November 2019 – Page 2 – HELLO, I'M SETH WERKHEISER

The Rise of Bandcamp

Hard to believe that Bandcamp has only been around since 2008. That’s when I launched Noisecreep for AOL Music.

In this episode of All Songs Considered, CEO and co-founder Ethan Diamond says that when an artist succeeds on Bandcamp, Bandcamp succeeds. That philosophy has driven the company since 2008, with over $425 million paid directly to musicians and record labels.
The 2010s: The Rise Of Bandcamp on NPR

If you haven’t seen, I help run a project called Metal Bandcamp Gift Club, and was interviewed by Bandcamp.

The new 16″ MacBook Pro

My current MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017) does the job. Even with just a 128GB HD, I’ve made it work. Right now, today, I have no need for this new 16″ machine.

But in talking with a fellow Mac nerd today about this new 16″ MacBook Pro, who also is in the same boat, we sort of just agreed that this machine isn’t for us… today.

Back in 2003, when I got my first iBook – that machine blew me away, because it was fresh, and new. A whole new world, since I was coming over from the PC world.

It’s like… I haven’t needed a favorite band for awhile. When I was 10 or so, Guns N Roses released Appetite for Destruction, and that did the job. Not too many bands can have that effect over 40+ years.

So this new machine – it’s outstanding, priced right, looks amazing… someday.

Marketing Magic

From ‘The new dot com bubble is here: it’s called online advertising.’

“Bad methodology makes everyone happy,” said David Reiley, who used to head Yahoo’s economics team and is now working for streaming service Pandora. “It will make the publisher happy. It will make the person who bought the media happy. It will make the boss of the person who bought the media happy. It will make the ad agency happy. Everybody can brag that they had a very successful campaign.”

Marketers are often most successful at marketing their own marketing.

More than Positive

I love this so much, on how “just be positive” isn’t a complete strategy.

Exorbitant positive thinking is not the way that most people have solved issues. I’m more of a fan of being pragmatic. You hope for the best, but you work for what’s real. But a lot of people just hope for the best without working and that decreases your motivation because your brain thinks you’ve gotten done what it is that you’re constantly yearning to do. You have to envision things going positively but also envision the roadblocks that may be ahead—then you can mentally prepare yourself for how you are going to respond to that.
Joe Holder

Visualize the successes, and the failures, the let downs, and how you’ll bounce back. Apart from that, it’s taking a damn second to even visualize anything, without me looking at my phone, watching a video, or mindlessly scrolling through Instagram which is, oddly enough, where I discovered Joe.

Some Branding Resources

Illustrator Ben O’Brien recently asked the Twitter-verse for some good branding resources, and since I love stuff like that, but sort of lose focus with everything on Twitter, I figured I’d put them somewhere for future reading, and maybe you’ll enjoy them, too.

https://identitydesigned.com/
https://www.letstalkbranding.be/
http://www.finien.com/
https://www.typographicposters.com/posters?r=0&g=0&b=0
https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/
https://www.marksandmaker.com/journal
https://theelasticbrand.com/ (podcast)

Get Rejected, but Keep Moving

Great quote from ‘Publishers will reject your best ideas.’

All this to say If you’re going to make books, you’ll need to embrace rejection or at least get used to it. Everyone goes through it. Neither your first book nor your tenth are immune. Rejection in publishing is relentless, but then out of nowhere someone gets what you’re trying to do and when you least expect it… bam, you’ve got a book.
Christopher Silas Neal

I feel like you could replace books with a lot of things, notably JOBS, and it’d still work. I recently got work from out of the blue, when I least expected it.

(via Andy J Pizza)

The Myth of Willpower

Came across this response to “Can Brain Science Help Us Break Bad Habits?” over at the New Yorker.

The biggest myth we’ve been sold is that success is due simply to willpower.
Joe Holder’s Instagram Story

This aligns with James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits.” It’s not about saying “I can’t smoke,” it’s about “I am a person who doesn’t smoke.” Building systems, from the basic beliefs and creating new habits, is core, not just the white-knuckled facade of “willpower.”

It’s easier for me these days to avoid mindlessly snacking on junk food because of a belief. I no longer buy bags of Oreo’s or chips at the grocery store because I am a runner. That’s not to say I don’t snack, or that runners CAN’T eat those things, but I have a bad habit of buying those things then eating the whole bag in a day.

So my plan to not devour a bag of Oreo’s in a day is not WILLPOWER.

It’s belief, identity. Those things keep me from putting those items in my grocery cart nine times out of 10.

Less Waste

In the world of running there’s a lot of waste. Lots of plastic water bottles, papers, “swag” that is generally garbage, styrofoam, and that’s just what the race provides.

One of the other things is waste from the food products we bring along. The gels, and “powerbar” types of foods. Single serving food items wrapped in plastic that usually just ends up in the garbage.

My buddy Jesse (one of the key people who inspired me to start running) has started making his own foods for running, and storing them in re-usable food pouches, which you can find on Amazon and probably elsewhere.

Sure, it’s a drop in the ocean as far as waste, but it’s something, and I think it’s awesome. You should try it out!

Do It Yourself

The suits saw blogs as a cheap and easy means to display ads. Every site started looking the same, to keep things cheap, and the writing had to get quicker, because ad rates kept falling.

All that to say – do it yourself.

Buy a domain name, start a site on WordPress.com, and now you’ve got a site. The site is the same as any Deadspin or Gawker or any other beloved site you used to enjoy but was destroyed by the dudes in sport coats. It’s the same in that there’s a URL that anyone on the planet can access using a browser, and there’s words on a screen for them to read.

Sure, the economics have changed, but the demand has not gone away. The trick is to make something that people are willing to support with their dollars. That means “same old same old” won’t cut it.

Niche the fuck down and find an audience that lusts for what you do. Find other creative people who crave the same thing and ask them to write for your site.

HOW WILL IT MAKE MONEY is putting the cart before the horse. Make something today, when no one is looking, when you only get 35 visits a day. Do it over and over again, for a year, or two. Build a brand, gain trust.

The reason we’re in this mess is because the entire publishing platform was built on display ads that people ignore (or blog), and inflated job titles like VP OF SECONDARY DESIGN METRICS.

Remove the garbage ads (be nice to your readers), and the dead weight, and suddenly a website doesn’t need to make $45,000/minute to keep the checks from bouncing.

Build it yourself, on an independent platform (like WordPress), and own your work.

Are Websites Even Relevant Anymore?

You buy your concert tickets through a website, and just about every article you read via social media lives on a website, so yes. Yes you do.

Don’t let the lack of LIKES or COMMENTS or even traffic sway you.

“Facebook, Twitter and other companies use methods similar to the gambling industry to keep users on their sites,” said Natasha Schüll, the author of Addiction by Design, which reported how slot machines and other systems are designed to lock users into a cycle of addiction. “In the online economy, revenue is a function of continuous consumer attention – which is measured in clicks and time spent.”
Social media copies gambling methods ‘to create psychological cravings’

We have been conditioned since we abandoned our blogs that ENGAGEMENT is key. That public, viewable metrics are king!

Fuck that.

Like any good practice, it takes time to see results. If you’re running, taking photos, anything – it might take years. Even a decade.

Sure, you can get the quick jolt by writing something witty on social media and it gets 35 likes. Or, head down, write, create, craft on your own space (like this website), and five years later you have a giant body of work on display.