Promo Blogs

Mike and I (Anastasia) are bloggers now! We had fun checking out the following blogs and giving a shout out to The Last Supper:

theplaygoer.blogspot.com
off-stage-right.com
timeoutny.com (good one!)
whatblows.blogspot.com
thirdrowmezzanine.blogspot.com
broadwaymouth.blogspot.com
r8ny.com (a political blog)
gawker.com (a hipster blog)

Promo Team Master Toolkit

Welcome Promo Team!

Anyone can be a Rising Sun Performance Company promo team member! You will find stuff on this site that needs to be done all the time. We are trying to create a database/site to have all the information we can put together on promoting our great company. Make sure and check back to this blog often to see new ways you can donate your time to RSP! There are lots of things to do - and it's great for people who can't get away from their computer easily, and who like to gossip online. WHO'S WITH ME? For ANYONE including these new team members and ANYONE with some extra time on their hands - you can help me out NOW. I will be inviting EVERYONE to be a member of this blog page where we can promote RSP all the time. If you are new to the page, I recommend starting from the bottom blog, and go to the top - and HAVE FUN WITH IT! BOOKMARK THIS SITE UNDER "BORED ONLINE!"

Tools/Links
Site Links
Twitter http://twitter.com/RisingSunNYC

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rising-Sun-Performance-Company/72782700369

Myspace
www.myspace.com/risingsunperformanceco

Blog
http://risingsunnyc.blogspot.com

Café Press
http://shop.cafepress.com/rising-sun-performance-company

The Field
https://www.thefield.org/ContributionToSA.aspx?

Smarttix
www.smarttix.com

Horse TRADE
www.horsetrade.info

New York IT Awards
www.nyitawards.com

Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/rspnyc

Member Log in for Google Docs, Gmail & Blog
DO NOT CHANGE PASSWORD OR SHARE PASSWORD
Rising Sun Members
risingsunmember@gmail.com
rspmember2008


The 5 Basic elements of promoting your show!

1) IN PERSON/WORD OF MOUTH/POSTCARD TO HAND
ALWAYS have show postcards on your person. Talk about it, enthusiasm is contagious. Don’t “sell” talk about your rehearsals, what excites you about the show, and WHY YOU are doing it. Then whip out a postcard and ask them to check it out. Give them your discount code.

2) POSTCARDING & POSTERING
This is a big one and everyone needs to pitch in!
Team up with one to 3 people, have a bag of posters/flyers, rolls of packing tape, and postcards.
Be friendly, polite and smile, always ask a business where you can hang a flyer and drop off postcards. People are much more willing to help if you ask nicely. Team up and give yourself 2 to 4 hours to really sweep your selected neighborhood. I like to work in a grid pattern. For example: Select a 10 block radius based around two avenues, work your way across the “Cross streets” hitting each store front and surface that you think you wont get arrested for plastering with posters for the show. DO NOT Post on MTA or City Property!! Drop off small stacks of postcards. The point is if a person sees the show online, then a poster, and then gets handed a postcard, its name will stay with them. We want people to say “oh yeah” I’ve heard of that show. We want people talking about it! Word of mouth is key!

3) PERSONAL EMAIL
• An Email Template will be emailed to everyone along with a link to our Eblast HTML
• We encourage you to send a personal note to your friends, family, associates
• You should send a total of 4 emails out
• At Three Weeks to show- Send out first Email
• At One Week Send out a reminder “Our show opens this week”
• After the show opens: Share any reviews, let your friends know how opening week went, encourage them to get tickets in advance
• After a month of the show running, send a reminder! Its not too late you didn’t miss it!
Send a thank you email to anyone who attended the show. This includes friends and family. It makes them want to come out and support you again.

4) SOCIAL MEDIA- YUP YOU KNOW IT WELL- TWITTER, FACEBOOK, BLOGS
See the tasks below for the many tips and ways to utilize this
Read the online articles that we’ve posted on our promo blog

5) SNAIL MAIL- YEAH I SAID IT
Write a personal letter or note and include it with the postcard. In this day and age of email and texting, a handwritten note or letter or even typed letter goes a LONG way! Don’t overlook this.


LET’S HAVE A QUICKIE SHALL WE?

Step by Step Easy Mini tasks for Promotions
Try to accomplish one of these per week!
These tasks take anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour!
Just think if we are all doing these projects the buzz and word of mouth that we will generate!

1st Task - Find NYC Theater Blogs
This is going to be like a treasure hunt. I want you to find 5 NYC theater blogs - on each blog, find something to comment on, and comment away! As proof, you must copy the blog link and paste all of them as a comment on the Promo Blog!

2nd Task - Chat Rooms!
Find 5 chatrooms with New York theater people in them. No empty rooms and no making new rooms! Find a way to put our website link into the discussion, then copy and paste part of your discussion as a comment here. This is a lot of fun, and you never know who is there!
Try Chat Roulette!

3rd Task - How Many Times Can You Find RSP?
Do a search and see how many places RSP is talked about, reviewed, and listed.
Post a comment on the Promo Blog with links to 10 sites or more. Try not to repeat anyone else's links and see how well you do. Find articles, mentions, etc- post your own comments!
Copy and paste those links to your facebook profile!

4th Task - List The Show!
Find 10 places our shows haven't been listed in yet on the web and create the listings. Copy and paste the listing link to a comment here so we know how to do it for the next time. And make sure to tell us if it's just an email submission, or if we can submit our show listing manually online - it will help speed us up in the future!

Fifth Task- PROMO Ideas
Do you have any great *CHEAP* promotional/fund raising idea? Can you find sites online that can help out non-profit marketing? Do you know people who will give you a discount on printing because you wore a pink tank-top yesterday? Well then - POST IT on BLOG SPOT

6th Task - Do You & Yours Know How To SHOP?
You & everyone you know should be shopping thru our donation site. Have you emailed all of your friends about it? It's something they can do where we both win!
Find a funny way to send out the message to them - and share with us your secret!
Send it out now and don't forget to post some of the funny comments you get back.

7th Task- Promoting the Blogs- Part 1 a 3 step process
1) Subscribe to the blog (Go the the blog and hit subscribe on the left side bar)

2) Send out an email to your friends and associates asking them to check out the blog and subscribe if it interests them. (If you'd like sample text to send)

3) Post the Blog Links on your Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Website
http://risingsunnyc.blogspot.com --- Company Blog
http://thelastsupperliveonstage.blogspot.com --- Last Supper Show
http://lastsupperroommates.blogspot.com --- Last Supper Roommate Blog

4) Facebook Saavy? Link our RSS Feed to your Facebook account!
8TH TASK- TWEET TWEET
Rising Sun & Last Supper the Show both have Twitter Accounts
You can get account access info from Akia

1) Sign up for a twitter account
2) Follow RisingSunNYC & Last Supper
3) Tweet from RisingSun’s account (Get access from Akia)
4) Take the online Twitter how to tutorial
5) Follow theatre lists
6) Start creating topics

9TH TASK- CAN WE HAVE A PIECE OF YOUR JOHN HANCOCK?
All of us use email right? Include in your auto signature a blurb about the show, link to our ticketing page, blog or website or all 3!

10TH TASK- LEMME SEE YOUR FACE!
There a tons of simple easy things to do on Facebook to help promote

1) Make sure you are a FAN of Rising Sun & Last Supper Pages
2) Once you are a FAN can ask all of your FRIENDS to be fans
a. Go to the top Left of Fan Page, Under photo there is a link that says “Suggest page to friends”. Click on it. All of your friends, at bottom there is a section that says add a personal message. Do add one. Just keep it short “Hi, This is the Show/Theatre Company that I am involved with, I would love your support. Please fan us! Thanks NAME”
3) INVITE to the events
b. Invite ALL of your friends to the Events “ One Acts Reading Series” & “The Last Supper” they are listed in boxes on the left side of Fan Pages. When you go to the event page, on the middle right there is a link that says invite friends. It works the same way as suggesting a page to become a fan. Also include a personal note.
4) SHARE
c. “Share” the page- On the left page- same area of the suggest button. There is a button/link that says Share- this allows you to post it to your page AND direct message your facebook friends! Do it! 

11TH TASK- RECRUIT AN ARMY
Do you have really cool friends? Sure you do? Any that really love you?
Ask for help! Help us create a street team of people who are excited about the work you do and what rising sun does. Share these tasks with them. Ask them to help! Pay it forward!

Blogging & Twitter Topics to get you started
A few simple topics to get you started on your first blog & Twitter Post

Rising Sun Performance Company's Blog:
1. Introduce yourself to our followers, keep it honest & simple.
2. Why Are you excited to be a part of the company?
3. Your audition experience for the company
4. Call back Experience
5. The One Acts vetting process
6. The One Acts Readings (are you directing? Wanting to be cast?)
Roommates Blog:
1. What’s in the Garden? What seeds did you plant? Vegetables you're excited about?
2. Why did you become a vegan?
3. Are you cooking a group dinner this week? What’s the menu?
4. Did you discover a new website, show or blog you want to share?
Last Supper Live on Stage Blog/Twitter:
1. Introduce yourself to our followers, keep it honest & simple.
2. Why Are you excited to be a part of the show?
3. Your audition experience for the company?
4. Call back Experience?
5. Designers you can talk about inspiration or the creative process
6. Share a rehearsal story

DO YOU HAVE MORE TIME? WE HAVE 4 BIG PROJECTS
Contact Akia if you can take one of these on!

PRESS AND MEDIA
We need to update our NYC Press & Media database.
This will consist of gathering contact info, listing, address, website, etc and creating a database

Artistic Audits, Government, and Foundation contacts and info
We want to send invitations to our local and state government, as well as invite foundations and government agencies/funding to conduct artistic audits. We need to create a database for invitations

Membership Contacts
We want to gather a mailing list from every member and guest artist in the company
Complete name
Postal mailing address – be sure they include correct postal codes
Email lists
Everyone should try to contribute at least 15 names each.

FLYERING AND POSTERING Coordination

About three weeks before each show opens visit the cast and drop off flyers and postcards to the stage manager. Arrange a “postering/flyering” night once a week among the company for the next three weeks. Assign areas/neighborhoods to each person, and encourage everyone to carry postcards and flyers with them at all time. POST EVERYWHERE.

Postcard mailing:
• You will need to coordinate a location and time, and get the cast together to get this done
• You will need to print out labels. (If printing is a problem- get all of the labels prepared online/in word and email to Akia, she can get them printed up)
• You will need to purchase the stamps- Get $$ from staff.

Postcard/Poster Distribution:
• Postering/Postcard distro should start 2 weeks prior to the show, and continue every week during the run. Everyone in RSP should be involved. Get HELP!
• You will need to create routes to distribute postcards & posters and assign teams of 2-3 to do the routes. It is best to organize a couple of days where everyone can meet at a central location, get the cards and their routes/buddies and make an afternoon of it.
• It is best to do it by neighborhood/Street. (I.e Crystal & Julie has 1 & 2nd Avenue Houston to St Marks, Adam & Ollie has 9th Street to 14th Street, etc)
• You will need to prepare bags with postcards, Posters, Printed Route, and 2-4 Rolls of packing Tape for Each Team.
• Each Team should be able to get rid of 100 posters and 200-500 Postcards in about 2-4 Hours.
• You should also look into any gatherings or events that might draw a crowd interested in our show. Outdoor events in the park, parades, ,music events, etc. get a team together to hand out postcards.

A Beginners Guide to Facebook

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page7430.cfm

Press Release Information

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Emily Owens PR emily@emilyowenspr.com 972.743.3746

HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP

PRESENTS A
RISING SUN PERFORMANCE COMPANY
PRODUCTION OF

THE LAST SUPPER

WRITTEN BY DAN ROSEN
DIRECTED BY AKIA

“Eat, Drink, Be Buried”

PREVIEWS APRIL 22, 23, & 24
APRIL 28-AUGUST 25
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT @ THE RED ROOM

The Rising Sun Performance Company presents the main stage selection of their 9th season: THE LAST SUPPER, the New York City stage adaptation premiere of the 1995 cult film by Dan Rosen. Artistic Director Akia (Hellcab, Good Night Lovin' Trail) gathers an impressive cast and crew of over 40 NYC theatre artists. The show is double cast with 26 performers who will rotate throughout the 18 week run. THE LAST SUPPER will also feature an original music score by film composer & Blue Man Group performer Christopher Bowen (9.99 & Jellyfish).

THE LAST SUPPER follows a group of liberal minded roommates, and their well-meaning descent into murder. After a dinner party goes wrong and their guest ends up unexpectedly slain after a violent political debate, the group decides that this can be their way of changing the world and making a difference…one unreasonable conservative at a time. They begin inviting guests over for dinner and political discussion. If they can't change their guests mind through "intelligent" conversation and debate, they end their lives "humanely" by poisoning them. With each dinner, and the bodies mounting, the roommate’s relationships to one another and reality quickly begin to unravel.

THE LAST SUPPER will feature a rotating cast, which includes Alexia Tate, Anastasia D. Peterson, Anthony Mead, April E. Bennett, Ariel Heller, Barry Kennedy, Becky Sterling, Ben Friesen, Christopher Enright, David Anthony, Erik Gullberg, J.L. Reed, Jeff Ronan, Jessica Ritacco, Joe Beaudin, Larry Gutman, Leal Vona, Lindsay Beecher, Mariana Guillen , Matt Riker, Michael Bernardi, Michael Jones, Michael McManus, Nicole Howard, Patrick J. Egan & Susan Burns.

The creative team will include Christopher Bowen (Musical Score), Dan Jobbins (Lighting Design), Ryan Kilcourse (Sound Design), Matthew Kreiner (Media Design), Tiffini Minatel (Costume Design), Jak Prince (Set Design), and Turner Smith (Fight Direction).

The production, presented by Horse Trade Theater Group and Rising Sun Performance Company, will play at The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) April 28-August 25, every Wednesday night at 8pm, following preview performances on April 22, 23, & 24 at 8pm. Tickets ($18) are available by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.horseTRADE.info

DAN ROSEN (Playwright) is a filmmaker and playwright. His first film, The Last Supper, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. It also played at the London Film Festival, Sundance, and won Best Film at the prestigious Congac Film Festival of Thrillers. His directing debut, Dead Man’s Curve premiered at Sundance and went on to make a number of top ten film lists. The Last Supper is his first play.

AKIA (Director/Producer/Founding Artistic Director) is an active member of the flourishing Off-Off/Indie & Off Broadway theatre communities having produced, directed, and performed with numerous NYC companies since 1997. Akia is the Company Manager for the international sensation, The Blue Man Group at the Astor Place Theater. Proudly, she is the Founding Artistic Director of the Rising Sun Performance Company, now in entering its ninth season, and has been involved on all levels with each of its 35+ productions. She is a Board Member of The Paul Butterfield Fund & Society, and Company Manager for The New York Innovative Theatre Foundation, where she serves on their honorary awards committee as Sub-Committee Chairman and as an At-Large Judge. Past notable credits include working on staff at Horse Trade Theatre Group, serving as General Manager for FRIGID New York’s inaugural year, and returning as Volunteer Coordinator in 2009; she also served as Production Coordinator for nationally acclaimed Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, overseeing the playwrights unit and INSIGHT 13 production series. Akia has worked as a contributing writer & reviewer for NYtheatre.com and scene4magazine. She is best known for her directing work for RSP’s hit show Hellcab which ran for 13 sold out weeks at UNDER St Marks to rave reviews.

Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Rising Sun Performance Company's (RSP) mission is to advance the vitality and diversity of American theater by nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships, and contributing new works and revitalized pre-existing work to the national canon. Rising Sun Performance Company realizes this goal by providing a safe artistic home that stimulates risk-taking without limits of genre or agenda.

Praise for RSP’s hit show HellCab , directed by Akia

“The young, hip cast is smartly directed by Akia…. and bring to life a number of unforgettable characters. This is a little gem hidden in the dark Under St. Mark’s.” Robin Reed, The L Magazine

“Director Akia keeps the pace brisk and navigates fourteen actors through at least twice that many roles seamlessly and effectively.” Martin Denton, nytheatre.com

“Director Akia and writer Will Kern put together a bizarre and wonderful production evoking a myriad of emotions from the audience.” Anusha Alikhan, New York Cool

“The Play’s Director, Akia keeps it moving at a steady pace and sets up some nice comic business.” Tom Penketh, Backstage

HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP is a self-sustaining theater development group; with a focus on new work, it has produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater. Horse Trade’s Resident Artist Program offers a home to a select group of Independent Theater artists, pooling together a great deal of talent and energy. It is also the home of FRIGID New York – the first and only festival of its kind in New York City.


# # # #

www.risingsunnyc.com
www.horseTRADE.info

Event Link for Last Supper & Logo

My Event Link
Deep Links are good!
Deep Links increase your ticket sales!
Deep Links connect your web site visitors to the the event/purchase page on our website with one click.
Deep Links should be used on websites and marketing emails

The Deep Link url for your event is:

http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=LAS18

Get the SmartTix Purchase Button: Copy the HTML code below and send it to your web desiger to and you will have the deep link and purchase button for The Last Supper included in your website and emails. (Don't copy the start/stop copy lines. Copy only the text between the start/stop copy lines).

Copy this HTML Code for deep link to the purhase page of .

*******Start Copy*******

*******Stop Copy*******

When you paste the above code into your webpage, the folllowing button and deeplink will be on your website.

Blogging Topics to get you started

A few simple topics to get you started on your first blog


Rising Sun Performance Company's Blog:

1. Introduce yourself to our followers, keep it honest & simple.
2. Why Are you excited to be a part of the company?
3. Your audition experience for the company
4. Call back Experience
5. The One Acts vetting process
6. The One Acts Readings (are you directing? Wanting to be cast?)

Roommates Blog:

1. Whats in the Garden? What seeds did you plant? Vegetables you're excited about?
2. Why did you become a vegan?
3. Are you cooking a group dinner this week? Whats the menu?
4. Did you discover a new website, show or blog you want to share?

Last Supper Live on Stage Blog:

1. Introduce yourself to our followers, keep it honest & simple.
2. Why Are you excited to be a part of the show?
3. Your audition experience for the company?
4. Call back Experience?
5. Designers you can talk about inspiration or the creative process
6. Share a rehearsal story

The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing

The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing
by Sonia Simone

Last Friday I was in Atlanta, where I gave a talk on social media marketing at Dan Kennedy’s InfoSUMMIT conference.
I’m something of a fish out of water at a Glazer-Kennedy event. For example, unlike at Blogworld, I’m the only person in a room of 800 who has pink hair.
I wasn’t sure they’d be too receptive to what I had to say, but they surprised me.
They were warm, welcoming, and extremely interested in my no-shortcuts, no-magic-beans answers to their questions about how to use social media for marketing and business.
So in honor of Dan Kennedy, who sometimes styles himself as the “Professor of Harsh Reality,” I thought I’d talk today about some of the not-so-kumbaya aspects of social media marketing.

Harsh Reality #1: No one is reading your blog
As far as anyone can figure, there are about 200 million blogs around the world. Technorati tells us there are about 900,000 blog posts made every 24 hours.
The world is not waiting breathlessly to hear what you have to say about losing weight with acai berries, making big money as an affiliate marketer, or how to join your Secrets of the Breakthrough Millionaire Insider Guru Mastermind Platinum Club.
Me-too content gets ignored. Scraped and remixed junk won’t cut it. There’s too much good content that you need to compete with. And there’s no magic system that can replace sitting in front of your keyboard and producing something that somebody wants to read. (Or partnering with someone who can.) If you don’t have a great answer to the question “Why should anyone read your blog?” you’re going to be pretty unhappy with your results. That’s why we spend so much time teaching you how to produce better, smarter, more effective content.

Harsh Reality #2: You’ve got to give (some of) your best stuff away
It’s very natural to expect to get paid for what you do. And you should have a business model that leads to exactly that. But first, you’ve got some dues to pay.
Commenter Corree Silvera mentioned her favorite Brian Clark quote from this year’s Blogworld Expo: Don’t sacrifice a lot of money later for a little money now.
The answer to the question in Harsh Reality #1, “why should anyone read your blog?” is that you’re going to give away some of your best, most valuable, most life-improving material away for free, within a well-defined content marketing plan.
Just remember Sean d’Souza’s bikini concept. You can give 90% of it away, but there will always be people who will happily pay to see that last 10%.

Harsh Reality #3: It will eat your life (if you let it)
Social media marketing would be pretty easy if we never had to eat, sleep, shower, or hang out with our kids. But if doing those things is important to you, you’re going to have to set some boundaries. Know what you want to do with social media, keep yourself focused, and set a timer if you have to. The tools are amazing, but so is their power to distract you from what you’re trying to accomplish.

Harsh Reality #4: Social media hates selling
Is there anything more pitiful than that guy who gets on Twitter and won’t shut up about how he can put you in a condo today with no money down despite your lousy credit rating? Even the spammers are blocking this dude.
It’s really hard to sell products and services in social media, mostly because this audience hates salespeople worse than they hate Microsoft. You may be able to get some limited success out of it, but more likely you’ll be banned, blocked, shunned, and abused.
Instead of promoting a product or service, promote fantastic content. Promote a great special report or an amazingly valuable email course. Promote wonderful stuff that you’re giving away.
Use excellent free stuff to build authority and trust. Then you have the right to make an offer and possibly do some business. Not before.

Harsh Reality #5: What they say is a million times more important than what you say
Your marketing might be beautifully executed. You might have a special report that goes more viral than H1N1, a great-looking blog that hits Digg twice a day, and an email marketing sequence that copywriting genius Gene Schwartz would have been proud to write.
If your reputation sucks, none of it matters.
People with lousy products, crummy business practices, and shady backgrounds get found out. And word spreads with frightening speed.
Treat people right, because if you don’t, you will be exposed. And it will not be pretty.

Harsh Reality #6: A blog is not a marketing plan
Blogs are cool, but a single useful tool isn’t the same thing as a solid business and marketing plan.
Blogs are just one way to get your best content out there, and they work best when you pair them up with email autoresponders, special reports, Twitter, and any of a dozen other powerful tools. Just hanging out and being cool isn’t enough. If you’re in social media to do business, you have to develop a strategy for taking mildly interested strangers and turning them into raving fans . . . and customers.

Harsh Reality #7: You don’t get to opt out
Businesses that think they can ignore all this “Twitter stupidity” tend to get painfully rude awakenings.
The conversation will happen with or without you. You definitely don’t need to respond to every chucklehead with a Facebook account (and you shouldn’t), but you need to keep your ear to the ground, and you need a clue.

OK, enough about harsh reality already! If you want our best advice about what to do to create a great online business, subscribe to Internet Marketing for Smart People, the Copyblogger email newsletter. It’s some of our best stuff, no junk, no fluff. And of course we will never, ever spam you or share your information with anyone.

10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers

10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers
by Brian Clark

The question I seem to be getting over and over these days is…
How did you get 6,000 subscribers in 10 months?

The answer is simple—I value subscribers more than any other measure of blog success, such as page views or raw traffic. Subscribers are the life blood of a successful blog in my opinion, and frankly, I wish I had more of them.
OK, that may be a bit vague.

So here are 10 specific strategies you can begin to implement today and start getting more blog subscribers right away.

1. Make it easy and obvious
As I’ve said before in more detail, make your subscription options prominent, offer an email alternative to RSS, and ask for the subscription, preferably at the bottom of each post.

2. Be laser focused
Make sure that you are primarily focusing on a particular topic, and the more specialized that topic is, the better you’ll do. It’s also key to step back and evaluate whether there are enough prospective readers in your chosen niche. It’s better to be brutally honest with yourself than to toil away and end up disappointed.

3. Offer a bribe
Relax, it’s nothing illegal. It’s an ethical bribe, in the form of a free ebook, report, e-course or audio series. Typically this only works with email subscriptions tied to autoresponders, because you want to condition delivery of the bonus on subscription.
But here’s a nifty way to do it with RSS:
If you have a WordPress blog, use the free Feedvertising plugin to link to the download page for your free gift. Since Feedvertising links only show up in the feed (and not in the post), only feed subscribers will see the link and have access to the bonus.

4. Use viral ebooks
This is a spin on the ethical bribe strategy, but instead you let other people give away your PDF ebook or even bundle it for sale with other products. The PDF in turn promotes your blog. Check out this post to see how I bundled my free Viral Copy report with a book that spent several days at the top of the Amazon bestseller list.

5. Dedicated subscription landing page
Create a page that is dedicated to nothing more than obtaining a subscription, and drive traffic to it from your blog, AdWords, or really any other source you want. You can even put it on a unique URL, and add in the ethical bribe strategy to increase signups. For more information on doing this with AdWords, read this article, and then this one.

6. Become a guest blogger
Contributing content to someone else’s blog may seem crazy, but it’s a solid strategy to gain exposure for your own blog and build your subscriber base. Just make it very clear to the blog owner that you require a very brief byline at the end of the post, with a link back to your site. And make sure it’s original content, not something recycled off of your blog.

7. Start a podcast
Start a related podcast on your subject matter, and get it into iTunes and listed in the various podcasting directories. Mention your blog in every episode and the benefits of subscribing, and try to land some interviews with prominent players in your niche. Not only will you be opening up a new promotional channel, you’re also creating bonus content that can be reused as part of your ethical bribe campaign for new subscribers.

8. Post in forums
A tried and true technique since the earliest days of the Internet is to be a helpful, proactive participant in forums that are important in your niche. People will notice that you are offering yourself up to others, and will be more inclined to see what else you have to offer with your blog.

9. Networking
This is perhaps the most overlooked strategy for gaining traffic and subscribers. Don’t badger other bloggers for links, because it rarely works anymore. Find a way to help them with something, and then eventually work that initial graciousness into a business relationship and even friendship. There are real people behind these blogs, and they respond to good will just like people do offline.

10. Cross-promotional deals
Here’s another cool way to make use of the Feedvertising plugin for WordPress.
Find a blogger that publishes related, but non-competitive content. Work out a deal where you both promote each other in your RSS feeds, using Feedvertising. If one blog has way more subscribers than the other, work out a ratio deal. Since Feedvertising allows you to create up to six rotating links, the smaller blog would promote the other blog continuously, while the larger blog would reserve one slot for the smaller blog, and use the other slots for other cross-promotion deals, affiliate links, or sponsor ads.

So there you have it, with one additional word of caution.

All of the above presupposes that you are producing the best content you can. If you honestly cannot say that you are doing your best work content-wise, start there. But afterwards, using some or all of the above will definitely increase your subscriber count.

BLOG WRITING SCHEDULE

Hi Folks,
To help streamline and keep a consistant voice, I'm going to assign blog weeks
Here is the assigned blog schedule.

February 22nd-February 28th
Last Supper On Stage- Tiffini, Akia
Rising Sun Co Blog- Alexia, Matthew
Roommates Blog - Barry, Lindsay

March 1st thru March 7th
Last Supper On Stage- Chris Enright, Michael McManus
Rising Sun Co Blog- Riker, April
Roommates Blog - David, Anastasia

March 8th thru 14th
Last Supper On Stage- Anthony, Larry,
Rising Sun Co Blog- Flor, Jonathan,
Roommates Blog - Michael B, JL

March 15th thru 21st
Last Supper On Stage-Susan, Becky
Rising Sun Co Blog- Jason V, Mia
Roommates Blog - Jeff, Niki

March 22nd thru 28th
Last Supper On Stage- Dan V, Kelly H
Rising Sun Co Blog- Jermaine, Samantha
Roommates Blog - Becky, Lindsay

March 29th thru April 4th
Last Supper On Stage- Tiffany H, Akia
Rising Sun Co Blog- Carley, Michael Jones
Roommates Blog - New Mark, Barry

April 5th thru 11th
Last Supper On Stage- Riker, Ben, Larry
Rising Sun Co Blog- Jonathan, April
Roommates Blog - JL, David

April 12th thru 18th
Last Supper On Stage- Alexia, Marianna,
Rising Sun Co Blog- Susan, Lindsay
Roommates Blog - Becky, Anastasia

April 19th thru 25th
Last Supper On Stage- Erik, Patrick, Joe B
Rising Sun Co Blog- Riker, McManus,
Roommates Blog - JL, Michael B

April 26th thru May 2nd
Last Supper On Stage- Alexia, Akia, Kelly H
Rising Sun Co Blog- Olivia, Joseph Faranda
Roommates Blog - David, New Mark, JL

Basic Postcard Drop Off Locations

Postcard & Poster Routes

Here is a starter list for places that you can leave your postcards, as well as general routes that you can do postering.

General Neighborhood “sweeps”- You should be sure cover 1st Avenue, 2nd Avenue, 3rd Avenues Going from Houston up through 14th Street. Most businesses are very open to allowing postcards and posters as long as you are polite and ASK before posting. You should plan on doing at least two “sweeps” one prior to the opening of your show and one during the run of your show.

Theatres – All of these theatres have postcards in their lobbies.
· Actors' Playhouse, 100 7th Ave. (btw. Bleecker St. & 4th St.)
· Astor Place Theater, 434 Lafayette St. (btw. 4th St. & Astor Pl.) (212)254-4370
· Atlantic Theater, 336 W. 20th St. (btw. 8th Ave. & 9th Ave.)
· Bank Street Theatre, 155 Bank St. (btw. Washington St. & West St.) 591-0564
· Bleecker 45, 45 Bleecker St. (btw. Broadway & Lafayette St.)
· The Blue Angel Theatre, 323 W. 44th St. (btw. 8th Ave. & 9th Ave.)
· Bouwerie Lane Theater, 330 Bowery (@ Bond St.) 677-0060
· Century Theater, 111 E. 15th St. (@ Union Sq. East)
· Cherry Lane Theater, 38 Commerce St. (btw. Bedford St. & Hudson St.)
· Classic Stage Co., 136 E. 13th St. (btw. 3rd Ave & 4th Ave.) 677-4210
· Connelly Theatre, 220 East 4th St. (btw. Ave. A & Ave. B)
· Daryl Roth Theater, 20 Union Square East (@ 15th St.)
· Expanded Arts, 113 Ludlow St. (btw. Delancey & Rivington St.)
· Fez, 380 Lafayette St (@ Great Jones St.)
· Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street
· Greenwich House Theater, 27 Barrow St. (@ 7th Ave. South) 541-8441
· Greenwich Street Theater, 547 Greenwich St. (btw. Charlton & Vandam)
· Grove Street Playhouse, 39 Grove St. (@ 7th Ave.)
· HERE, 145 Avenue of the Americas (btw. Spring & Dominick)
· Jane Street Theater, 113 Jane St. (@ W. Side Highway) 239-6200
· La Mama, 74A East 4th St. (btw. 2nd Ave. & 3rd Ave.)
· Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher St. (btw. Hudson St. & Bleecker St.)
· Martin R. Kaufman Theater, 534 W. 42nd St. (btw. 10th Ave. & 11th Ave.)
· Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane (Just E. of 6th Ave.)
· The Mint Theater, 311 W. 43rd St. (btw. 8th Ave. & 9th Ave.)
· New York Theatre Workshop, 79 E 4th St. (btw. Bowery & 2nd Ave.) 460-5475
· New York Performance Works, 128 Chambers St. (Just E. of W. Broadway)
· Ohio Theatre, 66 Wooster St. (btw. Spring & Broome St.)
· P.S. 122, 150 1st Ave (@ 9th St.), (212) 477-5288
· Pearl Theatre Company, 80 St. Marks Pl. (btw. 1st Ave. & 2nd Ave.) 598-9802
· Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal St. (btw. W 3rd St. & Minetta Ln.) 239-6200
· Primary Stages, 354 W. 45th St. (btw. 8th Ave. & 9th Ave.) 212-333-4052
· Producers Club, 358 West 44th St. (btw. 8th Ave. & 9th Ave.)
· (Joseph Papp) Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St. (btw. Astor Pl. & 4th St.)
· The Rattlestick Theatre, 224 Waverly Place (just W. of 7th Ave.)
· Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam St. (btw. 6th Ave & 7th Ave)
· Sullivan Street Playhouse, 181 Sullivan St. (btw. Houston St. & Bleeker St.) 674-3838
· Theater for the New City, 155 1st Ave. (btw. 9th St. & 10th St.) 633-1292
· Union Square Theater, 100 E. 17th St. (btw. Union Square E. & Irving Pl.) 307-4100
· Variety Arts Theatre, 110 3rd Ave. (btw. 13th St. & 14th St)
· Vineyard Theatre, 108 E. 15th St. (@ Union Square East) 353-3874 Home Page
· Wings Theatre, 154 Christopher St. (W. of Washington St.)
Rehearsal Studios
Ripley Grier 520 8th Avenue at 37th St 16th Fl
Fazil’s 8th Avenue & 46th Street
Drama Bookshop 42nd street btw 8th & 9th Aves
Emerging Artists 311 West 43rd St 5th Fl
Chelsea Studios 152 W 26th St 6th Floor btwn 6th & 7th Aves
Champion Studios 257 West 39th St 14th Floor Btw 7th & 8th Aves
Shetler Studios 939 8th Avenue btw 55th & 56th Streets
Shetler Studios 244 West 54th street 12th Floor Btw Broadway & 8th Ave
Nola Studios 250 West 54th St 11th Fl

Bars & Hotels
Splash Bar 50 West 17th St, Btw 5th & 6th Ave
Washington Square Hotel 103 Waverly Place
W- Union Square Hotel 201 Park Avenue South
Mercer Hotel 99 Prince St
Yaffa Café 97 St Marks Place
Garage 99 7th Avenue South at Grove St
The Duplex 61 Christopher St
Roses Turn 55 Grove St
Brandy’s Piano Bar 235 East 84th Street
Baggott Inn 82 West 3rd Street
Collective Unconscious 279 Church Street @ White St

BLOG IT!

BLOG BLOG BLOG- Part 1a 3 step process

1) Subscribe to the blog (Go the the blog and hit subscribe on the left side bar)

2) Send out an email to your friends and associates asking them to check out the blog and subscribe if it interests them. (If you'd like sample text to send)

3) Post the Blog Links on your Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Website

http://risingsunnyc.blogspot.com --- Company Blog

http://thelastsupperliveonstage.blogspot.com --- Last Supper Show

http://lastsupperroommates.blogspot.com --- Last Supper Roommate Blog

6th Task! Do you know how to shop?

You & everyone you know should be shopping thru our donation site.
Have you emailed all of your friends about it? It's something they can do where we both win!

Find a funny way to send out the message to them - and share with us your secret!
Send it out now and don't forget to post some of the funny comments you get back.
Here are the links for SHOPPING RSP!
http://www.cafepress.com/rspc
http://www.dscoupons.com/intro.asp?oid=841

5th Task - Ideas?

5th Task - Ideas?
Do you have any great *CHEAP* promotional/fund raising idea? Can you find sites online that can help out non-profit marketing? Do you know people who will give you a discount on printing because you wore a pink tank-top yesterday? Well then - POST IT HERE!

4th Task - List The Shows!

4th Task - List The Shows!
Find 10 places our shows haven't been listed in yet on the web and create the listings. Copy and paste the listing link to a comment here so we know how to do it for the next time. And make sure to tell us if it's just an email submission, or if we can submit our show listing manually online - it will help speed us up in the future!

3rd Task - How Many Times Can You Find RSP?

3rd Task - How Many Times Can You Find RSP?
Do a search and see how many places RSP is talked about, reviewed, and listed.
Post a comment here with links to 10 sites or more.
Try not to repeat anyone else's links and see how well you do.
Good luck!

2nd Task- Chat Rooms

Your 2nd task - Chat Rooms!
Find 5 chatrooms with New York theater people in them. No empty rooms and no making new rooms! Find a way to put our website link into the discussion, then copy and paste part of your discussion as a comment here. This is a lot of fun, and you never know who is there, Angelina Jolie is known to stalk chatroomers!
Good Luck!

Task 1: NYC Theatre Blogs!

OK - First Task - Find NYC Theater Blogs

This is going to be like a treasure hunt.

I want you to find 5 NYC theater blogs - on each blog, find something to comment on, and comment away!

As proof, you must copy the blog link and paste all of them as a comment here.

Good luck!

Welcome to Promo Team!

Anyone can be a Rising Sun Performance Company promo team member!

You will find stuff on this site that needs to be done all the time.

We are trying to create a database/site to have all the information we can put together on promoting our great company.

Make sure and check back to this blog often to see new ways you can donate your time to RSP!