Fuzz music site goes out of business

Here's an email I received today from Fuzz, a music sharing site like MySpace, Last.fm, SoundClick, etc.


[QUOTE]



Dear Fuzz User:

Sadly, we are contacting you to announce that Fuzz.com is shutting down on February 13, 2009. Between now and then you may want to take the opportunity to post your forwarding information to fellow Fuzz users.

It was with a heavy heart that we finally made the decision to turn off the lights, but because of increasing operating costs and flat revenues it simply no longer makes sense for us to keep Fuzz.com running.

We offer our heartfelt thanks for being a part of it, and we'd like to give a special added thanks our avid, core users -- true music fans who made Fuzz their home-base, and created a real sense of community.

Please note that once the site is shut down on February 13, 2009, the band and user accounts, and all other content on Fuzz.com, will no longer be accessible. For artists who have used the site to sell music, we plan to make a final payout within 60 days of the shut down.


Here are some thoughts on other music resources you might check out:

____

For FANS looking to show off their musical prowess and DJ skills, we hope you will check out our sister site Blip.fm
____

For FANS looking for concert and touring information about their favorite artists, check out JamBase.com
____

For BANDS looking for professional-grade business tools, check out Nimbit.

"Nimbit is the industry's leading direct-to-fan sales and distribution platform and we whole-heartedly embrace the principals of the Fuzz Manifesto. We are singularly focused on being the best at one thing - helping you make more money by selling more of your music and products in more places. We are psyched to partner with Fuzz to offer you the best possible way to market, sell and distribute your music and merchandise.

Whether fans discover you online, we enable you to deliver great product to those fans through the best possible shopping experience and give you tools to continue serving your customers throughout your entire career.

How do we do that? Simple. We offer the most powerful music commerce solution available with nimbitOMT and nimbitSkin, enabling you to turn your Myspace page, official site or any other sites you have into active selling storefonts. We provide integrated fulfillment of any product from CDs to MP3s, merchandise and tickets, direct to your fans.

We back that all up with a complete set of services to help you succeed - from marketing programs to on-demand manufacturing. It's simply the best end-to-end solution for selling directly to your fans, making them happy devoted customers and making you more money.

Want to get your music out to popular eTailers like iTunes and Rhapsody? We do that too.

The cost is ridiculously low, starting at FREE, and we have plans to fit every artist at every stage of development. Come check us out and let us help you get started. We are founded by artists and technologists that are dedicated to your success and we look forward to meeting you."


Follow this link

[link deleted]

to learn more and start selling more.




Sincerely,

The Fuzz Team


[END QUOTE]

creative MySpace music artist bios 5

Whether you're a music band or any other business, your Bio or About Me page is extremely important. Interesting is always better than boring. But how do you come up with an interesting self-promoting paragraph or two?

Bands have far more freedom for creativity than non-entertainment businesses. But even the most sober and staid business enterprise can learn from their wilder colleagues.

A band can be silly and even totally mystifying and confusing, because that would be a relief from typical self-promoting band bios.

Who really wants to read another:

"I've been strumming guitar since I was 3 months old, and wrote my first rock opera a few days later. Our lyrics are meaningful and you can easily hum along with the melodies. We are the hardest rocking crew on earth. Nobody is as cool as us. We love our fans. blah blah blah" ????


Anyway, maybe you can glean a few insights by examining the following bios of MySpace music artists. Go here for the: other posts in this series.





The Walter Kronkite Trio

Introducing..The Walter KronKite Trio

This Site and Music are dedicated, in Reverence, to the great, Walter Cronkite. The greatest TV personality/news commentator ever.

He was a man's man, and a Voice of Authority, that is respected by all who have followed him. When I was young, and when he was on TV, if he had said to 'sit down, and shut up' I would have done so, with no words back.

All of Walter's materials used for this project were found on Youtube, and you can go there and see this great man in action.

Walter is alive and well and still a great influence for all generations. We are proud to serve under his Influence. -WKT










Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen (b. September 21, 1934 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) represents the quintessential marriage of extraordinary artistry and sharp, poignant intellect. Known primarily as a folk singer/songwriter, Cohen is equally a brilliant poet and novelist compared to the likes of James Joyce or Henry Miller.

It was not until 1967, at which time Cohen was well in his thirties, that he released his debut album, The Songs of Leonard Cohen; by this time he was an internationally celebrated writer, and so it is that same literary base which elevates Cohen’s musical work to the heights of genius.

Including such songs as “Suzanne,” “Sisters of Mercy” and “So Long, Marianne,” the album is a melancholy masterpiece of insight and observation. His next album, the dark and minimalist Songs from a Room, was released in 1969 and includes such powerful songs as the sparse classic “Bird on the Wire” and the anti-war “The Story of Isaac.”

The 1970s was another highly prolific decade for Cohen, with the release of albums such as Songs of Love and Hate (1971,) Live Songs (1973,) and, after a tour of Israeli army bases during the Yom Kippur War, New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974,) Death of a Ladies’ Man (1977,) and Recent Songs (1979.)

In 1984, Cohen released the critically acclaimed Various Positions, a more modern-sounding collection of songs prominently featuring vocalist Jennifer Warnes and including the masterpiece “Hallelujah,” later famously covered by Jeff Buckley. Cohen spent a considerable amount of the 1990s in deep seclusion at a Zen Buddhist retreat in California, eventually becoming ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk under the name Jikjan.

After leaving the retreat in 1999, he began collaborating with singer/songwriter Sharon Robinson for 2001’s Ten New Songs, and in 2004 released the experimental and far less somber Dear Heather, his first collaboration with jazz singer/songwriter Anjani Thomas.

Leonard Cohen – the singer/songwriter, poet, novelist and thinker – stands among the “highest and most influential echelon of songwriters,” combining a dark, explicit and bitterly ironical tone with lush and deeply romantic sensuality to discuss, like none other, such themes as love, religion, isolation, sexuality, death and beauty. For this reason Leonard Cohen remains one of the most fascinating artistic figures of our times.












Chemlab

Throughout the 90s, CHEMLAB blazed a fearsome trail through the Indie music scene, alternately setting then breaking every convention of driving Machine Rock. Their music exploits the chaos found when the oil-slick of digital dance grooves meets the sonic, churning water of the guitar's organic roar.

CHEMLABs first full album, Burn Out At The Hydrogen Bar was written in the fuse burned, midi-ghettos of NYC by superuncool co-conspirators Jared Louche and Dylan More with the help of lost gutter saints Mark Kermanj, Steve "Fly" Watson and Ned Wahl.

Recorded in 1992 at Chicago Trax studio, Burn Out quickly became the Machine Rock standard against which future records have been measured. Forged of tense, sample-rich programming, drenched in vicious, guitar roar and venting lyrics about a surreal, damaged proto-future, it unleashed a tsunami of rave reviews from magazines as varied as Alternative Press, Raygun, Keyboard and Rolling Stone.

The record torched through the charts, trashed dance floors and shoved the band out on endless tours supporting Nine Inch Nails, White Zombie, Skrew and many others. After countless line-up changes and finally joined by rail-gun drummer Servo, CHEMLABs next album, East Side Militia, was written and recorded with old friends William Tucker (Ministry, Foetus) and touring guitarists Geno Lenardo (pre-Filter) and Krayge Tyler ( Virus 23 and before that Crazytown digression).

East Side capitalised on the power of Burn Out, four-wheeling CHEMLABs explosive sound through uncharted terrain that mixed hammering dance-rock songs with disturbing ambient nightmares.

Again the band received glowing press reviews, and again the record confounded all expectations. CHEMLAB took their gasoline riot shows on the road once more, touring with KMFDM, GWAR, Sister Machine Gun, 16 Volt and more. Tireless gigging, avalanches of critical acclaim, extensive radio play and a reputation for pushing the envelope of the unexpected has built CHEMLAB a broad and ferociously loyal fan base around the world.

The last few years have seen CHEMLAB frontman Jared Louche release a solo record from his decadent new base in London (the critically acclaimed Covergirl, produced by Martin Atkins), collaborate with electro-sex-noise project h3llb3nt (feat. members of CHEMLAB, 16 Volt, Haloblack/X-Lover, Thrill Kill Kult), spread his solo performance smear all over London, the UK and Europe, and tour the US many times with Pigface.

Now suited, rebooted and mutated, CHEMLAB explodes onto the scene once more with their Invisible Records monsterpiece Oxidizer, offering up a musical scornocopia that drags Machine Rock deep into the future. Recorded with Jason Novak and Jamie Duffy (Acumen Nation) and long-time CHEMLAB collaborator FJ (the Aggression), Oxidizer is the perfect synthesis between the violence of Burn Out and the groove of East Side, all of it channelled through a fractured T-Rex filter.

The album features long-time CHEMLAB touring guitarist Greg Lucas, who adds a rich Stooges sound to the twisted, motorik programming. Oxidizer was produced by Jared Louche, Jason Novak and Julian Beeston (Nitzer Ebb, Cyber-Tec, Pigface etc).

From the vicious Industrial slam of Binary Nation to the destructo-metal chunk of Monkey God, from the outer-spaced sadness of Megahurts to the lipstick-smeared Glam-Punk of Scornocopia, Oxidizer packs a fistful of sharp hooks, swaggering attitude and Machine Rock glory that will resonate long after the latest flavor-of-the-month bands have whimpered into obscurity.

Since the dead-heat summer of 2005 CHEMLAB has resurfaced as a touring entity as well. With the tireless help and sweat of genius programmer, multi-instrumentalist Gabriel from ebm atmosphere-generator mindFIELD (www.mindFIELD.org and also the ever-viral www.myspace.com/mindfieldebm), the band have been playing select "hit-it-and-quit-it" shows around the country with a fully rewired and ever-mutating line-up.

Plans are in the ethers for tours both around the US as well as the rest of the globe, so don't touch that dial. We're not done fucking with your little universe yet!











The Pink Snowflakes

Indie kids have been psych rocking like its 1969 for the better part of a decade now, so the breathless hype surrounding head-trippy Portland youngsters the Pink Snowflakes is a bit facile. But unlike many of their indulgent brethren, the Pink Snowflakes conjure the visceral rock punch and the melodicism of the original psychedelic movement in a way that bellies their age.

As with neopsychedelia, the prevailing attitude is far more inspired by bad acid trips than the summer of love, but the band's work stands alone for its originality and spirit, instead of seeming like some precocious hipster pastiche. They're definitely a band to watch this year. (PD)











Blackhouse



ARISE BLACKHOUSE YOUTH


For 24 years I have been preaching to the world to embrace the good. My music and words have annointed the ears and minds of a new generation of global citizens. That's this generation! Not everyone has been so keen about my mission. Some have said that I was too preachy... or not preachy enough... too righteous.... and even too wicked.

Some have implied that I am not worthy. Some have called me blasphemous. I have been blacklisted for "being a Christian". I have been blacklisted for "being evil". Some have even called me a fake. It's time to set the record straight.

BLACKHOUSE is an art project. I am an artist. I create aural visions for your ears so that you may create the visual in your head. I am also a storyteller.

BLACKHOUSE is the story of Life. My Life. Our Lives. We are all in this together... like it or not. And it's not just art. A true artist is a philosopher, an entertainer... a pundit and a motivator.

I created BLACKHOUSE in 1984 as an answer. A rebuttal. A retaliation against a disturbing trend that I recognized to be destructive. I created BLACKHOUSE to combat a culture : The Lovers Of Death.

The lovers of death are all around us. Never before have I witnessed such evil. Look at the wars, the torture and the worship of hate and pain. And it gets much worse... we have so-called Christians advocating murder, defending torture and pushing the world towards global destruction in "the name of The Rapture".

It's not just the radical wing of the Christian Right either, we have the Zionists to thank... and all the others who worship death instead of Life. These misguided death lovers consider themselves to be good! They believe that by killing and hurting others that God will return to claim His people - them! To this I say:

ARISE BLACKHOUSE YOUTH

My fans come from many different backgrounds. Some are Christian, some are atheist, some are satanists I am sure. Some are Muslims and some just don't feel right being put into a rigidly defined doctrine. The thing that brings all of these people together is that we wish for the good. We embrace the moment. We care for others and have feelings about what is right and what is wrong. We worship life and all that it brings us. We are The Lovers Of Life.

EVERY DAY there is a war going on between The Lovers Of Life and the death lovers. It's all around us... day in... day out. By the time you wake up, the opposite side has advanced and done something negative.

They attack the environment by ruining our air and water. They destroy habitat and exterminate animals. They poison our crops with genetically modified organisms. They wage wars based on lies to cover their greed. They not only murder, they enslave. They kill - day in and day out, and they do it in the name of "freedom", "democracy", "family values" and even in the name of God.

ARISE BLACKHOUSE YOUTH

Our time is now. The time has come to put your foot down and say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done. Not only are we tired of the evil ones using the name of God to promote their illegitimate acts, we are tired of the acts themselves! We are sick and tired of The Lovers Of Death! So we need to rise up and make our mark NOW! No... I am not talking about violence. I am talking about US making the world a better place.

EVERY DAY.... every time you can.... do something GOOD. Do something that you know is good. Help somebody. Donate. Believe! Talk to people about how you feel. Inject feelings into our numb planet. We have been far too casual in our efforts, watching from the sidelines, and the enemy has made new ground. It's time to get that ground back. We all know it is better to be good than evil. So let that goodness shine from your heart! You know what to do.

And in order to gain our ground, we need to do IT more. Do two great things a day.... three..... four! Don't be afraid of our enemy! They fear us more than we fear them. THAT is why it has gotten so bad! We allowed it! No more. NO MORE! You know what to do:

BE GOOD!










Not From This World


After 1000 and 1 dangers we braved, moult dragons we kicked down, warriors and tumultuous torrents we came across, we are still alive and happy to present "debirth" our first little one. It has its faults and its few qualities (we are hoping at least).

It represents us and summarizes our history, a year and a half spent with you too. It deserves at least a certain merit, it is free! Be careful if you decide to print the album front and back pics, it could ruin your ink cartridges. We are grateful in advance to those who would give and send us a little feedback whatsoever.

Another download is still planned for April 5th: a compilation of all the Kalimbas. There is still 3 months and a few days left to lay a superb track if you want to be on the playlist. Boosted by the announcement, some groups have sent us beautiful eggs in express, we are thankful to them.











Giraffes? Giraffes!



.... Ken and Joe grew up in Massachusetts.

Even though they had never met, they both enjoyed the same amusement park. They both liked a ride called the Rotor. You would stand inside the Rotor and it would spin and you would stick to the wall and the floor would drop.

Joe once saw someone puke on the Rotor and it stuck to their face until the ride slowed down. Other names for the Rotor are the Gravitron, the Twister, the Vortex, the Turkish Twist and the Starship 2000. Have you ever seen The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups)?

Ken has never seen anyone puke on the Rotor.

Joe and Ken first met while going to college in New Hampshire. Ken studied music, while Joe studied literature.

They drank coffee and talked about the theory that whales were once sea creatures and they evolved into wolf-like creatures that ran on land, but they didn't like it so they evolved back into sea creatures and eventually became huge fucking whales.

They formed a band.

They can both play guitar and drums, but in GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES! Joe taps and plucks while Ken taps and hits.

Ken and Joe and their very nice and very attractive girlfriends moved to Santa Cruz, California. They like it there. It's nice outside.

GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES! released their debut album "SUPERBASS!!!! (black death greatest hits vol. 1)" in December 2005.

They've played some fun shows with HELLA, ERASE ERRATA, MAKE BELIEVE, THE ADVANTAGE, THALIA ZEDEK, ECSTATIC SUNSHINE, GROWING, MAJOR STARS, SHOPLIFTING and billions of other really great bands.

LOVES IN HEAT records released the new GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES! album "More Skin With Milk-Mouth" on December 8th, 2007.

Proust in a Field pleases some

Proust in a Field of Plastic Flowers is the new musical project from my media lab.

http://myspace.com/proustinafield


Proust in a Field of Plastic Flowers blends exotic instrumentation and fragmented techno beats with deconstructed ambient flowings through decoupaged tapestries of coincidental sound elaborations.

It is the music/non-music stylings of Maximalist Abstractionism.







Some have not flinched at the extreme dreamy opacity of it all...



[QUOTES from Proust in a Field's
MySpace Music COMMENTS]





Thanks for the connection and happy that Artforum proved to be such a successful location point :-)

Best wishes

Scanner

www. scannerdot. com

-- Robin Rimbaud / Scanner







in a crazy world of despair it is such a pleasure to find such a oasis of abstractness ...music indeed is another world to be visited and with our magic carpet it is a pleasure to visit yours .. marvelous stuff ...sending you much inspiration and respect

cheers !

-- Magna-Fi







I really like your scapes. Incredibly trippy and beautiful.


--Paneye






More experimental you die.


-- Hubert Michel








I like your moniker that reminds me of that little piece of silicon madeleine cookie which I used to digest on Sunday mornings at Combray

-- Philippe Petit








ahh Proust...I am never far from your page these days :D
hope you are well and happy and keeping up the creativity :D
just dropping by to wish you love, peace and luck in 2009!
if the moment takes you there, then stop by my page and have a listen...new musica is available for your sonic experience...and a large saucer of cream awaits you...

MEOW!
x

-- Catnip & Claws









find flowers blooming blindingly plastic or otherwise...

-- Singing Masks







Interesting musical project.
Good luck with everything.

-- Ricardo de Armas







An opportunity to visit some of the more complex sonic societies... your player contains some rather extreme wonderlands, but to be a stranger here is certainly enjoyable.

-- Placement








love the soundscapes, i actually find it very likeable but i am an aural pervert!
to stoned to read all the biog (or does that help?) but sure i will have weird dreams tonight...
:)

--ObeliskDisko





its as if you were indeed proust in a plastic field of flowers, but with pyschic goggles and magna-radar-vision teleporting into my musical invention room and you knew...you just knew I was indeed making sound formations!!!

Lovely things a-going on here...much love and luck in 2009

Peace and huge wild sprigs of catnip...:D

please visit again soon...x



-- Catnip & Claws








Nice to meet you.

Nice music!

-- Claudio Gabriele







very cool! I like! lots happening on this trip!

-- World Ambient Symphony






Lovely stuff...thanks for the add.

...keep on pulsating...


-- Deuteronomy Jones







very good and inventive sounds.


-- Farang




Hi,

thanks for finding and kind interest -

impressive sounds and music - respect!

"Indessen verschwindet die Fee, je mehr wir mit der wirklichen Person, der jener Name entspricht, in Berührung kommen, denn nun fängt er diese selbst widerzuspiegeln an, sie aber hat nichts mehr von der Fee; die Fee kann wieder erstehen, wenn wir zu der Person Abstand gewonnen haben; bleiben wir ihr aber nahe, so stirbt endgültig die Fee,..."

(Die Welt der Guermantes I)

Best greetings and wishes for the new year 2009

from Hamburg

Udo


-- Ongaku-hh









Happy new year.
the surrealistics sound are connecting us.
Greetings from Madrid.

-- La Familia Ativica







i want yr records,make some cd's ,very "deep" music


--Freeman Gheenga







Really cool music here =D Original and creative... Like it a lot.
Welcome in the Kingdom of Dreams,
♫ Evi & Umi ♪


-- Not From This World







Wouaaa THANKS!!!
=D

I saw your other projects (is that right, the four icons on the top list?)... I will come back soon to listen to all that.

Hugs,
Evi... with Umi


--Not From This World







You have great music here.."REALY"...


-- Ambient Fabric







I listened to this for 18 minutes. ♥


-- The Lisps








i really like your sonic patchwork.

-- A Quiet Monday









You are interesting! Very happy 2009 to you!


-- Pieter Burger

11 revolutionary blog definitions

"to blog" = Your avatared life of re-moldings per socnet intermingling of post-tronic mindwaves, a non-arguable dismixing of focus blobs.



"social networking" = compu-telepathic inscribing of one mind within the dark interior of another mind via digital personality squaloring.



"blog post" = lengthy exercise in prolix transparency expressed in random thoughts vividly transposed to the web by a person who can't write.



"blog scorching" = to furiously, with black smoke shooting out your ears, use admin privilege to delete all your posts from another blog.



"anti-blog blogging" (Amanda Chapeling) = using a blog & Twitter account to express misanthropic fascist rage at blogospheric triumphalism.




"blogospheric triumphalism" = brashly trumpeting the rise of individual unedited voice embodied in the blog revolution of easy web content.



"blogocombat" = sincere debate with others, via blog comments and Twitter messages, that while remaining passionate and intense, seeks self expression and testing an opinion in conflict with its opposite, but does not seek to harm or disgrace another person.



"Twitter" = the art of expressing self, communicating ideas, sharing links, and verbally interacting with others in sporadic bursts of knee-jerk micro-content (140 character limit per message).



"social network" = online association of users of a social enabling software as an oasis of pure and sincere sharing and friendly communication, mercifully free from the invasive interuptive exploits of commercial advertising messages.




"social netiquette" = consenus, generally universal, but often unspoken, rudimentary rules for online behavior within the confines of a social network.




"social media marketing" =

(1.) worst sense: exploiting a social network by pretending to be a typical non-commercial user, or by using the socnet for selfish purposes, e.g., constant hypeing of products or repetitious linking to a business blog or ecommerce site.

(2.) best sense: becoming one with the social network by contributing altruistic content, links to unassociated sites, and personal feelings and opinions, thus gaining credibility and popularity, then occasionally promoting a product or blog post that is of real benefit and relevance to some members of the social network.

9 business card tips

Here are a few pointers on business card design and content. It's not an exhaustive list, just some things to keep in mind when you order new business cards.

Cheap business cards are a scam. They tend to be printed with low grade ink on flimsy thin card stock. You need to present yourself as a professional or competent person. Don't buy business cards that are cheap and have the printing company's name on the back of them.



(1) Layout: landscape vs. portrait.

Be sure to specify horizontal (landscape) vs. vertical (portrait) layout. The most common is horizontal, so I recommend following this standard. It will be easier to deal with your card when it faces the same direction as the vast majority of other cards.




(2) PDF to printer.

After you create the text and image for your business card, make a PDF of the file and send that as an email attachment to the printer. This will save you a "set up" charge.




(3) Front of Card Content: include all that's applicable from the list below...

* corporate logo

* personal photo (smile, appropriate dress)

* photo of, or illustration that symbolizes, what you sell or provide

* full name

* your title, slogan, tagline or a descriptive sentence about what you do

* company name

* street address

* land line phone number

* mobile phone number

* fax number

* email address

* LinkedIn URL

* Facebook URL

* blog URL

* website URL

*business hours/days.

I don't think you should jam too much information or too many images on a business card. Simple and clean is better than complex and confusing. Listing the 15 types of construction you do is probably overkill. List a few general areas, or specialty niches, and leave it at that.

An exception might be businesses where customers have trouble understanding what your specific skill or service is, or where you need to clear up common misperceptions, or need to clarify and differentiate yourself from other specialties.

Use multiple titles if necessary, don't think you have to sum up your skills in just one title.

For example, I recently decided to give myself three (3) title on my latest business card:

* Internet Marketing Specialist
* Web Content Developer
* Blog Strategist

UPDATE (Nov. 2009) -
For revised business cards,
I changed this list to:

* Business Writer
* Web Content Developer
* Social Media Strategist




(4) Back of Card Content.

None.

Adding content to the back of a business card, or having it fold out for extra content panels, seems desperate, overly verbose, too self-impressed, even condescending. You can flesh out the details over the phone or in a meeting. A business card should not be an advertisement or a book.

Its function is to serve as a quick, reliable source of contact information.

There surely exist exceptions to this guideline, but if you're looking for a job or clients, this is probably best. Like I said, you can always deliver a brochure, samples, list of clients, etc. at some future date.

Think: how do my recipients tend to use business cards?

Your personal impression on, and contact with, the recipient should be what enhances the magnetic pull of your business card.




(5) Card Stock.

White or light gray is most professional, but it depends on the business. A feminine enterprise could use a pink or yellow card. Marketing people and consultants should stick to standard colors. Use corporate colors if you have them. A good, study card stock is better than a cheap, thin, flimsy stock.

Keep your business card the normal size, so it will fit in with other business cards and appear professional.

I've received over-sized cards that I had to fold to fit in my wallet, and under-sized cards that I didn't know what to do with. Stand out from the pack by how you present yourself, but within the standard formats.



(6) Correct Centering.

Cheap, quick, down and dirty business cards may be hastily cut in irregular croppings. This means that your margins may not be equal: you may be close to the bottom edge, but have too much space at the top, same with left and right edges.



(7) Purpose of Business Card.

You give people your business card so they have contact information, along with a quick indication of what you do or what your business is.

Try not to make your business card do the work of a brochure. It will look amateurishly cluttered if you're not careful.

You should have one primary, flagship, central website or blog that displays your products, samples of your work, or showcases your expertise. Link to your other sites, if appropriate, from that primary site.

If you're a marketing consultant, and you have several sites, each dedicated to different types or aspects of marketing, you may want to include all those URLs. Make sure that the URLs you list are sites you're proud of and are not "under construction".





(8) Type Font.

I suggest a sans seriff type font, such as Verdana or Arial. It's easier to read in the small space of a business card. Use a simple, standard, extremely easy to read type font.

Trying to be creative with a fancy type font can backfire and reduce readability.

Every tiny detail of how you present yourself, even in a humble business card, can have a large and lasting impact.





(9) Tagline.


It's nice to include a tagline, slogan, motto, or quote to make yourself memorable and to briefly convey what you do.

Don't use stupid, extreme, or trite (over-used) phrases like "Best deals in the business", "Make your wildest dreams come true", "Nobody offers better quality, service, and selection", "We solve all your computer problems within 15 seconds", and etc.





MORE TIPS:


Business card best practices (by Robert Scoble)

10 Tips in Designing Effective Business Cards

9 Business Card Blunders

new business cards

I'm going to get some new business cards printed. My problem is what to call myself.

I'm first and foremost a writer. But I'm doing 90% of my writing online, with sporadic brochures, press releases, and other offline marketing projects. So my title(s) must revolve around writing, the web, and marketing. I'm also a long time blogger. And I've been focusing mainly, recently, on music marketing, but I don't want to limit myself to that niche.

On LinkedIn and other professional networking sites, I seem to have noticed a lot of colleagues using the phrase Internet Professional. This seems pretty good, but a bit vague. Many of them are established, well known experts. I need to spin off that phrase into more specific wording.

I sent a DM (direct, ie private, message) to some Twitter pals to ask their advice. The response was swift and helpful. Their kind replies sparked my brain quite handsomely.


I've decided to call myself this:


Steven E. Streight

Internet Marketing Specialist
Web Content Writer
Blog Strategist


I'm going to do some research and create a blog post called something like "Business Cards for Internet Pros: Titles Being Used". Let me know what you put on your business cards, and I'll include you and link to your blog.

improve core expand expertise

It seems that we have no choice now: we must run faster and smarter to survive. Business is bad for almost everyone. Study what businesses are thriving now more than ever. What is it they are providing? To whom? In what manner?

We can learn from the luckiest, toughest, and brightest gals and guys in business. The new environment was heralded by the web wonders, blog giants, and social media mavericks. When you see a mainstream cable TV news operation incorporate blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, you see the global shift in consciousness and marketing.

Just as the web revolution was underway, with the rise of individual voice, universal free expression, transparency policy, we media, and other cataclysmic upheavals, the old guard collapsed of its own colossal greed and lawlessness.

Perhaps this is how they'll get rid of money and financial systems as we once knew them, replacing them with digital records and chip implants.

What can we do?

Improve your core attributes and skills. Increasingly differentiate your products and company by out-thinking your competitors. In other words, become the customer. Don't observe them like a zoo-keeper. Unite your mind with their reality. Get to know user frustrations. Don't fear criticism or hostility. Learn from them.

Improve core.

Expand expertise.

From the position not of your mission statement or marketing plan, but rather from walking in the shoes of actual customers. Do whatever it takes to identify unmet needs and unfulfilled dreams. Examine harshly what others take for granted.

Master aspects of your field that will make you more valuable. Learn about things that you always felt you "don't need to know". If it's relevant to what you do, or relevant to your customers, then start learning more about it.

People will still buy things, they're just going to be slower, more selective, and more informed when they buy.

What are you doing to be the one they decide upon?