It sounds like Billy Corgan has accepted the changed landscape that the digital world and, perhaps more importantly, the fans have imposed on the music industry. He’s accepted it, but it sounds like he still doesn’t get it.

He said the solution to the problem (“problem” was not clearly defined, at least not in the Digital Savant article) was for the fans to support the music they like. Well, duh. But that’s not exactly the whole of it. He’s laying the music industry’s woes entirely at the feet of fans. Bullshit. Everybody had a hand in that pie. We already know how the music industry and, more specifically, the record labels / RIAA fucked things up. No need to rehash that. No, I want to point a finger at the artists themselves for a moment.

And not artists like Metallica who went after their own fans with cops and lawyers. Those douchebags are in the same bucket as the RIAA as far as I’m concerned. Though they did that with the same underlying motive that Billy Corgan alluded to in his SXSW conversation.

I’m pointing a finger at artists like Billy Corgan because what he’s upset about is not that he can’t make a damn good living as a musician, but that he has to work more to make less. And that’s kind of reasonable, unless we’re talking about millions of dollars, in which case, fuck you Billy Corgan. Or, put another way…

Oops, your sense of entitlement is showing.

Or, put a third way…

I think you just stepped on your dick.

Look. I’m sorry you can’t make MEGA millions anymore. I’m sorry that, as a performer, a good chunk of your income in the future will come from, well, performing. If you’re a smart performer, you’ll probably make another huge chunk of change from merchandise. But I get it. It’ll never replace the gold that used to rain down from the sky with each breath you took in the Before Time.

At the end of the day though, you’re going to be a lot happier if you get over that.

Chat, do you know anyone who consults with small businesses on how to make their website make more money for them?

Sorry, I don’t. It sounds like they need at least two people:

1. A business consultant or business coach to help them figure out their business model and different monetization opportunities.
2. A web expert to wear several hats: content strategist, SEO guy, site optimization, etc. Ideally this person would be able to conduct A/B and multivariate tests on their landing pages to maximize conversion rates. I do this sort of thing but I work 60 hour work weeks and simply can’t take on any extracurricular projects.

Realistically they probably want to partner with a savvy web company. But, also realistically, said company will charge a lot up front and won’t be interested in revenue sharing or anything like that. So they should probably start with the business consultant. And in lieu of spending a bunch of cash on a web expert, I’d recommend starting off with a book like the Website Owner’s Manual:

http://boagworld.com/websiteownersmanual/

It covers the “secrets to a successful website”, evaluating objects, planning and measuring success, creating killer content, website promotion, techniques for engaging visitors, and more. It’s specifically written for people who own and operate websites rather than being written for people like me who help the people who own and operate websites.

This answer barely scratches the surface of such a broad topic, but hopefully it provides a place for people to start. I’ll write more about this in the future so if you have specific questions feel free to post them in the comments section.

Over at Spiceworks we have a user group called Spread Spiceworks. It’s grown organically over time and I thought I’d share some of the tools we’ve created to help our users evangelize us.

Spread Spiceworks Widget

Email an IT Pro

An email form to let people instantly tell their friends about us. You have to be careful about spammers trying to abuse things like this. To keep things simple the body of the email is actually hardcoded on the back-end. If they want to send a custom message, the same text can be copied to their clipboard.

Post a Button

This section has buttons and screenshots to post on their blogs, on forums, or pretty much anywhere that allows HTML. Clicking on a button or screenshot opens a modal box with the HTML code. (I added syntax highlighting because, well, I’m a nerd.) If a user is logged in the HTML code will include their referral ID. That way, if anybody clicks on one of their buttons and downloads the app, they get credit for it in the form of points. I’ll talk more about the points a bit later.

This section also has wallpapers for desktops, PDAs and mobiles. While those things don’t actively help people to “spread Spiceworks” they do help passively. And, more importantly, they help our passionate users to stay passionate.

Be Social

This links to our various social networks so users can stay up-to-date on what we’re doing. Elsewhere we incorporate buttons to let people share our content on their social networks.

Meet-Up

You want to know how to create a really passionate user? Get him or her together with other passionate users. Our meet-ups are user created and user run. We facilitate things by helping them organize the group, publicizing the events, and providing them with topic materials.

Speak

This goes hand-in-hand with the meet-ups. We’ve provided users with an “Introduce to Spiceworks” slide deck they can use to give presentations… if that’s their thing. In fact, we’ve provided almost 50 slide decks! And we’ve bundled them together with custom business cards that they can print. The cards use the same referral code that the buttons use.

Get Gear

This is where users can go to buy hats, t-shirts, messenger bags, onesies, wall clocks, etc., all adorned with the Spiceworks brand. They look stylish and we get free advertising wherever they are.

Points

I mentioned that the buttons and business cards have referral IDs attached to them. Actually, so do the emails and screenshots. Whenever someone downloads Spiceworks from a link that includes a referral code, the referrer gets credit and that credit takes the form of points in our community. The more points you have, the higher your “level” is in the community. Attaining higher levels is purely a point of pride amongst users and yet it’s a powerful motivational tool.

So these are some of the tools we use. What are you doing to help your passionate users?

AIGA Austin Job Board

Be sure to read the AIGA Standards of Professional Practice. To post a job, go here.

Refresh Austin job board

Before posting a job, be sure to read their job posting guidelines. The Refresh Austin guys also run the Austin Web Design & Develop Meetup, which is a great place to meet designers and developers in the area.

Door 64

This one is geared primarily towards developers. Anybody can view jobs but you have to become a member to post jobs. Membership is free.

CraigsList

I’ve listed this one last for reason. As a job seeker you can expect to find a lot of crap job offers that pay either a fast food wage or a stake in the company (read: work for free). If you’re looking to hire someone, either know what you’re doing or avoid this option. Roughly 80% of your applicants will not be qualified. You can find good people and good jobs there though so I wouldn’t totally dismiss the site.

Of course there are non-local boards you can check out too:

• Authentic Jobs
• AIGA National Design Jobs
• 37signals Job Board

And there are a few staffing agencies worth talking to:

• Aquent
• Liaison Resources
• Art Squad

I’ve had the best luck, again on both sides of the fence, with Aquent. If you’re going to a talent agency, I’d start with them.

If you have a website you should be keeping track of who’s visiting it and what they’re doing while they’re there. Google Analytics is a great tool for doing just that. If your site is built with WordPress, like mine is, you can also install a plugin like Site Stats, which will create a new page for your dashboard full of useful information like:

• Who is sending you traffic (referrers)
• Which posts and pages are the most popular
• What search engine terms are leading people to your site
• What sites are linking to you

If you want to grow your audience this is essential information to have.

Bad:

• /jobsearch/cover_letter.pdf
• /jobsearch/resume.pdf

One resume. One cover letter. If you’re only applying for one job, having one resume isn’t too bad, especially if it is a well designed resume. But your cover letter should be tailored to each company you are applying at and you should have an archived version of each as well.

The other big mistake here is that the person’s name isn’t included in the filename for either document, which gives it a very good chance of getting lost in the shuffle. Especially if the reviewer organizes things electronically.

Okay:

• /jobsearch/john_doe_cover_letter_design.pdf
• /jobsearch/john_doe_cover_letter_webdesign.pdf
• /jobsearch/john_doe_cover_letter_marketing.pdf
• /jobsearch/john_doe_resume_design.pdf
• /jobsearch/john_doe_resume_webdesign.pdf
• /jobsearch/john_doe_resume_marketing.pdf

This is actually much better. John’s full name is included in the filename for both resume and cover letter and he is creating multiple versions of each file based on the different jobs he is applying for.

Better:

• /jobsearch/design/john_doe_resume.pdf
• /jobsearch/design/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf
• /jobsearch/marketing/john_doe_resume.pdf
• /jobsearch/marketing/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf
• /jobsearch/webdesign/john_doe_resume.pdf
• /jobsearch/webdesign/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf

Here is where a simple change in the way John organizes his files can start to payoff. It’s the same set of files as in the last list but its no longer obvious to the person receiving the files that he is applying for different positions. Why does that matter? It’s the difference between hiring someone who does something well and is passionate about it versus hiring someone who does lots of different things and, well, they really need the job.

Best:

• /jobsearch/company-a/john_doe_resume.pdf
• /jobsearch/company-a/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf
• /jobsearch/company-b/john_doe_resume.pdf
• /jobsearch/company-b/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf
• /jobsearch/company-c/john_doe_resume.pdf
• /jobsearch/company-c/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf

This is the cream of the crop because it works whether he wants to specialize in something as specific as Interface Design or he is just looking for something creative. It also reflects the high level of detail he is putting into his job search. Because he should be paying a high level of detail. He should be researching each company he applies at so that he can tailor his resume and cover letter to them. He should be dropping one or two relevant facts about each company in their respective cover letters to demonstrate that knowledge.