READ
THIS!
All
the help and advice I have to offer is right here.
I love you all, but please don't call or email
me asking for free tech support. I just don't have
time, not even for that, "one
quick question."
Sorry.
I know that was unpleasant. Now on to the good stuff.
Giving out your
cellular or home phone number can be
a nightmare waiting to happen. You never know what lunatic
is going
to dig your business card out of a trash can and make your
life hell. Plus, people move, numbers change, and wouldn't
you hate to miss
out
on a
gig because
a booker
can't
find you? When it comes to your contact info, continuity is
vital.
With an answering
service, you can scatter your number to the wind and not
care who gets it. And it helps you create a professional
image by keeping your comedy calls separate from your day
job and personal calls.
AeroBeep offers
a simple but effective voice mail service for
about
$95 a year. You get your own number that never changes.
For a little extra, you can even get a toll-free number.
They've also added
a notification service that sends you an email whenever
you get a message. Now here's the super cool part ... pay
careful attention here ... instead of having them send
that email
notice to your regular email account, you can have it
sent to your cell phone. So that means whenever you get
a message,
you can be immediately paged. Then you can return the
call right away and you don't have to constantly call in
to
check your messages.
Before you call
AeroBeep to sign up for your answering service account,
follow these steps.
1. Find out what
the email address is for your cell phone. Your cell phone
has an email address all its own. NO REALLY! This is
NOT something extra for which you have to sign up or pay.
Most people don't realize that all cell phones these
days
include an email address that
goes straight to your phone as a "text" message
(also known as SMS). Usually the email address for your
phone is just
your phone number followed by a special domain.
| AT&T |
XXXXXXXXX@txt.att.net |
| T-Mobile |
XXXXXXXXX@tmomail.net
|
| Verizon |
XXXXXXXXX@vtext.com
|
Sprint PCS
|
XXXXXXXXX@messaging.sprintpcs.com |
If your
service isn't on this list, try checking this
page, or
call your cell company and ask them.
So to make this work, just substitute your phone number
for the XXXXXXXXX and that's the email address for your phone.
Note, if your cell plan doesn't include text messaging there
may be a charge for each message you receive this way, but
it's usually just pennies.
2. Once you've
figured out the email address for your cell phone, test
it by using your regular email account to send
a test email to your cell phone. When the test message
arrives on your phone as a "text" page, you know
you've hit pay dirt.
3. Call AeroBeep,
212-679-0000, and sign up for a voice mail account. Tell
them you want email
notification, and give them the email address
for your phone. If you request annual billing (instead
of monthly) you'll save a couple extra bucks and cut down
on hassle.
4. Voice Mail
as Attachments - If you have the notifications sent to
your regular email account instead of your cell phone,
you can get your voice messages as sound files attached
to the email. While this is a neat feature, I think getting
the notification on your cell phone is much more useful.
So you should have this feature deactivated if you're having
the email notification messages sent to your cell phone.
5. Now you've
got a number you can broadcast to the world and not worry
about missing calls or being harassed. So start spreadin'
it around.
6. TOLL SAVER
- AeroBeep voicemail has a clever feature that can let
you know instantly when you call whether there are new
messages
waiting. When you call your number, if the line picks
up immediately without ringing, it means you have messages
waiting. If you don't have messages waiting, it will ring
twice
before
picking up. So if you hear more than one ring you can
just hang up, because you know there aren't new messages
without
even having to log
in.
Clever,
eh?
BUILD
A WEB SITE
If you listen
to nothing else I say, listen to this ... build a web
site and start an email mailing list!
Building a web
site is probably the single most important thing you
can do for your career. I could try to explain everything
required to build a site. Or I could cop out and suggest
you take a web design
class. Or I could just introduce you to this
....
BandZoogle - www.bandzoogle.com
While this service
is marketed to musicians, it's also perfect for comics
and other performing artists. You want the Standard Plan
or the Pro Plan, not the Lite Plan. For about $12 a month
you get all this:
ORDER
BUSINESS CARDS
So now that you
have an answering service and a web site to brag
about, get some business cards already! Nothing says, "I'm an amateur
hack," like being in a comedy club and handing out
the card for
your day job in real estate. Don't do
it.
VistaPrint - www.vistaprint.com
The free cards
come with the VistaPrint logo on the back. But for just
a few bucks and a more professional image you can have
them printed without that logo. It's worth the investment.
GET
HEADSHOTS
OK, so this isn't
really a tech tip, but here it is anyway. Andrew
H. Walker shot all the fab photos of me you see on this
site.
He's awesome. He's not the cheapest,
but he's not outrageous either. And the quality of his
work is amazing. See for yourself.
www.hipstersandbombshells.com
WRITE
A BLOG
I find blogging
to be a
fantastic creative exercise. It's also a way to keep your
web site fresh and exercise your writing muscles. There
are many free blog services. Here are two I recommend.
ComedySoapbox.com
Blogger.com
The choice between
Comedy Soapbox and Blogger comes down to
publicity vs. features. A Soapbox blog gets quite a bit
of free publicity for being on a popular comedy web site.
Blogger offers
advanced features, beautifully designed templates
and lots of options for
customization. You can either have Blogger.com
host your blog for you, or you can have Blogger upload
your blogs to your own server via FTP.
One of my favorite features is the ability to blog from
my cell phone. I can
take a
photo, write a caption, and post from anywhere. Very
cool. Very spontaneous.
If you don't
want the features, go for the publicity. Here are a couple
examples.
Adam
Sank's Blog - published using Comedy Soapbox
Dale
Sorenson's Blog - published using Blogger.com
You may actually
decide to blog in more than one location. I have my regular
blog at dalesorenson.net. For some
additional exposure, when I write something I think
is appropriate for my
ComedySoapbox blog, I also copy and
paste the entry there, sometimes with minor edits.
WEB
STATS
Many free
web hosting and free blog hosting services don't offer
much in the way of reporting. If you're going to all the
effort of publishing this stuff, it's nice to know a little
something about the traffic you're getting and where it's
coming from.
StatCounter is
a cool service that offers compressive reports on
your web hits. It's so much more than one of those lame,
ugly counters. And, unlike other free stat services, they
don't slap hideous ads on your pages. You just sign up,
and they
give you a little bit of code to paste into your web site
or blog template and viola!
StatCounter is
free as long as your traffic is less than 9,000 page loads
a day.
FAX
SERVICE
Keeping a separate
fax line and
fax machine can easily costs hundreds of dollars a year.
So how's fax service for $12 a year sound?
FaxAway.com
For dirt cheap
you get your own fax line and unlimited fax receiving.
You don't need a fax machine or even a phone line. Your
faxes
are sent to you as email attachments. You can then print them
or just view them on screen. This is additionally cool
if you travel with a laptop, because then you can get your
faxes on the road.
Your fax
number will be in the 206 area code (Seattle), but
for a buck a month, who
cares?
You can also use
the FaxAway service to send faxes, via email, from your
computer, for about 15 cents a page. (Fax sending is not
included in the buck a month service. Only fax receiving.)
Sending faxes
from you laptop is also a way of having a printer on the
go. Say you're on the road and need to print
something, a script, a map, whatever. Fax it to your
hotel's fax machine, to your own attention. Faxaway turns
any fax machine into a printer for your computer. You can
even forward faxes you receive to other people as email,
or to a real fax machine to get a print out.
It's super cheap,
super slick and super cool.
VIBRATING
WATCHES AND TIMERS
LSSProducts.com sells vibrating
watches and timers. These are a super cool
way to help keep you on time and on track on stage. I use
this vibrating
timer that fits in my pocket.
SECURITY
If you use a
Mac, your computer is probably secure. If you use a Microsoft
Windows PC, you absolutely must take measures
to protect yourself from viruses, spyware and hacking.
Here's my
advice.
BOOK
RECOMENDATIONS
My little guide
is limited to the topic of technology. If you want general
career advice, here are my recommendations. These books
have helped me tremendously.
BUSINESS ADVICE
- Read this book or be an amateur forever. No really
... stop what you're doing right now and buy this book.
WRITING ADVICE
- You can blunder around in the dark, never really
understanding the structure of comedy, or you can buy
this book and become a genius writer.
PERFORMING
ADVICE - While this book covers other topics as well,
I most enjoyed its advice on the techniques of
crafting a successful performance on stage.
MORE WRITING
ADVICE - In addition to being an amazing talent, Jim
was one of my first comedy coaches. He's nothing short
of a genius. I'll always be grateful for the many incredible
insights he gave me. His book covers all areas of comedy
writing and is a must read.
CONCLUSION
So many comics
and artists I know, who have amazing talent, sabotage
themselves by not putting together some simple self promotion.
If
you've spent thousands of hours developing your
talent, why not spend just a few hours working on the business
side of your career? It makes all the difference.
Now go forth and
be successful.
Comments, suggestions,
corrections, success stories, nifty tips? I'd love to hear
from you.
Just
remember, please no requests for free tech support.
Sorry.
My contact info
is here.
