Edition #152
I’m about to offer you a big bribe to buy my brother’s new CD, but first I need to finish up this case study and review from last week…
About a week ago, I told you about Mark Joyner’s Online Music Promotion course.
I also mentioned that I would be putting it to good use by making a case study of my brother’s CD (of which I am the Executive producer).
My brother Daryl and I have now both gone through Mark’s course, and we’ve found a lot of applicable strategies to help market our CD.
So far we’ve put up a website, we’ve got the CD for sale on the website, as well as the MP3 downloads. We are selling it directly from the website in order to have the highest possible profit margin.
As you will see in a moment, his website is also setup to gain newsletter subscribers, which is a big strategy that is explained in the course.
We also got the CD listed for sale with a major online music distributor, which charges an order fulfillment fee for each CD sold, but it opens us up to a broader audience.
My brother is also working on MySpace and other various marketing techniques as described in the course. All in all, I’d say that Mark’s course has been very helpful, and I recommend it to any musician or aspiring musician.
OK… now on to the BRIBE…
To start off with, let me give you a little background about my brother to help you understand why I am so proud of him.
Daryl has always been a smart kid. In high school I think he nearly aced his SAT’s, and got a good scholarship to Calvin College in Michigan.
He’s also always been a fanatical outdoor enthusiast, and did everything outdoors he possible could, including running cross-county and track for Calvin’s team.
All of this came to a screeching halt when…
On November 24th, 2004, Daryl was driving home from college for Thanksgiving with some friends when a deer jumped into the highway at about 2AM. The car rolled, and Daryl (who was sleeping in the back) was ejected.
He suffered several life-threatening injuries in the accident including a collapsed lung, skull fractures, jaw fractures, broken vertebra, ribs, and other cuts, bruises, etc. I still remember seeing him after he was air-lifted to a Denver hospital later that morning, and not knowing if he was going to make it.
(Daryl after the accident)
Miraculously, he did not suffer brain damage, but he was paralyzed from mid-torso down (T8) and endured a very long and difficult recovery.
Life in a wheelchair has been very different for him, but he has attacked it with the same passion that he’s always had.
He went back to Calvin and finished his final two years, getting his Bachelor’s degree in Greek. He has continued to enjoy outdoor activities, such as hand-cycling, and I was glad to see him kayaking and snorkeling on our recent family vacation.
(Daryl on our vacation)
He has also continued to pursue one of his primary passions in life, which is music. Daryl is a gifted song writer, and in spite of being a full time graduate student at Denver Seminary, he managed to produce an album during the past semester.
Here’s an excerpt from Daryl’s blog…
“I’m a full-time student still, but over the fall I was spending at least 20 hours a week – and many weeks more than that – working on our music: either recording, practicing, or performing – or trying to get people organized to come to record or practice or perform or to come listen to our performances. And because for the first 5 months of the project I was the sole financier for the project, I was counting pennies and cutting corners on what to spend my money and time on. My wheelchair is in decently poor shape at this point – the castors are about to fall off and the tires are down to the kevlar (I think I got Christmas money I was supposed to spend ordering new tires – maybe I’ll do that today. My car’s windshield has a long thin crack that goes all the way across the bottom right above the wipers – and my trunk latch has been working on and off since October (I even had to have it tied closed with rope for a while!). My semester GPA was the lowest it has been since my first quarter in high school (it still wasn’t that bad, so I’m not going to say what it was). I didn’t shave for nearly three months.
But!
But now, we have a CD completed!”
Needless to say, I am very proud of my little bro, and I would like to help sell some CD’s.
The music is good enough that you should buy it on it’s own merit.
BUT, since I have no idea what type of music you all like, I’m going to throw in some bonuses that will make it MORE than worth your while to check out his CD…
In addition to the CD, you will also receive the following THREE products, with master resale rights:
1) Facebook Social Ads
2) Viral YouTube Traffic
3) Social Marketing Directory 2008
Since a major component of online music promotion involves leveraging social media, I thought these would be a good fit.
Not only are these 3 ebooks good resources, but you also get master resale rights for each of them, AND they each come with full sales websites to make it easy for you to resell them.
This means you can sell them for 100% profits, and you can also sell Resale Rights to them.
In order to get those bonuses, all you need to do is go to my brother’s website and order the album for only $12. You have the choice of getting a CD, or the downloadable MP3 files (either way is $12).
In other words, for only $12 you get a great CD with an hour of music, PLUS 3 turn-key products to enjoy and resell. You will receive the bonuses instantly after you order…
Click Here to Go to Daryl’s Website … (You can also listen to samples. Be sure to listen to “Where We Left Off”… it’s my favorite)
OR you can order directly from these links:
After you order, you will instantly be taken to a download page which contains the 3 bonuses!
As always you can post your comments here on the blog.
Have a great day!
Hey Eric,
It’ll be a pleasure to order and listen to Darryl’s CD. Man, your little brother sure does look “buff” in that vacation picture! Keep up the good work.
-Sabrina
You are most generous, and I thank you.
Hi Eric,
As you will recall from my previous comment here, I am a big fan of Mark Joyner, and especially his new Online Music Promotion course. Dave, who does the music for our internet videos, has obviously already got the course, but his band actually took part in the competition too! Anyone who is interested can check out his entry, and the others too, by going on over to YouTube here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7-Q4Cg0xmRg.
Cheers,
Jim
Dear Eric,
You and Daryl have every reason in the world to be proud of his accomplishments, resillience, and determination to take what is and make it into something better.
As the mate of an accomplished singer and the “step mother” of an aspiring singer I know too well the fire inside that drives these people, and that often they concentrate so much on the creation of the music that the business of music is a nuisance, a distraction, and a road block.
I am a website designer and do SEM. By habit, I look at meta tags and optimization on sites.
I’d like to offer you my knowledge on tags and SEM as my contribution to helping Darryl achieve his dreams.
If you or your brother are willing to accept my “gift” I would be honored to be a small part of helping him achieve the dream.
Hi Eric
That’s a nice site Daryl’s got. I’ll have to do a bit more work on my own!
I couldn’t see any sample links on the home|listen page (it may be because of the filter on our server).
Lazy Rock Star
Eric,
Your brother should be an inspiration to us all!
Sometimes when our lives seem to spiral out of control, we can get caught up in things and fall into a down slide. This should be a lesson to us all; THINGS ARE NOT BAD! I have been going through some tough times lately myself (addiction & nasty divorce), been working through this, but that’s no comparison to your brothers challenge. I wish your brother the best & truly hope his music en devour will succeed. Will check out his music, if it sounds good will spread the word.
Hi Eric,
I picked up the album straight away. Nice gesture for your bro.
Best wishes on the album. I love guitar music and internet marketing too so am very happy to help out.
One idea for your bro is to allow movie makers to use his songs with full credit back to the site to buy the album.
I became a big fan of the band Sick Puppies after a saw the “free hugs” video on YouTube. 🙂
Eric I was ready to buy but then remembered that my PayPal account has been blocked. Your guess is as good as mine on that one. I contacted my bank on that and they checked things out with PayPal and have now issued me a new card. Seems someone was trying to do a little hacking?
I will however think about adding a link to the site though. I mean I will add the link if I remember to do it when I decide to do an update on my web pages.
Wishing your brother all the luck in the world,
Fred
Eric:
What love you have for your brother. He sounds like a wonderful individual who has his head on straight even if his body doesn’t want to work like it used to.
This morning I woke up thinking about how powerful our mind really is. We can take something, anything that someone else might think is worthless, and turn it around by examining it, dreaming about what could this become, play around with it and suddenly an idea hits and we are off and running with it. Our minds are a terrible thing to waste. It is our God given right to be the very best we can be whether we are rich, poor, old, young, skinny, inbetween or heavy. It doesn’t matter. What matters is what we chose to do with what we have.
Isn’t it great that your brother does not allow an accident to change the way he thinks, his goals, dreams are still there. Way to go.
Thanks, Eric, for showing us how much you admire and respect your brother.
Tobey Craft
What a touching story. I like the CD too. But what really impressed me was the way you took time to help your brother by promoting his CD to your list. It’s reassuring to see that some internet marketers are caring, feeling human beings. Eric you continue to share great stories and I for one love them. I am making my purchase, but I just wanted to encourage you to keep putting a human face on the Internet. Thanks.
Marcia
Thank you for all the kind words, and a big thank you for those of you who are picking up a copy of the album!
Lori- Sure we would be interested in your SEM help. My brother’s email address is on this page http://www.saunisbigjump.com/contact.html
Fred- if you are unable to use Paypal, there is another option. You can order through Daryl’s CDbaby page: http://cdbaby.com/cd/saunisbigjump The bonus won’t be on the download page of it though, so just email my brother with your receipt and he can link you to the bonus download page.
Hey it would be cool to hear a sample when we open up this page…..like Myspace.
Eric
Your brother has been very brave and is winning a tough battle. I had a
brother that did not win, but thats not why I am writing. I did listen to the
CD samples and loved the guitar openings on all the pieces. The music
is calming and very easy to listen to, not like most of the music on the
market today.The melodies and the pace of the music is what I would
love to sing . I have created 2 small CD’s, not original music like your
brother, and would love to try and further my singing.
Eric will you be my producer?
Eric, this year’s not so good for myself either but as you’ve stood by your brother and have helped him gain his self confidence, I really can’t say no!
One of the greatest attributes we have as human beings allows us to show compassion where it’s needed and our support to help those who have a greater need than ourselves.
If my marketing skills (dare the thought) improve, your brother will have an electric wheelchair to do his burn outs on. I have been having an issue lately with Pay Pal but I’ll certainly give it a go and just do my best.
Frank
Hi ,
I’m glad to here daryl’s doing well and staying strong because there
are alot of things that happen to people in this world and it’s good to see someone
staying positive even after an incident like daryl went through.
ps.I’m a huge music fan and an amateur musician also and I like hearing new stuff so ,I’ll definitly pick up daryl’s cd and look forward to seeing him rise to the top!
Also here’s to you Eric for being a cool Brother!!
take care guys,
Mike O’Brien
Eric,
An amazing story about your brother, inspirational. I have a few friends looking to get into the music biz who will be interested in Joyner’s course. Will send them over.
Also – you just got outbid on my blog by some guy from Australia called Simon. 🙂 Wanted to let you know!
Michael
PS Keep up the great work – I admire your style a lot and love the value you give and no-nonsense approach. I’m trying to emulate it and it seems like you and I were the only ones in the world not to send out a Frank Kern link! haha! 🙂
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Eric, This is a really nice gesture on yur part to aid your brother. As a graduate student at seminary I think we may have a common thread behind our lives that binds us together as brothers. I wish him well and will invest in his CD – with or without the bonuses.
Eric, as a product development issue, do you think this social marketing approach could be applied to fiction books? I and my publisher have parted company over missed promotion ops and poor content handling (by them) and marketing is my very weakest link in getting the book out. Like you, I see web-based marketing as the most cost effective method but am challenged on the more technical aspects of the whole web issue. I would appreciate your input on the viability of socialized ‘ficiton book’ marketing.
Thanks and I hope your efforts do very, very well for yourself and your brother.
hi Eric, this is quite emotional, i am highly inspired by your brothers archievement. this is worth celebrating. it is simply called surving against all odds. in this part of the continent we honour such people. thanks for being there for him. i for sure will join in promoting such character because he is one in a million. he has proven to many that there is ability in disability. more grease to your elbow guy.
Hi, Eric…
You and Daryl are both an inspiration! Daryl has obviously had a wonderful attitude to overcome challenges that most of us will never know; and while I’m certain that he has inspired you, I am also certain that you have truly inspired him. How blessed you are to have each other, and thank you for the awesome opportunity to buy his CD!
Hey Eric:
I had left a long tribute to my mother in law on your website awhile ago. Wanted to update you on her “recovery”.
I am so thankful to have Mom as my mother in law. She is a strong willed, spiritual, stubborn woman. Because of her having pneumonia starting Dec. 19, 2007, coming down with MRSA at the hospital, fighting both diseases at the same time caused her to not be hungry. Thus she began a downward spiral. When she was well enough to go to a step down program, she was there a week and had a heart attack.
Back to the hospital for 10 days and to the step down program once again. This time with DO NOT RESUCITATE, COMFORT CARE ONLY. Whew. That was scary.
We kids talked and decided that the doctors were wrong. If Mom could take some exercise then she should be given it. Her exercise program began with little steps – swinging of her arms, lifting of her legs – and this exercise wore her out big time.
The second week at the step down program, she was so bad physically that we slept with the cell phones on our bedhead thinking there would be a call during the night. PTL there wasn’t one.
Today, February 21, 2008, I am glad to report that Mom has eaten her first protein in over 9 weeks. She ate 3 good bites of chicken – chewed them up and swallowed them. She ate the first salad two days ago. She has taken 7 steps (helped by a nurse) from her wheel chair to the door and couldn’t make it back. But she did take 7 steps.
The last two visits Mom asked where the cards were. It took me a moment to find a deck of cards. We played a game euchre and one game of pinochle. Today my husband is there with his Mom and they are playing gin rummy. Her mind isn’t as strong as it was and she wants to play cards in order to strengthen it.
Eric, I would not have believed this if I didn’t see it with my own eyes. When she was sent to the step down program at Heartland, the doctor sent her there to die. She is living proof that God is still in charge of our lives.
Thanks for the prayers of all of your list and especially your church.
Respectfully,
Tobey Anne Craft
Hey Eric,
First of all, congratulations are in order for your bro. That’s a touching story, and a great album (I love ‘Where We Left Off’).
How is the project coming? How’s Mark Joyner’s course working out for you? I see you’re up over 7760 plays on your MySpace player (which isn’t always an accurate reflection of who’s listening to your music…). Do you have an update on your progress? How does that growth curve look? What would you say is the most powerful tool you’ve used?
Have you been tracking the blog buzz for the album? I’m sure you’re on top of it, but a recent study from NYU’s Stern School of Business concluded that blogging can have a serious (like, 600% serious) impact on the success of a CD release (read more here: http://blog.maxlowe.net/2008/02/20/sell-more-cds-how-to-increase-your-cd-release-success-by-600/
Don’t worry. I’ll be doing my part to turn up the chatter when I post about your project on my own indie music marketing blog. I hope you’ll keep us up to date on how things progress!
All the best!
Max Lowe
http://maxlowe.net
Hi Eric,
Glad to see I’m not the only one who has accidentally downloaded bad programs via ActiveX. I did the same exact thing. I have actually done it twice, but not in the same manner. This last time, the programs actually downloaded a new toolbar on to Internet Explorer. I found it by starting Internet Explorer, then going to “View.” Then I noticed the new toolbar so I unchecked the box next to the toolbar they downloaded. This also helped a little bit to get rid of the circular messages that keep popping up on the screen! Thanks for all the tips!
Debbie
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Hi Eric, thanks very much for sharing this. I liked the music and have made a post about it on my blog: http://talentpad.com/
Daryl is fortunate to have you for guidance.
Best Wishes for new Album!
Shankar