Get Your Blog On!…The Challenge – Week 6

On By Lily CIn Challenge 2012

Funny that the chapter on blogging for a blogging challenge actually comes in Week 6.  While previous weeks of the S.A.C.’s Canadian Songwriters Social Media Challenge have been focused on mutterings on the process of goal-setting, setting up social media and personal websites, it’s all been a warm up to getting tools in place to build real connection with potential fans.  And now that time has come.  Even though the sheer volume of new content published online everyday can seem overwhelming, it is also exciting to see so much connection and engagement happening.

You may have heard the phrase, “Content is King.”  A songwriter’s blog is like the heartbeat of your online presence, fueling all your web entities with original content targeted at creating conversation and providing your fans with a backstage look at who you are.   And here’s my favourite sentence in this chapter of “Music Success in 9 Weeks” by Ariel Hyatt, “Just get posting, don’t stress about it, and tweak it to death.”  Blogging, unlike songwriting, does not require hundreds of edits and revisions.  The point is to create a voice and a presence, NOT a literary masterpiece!

Similarly, this blog was launched one and a half years ago with the hope of connecting songwriters across Canada by sharing information and inspiration through individual stories and experiences.  During this time, we’ve been amazed at the incredible submissions we have received.  We are grateful to all our contributors for helping us to create this wonderful dialogue and platform.  Truly, the magic of a blog is in the sharing and commenting that happens!

Speaking of sharing…here are some highlight videos from Week 5:

Karyn Ellis, one of our participants, has challenged herself to make homemade videos for all the songs on her album:

And here’s the response video made by Sue NewBerry, also a Challenge participant.

Okay, Challenge participants, please post the following:

1.  The URL of your blog entry for this week.
2.  5 blogs you are targeting.

32 thoughts on “Get Your Blog On!…The Challenge – Week 6”

  1. Pingback: jessicaspeziale – Featured in the SAC blog!

  2. Harry

    Great song!

    For setting and getting goals, you may want to check out a goal setting app called GoalsOnTrack, a very nicely built web app designed for tracking goals and todo lists, and supports time tracking too. It’s clear, focused, easy to navigate.

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  4. PART ONE: WEEK 6 BLOG ENTRY
    Apropos of our task to research music blogs this week, I decided to turn my blog into a music blog for the week and interview a few of my fellow blogging challengees.

    Here’s the main entry:
    I’ve Looked At Blogs From Both Sides Now

    I’ve Looked At Blogs From Both Sides Now (Wk 6 – 1 of 4)

    And the first of the interviews:
    Interview with Tom Shea from Trio Arjento:

    Interview with Tom Shea from Trio Arjento (Wk 6 – 2 of 4)

    I’ll be posting the other interviews throughout the week. I will try to post those links here as they go live, but if not… look for them on my blog!

    PART TWO: FIVE MUSIC BLOGS I LOCATED:
    Roots Music Canada (CAN): http://www.rootsmusic.ca
    Acoustic Music Scene (CAN): AcousticMusicScene.com
    Songs, By Toad (UK): Songbytoad.com
    Wears The Trousers (UK): wearsthetrousers.com
    With Music In My Mind (French blog from BE): withmusicinmymind.blogspot.com

    Enjoy!

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  7. Tom— Media Saturation Point… I feel ya!
    Here’s my week 6 Blog Post.. about BLOGS!
    URL: http://adriannesoundslike.tumblr.com/post/18002969093/sac-social-media-challenge-week-6-blog-it-up
    Blogs I’m Focused on:
    Salad Days Music: http://saladdaysmusic.net/
    BBC Introducing : http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/introducing/
    Indie R&B: http://indiernb.tumblr.com/
    Westcoast Sound: http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/
    Pretty Much Amazing: http://prettymuchamazing.com/

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    1. Good blog, Kathryn. I hear you. It takes time and preparation to write a blog…and then to read everyone else’s blog from our Social Media group….and comment on them…..well, it eats up a large chunk of your day.

      Keep the faith. I’m sure everyone else in our group feels the same way.

      And sometimes (like I just had to do with your blog)….sometimes you comment…..but the website won’t let you leave the comment….unless you create an account, or log in…and then when you do so, the comment’s gone, and you have to re-post. Ack…whatcha’ gonna do?

      I’ve just listened to your song “What Were You Thinkin’?” Wow!! Great song! You have a wonderful sense of style, and your lyrics are evocative. I posted my comments on Soundcloud, but I’ll post them here, as well…for those that don’t have time to get there:

      Wow!!! What a great song…shades of Joni Mitchell. And I love, love, your lyrics.

      “I heard you say life isn’t fair….But maybe it’s you and you’re just unaware….You think that I’m some kind of Perter Pan…..that I should grow up and get out of Neverland”.

      Very, very nice. And then you tie it all back later in the lyric by mentioning ‘pixie dust’. Excellent work. Also, good wry comment on ‘channel doomsday’.

      I notice that you listed this as a work in progress. It sounds complete to me…..unless you wanted to make it a little shorter.

      Cheers,
      Lucy

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    1. Oh Lucy, you are so lovely. Your blog is so perfect. I was feeling petulant too but wasn’t able to turn it around the way you did. However, this week is going to be a different story cause my frown is now a smile a mile wide thanks to you! Feelin’ good 🙂

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  22. Week 6! I’m catching back up. The blog explains it all 😉
    1) http://www.dervla.bandzoogle.com/week6.cfm

    2) Top 5 blogs:

    1. Electrocutie (http://electrocutieblog.blogspot.com/)
    – which I actually LOVE and used to follow all the time! What surprises me is how few people actually comment on her blog. I used to think she didn’t have too many followers but when I type in “pop music blog” into Google it’s on the first page… so I dunno what’s up with that! Anyways this is probably the blog that is closest to my genre.

    2. Popjustice (http://www.popjustice.com/)
    – They even show/promote fee downloads when available for some songs!

    3. Popcrush (http://popcrush.com/)
    – not just talking about new music but what’s going on in the music industry too.

    4. Stereogum (http://stereogum.com/)
    – everything from obscure to top 40’s

    5. PrettyMuchAmazing (http://prettymuchamazing.com/)
    – Music reviews/news/festivals/etc… keeps the variety there!

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  26. Here’s my blog for week 6!

    Blog: http://kristinestpierre.com/fr_blog.cfm?feature=3097830&postid=1861771

    And here is the list of blogs I’ve decided to follow :

    Blogs about music and artists:
    – http://music.cbc.ca
    – http://www.rootsmusic.ca
    – http://www.abetterworld.ca/
    – http://folkmusiccanada.ca/

    Blogs with tips:
    – http://songwriterstipjar.wordpress.com/
    – http://www.bloggingmuses.com/
    – http://arielpublicity.com/category/blog/ (aka Ariel Hyatt)
    – http://www.suzemuse.com/

    Finally, this site was created by Cheryl Gain and gives information about the arts and culture in Ottawa – always good to know what’s going on in your city!
    – http://www.ottawatonite.com

    That’s it 🙂
    Kristine

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