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Category Archives: googling social

How to Get Your Author Page on Google’s Page 1

17 Dec

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Climbing-to-the-top

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Why being on top of Google search rankings is important for you as an author?
Remember what’s critical in buying property: location, location, location … in web terms it means ranking, ranking, ranking. So, if someone is searching for key phrases that are contained in your blog or in your website, they will find you on Google’s top rankings. And as more potential readers find your websites, as more they learn about you as an author and about your books.
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According to studies: No. 1 Position in Google Gets 33% of Search Traffic
To boost your website’s ranking it is very important to know and use SEO, which stands for “search engine optimization.” Basics you should know, how to benefit from regarding SEO:
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What a Google Algorithm is
Your website is crawled by Google robots, which is essentially just an algorithm that goes through different aspects of a website (keywords, quality of content, links ets) to help bring users the most relevant results. Google has hundreds of algorithms, all of which take different things into account and which they update often.
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Keywords That Affects the Google Algorithm
Keywords is one of the factors Google uses to analyze a website. Keywords that people search for and the keywords used in titles and throughout your website are all things Google takes into consideration. Watch this YouTube video for samples of finding keywords, one of many on this site.

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Why Linking Matters for Users and Search Engines
If you have different quality websites linking to your website from all over the web, Google will stop and think “this must be a great site.” You earn a higher ranking if you earn a lot of these links. You also want to link within your website so that users can get around easier, which is important not only for users, but for the Google bots who are ranking your site, based on good navigation.
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Why Google+ Matters
Google is moving toward a more social approach to ranking websites as opposed to keyword-based. Google+ is going to be the main social network Google considers. Google+ is how Google finds an author, connections, location, and interactions amongst users. It then takes this information to help create a more personalized Search Engine results for a user. For example, if you and I both typed in the same search query, we would get a slightly different set of results.
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TIPS:
Posting on your Google+ site helps tremendously with SEO and how easy your website can be found.
Always have your own domain name and domain hosting. Free websites, such as Weebly for example will never bring your websites – and your books – to Google’s first page! Free websites that save you less than $10 a month, will cost you actually: in lost readers and lost business.
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Learn more at these Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF515-0Tduk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=421aTJI2Nxc
http://www.y2m.ae/blog/the-importance-of-seo-an-infographic/
http://www.searchenginejournal.com
http://www.hubspot.com
http://www.resolutionmedia.comragan.com
http://www.ragan.com
http://bit.ly/19qmd0b
http://www.y2m.ae

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $159 for three months! Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/
to advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 960 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://www.111publishing.com
http://www.e-Book-PR.com/
http://www.international-ebooks.com/
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Posted by on December 17, 2013 in googling social, Marketing, posting, Publishing, Website & SEO

 

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The 15 World Top Websites in Alexa Ranking

22 Oct

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Alexa Ranking

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Alexa.com, the web information and measure company, let you know the traffic relation between your website / blog and the rest of the almost one billion sites worldwide. At www.Alexa.om you can search by country, by category and global. As lower your ranking is as better. Check out your own site: Just go to Alexa.com and type in your blog or website.
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Why is the Alexa Ranking so Relevant? 
Website ranking, as a concept, is stressed as an important component of search engines, particularly by Google themselves. Sites with higher Alexa Ranks become more likely to attract potential advertisers and/or marketing offers. And if you are looking for promotion of your books, compare the companies’ Alexa Ranking, among other variables, before you make a decision!
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The Examiner.com Wrote:
“The first thing you need to know about Alexa, that like a golf score, a lower number is better. What Alexa does is rank your website based on traffic.  Data collected provides a 3-month view of how many people visited your site, how long they stayed, how many pages were read and search queries used to find your site.  Most sites never go under 1 million, simply because they don’t rank well on search engines, others get really good scores (less than 100,000) because they are viewed so often.
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Tips to increase your Alexa Ranking:

  • The better the content of your blog or website, the stronger the readership. It would also attract good traffic and your Alexa ratings would soar. If you are a novice blogger, you need to regularly post at least a blog/day to keep your blog alive and breathing. Promote your blog on social networking sites and it will no longer clog.
  • A great way to increase the Alexa rank, is to write guest posts. The numbers of your Alexa rank will scale to a much higher level if you build the back links and your own readership will soar to great heights.
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Alexa-Ranking

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Our latest numbers on Alexa.com out of 1 Billion websites:
Global rank 105,556 for SavvyBookWriters @111Publishing
USA Rank 48,970

We welcome guest blogs from writers that fit into our topics. If you are interested, read the more about guest blogging.  Got some ideas? Drop us a line, including your own website / blog link at 111Publishing gmail com

Top 15 Websites as of October 22, 2013

  • 1

    google.com

    Enables users to search the world’s information, including webpages, images, and videos. Offers… More
  • 2

    facebook.com

    A social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and … More
  • 3

    youtube.com

    YouTube is a way to get your videos to the people who matter to you. Upload, tag and share your… More
  • 4

    yahoo.com

    A major internet portal and service provider offering search results, customizable content, cha… More
  • 5

    baidu.com

    The leading Chinese language search engine, provides “simple and reliable” search exp… More
  • 6

    wikipedia.org

    A free encyclopedia built collaboratively using wiki software. (Creative Commons Attribution-Sh… More
  • 7

    qq.com

    China’s largest and most used Internet service portal owned by Tencent, Inc founded in Nov… More
  • 8

    linkedin.com

    A networking tool to find connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and busin… More
  • 9

    live.com

    Search engine from Microsoft.
  • 10

    twitter.com

    Social networking and microblogging service utilising instant messaging, SMS or a web interface.
  • 11

    amazon.com

    Amazon.com seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and disc…More
  • 12

    taobao.com

    Launched in 2003, Taobao Marketplace (www.taobao.com) is a popular consumer-to-consumer (C2C) o…More
  • 13
  • 14

    google.co.in

    Indian version of this popular search engine. Search the whole web or only webpages from India…. More
  • 15

    wordpress.com

    Free blogs managed by the developers of the WordPress software. Includes custom design template…More
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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.international-ebooks.com/book-promo to advertise your new book, specials or KDP Select Free Days.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 900 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Posted by on October 22, 2013 in Author Platform / Brand, Blogging, googling social, join the conversation, Marketing, Social Media Book Marketing, Social Networks, Website & SEO

 

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How to Overcome Anxiety as a Writer

21 Oct

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Overcome-Fear-and-Anxiety

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If you really want to succeed as a writer, your have to overcome many fears, from handling criticism, getting rejection letters from publishers, negative comments from bullies to the fear of public speaking at book launches or writer conferences. So what can you do to overcome these fears or apprehensions?

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How to Deal With Publisher’s Rejections
The path to writing success is littered with rejection letters. No matter if it was your first or your thirtieth rejection letter, don’t give up. Read these articles about famous authors who received dozens and dozens of these letters:
Just to show you how wrong publishers can be, see the original snarky rejection letter that Gertrude Stein received in 1912 from a jerk publisher.  Or check out an extensive collection of the some of the biggest errors of judgement in publishing history.
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And even there are barely any reasons given in these rejection letters, it can be:

  • that the publisher just worked on a somewhat similar book,
  • that they don’t have the money to take on new projects,
  • that the topic is not to the editors taste,
  • that the book would not fit into their line
  • that the publishing house is in the process of merging with another publisher
  • that your book is not written in the personal style of the editor
  • …. or any other reason

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Writing is an art, publishing is a business
In other businesses people don’t have the time to delve …. over rejections of business contracts, they just write the next query. So should you. Just keep going. Work on your next query letter and synopsis, perfect them and check out other publishing houses. Remember that only about one per cent of manuscripts are accepted and that you always have the possibility to publish the book yourself, making way more money than using a commercial publisher. How it works is described in a series …..
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Negative People
Don’t expect positive comments all the time. Negative comments should be taken as a compliment. Why? Because it means that what your writing sparked enough emotion to compel people to leave a comment. Don’t feel bad when you get negative comments, be upset when you don’t get any comments at all. Every person is entitled to their opinions. Most of the time, the reason people post negative reviews or comments has very little to do with the actual issue at hand. You never know what’s going on in a negative commentators personal life: Maybe he/she had a bad day/got fired or is bitter in general. Some commentators will leave negative comments in an attempt to draw your attention. One thing is for sure: They are poor, unhappy people and not able to be constructive. See also: “Got a 1-Star Review?“
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Should you dignify their comments with a response, always be calm and respectful. Never respond with defensiveness or emotion. Instead, state the facts and be cool. And do thank the person for taking the time to comment. Handling negative comments can increase your professionalism. Sometimes you can even impress those people so much that they become your biggest fans.

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Writing Critiques / Editings
The most important step is: don’t take critiques personally, especially not when it comes from an accomplished writer or a seasoned editor. Even bestseller authors find lots of “red ink” in their manuscripts when they are returned from the editor. Everything in life is a learning process, and you don’t pay an editor to praise you, you pay to have your writing criticized, to improve your style, develop attention to detail and most of all, to help you polishing your writing to the very best it can be.

See it as improvement and growth.
Thank the editor or beta reader and revise your work. If you don’t agree with the way they edited your manuscript, open up a constructive discussing and you might get very helpful insights.
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Shy Writers
Reaching success is possible for a loner, so get out there and start networking. Reaching out to other people or speaking publicly may be out of your comfort zone, but it’s absolutely necessary for you as a writer. It is something that you must do again and again throughout your career because it’s the only way to find new readers / customers. Help others, give them positive affirmation and it will come back to you one day when you need it. Growing your contact list is essential especially when you’re looking to promote your work or to collaborate with others. Again: “Writing is an art, publishing is a business.” And every new business owner needs a while to adapt to their new role.

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Who can help you with that level of anxiety?

Writers groups
Breaking through writer’s block is a good reason to belong to at least one (better several) writing groups. Chances are you’ll hear something that will help. You can also tell the group your problem and get lots of suggestions. You will discover that many other writers struggle with the same fears.
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Counseling
Writer’s block or anxiety can, if it goes on and on for weeks and months, can be a sign of deeper problems. Working with a professional counselor may be in order. A good counselor can be a miracle worker.
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Don’t miss these great articles:

20 Ways to Overcome Shyness

Shyness and Social Anxiety

Best tips of all: Remove the use of avoidance and safety behaviors and gradually confront your fears.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.international-ebooks.com/book-promo to advertise your new book, specials or KDP Select Free Days.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 900 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+
http://pinterest.com/111publishing/
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Posted by on October 21, 2013 in Author/Writer, googling social, Marketing

 

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Thoughts on Halloween: A Perspective on Time

20 Oct

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A compelling journey to follow … for the right audience.

Humans are good at a lot of things, but putting time in perspective is not one of them. It’s not our fault – the span of time in human history, and even more so in natural history, are so vast compared to the span of our life and recent history that it’s almost impossible to get a handle on it.

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A Perspective on Time

by mayra.artes.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

 

Published by Wait but why
Designed bymayra.artes
 
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Posted by on October 20, 2013 in googling social, post to public, posting

 

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7 Top Reasons for Writers to Be on Goodreads

15 Oct

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Seven-Top-Reasons
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How Can Goodreads Help Your Book Take-Off?
Goodreads is a kind of Facebook / Google+ for people who love to read books. A free website for book lovers. Bookshelves, reviews, ratings, reader communities, author pages, book giveaways  … all this is Goodreads. There is more offered on their website: join a discussion group, or start a book club, contact an author, and even post your own writing. More tips about the benefits of joining Goodreads and how you can use Goodreads to promote your blog.
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1. Goodreads Author Program
Use it to promote yourself and your books. What is the Goodreads Author Program? It is a
completely free feature designed to help authors reach their target audience — passionate
readers. This is the perfect place for new and established authors, to promote their books. What
Can You Do as a Goodreads Author?

a) Show Your Author Profile

  • Add a picture and bio.
  • Share your list of favorite books and recent reads with your fans!
  • Write a blog and generate a band of followers.
  • Publicize upcoming events, such as book signings and speaking engagements.
  • Share book excerpts and other writing.
  • Write a quiz about your book or a related topic.
  • Post videos. Add the Goodreads Author widget to to your personal website or blog to show off reviews of your books.

b) Promote Your Books

  • Sign up to advertise your book to up to the Goodreads Community—16,000,000 readers!
  • List a book giveaway to generate pre-launch buzz.
  • Lead a Q&A discussion group for readers.
  • Participate in discussions on your profile, in groups and in the discussion forums for your books.

How do I join and who can join is explained in detail in one of our former blog posts about Goodreads.
The Author Program is designed for people with published books, or who are just in the process of
publishing a book. It’s best if your work is on a bookseller’s website, such as Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, but Goodreads will accept any author who has published a book. This includes authors from
other countries as well as authors who are self-published. If your book is self-published and is not yet in the Goodreads database, you may manually add it.

How To Use the Author Program
Learn more about how to promote your books with special tools on Goodreads. Each slideshow
demonstrates a different aspect of our Author Program.
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2. Reader and Writer Forums
Did you realize how many writer forums and groups are on Goodreads? Just go to the top of each page and click on Groups. A new page opens and shows “Recently Active Groups”, “Featured Groups”, “Goodreads Author Groups” etc. and one the right hand site of the page “Browse by Tag”. This is were all the groups are listed by over 1,000 keywords. For sample:

  • Book Club
  • Historical Fictionistas
  • Non-Fiction
  • Young Adult Book Groups
  • Suspense
  • Super-Natural
  • The Perks Of Being A Book Addict
  • Womankind Worldwide Book Group

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As you can see, when you scroll down on the right hand site, there are ten-thousands of groups!!!
Books & Literature (26598) Business (1393) Entertainment & Arts (2222) Friends & Common
Interest (6914) Geography (490) Goodreads Authors (2535) Just for Fun (22709) Organizations
(3365) Student Groups (6129)
There is even a group that encourages Author-Publishers (Indies) to promote their books – a rarity
at Goodreads, were obvious self-promotion is not well received otherwise. These groups are a hidden gem to meet readers and reviewers. Almost all are public groups. Anyone can join and invite others to join. However, it’s not a place to blatantly tout your books, with the exception I just mentioned. ”Authors are welcomed and Goodreads supports authors in many ways, but the groups are primarily geared towards readers. Authors should join and participate in the group as a reader first.” Once you are known in these forums, your author site and your books will automatically be read – and often reviewed.

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3. Get and Give Reviews
When I was talking recently with an author, who desperately wanted more reviews. When I asked him how many reviews he has written in the last year, he stumbled … and said: “well, NONE so far”. Shall I say more? Don’t forget: To be a Goodreads member and to benefit, especially from reviews, requires that you are a bit more active on this site, for sample in shelving books of other writers, in participating from time to time in forums, read books and review them. How could someone expect to receive reviews if they are not writing some for others? Be a good pal in this book community!
From a Goodreads statement: “Books with no written reviews are added, on average, by 7 people, while books with just five written reviews are added by more than 40 people.”

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4. Friends Can Recommend Your Book
And you can recommend books from your writer friends? To send out a book recommendation, go to the book’s page and click on the “recommend it” link at the top right side of the page. A new site appears with three possibilities: “friends” “manual” “facebook“.

Under the icon “friends” your Goodreads friends are listed and you click next to the name to whom
you want to send your book recommendation. Enter under “manual” single email addresses of readers that are not yet on Goodreads. The “Facebook” icon lists your FB friends, who are not yet members of Goodreads to recommend the book to.
Click on “My Books” in the top navigation menu and add away! You can add books into read, currently reading, to read categories or edit your bookshelf to add your own categories. Once you read them, write a review!  Many authors who’s books you recommended will return this favor to you.

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5. Share This Book
Another hidden gem on your Goodreads page, that your visitors, readers and friends can use in order to promote your books: “Share This Book“.  Did you realize that everyone of your Goodreads book’s pages has share buttons to submit your book to Google+, Pinterest, Twitter and to their Facebook page, even “like” it on Facebook?  Go to the right hand side of your books page and scroll down, until you see the button: “Share This Book”
There is another possibility to spread the word about your book:  Next to these Social Media icons are two unassuming words: Your Website. When you click on it, a window appears with some code that one can be easily copy and paste onto their blog or website and will show an image of your book and a link.  Another way to spread the work about your book! Let your friends ping to Google+ and FB
On the left lower corner of Goodreads are icons to these two websites to which your friends can send your image, books name and a link for your book – as well as a comment, such as “must read”, “great book” or “you will love it”.
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6. Advertise Your Events for FREE
Goodreads encourages you to publicize upcoming events, such as book signings and speaking engagements. This is a feature, similar to the one which is offered on Google+  –  see our blog
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/announce-your-book-signing-on-google-for-free/. Start about 3 weeks before your book launch with your event announcement. Use Goodreads’ event listing form to start the process. It has an RVSP feature and people can state if they are “coming”.
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7. Give Away Copies of Your Print Book.
It makes sense to give away books – if your goal is to get reviews. More than 50% of giveaway winners review the books they win, so the more books you offer, the more reviews you are likely to get. Run your giveaway for two weeks to a month. Goodreads says, “Giveaways less than two weeks run the risk of not getting enough entries, while a four-week giveaway will generate more entries.

Goodreads recommends even two giveaways: one about three months before publication to build pre-release buzz and reviews, and a second to increase awareness when your book hits the stores. Both will result in a lot of people adding your book to their to-read shelves – visible for all their friends.” Read more about Goodreads Giveaway rules in a former blog post.

 

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.international-ebooks.com/book-promo to advertise your new book, specials or KDP Select Free Days.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 900 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Posted by on October 15, 2013 in e-publishing, googling social, post to public, posting, Publishing, Reading, Social Media Book Marketing, Social Networks

 

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What is Your Reason for Blogging?

23 Sep

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Blogging Stats, published by Technorati:

The only way to become a better writer is to write – pages and pages, day after day. That’s exactly what an active blogger spends her or his time doing. The more you blog, the more you write – and the better a writer you become. Additionally, you can sell your best articles to newspapers and magazines, even getting more attention to your writing and more authority.

Search engines are looking for results that are helpful to their users.  When you write a series of in-depth, valuable articles around a topic, Google’s Search Engines take notice.  Each high-quality blog post that you publish is another opportunity to get traffic from search. It’s called CONTENT MARKETING.
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The State of Blogging

by jxtr.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

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Who Are the Most Avid Bloggers?
13% of the blogosphere are entrepreneurs, or individuals blogging for a company or organization they own. 84% of these bloggers blog primarily about the industry they work in, with 46% blogging about business and 40% about technology. 76% blog to share expertise; 70% blog to gain professional recognition; and 68% to attract new clients for their business – or readers and reviewers for their books.
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Static websites don’t attract many new clients or customers. However, a regularly updated blog can produce a constant stream of good leads from all around the world.  Blogs have so much influence on purchase decisions. A blog allows the luxury of space and the time to develop a writer’s points of view.  Blog content provides added value and it will always trump advertising.
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Sometimes a blog starts out as a hobby only to become a full-time business. That type of growth is not typical – only if you are willing to commit to it. Trust is a rare and valuable commodity online. You can’t buy trust. It has to be earned by demonstrating your commitment to your readers, time and time again.
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Blogging is the foundation of Social Networking:
“The richest people in the world build networks. Everyone else looks for work.”  – Robert Kiyosaki

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3 Comments

Posted by on September 23, 2013 in Blogging, googling social, join the conversation, Marketing, post to public, Writing

 

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3 Top Reasons to Be on Google’s Page 1

21 Sep

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Search Engine Optimization, short SEO,  is not about tricks or manipulating algorithms. It’s about understanding the online landscape and evolving to meet your customers where they are. It is essential to establish and/or increase your web presence as a writer.
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Why it is so Important to Be on Google’s Page 1:

  • 60% of clicks go to the Top 3 of the search results
  • 75% of all users never scroll past the first page of search results
  • 42% of all users click on the top-ranked result and only 23% on ads

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Think Seo Doesn

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
Source: http://www.y2m.ae/blog/the-importance-of-seo-an-infographic/

Sources:
http://www.hubspot.com
http://www.resolutionmedia.comragan.com
http://www.ragan.com
http://www.y2m.ae

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.
Or visit http://www.e-Book-PR.com/book-promo to advertise your new book, specials or KDP Select Free Days.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 880+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Posted by on September 21, 2013 in googling social, Marketing, post to public, posting, Social Media Book Marketing, Website & SEO

 

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9 Things Authors Should Never Do on Twitter

17 Sep

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Twitter-Social-Network

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If you want to become popular on Twitter and have your tweets go viral, avoid these errors, and check out the small, but significant issues you might not be aware of, and change your Social Media approach for the better.
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Having no Avatar – Instead an Image of your Pet
Who wants to talk with an egg, or a cat, child or your dog? OK, if you have a company, you can use the company logo, but for everyone else: get a great studio photo once in ten years and use it for all your marketing needs including your book cover or on your website. Would you send a potential employer a photo of your house pet, your book or a toddler’s image? No? Why then show these annoying images to your potential customers? Be professional! Sometimes I am inclined to publish a book with the worst avatars! Hope yours is not included. Use an attractive portrait or logo and stick with it everywhere, in order to have brand consistency.

Having no Bio or Real Name
Your name and @name, should be searchable on Twitter. It means people can type you into Twitter’s search engine and find you. Use your own name o try to get the actual name of your small publishing business on Twitter. Keep it as short as possible, to give tweeps more space to re-tweet your content or to communicate with you.

Choosing Other Writers as Followers (only)
Why would you not choose readers, reviewers or other interesting people to follow? If you are on Social Media to network, hang out with READERS! A no-brain-er … Use the search function to find like-minded Tweeps, e.g. type: reading, book lover, book worm, avid reader etc. You will want to get more readers, than other writers as Twitter followers, right?

Talking about Your Book (only)
Buy my book, buy my book, buy my book, buy my book – pretty boring, isn’t it?
Aim to send out entertaining, thoughtful, funny content or news, that are interesting for your fellow tweeps. You could for example improve these points:

  • Tweet the latest news
  • Pick the right time of day
  • Leave room for a retweet
  • Use top re-tweetable phrases
  • Write a tempting headline
  • Don’t make the tweet about you

Not Being Social – or Being too Social
In the process of choosing followers, one can sometimes scroll down their timeline for a whole week and don’t find a single re-tweet. Or the opposite: you want to re-tweet and cannot find anything the person ever tweeted … only re-tweets of others’ content.  Or they talk only with their friends, without ever turning to the rest of the Twitter-sphere.

Not Having at least 2,000 Followers – or Stuck With 2,000
Some books and blog articles advice to never follow anyone with less than 2,000 followers. Doesn’t sound fair, as everyone has to start somewhere. On the other hand some tweeps click on every name they see on Twitter to reach 2,000 followers very fast – and then stuck. For them, instead to un-follow successive those who do not follow, they just wait it out to get 2,000 people who follow them, in order to continue their growth. But this can take forever, as no one wants to to follow THEM – and then wait for months or even longer, until they reciprocate – or worse: never do.
Un-follow people who haven’t followed you back after a while. This is especially important to avoid “follow limits”.  If you have anything like these numbers – you are in trouble:  268 TWEETS – 2000 FOLLOWING – 345 FOLLOWERS

Barely Ever Re-tweeting Others, or Answering Them
Twitter is a SOCIAL network, don’t use it as a advertisement board only. Answer or re-tweet others – and they will return the favor. Stop your continuing posts, varying from three to six subjects, and this for pages and pages… What I found so far: 80% of these are male and/or are introvert writers or leadership business advisers.
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Greeting new followers with FB likes promotion / Book promotion
You get a message in your mailbox: Someone mentioned you. Curious you check it, but no, you are only summoned to go to their Facebook account and LIKE their page. Or they send you the link to their books sales page. And that’s the greeting for following them… Do they sign up with Twitter only to advertise their wares? Same: Sending DM’s with advertisements. You open the Direct message and you are greeted with advertising. My reaction: UNFOLLOW. Thanks and nice to meet you...

Never, ever, use TrueTwit Validation Service
Author Sean Munger reminded me of this one. Almost forgot about it, as I am not able anymore to read every email / Direct message with ten-thousands of followers (can’t make Twitter a full-time job : ). Some are nice Welcome messages, but 90 per cent are spam (see #8). But I read them in the past, first I answered, telling them that I DO NOT use TrueTwit Validation Service, but then I gave up and just ignored the sender.
The irony is, that these people are often following me, and then when I want to follow them back, their message appears!  Why did they choose to follow me and then want ME to validate??? Read Sean Munger’s blog post, especially if you ever used this useless “service”. Sean’s most important message, to which I fully agree: “Most importantly for you, it means I will never buy your book. You just lost a reader, a customer, a potential fan, a potential reviewer”.

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OK, enough said. Don’t want to go into further rants … : )  These are just a few of many issues that make it difficult to interact for others on Twitter – or prevents tweeps to click on FOLLOW you and for you to build social networks and your writer’s platform. To become successful and popular on Twitter do this:

Follow others, tweet something valuable for others and don’t use Twitter as a cheap way to advertise!  Create a nice mixture of your own, really interesting tweets and do some re-tweeting.
Choose a very short Twitter name.  Make it as easy and convenient as possible for your fellow tweeps to engage and interact with you.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 980+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Posted by on September 17, 2013 in googling social, Marketing, Social Media Book Marketing, Social Networks

 

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How to Make Use of Google+ as an Author

30 Aug

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Everyone wants to be listed high on Google’s search engine results.  You write a blog post, tweet, update your website or add otherwise content to the web.  Google bots, crawling the web, are coming across your post.  The page is indexed within seconds. Google estimates the domain and pages’ overall authority, based on links.

Page rank depends on a few factors, such as the number of Web pages that link to your site, the frequency of keywords within your site and how long your site exists on the internet.  However, with Google+ it’s completely different:  your presence at Google+ means you are high-ranked from the moment you post something on your Google+ timeline or your Google+ pages.
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64 Google+ Content Strategies [Infographic]

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Use hashtags on Google+ too
Just like Twitter, Google+ offers  #hashtag benefits to make searching for topics easy. It’s a great way to get found, not only inside Google+, but in the larger world of Google search. If you create a separate page for each of your books and post frequently there, using keywords and  #hashtags, your books will appear prominently on Google’s Search Engine – making it easy for potential readers to find you.
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Link to your blog posts
As the main search engine Google indexes and ranks its own site much higher than any other content. Google+ posts are easily indexed by Google search, and unlike tweets or Facebook posts, are treated much like regular web pages.  Whenever you have a new blog post, link to it from Google+, and make that post public. By doing this, you have made your post publicly available both inside Google+ and in Google search results worldwide.
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Want engagement? Write resource-type articles
Google+ posts that receive the most comments are resource-type articles with a lot of links. Those covering Google+ how-to information are heavily shared, along with any tutorials. Write a killer post and link back to your own blog for additional resources. Use #hashtags with relevant topics so it’s easily found, and you have created an outstanding resource that will get you noticed, and will increase traffic to your blog.
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Connect your profile with your blog’s homepage
The first step in getting results from Google+ is connecting your profile with your blog’s home page. This is the gateway step to claiming your content in the eyes of Google. It will also go far in generating incredible results, including displaying your photo next to your blog post links and a Wikipedia-style profile listing in Google search results whenever anyone searches for your name. For WordPress blog publishers, there’s a very easy way to accomplish this. Google+ shows you how to use Google+ “Direct Connect“.
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Display your photo in Google search results
All you need is a Google+ page, and to connect it to the home page of your blog. See how important that #1 step was? Your photo will eventually appear next to your blog posts in Google search results.
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What the Plus?
Take the time to learn Google+ (e.g. with Guy Kawasaki’s book What the Plus?) and engage with your community there. You’ll see results far beyond what any other social network can offer: both social engagement within Google+, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in Google.
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Free copies of What the Plus!
Courtesy of Google. Please share this post so as many people as possible can get a copy. http://goo.gl/eRy6z  Read also a short description:  How to Get More Followers on Your Google+ Page

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 880+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Posted by on August 30, 2013 in googling social, join the conversation, Marketing, Social Media Book Marketing, Social Networks

 

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Why I Hate Self-Promotion

05 Aug

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I hate to promote myself

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Why I Hate Self-Promotion is the title of a Salon.com article by SEAN BEAUDOIN, author of 

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I planned a completely different blog post today, but when I read this hilarious article, I just had to write about his sad/funny musings and how it can help authors. Sean Beaudoin’s subtitle is:  “As an author, marketing myself is a crucial part of the business — but that doesn’t mean I hate doing it any less”.

Sean has a publisher, however, as with all big (and small) publishers, he is “responsible for his own book promotion, as he is not John Grisham. And even John Grisham bitches about his promo budget.” Sean explains: “Publishers used to do most of the marketing for the books they put out. The best an author could do was finish the last chapter and then show up reasonably sober for a tri-city book tour.”
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“It’s essentially the record business model. A label signs 100 bands and tosses a few singles out there, hoping one gets noticed and blows up. Meanwhile, they spend all their cash stroking Mariah Carey, who is going to sell the same shit-train of albums regardless. The label does nothing to promote the 100 unknown bands, and if their singles die–which almost all of them do–so be it. Contracts were made to be canceled. But there are rare unexpected and random hits, and that is where the money comes from.”
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So, what can we learn from Sean Beaudoin?
He makes almost everything right: I have never heard about him or his books. Now I do! Why?
He is smart and wrote a guest post on Salon.com, a really great and funny peace of writing that makes readers wanting to see his books. And it allowed him to include lots of links to:

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You get the idea?
If you don’t get an article like this into Salon.com or the Huffington Post, write at least for a major newspaper (or a regional one), a magazine or a blog that has lots of readers (not writers), who might be interested in your topic. You can write about scenes and facts of your book in a thousand angles and topics. See also a sample of what you can do in a former blog post about Steven Raichlen’s article in the Huffington Post.
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Did I mention his book’s great cover design?  Another good idea:  he (or his publisher) posted his latest book on Amazon and other online retailers for pre-orders, which every author should do. Why this is so important?  Bookstores return unsold copies after three months to the publisher. Bookstore chains, such as B&N, sell over the internet too. And some readers who have heard from friends or online about your book go (still) to bookstores to get it. As more buzz is made about your book BEFORE it launches, as better for its success.
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We can learn a lot from Sean’s promotion mistakes too
He writes: “I have 975 followers on Twitter, an embarrassing pittance for anyone trying to move units.”  Well, in the meantime his Twitter followers increased by a hundred more – for sure due to his article. Anything less than 2,000 Twitter followers is pretty useless. Lots of books about Social Media recommend even NOT to follow people under 2,000 followers at the least. Better those from 5,000 and up… To reach these numbers, one just needs to be pro-active and re-tweet a lot. And most important to choose readers, bloggers and book reviewers as followers.
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Sean Beaudoin is NOT on Goodreads, where readers flock to, and this is a big mistake. There he could not only have an author page, but also a second one for all his books. He could join lots of reader groups in all possible genres and beyond, without having to peddle his books. He could upload all his Twitter followers and Facebook friends with one click. His shear presence would be enough; plus a Goodreads Giveaway campaign that could bring a lot of attention to readers and also book reviewers.
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Same with Google+ where he could join reader communities, show off his books and on his Google+ page show all his book titles several times a day – a rarity in Social Media. Most important: being on Google+ means authors and their books are automatically on Google’s search engine top rankings. An additional benefit of Google+ is their EVENT page where one can announce a book launch for free to the public. However, the same is true as for all Social Media sites: choose lots of followers, which is very easy at Google+, done with only a click on the ADD function which is next to each Google+ account. It is even easier as with other sites. You don’t have to wait for approval as on Goodreads or Facebook.
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Having said all this, Sean Beaudoin’s marvelous website, his great book trailers, an interview and especially his article in Salon.com and in Weeklings  will find him lots of new readers. Check out his new book Wise Young Fool on Tuesday, August 6, in bookstores – and is already available on Amazon.com. The Hardcover sells for only $13.23, and the e-book for $8.89.  Wise Young Fool is certainly available on Amazon.co.uk and other countries as well.
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You see, even here in this blog post Sean Beaudoin’s books are indirectly promoted, just writing about his initial article.  It proofs that writing for magazines, blogs and newspapers, no matter if print or online, will help to show off your books and start a snowball system of publicity.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for three months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 830+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Posted by on August 5, 2013 in Author Interviews, Author Platform / Brand, googling social, Social Media Book Marketing, Social Networks

 

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17 Smart Ways to Market Your Blog

22 Jun

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Plitvice-Waterfalls

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No matter if you are blogging just for fun or if you use it as a content-marketing tool for your books: Your achievement and success will be measured by the amount of readers and blog followers.  A mistake that many people make, is that they write new blog posts and expect that it will be magically promoted on social media right away or gain thousands of visitors on its own. This may be true for established web sites with a huge readership but for smaller web sites or new blogs it is important to spread the word.
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Use some or all of these possibilities to promote your blog – and at the same time your books:

Make it easy for readers to subscribe to your blog.
They can either use the “follow” icon if you have a WordPress blog – or if your blog is included in your website you can install an opt-in window to encourage your readers to subscribe to your email newsletter. Every time you write a new article, send them an email with an excerpt that requires them to click on the link to read the rest. Some professional email providers, such as MailChimp allow you to do this for free if you have less than 2,000 subscribers.
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Post your article on social media at the most effective time
Use tools (e.g. Hootsuite, Tweroid, Sprout Social and Buffer) to select the time when most users are online at every social media site you want to share your article on. Also tweet or post at these times about your new blog post.
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Optimize your blog article for search engines
Keywords, lots of (inbound) links, and most of all, valuable content are important for Search Engine Optimization promotion to get a better ranking.
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Submit your blog post to PDF submitting sites
With your newest article, create a pdf version of it and submit it to free top PDF-submitting websites, such as Scribd, Yudu or Calameo. Here is a list of these PDF sharing sites:
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Embrace Social Media
Add as many relevant users to your friend’s / followers list so that they can add you back. Engage on at least these social media sites, your followers will help to spread the word or re-tweet your blogs – and you can connect these social media sites to minimize “work”:

  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Goodreads
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • Scoop.It
  • Tumblr
  • LinkedIn

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Offer guest posting
One of the best promotion methods you can do, is to guest post. Write your best article and contribute to a top blog within or close to your readers interest.
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Use as many images as possible on Pinterest
Create a large number of boards on your Pinterest profile and pin the best images from your blog post, that will contain the links to your published articles. Connect with others on Pinterest, share their content, and you will be invited to join a group board where you can post your links to new articles on the blog.
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Don’t under-estimate Flickr
Transfer several photos that relate to your blog post to Flickr and add up to 75 tags / keywords to each of them, certainly including your blog posts title.
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Signatures
Promote your newest article in the signature of every post you create on forums or communities, at least 5 times a day for effective promotion.
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SlideShare
Create a well-designed slideshow based on the topic of you newest, published article and link to it in the description and in the slideshow.
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Submit your post to RSS directories
Submit your Blog’s RSS feed to the top RSS directories and see your published article published on other blogs, automatically. TopRankBlog.com has a list of 60-80 RSS Blog Directories to list your blog for free.
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Try “Long-Tail Keywords”
Search Engine ranking has become tougher but ranking for long-tail keywords or tags (sentences that would be used to find (your) article, which is a little easier due to less competition.
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Top news sites
In certain niches, find “news-submitting” sites within the niche and submit your newest link to them.
Mashable.com, Google.com, Bing.com for example.
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Email signatures
Create an email signature, using your blogs address, and for every email you send, there will be a link back to your newest published article.
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Comment on YouTube videos
Choose videos that talk about the same topic as your newest article does, and comment, including a link back to your blog post.
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Host a contest
Create a contest where your participants have to share your article to their social networks or in any other way that helps promote it.
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Create Squidoo lenses
Many people like to read Squidoo.com lenses or Hubpages.com, which is a perfect opportunity for you to promote your article to them in a lens that links back to the latest article on your blog.

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Every time you publish new blog content, is a great opportunity to reach out and inform your existing audience but also to gain new readers, followers and customers. What about you? How are you promoting your blog? 

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/
Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 785 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Posted by on June 22, 2013 in Blogging, googling social, Marketing, post to public, posting

 

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100 Years of Change

17 Jun

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An interesting look at life as it was back in 1913 compared to life today.

Maybe some ideas if you write historical novels?

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100 Years of Change

100 Years of Change infographic

An interesting look at life as it was back in 1913 compared to life today

 
1 Comment

Posted by on June 17, 2013 in Blogging, comment on posts, googling social, join the conversation, post to public, posting

 

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Got a Publishers Rejection Letter in the Mail Box?

02 May

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ChickenMailbox

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J.K Rowling was famously rejected by 12 major publishers before Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone was accepted by Bloomsbury – and even then only at the insistence of the chairman’s eight-year-old daughter.

Other famous writers who got many, many times rejections from publishers before they hit it big:

  • Stephen King
  • John Le Carre
  • Anne Frank
  • J.K. Rowling
  • George Orwell
  • William  Faulkner
  • John Grisham
  • Irving Stone
  • R. Kipling
  • Marcel Proust

Just in the USA, over 600,000 titles have being published by roughly 500 publishers last year. If you want a proper publishing deal, you will have to go after those 500 – along with hundreds of thousands of other writers.  A rejection from these publishers doesn’t mean anything, other than they just don’t have the time to read all of the millions of book proposals they receive during the year. This is just a number’s game.
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Other reasons your manuscript may be rejected”

  • It doesn’t fit into the publishers line
  • The publisher has taken on too many books
  • They might merge soon and don’t take on new books
  • They might go out of business
  • The editor doesn’t like it personally etc.
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Read also: 5 Hilarious Reasons Publishers Rejected Books

Writers must develop a coping strategy (a thick skin) for dealing with book rejections. It is an inevitable consequence of submissions, whether you are sending out articles or book proposals. Don’t take it personally!  Apart from that, publishers are really sometimes “wrong” – in the sense that often they say no when they should say yes and sometimes they say yes when they will wish they’d said no.
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30 famous authors whose works were rejected (repeatedly, and sometimes rudely) by publishers can be found in this article by Examiner.com

Rejections also can have a positive side.
They may make you dig deeper, opening up more and better markets, as well as other opportunities – think e-books and self-publishing.  Remember this too: if an editor rejects a piece of yours with a short note, take it as BIG encouragement.  If the editor also tells you why  he / she declined your submission, fix the deficiencies and re-submit it. This response signals your readiness to revise and try again, as well as perhaps the beginning of a business relationship.

For you, the poor author trying to deal with another rejection, remember what Frank Sinatra once said: ”The best revenge is massive success.”

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 730 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Posted by on May 2, 2013 in googling social, Marketing, Publishing

 

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