LinkedIn for Writers: A Slick Trick to Reach Readers

As LinkedIn adds users, useless features, and contrary policies, using the service to reach readers becomes more challenging. Here's a quick trick to help writers market their work and develop their author platforms.

Email Marketing with LinkedIn

LinkedIn lets you send customized messages to subsets of your connections. Reading your writing in another city? Invite connections who live in that city to your event. Recently published a how-to article of interest to writers, send it your writer connections. Just blogged about a looming tax policy, alert your accountant connections.

Depending on their LinkedIn settings, recipients may receive your LinkedIn message in their email inboxes -- so more of them will see it. Remember: Just posting an update on LinkedIn will only reach a small subset of your connections. For example, I have 2,500 connections. My updates typically reach only 50 connections. Also, posting to LinkedIn groups is less useful than it used to be because group moderators can choose to block your posts -- and you permanently -- if your posts are too promotional.

How to Do it

1) Go to Your Connections

In the "Connections" menu at the top of your LinkedIn screen, click on "Keep in Touch" to bring up a list of all your connections. (You may need to scroll down the page to see your list.)

2) Target the Right Connections

LinkedIn offers two main features to segment your connections: "Filter by" or "Search."

"Filter by" lets you sort your connections by:

- Company
- Tag: If you were smart enough to include tags for your contacts -- I wasn't -- this could be a winner. 
- Location: This didn't work well for me, so I used the "Search" box discussed below.
- Title: Search on a title, such as "author" to reach other writers. Using the "Search" box may generate different or more connections. Be sure to try both.

"Search"

- I found entering a word or phrase in "Search" more useful than the "Filter by" feature.  For example, when I entered "author" in "Filter by" and "Title" I got a list of 20 people. Searching on "author" and I got 50.

Note: you can send an email to each list in separate messages, be sure to look for dupes, people who appear on both lists, so you don't email them twice.

More on LinkedIn's Filter and Search capabilities

Example: I live in Boston, but was doing a reading in Atlanta and wanted to ask my connections in the area to help me get the word out. Here's what I did.

- I typed "Atlanta" into the "Search" box.

Use Search box instead of a "Filter by" to find connections in a specific city.

- In the list of results, I clicked the word greyed out word "Atlanta" under one of the connections. LinkedIn took me to a page that listed 18 of my connections who lived in Atlanta. (Note: My search results included some people who didn't live in Atlanta. )

- I clicked "Select All" and then the "Message" option appeared. Clicking "Message" produced a blank message populated with only those connections living in or near Atlanta.

Use "Select All" then "Message" to create a message populated with your selected contacts.

LinkIn lets you message up to 50 connections at a time.

3) Craft Your Message and Don't Be Annoying!

Here's how:
- Instead of making a bald, pushy pitch for your reading or book, ask connections to help you spread the word.
- Keep subject lines short and sweet. Here's what I used for in the Atlanta example: "I'm reading in Atlanta. Please help me spread the word!"
- Offer to reciprocate in some way.
- Make it easy for them to help you by including a sample Tweet or Facebook post they can simply copy and paste.

Your message should ask for help and offer to reciprocate. Don't use bald pitches like "buy my book!"

Include a Tweet or Facebook post you'd like people to share. Include sample text so they can just copy and paste.

4) Before You Hit Send

To avoid looking like a spammer and to preserve everyone's privacy, unclick the check box at bottom that says "Allow recipients to see each other's names and email addresses."

5) Miscellaneous Tips

- Don't over do it -- I send messages a few times a year to the same group.

- After searching or sorting, tag the connections. (In my example, I could tag everyone as "Atlanta")

- Remember you can only send a message to 50 people at a time.

-Realistic Expectations:  I've used LinkedIn messages for readings in several cities. Some people I didn't know well offered to help and shared my posts. One guy, I met for lunch. All marketing is a crap-shoot but it never hurts to get your name in front of people. Moreover, this feature doesn't take a lot of time.

More on sending messages over LinkedIn:

More LinkedIn Advice for Writers

- LinkedIn for Writers: Tips, Changes in 2014

- Linked In Tips for Authors: Getting Started

- Social Media for Writers: Using Groups


Art attribution for top image: By LinkedIn, User:ZyMOS [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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LinkedIn for Writers: Tips, Recent Changes

LinkedIn can help you promote your writing two ways: By letting you connect with potential readers in Groups and allowing you to email all or some of your Connections. This post will discuss using Groups for promotion and recent changes that can render them useless.

What's New on LinkedIn

- When you post an Update, only a fraction of your Connections will see it.
- LinkedIn is releasing a blog-like feature that lets some users post updates that reach a much broader audience on the site. At present, this is a very exclusive club.
- Piss off the moderator of one Group and he can ban you from posting in his Group -- and any other group you belong to. (Yes, you read that correctly. More on this below.)

Though I have about 2,000 Connections, only about 50 see my Updatess.

Posting in Groups

Posting links to articles you've written in appropriate Groups can entice readers to your blog or Web site. Here's how to do it without pissing off Group moderators.

1) Find Appropriate Groups

If you're writing non-fiction, search LinkedIn for Groups interested in your topic. I write about marketing for writers, so I've found Groups created for writers looking for tips on how to promote their work.

For fiction writers, the process is trickier. LinkedIn is a business-to-business site. In writing your novel, did you learn anything that may be of interest to business or non-fiction types? If you wrote an historical novel, maybe you learned about a particular historical period. If you write about science fiction, maybe you learned about about astronomy or physics or technology. Search LinkedIn for groups on these topics.

My novel involves travel. I found some travel groups, but they were mainly travel agents and knew more than I did, so this didn't work for me. Hence, I do not use LinkedIn to promote my fiction.

2) Evaluate the Groups

- Is the Group active with different people posting and commenting? (If a group has only posts from one person, say, the Group moderator, skip it.

- What are the rules? Does the Group allow people to post links to their blogs?

- What are other members posting? If they're posting just a headline and an article link, then you can, too. If others post a description of the article -- or even most of the article -- in the "Add more details" box then should do as they do. Often, a Group's rules will specify what you can post and whether it can go in the Discussion section. If blog posts must go in the Promotion section, the Group may not be useful.

- If you post a link to your blog, check back the following week to see if it went live. In the Group, click on your picture or the "Your Activity" link. Then look under "Discussions You've Started." Nothing there? Look in "Pending Submissions."

Note: Posting to writing groups and asking people to buy your book is not a good way to sell books! But it is a good way to be labeled a spammer.

3) Pending Submissions: When You've Pissed Off Someone

If week after week your posts are sitting in "Pending Submissions," you may have been black-balled by a moderator who didn't like your post or considers you a spammer. If people are "Liking" your posts and commenting, you're in the right place.

Unfortunately,  if a moderator doesn't like your posts and black-balls you, any posts to her Group -- or any other Group -- will sit in "Pending." The moderator of each Group will have approve your post for it to go live in their Group. In some Groups, however, moderators never check "Pending Submissions" and you're screwed. 

What can you do?

- E-mail each moderator, mention that your posts are "Pending" in their Group, and ask if you've you done anything wrong. In my experience, you will never hear either way.

- As of press time, LinkedIn claims that you'll only sit in the "Pending" penalty box for two weeks. I can't verify this.

- You will likely Not be subjected to Pending in all Groups. If you're stuff isn't posting in one Group, you may want to leave that Group.

More than you want to know on this topic. 

The technical term for being black-balled is that you're a victim of Site-Wide Moderation or SWAM.

- Black-balled users create a ruckus (Forbes article)

- Another expert weighs in (LinkedIn Insights article)

- A LinkedIn Group devoted to this topic (note the Moderators warning about posting blog links in his Group!)

Are LinkedIn Groups Working for You?

As with any promotion tactic, the proof is in the Web traffic.

LinkedIn is working for me -- for now.

Related Posts

- Social Media for Writers: One Thing That Works

- Linked In Tips for Authors 

- More Quick, Dirty Twitter Tips for Writers: Tweeting Tricks

 

 

Art attribution: Top image by Koreshky at en.wikibooks [Public domain]

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18 Months of Social Media: One Writer's Progress Report

For the last year and a half, I've been trying to develop an audience for my writing and a platform for a novel I've yet to finish. I followed the advice of book marketing bloggers and published authors. I drew on my experience with online marketing and Web publishing. I devoted one day a week and a couple of hours most other days to this project. Here's what I have to show for my efforts: It's not impressive.

Exhibit A: The Ugly Truth

My stats:
Monthly Blog traffic: about 3,000 page views
(I blog about 3 times a month)

Social Media connections: 8,400
(Linked In, Facebook Fan and personal page, Google+, Twitter)

E-mail addresses: 700
(includes blog sign ups, addresses I've collected over the years and recently contacted, addresses I've collected at readings and lectures I've given. I use Mailchimp.com to manage much of these names)

*What it would take to wow an agent:
Monthly Blog traffic: 50,000 views
Social media connections: 50,000
Email addresses: 100,000

*Source: a 2012 Writer's Digest article, but I can only imagine expectations getting larger not smaller.
Worth noting:
- One agent in the article said she would be impressed with 10,000 social media connections.
- Another agent blog said that for fiction, having a big platform is less important than it is for writers of non-fiction.



Of course, there  is an easier way to impress an agent with your social media numbers.

No time for social media, but lots of money? Buy followers who will ignore all your posts and never buy your book. But hey, you'll have an impressive platform.

Exhibit B: What Worked

 

1) Blogging regularly
But there also seems to be a point of diminishing return -- and I have other work to do.
- My blogs tend to be long: Better to be long and thorough, than short and useless, particularly if you want people to sign up for your blog.
- I've also noticed that some literary agents who used to blog daily are now blogging less frequently. I blog most Mondays.

2) Inserting a sign-up box at the end of each blog post
- Like many blogs, mine has a sign-up box in the right-hand column. When I started to manually add a sign-up box to the end of each blog, my sign-ups jumped ten-fold. (I used to get maybe one sign-up a month. Now I get 10 to 20 and have a total of 290 subscribers.)
- Getting people to sign up, to give you their e-mail address, means you can communicate directly with them. With social media, the sites own the e-mail addresses and  can hold them hostage from you. (more on this below)

3) Posting links to blogs in social media groups and on Web sites frequented by people interested in my topics.
- This is more effective than having thousands of Twitter followers and Facebook Fans who never look at your stuff.
- A recent blog post with tips on posting to groups

4) Public Readings
- You don't need a published book to read at bookstores, literary events, poetry slams, story slams, public libraries, writing centers, adult education centers, etc. Once an agent approached me after a reading and said she wanted to see my book when it was done. (That was two years ago. Will she remember me?)
- Be sure to ask folks to leave their e-mail addresses if they want to get on your e-mail list.
- Tips on reading your work in public
- My recent experience assembling my work into a one-hour reading and performing it at a fringe theater festival.

5) Lectures
- Again, I don't have a published book, but in writing my novel I've developed some areas of expertise, including world travel and social media.
- I've given travel lectures at local adult education centers and at a local store that sells camping gear. I sent a pitch to a local hostel.
- I've been on panels talking about my experiences using social media.

6) Serendipity
- If you're out there, you'll more likely to bump into people
- On Linked In and Twitter, I've met other writers and influential people in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Florida. (I live in Boston) If I ever did a book tour in those areas, these people might invite friends.

7) Guest blogging
- Some blogs have reposted my blogs, which has driven traffic.
- Those blogs include a Boston writer center and blog carnivals.

8) Monitoring blog traffic
I use a free tool called Statcounter, which is much easier to use than Google Analytics. Also, Statcounter actually has tech support. Google doesn't. I use the traffic monitoring tool to:
- See which blog posts and topics draw the most visitors. (I have a seven year-old post that generates almost 25% of my traffic.)
- See where people are coming from to determine which social media platforms are most worth my time. (Linked In has been best, Twitter has been the worst.)

Exhibit C: What Hasn't Worked

1) Having lots of followers on Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter
- Again, most of my traffic comes from posting links and communicating with people in groups and forums interested in the topics I write about.
- Twitter hashtags have produced little traffic.
- One caveat with Twitter: I have two Twitter pages. One is for book marketing and promotion. The other is for a chonically single people, a theme in my novel. The chonically single page does generate some traffic -- and it has a tenth the followers of my book marketing page. So, your Twitter results may depend on your audience.
- I continue to be active on Twitter because it boosts Klout score, a number is considered important by some agents, publishers, and employers. All about Klout scores in plain English.

2) Facebook Fan page
- Facebook continues to limit the number of friends and fans who see your posts. I have 2,000 fans, most of whom used to see my posts. In April 2012, Facebook began showing my posts to only about 500 of those people. In September 2012, that number was reduced to about 200. Now the number is about 100. To reach all 2,000 of my fans, I have to pay Facebook.
- Facebook experts claim that posts that receive a lot of "Likes" and comments will reach more people. Maybe, but I'm not convince.

3) Paid Facebook Promotions
- I once paid $20 to reach all 2,000 of my fans plus 8,000 of their friends. Most of the people who saw my post were non-native English speakers living in developing countries. More on my experience.

Other Things I'm Going to Try

1) Pinterest

2) Blog carnivals

I found a Web site that allows you submit blog posts for posting on other people's blogs. For book marketing, I've used The Book Designer's Carnival of the Indies. But there are other blog carnivals for other topics.

3) Finding more Web sites -- non-social media sites -- where I can post blog links and communicate with potential readers. This is time-consuming and involves Google searches on topics related to my novel (travel, single people, relationships) and this blog (self promotion for writers.)

Attribution for top image: By Employeeperformance (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

  

Had Enough Book Marketing for One Day?

- Top Secret Work Habits of the Successful Novelist (humor)

- Why I Hate Twitter 

- Vicodin, Klonopin, or Heineken: What Do Unemployed Writers Have for Breakfast?

 

 

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Social Media for Writers: One Thing That Works

One of the best places to connect with potential readers is the groups -- essentially online clubs -- offered by social media sites. Groups lets you to post comments and links to relevant Web articles, including those you've written. However, posting links willy-nilly is a type of spamming known as "link-dropping"  and can get you banned from the group, or even the site. This article includes both basic and more advanced tips working with online groups. (Advanced folks should skip to "Posting," sections III and IV, at the bottom of the page.)

I) The Basics

Facebook, Linked In, Google+, and Goodreads provide some form of group feature that allows people interested in a particular topic to congregate. Twitter doesn't have groups per se, but instead uses a feature called hashtags that lets users follow a particular topic. Likewise, many popular Web sites include forums and discussion groups to which you can join and post links.

How to Find Groups

Search for groups by entering your topic of interest in the social media site's search bar. If you're writing about travel, search for groups related to travel. If you join a writing group, you probably don't want to post links about your travel.

Once you join the group, you can begin commenting and posting links. As with most social media features, this is trickier than it sounds because the sites keep changing their rules.


For Linked In
- Enter your topic in the search bar (top red arrow below)
- Then narrow your results to only groups (second red arrow)
- Note: Linked In only allows you to join 50 groups at a time.
- Note: Linked In is a business site, so their groups are generally for people who work in a particular industry. For example, a search on "travel" will not produce a lot of travelers, but will produce a lot of people who work in the travel industry: travel agents, travel bloggers, etc.
- See "Tips" section below before you begin posting. Linked In added a feature that allows group owners to black-ball you from posting in their groups or other people's groups. (Yes, it's very screwy)

Linked In

For Facebook
- Enter your topic in the search bar (top arrow below)
- You'll get results that includes groups, pages, and people.
- Narrow the results only to groups (second arrow)
- Note: Some Facebook Pages created by businesses will let you post comments and links to your blogs. I have not found this useful for driving traffic.
- Note: Facebook will allow you to join up to 300 groups.
- Note: You must use your Profile page to join a group, to comment, or to post links for group members. You can't do this from an Author, Fan, or Business page.

Facebook

For Google+

- Go to your "Home."

- Click on "Communities" and search by topic.

- Note: I'm not sure if Google+ limits the number of Communities you can join.  I belong to 46 and can still join more.

- Note: Google+ has a lot of oddball groups. If you're having trouble finding relevant groups on the other sites, give Google+ a try.

- Note: You can join and post in Communities from a Google+ business page. (If you don't know what a Google+ page is, don't worry about it.)

Gooble+

For Goodreads
- Similar to the others.

Web Sites in General
- Search Google for your topic
- Look for Web sites that have a "group" or "forums" option.
- For example, my novel-in-progress is about a chronically-single guy. I searched for dating and singles sites. Here's one I found that has forums. I joined and post links to dating scenes in my book. (I have not gotten any dates, but I'm getting some traffic.)

 

II) Now What?

 When you find groups of interest, weed them out by considering the following:

- Number of members

- How active the members are (Are the posts recent? Are posts from different people, which is good, or from just one person, which is bad.)
- Content: are people making intelligent comments or are the posts spam for products and services unrelated to the topic.

- If you are looking for readers don't spend time promoting your work to groups for writers.

A word about Twitter:
- With Twitter you can post to groups of people interested in a particular topic using hashtags. One way to find appropriate hashtags is to Google: "best hashtags for <insert your topic>" For example, you might Google: "Best hastags for travel" 
- For this blog, I have found Twitter virtually useless for enticing people to click my links and visit my site. Maybe I'm doing something. Maybe I'm an idiot. Maybe for topics related to this book marketing blog, Twitter is a waste of my time.
- I have a fair amount of followers on Twitter (4,000), some of them retweet my stuff -- so I'm getting interactions, but few of my followers visit my site. But my Twitter activity is responsible for much of my Klout score of 54. I assume that my Klout score will of interest to an employer or publisher, so I keep using Twitter.

 

III) Tips for Posting Links to Your Blog in Groups

As mentioned earlier, joining a group and then immediately posting links to your blog, can get you banned from the group and maybe even the social media site.

Getting Started

- If the owner of the group, posted rules of engagement, read them. (Some groups on Google+ do not want people posting links to blogs.)

- Spend some time commenting and reading other people's posts. "Like" good posts. Re-post good ones to your followers on Twitter, Facebook, or Linked In.

- See what other members are doing. Are they posting links to other Web sites and their own blogs? Great, you'll be in good company. Is the group very chatty and informal? Then make your posts chatty. For example, instead of just posting the link, lead in with a comment. For a chatty travel group: "Here are some travel sites that I thought were cool" then add a link to your blog.
 

Formatting Your Blog Posts

Format posts appropriately for social media: Include a simple image at the top of the blog followed by a summary paragraph describing the content of the blog. Cutesy, clever, or complicated images and leads won't cut it because group members only see a snippet of your article.

Here's what they saw on a recent post I made on Linked In

And on Facebook

Note: Google+ recently changed it's rules and no longer pulls any text from your blog -- you should add it manually. You can even include the first few paragraphs of your blog as I did here:

IV) Posting Problems

 1) Linked In made some changes that make it easy for you to get black-balled if you piss off the moderator of one of your groups. If you are posting on Linked In and your posts -- and even your comments -- produce a note that says something, like this, you've been black-balled.

This note means that many of your posts will sit in a Pending folder until a moderator approves them. Your posts may eventually go live. Or they may not. But it's easy for you to check. In the past, I've sent a nice note to moderators and asked if my posts were Pending because I had done something wrong. Most said "no" and my post went live. Others didn't respond. Read more about this issue. There is even a Linked In group about this problem.


2) Sometimes, Facebook will fail to grab the top image from your blog. In that case, look for the little pointers next to the image -- you may be able to choose another image.

 3) Wasting too much time on this? It's easy to measure whether you are connecting with readers in social media groups. 
- Are you getting positive comments from other group members?
- Are people visiting your Web site? Signing up for your blog?
- Are group members asking to be your Facebook friend or Linked In Connection or adding you to their Google+ circles? 
- Some groups will work for you, others won't. Leave the groups that don't appreciate your unique genius.

4) Social media sites change their policies constantly. Be sure to verify that your posts are going live.

More Self-Promotion for Writer's Articles

Quick, Dirty Blogging Tips for Writers and Authors

If you write what you love will the money follow?

Promote Your Writing: Events, Readings, and Fringe Festivals

Attribution for image at top of this blog: By RRZEicons (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons  

 

 

 

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More Quick, DirtyTwitter Tips for Writers: Tweeting Tricks

Here's a handful of tools that can save time posting to Twitter. These free programs let you preschedule Tweets and automatically add your Facebook, blog, and Linked In posts to Twitter. I've also included a freebie that adds links for your blog and social media pages to your e-mail.

Executive Summary

For those in a hurry, here's the list of the tools:
- Hootsuite for prescheduling posts. (I schedule a week at a time)
- Hootlet, a free Hootsuite tool that makes it easy to capture Web pages you want to post to Twitter, as well as Facebook, Linked In and social media groups you follow.
- Tweetdeck automatically posts your latest blogs to Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In. (There are some notable gotchas, noted later in this blog.)
- Linked In and Facebook include tweaks that will automatically post your activities to Twitter.
-  WiseStamp enhances your emails with a signature that can include  icons and links to your social media profiles. The tool has recently added some slick enhancements.
- The end of this blog has some additional Tweeting tips.

More Detail

Preschedule Tweets with Hootsuite and Hootlet

Hootsuite allows you preschedule posts to Twitter, as well as to your other social media profiles and groups, including those on Linked In and Facebook. (I apologize if I sound like a shill for this product. I use it and can recommend it. Other people use Tweetdeck, which has made some concerning announcements, and other Twitter automation tools.)

How the Hootsuite Scheduler Works In Three Steps

Create your Tweet. Here, I'm planning to promote a link from my blog. I want to schedule it for Thursday at 11:25 p.m..

Then, I choose where I want to promote the link. My options, which I previously set up in Hootsuite, include my two Twitter profiles, as well as some groups I've joined on Linked In. (The free version of Hootsuite limits you to five options.)

Hootsuite also includes a calendar where you can view scheduled Tweets and posts.

Hootlet, a free tool included with Hootsuite, lets you quickly share interesting Web pages and links with your followers. When I come to a Web page I want to share, I click on the Hootlet bookmark I created and it captures the link. Here are the basic steps for using this tool:

Hootlet is listed under Hootsuite's tools button. I installed it and then bookmarked it. When I see a Web page I want to share, I click the button on my bookmark menu bar. (top red-highlight).

Once I click Hootlet, it captures and shortens the link for easy posting to Twitter and elsewhere.

Automatically Share Posts from a Blog, Facebook, and Linked In to Twitter

Twitterfeed: Share Your Blog Posts

 This freebie automatically forwards your blog posts to Linked In, Twitter, and/or Facebook. It's straight-forward and easy to set up.

Twitter has three simple steps and allows you to automatically share blog posts to Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In.

After adding your blog address, Twitterfeed lets you add social media for automatic posting.

Notes and Gotchas: Twitterfeed will grab your headline, description, and a piece of art and create a post for Linked In and Facebook. You are relying on Twitterfeed to decide how your post will look best -- the program may truncates text or do other weird stuff. For Twitter, I don't really care because I will post the same link multiple times with different headlines. Also, Twitter followers may be more accepting of text slop. But my Facebook Fan page is too important to risk a weird, computer-generated post. So, in the Feed Publishing screenshot above, I had NOT clicked the Facebook box. For my Facebook Fan page, I post my blog manually and write a custom description.

Automated posts can turn into a bit of a mess with Twitterfeed. It's probably fine for Twitter, but you may not want this type of slop to appear on Linked In or a Facebook Fan page.

 Share Facebook and Linked In Posts to Twitter

Twitter for Linked In

Once you add your Twitter handle to your Linked In profile, you'll have the option to have your updates automatically posted to your Twitter account. Again, this is an automated process that truncates your post, but provides a link. Sometimes, comments you make to Linked In groups will also appear on Twitter. This helps provide a stead stream of content for your Twitter feed.

Adding your Twitter handle to Linked In lets you post truncated versions of your post to Twitter.

Twitter for Facebook    

This tool is pretty straightforward. This link provides the details.

Other Tweeting Tips

- Don't just post links: Include some full statements or comments or musings that don't need links. I post statistics, one-line jokes, etc. Posting photos and videos is another good way to mix things up.

- Leave 15 or so characters at the end of Tweets, so people can retweet your tweet without cutting off text. (instead of using all 140 characters, consider using only 125.)

- Don't use too many hashtags -- three is a good limit -- in one tweet or it will look like gobbledy gook.

- Repost your own tweets. Post one at 9:00 a.m. one week and at 5 p.m. the next. You never know when people will be checking Twitter. By experimenting, you can find out which times are most effective. I've read that immediately before and after work are best times. I have no data to back up that claim.

E-Mail Freebie: Include Your Web Sites and Social Media Profiles in Messages

WiseStamp lets you add a fancy signature to your e-mail messages. I've been using it with Yahoo! Mail for over a year and haven't had any problems. Also, they recently added the capability to include a Like button for your Facebook Fan Page.

The WiseStamp interface is relatively straight foward and allows you to add icons and links for blogs and your social media profiles to e-mail messagess.

WiseStamp adds a signature with links and icons to the bottom of your e-mails.

More Social Media Tips

Quick and Dirty Facebook Tricks for Writers


Linked In Tips for Writers

Just for Fun

Chronically Single? You've Got Company (a recent comedy performance promoting my novel and one-man show.)

How One Group of Writer's is Making Living


Art attribution: Twitter image by Twitter_logo_initial.svg:en:User:GageSkidmore, modified by User:Cproderivative work: Zapyon (Twitter_logo_initial.svg) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

 

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Quick, Dirty Book Marketing: Stuff that's Worked for Me

Here's a quick overview of book marketing strategy based on things that have worked for me during the last six months. This article also suggests easy-to-use Web-based tools and a warning for users of Google's Feedburner blog subscription tool.

A key goal of book marketing is to drive people to your blog or Web site, and then get them to leave an e-mail address. Here's why: Remember all those Facebook friends and likes, Twitter followers, and Linked In connections you've spent hours collecting? They're not your friends, they are Facebook's friends.

If a social media platform -- for example Facebook -- changes its rules and want to charge you to reach your hard-earned connections, you're screwed. If the social media company closes it's doors, you're screwed. More on why Facebook sucks.

I) Blogging

1) Choosing a platform

For most people the choice boils down to WordPress or Blogger.

- Blogger is simpler

- WordPress is more powerful, meaning there are more cool things you can do with it.

Both platforms will allow you to create a blog that looks, feels, and behaves like a Web site. This blog was created with Blogger.

2) Content, Frequency, Length

a) Content: 

- For Non-fiction writers this is easier: Focus on current events, offer tips, respond to reader comments. 

- For Fiction writers: Pick some themes and topics mentioned in your book and treat them the same way a non-fiction writer does. So, If your book involves an exotic location, write about that location. If your characters are single, write about single life. 

- Should writers blog about writing? There's a lot of conflicting opinions. Some experts claim you'll be diluting your audience and that writers don't buy books. Other experts, say that's hogwash. Try it and see if you get any clicks.

*Include a piece of art at the top of your blog! Posts will look more professional and be more attractive when you promote you links on Facebook, Linked In, and other sites. A good place to find free art: Creative Commons. A word on attribution: you want to give credit to artists. I've been grabbing the attributions and posting them at the end of my blogs.

*Be sure the first paragraph or your blog summarizes the content: When you post links to your blog, some social media sites will include the first graph. If that graph is cutesy, clever, and confusing, you'll lose readership.

b) Frequency

I was blogging weekly and it was too much work. Now, I'm blogging three times a month, which feels about right -- and my traffic has remained about the same.

c) Length

Some experts recommend no more than 250 words. I've been doing up to 750. Length doesn't seem to affect my traffic.

3) Capturing E-Mails 

 

You want people who like your blog to sign up or subscribe. Suggestions for increasing sign ups:

a) Use a tool such as Feedburner, which does the following:
- Creates a sign-up box that lets readers add their e-mail or subscribe via RSS feed.
- Many people hate Feedburner because it doesn't offer any tech support -- like many free tools from Google, including Blogger, you're on your own. (For tech support, I always search on the problem I'm having and often other people have had similar problems and come up with answers. For example, I recently searched on: "Why does my Feedburner count fluctuate?" and found reams of answers.

b) Post a sign-up box at the end of each blog post. (See end of this post for how I do it.)

*NOTE: There are rumors that Google may shut down Feedburner. Here's what you can do to move your subscribers to alternatives to FeedBurner.

4) Include Google Ads?

If you are getting some traffic, say more than 3,000 page views a month, consider using Google ads. I just starting posting Google ads on this  blog. The ads are in the upper right-hand corner and at the bottom of the page. The ads have not hurt my traffic and I earned $10 last month. I suspect that earnings will go up as Google starts posting more relevant ads.

More on blogging.

II) SEO

SEO involves several steps:
- Determining the best Google-friendly keyword phrases that will make your blog posts easy to find.
- Inserting them into your headlines and first paragraph of your posts.
- Including those keywords in your blog description. (Blogger provides a Search Description box that you can fill out for each post.)

Humorous, useful pieces on Keyword phrases and SEO

More than you need to know about SEO

III) Driving Traffic by Posting Links

This is a key reason you are bothering with social media: To post links that drive people to your blog.
Facebook and Linked In have groups of people with similar interests. Linked In and Facebook allow you to search for groups by topic and will tell you how many members are in each group.
*Before signing up for a group: consider the number of members, then visit the group to how active those members are: If there are only a few posts from the same person or the posts are two weeks old, skip it.
*Linked In limits the number of groups you can join to 50. Posting links to 50 groups takes me about a 1.5 hours, but it generates 75% of my traffic.

IV) Managing E-mails

You have a lists of people in your personal and business e-mail. Any of them interested in your writing? If you have more than 50, you won't be able to e-mail them all at once from a typical e-mail program, like say, Yahoo! Mail.

For managing large groups of e-mails and for creating periodic e-mail blasts and e-mail newsletters use an e-mail management service. I've been using Mailchimp and, so far, have no complaints.

More on managing e-mail addresses and newsletters.

V) Offline Book Marketing

1) Public Readings

You don't have to be a big name author -- or even have a book -- to do public readings. I've been reading from my as-yet unfinished book at poetry slams (my book isn't poetry), story slams (I won one), a smut slam (don't ask), and public libraries (libraries in Boston pay readers.)

The key to giving public readings: Make sure you collect e-mail addresses from people at the reading. Add these people manually to Mailchimp or your e-mail management program.

Note: I'm an idiot, I've given more than 50 readings and didn't bother collecting e-mails until last month. Don't make the same mistake!

Tips on reading your work in public.

 

2) More on Public Readings 

 

I once gave a reading at a store that sells travel gear (My novel includes a lot of travel scenes.) I am going to approach other stores related to other themes in my book:

- Humorous erotica: I'm going to pitch readings to lingerie shops, wine stores, stores that sell sex toys, sex conferences.

- More travel: I am gong to create a (PG-rated) presentation about my trip around the world and weave in readings from my book. I'll pitch hostels, hotels, and more stores that sell travel gear.

- Dating and single life: I have a lot of dating scenes in my book, I just need to find stores that cater to singles. This could also include wine stores, fancy restaurants, and singles clubs.

 

3) A-B-C: Always Be Closing

 

If someone asks you what you do, mention your book. If they seem interested ask if they want to be on your mailing list. If they had you a business card, be sure to ask them: "Is this the best e-mail for personal e-mail or information on my book?"

Had Enough Book Marketing?

- Vicodin, Klonopin, or Heineken: What do unemployed writers have for breakfast?

 

- Humorous Erotica: The Online Date that Went a Little too Well *

*Content Warning: This piece contains adult language, adult situations, and more adult language.

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Attribution for Book image at top of post: "This file is from the Open Clip Art Library, which released it explicitly into the public domain, using the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication."

Time for Old School Book Marketing? My 9-Month Progress Report

I just finished a book called "Social Media is Bullshit," which confirms what a lot of writers have been suspecting: The Web is stacked against little guys like us. So, I'm going to try old school marketing tactics that involve: the telephone, in-person readings, collecting e-mail addresses, and attempting to get coverage in mainstream broadcast and press.

Executive Summary: Nine Months of Book Marketing Hell

My monthly Web traffic remains stable (about 3,000 page views and 2,000 visits) and I'm adding blog subscribers slowly, but steadily (now have 142 subscribers). But I doubt I'll ever hit numbers big enough to impress an agent or publisher. (Interesting article on how big your platform should be to impress an agent.)

My Numbers

1) Web Traffic

- Page views in July: 2,428       (1,779 unique visits)
- Page views August: 2,977      (2,139)
- Page views Sept.: 2,774        (2,017)
- Page views in Oct.: 2,783      (1,996)
- Page Views in Nov.:  2,956    (2,037)


- Blog subscribers at end July: 48
- Blog subscribers at end of August: 71
- Blog subscribers at end of September: 95
- Blog subscribers at end of October: 114
- Blog subscribers at end of November: 142** 

What an agent wants to see: At least 20,000 page views/month. (For that many page views, I'd need about 14,000 visits.)

*includes this blog and about 150 page views for my resume and rarely-updated travel Web sites.
**includes 16 people who did not confirm their subscriptions. After subscribers sign up for my blog, they receive an e-mail asking them to confirm their subscription. For some reason, these folks never confirmed, so I put their e-mails into a Yahoo e-mail list and manually forward each blog post to them.

 2) Social Media and E-Mail Addresses

Twitter: 840, up 35 from 805 last month.

 - Posting links to my blog in Twitter generated 21 blog page views last month, an average month for me.
- What agents want to see: At least 5,000 Twitter followers.
- Note: This is easy to do by signing on to a Twitter follow group, where you agree to follow people who agree to follow you. The net result: you get a lot of people who have no interest in your work and will likely not buy your book.

Facebook: 2,043 Fans/Likes, up 7 from last month.
- I spent $20 to promote one of my Facebook posts to my Fans and 8,000 of their friends -- and added about 10 Likes, three of whom subsequently un-Liked me. My paid Facebook promotion was a waste of money.)

- Posting links on my Fan page generates very few visitors (33 last month). Posting links to appropriate Facebook groups is more productive and produced visitors (125).
- Worth noting: The "what agents want article" offered no stats for numbers of Facebook Fans and Link In connections. Hmmm.

Linked In: 1,167 connections, up 19 from last month

- Posting links to Linked In groups generated 457 visits, more than any other social media source.
- Note: In early fall, after I attempted to connect with a lot of people who declined my heartfelt requests, Linked In stopped allowing me to contact to people for whom I didn't have an e-mail address.
- As of this week, Linked In has restored my ability to contact people without having their e-mail addresses. However, Linked In wrote that it would revoke my account if I started spamming again.

E-mail Addresses: 439*
- Blog subscribers: (as note above) 142
- Newsletter subscribers: 7 (I just started this newsletter for Boston folks I meet at parties or readings. I added two more people last month!)
- Personal/professional e-mail addresses of people who might care about what I'm doing: 290
*What agents want to see: more than 5,000 addresses.

Banging Our Heads Against the Web-Marketing Wall?

For the next month, I'm going to focus my energy on old-school promotion and marketing.

Here's why:

- After reading "Social Media is Bullshit" I'm willing to believe that the days are gone when an average person can launch a blog and generate huge traffic. The book also says that most large blogs and Web sites are owned by large companies with large staffs and deep pockets that I don't have. Also, the odds of me producing a blog or other content that goes viral are non-existent.

- I worked as an SEO consultant for three years. The company I worked for spent $10,000 a month on a platoon of specialists (including me) who worked to drive traffic to the company's site.

- Social media is not designed to help the average small business person. Witness recent changes to Facebook Fan pages. Also, Linked In groups are increasingly filled with useless spam. Either people will stop participating in these groups or Linked In will come down on people like me who post links to multiple groups. Finally, have I mentioned enough times that I think Twitter is a torrent of crap?

- I am again considering some advice I got from a marketing consultant friend: "Find something you like doing and become good at it."

Old School Book Marketing

At it's most basic, marketing has two steps: Define your audience and reach them. Since I don't have a book to sell yet, I want to get people's e-mail addresses for the future. I can also sell them my chapbook of writing samples.


My Thought Process

1) Who is my audience?
Based on my Facebook Fan page stats, anecdotal evidence from folks who attend my readings, and the age and interests of the characters in my novel, my readers are mostly: aged 35 to 55, educated, urban professionals (modern yuppies.) Their interests include: travel, romantic relationships and sex, dining out, edgy humor, art and culture. (pretty broad, but enough to get me started.)

2) How to reach them
My favorite marketing technique is public readings and lectures. If I want to read to modern yuppies, where will I find them? Swank hotels, trendy restaurants, fund-raisers, corporate functions, adult education programs, retail stores that cater to them (furniture stores, erotic toy stores, wine stores, outdoor gear stores, sporting goods stores, and other stores with products related to themes in my novel.)

To reach a lot of potential readers, I need coverage in the mainstream media: radio, TV, and print. In the past my readings -- even at small venues -- have gotten some coverage in local papers. I've also gotten coverage on local cable TV stations.

3) What I plan to do this month:
- Send pitches for classes I could teach to local adult education centers. (I took a trip around the world and have lectured about that in the past. I could also lecture about the basics of book marketing.)
- Send pitches for my readings to colleges catering to older students. (I have organized my readings into what can be loosely describe as a one-man show.)
- Contact some event planners to see if they would consider me as "literary" entertainment at special events. (I would offer an alternative option to comedians, musicians, and Tarot card readers.)
- I posted audios clips of me reading to a site called PRX.com, which sells content to public radio stations. (It costs $50/year. I have gotten a few nibbles but no takers. However, a friend has sold a number of pieces through this service.)
*Note: I am well aware that some of these are real long-shots, but the odds can't be any longer than Web marketing. I am also aware that some of this is a little haphazard. But another piece of business advice that I like: Sometimes it is better to just jump and make your mistakes than to spend all your time researching.

Note: Another book marketing book for old schoolers: "Talk Up Your Book," by Patricia Fry. If you've done some public speaking and readings, skip the first nine chapters -- they're repetitive and rudimentary.

Can't Get Enough Book Marketing? 

 

- Is online book marketing a waste of time? (readers weigh in)


- Do You Rate? Measuring Book Promotion Success

-Tips for Reading Your Writing in Public

Had Enough Book Marketing?

 

 - One Day at Big Sky Ski Area: Encounter with a Snowboarder
"You're a grown man, you should know better than that," said the 20-something snowboarder as I lay face-down in the snow.

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*Attribution for "old school" image at top of page: PbakerODU at en.wikibooks [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons