Helping the Community and Promoting Your Business

Once in a while, I am asked to make a silent auction donation for a community event. Now, I know that some companies give gift certificates or packages. However, one thing I learned at my self-employment classes is to never discount or give away your services. If you're a one person show, you can't give away all your time and talents! However, it's important to serve the community. A few years ago, I found another way to show my support while not discounting myself: gift baskets. This year, I teamed up with my brother at To the Wind Studio and we're offering this Italian themed music appreciation basket to benefit the Father Lacombe Care Centre Foundation's 14th Annual Legacy Dinner and Silent Auction on March 1, 2013:

The lucky recipient doesn't have to play a musical instrument. He or she just needs to have an appreciation for (or curiosity for) music. There's Vivaldi's Four Seasons as well as Andrea Bocelli's Passione. The centerpiece of the basket is the Pisa hazelnut liqueur. Completing the set are two lovely Mediterranean coffee/tea mugs.

Getting the Hang of Affiliate Programs

My post-blog migration clean-up is still ongoing. It's amazing how many dead links I've been discovering or missing video links. Updating every single blog post I've made since 2005 is a HUGE undertaking. However, in addition to it being a fun trip down memory lane, it has been a great opportunity to explore affiliate marketing.

As I mentioned in an earlier in Sheet Music Plus and Passive Income Streams, I've waded into the pool of affiliate marketing. Simply put, whenever I review or recommend a product, as an affiliate or associate, I get my own personal URL to that product. I don't believe in endorsing products I'm not keen on, so I will share with you materials that either my students, fellow teachers and I have found useful. Or in the case of album reviews, my aim is to introduce you to music you may not be familiar with and to promote local musicians.

Hopefully, you find them useful, or at least intriguing. If you do, then click on the link and then order away. Yes, affiliate marketers get a small commission for each completed sale. However, that all adds up in the long run.

One thing I have noticed as I clean up and update my blog posts is that there's an open field of opportunity. Each time I share a great performance with my students and readers or each time I reflect upon interesting pieces, I can share with you a link to make it easier for you to hunt down the music. It's a win-win situation.

How has it been working? Well, as with any passive income stream, it takes time to build and I've only been at it for a couple of weeks. However, I'm pleased to report that at least two people have purchased music I recommended just this week via sheetmusicplus.com .

I leave you with a funny blog post that I updated this morning, called "Angry Piano Music". I had a good chuckle remembering my female students who came in a string, asking specifically for "angry music" to play. It was a huge stress reliever for them!

Sheet Music Plus and Passive Income Streams

I like to shop locally whenever possible. However, sometimes it's just much more economical and just gosh darn convenient to shop online. Digital orders are just a couple of clicks away. You see with the ads on the side that I'm affiliated with Amazon. If you check out the ads, you'll see that I'm actually able to tailor them so that you will see music related items. Teachers, you can do this on your studio website and/or your blog, providing that your account allows you to host ads (for instance, Wordpress.com blogs don't allow ads but Wordpress.org blogs do).

Now, there is another joint in town though that sells a great selection of print and digital sheet music, learning aids and other musical goodies - Sheetmusicplus.com , This is the place that Rideau Music directed their customers to when Gill brothers closed their doors last year.

One of the cool things is that music teachers can create music lists for their students. Anything to make it easier for our busy piano parents to buy the right materials, I say. Some of my piano parents already shop online for sheet music.

Here are my lists:

• Beginner Students Music List

• Supplemental Music List

• Fake Books & Jazz Materials List

• Conservatory Canada List (sadly, very limited. Mayfair Publishing has the full product offering)

• Royal Conservatory of Music List

• Technical Exercises & Study Aids List

Fellow music teachers, if you sign up for a teacher account, you can register for their Easy Rebates for Music Teachers program. You can earn 8% cash back on your sheet music purchases. Not only that, by creating music lists and sharing them with your students, family and friends, you will earn a little bit with every sale.

If you're looking for an additional income stream that requires very little effort, check this out. Just bear in mind that as with any passive income stream online, it does take time to build up your presence. You will need to go in an occasionally tweak the keywords and update your lists. You will also need to remember to periodically share the lists with your network of family, friends and students via print, email, your website and/or social networking.

Good luck and happy shopping!

Website Migration and Cross-Posting

Maintaining and updating your music studio website is one thing that should be done regularly. After all, search engines, love dynamic pages. However, how many music teachers have a lot of time to spend on their website? Not I, and although I learned Dreamweaver at my last "regular" job, I feel that website design technology has advanced far beyond what I was taught at my basic "Introduction to Dreamweaver" class. Although, I do know some HTML code, I cannot, for the life of me, get my brain around CSS. I'm sure, with time, I'd get it, but back to my original question, "How many music teachers have a lot of time to spend on their website?" That's when I started blogging. At least, that way, some pages on my site would get updated. However, I am challenged to update even my blogs regularly. My latest experiment is to ask several fellow word-savvy music teachers to contribute to my Musings at Musespeak and Busted Piano String blogs. We'll do some cross-posting on each other's blogs, thereby injecting new life to each other's sites, and share new ideas with a larger audience. Stay tuned for some guest posts. Back to my website. I will be migrating my website to Wordpress with the hopes that simplicity with lead to website optimization. Well I will be, once I'm done watching all Wordpress tutorials published by fellow music teacher and web guru Robert Vimer.

A Note on Office Organization

My primary project this past summer was to organize my office and music studio. Oh no, not a cursory, throw things into a file to deal with later. I've been in extreme decluttering mode.

Since I began teaching in 2001, I have dutifully kept all of my music teacher newsletters. Have I read them all? No, of course not. 

Just a fraction of my piles to declutter! Photo by R-M Arca

Just imagine how much paper that is. Got the picture in your mind? My paper clutter is truly as scary as you imagined it to be.

I am approximately 80% through but I have been gleefully ripping out articles to read throughout the year. I have developed the following filing system:

1. Activity/Event ideas

2. Blog topic ideas

3. Group Class ideas

4. Lesson planning

5. Professional library ideas

6. Music games and puzzles

7. Piano Pedagogy

8. Professional development

9. Portfolio additions (my own published articles)

10. Recital/performance ideas

They will reside in my Active Files drawer until I am done with them. My hope is that throughout the year, I'll actually read these articles. Of course, that hinges upon me clearing the area leading up to my filing cabinet.

Cutting down my To Read Pile into a simple filing system. Photo by R-M Arca