I'm in Love with the Matchmaker

The steady stream of new visitors to my songwriting website continues. People are finally finding me through Google by searching the terms that I care most about--which means that Google is doing a great job of playing Cupid. 


Today I had a visitor who spent half an hour on my site and read fifteen articles after searching Google for songwriting resources. That's the kind of validation I needed! To give you an idea, I don't normally expect readers to stay longer than 90 seconds, or read much more than 2 or 3 articles.


Been writing some short news posts on the blog and gotten a good response, but I want to make sure it's balanced well. I still want the site to be an educational resource, not a source of news. I want most of my articles to continue being useful for years to come.


Thinking I'll change my front page to an excerpt view, with a thumbnail photo and blurb for each article, with a variety of categories available from the /words front page. More options, more variety, more content to choose from.


Geo just called in a writing assignment. Hoping to shave before I get out the door; I've got 5 o' clock shadow that would make George Michael jealous.


More soon.

Sometimes it Pays to be Stubborn.

Hey, cool! Yesterday, my songwriting website must've been promoted through Google's ranks somehow, because I'm seeing more than 10x the usual amount of search traffic. Encouraging! It feels luxurious to wake up to more traffic than I used to get in an entire day.

Gotta celebrate these little victories, use them to build momentum.

Recording Horseflesh & Scrap Iron

I’ve been invited to an apple sauce-making party tonight with some really great people. So if I want to make it there tonight, I’ll have to record this damn song. Getting my head together about it. I need to:

• Write the lyric on one legible page.
• Retune my guitars.
• Write out a chart so I don’t get disoriented while recording gtrs.
• Gather together some improvised percussion instruments.
• Wire my recording rig together.
• Roll tape!

Song’s called “Horseflesh and Scrap Iron”.

This pale witch at night, she turns my flesh to horseflesh and RIDES
Me on cracked hooves through my own nightmares.

Ready, fire, aim. Here goes.

I Just Got a Promotion.

This morning I sat in the middle of a semicircular pile of books, hunting for songwriting topics. In an hour, I had two weeks’ worth of posts.

I’m focusing hard on two of my other blogs—each is very different in topic—and posting at least once every day, then going out to raise the profile of each website by reaching out and being helpful on forums and other blogs for a set amount of time daily.

To sustain that kind of momentum, I need a content strategy to help me stay focused and oriented—and just to help me remember what I’ve already covered and what can be built upon and all that good stuff.

I’m not just a writer for my own websites anymore—I’m editor-in-chief.

Hello, Strangers.

The last dispatch I posted to this website is over a year old. I don’t remember what I was feeling, what I was wearing, or where I was when that long-haired stranger wrote that entry.

What’s new since then?

• I’ve written a book’s worth of songwriting advice on my own domain, built an international readership, befriended amazing major-label songwriters, received links from prominent mainstream music industry figures and my peer bloggers.
• I’m happily self-employed. Everything I do now revolves around the arts. Every penny represents a word written, a note recorded, a songwriter coached, a musical artist managed or promoted.
• I have four one-hour appointments per week. All else is flexible, at my discretion.
• I teach classes and mentor students one-on-one.
• I compose for dancers.
• My long-delayed collection of original songs is available for purchase in November. It remains independent; I am my own record label. The album is called A Game with Shifting Mirrors.
• I own only necessary things. My home is clean, uncluttered, and free of evanescent distractions.
• My little sister owns a business and attends college.
• My father released an EP.
• My mother’s enrolled in my songwriting class.
• I’m two uncles now—my older sister has a new baby boy.

Time to go work on A Game with Shifting Mirrors. More soon.