Are the carpets clean?
Every once in a while, I end up talking to a company that seems like they’re doing something interesting. I once had two experiences – one good and one bad. The recent good experience is going to bore you, as the company seemed to be an example of how to do things right. The bad experience comes from a while ago when I was talking with a small agency that was rapidly growing. I won’t even tell you what space they were in, as you’d probably be able to guess who they were. So, we’ll just say that they had a well-known CEO and he did a good job of attracting investment and creating a brand that many people bought into.
The problem begins when your ideas are hard to put into practice. You may have success when companies need to be led by the hand through the maze of a developing marketing channel, but what happens when you actually have to show some results and prove the viability of your ideas? That’s getting into the, “oh crap” phase. I’m not saying they can’t do it, but at this point there’s no guarantee of the outcome. It’s either snake oil, ultimate failure, or ultimate success.
I spoke with these people and had a decent time with them. However, they had a investment partner in the same space whose influence seemed to be overbearing. Flag 1. The office was also a dirty, cramped mess where you’d expect the stereotypical used car dealer to work. It was the worst environment I’d seen in a long time and dirty. Flag 2, especially for a place that was supposed to be creative. In a small place, you expect to meet everyone, especially the CEO. I didn’t meet him and he wasn’t even billed as being part of the process. Perhaps out attracting more business, or maybe not even an integral part of the business…? Flag 3.
I went with my gut and asked them some questions about these things. I asked about the CEO, the office, the investment partner proximity, and I asked them to give me some examples of how they’ve driven sales for clients through their campaigns. Seems fair enough, right?
The very short response I got back was that “by the nature of your requests, the fit may not be best at this stage of development”. They should have said, “at any stage of development”. A company that recoils at normal business and operational questions is probably having the same doubts and concerns itself. I don’t really know how much more nicely or constructively I could have put the questions. It’s my guess that they have promised a lot with all of their new clients and are not sure how to deliver it.
Then there’s the issue of work environment and leadership involvement. Do you actually bring your clients there? I’ve worked with startups before. If you’re going to move from the living room meetings to an office, don’t downgrade. On leadership issues, there has a be a clear leader who is 100% involved with the business and not just a figurehead. I’ve seen them hurt more companies than they’ve helped.
I hate text ads.
You’d think I might be open to text ads, being involved in marketing and all, but I hate them. They are so intrusive and always mass-market focused. For instance, I received one from eBay this morning, prompting this post. I took five minutes out of my day to call their number and opt out. Five minutes or twenty, I don’t want to waste my time being bothered by mass advertising on a personal device that has historically been protected from this type of thing. It’s the principle multiplied by the slippery slope. If I had to do that for ten ads a day, I’d throw away my cell phone and communicate via email only.
So, other than throwing the baby out with the text ads, when would a text ad become acceptable to me?
- ONLY when I opt in (and don’t try to fool me with an opt out registration form). I would only opt in for a local service, never for a mass-market focused company.
- If it were for useful services – there’s a radiation leak at the nuclear plant, my car tells me that it is low on oil, or I’m looking for a hotel in Florence and I want some options in the immediate vicinity of where I am.
- If any of those prior options are abused or are anything less than 100% useful to me at that moment, I’ll never use the services again.
So many companies who have exhausted other means of growth through the plethora of online channels have slowly started to look at the mobile market. Unfortunately, a mobile phone’s calling or texting feature is a very personal medium, far more so than email. It requires a new kind of marketer to find new ways of exercising restraint at the corporate level and to know whether their message is tailored to the individual enough to warrant this type of intrusion. The old “4 P’s” guide is useful here and more often than not, the place is not relevant or useful when it involves mobile phones and a mass-market focused company.
ADHD counseling and other academic issues you never thought about.
A friend of mine recently started her own website in an industry that has not yet wholeheartedly embraced the web yet – the psychology industry. It’s too bad, as there is a lot of room for it to grow and develop new methods to deal with a growing number of students who need help and turn first to online media. So, this is for you, all those students who have ADHD or perfectionism issues and never did anything about it.
During my academic career, I never thought much about academic counseling issues – I never had any that were serious enough thankfully. Some students really get nailed by these problems, though. Many at the top schools like Harvard and MIT and simply smart enough to get by during their undergraduate careers. However, these ADHD issues often surface in grad school when the students are being challenged more than they ever had been. In this case, find an ADHD counselor without delay! There are a lot of problems you can avoid by acknowledging the problems and finding a psychologist to help you through them.
You’re not going to find a wealth of information on academic counseling from me, so instead, go here for more articles on ADHD and perfectionism.
iPad and Apple’s Email strategy
iPad Review
I was speaking to someone very familiar with Apple today and he asked me what I thought of the new iPad. I said that I liked it – it’s not meant to replace a laptop nor be a device you put in your pocket. It creates or fits a new category between those two products.
What makes the iPad stand out is that it does things a little bit better in one device than everyone else does in multiple products. Books? It looks better than the Kindle and has Apple’s interface and OS. It’s has a better implementation of a book store. Not by much, but I think it’s a step up from Amazon’s offering.
Movies? It has a nice screen that it big enough to take on a flight, but not so big it gets in the way. The iTunes store is the complementary product that makes this feature stand out from the rest. Same with music.
As a personal organizer, the current set of Apple apps and 3rd party ones give it a huge edge and frees Apple from having to develop tons of proprietary software.
The App store and the ability to use all of the apps already developed for the iPhone and iPod (backwards compatibility) is hugely appealing. And think of all the apps that will be developed specifically for this new device. I really do think this format will work, even though there have been some big crashes and burns in the past within this product category.
Apple’s Email Strategy
We then got in the topic of corporate communications. Every single email vendor I’ve spoken to over the last five years is head over heels for selling personalization and segmentation in that channel. There’s so much of a drive to get away from mass email campaigns and yet, Apple still has little to no personalization in their email strategy. I’m a huge Apple product fan and have been since I was 6, yet I’ve never gotten any recognition of this or special offer or anything from them that acknowledges my continued support of their brand.
How could they do this? They collect a lot of personal information about you from the registration and warranty. On the computer side, I’ve never gotten an email saying that my warranty period is about to expire (spam folder’s fault?). The computer could have a birthday too!
It’s the iTunes store and iPod customers where they could really do a lot of segmentation, since they know so much about the music you buy. The App store has the same value. Surely there are some products out there that are complementary to some of these “soft” items.
Forget that I’ve forced certain people in my life to go to the Apple store and buy stuff because I knew they wanted it before they knew it. It kind of ticks me off the more I think about it. It’s not going to be too long before the company is going to need to get into this personalized experience through email. Unfortunately, most companies begin to look at this option once they’ve screwed up pretty badly and need to reclaim all their former customers.
3 steps to building an SEO-friendly site structure
Article Highlights:
- Step 1: Start with keyword research via free tools and private data sources
- Step 2: Group your keywords into tightly themed groups
- Step 3: Map your keyword groups onto your information architecture
When you’re launching a new website, it can be tempting to just get it out there and worry about search engine optimization later. Websites are pliable — you can always change them when you need to, right?
Don’t make that mistake. Procrastinating on SEO can have a number of harmful effects on your site and your business:
- New domains often experience a “sandbox effect,” or a period of low (or nonexistent) search engine rankings. Neglecting SEO will only worsen the effect.
- The longer your site is live, the more complex a redesign becomes. A good redesign that takes SEO into account can be time-consuming and costly. (And it could be a while before you find the time and capital.)
- Redesigns often disrupt URL structure, so you lose the link equity you’ve earned over time.
All told, it’s much easier to build solid SEO into your site’s foundation before you launch. These three steps will help you create a well-organized information architecture that is friendly to users as well as search engines.
Step 1: Start with keyword research
You can’t do SEO without keyword research. Keywords are your building blocks. So don’t whiff this step by relying on brainstorming, purchased keyword lists, or a limited tool set. Be thorough and aggregate a comprehensive, accurate list of keywords from multiple data sources:
- You can seed your list with free, public keyword tools such as WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool or the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Try entering both words and phrases related to your business and the URLs of competitive sites. Look at synonyms and related terms. Focus on relevance, not popularity.
- Whenever possible, use private data sources too. If you’ve been operating a related website, mine your log files or web analytics for real keywords that drive traffic and conversions.
Step 2: Group your keywords
This is the single most important step to transform a raw list into something truly useful and actionable. Segmenting your keywords into tightly themed groups will create a map for the layout of your website:
- Broad, high-level groups will correspond to the top-level categories on your website, so potential customers can easily find what they’re looking for. For example, a home goods site would have keyword groups (and site segmentations) devoted to bath products, bedding, kitchenware, and so on.
- Narrower subgroups of keywords will further help site visitors drill down to find their exact needs. Keyword subgroups under the kitchenware parent group might include pots and pans, small appliances, utensils, etc.
- This grouping process will save you lots of time in the end. You can create a series of focused, optimized pages that each target a small group of related terms, rather than needing to craft a unique page for every single keyword.
To ensure that you haven’t missed any potential keyword niches and groupings that could benefit your site, use The Free Keyword Niche Finder as a supplement to your research. This is a great way to uncover niches within your niche and check your keyword grouping work.
Step 3: Map your keyword groups onto your site
The last step is to map your keyword groups and subgroups onto your information architecture. Start with your homepage and top-level category pages, then build out your website by creating a hierarchy of optimized content filed under the appropriate category.
For a new business, SEO-friendly design is every bit as important as attractive design. With an organized, logical site structure that is easily navigable by humans and spiders alike, your site will be primed to enjoy better rankings for relevant keyword searches. After all, what good is a nice-looking website if your customers can’t find it?
Ian Hughes is owner of Monkbam Creative.
Thoughts on Music Industry Components
This entry came about as I tried to think of something useful for the music industry. You hear of new companies entering the industry all the time: SonicBids, Reverbnation, etc. Are they really all that useful, or just a fleeting waste of venture capital?
If, for instance, you focused on a group of industry components that co-exist with each other, you might come up with the Artists, Internet radio gods, and Venue booking agents. Of course, there are other people involved in the industry, but I’m only focusing on a few that seem to never quite get what they want.
Artists
Artists don’t have much of a problem recording and distributing albums, or getting on iTunes these days. With digital, all the distribution problems burst away quickly. If they do need to move thousands of physical albums, there are companies in reach that will do just that. I was thinking of the typical trajectory for many artists: produce album. figure out promotion strategies via internet. tour. (then do it again, even though the van broke down, they lost money going across the country, and one of them is getting married and has the workings of a “real” job). So many musicians spend all of their energy getting right to he touring phase and then are disappointed when they realize that touring is really just a bunch of smelly guys in a broke ass van with no money. How do they go further?
Remember when radio actually broke bands? I’m not talking about FM radio – thanks to the Federal Communications Act of 1996 that deregulated much of the industry, the soul of radio was lost to the likes of major conglomerates like ClearChannel. But radio didn’t die – it just moved to where everything else new lived – the interweb.
Radio
What bands don’t have is a direct connection to the multitude of internet radio stations that exist across the country. Let me tell you: some of these guys have awesome taste in music. Just browse iTunes to start! Many of these stations are college radio stations, and as any graduate of indie band touring knows, colleges pay serious money for you to play on their campuses. If bands had that college or local radio connection, they’d have a huge head start when they arrived at said touring destination.
Venue Booking Agents
These guys are an interesting breed. You’d think they had no trouble finding bands, but they do. More often than not, they’re overrun with requests from bands wanting to play at their venue. Their problem is not of bands finding them; it’s twofold: the wrong bands find them, and there’s too much noise in the stream for the right bands to get in. To make their job easier, they need to filter the crap out of the stream and allow the “right” bands in. Who are the right bands for the “right” venue? There’s surely an answer, but the the answer to that question deserves a prize.
Dangerous Monitor ST
I finally found a monitor solution that works so well, I wonder how I’ve survived for the past ten years without it. The Dangerous Monitor ST is about the coolest thing a Pro Tools studio without a console could have. At my own private studio, I missed the ability to switch seamlessly between two or three sets of monitors and immediately compare the sound. It took years for me to finally admit that I needed to solve this problem (and finally get a talkback system in place), so I went looking and after comparing all of the options that I found, I chose the Dangerous Monitor ST.
Since the features can be found at the Dangerous Music site, I’ll just cover a few of the most useful things I’ve come to love about this beautifully built unit.
There are four inputs, but forget one through three for a second and go to input four: you can pad the volume of this input on the rack unit. Why do this? Because you can turn down the volume of that input in order to compare mastered mixes to your own (probably) un-mastered mix. Designer Chris Muth thought of everything, and being able to compare a smashed to hell label release with your client’s mix AT THE SAME LEVEL is startlingly simple and yet such a useful feature. This is the first Dangerous unit I’ve owned, but if they put such foresight into all of their products (they have – I checked!), then I love this company.
The whole unit is completely flexible, expandable, can accommodate prosumer gear, and if it can’t do it (like surround), then there’s a module for that too. Need to switch video? Need to have pristine D/A straight into the unit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The sound quality is outstanding. The switching is seamless and ultra fast. The thing looks like gold and I love the design.
Speaking of design, it not only looks amazing, but it’s laid out perfectly and is ergonomic and so frikkin’ useful. On the first day of having it setup, I felt like I had used it for years and everything was where I expected or wanted it to be. I love having a volume knob that is accurate and doesn’t crap out when you turn it down! I can program the system any way I want and it doesn’t make a fuss. Programming is dead simple – the battery-powered talking monkey on my console could do it if I left him alone with the unit and a beer. I have not found a single thing (yet…) that the designers hadn’t thought of.
A Decision
Getting back to my decision and why I chose this: My budget was reasonable, but not unreasonable. Quality was paramount, or why would I waste my money on something that would only take the signal I had and make it worse? Believe me, I got through years of sessions while yelling down the hall. Design was secondary to the decision, because I don’t like using things that look like a Transformer shit them out. Features were third – I needed some basic features and compatibility down the road was more important than the monitor controller’s ability to autotune vocals. Finally, price came in last. If price were of no concern, I’d be looking at an old API console instead of a monitor controller.
Choices
Other units that hover within a grand around the price of the Dangerous Music ST ($1900) are:
- the Crane Song Avocet ($2800)
- the Coleman Monitor Controller line ($1100)
- the SPL Monitor and Talkback controller ($800?)
- the Presonus Central Station ($650 with remote)
Crane Song
Here’s a quick breakdown of why I made the choice I did: The Crane Song was admittedly too expensive for the budget and I like the aesthetic look of the Dangerous controller better. Crane Song makes awesome products, but $2800 was simply out of my budget for this purchase. However, audio quality was top notch (so I’ve heard) and it has digital converters built in. If you added the DAC option to the Dangerous ST, you’d be in the same ballpark. I didn’t need this option yet.
Coleman
The Coleman looked too utilitarian to me and I wanted a remote. I also didn’t want to use an external mic if I could help it. In all honesty, I don’t like the look of this unit and I feel like Coleman hasn’t done enough to convince me why I should consider it. At that price point, I’m much more inclined to spend more to get something that I am 100% happy with. Design and marketing for this one: FAIL. And that’s why I didn’t buy it. Perhaps this might be a good company to look at for a future article on why design is so important, and how it ties into the marketing.
Sound Performance Labs
The SPL was packed into a small enclosure designed to be used on a desktop. But, you’d have your entire system running into and out of this thing. Who wants that on their console? I don’t. Even though this could be construed as a type of a “remote”, it is anything but a remote. My response to SPL would be to make this a single space rack unit with a remote, or just forget the remote part. Either way, get this and all the cables needed to connect it off my console. I don’t have a wall I can push it back on. Note that I used the term “console” here because I have an Argosy console, not a traditional console with faders.
Presonus
The Presonus Central Station. Who hasn’t thought, “$500? What a steal! They even used to include the remote!” However, just head over the Gearslutz and see the trove of user stories of broken units and “hazy” sound. Note that I have not used one of these, and anything you read on Gearslutz has to be taken with a 50lb bag of rock salt. However, I’ve used many a Digimax before and can attest to paying (sometimes more) for what you are getting. It works and it’s fine, but it’s not what one would call the pinnacle of audio quality. I went through two units many years ago that had problems before I finally found one that worked. To Presonus’ credit, it worked for many years after without a hiccup.
But I digress… I wanted high quality monitoring, and I wasn’t shopping to get the best value. I’d suggest checking this out if you need talkback control and a remote, and have not yet spent much on the other necessary studio items, like mics, preamps, or even monitors. It will probably function fine for this use. If audio quality is also a high priority, I’d just go for the Dangerous D-Box, or look at the Coleman options, or check out the SPL cable caddy…er, monitor offering.
Conclusion
So what is the point of going over a bunch of units I haven’t heard personally? I suppose that you might be in the same position as I was and may just be looking for some editorial fodder to pull the trigger on the Dangerous unit.
Some Deluxe Reverb Thoughts
I just fixed one of these amps that I had purchased a month or so back and wanted to share some of the experience. (I do this for fun, remember. I’m not a guy who is going to tell you how to build circuits better). The amp was a exact remake of the AB763 circuit (well, as close as is currently feasible) in a reissue Deluxe Reverb chassis. It was laid out on the traditional fiberboard and looked no different than a real DR from the 60’s, except for new components.
This is the second amp I’ve worked on that had a blown or screwed up reverb transformer. This amp had 2 known problems: the vibrato had a click to it and the reverb was incredibly noisy and just messed up sounding. But it mostly worked and only sometimes would be unusable or intermittent. I thought these issues would be grounding-related or use of wrong components, since it was a new build of a AB763 circuit. That assumption turned out to be wrong.
The vibrato was the first to be fixed – it just needed a new photoresistor thing. That’s it. No secret there. I’ve seen them go bad before, but rarely.
The reverb took me longer. The ground was intermittent when checked with an multimeter, but when I fixed it, the problem didn’t go away. So next, I replaced the Mercury Magnetics reverb transformer with a Mojotone one and while things were slightly better and the intermittent wank stopped, it didn’t solve the noise problem. I bet the previous owner had operated the amp without the tank plugged in and as I understand it, this is bad for the reverb transformer.
I finally noticed that if I picked up the footswitch off the ground, the noise would stop. Specifically, it was a shielding problem I’ve never run into on a Fender amp before.The bottom of these footswitches just have a rubber cover and the switches and wires themselves are exposed when that cover is removed. I covered the bottom of the footswitch with copper foil (the kind you get from StewMac for guitar electronics) and the problem was finally solved. No more noisy verb!
Even though this has never happened in all of the other Fender amps I have, it happened to this Deluxe Reverb. The guy I bought it from said that the boutique amp maker and some other techs weren’t able to solve the problem, so yeah me. But really – the problem was worse on a concrete floor as opposed to a second level wood floor, so it’s possible they didn’t hear the problem in the right environment. Either way, I added this simple shielded footswitch trick to my own knowledge through trial and error.
#1 How to Build a Musician-Recording Engineer Relationship
An old engineer (who was a complete dick) at an unnamed Boston-area recording studio once said to me, “The best thing you can do is be a music slut and spend your life at the local dives getting to know musicians.” I kinda doubted him way back in the day, but thought there might be a bit of truth there. Why not focus on the music instead? Spend time on your craft rather than sloshing around until 3 am every morning?
Well, it turns out that he was right. Music is as much about art as it is about relationships. Few people ever call direct attention to this, but a producer or engineer really is the fifth Beatle. Think about it – would you let anyone into your band? Would you let anyone do whatever they wanted with your music? Hopefully you can see why relationships are so important in recording studios, because it is never only about the music. It’s about a mixture of trust, competency, and vibe.
In light of this, that engineer was right. In order to get started, you have to be more than a bit of a slut. That helps with the point # 1 – you have to start somewhere. Note that traditional marketing and advertising aren’t going to be great friends at this point. Of course, they rarely hurt if done well, but you should be building your site, looking forward to the next installment of how to leverage the influence all of these new friends, right?
First though, why aren’t marketing and advertising very useful now? It’s rather simple. You don’t have much to sell that is noteworthy or unique.
A word on Recording Studio Websites
It’s now very easy to
- sound like you can sing when you can’t and
- make your basement studio look pretty spectacular on the web
I have nothing against basement studios – I ran one for years and it was quite profitable and a lot of fun. I found the advertising part of the studio world to be a challenge, so I am going to spend a few posts on the vagaries of running this kind of enterprise from the bowels of your abode.
What Musicians Want to Know
Most musicians don’t give a shit about your individual drums and drum heads, your Peavey Classic 30, or your selection of prosumer microphones. Don’t waste space telling them about it. If you’ve got a U47, a C12, etc, then great. Spend a bit of time telling them about your difficult choice of whether to buy a new Bimmer or three microphones, but don’t do it on the homepage. That’s not primarily why they are there.
Musicians usually want to work with certain producers or engineers for three reasons:
- They know you, or they know people who know you
- They have heard a piece of music you’ve worked on or they know people who have heard about you
- They are completely ill-informed and will take the first bit of bacon thrown at them
If you agree with my reasoning, then you’ll see that gear often has little to do with a musician’s choice to work with you or use your studio. They have a personal connection with you or your work, or you’re their most convenient choice. Technicalities like gear don’t matter to them.
I’ll focus on making three articles centered around the three points of how people will find you. #1 coming next…
Monkbam Recording Studios