Online Marketing...and Off

I passed a street performer while walking home for dinner this evening. Most people strumming an acoustic guitar on a bench don't have percussive elements, but this guy had a high-hat at one foot and a kick drum at the other. And he was a pretty good singer...a veritable one-man band. Unlike most other street musicians I've seen, he actually drew quite a crowd.

After he was done playing a few songs and much applause from the onlookers, I approached him and asked him if he had a CD for sale. He replied that he didn't, as he was traveling and had sold all of them. He asked where he might buy some CD-Rs so he could burn some more from his laptop, and I pointed him to a few places nearby.

He then mentioned that he had a MySpace page. He ripped off a scrap of paper and wrote down the URL using a thick magic marker, in fairly sloppy handwriting. Later, I managed to locate the page after a few attempts to determine the correct letters in his name.

If this guitar player wants people to find him, he should consider investing in cards that have his MySpace URL on them. Bundle them with the CD. Always be prepared, whenever you're going to start playing for people, to tell them who you are and where to find you.

Just because you have an online presence doesn't mean that the people you want to find your page are going to go out of their way to find it. You have to make yourself so easy to find that people don't even have to think twice about it.