Mitch Joel of TwistImage recently wrote a great blog entry called “How To Get Media Attention In One Easy Step (And It’s Free)“. There are some great tips in there and I thought I’d pass it along.

Here’s an excerpt:

All the common rules of society still apply when contacting Journalists and Bloggers:
- Be nice.
- Be respectful of their time.
- Recognize that these are busy people too.
- Be self-aware that most of them do not like to pitched.
- Don’t annoy them or hound them if you don’t hear back from them.
- Say please and thank you.
- Make it easy, simple and fun to connect to you and whatever it is you’re pitching them.
- Give them time and space to breathe (your rush is not their rush).

There’s a bunch of other great info in the article - check it out.

I couldn’t have said it any better than an article John Ellis wrote about in his blog today - and, believe me, I’ve tried. He cited an article written by Rose Sylvia on her excellent blog, PPCThink.

“Improving Your Conversion Rate is FAR More Important Than Driving More Traffic,” really encapsulates what I have proposed many times. I have made this mistake and have focused on traffic generation when, undoubtedly, I needed to focus on conversions. When I pulled my head out of the sand and did, in fact, begin to understand my conversion process - the company and the bottom line soared. Isn’t that why we’re all here anyway?

I happened to catch “That Thing You Do” over the weekend. You know, that Tom Hanks movie about the one-hit “Wonders”. Anyway, it was an interesting insight into the nature of the music business at that time and it made me think about the time I spent working in the music industry back in the mid 90’s.

There is one fundamental concept that the music industry in those days (40’s, 50’s & 60’s) has on the music industry of today. If you look at it, the flagship product of a record label at that time was the single. Albums were secondary. Labels had caravans that took their artist around the country and showcased their roster to a swarm of fans. These bands would play a few songs and then head on their way. For the most part, that doesn’t happen today.

I believe that it should.

Think about it, with the advent of the MP3 and services like iTunes, the consumer has the opportunity to buy the song(s) that they like and not be force-fed an album of 2-3 good songs with 7-8 fillers. So, why do these artists and labels still need to act this way when they should be focused on selling great music. Learn from your predecessors people. Let the idea of the single reemerge.

Here’s another idea. Where do artists usually make their money? Most would think that it’s on albums - it’s not, it’s in touring. So, why not think of your singles as your “marketing materials”. Give them away in anticipation of gate receipts. Your ROI would be incredible - especially in this day and age where technology has revolutionized the recording industry and greatly reduced the costs associated with quality recordings.

Labels used to offer something called “tour support” - they don’t do that much anymore. Why not? Why don’t labels put on the tour and spread the cost of the production across 4-6 artists on their roster? Better yet - scrap the whole idea of royalties and put your acts on salaries with a bonus structure. This will free them up so that they can mature in the industry and have long term success.

This idea will require a complete overhaul of the way the music industry operates. However, if we agree that the music industry needs to focus back on the “single” then everything else will flow from there.

I’m a big Dan Patrick Fan - I especially loved his ESPNRadio show. And, when he decided to call it quits back in August; I wondered what he would end up doing. So, on a whim, I typed in DanPatrick.com one day and….

Check out my latest PodCast for more….

On a side note, I’d love some feedback on the PodCasts - drop me a comment below - Thanks, cg

Everyone out there please do me a favor. Please, stop saying “www” when you’re spelling your domain name. Remember back to elementary grammar when you were taught about “you” understood? Please invoke that rule when spelling or saying your domain name.

I loathe it when, especially on the radio, I hear someone say their domain name. How many times do you hear that and they don’t even say “dot” between the “w-w-w” and the domain name? It drives me nuts. So, let’s all just make a deal and drop it. When was the last time you didn’t enter “www” when you navigated to a website anyway? The the “www” go the way of the pronoun “you” and let it be understood.

This is a fabulous article: How to Launch a Successful Blogger-Outreach Program in One Day

It expands on my observation that I wrote about yesterday: Tagging: The New Killer App. It also demonstrates that something like Technorati is the online version of a traditional clipping service. If people are discussing you or your company and they are tagging that content - then it’s gonna show up on Technorati. So, you need to throw this into your bag of tricks when it comes to marketing. And, the above article is a great example of how to get the Blogging world on your side.