Beware the Clique

Beware the Clique

A Clique (click) is an excluseive group that wont let anyone else join in.

Sometimes you will come across these groups and they have the same

people in their publications year in and year out, they dont answer their

emails and they dont (Really) accept outside submissions.

You may feel bad about having your work turned down by some organisations

but you are better off not being anywhere near a clique.

If an organisaiton or publicaiton does not accept new work and sticks to their

mates or friends and doesnt let anyone new in, they are useless and will

stangnate and fade into obscurity. Its a kind of artistic inbreeding, they

and their work are doomed.

The unfortunate thing is that some cliques keep on publishing and publishing

and look really successful, but I assure you they are going nowhere, and as

nobody but the people involved in the publication are interested in it, no one

new can discover them and they have very little international exposure.

And exposure is what you want. What is the point in producing lots and

lots of work or poetry or literature if only the people involved in the publication

read it. You are an artist to be discovered and to let the maximum amount of

people read or view your work.

So dont worry about cliques and their little groups and publications, they are

going nowhere, they are fooling themselves. You are better off without them,

and if you are in a clique, get out, there is so much more you can do with your work...

RUN !!!!!!!

BEWARE THE CLIQUE !!!!!!

'tis the season

'tis the season

Now Halloween is here, and soon it will be Christmas,

then you have New Years, Chineese New Year, Valentines Day

and Easter and Thanksgiving. During these seasons, seasonal

videos and media get more attention, so dont be afraid to

produce some season specific material as lots of people will

be searching for seasonal media around the different seasons..

This will draw more people to your material, and will get you more

exposure.

So, get to work.. its Halloween and soon Xmas will be here too..

Networking (no.. Actual Networking)

Networking

Today I will talk about networking,

not just adding friends and subscribers

to get more attention for your work but

actually making connections with industry

and business that may prove useful.

First go to friend search on Facebook,

myspace, or whatever else you are on.

Now, If you are into films, type in film

festivals or film studios, then add them as

a friend, join their group or become a fan

(if you are an artist maybe Galleries)

and when your friend invite is accepted you

can then start a dialogue with the people

in the industry you are trying to break into.

Then send them links to your work or videos

and the right people will see your stuff

and maybe you will get a commission.

This does not always work, as some places

just set up facebook to announce new events etc.

But thats a good thing, because if you look in your

inbox you might find a note from a studio or

organization about upcoming events that they

may not have announced offically to the outside

world yet.

So aswell as making lots of normal friends, have

a look around for some industry friends too.

Good Hunting !!!!!!

The More the Merrier

Spreading the Word

If you want to be really sussessful on the internet

you should join as many social networking sites as possible.

An you would be suprised how many sites there are

that are specifically for your art form.

So search around the net, find as many sites for your specific

art form as possible and log in (making sure to read the

terms and conditions and making sure its FREE) then

upload your material, or photos of your material, to these

sites and someone with specialist knowledge may see your

work and that might lead to a commission.

It is still very important to be on the mainstream sites, but if

you have the specialist sites too, then youu have the best of both

worlds, you have the public exposure of the mainstream

and the backup of the specialist sites. Also some people are

only members of one or two sites, so if you are on them all

then you are opening yourself to a larger audience and hopefully

more work.

Check out my earlier post on Multi-Platforming to see what to do next...

Web 2.0 Collaboration

Collaboration

Collaboration is when you work on a project with someone else,

they get the credit and you get the credit and you both get

a nice project out of it.

Collaboration is a great way to spread the word about your work.

You get to work with other people and you might even learn

something about your artform that you didnt prevously know.

Also it gives you exposure to your collaborative partners audience.

I have worked on several collaborative projects. I did a video for a

film studio in India and a Health and Fitness magazine, also I do

the occasional request video on YouTube. I have had nothing but

positive experiences from helping or sharing my work with others.

The only time when collaboration doesnt work is when one of the

partners is unclear about what they want. If people dont know what

they want and have no idea its probably best to walk away.

Of course if a person has great ideas

and lots of suggestions then you are probably onto a winner...

Web 2.0 Haters

Haters...

No matter what you do or where you go, someone isn't going to like

your material, and on the internet they wont be shy about expressing it.

Do not get into silly arguments with people online, because that will just

get them a lot of publicity of the back of your material, and if any

potential buyers or clients see you bickering with someone half way

around the world who didnt like the song on your video, it might put

them of a purchase.

The only way you can guarantee you don't have haters, is to create

really dull material that couldnt offend anyone, but whats the point

in that ? You came on the internet to express yourself, and if people

dont like it, then just ignore them and enjoy the fact that a haters

comment pushes your video up the most comments list.

And, as someone famous once said :

If you don't have haters, then you ain't Hot

Web 2.0 Log in a Lot

Log in a lot.

There is nothing worse than seeing a site with great videos and then looking at the profile and seeing, last login 2 months ago. Log in every day. Your page won’t become successful by itself, you have to manage it, and remember the internet is fun, so you should want to look at videos and send friend invites etc. If you don’t try to get to know people, then people won’t know you are there, and that’s not good for subscriptions or views, which as an artist is what you are after..