When people become familiar with a brand name or logo they feel much more comfortable about making a purchase. No matter how many products you have, it becomes easier to sell any one of them if they are all of the same brand.

Let's use McDonalds restaurants as an example. Their branding consists of the golden arches, Ronald McDonald and the names they give their food. You have the Chicken McNugget, the Egg  McMuffin and the Big Mac. Obviously the theme is the Mc before the name. This makes them easier to remember. If it's easier to remember, then it's easier for you to become familiar with the product.

Look at the Dummies books as another example. They have a color scheme. Every one of their books has a yellow cover. Just as the Rich Dad series of books use a specific color scheme. That's called branding. However, even though it is called branding, it is really a form of brainwashing. When you see or hear something over and over again, you can't help but to remember it.

Now that we've given examples of branding/brainwashing in action, let's discuss how you can utilize the internet in the branding/brainwashing process. I will demonstrate my point by telling you how you can do it.

You may  have a number of websites from which you operate. I have seen some writers' works appear on a number of different websites for the purpose of promoting themselves. One thing that can be done is to try to use the same user or display name for each of those sites. That will build a familiarity with your name. One idea might be to use a name that can be associated with your website or domain name, if you have one.

Another thing that could be done as a means of branding yourself, business, products or services on the Internet is to try to use the same images; whether it be a logo or the same background image. I have a Youtube page, Myspace profile and a Twitter page that all use the same background image as my websites. This gives them all a consistent look and creates the impression that my pages on those other sites are just an extension of my own websites.

Having your own color scheme is a similar form of branding used by the Dummies books and McDonalds, since they both utilize a consistent color scheme.

No matter what I do on the Internet, I stamp the same name on it. If used enough and seen enough, a certain familiarity with it will be attained by the masses. I am currently doing that with thousands of visitors each month. I aspire for that to one day be millions of visitors each month. We should always strive for better. That's how we make progress.

So are you creating multiple products? You are? Maybe you should have a name that you can stamp on all of them. Are you using the same color scheme or images? You should. That could be the beginning of your branding process. So give these ideas some thought and start brainwashing the masses today!

As a person who considers himself to be a good musician, I know how difficult it is to have to work a menial, dead-end day job, while knowing that I had other talents that were not being used. Talents that I felt had exceeded the requirements of the type of jobs I had been working.

Although I believe that a truly wise man as well as a good manager or supervisor sees the potential of an individual, In our society, people often base their opinions of someone else upon what they are currently doing for a living and not what their potential is. I don't think people realize how common it is that people with exceptional abilities are often forced to work a job that is, quite frankly, beneath their talents, experience and knowledge.

I will give you some examples of the types of jobs some musicians I've known have had to work to pay their bills. I'll use fictitious names like "Joe Guitar", "Joe Drummer" and etc. to avoid embarrassing them. So without any further stalling, let's get to it:

Joe guitar worked at a slaughterhouse that cut up dead cows and horses that were dragged off of fields and the meat was used for dog food. Sometimes a cow might be lying in a field for a day or two before they called his company to have it removed. So they would sometimes be bloated and would make a hissing sound when joe would go to skin it. I'll spare you the more grisly details.

Joe Drummer worked for a disaster restoration company that would deal with water, mold, fire and smoke damage. The worst would be sewer or septic backups. Sometimes an entire basement would be filled with sewage that had backed up through a toilet in the basement. He would have to drain out the septic sludge and cut out the sludge drenched carpeting and bag it up to haul outside and load into the truck.

Joe the keyboard player worked at a powder coatings factory. They made the powder coatings that is sprayed on metal and baked on. It is much more durable than paint, by the way. The factory workers would usually take on the color of the powder coatings that were being made each day. If they were making blue, they'd all be blue and smurf-like in appearance. If it was yellow, then they would all look jaundiced.

Joe the singer worked at a factory that manufactured vinyl wall covering. There was always the strong overpowering stench of the inks and various solvents that permeated the place. God only knows how many years that cut off Joe's life. But don't worry; it just cuts the years off of the end of his life. Those are usually the worst years anyway.

I could list a number of other jobs some musicians I've known have had to work but I won't bother to list them all due to the fact that this article might go on for ever. I just wanted to present the case that if you are among the ranks of musicians forced to work a job you hate, you are not alone.

It can be difficult sometimes when you know for sure that you are capable of doing more. Yet the real opportunities for you to show what you are capable of seem to never arise. Quite often, for most people, they don't. You see, the real opportunities don't come to you. The real opportunities are the ones that you pursue.

So maybe you've also had to work that horrible day job to pay the bills while waiting for opportunity to come knocking on your door. Let's face it though; opportunity doesn't even know where you live. You have to find his address and knock on his door.

I knew I was capable of doing more than what I was doing for a living. You know that you are capable of doing more. So go out and do it! Find the time. Make the time. Show the world what you're made of. Show them all how wrong they are about you. You might even surprise yourself.

Simon Cowell, as a judge on American Idol, has earned himself somewhat of a reputation of being cruel when telling contestants when they haven't quite measured up. People are often shocked at his brutal honesty and (perhaps) lack of tact. But, in some ways, he may just be doing the contestant a favor. One the contestant's parents should have done.

The fact is that, in our modern western society, we have reached a point at which we don't want to say anything to a child that may hurt his feelings; even when it may be more beneficial for the child to be truthful. One word that is seldom used these days when raising children is the terrible word no. Oh, little Jimmy wants an all ice cream diet. Sure he's morbidly obese and already has diabetes at the age of 12, but if I say no, his little feelings will be hurt.

So what ends up happening is that by not hurting a child's feelings, we jeopardize his health. Now the above example is extreme but I think it illustrates a point. The point being illustrated is that telling people something nice for the sake of not hurting their feelings isn't always the right thing to do. Sometimes honesty is the best approach.

Among the harsh realities of life is that, to actually get good at something, you usually have to apply yourself. That includes music. To become a good musician, it may involve some level of dedication and hard work. You may even (dare I say it?) have to practice. You may even have to crack open a book and study some music theory. I know this may seem like a radical approach but there are some people out there that think that this approach actually works.

One approach a parent can take when a child is interested in music is to give a compliment and then follow it with the criticism. A parent could say "I like that, but if you changed this, I think it would be even better." You got the criticism in of what's wrong, directed them towards where they can fix what's wrong but you also made a point of complimenting them in the process. Complimenting them in the process softens the blow of the criticism.

A child needs to know that in order to excel at anything, they need to apply themselves. Telling them that everything they are doing is flawless doesn't achieve that. This could apply to anything we attempt to teach our children, not just music.

Some may say to me "what makes you such an expert on raising children?" I say in return: "I'm not an expert on raising children." My expertise lies in teaching people about how to play guitar and how to learn music theory. I understand how important music theory is as well as how important it is to apply yourself in order to become a good musician.

In my experience of teaching guitar and music theory, I have come across a number of people who, prior to having met me, had very little understanding of how much they would need to apply themselves in order to excel as a musician. I believe that quite often it is as a result of their parents never explaining to them that applying themselves is a prerequisite to getting good at something. Sometimes the parents will do that with some things but not with music.

Music is often seen as something fun or enjoyable to do and not often seen as work. Unfortunately, if you want to do it as a profession, then you have to actually "work" at it. That means that you have to take it a bit more seriously than the average person who is just playing guitar as a hobby. That's what separates a professional from an amateur or wannabe.

So if Mom and Dad never told you what you should work on in order to improve as a musician, then you may want to do a self-assessment. If you're a singer, tape yourself. Listen to your self and try to be honest. Don't get too discouraged if you finally come to the realization that you're not as good as you thought you were. There are ways of fixing that. It's called practice. If you play guitar or some other instrument, you can do the same. Tape yourself. Be somewhat critical. Are you playing in time? Are you playing the notes clearly?

If you adequately assess yourself as a musician, apply yourself and work on your faults, you will get better. There is no doubt of that. And if you do that, then maybe someday Simon Cowell or someone like him won't have to do your parents' dirty work. Maybe Simon will tell you that your performance was great! At least with him, you know he's not just saying that to spare your feelings.

Often we hear webmasters of popular sites tell us that content is king and how it's important in generating traffic.  But rarely will they explain in detail as to why and how that is.  I will cover that subject in this article but as to how it relates to the concept of what I like to call "accumulating content."  What I mean by accumulating content is content that accumulates on your site over an extended period of time.  Now I realize that I wouldn't be able to fully discuss all of the advantages of accumulating content in one single article but I have 7 points I hope to drive home.  So without further ado, I'll get right to the 7 points:

An old retailer's trick is to take existing merchandise that is on a half empty shelf and move it to the front to make the shelf look fuller.  Why do they do this?  Because empty shelves create the impression that the retailer does not have much of a selection of merchandise.  Empty shelves obviously create a negative impression.  So why shouldn't a website be any different in that respect?  Think of how many websites you've been on that looked aesthetically pleasing but had practically nothing for content.  Empty shelves people, just empty shelves.

If I set out to build a brick house, would it make sense to smash every other one with a hammer immediately after it was laid?  You would probably say no and think that it's a ridiculous question to ask.  Obviously the house would take forever to build.  Well, a site would take forever to build too if the content is dated and has to be replaced with content that is more up to date.  This obviously would mean that you're doing a lot of work to create content that will not be there for an extended period of time.  What you need to do is concentrate more on content that will still be relevant over an extended period of time in order to maximize the effectiveness of your efforts.

If I go to a website and I am able to read all of its content in a single visit, what is my incentive to return?  Return traffic is much more important than having visitors who only visit once; especially since return visitors are much more likely to make a purchase.  So the ideal situation would be to have so much content that not all of it could be viewed in a single visit.  They would be more likely to bookmark the site and return at a later time to view more.  Also, the advertising done within your site would be more effective since it will have been seen on more than one occasion.  Any ad executive will tell you that advertising works best with repetition.

With every sentence that you add to your site's content, the more potential search strings you will have that will generate hits to your site.  Let's say that you had an article about brown shoes.  Somebody types brown shoes on Google and your site comes up in the results.  However, if that's your only topic or article, search engine hits will be few and far between.  But what if we talked about black shoes, tennis shoes or running shoes?  We should then increase our potential for hits.  We also hear a lot about link popularity and how that increases your hit potential.  Well, I hate to have to tell you this but the positive effects of link popularity will be minimized by a lack of content and potential search strings for which your site will come up.

Another point to remember is that some search strings are more popular than others.  You may stumble on to something that will create a search string for which there is very little competition and you may be higher in the search results than you usually are.  This is important since most people won't go to page 10 on their search results.  Think about it, how often do you go to page 10?

Perhaps you've seen those free JavaScript tools that make it easier for a visitor to recommend your site to a friend by sending them a link to it.  Having more content makes it more likely that they will use that neat little tool.  After all, you might have content on your site that might be of very little interest to the visitor himself but he may know some people who would have more of an interest in it and decide to send them the link.  It's obvious too that they won't be sending a link to a site with no content.  What would be the point?

I have a number of sites of various types and cover a variety of subjects.  Occasionally I check my stats to see who my top referrers are and check out what page they are linking to.  I find a musician's site linking to the site where I have guitar chords and scales.  That makes perfect sense right?  So obviously the information he chose to link to was of some use to him and by linking to it he increased my link popularity.  This is something only content will do since I never even asked the guy to link to my site.  He somehow stumbled onto it and thought that the content was worth linking to.  The page he was linking to was not the main page, so it was the content within the site not the site itself that he was really linking to.

The content you choose to accumulate may add to the sites uniqueness.  After all, every person in this world is unique in a number of ways, so the choices that you make regarding the content you accumulate may be enough to allow your site to stand out above your competitor's site.  It also helps if you create a lot of your own content, rather than just modeling it after everyone else's.

Guitarist: "What time is band practice on Saturday?"

Singer: "One O'clock"

Guitarist: "Is it my turn to bring the beer?"

Singer: "Yeah, I'll bring the girls."

Bass Player: "I'll bring the hot dogs and burgers."

Drummer: "Great! Sounds like we got ourselves a party, I mean, a practice!

If the above fictional conversation is similar to the preparations your band usually makes for a practice, then I'm here to tell you that you may be taking the wrong approach to preparing for a rehearsal. To explain as to why that is, we must first understand what the actual purpose of a rehearsal is. These are my thoughts on what you should attempt to achieve through a band practice and how making a social event out of a practice interferes with that:

First of all, you are trying to rehearse the songs you intend to play out. When you invite other people to a rehearsal, they quite often will ask you to play a song your band has not yet rehearsed. In attempting to play it, you waste time because, in most cases, not everyone in the band already knows the song.

You may have to play some of the songs a number of times to actually get it down. Sometimes you may just need to work on a section of the song you are having problems with. When other people are there, you may not do that because you don't want to bore them with playing the same songs over and over or repeatedly going over the various problem spots within a song.

Quite often you may take more breaks or longer breaks than you should and this obviously reduces the effectiveness of the time you are spending. This problem is aggravated if you really have very few opportunities to get together as a band. Obviously, the larger the size of the band, the harder it is to coordinate rehearsals, since not everyone has the same work schedule or personal obligations.

If you are drinking alcoholic beverages while practicing, let's face it, you're playing is probably going to be affected. The more you engage in consumption, the worse it is affected. Your playing gets sloppy and so you may have to go over songs more than necessary, thereby wasting even more time. You may also lose focus and not have the ability to prioritize as what you should be working on most.

Just having more people there than necessary serves as a distraction. The bass player should be paying more attention to the song he's playing and less on the cute little blond that's making goo goo eyes at him. It's even more of a distraction if you are practicing in a place with a limited amount of space. When you're practically tripping over each other. Like when that cute little blond that's been making goo goo eyes at the bass player has to get up and go to the bathroom and you have to move out of the way to give her access to the bathroom door.

If you really want your band to get out there playing in the bars, night clubs or other venues, then you really need to focus. You need to focus on learning new material. You have to systematically learn and rehearse enough material to make a full night of music. That requires learning a lot of songs. It's kind of hard to focus on the business aspects of your music or learning those songs when you make a party or social event of a rehearsal.

So, to sum it all up, there are ways of having fun and still getting done what you need to get done in a band practice. If you are going to have a social event or party on the day of the band practice, then let the festivities begin after the rehearsal is over. Just get done what you need to get done first. Then let the party begin. Just remember that your first priority should be to work on the music. If your first priority is the social event, then maybe you are in the wrong business. Maybe you should be in the events planning or catering businesses. So what will it be then? Will it be a practice or will it be a party?

About the Author:

As a musician who does solo acoustic performances, I have noticed that I may not always be the center of attention. Let's face it; some places hire a solo acoustic performer just to be "background music." Some owners/proprietors think that their customers are just there to enjoy their dinner and that the entertainment should be there just as a component of the overall "atmosphere." As somewhat of a person capable of being reasoned with, I can appreciate that fact.

However, there are times when a performer would like to receive some feedback, just to know if people are really listening. When you play those places where the music is used for atmosphere, you sometimes feel as if you are more or less serving the same functionality as the wallpaper. In fact, you sometimes feel as if you might as well have worn a shirt that matched the wallpaper for the ultimate blending in effect.

I personally had difficulty dealing with this. In fact, it is more distracting to me than if there are people paying a great deal of attention to my performance. Thoughts start to enter into my mind like: "What am I doing here?" and "What am I doing this for? These people couldn't care any less." It sometimes gets to the point where I almost forget the song's lyrics or the chords.

Prior to going solo, I used to play out as half of a musical duo with a keyboardist/singer. It wasn't much different from when I went solo other than the fact that the money was split down the middle. Sometimes, though, we would do things to test if the audience was paying attention. We had certain songs where we would change the lyrics and sometimes they were quite funny. So we would throw a funny line in just to see if someone would notice. When they didn't', we would look at each other and smile. So we sort of made a game of it.

That was one of the things we did to deal with the problem. Sometimes, though, we would go to take a break between our sets and someone would question us about the lyrics. It seems we were busted and didn't realize it. So in fact, someone was at least paying attention.

Now, as a solo act, you can do the same sort of thing, even if it's not as fun as sharing in the joke with a band mate. Although, when the members of the audience do catch you, they often smile and you actually manage to keep their attention afterwards. You also feel better knowing that they are listening and you feel more comfortable while you're performing.

There were even times when I was performing and didn't use that little trick, where I was still able to find out that people were listening when I thought they weren't. I would finish my set, take my break and go to the bar to get a drink. Sometimes someone would approach me and tell me that they liked the song by so and so and thought that I did it well. They mentioned the song and, in some cases, would mention the differences in the arrangement I had made to the song.

So here I would be thinking that nobody was listening or paying any attention but, in fact, they really were. They say that the greatest fear most people have is the fear of public speaking. I would assume that public performance may be a great fear as well. As a public performer, feeling as if nobody is listening may be discouraging to you. The point of this article is for people to remember that even if they think others are not listening, they may want to look at things from a new perspective. That is: Sometimes they really are listening. Just keep that in mind and do not despair.

Remember all those stories you heard as a kid? Like how grandpa had to walk two miles to school in three feet of snow because they didn't have school buses? Well the same could be said of the computer age. After all, I didn't have a computer when I was a kid. Now before you start playing the violin, I am not saying this for sympathy. There is actually a point to this article. The point is: Make the most of it.

In the old days, if we wanted to learn song lyrics, we had to listen to a tape over and over and write them down manually. Quite often, the guys who were doing the singing didn't enunciate like we wished they had. Now, all you have to do is run a search on the Internet for the lyrics to a particular song and, sho' nuff, it's on somebody's Website somewhere.

In the old days, if you wanted to make quality recordings of your original music, you had to pay for expensive studio time. Now you can actually create quality recordings on your PC, using a variety of affordable software.

In the old days, if you wanted to reach large numbers of people with your original music, you basically had to get some sort of a record deal. Now you can create your own website and upload your songs in MP3 format and make them available for download. Also, on the Internet, you have the potential of reaching people all over the world.

In the old days, if you wanted to distribute large quantities of your album, you had to fork out a lot of cash to have your records and tapes produced. Now you can burn them on a recordable CD ROM drive. You can even create your own CD inserts and labels.

In the old days, if you wanted to learn guitar chords and scales, you actually had to buy a book from your local music store. Now you can learn guitar chords and scales online for free.

In the old days, if you wanted to hag up fliers or posters to promote your shows you either had to do some sort of unsightly hand-written one or pay to have a professional quality one printed up at your local print shop. You can now do a decent quality one in a word processor program on your PC. then you can go to Staples to run up a bunch of copies.

In the old days, we had to buy music magazines to keep up on the latest gear. Now you can read reviews and articles online about various equipment, CD's and everything imaginable that's related to music or pursuing a career in music. You can even order music equipment and supplies online.

So to sum it up: The computer age has done a lot to make things easier for musicians. Make the most of it. I know that a lot of people only know enough to surf the Web and do very little else. If you are not very computer literate, then do something about it. There are night courses available everywhere. Learn to do your own website, make your own fliers, record and distribute your own music and whatever else you need to learn in order to maximize your potential for success. You know you won't be able to tell your grandchildren that you didn't have computers when you tried to make it in the music biz. Even if you did have to walk two miles through three feet of snow to get to your nearest Staples.

As a musician, you wonder if what you're doing has an impact on anything in the world. Sure, it's easy to say that you have if you've sold millions of CD's like the Beatles or Led Zeppelin. But what about your average musician who plays in front of small audiences and doesn't have that hit CD?

I've played places that have only had a crowd consisting of a handful of people and some of those places didn't provide the nicest atmosphere. I've played a place that had a dirt floor which was sloped downwards towards the area where the band would set up. When it rained, the water would run down towards where I was playing and there was a sump pump there to pump it out. Now I don't know what the actual definition is for a dive, but I'm pretty sure that place met all of the qualifications needed to classify it as one.

In the summer, I would quite often go outside my house to practice the music I played out at gigs. I'd be out there enjoying the weather as I would practice. Well, there was a girl that lived in the house across the street. She was around 12 years old. She was starting to have symptoms that indicated that there may have been something wrong with her heart. She went into the hospital for some testing and had died while they were running the tests.

Later, I had learned that she liked to listen to me as I would practice. Whenever she saw me out playing my guitar she would open up her bedroom window to hear me. I never knew. I was told that she enjoyed what I was playing and would even be teased by her sister, who would say: "Bob is playing. You better hurry up and go listen!" Most of you probably know how siblings like to tease.

So here I was just practicing for gigs where there were only a handful of people and I was thinking to myself that I wasn't really making any kind of impact anywhere. Yet, someone was listening every time I practiced. It apparently must have meant something to her. I never knew until her mother had mentioned it, after her passing. To think that what I was doing brought that much enjoyment into such a short life brings considerable satisfaction to me.

So when I get discouraged about certain things, I quite often think about that. Sure it is sad that a life could be cut so short. But what guarantees do we have in this life? We never really know when our last day will be. So the only thing we can do is enjoy it while it lasts and try to bring some happiness into the lives of others. That's all that really matters. Sometimes you bring happiness to others without even trying. As I have come to find out.

I personally believe that one should know the rules before they break them. Obviously it is not good to be overly analytical but it wouldn't be an entirely bad thing to look at music from an analytical perspective. In order to look at things from an analytical perspective, you need information to analyze. That's where music theory comes into play. So what I am about to present is not only a case for learning music theory but also what basic components of music theory you should, at a minimum, possess knowledge of.

It is important when you are playing along with a band that you have some idea as to what key you are playing in; especially if you are working on original material. You may be able to learn cover material from listening to a CD but it is also easier to pick up any song whether cover or original if you know music theory. Even more so if you know your way around the different keys.

There really isn't much of an excuse for not taking the time to obtain some knowledge in music theory. There are free sources of information all over the Internet. Probably the most basic, yet essential, information would be knowledge of the keys, chords and scales.

You should be familiar with the 12 major keys and their relative minors. Having an adequate understanding of the different keys will allow you to be able to transpose a song from one key into another. There are a number of times where I've transposed a song from one key to another simply because it was a better key for me to sing in. You may find that to be the case with a number of singers.

You should have an adequate chord vocabulary. There are also a few scales that every guitarist should be familiar with, like the major or diatonic scale as well as the harmonic minor scale and the pentatonic scale in both the major and minor modes.

If you don't want to spend the money on lessons or books, you should run an internet search for the information you want to obtain. I would first suggest you run a search for guitar chords listed by key. Check out a few sites to see which one offers the easiest approach for learning.

After you begin to learn the guitar chords by key, you should start learning scales. You should also run an internet search for guitar scales listed by key. You may be even more specific than that. For example: you can enter D harmonic minor and you will get a great number of results.

So, in conclusion, I hope that I have not only convinced you that learning music theory would be a valuable asset to your musicianship but that I have also set you off in the right direction towards doing so.

Most people just learn a song for the sake of learning a song or just simply because they like it. Well what if I was to tell you another reason for learning a song? How about learning a song for the purpose of learning a specific technique? I remember when I was first learning how to play guitar. I would see a guitarist from some famous group do a certain technique. I would sit up and say: "wow! I have got to learn how to do that!" So I'd pick up one of the band's albums and the sheet music for it, just so I could learn some of their music. I would learn a few of my favorite picks of their songs, usually the ones that had the techniques I wanted to incorporate into my own playing. Then of course something else would come along and I'd do the same.

I learned how to fingerpick fairly early on in my learning years. I started out with a song that used only a couple of fingers (thumb and index) and then I would learn a song that utilized three fingers, and so on. Then I saw Jimmy Page play with a pick and his fingers. Then I obviously had to learn how to do that. I've learned bits and pieces of numerous songs and it was usually for the purpose of learning how to do a specific technique. A lot of the songs I never ended up doing with any of the bands I was in. But the techniques were applied to some of our originals and even applied to some of the covers we did by other artists.

Most people think that the process of learning a piece of music for the sake of learning a technique is just a learning process that is usually applied by beginners. But even experienced guitarists can benefit from this approach, especially since there is always some innovation popping up in the guitar world. Like when Eddie Van Halen came out and did "Eruption." All of a sudden everyone wanted to do hammer-ons. When Randy Rhoads came out, everybody wanted to blend Classical guitar with hard rock. When Yngwie Malmsteen came out, everybody wanted to do lightning fast arpeggios. I'm not saying that someone should learn the trick of the day just to keep up with the trends but they should at least be willing to continue to improve themselves as musicians. To be a well-rounded player, one should learn multiple techniques. And this could be done one song at a time. So every song could potentially be an exercise.