There are many parallels to being a starving musician and a blogger, mainly that you are both starving.
When you live in Los Angeles, like I did for 30 plus years, “everyone” is in a band. The servers at your favorite restaurants, the baristas at your local caffeine emporiums, and even your babysitter…they play guitar, sing, write songs, record from their home studio, or some variation of the required skills for rock and roll stardom.
I started playing the piano when I was between four and five years old and kept right on through until high school. I gave up the keys for my uncle’s Schecter bass guitar (little did I know how metal I was). I started playing bass because the U2 cover band I was in didn’t have anyone to play Adam Clayton’s undulating four-chord bass line to With Or Without You.
So fast forward ten or so years, and I am playing gigs, making phone calls, booking tours, and schmoozing with the hippest groups. I begin to realize, you don’t actually have to be exceptional to make it in this business. Of course, you have to have some talent, and there is the whole performing thing. Still, in my experience, it was a combination of perseverance and luck.
I saw plenty of talented groups fall by the wayside because they could not “get their $#!* together” and just show up when they were supposed to.
Skip another ten years to 2012, and all the things I have gleaned from being a musician have helped to market my blog, Think Inclusive. Here are just a few that may resonate with you.
Show Up
You have to start somewhere. One of the scariest things I did was plop down the fees to my hosting service and rights to my domain. My immediate thought was, what if nobody reads it. Like being a musician, no one is ever going to hear the brilliant song that you never get around to write.
Find Your Scene
For Think Inclusive, I write about disability rights and inclusion. What this meant for me when I was in a band was to find my “scene”. Here is where you are going to find the people most passionate about your cause. It is also the most natural thing for me to do, because I want to be there. It is hard to fit into a scene you have very little in common with.
Promote Your Friends
This seems like common sense, but find other people that are doing what you are doing and tell everyone about them. It is almost guaranteed that once you start doing that, the traffic to your site will increase. Really, it is about being authentic. You are more likely to read something if someone you know tells you about it. Everyone wins when we promote each other’s endeavors.
Be Patient
When I began this project of words, I was wondering if anyone could really make money blogging. Like starting out as a musician, you cannot expect to make money from writing a blog when no one has read anything you have written and you don’t know any other bloggers. I am fortunate enough to write, be compensated, and have developed an audience. But, it has taken a long time. Stick with it and just keep writing.
Do you even blog bro?
I write because I believe from the bottom of my heart that I have something important to say. I write to influence people to become better educators. I write because the written word (like music) is powerful and can change people’s heart towards being more loving.
I write because it is what I do.