Ourstage.com

Ok, For those of you who want a chance to break into show business, here is your chance. If you didn't make it on American Idol, you can take a crack at showing off your talent at OurStage.com

OurStage is the only democratic competition where the fans decide who's best in emerging entertainment. That means fans have the real voice - because our patent-pending judging system eliminates cheaters. Artists get a fair shot. The bottom line is, if you're really the best, the fans will drive you to the top.

How does it work?
As an artist, your first step is to upload your music or video and decide which channel competition to enter. Then, fans judge the work side by side with the work of others. Our unique judging capability (called Peer Relative Ranking, but don't worry about that) makes sure that each piece is judged fairly by the real audience no rigging, no cheating, no celebrity judges. At the end of each month, the top 20 and the top 10 in each channel go head-to-head in a special judging channels to determine the winner of that channel, and then a site-wide judging contest to determine our Grand Prize winner. For more information about that, see the Judging section below! As a fan, all you have to do is listen to some great music and give feedback about just how great you think it is. You can win prizes too for doing this - Check out http://www.ourstage.com/go/september

OurStage is a brand new and exciting way for you to succeed as an artist. Our site is designed to leverage the power of the Internet to connect fans to emerging artists. You get exposure to new fans through our ranking and judging system. You can track fans with a fan club and comments. There is a monthly cash prize of $100 for the top entry in each channel and two $5,000 grand prizes; one for music and one for video. You may also get additional exposure and prizes through our partners, such as NEMO, CMJ, Noisepop, Paste, the DV Show and many others.

Make sure you upload your video or music files to the right channel so that it can be judged fairly against others of the same genre.

Judging and competing are just part of the fun, you can also create promotional materials such as banners and other images that can link to your material, so you can promote them on your Facebook,MySpace or other content pages!

Promote yourself and your talent to the max. Competing at OurStage can really get your career moving!

Alexis - already famous

Alexis Says - "Hello i am famous and i don't think it is that great you never get any privacy and to much pressure"

I'm glad to know you are famous, but I think you should only be concerned with the pressure from within; especially as it concerns your performance, skill or expression of talent. Your greatest challenger should always be yourself, not the outside world.

Feeling the pressure of others (ie the press, etc) should be tolerated to some degree, but I hold that what is your private life should remain yours alone. Keep your private life private, live a good and honorable life, and let people talk. Good press and bad press is still press in some peoples minds, and both keep your name in the spot light.

If you no longer crave fame, then you should find a way to move on with your life and chose to do something different, or at least do things in a different way.

Privacy will come with time and patience, just don't let anyone control your feelings about things. Own your life, make good things happen for you and your loved ones and enjoy your good fortune.

Carla - Aspiring actress

One reader 'Carla' wrote "Hello i am in year 8 but i want to be a famous actress like Ashley Tisdale and Hilary Duff etc etc so how do i accomplish this dream of mine because i want to start my acting career right now so how can accomplish that."


It is refreshing to see someone so young have such ambitious goals! What you need to do is get out and audition. Talent can be recognized by chance appearances by agents at a local play, show, or even local TV, but you can also attend casting calls and get in front of the hiring agents directly.

Take a look at http://www.castingsociety.com/actors for some professional casting director information and resources.

Also, go to your local TV studios and check out when they have casting calls for local shows. While you are waiting for the next call, make sure you work on your presence, talent, confidence and self control (especially when speaking.)

Keep your goals in front of you and you can continue to advance your career.

Warmest Regards,

Robert

Self Promotion

If you are starting out in your goal to become famous, you might want to assemble a few tools to help you get your name out to the world.

I would highly recommend some sort of rich internet site or blog, that you can post information about you, your talent, quality photos and video clips, build up a fan base via email lists, and maybe provide a way to sell promotional items with your name, image or logo. A web presence is not the only way to get information out about yourself, but it is a fantastic reference for all of your other promotional activities to lead your fans to.

Once you have a site, hopefully you would have an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed associated with it, you will want to promote your feed address to sites like FeedBurner and get Download RSS Submit - submit your RSS feeds to over 65 sites with one click!. Using a RSS Syndication tool such as Blogrush.com can also improve your readership and public awareness too. Be creative and promote yourself like crazy. Doing one thing per day, will increase your name recognition and in no time, you will have the break you need to exponentially grow your brand.

Even if you don't have a website, you will definitely want to create periodic press releases designed to promote your presence somewhere, or some achievement you have received. If you don't know where to start, you can get a custom press release for $97 from Custom Press Release.com. Custom Press Release also has several options for local and national distribution or sign up at PR.com for a quick and convenient Press Release mechanism.

Likewise, you can write articles or other items of news about yourself, your company or your products and submit them to places like Ezine Articles, GoArticles, Yahoo's Article Announce, Article Central

If you want to start out with an email campaign, you can buy lists, or build your own using free tools like ListJoe for free or Aweber which is a better albeit paid service.

You can also take advantage of some Web 2.0 properties (sites), by capitalizing on social bookmarking sites like socialmarker.com, or other free social media such as Facebook, MySpace.com, LiveSpaces, or Yahoo 360, that all contain great information about you, your talent or product, plus a link back to your main website.

You can also use tools like SUExchange (StumbleUpon Exchange) as a social bookmarking link exchange to encourage others to bookmark your website. This will build a series of back links to your website which improves your search rankings and increase your visibility.

OK, you have a lot of homework to do, but you will certainly be able to get it all done if you just set each task up as a step in your ladder to success.

Helping Someone Else

I know that generalizations are typically not wise, but I firmly believe that everyone is capable of helping someone else. We can help someone else by sharing food, time, or money. We can someone else help by protecting, teaching, coaching and mentoring. We can someone else help by making contacts, introductions, and giving credit where it is due.

Helping someone else, be it a child, a sibling, a friend, coworker or stranger has intrinsic value. It's good for it's own sake. It is also good for you. By helping someone else, it puts you in a leadership or expert role; one that you should cultivate. You might find that your talent is stronger with coaching, teaching, or in philanthropy, especially when it helps to build your own skill level and subject understanding.

6 things you can do to help someone else:

1. Encourage {someone else} to study or practice with you, as a partnership
2. Help {someone else} establish their goals and steps to achieve them
   
3. Hold {someone else} accountable to their goals
4. Share a professional contact and phone number/email address with {someone else}
5. Spend quality time with {someone else}; especially with children
6. Be a good example. Demonstrate to everyone else your pride and discipline without fail

* replace {someone else} with a real name

Your career and personal life will become much more rewarding when you begin helping someone else. Make it a priority in your daily routine, at home, at work, on stage, on the field, etc to help someone for a few weeks and se what a difference it will make.

Accepting and Taking Risk

Depending on your definition of famous, I think I would now, in a most humble way, say that I am on my way to become famous.

I use StatCounter for tracking site statistics for this and several other blogs that I write. I also use Google Analytics, but StatCounter really made me see something interesting. My articles, for this and my other blogs have been read by someone on every continent. I am aiming to be read by someone in every country, and of course the English speaking countries have the highest read rate, but I'm just stoked that my articles are being picked up by interested readers around the world. How cool is that?

If I didn't get over my fear of letting others read my writings, I would never have been able to claim anything from that last paragraph. I took a risk and so far, I am becoming known around the world. Its a very small population that has read my works, but that's okay for now. I expect that it will spread after you forward this article or any of the others to your friends using the email link at the bottom of the page.

If I can make a small dent using only a minimal amount of time and effort, what can I do with an hour a day? Or better yet, what can you do?

Being Unique

If you ever wanted to know what it takes to become famous, you have to also be thinking about what sets you apart from everyone else you know.

There are lots of talented people out there, and you are probably one of them. OK, you're talented, so what? What have you done this week, or better, what have you done today, that will advance your goals? The single most powerful thing that anyone can do to advance their goal of becoming famous is to DO something.

Everyone says they want to be something. Whether its an author, singer, dancer, tv or movie star, artist, attorney, politician, teacher, whatever. They may even want to reach the highest ranks of their chosen field. Most will not ever get past the first step of dreaming of a goal. Fewer will take the time to even read a single book to help them advance after they complete school. An education is a wonderful thing, however learning should never stop.

Great, so you're an expert in something, or maybe even many things (on paper) but can you do it? There is a famous saying "Bull S*** Talks, but Money Walks". Can you produce or are you full of hot air?

The real quality that sets you apart from the herd is your ability to actually DO the thing you want to be recognized for. Fame and recognition might not come today, next week, or even next year, but if you build your reputation on the fact you can do what you say you can do, and do it particularly well, you will certainly increase your chances of becoming famous for your talent.

Go out and do something today - make a contact, set up a gig, find a publisher, call the local tv stations, make a demo tape, create a plan. It's great to have dreams, but if you actually do one thing today towards your goal, you will be closer than you were yesterday.

When you wake up tomorrow - re-read this article and ask yourself if you did something yesterday to get closer to your goals. Rinse and repeat.

What are you going to do today?

Working at it

My first observation about people who have become famous (in every industry) is that 98% of those people go there for one reason. They worked for it. Working for a goal, i.e. being the best at some skill, or being recognized on two or more continents are honorable goals, however the normal path to this level of notoriety and fame is paved with a lot of sweat and energy.

I am in the camp that there are two ways to work for something. You can work hard or you can work smart. Some of us start out working harder than smarter and as we mature, learn to work smarter rather than harder. It is a natural trend in all things learned. We become more efficient and those that are ruthlessly efficient can take enormous leaps forward in achieving their goals, thus shortening the time to your goal. And once you achieve your goal, you can opt to sit on your laurels, or find new goals to pursue and enjoy.

Working smarter is a process. You can learn this process on your own or you can find a coach or mentor. If you want to learn this process on your own, I would recommend reading everything you can get your hands on regarding your field of study or practice. I would also include things outside but related, and even subjects contradictory, to your practice as well, if you are going to do it on your own.

Oh, don't forget the hard work and practice of your skill. If you are not striving to be the best at whatever you do, then forget it. Having a goal is critical to your success, and if you are not willing to work towards it, then you have already decided your goal is not worthy of your time and effort.

Find your voice

While you are in pursuit of fame, fortune, leadership, or trust, you will learn to gain confidence in yourself and in your ability to speak in front of others. Public speaking is a requirement. Period, for anyone interested in becomeing famous.

If you are a writer, you will be speaking to fans on radio talk shows, book signings, press conferences, and maybe CSPAN, so get out of your shell, and find your voice.

If you are an actor/acrtress, singer, comedian, news reporter, or other personality, your voice will be heard wherever you go. Don't be afraid to show your confidence though your voice.
When captains of industry, or troops take charge, they do so with their actions, led by their confident voice.

Speaking in public, on camera, or behind a microphone requires confidence. Confidence in your subject matter, in your abilities to direct others, in your ability to ask questions, and ability to be asked tough questions.

Speaking in a mild tone, you will demonstrate meakness, which will allow you to be pushed to the side of competitors vying for the same spotlight as you. Competition is key to developing your public personal and voice. And, it is the winning attitude that gains more favor in our highly competitive world.

Demonstrate your strength of conviction, confidence and experience with your voice, and you are sure to edge out your competition. Speak up, with confidence and a natural cadence, ignoring the camera as a thing, and treat it as if it were a person. Set aside your stuttering, ah's, um's, and er's, and find your voice, from deep within you and show the world the confidence you have in yourself, without being full of yourself.

We can gain confidence in our selves though training and experience, but we can only find our voice when we believe what we have come to learn and experience is true.

On becoming known

Let's assume you want to become famous. How do you become known? How do you become famous? You start by developing your talent, your personality and your character. By character, I don't mean some fictitious person you want to play, but the things about you that make you a descent human being.

Visit http://www.charactercounts.org/defsix.htm where you can learn about the six pillars of character (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, Citizenship).

What are you doing to focus on your talent?

If you are a writer, are you writing and publishing frequently? Are you building your contact list of publishers, editors, agents, and resellers? Do you submit your work for publication online? Do you have a blog to post your daily thoughts? Build up your network, and actually talk, not just share emails with your contacts. They will be the ones deciding on whether to back your work.

If you are an aspiring actor or actress, are you building your demo tape? Have you auditioned for your local news companies? Do you make your own youtube videos as samples of your abilities and appearance?

If you are a professional or other business person and want to become more well known to gain a customer following or demonstrate some sort of professional expertise by consulting, you can easily audition for a talk radio show. Many talk radio stations are always on the lookout to fill a block of time with a host who knows something about his or her subject area.

If you are a comic, do you go to the local comedy clubs and get in front of a crowd? If so, try to get into additional clubs on alternating nights, or travel to a nearby city for more venue opportunities.

The secret to becoming famous is to get your act/art/music/knowledge/secret/invention/whatever into the hearts and minds of everyone else around you, and for those people to echo your name and body of work.

Continuous improvement in your field or talent, continuous advertising, networking within associations, businesses and clubs relating to your talent or subject matter. You cannot just wish fame into existence, you must work at it constantly.

How to become famous

So, you want to learn how to become famous.

The first question you want to ask yourself is what does fame mean to me? Next, should be the question of how famous do I really want to be?

There are many good reasons to become famous, from basic great personal reasons, such as being the center of attention, being held in high regard by others, or even to better your chances at making a profit or finding a mate.

What makes someone famous? That depends. It depends on what level of fame you are seeking. Do you want to be known for some expertise or talent in an area of business, academia, athletics, or entertainment? Can you sing, dance, write, speak, motivate, cultivate, draw, act, make something unique, influence others?

How long do you want to be famous for? Are you looking for your fleeting 15 minutes of local newspaper press, a television or movie career, have political aspirations or want to sell a zillion widgets? Are you looking to have your autobiography enshrined in the Library of Congress? Do you want your manuscripts, books and papers to be read and studied for the next five centuries like Plato or Aristotle? Do you want to be as revered, influential or polarizing as [you pick a name]? Just how famous do you want to be?

Well, there are ways to become famous, stepping up from their own circle of friends and family, to becoming a well recognized personality. Just about anyone with a little determination, winning personality and a desire to inspire can become famous. I mean famous, not infamous. Its great to be known as an expert in something, or to have a particular talent that everyone adores, its another thing to be known for something illegal, immoral or just plain stupid.

Some people think that a name will help make you famous, but in reality, your name or image is how you are recognized, not what makes one famous. What makes someone famous is their ability to be recognized for something. What thing did you invent? What talent have you shared with the world? What words did you write that were circulated by friends, teachers, peers, or other leaders?

For now, really concentrate on what you have that can make you famous. Write it down. Study it. Practice it. Say it out loud. Soon we will discuss practical ways of becoming famous, from the inside out.