Blog Consultation Work For Lyndon Moss

Wednesday 19th August - activities done

Today I worked as a Consultant to my brother Lyndon Moss. He did not solicit my services, but early this morning, Archangel Gabriel downloaded into my heart a strategy for promoting his music via You Tube. I got up, documented the plan, worked on it, then called him to discuss the matter.

I decided to record several mini video tutorials on various elements of the activity. That would have included a tour of the YouTube interface. Navigating the interface was a bit of a challenge for some reason, especially when I tried to find the channel's feed URL. I was taken to the feed URL for the subscriptions rather than the one for the home page. 

My head began to swim because I had been at it for a while, hunting for documentation on "how to." Finally, I got a video that I could follow and to my horror, I had to jump through hoops to remove the subscribers' videos before converting  the XML data to RSS. That involved a reader which I do not have. I really did not feel up to downloading one. I almost got stuck at that point until I wisely decided to take a break, then to do other activities on my return. That XML to RSS conversion is on hold until another day...

 

I think I'd better listen to Lyndon's music as I write in order to soothe my jangled nerves. 

He is a guitarist par excellence. I hope he won't freak out - this video was not intended for the internet really... 

This is what I did

I finally sorted out the YouTube channel, did some work on his Google+ account, then decided on the spur of the moment to develop a blog.  Check my work at this link, it needs work, but at least the house is under construction.

Why not? I had a few failed attempts at blog construction for his music band in the past and always felt terrible about that. Now I was able to get one done in pretty quick time on the Blogger platform as there were no installations, plugins and tweaks to deal with. Sweet...

The list of accomplishments at LyndonMoss.blogspot.com

1. added to google index
2. added to bing
3. to be added  to yahoo - as he needs to register for an account.
4. added to Google search console - crawled by the Google bot
5. generated and added the site map to Google search console
6. added a google custom search engine
7. silo structure started
8. video was added to the blog from the youtube playlist that I created. This would allow for automatic update on the blog anytime he uploads a new video to the channel and adds it to the play list.  Note that the plan is to add each new video to a related playlist named for each blog theme.
9. blog feed submitted to Google Feedburner and optimized

Most importantly, I registered for YouTube Adsense in order to display ads on videos that he owns. YouTube advised that 

• Monetization settings were updated for 4 videos.
• For more information, visit Monetization in your Account Settings.
• Monetize videos by clicking the $ icon or by selecting "Monetize" from the Actions dropdown menu.  
• For more information, visit Monetization in your Account Settings. 
• When you upload  videos, monetize them by clicking the $ icon or by selecting "Monetize"

It is a definite advantage to have a video channel for one's blog/business since the pathway to monetizing with Adsense is very rapid in  comparison to that of a blog which has a six month wait.  Additionally, videos bring in traffic when promoted with the right strategies.

  

Activities to be done

 I think I will delegate some of them to him as I am going to be busy learning how to create, monetize and market mobile apps

• adjust the template to change the header width

•  customize a few areas of Google Feedburner and submit the feed to the other seven aggregators.

• convert the channel's XML file to RSS, then submit to  the Top Eight Aggregators.

• add Google Creator Channel to the side bar of the blog for quick access to current industry trends etc 

• add at least ten other videos to the channel.

• begin to promote the videos widely across the internet using available software. 

• continue development of the blog including the appearance. I decided not to use a video theme as it may limit the scope of activities that can be implemented on the blog.

Observations

For years I had said that I would offer a blog development service to the public, but never got around to it. Now that I more focused on this platform (with less agitation over plugins and web hosts etc), it struck me personally and to the core that  artists in particular need support with the promotion side of their business. They are often caught up in the art of the trade and really do not have the drive to become involved in this element of the business. I know because I have been there under other circumstances.

 

Offering blog consultancy services is one potential income earner for students of this course. I hope that you will be encouraged and press on in your quest to make a living while doing something that you truly love.  Companies like YouTube are also waiting on us to help them to increase their financial revenue by assisting with marketing of their customers' priducts. This is a pretty easy way to do so. The ad share is a decent 55%. Think of how this could benefit you if you market the business using tools and strategies that are available. Blessings and thanks Google.