{"id":93,"date":"2020-04-29T15:30:35","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T15:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/youarenotbeautiful.com\/?p=93"},"modified":"2020-05-02T09:46:52","modified_gmt":"2020-05-02T09:46:52","slug":"conspiracy-capitalism-from-seo-to-sandy-hook-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/youarenotbeautiful.com\/index.php\/2020\/04\/29\/conspiracy-capitalism-from-seo-to-sandy-hook-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Conspiracy Capitalism: From SEO To Sandy Hook \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What would you do to get those clicks on your website?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It depends on the era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I said in Part I<\/a>, in the early days you just had to have an idea, a domain name and a website with pertinent content. Find a few relevant forums and share some links. I\u2019m going to quickly talk about how I promoted a real website for a number of years and then take it into the realm of fiction to explore how things might have gone if the site hadn\u2019t folded before the advent of social media. I\u2019ll endeavour to make the distinction between real and imagined as the tale progresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take, for example, my old recording studio website<\/a>. It had a fairly unique name, good equipment and was located outside a city in the South West of Ireland. Its main selling points were that it had some great equipment, we could record up to 24 things at the same time, it was in a lovely rural location and could host a full band with self-catering accommodation. I looked at a few other studio websites from around the world and got to work. There was a main page with updated news (who was recording, etc.), a gear page for those who searched for this, a bands page with outgoing links to their websites and Myspace<\/a> pages, and a contact page to make sure nobody had to put too much effort into getting in touch. Now that I had my lovely new website, it was time to reach out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody likes irrelevant information and it was important to me to advertise in the right places and not to annoy any forum moderators or webmasters. This was the main reason that I didn\u2019t want to use that forum spamming software from Part I<\/a> in the wild \u2013 there was enough noise out there and I didn\u2019t want to add to it. I kind of miss that now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I proceeded to identify forums that would attract musicians and friends-of-musicians \u2013 music sites, local<\/a> and Irish<\/a>. At the beginning, it was enough to announce the mere existence of a new recording studio across a number of forums. After this I could post about recordings and releases from bands that had hired the studio, and post about special offers when clients were sparse or the studio just needed a bump. There were industry sites like Mandy<\/a> and general business directories which I also submitted links to. All I wanted was to get as many credible links into \u2013 and out of \u2013 my studio site as possible, without overdoing it. I wanted to give these mysterious search engines the impression that there was some kind of conversation going on in the internet about the studio. We also used more traditional methods to get the word out \u2013 flyers, business cards, banner ads, gigs, prizes, interviews and the occasional remix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an organic, hands-on process. Always looking for new places to get those links out and the awareness up. Trying not to overdo it and get a bad name. The internet was a smaller place then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In time, if you wanted to find a half-decent \u2013 cheap \u2013 recording studio in Ireland, Blue Monkey Studio would likely appear on your first search page. Job done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The studio shut down in 2007 and the website faded out a year later. If it had gone on longer, I would have had to engage more with Web 2.0<\/a> – social media and a more involved marketing strategy. A sharing place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s project into a retrospeculative future, and imagine what a potential story would be for Blue Monkey Studio as the internet turns into the 2010\u2019s. Facebook and YouTube are becoming the face of the internet for most \u2013 smaller and more niche sites are getting side-lined by these giants\u2019 ease of use and public engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***Start of fantasy.***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first instinct would be to write interesting audio-related articles that might have a broader reach and could be shared on social media. Perhaps a piece on the Loudness War[1]<\/a>. Whatever gets clicks on the site. Lower quality, but higher traffic. People will come for the article and maybe they\u2019ll be musicians, or they\u2019ll know musicians, and those musicians will want to record in the studio? I write and I share. The article goes a little viral. I make a short YouTube video to accompany it and keep writing \u2013 10 Things To Know Before Recording In A Studio, Analogue & Digital: What\u2019s The Difference?, Drummers! What\u2019s Really Going On In Their Heads?, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m getting plenty of site visits (according to my web stats), but business isn\u2019t increasing. The problem is the geographic agnosticism of social media. The whole (internet) world can access my shared articles and, as such, most of my visitors are coming from the US. These clicks are not likely to be booking into my little studio any time soon. I have the clicks, but not the right product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m now going to tell you how to get EXTREMELY RICH on the internet. Just do EXACTLY what I do \u2013 or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around this time, a friend had been asking me about binaural beat[2]<\/a> frequency music. He\u2019s a yoga guru, psychedelic meditator and always looking for the next big thing (this part of the story is true \u2013 now back to the retro-fantasy). I\u2019ve helped him produce meditation music and generative visuals before, and this sounded interesting. Maybe something I can leverage with the website. I get the synths out and start making little generative music[3]<\/a> apps and tunes with MAX\/MSP<\/a>. In a short time, I have a few CD\u2019s and some software that may, or may not, help with stress, anxiety, concentration, calmness \u2013 and maybe even motivation and confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I have a product and a hook that I need to market to my internet audience. Let\u2019s get back to the #informationsuperhighway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first instinct is to write an article on Binaural Beat Benefits and start sharing it on new-age-y meditation Facebook groups and forums. All links lead back to the new e-commerce shop that I\u2019ve since added to the website. Then I follow up with a video about my \u2018process\u2019, with a few \u2018clients\u2019 talking about how my products have changed their lives. I film in my studio control room with all my impressive tech and hang a few dream-catchers up in the background. I can feel a small part of me disappearing. Ethics? A conscience? Never mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital downloads start to take off and word is spreading, so I add higher resolution recordings for a premium price. Better quality sound makes for a better results, right? People will pay that extra price to remove any doubt. I\u2019m starting to see dollar signs and I\u2019m all over it. I need a niche and I need to own it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trawling through boards and forums for patterns, I start to see strata of concerns bubbling away in the background of these groups. Nutrition, pesticides, GMO\u2019s, electromagnetic radiation, fluoridation, vaccination, alternative cures, Big Pharma and government suppression. Maybe I can hop on one of these trains and exploit some fears for money?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity<\/a> (EHS): \u201ca claimed sensitivity to electromagnetic fields<\/a>, to which negative symptoms are attributed.\u201d I don\u2019t believe that it is a real ailment, but plenty of people do, and I\u2019m going to help them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I begin to ask around online to see if there are any specifics and to gain some knowledge about the scene. It\u2019s a lot of things, but the area I seize on is the 50\/60Hz EMF sensitivity[4]<\/a> and also the perceived flickering in LED lights. Taking my cues from anti-EMF sites like Life Energy Solutions<\/a>, orgonite<\/a> pyramid<\/a> peddlers<\/a> and others<\/a>, I get to thinking\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Falling back on my software and electronics skills and building on my beat frequency meditation products, I might come up with a product like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CalmSense™\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CalmSense™<\/strong> \u2013 \u201ca technology that synchronises with our surrounding electromagnetic fields and cancels out their harmful effects using peaceful beat frequency waves.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n