers is divided into three sections: an opening essay that lays out some of the "new rules" for using digital tools to build a fan base and an economically-viable creative career; a set of 30 interviews with filmmakers, musicians, writers, visual artists, and others who have been in the forefront of this revolution; and a "toolbox" at the end that explores the business models, sites, and services artists are using to build a solid foundation for their work. (http://www.scottkirsner.com/fff/contents.html)

You can order the book on Amazon here.

And now and excerpt from Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Career in the Digital Age, by Scott Kirsner.

Here are some of the tools that successful artists rely on to build and connect with their online fan base – and earn a living doing it. This isn’t a comprehensive list of every useful tool, or every tool in a specific category (there are dozens of different services that will host blogs, for instance.) Rather, I’ve tried to focus on the tools that artists have most frequently cited as useful, those I have personal experience using, and those that are free or cheap. Wherever there is a fee for using a tool, I’ve noted that.

Venues, Booking & Tours

BookTour

http://www.booktour.com

Helps authors promote live events, and connects book groups, libraries and other organizations with authors willing to speak.

Brave New Theaters

http://bravenewtheaters.com

Connects filmmakers with groups and individuals who organize communal "house party"-style screenings around the country.

Demand It

http://eventful.com/demand/learn

Allows fans to "demand" (request, really) that performers come to their town; performers can see where large numbers of their fans are concentrated, schedule gigs there, and communicate directly with fans in that area to get them to show up.

OurStage

http://www.ourstage.com/

Online competition site for bands; audience judges who they like best, "American Idol"-style. One monthly prize of $5000 is awarded, along with promotion on other sites and radio stations. Site also tries to connect bands with venues.

Sonicbids

http://www.sonicbids.com

Connects musicians with venues. $5.95 per month.

Blogging & Micro-blogging

Blogger

http://www.blogger.com

Google-operated free blogging service. Very easy to get started, but somewhat limited features and design templates. If you own your own Web domain (like coolguy.com), you can have the blog published to that site, rather than having a Blogger domain (coolguy.blogspot.com).

Posterous

http://posterous.com/

Aimed at being the simplest kind of blog to set up (albeit with limited features), all you do is send an e-mail to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and you’ve instantly got a blog. Whenever you e-mail a photo, link, MP3, or video file, Posterous intelligently formats it or puts it in a player so it’s easily experienced. Free, with storage of up to one gigabyte.

Tumblr

http://www.tumblr.com

Free blogging service with simplified set-up and posting, geared to short posts, Web site links, photos, and videos.

Twitter

http://twitter.com

"Micro-blogging" service that limits posts to 140 characters. Some people use Twitter in addition to maintaining a blog, and some use it instead of having a blog. You can Twitter from just about any mobile phone, or your computer. Anyone can choose to follow your Twitter updates, and you’ll be able to see how many "followers" you have through the site – and who they are. Your followers can also leave comments on your twitter posts (known as "tweets"), or re-tweet them, publishing them as part of their own Twitter stream to share them with their own followers.

Wordpress

http://www.wordpress.com

More sophisticated and flexible blogging service. Basic version is free, but if you need more storage, want your blog to live at your own domain (like coolguy.com), or want to be sure ads aren’t shown on your blog, you’ll pay an annual fee (from $10 on up.)

Traffic & Analytics

Alexa

http://www.alexa.com

Enables you to get an estimate of any Web site’s traffic. Very useful when trying to figure out which Web sites you should target as promotional partners. Also allows you to compare the audience "reach" of one Web site to another.

Compete

http://www.compete.com

Enables you to get an estimate of any Web site’s traffic. Very useful when trying to figure out which Web sites you should target as promotional partners. Also allows you to compare the audience "reach" or popularity of one Web site to another.

Google Alerts

http://www.google.com/alerts

Enter any term – like your band’s name, or the title of your book – and Google will keep tabs on who is talking about it anywhere on the Web, and e-mail you a daily or weekly alert. Vital service for keeping tabs on where your work is being discussed or reviewed.

Google Analytics

http://www.google.com/analytics

Free tools for measuring and analyzing the traffic that comes to your Web site or blog.

Site Meter

http://www.sitemeter.com

Tools for measuring and analyzing the traffic that comes to your Web site or blog. Basic version is free; advanced version starts at $6.95.

Commerce & Distribution

AmieStreet

http://amiestreet.com

Site dedicated to helping listeners discover new music. All songs start off by either being free or priced inexpensively. As music becomes more popular, the price to download it rises. After you sell more than $5 worth of downloads, you keep 70 percent of all revenues.

CafePress

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/

Free service that allows you to design your own custom mugs, calendars, t-shirts, or other products, and will produce them "on demand" as your fans order them. You promote the merch, and CafePress sends you a percentage of every purchase.

CD Baby

http://www.cdbaby.com

Sell CDs and digital downloads on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, and other sites. (You send them CDs to sell.) $35 set-up fee. CD Baby keeps $4 from the purchase price every CD sold and 9 percent from every digital sale. (CD Baby can also sell audio books.)

CreateSpace

https://www.createspace.com/

A division of Amazon.com. Enables you to publish books, CDs, DVDs, and audio and video downloads. Products are manufactured on demand, and can be sold through a CreateSpace storefront linked from your site (which offers better profit margins) or through Amazon.com.

E-Junkie

http://www.e-junkie.com/

Shopping cart software for selling digital and physical merchandise. Automatically calculates shipping; stores digital files for instant download, with no bandwidth limitations or per-transaction fees. Monthly fees start at $5.

Film Baby

http://www.filmbaby.com

Service for selling DVDs related to CD Baby. Distributes through Film Baby Web site, Netflix, and to retailers, through partnerships with Ryko Distribution and Super D. Filmmaker gets to keep an average of 80 percent of the sale price, according to the company. You send them DVDs to sell.

Independent Online Distribution Alliance

http://www.iodalliance.com/

Distributes music and ringtones to all the major digital music services and mobile carriers, including iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Sprint, and Virgin Mobile. Increasingly handling video/film distribution as well.

Lulu

http://www.lulu.com

No up-front fees. Manufactures CDs, books, and DVDs on demand and sells them to your fans, sharing a percentage of the revenue with you. Can issue ISBN numbers and ensure that books are available for special order by bookstores and libraries, and on e-commerce sites like Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.

Neoflix

http://www.neoflix.com/services

You make the DVDs, and Neoflix helps you sell them online. In return for paying a set-up fee and a monthly service charge, Neoflix allows you to keep a very substantial chunk of the sale price of every DVD. Shopping cart can be linked to your Web site. Products also appear on Amazon.com.

Tunecore

http://www.tunecore.com

Handles digital distribution of music and music videos to stores and services like Rhapsody, Amazon, iTunes, eMusic, and Lala. Charges storage fees (for example, $9.99 per song per year) instead of taking a cut of your profits. As of 2008, starting to dabble with distributing indie films and concert films.

Wikis & Social Networks

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com

http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages

It’s probably a bad idea to blend your personal Facebook account with that of your artistic career. To keep the two things separate, you can create a "fan page" for your professional persona, your band, or a new project. Your individual Facebook profile will only allow you to have 5000 friends; a fan page has no such limits. Facebook allows you to send messages to all your fans. And when people become a fan of your latest project, all their friends will receive an update informing them of that important fact.

MySpace

http://www.myspace.com

MySpace was the first social networking site to really take off, and some consider a profile there to still be a good idea. But as of early 2009, Facebook had more than twice as much traffic worldwide as MySpace (200 million unique users per month to MySpace’s 100 million), and it was growing much more quickly. In the US, MySpace still has more traffic, but analysts expect Facebook to surpass it by early 2010.

Ning

http://www.ning.com

Set up your own free social network, with a blog, photo albums, video, chat, discussion forums, e-mail bulletins, calendars, and more.

Wetpaint

http://www.wetpaint.com

Hosts wikis, online spaces where you can collaborate and share ideas with fans. Free.

Wikispaces

http://www.wikispaces.com

Hosts wikis, online spaces where you can collaborate and share ideas with fans. Free version allows you to store up to 2 megabytes of documents; paid versions start at $5 per month.

Audio

Cinch

http://cinch.blogtalkradio.com/
Call a phone number to record audio files, which are recorded as MP3s. Cinch creates an RSS feed that people can subscribe to in any RSS reader, which will deliver your latest recording to them.

Foneshow

http://www.foneshow.com

If you have a podcast series, this free service allows people to subscribe using just about any mobile phone. Subscribers get a text message whenever you publish new content, and they hear the content by dialing a phone number included in the text message. Eliminates the hassles that often surrounding syncing an MP3 player to get the latest podcast content.

Gabcast

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=info&b=overview#

Record audio content for your Web site, or a series of podcasts, simply by dialing a phone number. Free version will store up to 200 megabytes of audio; more sophisticated versions with more storage start at $6 per month.

Gcast

http://www.gcast.com

Another service to call a number and record podcasts. Like Gabcast, the podcasts can be "embedded" in your Web site, and present visitors with the most recent episode along with older installments.

Video

TubeMogul

http://www.tubemogul.com/

Upload videos to multiple sites (YouTube, Metacafe, Vimeo, etc.) simultaneously, and analyze where they’re being watched most.

YouTube

http://www.youtube.com

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=55754&ctx=sibling

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=57389&cbid=18ero3lcm66fx&src=cb&lev=answer

Everyone knows that YouTube is the primary place where viewers watch, rate, and comment on Internet videos. But if you are an artist, you should have a special YouTube account that lets you add your logo onto your YouTube profile page, create links to your own Web site, and upload longer videos. There are specific, special YouTube accounts for directors, musicians, comedians, and "gurus" (YouTube’s catch-all term for experts in a particular area, like cooking or fashion design.) See links above for instructions on how to create or upgrade to these types of accounts.

Surveys

SurveyMonkey

http://www.surveymonkey.com

Allows you to create Web-based surveys, and analyze results. Free version can collect up to 100 responses per survey; paid version starts at $19.95 per month.

Zoomerang

http://www.zoomerang.com

Allows you to create Web-based surveys, and analyze results. Free version can collect up to 100 responses per survey; paid version starts at $19 per month.

E-mail & Text Messaging

Constant Contact

http://www.constantcontact.com

Build and manage an e-mail list, and send out mass e-mail messages. Monthly pricing starts at $15.

iContact

www.icontact.com

Build and manage an e-mail list, and send out mass e-mail messages. Monthly pricing starts at $9.95.

myTXTRA

http://www.sundropsystems.com/mytxtra/

Collect phone numbers from fans and then communicate with them via text messages. Plans start at $9.95 per month.

Trumpia

http://www.trumpia.com/main/main_promoters.php

Collect phone numbers from fans and then communicate with them via text messages. Plans start at $10 per month.

USA Bulk SMS

http://usa.bulksms.com/w/pricing.htm

Collect phone numbers from fans and then communicate with them via text messages. A block of 200 messages credits (to send 200 texts) costs $10.60.

Vertical Response

http://www.verticalresponse.com

Build and manage an e-mail list, and send out mass e-mail messages. Monthly pricing starts at $10, but company’s pay-as-you-go option can be cheaper if you send out infrequent e-mails to a smallish list.

Funding & Donations

ArtistShare

http://www.artistshare.com/home/getting_started.aspx

Tools to help musicians build a loyal following by offering access to exclusive content. Musicians can also tap into "fan funding" for recording projects, in return for credits, VIP concert tickets, signed posters, or music lessons from the artist. Several bands and musicians have won Grammy Awards (and been nominated) for their ArtistShare-funded projects. ArtistShare is selective about the artists they work with. $595 initiation fee, plus monthly fees that start at $12.95.

Fundable

http://www.fundable.com

Raise money online for any sort of project. If your fund-raising goal isn’t met, no one has to pay. Fundable passes along the money via a check or PayPal.

IndieGoGo

http://www.indiegogo.com

Post an overview of your film project to raise money for it (some information, like the screenplay, spreadsheet, or casting options, can be protected by a password). A few projects on the site have raised north of $20,000, though it’s unclear how much of this came from random people who wanted to support the project versus people the filmmaker already knew simply donating money via the Web site. All funding is considered a donation, rather than an investment that will be repaid. But filmmakers can offer credits in the film, special editions of the DVD, and other perks to donors.

PayPal Donations

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/xcl/rec/donate-intro-outside

Accept tips and donations via PayPal, a commonly-used payment systems. Fees vary. Payments that come directly from a tipper’s PayPal account may be free; for others, PayPal may take as much as 4.9 percent plus 30 cents from each donation or tip.

ScratchBack

http://www.scratchback.com/

Collect tips through your Web site, and allow readers to get a link or "thank you" credit from your site in return. ScratchBack currently keeps 10 percent of all tips.

TipJoy

http://www.tipjoy.com

Collect tips through your Web site, or via e-mail or Twitter messages. TipJoy keeps 10 to 15 percent of the money you collect. (TipJoy’s share drops the more money you collect.)

Advertising

Facebook Ads

http://www.facebook.com/advertising/

Allows you to buy advertising for your latest product or event in very small increments (as little as $1 per day), targeting Facebook users by location, age, sex, or keywords (like users who’ve expressed an affection for U2 or the Quentin Tarantino.)

Google AdWords

https://adwords.google.com

Allows you to buy advertising on Google and its many partner sites. Ads can be targeted to people searching for a particular keyword or set of keywords (like "Civil War novels") or based on the user’s location. You’ll pay for ads based on how many times users click on them (as little as a penny per click), but the rates for popular keywords can get pricey – sometimes into the dollars. Google allows you to put a cap on the amount you want to spend per day, or per click.

Miscellaneous

FeedBlitz

http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Newsletter

Allows visitors to your blog to subscribe to an e-mail update service, so they receive an e-mail whenever new content is posted. Allows you to view your list of subscribers, and export their e-mail addresses for other communications. $9.98 per month for 100-499 subscribers, $13.95 per month for 500-999 subscribers.

Flixwagon

http://www.flixwagon.com/

Enables live video broadcasting from the Web, using certain types of mobile phones from Nokia, Apple, and others.

FreeConferenceCall.com

http://www.freeconferencecall.com

Want to run a monthly telephonic Q&A with your fans, or brainstorm with a far-flung team about your next release? Use this. Accommodates up to 96 callers on calls lasting up to six hours. Calls can also be recorded and easily turned into podcasts. Free, though there’s a fee to host larger groups of callers or to offer callers an 800 number.

Justin.tv

http://www.justin.tv/

Broadcast live to the Internet from your computer’s Webcam.

Qik

http://www.qik.com

Enables live video broadcasting from the Web, using certain types of mobile phones from Nokia, Apple, BlackBerry, and others.

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Sneak Preview of Scott Kirsner’s New Book

Posted by Micael Bogar on Mar 26, 2009 at 12:03 PM

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