Clean up your link in bio, rethink your pitch, and mind your keywords
FOUR THE WEEKEND is back, friends
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Bringing back my weekly Friday post called FOUR THE WEEKEND, four useful and/or actionable tasks and prompts to do over the weekend.
Get to work.
// FOUR THINGS TO DO
1. CLEAN UP YOUR LINK IN BIO LINKS
If you’re still using one of those Link In bio services, take this weekend to clean it up. My god, I’ve seen some artists with 50+ links in those things. Do you expect fans to dig through all those? More choices just means your fans aren’t even going to click anything.
Consider putting all the things you’re linking to (YouTube videos, music, upcoming appearances, store) on your own website, then just simply linking to your website. One link to rule them all.
2. CONNECT DIRECTLY
Hardly anyone knows about your latest project, let alone something you did three weeks ago (or three years).
Send a link to three people and let them know about it. Doing this takes minutes and is probably more effective than posting on socials for 95% of your audience to miss. Send via email, text, or DM. Just be cool about it.
3. RETHINK YOUR PITCH
Are you asking people to “subscribe for updates” to get people on your email list? Maybe promising a 10% discount?
Remember, you’re competing with Netflix, social media, family, new albums, holiday plans, and a million other things - rework your pitch.
“Say, “follow our adventures as we leave for tour in a month. Sign up so you don't miss a single photo of our adventures. Sign up so you don't miss out on all our crazy tour stories.”
There's a reason media outlets ask, “got any crazy tour stories?”
It’s because stories sell.”
4. MIND YOUR KEYWORDS
Got this bit from ‘Discoverability for illustrators’ by
via :“While emailing is more about outreach than discoverability, I have heard that art directors and art commissioners will actually use the search facility in their email app (e.g. Outlook or Gmail) as a first point of call after any in-house databases – so they might type ‘room illustration, colourful’ or ‘collage illustrator, newspaper’ etc. into the search bar to see if they have been sent any work by a relevant illustrator.”
Keep this in mind when reaching out to art directors and venues and other people you’re pitching for potential opportunities.
Want some direct help and guidance? Check out my 1:1 GET STUFF DONE WORKSHOP, and let's do some work.
// FOUR QUOTES TO PONDER
from ‘BEYOND THE SCROLL: HOW POST-TIKTOK GENERATION WILL SET ARTISTS FREE’“The live music scene is making a powerful comeback [entirely my humble opinion], driven by a growing desire for genuine, in-person experiences. As people grow tired of endless scrolling on social media, the raw energy of a live show is becoming the perfect escape. These performances aren’t just about music — they’re about connection, creating moments that feel communal and almost spiritual.”
from ‘I Won't Tell You to Avoid McDonald's’“I can spend the next four years shouting about each and every little decision, or I can spend that time working on building the alternative. I’m not exactly sure what that looks like yet: is it an alternative to the corporate media? Is it some alternative to our current political system? Is it just simply being engaged in mutual aid at the community level? For each of us, it will look different, but I think small, local community building is going to matter much more in the coming years.”
from ‘You will never be self-sufficient’“That’s the idea I’m keeping in mind this winter, as the world feels bleak and I don’t know how to deal with mass murder and terrible laws and each daily injustice. We grow our own networks to survive—in fact, yours has probably already woven itself around you, if you can look up and see it. “
🚨 Ditch Gmail and switch to Fastmail (I’ve been a customer since 2014): get a free 30-day trial and 10% off your first year here (affiliate link).
// FOUR VIDEOS TO WATCH
says “marketing is a creative practice.” I took the paywall off this, so everyone can watch the full interview here.“Balance,” says
, ”there is no balance. It’s all weighted down. And how much of that can you take til you die?” Wise words.This isn’t the first time I’ve included this video. It won’t be the last.
Videos that get this meta are my favorite.
// FOUR RECOMMENDATIONS
Remember, I’m doing a Sunday morning Escape Pod Zoom call, because none of us are gonna be ready to go back to work on Monday.
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Enjoy,
Seth
Thank you for the reminder to BE the alternative. It's not gonna happen any other way 💖
Good advice here. I need to work on my pitch.