As some of you have may have found out recently, I had to let my
official website URL domain ownership lapse, as I had to spend my money
on other things.  Doteasy, my old domain host, sought it fit to resell
it to someone who decided to use it to host a porn site.  NICE!!!

I'm
not fighting back.  I instead purchased http://www.helensventitsky.net
.  I've had it for two months and am now getting around to doing
something with it.  Which means going around to my plethora of social
networking and music sites I'm signed up on and changing my
information.  *sigh*

There's not much there now.  I followed the
lead of fellow Friendfeeder Susan Beebe and took advantage of Google's
partnership with Godaddy for 10 bucks a year for the domain name.   I'd
rather have more control in terms of HTML editing, but I like the quick
and easy aspect of this setup.  Here goes nuttin'...

Normally, I'd make this sort of post private, as I don't believe in bawling in public these days, but I need to send some positive props out and close out this year with some of the best vibes I've experienced in quite a while.

I'm not going to lie, it's been a rough year for me financially. While I didn't, for example, lose my job or become a victim of massive credit card fraud, my husband and I started planning some MAJOR life changes over the next year or so. Which means I had to clean up some financial house before the year ended. Which I did. Paid off my car loan (that was a big one). Erased some credit card debt. Was able to maintain some memberships in the process, but it's been hard. As you all know, I released a CD earlier this year. Wrote it, recorded it, had it professionally mastered, duped, and put online at a bunch of places. While the promotion I did for it was initially gungho press releases, CD sendouts, competition entries, etc.), my efforts slowed down when the economy crashed, back in September. I had to bypass promotional opportunities on places such as Sonicbids, so as I could put my money toward paying down my debts.

I'm not crying about it. It's just the way it is. Sometimes, you need to take care of the rest of your life first before you can go back to being an artist, again. I'm poor as a churchmouse, but I now own all of my stuff outright, and I can start fresh again.

Anyway, I don't do alot of self-promotion at the social networking sites on which I hang out (such as Friendfeed, Twitter and Facebook). While I will occasionally remind people that I have product to sell, I just think it's kinda tacky to put your wares in people's faces, all the time. There's also that fine line between self promotion and out and out spam that I'm still trying to straddle. I've become friends with a lot of the folks on FriendFeed, for example. I would not really care to alienate them with my promotional tactics, just because I made the choice to be a starving artist.

I also never maintained a mailing list. Aside from concerns of coming across as a spammer and possibly alienating friends and family with whom I converse via email, I just don't provide a lot of news and I'd just assume not bore people with the (lack of) activity going on in my musical life, or just my life in general.

Let's just say, all that changed this morning, due to this thread I saw on FriendFeed:

http://friendfeed.com/e/bf86c9aa-a1c4-4b24-8860-91b2f2bd6ea6/Helen-Sventitsky-Incident-At-Motel-6-Free/

There are those of us who put music out there and don't expect much. And then get the surprise of their lives when they find out that word of mouth actually does work!

To say that I'm shocked about this would be an understatement. This not only made my morning, it made my month, and even my year!

So, in summary:

Getting CD written and recorded at home studio: Free, but with some health sacrifices involved (such as lack of sleep).

Mastering, duping and distribution of said CD: c. $500.00

Getting the hell promoted out of you on the internet by people who found you: PRICELESS!!!!

So my learning this morning: Fans are EVERYTHING! Keep them. Cater to them. Keep in touch, even if only for a minuscule newsbites. No longer be the shut-in to those who like your wares.

Off to put together that mailing list.

And thank you, Michael W. May, for all you've done on FriendFeed this year for independent artists, such as myself. I promised to do more, and better, next year. :)

Hosted By: DARCI MONET ♫
When: Wednesday Nov 19, 2008
at 7:00 PM
Where North Hollywood, California|5 91601
United States
Description:
DARCI MONET ♫

Click Here To View Event

said: I had the same experience at my house last night that millions of other US Citizens did: Watch Obama sweep New England, the Upper East Coast, Florida, the Industrial North, and the entire West Coast to claim victory as our first African-American president. His acceptance speech at Grant Park in Chicago last night was sweeping without being grandiose. Humble, but not self-deprecating. If you watched any of it on TV last night, you could tell from his body language that he knew he was about to shoulder a huge responsibility and was going to be up to it.

All the traditional southern and midwestern states went for McCain. It was expected. Not everyone can have the foresight to be on the same train. McCain was quick to concede to this when he made his final speech last night at around 8:00 PM (or 9:00 PM) MST. It was a wonderful speech, full of the class and humanity and recognition that John McCain SHOULD have exhibited, and insist that his followers exhibit, over past year or so of his campaign. Unfortunately, McCain's followers at his compound last night had been reduced to wingnuts and psychopathic fanatics who viscerally booed and catcalled every time Obama's name was mentioned.

Even today, when I went to scan my Friendfeed account for discussion of last night happenings, I found an instance where someone noted that her neighbor had put up a sign that said "RIP USA".

To which I argue: the USA has not died. It is being reborn. After almost 20 years of being run by "experience" and 8 years of almost totalitarian ineptitude, we are about to receive a fresh start. The birthing (or in this case, re-birthing) process is always painful. And sure, Obama's more intense supporters may have put him on too high a pedestal. But you cannot deny that, for once, someone from MY generation, who came from a people who historically maintained outsider status, broke down the door without anyone's help and took the reigns. It will be hard to, but we need to temper the enthusiasm now and let the man work the dream. Our economy is in shambles. It will be hard to fix. It may not even be totally fixable. We are in wars we don't need to be in. Barack Obama's just a man. He can't work miracles. He can, however, do his best to get things done. We need to allow him the room to do it.

And for those who still insist that they can't deal with someone like Barack in the White House, I offer the old redneck adage that is offered on the bumpersticker on the back of every pick up truck:

America. Love it, or leave it. :p

said: If someone keeps trying to connect with you on, say, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, et. al., after you told them NO, this response is as good as any to get these people off your back. It's good advice if you don't wish to be mistaken for a spammer. :)

"[Name], I am sorry, but I am not going to connect with you on LinkedIn or any other network. you connected to me on Plaxo and within the first couple messages from you I could see that rather than get to know me you wanted to get your web site address in front of me and entice me to click it. A suggestion to you as you continue to use social media for your business is simply this: connect before you sell. Social networks and social media is not another sales route to replace brochures, emails offers, and mailers. Build a relationship and trust . The rest will follow. I would have loved to get to know you and explore who in my network might like to use your services, but it seems we did not get that far. I wish you well." -

http://ping.fm/6jnjP