2: How I network
2a: Tips

2: How I network
I use various means of networking, some more effective then others. Since I am largely an aspiring game composer I dedicate time to spreading material on gaming sites. places like

www.moddb.com
Every RPG Maker forum I could find (that looked like it was still alive)
www.onrpg.com (my very first group I worked with stemmed from this site)
NG of course
Kongregate forums
Armor Games Forums (haven't really done anything here yet)
gamedev.net (or any other game development forum that has an advertisement section)

The onrpg.com and rpg maker forums are not to find people to work with, but to find people who would appreciate and use my tracks. Ambitious people who will cherish the tracks I grant them for free legal use, it's almost like giving free money to them and personally it gives me a good feeling as well. I remember how hard it was to find good free stuff when I was in RPG Maker myself, and so to give these tracks to that cause not only gives me a few more fans, but if any of them get serious, they might want to reach out and get in contact with me. One of them may aspire to become great, and the chance to rise with that person presents itself.

In short, I plant the seeds, as I never know who I'll find where and what kind of awesome project I'll want to be a part of.

Don't forget the more serious places like Kong/AG to advertise your services, Gamedev and other game development sites will help you connect with people who develop indie games, xbox games, iphone etc etc. Why limit yourself to just flash movies/games? There is a world of code out there, dozens of coding languages, each capable of producing a game, and many with thousands of developers creating a game. Don't say to yourself "I can't find them!", they're everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Smart google searches will give you at least 10 places to advertise.

Once you've done all this, you'll start meeting people for sure. And slowly you will be introduced to more people. I have a long list of animators and coders as well as fellow composers. I meet more interesting people with time and that's just awesome.

2a: Tips
- Professionalism. Have some. Don't write sloppy posts as if you just came fresh off the MySpace boat. Proper grammar, ambitious attitude, willingness to contribute, good demos. These are all crucial. Lack one and you'll miss out. Especially if you want to work on the bigger, more weighty projects. To start off you can relax your powersuit attitude, but you should get in the habit of presenting yourself properly. YOU represent you, nobody else, so make damn sure YOU represent YOU well.

- Realistically gauge yourself. It's very tempting to take every and all projects offered to you. But be realistic with yourself. How long does it take you to write a song? Can you work without being "inspired"? Can you create a song without having to be in "the zone"?. If not, give yourself lots of buffer space. That way the pressure won't destroy you (damn my life, there were some dark months where I made that mistake).

- When you say you'll do something. Do it. Nothing is worse then losing a valuable connection to somebody else when you knew damn well you could have done it. This ties in with the second point of being realistic. Don't say you can write 50 songs in 1 week, you'll dissapoint a lot of people including yourself.

- Prepare to defend your choices. Developers don't often know what they want exactly, only a vague idea. They may ask for something that you know wouldn't work. Don't nod your head and go "yessums". Say that you can see their point but that you have another idea on what you think would work better. 90% of the time the developer will yield and give you total creative control. The other 10% you have to bite the bullet if negotiations don't work and do what they say. Who knows, you're not always right either, perhaps they're depending on something they told you to make.

(Please make all comments/ask questions via pm as I probably won't see it here as time passes)