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You Can Be a Money-Making Musician in No Time!

Musicians who want to make money with their music need to think about a few more things than just great riffs and solos - they need to take care of the business side of the music business, too. Here is a quick list of the most important things you can do to take your music career to the next level. (Solo artists can replace the word "band" with "yourself") How To Market Your Band:

#1. Think Like a Marketer. Too often musicians get all consumed with the music side of the business and pay little or no attention to the business side. Remember, it's called the music business, so if you want to be able to make money doing it, you need to learn to market your band. Also, if you're the one watching what's going on, there's less chance of sharks ripping you off.

#2. Produce a Press Kit For Yourself. Band promotion starts with a good press kit. This can be a physical folder with the band's photo, member bios, business cards and demo CD, or an online version that you can send via email. Get both if you can afford it. Start with the "e" version first.

#3. Get a Web Presence. These days to promote your band, you simply have to be online. You should have your own web site, as well as be on other band marketing sites, such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. Your own site will be where you can keep in touch with fans ad go into greater detail, like music style, genre etc.. The marketing sites are simply to get your band in front of more people and should always have some of your song samples and a links back to your own site.

#4 Build a Contact List of Your Fans. At least get their email, full address is better. Once you have the list, keep in touch with them constantly, telling them what you're doing , where you're playing and how much you appreciate them. A good way to collect and manage a fan base is by using Constant Contact. It is an email management tool that also has pre-made templates you can use to send newsletters and email promotions to your fans.

#5 Have Product to Sell to Your Fans. At a minimum have some of your recorded music to sell either on CDs or flash drives. You should also get T-shirts, hats and sweatshirts made that you can sell at your gigs and on your web site. You can set up an online retail store selling stuff with your band's logo on it at cafpress.com. The best part is, no set up fee!

Most musicians fail to support themselves, not because of a lack of talent, but from a lack of knowing what to do. Don't let that happen to you! Get FREE tips, tricks and techniques the pros use, here: http://www.HowToPromoteYourBand.com

A hack guitarist himself, Brian Woeller now prefers to work behind the scenes, helping to promote musicians with real talent. His eBook, "How To Promote Your Band To Rock Star Status" (http://www.HowToPromoteYourBand.com) will jump start your music career and get you in the spotlight, fast.

AP - Transition officials call it Obama 2.0 - an ambitious effort to transform the president-elect's vast Web operation and database of supporters into a modern new tool to accomplish his goals in the White House. If it works, the new president could have an unprecedented ability to appeal for help from millions of Americans who already favor his ideas, bypassing the news media to pressure Congress.

You may be familiar with the new product from Nintendo called WiiWare. It is the new channel called the WiiWare Shop Channel. And it is where you can buy games for Wii points currency. You can get downloadable games there, and not just legacy games, but new releases.

While there is nothing groundbreaking about this Nintendo has taken a developer friendly stance on the whole WiiWare concept and are going to be making Software Developer Kit available to small developers so they can create games that will be made available on the official WiiWare channel.

This isn't aimed at the guy who wants to make his own games and share them with friends. It is more aimed at serious little developers that have some skill, and big, creative ideas. Nintendo has gone on record as saying the developer kit will cost between two and ten thousand dollars so that leaves most people just wanting to make a game out. But it really does open the doors to programmers, developers, and designers that really want to make a go of it.

I think this is a really good move on the part of Nintendo because it really will give creative start-ups a chance at fame and fortune. If you have a really good idea and the drive to see it through you could practically get overnight success with this. And by overnight success I mean after you put in the long months or a year or more developing your idea! But once it hit the Wii Channel, if it is really good, it could take off.

Nintendo has found a balance with this new developer kit. They are a worldwide name brand and they need to control the quality of the content that the produce and publish, yet they still want to reach into creative minds and find the next Donkey Kong. It's a great philosophy because it is pretty much what happened to them when Shigeru Miyamoto created Donkey Kong and that ever famous Mario.

If you are serious about the whole concept of making a video game with the Wii they do have an application process that spells out a lot of stuff including non disclosure agreements, costs, and what type of developers they are looking for. You can learn more about it on their WarioWorld website. You will also have to get your game rated by the ESRB which is a process in itself.

If you have the drive and the creative ideas to launch yourself into the real world of video game making while still maintaining a small budget the WiiWare developer kit might be the way to go. It is going to the take the world of game making out of solely the hands of the big million dollar companies and put a little bit of it in the hands of the little guy with a big idea who does it all out of his garage and creates the next wave of game.

Interested in Making Video Games? Make-Video-Games.com - Creative resources for making video games for free

If you like creative projects check out the authors project site. Make catapults, terrariums, dioramas and all sorts of other great projects: StormTheCastle.com - Creativity with an Edge

AP - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants Congress to support a financial bailout for the troubled U.S. auto industry, which is suffering under the weight of poor sales, tight credit and a sputtering economy.