Promoting a Band using ClientTouch.com

Fan Base is More Important Than How Good Your Show Is
Don't get me wrong, being able to put on a good performance is essential, but what might not be obvious is that building and communicating with the fan base is more critical than how good the show is. That might sound a little counter-intuitive, so here's some background. When it's time to negotiate the pricing, being able to pack the house is what's important to everybody, the promoter, the venue and ultimately the band. More bodies means more opportunity for dollars to flow and thus gives the band more leverage. For example, if you are in a band where you know that you can bring in 200 to 400 people to see the show every Friday night, that gives you flexibility when it's time to negotiate prices and ticket sales. If you know that you can bring in more people, then that's even better. So one of the most important aspects to becoming a successful band is building and communicating with your fan base.

Getting Fans to Sign Up
So on to how to build a fan base. Make it easier to sign up by distributing sign-up cards and pens around the venue beforehand. Offer prizes each show for signing up. Some bands have a sign-up sheet on a clipboard on stage where fans can add their contact info, others let users sign up on a website. While clipboards and websites will help, that's more work for the fan and the less likely you'll get fans to sign up on the spot. The key is to make it easy for fans to sign up and encourage fans to sign up. Make it part of the show if possible and keep in mind that the power of the Mic. Fans tend to do what you tell them to if done on the Mic.

Communicating With Your Fans
So now you have a stack of names and contact info, now what? We all start out trying to manage our fan base with our personal email account, just typing out the list of emails from each card. That's fine for 25 fans or so, but what about when you have 500, 1,000 or 10,000 fans? At some point you're going to need help.

ClientTouch.com
We use a web-based product called ClientTouch.com for $30 a month. Here's how it works... We get between 50 and 100 contacts each show. Those contacts are entered into an Excel spreadsheet, then uploaded to ClientTouch.com. For each new show, we create an HTML based email template that will be sent to all of the fans on a specific day. The email template has images and links so the fans can find out more information if they choose, plus they can forward the email to friends. Now that we've been using the product for a few months, inputting the contact info takes about an hour per show and creating a new email template takes about the same.

The Bottom Line 
So you're probably wondering whether it's worth the time and trouble. In our case, we were able to double our customer base over a 4 month period and we've almost outgrown our venue. I would certainly say it's worth $120 and 10 hours worth of work to double the customer base.

HootSuite 500 Internal Server Error

The Problem
I see many frustrated users looking for a solution to the dreaded 500 Internal Server Error generated from HootSuite's Bulk Schedule feature. The solution is a little elusive because the error screen does not accurately describe the problem and HootSuite's forums do not consistently explain why the problem occurs nor how to resolve the issue.

The Cause
In the cases that I have seen the issue is caused when accented characters such as those used in foreign language are put into the CSV file, either in the tweet or the URL. For example, the following words will cause the error,

Mañana
Café

The details of why accented characters cause this problem is a little technical, but has to do with how English language characters are represented in ASCII versus non-English language characters. All English language characters can be represented with ASCII values less than 128 whereas non-English language characters are represented with ASCII values greater than 128. So any tweets or URLs with characters with ASCII values greater than 128 many times cause the 500 Internal Server Error.

The Solution
There's a few different ways to solve this issue
1) My personal favorite solution is to use an Excel template that defaults to UTF-8 encoding that can be download at http://www.HootSuiteBulkUpload.com. This is a little near and dear to my heart as I am the author :-) but it only runs in Windows Excel and you have to enable Excel Macros.
2) Option 2 is to remove or replace the accented characters with non-accented characters (not ideal)
3) HootSuite's recommended solution is to encode the file as UTF-8, which is easier said than done.

If you're using Windows Excel and some versions of Mac Excel, when you Save As CSV, there's an option next to the Save button called Tools.

If you select Tools | Web Options..., you'll see a tab called Encoding, where you can specify UTF-8 encoding.

If you're a Mac Excel 2008 user, you'll want to save your file as CSV within Excel, then open your file is a text editor like TextWrangler where you can specify the encoding.

Conclusion
Unfortunately HootSuite does a poor job of explaining why this error occurs and there's quite a few links in Google that you have to wade through to get to solution that works for you. If you're lucky enough to work with Windows Excel, then your best solution is to download the FREE spreadsheet template at http://www.HootSuiteBulkUpload.com. Otherwise Mac users have one extra step which is to load their CSV file in a text editor capable of saving with an encoding option.

Las Vegas McCarron Airport Terminal 3 Concourse E

The new terminal 3, at McCarron Airport is scheduled to open in June 2012. The new terminal is much like any other airport terminal although there's some big improvements into how to move passengers in and out of the terminal efficiently compared to terminal 1. If you want to get into the details of which airlines and whatnot, check out this PDF provided by McCarron.

Wifi is completely free throughout the terminal, BTW.

Here's a few pictures of the new terminal.

Passenger drop off area

Ticketing area

Self-check luggage terminal

Interesting architecture in the ticketing area

Inside concourse

Gate 7E

Chairs run in an arc and there's plenty of plug-ins for electronics

Welcome to Las Vegas sign inside Concourse E

Moving walkway

Welcome to the United States sign

Looking for CSI Experience at MGM Grand?

Have you ever been at Caesars Palace and cannot find the parking garage? Or find the closest parking for the Apple Store inside the Forum Shops? Or find the best freeway exit to get to Harrah's?

I have lived in Las Vegas for nearly 20 years and every once in a while, I still need a map of the where the nearly 40 casinos are on the Strip. The other day, we were meeting friends for a show at Bally's and running late, so I needed to know which freeway exit to take, then which way to drive on Las Vegas Boulevard, then the quickest route through the casino to the box office. Everything I needed was in a tidy mobile app called Vegas Casino Maps with an overview map of the Las Vegas Strip, plus every casino map on the Strip. I created this app from a personal need and this app comes in handy all the time.

Have you ever wanted to know where the nearest ATM or restroom is? How about what restaurants are at a casino you haven't been to for a while? Do you know where the Voodoo Lounge is at The Palms?

This app will help you navigate the strip like a local. Find out more at http://www.VegasCasinoMaps.com

HootSuite Bulk Upload

If you have been frustrated trying to use the Bulk Upload in Hootsuite.com, here is a free utility that gets the CSV file right the first time. This is an Excel spreadsheet that will optionally randomize your tweets and create output files that can be imported directly into Hootsuite.com in the correct format. There’s no need to tediously manipulate the date format and the endless trial and error, tweeking the file. The file(s) upload correctly the first time, every time.  Here's how it work.

Step 1) Download the Excel File

Step 2) Open the Excel spreadsheet and enter tweets

Step 3) Click this button to check for errors

Step 4) Enter the dates and times in MM/DD/YY HH:SS format

Step 5) Optionally enter a URL that will be shortened

Step 6) Optionally randomize the tweets

Step 7) Create output files

Step 8) Open Hootsuite.com and click the Schedule in Bulk button

Step 9) Click the browse button

Step 10) Double click hootsuite.csv file

Grand Canyon Helicopter Tour from Las Vegas with Papillon

My wife and I took a wonderful helicopter ride from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon this weekend with Papillon Helicopter Tours.  We had an awesome time, and the operation was first-class all around, well worth the price and was quite romantic having a champagne picnic inside the canyon.

The actual trip takes a half hour of flight to the picnic area, a half hour picnic and a half hour flight back and when you add in the drive to Boulder City, weigh-in, safety video, pictures and all, it takes about 4 hours from start to finish.

I thought all of their helicopters were white with a multi-color emblem, but we rode in a red EC-130 helicopter, 3 seats in front, 4 seats in back.  Jim was our skilled, friendly pilot, tour guide, chef and photographer, which is more than a few hats to wear and he was excellent in every aspect, so we made sure to tip him at the end of the trip.

The temperature inside the canyon is pretty much the same as Las Vegas so dress appropriately.  If it's hot in Las Vegas, it's going to be hot inside the canyon and best to schedule an early flight.  The aircraft has air conditioning and individual headsets so you can talk directly to the pilot but we all just listened to the pilot/tour guide and took pictures on the way out, nobody talked.

On the flight to the canyon, there are excellent views of Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam whereas the return flight is more direct over the desert and not as scenic but breathtaking nonetheless.

The helicopter is very stable and the ride is very similar to what you experience when a commercial airplane is in the landing pattern, which is a little bumpy at times, but not bad and the flight is only a half hour.  At the picnic area, helicopters kept coming until there were maybe 6 or 7 groups that all gathered together inside the picnic area.  And 1/2 hour is not much time to eat, meet the other passengers and take pictures, so make sure you take the time to get the photos you want first.  In my opinion, a picture with the helicopter and river in the background really captures the moment.

DotNetNuke 6.0 Skin, change icon inside the search box

If you have ever wanted to know how to change the icon inside the search box inside DNN, this blog will show you how.  The default icon is the DotNetNuke symbol show below.  For reference, we are using DotNetNuke 6.x, with the DarkNight MegaMenu skin.

1) Open the skin .ascx file, and look for this line

                <dnn:SEARCH ID="dnnSearch" runat="server" UseDropDownList="true" EnableTheming="true" Submit="Search" />

2) Change the line to something similar to this

                <dnn:SEARCH ID="dnnSearch" runat="server" UseDropDownList="true" EnableTheming="true" Submit="Search" SiteIconURL="~/Portals/_default/skins/DarkKnight/images/mto.png" />

mto.png is a custom 16x16 pixel image that was manually placed into the images directory.

3) Save the skin file, then refresh the page