Another day at the office...

“If you run your own show, then you can expect to eat most of the shit.”

Okay, I made that up (having said it once), but it certainly seems to be true. No matter how much flash, effort, and skill you put into networking and selling yourself, there’s one thing I’ve learned: it takes time. En masse.

For years, myself—and many close to me—have worked as independent artists. I have slogged away at promoting, networking, marketing and selling (Anorak, Dancing Cock Brothers, Montreal Hearts, Godfrey, etc.) without getting paid a sou. Of course, there is some revenue when people take your classes, come to your shows or contract you for work. But, for the most part, you are plugging away at something, and constantly asking yourself “Is this ACTUALLY doing ANYTHING?”

The answer is, “Who knows for certain?” Notwithstanding, it seems pretty important these days to have a series of inter-connected sources of digital information if you want people to see your stuff.

I use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Vimeo, Youtube, Yahoo, Google+ and many, many other sites (including my own) to try and ensure a goodly amount of cross-traffic and viewership. But it is slow in the coming.

And man, oh man, does it take time.

Typical “time” photo, shamelessly used to improve viewership experience

It’s not as simple as contacting everyone in the known “digiverse” and getting them to Like your work. People in webworld have remarkably little patience, and are highly unlikely to sign on to you, unless you’re already famous, or if you have a quirky gimmick (like the Twitter user who created Angelina Jolie’s right leg as a Tweeter)

Otherwise, you are pounding the silicon pavement, eking out a Friend here, a Like there, an @ in-between.

Only with time does thine network grow: loads of it.

I guess that’s the price to pay for running your own show.