Month: July 2017

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I’m Invisible! (Song Lyric)

Songwriting 101

How To Write a Song

I can’t really tell you how to write a song! But I can tell you some of the things I do that end up being one!

Everybody has different ways. I usually write poems. These days I will already know what kind of attack, jazzy, hard, folk, the song should have when I’m working on the words, and I incorporate a lot of repetition and rhythm, which is much more song-like than poem-like, although a poem can easily get a melody, and sometimes that works great! There’s really no other difference between a song lyric and poem than the intentional things done to a lyric to make the song better; you’ll see many of these treatments in the lyric below, and how it starts to “sing itself.”

The lyric below is a great example Continue reading “I’m Invisible! (Song Lyric)”

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Make a Video That Gets 100,000 Hits – Then Write a Blog Article About It (or, “I Eight The Nuggets”)

Would you like to make a video that gets 100,000 hits?

Recently I posted about giving things away for free, and the things people don’t pay for anymore.

Well, the silver lining to the digital-don’t-sales cloud is, if you have good content, and you give it away for free, it may get a lot of hits! It’s the tradeoff that sits at the center of the Googlevertising secret formula.

The free thing is in the center and stays there, eyeballs rotate around it and advertising, if available and set up, monetizes it. The free thing stays in the system indefinitely, Continue reading “Make a Video That Gets 100,000 Hits – Then Write a Blog Article About It (or, “I Eight The Nuggets”)”

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TAKE A BREAK AND BUILD SOME CONFIDENCE; MANDATORY SESSION (For Writers, Authors, Content Creators, Book Publishers, Self Publishers, Ship Captains And Their Cousins)

(or, The Little Blog Boat That Could, An Argument For Writing Good, *sung to the tune of “Ain’t Got No Eyeballs”*)

The jewelry guy, who knows the parasailing guy.

If the Internet is a web, it’s a web of advertising. The Internet advertising industry is a blessing and curse, of course, but it’s become, oddly, embedded in everything, the Mexican referral service of the Universe. Everybody is not only selling something, but probably somebody’s cousin (you know what I mean). It’s a great system that works!

So true. Easy to forget we’re talking about the Internet, which, we quickly remember, shouldn’t be a web of advertising. We hate the idea. Almost forgot.

And the frustration goes both ways;  viewers are not digging your content while you’re wondering why it’s not getting hits.

It’s not the Internet’s fault! Or your cousin’s! It’s yours! Your content is not good enough, or you’re assuming Continue reading “TAKE A BREAK AND BUILD SOME CONFIDENCE; MANDATORY SESSION (For Writers, Authors, Content Creators, Book Publishers, Self Publishers, Ship Captains And Their Cousins)”

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Selling Digital Goods on The Internet – The Embedded Experience of Giving Google Money (Or, Your Eyeballs For a Song!)

I was going to write a new song, and the first line was going to be:

“If you want to Google Google, all you have to type is Goo …”

But then I wrote this instead:

HOW TO MAKE MONEY: FAILURE-TARGETING

There are two big trends in Internet commerce that are actually completely new sales industries, made possible by the Internet – selling digitally-reproduceable things on the Internet, and teaching people how to sell digitally-reproduceable things on the Internet, based on a high failure rate.

The scenario is unique, and with a magnifying glass amazing. Ecommerce, the digitally-distributed part of it, has been created by Google, almost effortlessly, gracefully catching a fumble by Apple.

MONETIZATION, FAILURE NUMBER ONE

Information, music and video encompass a lot of what we’re talking about, what’s digitally-distributed, the digital “varieties,” like a digital file of a song. It’s a lot of stuff that could be sold.

As we watch over the past dozen years, though, it hasn’t been sold exactly as it looked like it would be. People never stopped downloading things for free. The model became too stiff with embedded IPR everywhere, Continue reading “Selling Digital Goods on The Internet – The Embedded Experience of Giving Google Money (Or, Your Eyeballs For a Song!)”

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The Garden of Life (A Song)

The Garden of Life

In the garden of life you’ll dance with me
The music will roll in the walls of stone
Everybody’s the new nobody
It feels alright when you’re not alone …

https://markurso.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/7-The-Garden-Of-Life-stem-11-CD.mp3?_=1

I want to love your innocence
I want to love your wishfulness
I want to love that look in your eye
The blossoming of confidence

To take a chance; to breathe the air!
To wake up and just take the dare
There’s no disconnecting; now I’m aware
For better or worse, we’re here by the pair! Continue reading “The Garden of Life (A Song)”

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Marketing as a Content Creator (or, What’s Wrong With Amazon Part 2)

OUR RELATIONSHIP ISN’T WORKING, AMAZON!

I don’t buy things on Amazon any more.

Which is odd, because I still have listings for sale on the platform. I no longer believe Amazon is a good place for any small- or medium-sized company to use for retail sales (backend seller accounts).

It all started recently, when my awareness and perspective improved over time. I’ve been an Amazon seller for a dozen years, always assuming it was the “place to be,” just because there’s lots of eyeballs on the site. But I never sold much. I thought, as anyone might, it was my fault.

THE AMAZON SELLER EXPERIENCE

Spending time in the Amazon system, as a seller, checking my listings from the back end and front, I naturally also shopped there, using Continue reading “Marketing as a Content Creator (or, What’s Wrong With Amazon Part 2)”

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Wake Up Falling (A Poem)

Sometimes when you fly you can stay in the sky
Sometimes you slowly come down
Trusting your parachute open your eyes
Nobody knows you’re in town

When you wake up falling, hanging by strings
When you realize you’ve entered the war
It only took one time pulling the trigger
And now you only want more

Sometimes you feel them aiming at you
Invisible eyes all around
Sometimes when you fly you can stay in the sky
Without even making a sound

It’s really a matter of who sees who first
Sometimes it’s a matter of trust
Sometimes it’s a matter of who’s gun is bigger
Let’s not make too much of a fuss

Sometimes when you land you’ve already been seen
No choice but to hit the ground dead
The bullet and you – if you meet in the air
Sometimes nothing more needs to be said

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Ahhhh, Finally Relief From The Summer Heat Wave! (or, Not The Official Weather)

A view of my river in the winter.

Fire up a hot pot of cocoa and snuggle up for the rest of the day!

Remember, “Official Weather Forecast” is a terrific combination of words to put in your blog (for you aspiring bloggers).

My previous post was a video of me playing guitar and singing, opening with an original song called “Globe of Time.” The lyrics say “Life is alive in a globe of time … It’s all stuck together with invisible glue … The whole damn thing you can see right through!”

This is true when we look backwards, because time allows us to look at it after it has gone by. The interrelationships, causes and Continue reading “Ahhhh, Finally Relief From The Summer Heat Wave! (or, Not The Official Weather)”

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Life Is Alive in a Globe of Time (Opening for Billy Gilman 2016)

Billy Gilman had a big competition coming up on “The Voice” in October and wanted to do a show for the local audience (Southern RI) before he left. I was invited to open to a full house and did a variety of originals and a few covers.

SONGS –

00.00 – Globe Of Time
05.07 – One Meatball
08.47 – The Rabbit’s Other Foot
09.55 – Bend And Break

— break —

15.11 – Break And Bend
18.52 – Share The Moon
21.33 – Madman Across The Water
25.53 – Price Tag

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Gala Apples

These apples have traveled a long way from their trees to my countertop to your eyeballs. Enjoy them for their obvious good looks, great taste and usefulness keeping doctors away!

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Measuring How Much We Care; The Legend of King Earl

Bigness diminishes accuracy and need for accuracy.
Details get lost in space.

Our human concept of accuracy fades with size; in such a way that if someone told you cars were invented in the 1700’s, you’d tell them they were way off, by a hundred years … if they said the pyramids were built in 3000 BC, you could suggest they’re off by about 400 years, but it’s not too important; and if they said the Big Bang was 15 billion-years-ago, the adjustment might be oh, give or take, although it’s even less important, a billion.

Despite the uncertainty the third item actually happened, which is a pitfall of happening such a long time ago, even a strong supporter of its theory might not be terribly upset if everyone were off by a just, say, a few hundred thousand years; we’d still be “very close!” But when cars were invented? Don’t be an idiot!

Correlating to accuracy, need (for accuracy) also fades with large time spans. It’s like zooming in on your computer working on a piece of art, Continue reading “Measuring How Much We Care; The Legend of King Earl”

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