Blog Facts - by Penny C. Sansevieri

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Still not impressed by blogs? Consider this:In 1998 there were only 23 known blogs, the term blog or weblog wasn't born until April, 1999.Since 2002, Technorati has indexed 133 million blogs.Blogs have become a very mainstream form of communication; according to BlogHer, 36.2 million women participate in the blogosphere weekly. Out of this amount, 15.1 million are publishing at least one post weekly.Also according to BlogHer, 32% of blog publishers and 28% of blog readers have decided not to purchase a product as a result of a recommendation or bad experience shared on a blog.


Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Give A Shoutout To Other Bloggers - by Lisa Morosky

Over the last couple weeks, I've been doing recap posts from my time spent at BlogWorld. In those posts, where I talk about sessions I went to and people I met, I link to the person's blog or website. Pretty standard thing to do.

Fast forward to a couple days ago. I was sitting there thinking about the fact that I suddenly had "big name" people leaving comments on my blog, and tweeting me on Twitter.
"How did all of these people suddenly find my blog and my Twitter username and learn about me?" I couldn't figure out where these people might have seen me.

Then I realized that it was just because I had included a link to their blog in one of my posts. They saw a pingback saying that I had linked to them.

Duh.

Did you know that something you probably do regularly can get you on the radar of those in your industry? I bet you do, but maybe you've forgotten.

Take some time over the next week to reach out and give a shoutout to other bloggers in your market. Who knows. They may give a shoutout back to you, and you'll see a big traffic increase.

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Lisa Morosky is a Virtual Assistant to busy bloggers and Internet entrepreneurs. She founded VAforBloggers.com, LisaMorosky.com, and SpendLessOnLife.com.

Email is Dead - by Penny C. Sansevieri

If you're overwhelmed with email (as I am) you probably love this headline. Let's face it, between emails from the International Lottery ("Congratulations, today is your lucky day! Send us $500,000 and you will get a check for $3M!") and all the other crazy emails and spam you get, it's getting harder and harder to decipher what's real, what's spam, and what should just be flat out ignored.

The Wall Street Journal just did an article on this topic. They discussed the benefits of using services like Twitter, Facebook messaging and on site email, and how social networking and instant messaging are overtaking the once popular way of communicating: email. They went on to say, "Email's reign is over."

So, is email dead, really? Well, not entirely, but let's face it - with spam filters swallowing everyone but Tokyo and emails often stopping at the server's wall, it's tough to know what gets through and what doesn't. The problem with this is its impact on email campaigns.

If you have recently done an email campaign and wondered about the success of it, consider this: it's likely that only 5% of the emails actually got through. No, I'm not kidding. I wish I were. And if they did get through, how many people even bothered looking at them? And of that percentage how many made a purchase? AME's Search Engine Optimization expert Susan Gilbert agreed, and said that most online promoters are now avoiding email for promotions because effectiveness and conversion are at all-time lows.

Keep in mind that while the Journal piece refers to individual emails, this is not what we're worried about (although that does factor into the equation). We're really talking about marketing campaigns based on email blasts. That's where it starts to get sticky.

When we look at things like an email newsletter (such as this one, which hopefully didn't get caught in your spam filter), the open rate of newsletters in general has gone down. Is that because our readers have become less engaged? Doubtful. It's likely because they aren't seeing the newsletter in the first place. So what do we do with that? We post the newsletter on our blog so those who subscribe can see it without filtering through a zillion ad-based, junk emails. We also Twitter on it, which will then get exposure through our Twitter followers, the same with Facebook and, well, you get the idea. The new norm are these social networking sites which allow people to filter what they read and bypass the tricky email filters that don't seem to work well, anyway.

The point is that as you're looking for ways to promote yourself, don't trust email to make you famous, make you a bestseller, or make you money. By all accounts, today email may be one of the worst ways to promote yourself and it's only going to get harder. As new viruses come into our realm and hackers get craftier, spam filters and firewalls have to get tougher. This means that your outbound messages may as well sit in the outbox of your email.

If you've got a campaign planned that depends on the success of an email getting through, consider revamping it and moving the model to something that is more dependable. Consider running tweets on your Twitter account, or try announcing your program to your Facebook Fan page followers or those who have friended you on Squidoo.

Alternatively, have you ever considered doing a postcard or print mailing campaign? Post office volume is at an all-time low and savvy marketers should be taking advantage of this decline in mail to use it perhaps for their own marketing purposes. Some of our biggest authors and clients were secured by mailer campaigns. When done correctly, they do pay off.

The bigger message to all of us is that we need to move away from antiquated marketing methods. It's hard to think that email is antiquated, isn't it? And when you compare it to using the good old postal service I guess that old saying is true: "What's old is new again." Fashions come back into style and marketing methods have seasons, too. I believe the season for email marketing has passed, at least for now.

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Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Some Quotes About Writing

Bloggers are writers. Here are some quotes that I hope will inspire you to enjoy your chosen profession of blogging! These were collected by Blogger Link Up's Cathy Stucker.


"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any." - Orson Scott Card

"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." - Howard Aiken

"If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word." - Margaret Atwood

"Nighttime is really the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep." - Catherine O'Hara

"Don't get it right, just get it written." - James Thurber

"If you're going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea. Start writing something and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow." - Louis L'Amour

"The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair." - Mary Heaton Vorse

"Lower your standards and keep writing." - William Stafford

"I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning." - William Faulkner

Getting Clients - How to Pull Clients To You - by Jennifer Davey

Small Businesses that get clients contacting and reaching out to them find major success. When clients call you it saves you a lot of effort, plus it allows you increase your pricing due to your demand. Nothing creates success like success. Let’s talk about how to PULL clients to you.

Network
It’s likely that your business is not the only one that a certain client uses. For example, someone hiring a web designer may also need a content writer. Certain fields go hand in hand. Start a Rolodex and put together a network of partnerships to serve clients. They will be very grateful for the referral.

Spread the Wealth
You have a lot of knowledge about your niche. Take the time to give out free information that will prove helpful to current and future clients. Write a newsletter or ezine.

Be of Service
When people are looking for a solution to their problem, they want to know what you can do for them. Focus on service and don’t publicize your needs.

Be a Good Listener
Yes, this works for your business relationships just like it works for personal relationships. Be aware of what is happening with the client at the time of the project. Listen closely, because sometime people can’t communicate exactly what they need.

Call Them to Action
Getting potential clients to read marketing material is only half the battle. You need to get them to contact you. Be clear about what you want potential clients to do. Give them a “call to action.” Make sure your “call to action” is visible on every page of marketing material.

Jennifer Davey is a Small Business Coach and Marketing Strategist. Jennifer coaches small businesses, self employed professionals, and solopreneurs in strategies for getting clients and making more income. Jennifer can help you implement a successful and easy to repeat marketing program that will attract clients. Contact Jennifer and set up a time discuss your struggles with getting clients and making more income. http://jjscoaching.com/contact Discover what you need to know to get clients. Grab a copy of Jennifer's FREE report "What You Need to Know to Be Successful at Getting Clients", and her 14-Step Formula for Getting Clients. http://jjscoaching.com/free-marketing-tips/

An Afternoon With Warren Buffett - by Patty Mooney

Camera operator Mark Schulze videotapes conversation between

Cathy Baron Tamraz, CEO of Business Wire, and Warren Buffett

How many times do you get to shake hands with one of the world's most prominent billionaires? Our San Diego video production crew spent a lovely afternoon videotaping an interview of Warren Buffett when he came to Carlsbad for the Fortune Women's Conference this week.

I was the sound technician on this gig, and as I pinned a lavalier microphone on his lapel, I told him, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Buffett; your reputation precedes you!"

He laughed and said he was happy to meet me as well.

Then I said, "I've got a bag full of Warren Buffett bobble-heads; would you mind autographing them?"

He replied, "I'd love to. Where are they?"

My partner, Mark Schulze, and I were both impressed by how gracious and generous with his time Mr. Buffett was. He had some optimistic things to say about the resurgence of our economy, and then he even posed for photos with the crew. (We always love that!) Optimism is infectious, and I thank him for that.

I'd been joking when I asked him about signing my Warren Buffett bobble-heads, so imagine my surprise to find this on an Internet search:

Everything is Your Resume - by Penny C. Sansevieri

I wanted to share the following article with you. Although it relates to book promotion, it really pertains to blogging and social networking as well. - Patty


When it comes to book promotion, the title of this article is truer now than it ever was. When you put something online, it can almost live forever. That means that we have to be careful what we share, what we say, and the footprints we leave online. A bad first impression is tough to recover from, and in some cases, it might not just mean a lost sale but a lost media opportunity. Here are a few guidelines to consider when forging your success online!

1) Article Syndication: edit, edit, edit. I can't say this enough. We do a lot of article syndication and I can't tell you how much editing we do for some of our authors. But when you're syndicating yourself, who do you turn to? Well, get an editor to do project work for you. I really recommend it. Once an article is "out there" it's almost impossible to get it back.

2) Blog posts: edit, edit, edit. Never put up a single blog post without running spell check (thankfully most blog software comes with this now), but be cautious about this. Remember, it's public domain and blog posts that go up generally stay up unless you pull them down. They'll get spidered, you might even get folks linking to them.

3) Twitter tweets: this is a big one, especially as many of us are hopping on Twitter these days. All of your tweets can be searched and in the case of Twitter, it's pretty easy to shoot off a quickie - a short and thoughtless tweet. Remember that in the case of Twitter, the world is watching. My rule of thumb? Don't tweet anything you wouldn't want your Grandmother to read.

4) Facebook updates: this is another cautionary tale, and not always just from your updates. As with anything online, be cautious about the type and amount of personal information you give away. Remember, like we've been saying, everything is your resume. If you need a personal page then get one, but keep the business/book stuff to a fan page that's isolated to the message. You don't necessarily want all of your readers to know you and the hubby just went out for Chinese food or that you found fleas on Fido.

5) Online reviews: while you can't control the content of reviews online, you can control your reaction to them. If you get a bad review, don't attack the reviewer. Listen, I had a bad review on the first edition of Red Hot Internet Publicity, and while it was the only negative comment I wanted so badly to write to the reviewer and begin engaging him in a debate over my book. Instead, what I did was I wrote him, first thanking him for the time he took to read the book and then I offered insight on the negative points he mentioned. I also thanked him for his feedback which, once I stepped back from the harshness of his words, was actually really helpful. Don't battle an online reviewer. You put your book out there and not everyone is going to like it. You have to either accept this or stop promoting it.

6) Blog comments: Commenting on other people's blogs is a great idea, but like anything else, be careful about this because like a blog post, comments are searchable.

7) Podcasts and BlogTalk radio: there are a lot of opportunities to do radio online these days and while it might not seem as glamorous as, say, NPR, it can get you a lot of traction for your message. Don't underestimate the power of online radio and podcasts, they can have a far reach. Be as prepared as you would be to go on a big show. Some of these podcasts (and especially BlogTalk radio) get thousands upon thousands of listeners.

8) YouTube: a colleague of mine was commenting last week on a book/author video that was posted to YouTube. He said that while it was interesting, the author wasn't a great interview and the video was sort of flat. Many authors put up video and forget the worldwide reach that this has. They also forget that if the video can be found, a media person might land on it and if your video is subpar, it might nix any chances for an interview. Don't just assume because you put it out there that it's good. Yes, sketchy, off-color videos get circulated by the media, but if you look at the number of videos that get loaded onto YouTube, it's really a small slice of the pie.

9) Hiring someone: with the proliferation of Internet marketing firms offering Virtual Book Tours you want to proceed with caution. We've been offering Internet tours for a long time, and we are extremely careful how we represent our authors online. If you're thinking of hiring a company, get a sense of who they've promoted and how they've promoted them. If you hire a company that uses "black hat" marketing techniques, you could get dinged for something that isn't even your fault. Black hat refers to a certain type of Internet marketing that uses faulty link-building and spam techniques to get an author book exposure. Often the exposure is short-lived and very harmful but black hat techniques can show up *very* successfully early on, that's the way these tricksters are poised: Show early success only to have it drop off. In some cases, I've known authors to even get their sites yanked. It's not pretty.

There are numerous "easy" ways to get your name out there and that means you just have to make sure the information you put out there is good, solid - yes edited - and representative of your work. When it comes to marketing online, the Internet is one big networking event. Consider this: would you ever go to a networking event dressed in shorts, flip-flops and a tank top? Doubtful. You show up dressed up, business cards in hand and ready to rock and roll. The same rules apply online. Everything is your resume. If you make that your motto, the world will beat a path to your virtual door.

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com