6 Steps to a Better Marketable LinkedIn Profile

Overall, LinkedIn is the best social media platform for entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals. Unfortunately, your LinkedIn profile may not be helping you to create those connections.

So let’s tune yours up with six simple steps:

Step 1. Revisit your goals
At its most basic level LinkedIn is about marketing: marketing your company or marketing yourself. But that focus probably got lost as you worked through the mechanics of completing your profile, and what started as a marketing effort turned into a resume completion task. Who you are isn’t as important as what you hope to accomplish, so think about your goals and convert your goals into keywords, because keywords are how people find you on LinkedIn.

But don’t just whip out the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and identify popular keywords. It’s useful but everyone uses it—and that means, for example, that every Web designer has shoehorned six- and seven-digit searches-per-month keywords like “build a website,” “website templates,” “designing a website,” and “webmaster” into their profile. It’s hard to stand out when you’re one of millions.

Go a step further and think about words that have meaning in your industry. Some are process-related; others are terms only used in your field; others might be names of equipment, products, software, or companies.

Use a keyword tool to find general terms that could attract a broader audience, and then dig deeper to target your niche by identifying keywords industry insiders might search for.

Then sense-check your keywords against your goals. If you’re a Web designer but you don’t provide training, the 7 million monthly Google searches for “how to Web design” don't matter.

Step 2. Layer in your keywords
The headline is a key factor in search results, so pick your most important keyword and make sure it appears in your headline. “Most important” doesn’t mean most searched, though; if you provide services to a highly targeted market the keyword in your headline should reflect that niche. Then work through the rest of your profile and replace some of the vague descriptions of skills, experience, and educational background with keywords. Your profile isn’t a term paper so don’t worry about a little repetition. A LinkedIn search scans for keywords, and once on the page, so do people.

Step 3. Strip out the clutter
If you’re the average person you changed jobs six or eight times before you reached age 30. That experience is only relevant when it relates to your current goals. Sift through your profile and weed out or streamline everything that doesn’t support your business or professional goals. If you’re currently a Web designer but were an accountant in a previous life, a comprehensive listing of your accounting background is distracting. Keep previous jobs in your work history, but limit each to job title, company, and a brief description of duties.

Step 4. Reintroduce your personality
Focusing on keywords and eliminating clutter is important, but in the process your individuality probably got lost. Now you can put it back and add a little enthusiasm and flair. Describing yourself as, “A process improvement consultant with a Six Sigma black belt,” is specific and targeted but also says nothing about you as a person—and doesn’t make me think, “Hey, she would be great to work with.”

Share why you love what you do in your profile. Share what you hope to accomplish. Describe companies you worked for or projects you completed. Share your best or worst experience. Keep your keywords in place, leave out what doesn’t support your goals, and then be yourself.

Keywords are important but are primarily just a way to help potential clients find you. No one hires keywords; they hire people.

Step 5. Take a hard look at your profile photo
Say someone follows you on Twitter. What’s the first thing you do? Check out their photo.

A photo is a little like a logo: On its own an awesome photo won’t win business, but a bad photo can definitely lose business.

Take a look at your current photo. Does it reflect who you are as a professional or does it reflect a hobby or outside interest? Does it look like a real estate agent’s headshot? A good photo flatters but doesn’t mislead. Eventually you’ll meet some of your customers in person and the inevitable disconnect between Photoshop and life will be jarring.

The goal is for your photo to reflect how you will look when you meet a customer, not how you looked at that killer party in Key West four years ago. The best profile photo isn’t necessarily your favorite photo. The best photo strikes a balance between professionalism and approachability, making you look good but also real.

Step 6. Get recommendations
Most of us can’t resist reading testimonials, even when we know those testimonials were probably solicited. Recommendations add color and depth to a LinkedIn profile, fleshing it out while avoiding any, “Oh jeez will this guy ever shut up about himself?” reactions. So ask for recommendations, and offer to provide recommendations before you’re asked.

The best way to build great connections is to always be the one who gives first.

5 ways to make the most out of your company's Facebook page

If you haven’t already integrated Facebook into your online marketing mix by creating a fan page, consider the most recent staggering Facebook statistics:

• More than 350 million users are active on Facebook
• 50% of active users log in on any given day
• The average user spends 55 minutes a day on Facebook
• More than 1.6 million active Facebook fan pages have been created

With numbers like these — plus the fact that Google is now using social content to help determine the ranking of web pages — it’s difficult to justify not creating a Facebook presence for your brand.

Take the guesswork of Facebook marketing, and follow these 5 tips for making the most of your fan page.

1. Keep Content Fresh
Give fans a reason to come back to your page frequently by adding fresh content on a regular basis. Keep in mind that consistently updating the page doesn’t require a significant amount of additional effort.

As part of your online marketing strategy, integrate your Facebook fan page with other social media channels to maximize results little extra effort:

• Automatically feed new blog posts to your Facebook wall
• Use a service like Ping.fm to update all of your social networks at once, including Facebook and Twitter
• Set up widgets for your YouTube channel and Flickr feed to automatically add videos and images to your Facebook fan page

2. Engage New Visitors
Facebook fan page walls can be an extremely valuable tool for communicating with customers and prospects. But for first-time visitors to fan pages, the wall can seem intimidating and exclusive. Imagine walking into a room where everyone knows one another by name and are talking about a subject you know next to nothing about.

Instead of sending new visitors directly to your fan page wall, send them to a more controlled, welcoming landing page where you can provide them with useful information about your brand, as well as a clear call to action to become a fan.

3. Promote a Contest Via Facebook
A great way to add value to a Facebook fan page is to offer users an incentive to become fans. Contests can serve as an enticing incentive.

Be aware, however, that new Facebook marketing guidelines announced in November require brands, marketers and advertisers to go through an approval process for all contests. The guidelines require contests to be handled through an embedded application rather than on the page’s wall, among other things.

4. Give Fans Something They Can’t Get Anywhere Else
Contests aren’t the only incentives companies can offer to grow their fan base. Any item of value can entice Facebook users to become fans, including:

• Free shipping for Facebook fans
• An exclusive product coupon for fans
• A weekly special promoted on the fan page

Sears – with 160,000+ fans – has been very successful at this approach. First-time visitors are immediately directed to an exclusive offer landing page. By becoming a fan, users are offered $10 in coupons.

Another approach to incentivize becoming a fan is to provide inside company information and breaking news on the fan page. Fans are more likely to remain faithful to your brand – and tell their friends – when they feel like an insider who has a stake in the company.

5. Encourage Interaction
The entire notion of social media is built upon interaction and two-way communication. Facebook fan pages have little to no chance of success if they aren’t interactive and engaging.

But it’s not enough to sit back and wait to the interaction to begin. Get the ball rolling by:

• Posting a question to solicit fans’ opinions
• Offering a poll that’s extremely simple to respond to
• Integrating existing Facebook applications such as games and quizzes
• Reposting relevant, interesting information from other Facebook users

Simply creating a fan page for the sake of “Well, everyone else is doing it,” isn’t going to land you results. Like with any other online marketing strategy, Facebook marketing efforts must be well planned and constantly reinforced. By doing so, you can start to tap into the vast network of active Facebook users.

The two crucial success factors for corporate blogs: Optimize and Socialize

Blogs are often rated one of the top content marketing tactics for attracting and engaging customers and eMarketer has reported blogs reach over 50% of the internet audience. But many companies fail to combine two of the most important tools for boosting relevant traffic and reach: Optimization for search engines and for social media.

Most marketers and bloggers understand the basics of a good corporate blog and the notion of search engine optimization but often focus more on keywords than the customers that are actually searching. Adding keywords to blog posts is a common SEO tactic but developing a blog content plan around both search keywords and social topics that represent what customers care about can result in content that is inherently more search, social and customer media friendly.

The Business of Optimizing Social Media
Social Media Optimization involves optimizing social content for topics of interest to both the brand and the communities they seek to engage. SMO also focuses on the ability for social communities to share links and media they find interesting. Links to content shared on social networks and media sites can drive direct traffic to blog content and serve as a signal that search engines use for ranking blog web pages.

Essentially, socialized and optimized blog content can drive traffic through search and those visitors can share that content through social channels, driving even more traffic. Social sharing can also impact better search visibility, providing more relevant visitors that are actively looking.

Search and Social Media Friendly
As Internet marketers have emphasized making websites search engine friendly over the past 10 years, the importance of making websites and blogs social media friendly is also important. Great blog content isn’t really great until it’s consumed and shared, so consider how your customers find information online that is most likely to inspire them to do what you want them to do.

A Better Corporate Blog Strategy
To get more out of the opportunity to improve online discovery of corporate blog content, here are a few key questions to ask for an “Optimize and Socialize” blog strategy:

• Who is the blog intended to influence? Prospects, customers, employees, industry analysts, reporters, bloggers.
• What content will your blog offer that will meet target audience needs?
• How will addressing those customer needs and telling the brand story manifest as a blog content plan?
• What search keywords and social topics are relevant to your target audience?
• Where does your blog content fit in the customer lifecycle of communication with the brand?
• If the blog content is properly optimized and socialized, how will it influence (directly or indirectly) measurable business outcomes?

Interest In Your Blog Is Related to Your Blog’s Interest in Readers
One of the reasons corporate blogs fail as being optimized and socialized, is that their content tends to be very brand-centric. Most corporate blog posts talk about the brand, it’s products and services without a lot of consideration for customer perspectives and language.

A self-centered corporate blogging approach tends to push ideas out, hoping to get a reaction in the form of search engine rankings, fans, friends and followers. Many SEO centric blogs share these characteristics.

The problem with a mostly brand content focus is that there usually isn’t as much sharing, engagement or direct influence on business outcomes because the content is all about the brand, vs. empathizing with customers and the language customers use.

To Be Great, Your Corporate Blog Must Participate
Conversely, a search and social optimized corporate blog develops and participates in social communities online, offline, internally and externally. To do that, blog editors need to figure out where the great ideas and stories are in the company.

All this said, it’s not enough simply to have an optimized and socialized blog content plan that aligns brand solutions and ideas with those of your target audience. To tap into a high quality stream of customer-centric content ideas for your corporate blog, it’s essential to engage relevant social communities. Ask them questions, crowdsource content ideas, give those who participate recognition and repeat.

By shining a light on the awesome within your community, you’ll provide the fuel of positive reinforcement to motivate fans and customers to partake in both content creation and promotion.

Walk the talk by telling your brand stories and those of your community. Lead by example and your community will start to tell your stories for you. And so will their friends, and their friends’ friends. That’s the benefit of optimizing your corporate blog beyond search to include social media, networks and communities.

Tips to become a pro in Counter Strike

So, you wanna be a pro in Counter Strike huh… Quite a big deal, provided the fact that there are lots and lots of great players out there waiting to frag you down.

Now, I have seen a big misconception among amateurs about being a pro. Many people think that being a pro mean playing well ahead of others in the pubs. When in reality a player can only be called a pro when he plays with a clan at organized tournaments in order to earn money. Naturally, these players play well better than others.

Okay, enough of that shit. Now let’s come to the point. If you wanna be a real pro in CS you have to keep in mind that there are two different facets of being a pro. 1. Playing well individually and 2. playing well with your clan (teamwork).

I will touch both these facets separately and provide you with tips which will help you guys improve your game a lot faster. The first tip which does not require a serial number – practice as much as you can. Remember there is no substitute for practice.

Tips for improving individual game:

1. Be patient and cool while firing. Remember, your cool mind is your biggest friend. Don’t worry, this will come quickly once you start practicing it consciously.
2. Understand the recoil mechanism and bullet aggressions for every weapon. You may not be using all of them all the time, but its better to know them since while in a match, you will have limited money and hence limited options to buy weapons.
3. Never shoot while walking or running! Always stop for a fraction of second and fire and move again. The correct technique is called SSCFS – Side step – Stop – Crouch – Fire – Side step. It is quicker done than said.
4. Never fire more than 4 bullets at a time, when shooting from a distance. Spray only when you are in slapping distance from the enemy.
5. Practice perfect throw for HE Grenades and Flashbangs. You can get a good tutorial here.
6. Always aim above the belt of the enemy. Better still if you can aim within the bust.
7. Learn to do bunny hop. This technique will help you immensely while crossing corners or doors or when you know that a sniper is waiting for you at the other end. You can get a very good tutorial here.
8. Always use the walk button when in common territory. When you walk (Hold down shift normally) it makes it impossible for others to hear you! Only run when going out of the Spawn area.
9. Always use crouch while shooting! When you crouch, your aim becomes a lot steady and makes it easier for you to head shot the opposition. It can also confuse your opponent if they think you are standing up when your are actually crouching!
10. When knifing, use your right-click button on your mouse to attack! If you use the left-click button, it is called slapping and is very weak and can take up to 6-7 hits to kill someone. If you right-click correctly it would take 2 hits to kill someone! (Or 1, if you can head-shot).
11. If you can't shoot without the cross hair or reticle (the + in the middle of the screen) don't use the sniper rifle. (Remember, we are talking pro here. One wrong shot can cost you and your clan a tournament).
12. If a flash bomb is thrown towards you then look in the opposite direction with your back pointing towards flash bomb .This will have minimum effect on you and you will not get blind from that flash. This happens in a second so you have to be quick.
13. Always reload your weapon after killing an enemy. It is useless to drop in front of your next enemy with an empty round.
14. Know the exact spam spots for every map. If you are sure that you opponent is hiding behind an obstacle / wall then do not hesitate to open fire through that obstacle because in this game your bullets will penetrate through almost everything. Get two good tutorials here and here.

Tips for in-game improvement and better game strategy:

1. The whole team should always have Kevlar and Helmet (once there is enough money to buy both of them). It almost doubles the chances of winning.
2. Never overbuy in any round. Buy just what you need. For instance, if you know that there is likely to be a sniper in the enemy team then only go for the smoke bomb, otherwise not. Nothing hurts more than being broke next round and having to save because you went overboard last round on that whole arsenal of equipment.
3. Divide task among the team like who will lead, who will carry the grenade, who will cover the grenade thrower, who will be the magger, who will be the distracter (if any at all) etc. Let the clan leader decide on the task division.
4. Picking up a killed fighters weapon is always a cost effective way of upgrading yourself.
5. Avoid guarding or heading the heat spots alone, unless short of people.
6. Never go head on with a sniper. Yes, you might be good enough to pick him off in one head-shot far away, but he could also as easily pick you off with a leg shot far away. If it’s absolutely unavoidable, always use the smoke grenade.
7. If your enemy has seen you at a particular spot, run from there. Surprise is a big factor in this game.
8. Always plant the bomb in an easy-to-locate spot, so that wherever you guard, you have a clear view of it. Nothing more frustrating than being a super hero and killing four people only to have the last one hiding behind a box defusing because your stupid teammate planted with poor judgment.
9. Make sure to spread out and have each person guard an entrance of the respective bombsite; there are no results if everyone looks straight at the window.
10. Patience is the key. If you set up a shot and are waiting there for a person you know is about to peek, just wait. Always trust your teammate's opinion, your own instincts, and never act too rash. That one second between guarding and walking away could be the second that you lost your chance to win.
11. Do camping where ever required. Camping is like taking a position and waiting for your opponent to arrive and then opening fire. Many people consider this cowardly act but it is 100% legit. Remember, your one and only aim is to win.
12. Never blow your cover by shooting without seeing your opponent. They will know that you are nearby and they will get alert.
13. Learn your maps! Seriously this is the best advice you can get. Run around the maps, watch demo's of teams playing, spectate some pub, anything to teach you where people camp or watch from. When you come round corners, aim your crosshair on these places.
14. Walking or running speed (while carrying different weapons) can be a big factor in winning or losing a game. A couple of seconds late in defusing the bomb and it can take away a whole round. Its absolutely necessary to have a good knowledge of relative speed differences of walking or running when weapon in hand. Refer the below image for a better understanding:

Good luck fragging…

BPO - An unavoidable turmoil for Barack Obama

It is perfectly understandable why the US President, Barack Obama keeps on raising his voice against outsourcing to India. He is the President of US after all. He needs to look after his vote bank. If we recall the most recent incident – speaking at a rally in Parma, Ohio, Obama invited companies to invest more in the US and thus create more job opportunities there rather than creating jobs and profits in other countries. Obviously, he had to keep in mind the upcoming elections in November. In these regard, it is also worth mentioning that in a speech he gave in January, he suggested a $5,000 credit for every job a company created (net new job) and an overall limit of $500,000 per company for availing such benefits. Mind you, this speech also took place on the American soil.

But our point of focus is not the political viewpoint. We will go deeper and will try to see the real picture – both in color and in black & white. Obama is a man of great intelligence and he knows very well that there is no alternative to this outsourcing thing. It may close the doors for job opportunities in the US but it is also impossible to get the job done in the US at the same cost which Indian companies provide. Very big problem. So what he does? He says the thing in America, which American people would like to hear. But as soon as he comes in front of the foreign media he realizes that there is no way other than admitting the truth. In a speech in November this year, he said, "India has world-class companies, many of which are creating and supporting tens of thousands of jobs in the United States, and my administration wishes to encourage more such investment."

Hello Sir, we have not yet forgotten your “Buffalo, not Bangalore” election rhetoric. But its alright. When you say “Whenever I'm asked about Indians taking away our jobs, I want to say: You know what, they've just created 50,000 jobs,” we feel proud for organizations like Wipro, Infosys and TCS. These guys have created so much strength with their service quality and standards that even the President of US (who is considered the most powerful man in the world) is compelled to change his stances.

Guess what, I feel proud to be an Indian.

To read the news reports click Here, Here and Here

Chickenfoot - the new superband with Joe Sat

Chickenfoot is an American hard rock supergroup, comprising ex-Van Halen members Sammy Hagar (vocals) and Michael Anthony (bass), solo musician Joe Satriani (guitar) and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. The band released their self-titled debut album, Chickenfoot, on June 5, 2009. Regarding the band's status as a "supergroup", vocalist Sammy Hagar states: "We’re not a supergroup, we like hanging out together and the music is a bonus. We just happen to be in other groups."

While the band's name and logo reference a disparaging term used to describe the peace symbol, the "footprint of the chicken", bassist Michael Anthony asserts that the name originated from initial jam sessions between Hagar, Smith and himself: "there are three talons on a chicken’s foot and there [were] three of us." Later Anthony stated: "it was just supposed to be a bullshit name that we’d used for a while, and then [when] the rumors spread about the band, everybody used that name so we thought, 'fuck it, let’s call it Chickenfoot' - it all comes down to the music anyway." Chickenfoot is planning to hit the studio to record their second album in January 2011.

Its a real concern whether the band members will be able to carry on together for long since history shows that superbands seldom continue long, as the (already famous) band members' egos start clashing. It will be really sad if the same happens to this band because they are creating real good music.

Back to the Jungle - An Interview with Slash

It’s hard to believe that 2007 marks the 20th anniversary of Appetite for Destruction, and still harder to believe that Slash was only 19 when he and the band first started writing the album. That it was recorded at all remains somewhat of a rock ’n’ roll miracle.

Formed in 1985, Guns N’ Roses—singer W. Axl Rose, guitarists Slash and Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff “Rose” McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler, as they were listed in the liner notes—lived up to the title of their full-length debut in ways not seen since Aerosmith’s drug-hog heyday and the Sex Pistols’ tabloid-baiting auto-destruction.

The excesses of the band’s early days—the drug addiction, the homelessness, the arrests—have been widely and sensationally reported. So have the shuddering after-effects: McKagan’s exploding pancreas, the stadium riots, fan deaths, as well as the messy break-up and chronic megalomania that today leave Rose as the only remaining original member of a group bearing the name Guns N’ Roses.

But more crucially, those early days are documented on the 12 songs that make up Appetite. “We lived in an intense party atmosphere and were the Antichrists of the neighborhood, so there was a lot of social tension that was definitely amusing,” says Slash in a chilled-out voice that belies his aggressive yet lyrical guitar style. “Those were some really great times, and it was definitely reflected in the music. It’s one of the reasons that particular album means a lot to me. We did the whole thing our way.”

If the band’s lifestyle (deathstyle?) teetered on the proverbial brink, it was a dedication to the music that provided order in their lives and momentum to the recording. In the ways that mattered, Slash assumed an almost workman- like approach to the job, albeit it one catered by Jack Daniels and overseen by a talented and sympathetic producer, Mike Clink.

“I was rolling into the studio every day at 12 o’clock, and I would be done at 9 or 10 at night. But after that, I had no idea where I was going to go or how I was going to get around or where I was going to sleep. So every morning, Clink would be like, ‘I wonder if Slash is going to make it in today?’ It was just the lifestyle I was living. It was constant chaos. But I would show up at noon every day like clockwork, open up a bottle of Jack Daniels, pour it in some coffee, and that’s how we did all the guitars.”

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Appetite, Slash sat down with Guitar Edge to share his memories of the album, song by song. When prompted that “Welcome to the Jungle” opens the set, Slash says, “Is that the first song?” He adds a disclaimer: “I haven’t done an interview like this, so bear with me. This is all to my own personal recollection. You can quote me on it, but it doesn’t mean it’s totally accurate.”

But as with his guitar playing on Appetite, it’s not the accuracy that counts, but rather its spirit. And as always, Slash has spirit to burn—and a good degree of accuracy, as it turns out.To enhance the experience as you read along, I’d recommend you cue up the album, turn up the volume, and press Play. You’re in the jungle, baby….

“Welcome to the Jungle” is such a classic opening track and a great introduction to the band. Do you remember how it came together?
“Welcome to the Jungle” started out with the main riff of the song, that descending riff, which I played for Axl at my house one afternoon. I have a vivid memory of that. At some point later on, the band was rehearsing and Duff came up with the breakdown section in the middle and I came up with the intro. That part was written with the delay in mind—I think I had just gotten one of those Boss delay units. It was one of those things where the synergy was such that the song came together in one afternoon. I remember the lyrics being especially poignant because they were written about Axl’s experience in the streets and his whole summation of moving to Hollywood.

“It’s So Easy” is the next song… “It’s So Easy” was a song that basically was written with West Arkeen. West was a really good friend we did a lot of writing with, especially Axl. When that particular song was first written, it had this light, strummy feel because it was written with open chords. It was a lot slower. It was very cool, though—sort of beatnik-sounding. It sounded like it was written on the back of a train. I turned it into more of a power-chord type of deal. There were a couple of riffs I introduced to it, and it sounded a lot more rocking by the end. That was always my forte—anything that was written on acoustic or an electric played at less than 11, I would always turn it up to 12.

This song, and almost every song on the album, has a great beginning, middle, and end—the elements of good storytelling. Was there a conscious effort to structure the songs that way?
That’s another one of the magical things about the band at that time—it always came together in a subconscious way. You might hear something in your head and apply it. We’d just get excited about anything that sounded good—at least from a musical point of view. I think Axl’s approach as a singer and a lyricist was a little more methodical.

And what about “Night Train”?
“Night Train” is a funny story. We wrote the chorus when Izzy, Axl, and I were walking around Hollywood drinking Night Train. At the time, it was just sort of a day in the life. Then Izzy and I were hanging out at this little studio apartment we used to live in and we got the basic arrangement down. Then I got the flu or strep throat or something, and Duff, Axl, Izzy, and Steve managed to get more of the arrangement down without me. I remember being completely pissed off because I couldn’t be there. I hated missing anything.

The end of that song has one of your great blazing solos. It’s funny, too, because if I were to play that same solo now, it would be way more fluid. But part of the beauty about that solo is that I wasn’t technically capable of playing as fast as the song was going, so the solo has a little bit more of a rocky feel to it, which is cool.

And the next song, “Out Ta Get Me,” doesn’t let up the pace at all.
It started with that intro lick, which was Izzy’s, and I remember hearing it and going, “That’s awesome!” The was the song sounds on record is exactly how it sounded in my head from the second I heard that riff. Izzy’s stuff was always easy to expand on. He would always have a classic line that you could make into some humongous riff. We just ripped into that lead line.

You’re known as a soloist, but you also have a talent for weaving all of these little parts into an arrangement.
We weren’t what you’d call a patient lot, so spending a lot of time working on one particular tune wasn’t really our forte. But if something hit you right away, the ideas just started coming out. That was definitely the time when the littlest thing would trigger a whole chain reaction of ideas. You’d almost be tripping over yourself coming up with new ideas as the song progressed. That was fun.

Next is “Mr. Brownstone,” which was pretty controversial at the time.
I guess that was the most direct heroin- suggesting song on the record. Izzy and I wrote that sitting in his apartment, loaded. And as most junkies do, we started writing lyrics about the perils and the boredom of the whole thing, the sort of redundant process we were immersed in.

Were you actually heavy users at that point?
It was sort of on and off. There was a heavy point in the beginning, and then it was like a whenever-you-can-get-it kind of thing. But, yeah, by that point we were pretty strung out. At least Izzy and I were. There was a period of about a year, after we got our record deal and before we went into the studio, when the band didn’t do anything. During that period we were partying pretty hard. We were looking in all different directions for any kind of entertainment. Plus, they gave us a little bit of money, which at the time seemed like a lot. My biggest saving grace was probably that I was so committed to guitar playing. No matter how crazy I got, I always had that focus to keep me together. It a huge priority that took precedence over everything. That’s what kept me from going down the toilet like most people do when they go to that extreme.

The tone of the album changes a bit with“Paradise City.”
We had a manager courting us at that time, and she gave us a ride to San Francisco to play a gig with Jetboy. While heading back in the van, we started writing “Paradise City.” It started off with those basic chords and then the melody, and I remember writing the words. Originally it was “Take me down to Paradise City, where the girls are fat and they got big titties” [laughs], which we changed into “where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.”

When was the synthesizer part added to the song?
That didn’t come in until Axl was putting his vocals down on the record, so I had no idea about that until we got to the mixing stage. All of a sudden here was that part. Being the guitar purists that we were, Izzy and I were like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” But Axl won that battle, so it stayed on there. All things considered, it was never that big of a deal, but it introduced a certain electronic thing that didn’t fit well. Axl had a tendency to do that from time to time—to bring it in on the back end.

And “My Michelle” opens with that chiming intro, which gives it a real “doomy” feel.
Basically, it started with the heavy riff. I remember doing the riff first, then making up the intro to it. I’m really into good intros. The Stones, the Beatles, the Who, and Aerosmith often had great intros, and those were some of my favorite songs of all time—something that started off quiet and crescendoed into this big crash. If I ever came up with a good riff, I’d always have to think of a cool intro to support it.

Next is “Think About You,” which always sounded out of place to me. The chorus sounds almost like a New Wave song. That’s a song that Izzy had in its entirety when we first started. I was too lightweight. But at the same time, it was one of those songs where Izzy had written the lyrics, so it was sort of like that Aerosmith song “Combination” [on Rocks], which Joe Perry wrote. It was Izzy’s babbling “Combination” song. I never a big fan of it because it was just enjoyed recording it, though. I managed to get some ideas down and could walk away feeling satisfied with the way the song sounded.

And what about “Sweet Child O’ Mine”? That was such a huge MTV hit.
That song was written after we were signed and there was nothing much to do. Another management team was courting us, and these people went so far as to lease us a house above Griffith Park. We pretty much demolished the place. But I remember Duff, Izzy, and I were sitting in the living room next to the fireplace—we had no TV set—and I was playing the intro riff and they were playing chords behind it. And next thing you know, it was turning into something. I really just thought of it as a joke, but lo and behold, Axl was upstairs in his bedroom and he heard it and started writing the words. The next day, we were rehearsing at Burbank Studios—doing a preproduction kind of thing—and Axl wanted us to play what we had been playing the night before. Pretty soon, it shaped itself into a song, and all of a sudden it took on this serious kind of tone. It was really hard for me to accept, but that song became Axl’s favorite. I think a lot of it had to do with the lyrics. They had a serious, personal side to them.

Was there some contention in the band about playing a ballad?
I don’t think anyone in the band had as much of a problem with it as I did, because I was just such the hard-rock guy. Some ballads I could deal with, as long as they were bluesy. But “Sweet Child O’ Mine” seemed completely sappy. Not so much from a lyrical point of view, but that whole intro riff. I like playing the solo section, but I would’ve written that song off as history if anyone else had complained about it. I had no idea it would become the biggest song the band ever did.

And “You’re Crazy”?
“You’re Crazy” was written around the same time as “Mr. Brownstone.” It was originally a slow acoustic song that we wrote while sitting in the living room one night. Then Axl, Izzy, Duff, and I went down to a rehearsal studio that we were working out of and, of course, turned everything up to 12. All of a sudden, it took on this real breakneck speed. Axl actually enjoyed making the adjustment.

“Anything Goes” is quite different.
It has a talk box part on it. “Anything Goes” is one of the older songs on record. If you look at the credits, there are a lot of writers listed for this one because that song was around before Axl and I first hooked up. By the time Guns N’ Roses got to it, we’d changed the chorus and the verses around, and Axl rewrote the lyrics. When I recorded the solo on it, I bounced back and forth between the talk box and the electric guitar. If you listen to it, the talk box dips in EQ when it switches over. I didn’t know any better because I didn’t have one to use live. I remember when we were mixing it, Izzy asked, “Did you mean to do that?” I was like, “Just shut up.”

And, finally, “Rocket Queen.” You play some nice slide on this one.
That was a riff I had when Duff and I first hooked up. We had a band together with Steven way before Guns started. We had that riff, and at some point I brought it back into the band. The chorus was something Axl had been working on that had nothing to do with the rest of the song, but we somehow managed to incorporate it. It was a pretty interesting operation because the chorus was in a completely different key. I remember when we played it live I would have my roadie bring me the slide, but by the time that song came up in the set, he’d be drunk. And by the time he got it on my finger, the solo section would be over [laughs]. It was very Spinal Tap.

When Appetite was finished, did you have any idea the album would become such a classic?
We had no idea it was going to be such an iconic record. Who would’ve thought? We had no idea that was going to happen, even a year after it was released when we were still just an opening band. We didn’t really see the developing onslaught of fans and how important a statement that record was. When I was a kid, there were certain bands and certain records that were the most important background music of my life. And the fact that this record turned into that for so many people, I could never ask for anything more. Regardless if the band couldn’t keep it together, that one thing alone was totally worth it.

And this wouldn’t be an interview about Appetite without the obligatory question: Can you see the original line-up ever getting back together?
There’s no real easy, positive answer for all of it. There’s been a lot of negative stuff bandied around over the last ten years, but I’m way past saying anything negative. As far as the band ever getting back together, it’s so far-fetched. I think Izzy’s gone and jammed with them a couple of times, but I don’t think anyone has any interest. I’ve obviously moved on and have a lot to do with Velvet Revolver, so that’s where my head is. Obviously it’s not an idea that I’m entertaining in any way, shape, or form at this point. I think the more time that passes, the less likely it will happen—and it was pretty unlikely five years ago.

What can you tell us about the new Velvet Revolver disc?
When we did the first one, it was great because we all came together and just blew that one out and had a great time doing it. Now, everyone’s individual talents are coming to the forefront and it’s becoming one of those records where, from the songwriting point of view, everyone’s really shining. We didn’t take a lot of time on the first one— that was a very spontaneous record. So this one has been a little more like everyone’s best effort.

Courtesy: GuitarEDGE