I am fond of quoting the Chinese mystic Lao Tsu who said, "more words count less." In the online world having a mentor or guru is highly praised as "valuable," perhaps "essential," and it seems to me with my pioneer heritage that I had no such luck, no such mentor; it seemed on reflection there was a big hole in my armour, until I thought about old Bill.

Bill Adkins was an 87 year old Stage Manager still working in the Ottawa Little Theatre when I was age 23 and I was his assistant in live theatre productions. He used to say to me, "Lawrey, I know you know better, why don’t you do better." He said it kindly with a smile and he didn’t say it too often.

It took years for me to realize those few words were key to hundreds of volumes of books, those that have been written on the topic, and those thousands that could be written and focus on issues where we all know better but don’t do better!

One of my favourite books I am recently re-reading is Dale Carnegie’s, "How to Win Friends And Influence People" and as I read I am asking what "do better" ideas did I miss on earlier readings. Each time I read it one part or another stands out for application in my current transitions.

This time I am most struck by a quote included in the introduction to the ‘how’ and ‘why’ Dale Carnegie wrote this book. He quotes Herbert Spencer saying, "The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action." How similar to Old Bill, "it is not enough to know better, we must do better!"

One very key feeling that has guided my years is that we rarely take our good time to really appreciate what is possible to share with music. Both as listener or learner in the fun sense of music practice, it is just too easy to dwell in the practical side of our routine, and leave music inspiration for later.

It is too easy to do our job, to take care of our chores, take care of business, and end up with too little time to settle with the music we love to hear, to play, or share while practicing, learning, and performing. It is easy also to forget, even when due, to take the time to praise your mentors.

I often repeat that, "when we are learning music, practicing music, in fact we are re-learning the very essence of how to learn." That is a process that continues until we can breathe no more and underlines another favourite quote by the American poet, Carl Sandburg, "Man is always arriving, he has never arrived!"

More mystic still the words of Edgar Allen Poe, "It is at once by poetry and through poetry, by music and through music, that the soul divines what splendors shine behind the tomb…"

Ten thousand strings

my soul is crying out to hear,

playing loud and long,

the voice of cheer.

Slapped in chains

the fact remains,

They’ve taken leave of playing,

except commercial trains.

The poor for want of nurturing

with less, yet least they cry,

deep in want of comfort’s commerce,

such symphonies, like a train roll by!

Their ears seldom hold song softly,

their heart full wise of wrong,

near drowns in pain, lonely pain,

for most needed strings they long.

Who would think of music such a prison?

yet lest monies force field be stayed,

such grand fruit for life in cold derision remains,

and can only be freed, where no charge is made.

This short poem marks a major shift in my thought and a turning point in my life. It was first written around (1998) the time my Father passed away (& revised 2012). Perhaps that was incidental though as Poe ventures, "what splendours shine behind the tomb…" also shine upon the natural seasons and the seasoning of our lives.

The reason I share these thoughts in a blog post is in reflections or dreams we see visions that could be many possibilities. One such dream surmise I have spent time considering I reserved a domain name for, a possible contest format comes to mind, votefreemusic.com remains only a thought and one I will develop more in days to come.

For now I am content to reflect on those mentors who have influenced my dream of a better way to explore my relations with music. My thanks to Old Bill and his inspiration to share wherever he learned those words …"I know you know better, why don’t you do better." I hope those words might inspire others (when due) to praise your mentors!

There are some funny cartoons about the idea of turning your computer into an ATM machine that spits out money. Likely there would be a lot more laughter on the topic if it were not that a lot of purchased programs online fall far short of that wishful result. Less laughable are those that charge big monthly fees for very little or no value at all.

In my last post I mentioned the key to optimizing social media is adding value. What value have you experienced that inspires you enough to persevere and actually get it in the can? (To borrow the recording industry saying.) A digital recording can be promoted as a product, made downloadable for free or for sale; your nucleus for a profitable blog.

I am excited to announce I am in the process of working on a new product that I should have ready in the last week of October. It will consist of a series of CD recordings centered on discussions of how NEW MEDIA continues to change business largely through the value of search engines. Simple ‘how-to’ videos will accompany the CD set at a later date.

Equally exciting for me is that I anticipate the experimental work I have done creating a first album of songs (from my lyrics) will likely become down loadable from my new online digital store with uQast.com and that should be available around the same time as my CD set on NEW MEDIA.  (More on that later.)

If you compare the title phrase "Monetize Your Blog" with the second subheading here "Adjusting Your Control of Abundance" the point of search terms becomes focused. More people would likely search for how to monetize than adjusting control.

In fact, though ‘adjusting control’ may be interesting, Google’s keyword tool reveals only 14,400 related searches are made per month globally. More than 160 million searches are made on similar terms to monetize your blog with the vast majority of those searches for "how to blog."

Adapting business to NEW MEDIA search methods remains an interesting if not a specifically searchable term. Social media optimization as a formula for business growth may summarize as "add value and prosper."

The choice of relevant keyword terms describing the value your business brings to market may be key to your business longevity. To remain on the business map customers must be able to search and find your value easily.

In 6 B.C. the Chinese mystic Lao Tsu wrote "more words count less." Many translations later (and 2000 years) perhaps Thomas Edison was on a similar thought path when he stated that "ideas come from space."

In my introduction to my upcoming series of CD’s on NEW MEDIA the typical science (or math) discussion of how the distance between any two points can be endlessly divided is referenced to the distance between our own two ears as evidence of the truth Edison defined. All human expression of ideas does come from the space between someones ears!

In my teen years I was advised I should read the Dale Carnegie book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People." In typical teen block-head fashion I decided I had plenty of friends; hence I never learned for another 15 years that his book really was about ‘influence‘ and why some people are influential. When finally I did read the book I had only myself to blame for the valuable lessons I lived without for those 15 years.

Two books I have most recently read as part of the study for my NEW MEDIA CD set are:
1. "Get Rich Click," by Marc Ostrofsky and
2. "The 4 – Hour Work Week," by Timothy Ferriss.

Marc Ostrofsky is in the Guinness Book of World Records for selling the most expensive Internet Domain ever sold (business.com). He states: "The market, technology, the defining qualities of relevance are all changing at light speed."

The book by Timothy Ferriss points to haunting questions regarding the wisdom of living as though a happy retirement decades into the future is really a sensible plan for prospering in this NEW wired world. His book is one that I had often been advised would be a good read given my interest in NEW MEDIA. This time I decided to heed my friendly advisors and so pleasantly I found a particularly relevant quote in reading the Ferriss book.

Paradoxically NEW MEDIA implies some verbiage. That contrasts Ferriss’s concept in "The Low Information Diet," (chapter 6) which is introduced with this quote from Albert Einstein: "Reading after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking."

From the space between my own two ears where "more words count less", from where I struggle to gather useful ideas in the common space of the sub-conscious union of minds, where anyone may busy oneself sifting "relevant value" from that which transcends the flat world of the mundane, from such sifting and gathering perhaps positive change can be brought about in this NEW wired world using NEW MEDIA.

Creative space is the home of new music, new literature, new paintings, graphics, and the convergence of technical science with the power of imagination; hopefully too it is the source of positive change in the world of peaceful diplomacy.

Stay tuned, though I may only post a few times per month I am intent on launching some entertaining research webinars to help determine if NEW MEDIA is headed where I hope it may be headed.