Amidst my landslide of Happy New Year text messages exchanged two days ago with countless folks in the Contacts in my phone, a couple of those acknowledged how strange it is to be writing ‘2022.’ I must say that it feels a little odd to compile for you the top ten most read blogs of 2021 because it’s like trying on a shirt you got for Christmas and not being entirely sure that it fits exactly right. Some people are still holding onto when it was 2019 and others want to fast forward to 2023. To say these are unsettling times is putting it mildly.
Fortunately for me, it’s as simple as looking at the rock-solid data that is the number of reads that each of the weekly blog posts on this site received throughout the just-completed calendar year.
What follows are the top ten as written by yours truly. As this is also a suitable time to catch up on some that you might have missed, a link to take you back to that post is included in each entry. Be sure to come back next Monday for the top ten guest blogs on this site from 2021.
10. More Variety = More Work for Your Music Career – Inspired by my having gone to the performance two nights earlier, Terry Barber’s “Mercury: The Story of Queen’s Front Man” show is evidence of the variety of work an entertainer can get if they have much to offer to a venue and/or booker.
9. Your Music is Original, But Are You? – This one might make some folks uncomfortable as they stare at that question, “Your music is original, but are you?” However, it’s a fair – and dare I say necessary – question, given all the copycat content seen on social media these days, even by original music creators.
8. Growing Trend: Supporting Other Musicians – And then opposite of the above entry, this one should bring you more of a warm and fuzzy feeling. I had written about the fact that it’s a growing trend (supporting other musicians) and one that I hope is here to stay since it’s so nice to see, especially during pandemic times.
7. Songwriters Festivals are More Than Live Music – After my latest trip to a songwriters festival, coupled with the passing of the co-founder of one such event, it was clear that those events are ‘home’ to many.
6. Three Instagram Posts to Be Wary of Putting Up – After recovering from a (really) tough battle with that darn you-know-what that has stricken so, so many people, I wrote a cautionary post that cited three Instagram posts to be wary of putting up so that your indie entertainment career isn’t thwarted by turning off potential supporters.
5. Sadly, COVID Relief Needed for Support Personnel and Even Venues – This post was from the third Monday in March and that weekend had marked one year since the pandemic shutdown. Yet, sadly, twelve months later, COVID relief was still needed for support personnel and even venues, as evidenced by examples cited in this post from Los Angeles to Nashville to Disney (Orlando).
4. A Post to Create When You Think You Have Nothing – And haven’t all content creators reached this empty moment at one point or another? Especially coming off a holiday season when you might’ve shut down the creative engine, that time could actually be right now! Last June I wrote that when you think you have nothing for your website or social media, there’s always a post to create, as evidenced by a routine process that I turned into a video.
3. Here’s HOW You Stay in Contact with Those All-Important Contacts You Want to Keep – Networking and relationship building are key to furthering your business, but if you don’t know HOW to stay in touch with important contacts, it falls apart. This post gave specific examples of methods that you can use.
2. 400 Podcast Episodes – Why I Won’t Stop Now – As you might guess from the title of this post, I wrote this entry last October, following the release of the milestone 400th episode of my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast. At the time, and still now, of course, there are too many reasons why the end is definitely not in sight.
1. Seven Years in, The Benefits of Doing a Podcast – Ironically, last month I was asked during a “Expert LIVE Show” – for the sake of someone considering doing a podcast – what the benefits are that I have found to doing such. I almost could’ve answered with, “I wrote a blog about this in February,” and tagged it with, “it was my most read blog this year”! It’s also interesting timing that I see this post having landed at number one on the list, given that I just published an article on the homepage of the website two weeks ago about all of the podcast coaching that I’ve been doing for people of varying levels (not just newbies). Anyhow, this most read blog post had answered the “what’s in it for me” question for potential podcast hosts.
Are you reading these blogs every week? Which one of the above left the biggest impression on you and why? What from everything I wrote about in 2021 can be used to help you in what you’re doing? Schedule a private, one-on-one, online video consultation with me to keep you moving forward as this new year starts – whether that’s as an indie artist or in podcasting. And be sure to comment on this blog too via Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Or you can just send me an email instead. Happy New Year!