More aspiring authors than I can mention in desperate need of a platform refuse to use social networking. They see it as a waste of time and a time sink. Published authors needing to promote their books also won’t go near Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+. Somehow, it is beneath them, an activity not befitting a real writer.
Yet, social networking offers much benefit for all writers—at least those wanting to build platform, brand themselves and sell books. And it can be done quickly, efficiently and pleasantly if you know how. In fact, it can be fun and life changing. Like today’s guest blogger, once I embraced social networking, I found I enjoyed it and it enhanced my life on a personal and a professional level.
Author Joanna Penn joins us today to offer her advice on how writers can use social networks correctly. I recommend Joanna’s newest product, “Social Networking for Authors & Writers,” for all those aspiring authors and published authors who don’t want to become social networkers. Learn from a fellow author how to use the social networks with this product that includes an ebook, an audio interview with social media expert Alexis Grant and personal videos on how to use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as the reader-specific social networks like Goodreads and Shelfari.
For those of you already wearing your social hats, take note of the mistakes Joanna mentions in this post. And for those of you getting started, book mark it; you’ll want to put her advice to use immediately after setting up your accounts on all the social networks.
5 Social Networking Mistakes To Avoid
By Joanna Penn
Everyone says you must use social networking as part of your author platform.
Publishers, agents, self-publishing marketing people, other authors. It now seems part of the non-negotiable author platform for indie authors as well as those wanting a traditional deal.
I started blogging, tweeting and Facebooking over two and a half years ago and consider it a life-changing experience. I have made some fantastic online friends, connected with peers in the industry, gained an online platform that now reaches thousands of people and my novel, Pentecost, is still in the Amazon bestseller rankings after seven months based on a launch fueled by social media. Twitter in particular is an important part of my social life as well as my work, and I am a passionate evangelist for the platform.
It doesn’t matter what social network you want to jump into, there are principles that apply to all and some basic mistakes that you can avoid that will make it a much more effective place for you to be.
Here are the top five mistakes authors and writers make in social networking.
1. Not being useful/interesting/entertaining.
If you want to stand out in a crowded market online you have to offer something to people. Remember the phrase “what’s in it for me?” Everyone wants to know things that will help them, or interest them or make them laugh. If you’re not offering that, then you won’t get attention. If you don’t have attention, it won’t lead to interest in you or action in terms of buying your book. So focus on being one of these things as the main pillar of your social networking. For example, I tweet useful links to blog posts on writing, publishing and marketing @thecreativepenn.
2. Not being personal enough.
Yes, you have to be useful, but you also have to be a real person. Don’t just tweet information all the time. Intersperse some updates about your life, your writing, maybe your pets or interests, even some photos. People connect with people, not info-streams. Use pictures and also link to multi-media that you create or participate in. Remember that people buy from those they know, like and trust, so you have to earn that. I also recommend using a picture of your face throughout your networking. It’s much more personal to connect with someone specific rather than an avatar or random picture. Using the same picture all over the web is a good idea and will help people recognize you across the networks.
3. Being too personal or too marketing focused.
Of course, personal does need balance. You can’t just have personal updates as no one is interested in that. Also, do not just tweet about your new book. The fastest way to get blocked by people is if you are just interested in selling your stuff. There’s a time for that but it’s AFTER you’ve built up some social karma and goodwill with the online audience. Also, if you want to get retweeted, or Liked so your post is shared across other people’s networks, it needs to resonate. That generally means it should have a good headline. I frequently rewrite headlines from blogs in order to get more retweets. Basic copywriting skills will serve you well here. I recommend Copyblogger as the best place to learn about this and much more on internet marketing.
4. Not understanding generosity and social karma.
There is an understanding online that we are not competitors, that this isn’t a zero sum game, that the pie just gets bigger. In fact, those of us in the same niche post on each others blogs, share posts that aren’t our own and promote other people’s products, even if they overlap with ours. The blogging and social media world is all about being generous with links, with information, with help. It makes the community a very positive place to be, and we all benefit. It’s important to do this for its own sake, but it also generates social karma, as in you will receive back in the measure you give. I don’t mean this in any spiritual manner, just that “what goes around, comes around’ as in any community.
5. Expecting short term gain.
Social networking is basically hand-selling to people around the world. You have to connect with people over a longer period of time, before you try to sell them your book. Many authors dive into social networking just before their book launch and then try to sell immediately, or try desperately to grow their following at the last minute. But it doesn’t work like that. You need to work on it consistently, putting in the effort to create relationships over time. This is a long game. Luckily, authors are used to long term projects!
So, those are the top mistakes I see people making on the social networks. If you have any more lessons to share, please add them in the comments below.
Do you need some more in-depth help with social networking?
Many people want to be successful at social networking but they are afraid of wasting time and not being effective, as well as the concerns of privacy and just not knowing where to start. So I have launched a multi-media mini-course that will help with this.
It has a 59 page ebook, plus audios and four behind the scenes videos on all the major social networks. I share all my top tips and strategies for building your social network and using your time most effectively. I help you through the process saving you time and effort in jump-starting your social networking platform.
About the Author
Joanna Penn is the author of thriller novel, Pentecost, described as “Dan Brown meets Lara Croft.” Her blog www.TheCreativePenn.com helps people write, publish and market their books. Connect with Joanna on Twitter @thecreativepenn.
Don’t miss the final telesminar of this year’s WNFIN event on November 30th, “Content, Character & Connection: Becoming a Successful Writer in a Bottom-Up World,” with Michael Larsen. To be register, click here.
Like this blog? Vote it one of Writer’s Digest‘s 101 Best Websites for Writers. Learn how here.
For months now I’ve been struggling with the term “duplicate content.” I like to repurpose, or recycle, my content—and like most writers and bloggers, I produce a lot of content. I take my blog posts, for instance, and turn them into ezine articles or press releases. Or I create guest blog posts out of them. In some cases, I actually copy and paste the same blog post from one blog to another blog—my own or one I have on another site. Doing this allows me to have content in many places and to create back links to my own blogs and websites, which drives more traffic to them. Having more content on the Internet also helps me increase my expert status.
Not long ago, though, Google released a new “update,” and began penalizing websites for duplicate content—the same content in more than one place. But what did this mean for me? Did it mean that I had to create all new content in all these cases? Yikes! This brought many of my submissions to a halt. I wondered if this was the case for other writers as well.
Since I advocate repurposing your content, and we’ve just heard about some great ways to market and promote your work using blogs, ezine articles and blog tours—all of which can be done more quickly and effectively when you do, indeed, repurpose some content, I decided to ask the one person I knew could address the issue of duplicate content thoroughly to provide Write Nonfiction in November with a post on the topic. V. Michael Santoro is an award winning author and managing partner for Globe On Demand, LLC, a content marketing firm, and he understands more about these sorts of things than anyone else I know. Thus, I wasn’t surprised to receive a blog post from him that was jam-packed to overflowing not only with the explanation I had asked for but with resources galore to help you repurpose your content to your hearts content and to avoid duplicate content penalties at the same time. The tips and tools he provides in this post will keep you busy repurposing your content for a long, long time! As for me, thanks to Vito, I’m back in business!
Dealing with Google’s Duplicate Content Penalties without Doubling your Workload
By V. Michael Santoro
Google’s Panda update was crushing to sites that contained duplicate content or that were considered “thin” sites. A thin site is one with little, if any, quality unique content or one that contains only duplicate content. For example, many people only use published articles from article directories, such as EzineArticles.com, to build their site. It has become difficult to rank in the search engines with this approach.
Why Duplicate Content is a Problem
Google wants to provide excellent results for people using their search engine. If they return the same content for the top ten or more search returns, they will lose those surfers to competitors. Google penalizes duplicate content with bad rankings and reward quality original content with good rankings. It’s that simple!
What is Quality Content?
Quality content is not determined by how well it is editorially written, but rather Google views how “expertly” it is written. It reviews your web pages and online marketing material and looks for the “theme based” words that are included. For example, if a doctor was to write an article on heart trouble, he/she would include certain terminology, such as cardiovascular and cardiomyopathy. Google compares the content to a database of associate theme keywords and phrases. The more theme words that are contained in well-written content, the higher the quality score and page ranking will be.
NOTE: Your site will be penalized by the search engines if you just list the keywords that you want to rank for instead of using them in naturally written content. This is referred to as keyword stuffing. The keywords need to be used in sentences that read well for the visitor. For example, if you were trying to rank for the keyword phrase, “lower back pain relief,” you would use it in a sentence such as, “For lower back pain relief we recommend the xyz belt.”
Determining Your Content
The free information that you offer on your website and online marketing material needs to be based upon your niche keyword phrases. Additionally, it must provide good information about your topic. Do not recycle general or basic common sense material. Your free content needs to address topics and information not easily found on the web. It needs to brand you as an authority.
For example, which paragraph appears to be written by an expert?
Sentence 1:
If you are experiencing lower back pain, you are not alone. Nearly everyone at some point in their life has back pain that interferes with work, routine daily activities, or recreation.
Sentence 2:
“The spaces between your vertebrae are maintained by round, spongy pads of cartilage called intervertebral discs that allow for flexibility in the lower back and act much like shock absorbers throughout the spinal column to cushion the bones as the body moves.”
Which sentence do you think was written by someone with a good knowledge of the spine? Obviously, Sentence 2 has a better chance of ranking in the search engines even though both sentences read editorially correct.
Duplicate Content Penalties
We cannot emphasize this enough: Using the same content on multiple pages within your website should be avoided. This includes your website’s Meta tags. This can trigger a duplicate content penalty which means your web pages will not rank highly in the search engines. Make sure that you rewrite your content so that it reads differently even though it has a similar meaning.
For example:
For more information about how we can help you, visit our services description page.
Rewrite on another page:
“If you desire more information about how Acme can assist you, please review our services description web page.”
Also, ensure that each page is 800 to 1,200 words in length. Using video to connect with your visitors is also valuable.
As an author, you want to publish your content online using keyword phrases as anchor text (clickable links) back to your website. This material needs to be original. If you distribute the same content one article will rank, for example, and the others may not.
Tips to Lighten Your Content Writing Workload and Maximize Your Return
The following is a technique to maximize the return on your content writing efforts. You can re-purpose your content into various formats and use tools to assist you.
TIP: Name your files using your keyword phrases. Then when uploading the files, ensure that the required Title, Description and Keyword tags incorporate the specific keyword phrase.
You can perform your keyword research using the free Google keyword research tool. Go to:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Now, follow this process to turn one article into an online marketing machine:
Step 1
Write your core article (800 to 1,200 words) using one of your keyword phrases. Then submit it to http://www.ezinearticles.com. Once it’s approved, it will be published with a link back to your website. In the resource box, use the keyword phase as anchor text.
Step 2 – Audio files
Next, download Audacity, the free sound recording software. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
Audacity Tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrPGMjZORCM
Read your article into the Audacity audio recording software and export it as an mp3 file using your keyword phrase as the file name.
Upload it to your website and submit it to one of the podcast directories.
The following link is a list of podcast directories:
http://www.podcast411.com/page2.html
Step 3 – PDF Format
Convert your written article to the PDF format. In MSWord, you can use the “Save As” command and save your file as a PDF document. Once you do, upload the file to http://www.scribd.com/
Step 4 – PPT Submission Sites
Layout your article as a PowerPoint presentation and then upload it to http://www.slideshare.net/
Step 5 – Video Presentations
Jing is a free screen recording program which allows you to make a video with a voiceover. The free version limits you to recording a five minute video and there is an inexpensive paid version that allows you to record longer videos. Download it from the following link: http://www.techsmith.com/jing/
Jing Tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1jw8O0z4S0
Create a PowerPoint slide with a list of talking points about your article and make a Jing recording discussing these points. Upload the video to your YouTube channel.
Microsoft Movie Maker
Make a movie about your topic with Microsoft Movie Maker. Download it here for free:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/movie-maker
Microsoft Movie Maker Tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9C-D30_P8Q
Export your PowerPoint presentation as jpegs and import them into Microsoft Movie Maker. Add a music background. Upload it to your YouTube channel.
NOTE: Since both videos are different, they will be not viewed as duplicate content.
TIP: Use the keyword phrase in the YouTube tags as described above. However, in the keyword tag, put the keyword phrase in quotes, “keyword phrase” – this will help with SEO.
Following this technique provides six links back to your website and generates traffic from the directories as well – all from ONE article.
Step 6 – Guest Blogging
Another way to have original content published is to become a guest blogger. By offering free quality content, you can generate additional back links to your website, while promoting your book.
Type the following into Google “write for us” + KEYWORD and replace the word KEYWORD with your actual keyword phrase or topic. This will return a list of associated blogs looking for your type of content.
Next Steps
You then rewrite your article and “rinse and repeat” the process to other directories.
Automation
If you are serious about this technique, then you may want to consider automating the process of rewriting your articles. The process is called “spinning.” Essentially, you copy your article into a software program which adds code to the content and automatically generates new versions of the article. A simple example of the spin syntax is: The {brown|black|white} {dog|puppy} {walked|ran} down the {road|driveway|street}. The spinning software mixes and matches the words within the brackets to create different versions of the article while retaining the meaning. You create the initial spun version and the software will generate hundreds of unique copies. Check out The Best Spinner demo video here. http://tinyurl.com/Spinner-Example
Instant Article Wizard
This program helps you to research and generate articles in about 15 minutes. Check out the video demo here: http://tinyurl.com/IAW-Video
Once you rewrite or spin your article, repeat the above technique and submit to the following directories:
Article Directories
http://www.vretoolbar.com/articles/directories.php
PDF Directories
PPT Submission Sites
Conclusion
It is becoming increasingly difficult to rank organically in the search engines. Writing quality content based upon targeted keyword phrases and distributing the files across a diversity of online directories will not only help to brand you as an authority, it will also help your website to rank in the search engines.
About the Author
V. Michael Santoro is an award winning author and Managing Partner for Globe On Demand, LLC – a Content Marketing firm.
Don’t miss the final telesminar of this year’s WNFIN event on November 30th, “Content, Character & Connection: Becoming a Successful Writer in a Bottom-Up World,” with Michael Larsen. To be register, click here.
Like this blog? Vote it one of Writer’s Digest‘s 101 Best Websites for Writers. Learn how here.
Posted in article directories duplicate content Repurosing content writing resources by .
Authors used to spend their time promoting themselves via speaking. Getting up in front of audiences offered the #1 way to sell books. It ran a close race with radio appearances—or any type of media appearances. Face time…in front of large audiences. That was the ticket to book sales.
These days, however, the Internet is the golden ticket to books sales. More opportunities exist there than have yet been mined, I’m sure. However, my colleague, Stephanie Chandler, author of The Author’s Guide to Building an Online Platform: Leveraging the Internet to Sell More Books
Today she provides Write Nonfiction in November with a guest blog post filled with even more online writer and book marketing and promoting opportunities (and only one overlap with John Kremer’s post). I’ve tried all these resources, and they all do, indeed, work. They’ve helped me build my own author platform, and I’m currently using them to build sales for my books.
Easy Internet Marketing Opportunities for Non-fiction Authors
By Stephanie Chandler
When I began promoting my first book back in 2005, I quickly realized that my best opportunities for exposure were online. At the time I owned a bookstore in Sacramento. We held author book signing events every weekend, but even big name authors who received a lot of press only sold only a small number of books. I wanted to make better use of my time so I looked for ways that I could promote books using the internet.
Following is a list of some of my favorite online promotion strategies for authors.
Blogging
A blog can be a creative outlet for a writer, not to mention a powerful promotion tool. Update it frequently (at least three times per week) and over time your traffic is bound to increase. To start yours, check out www.Typepad.com or www.WordPress.org.
Social Media
Sites like LinkedIn.com, Facebook.com and Twitter.com are ripe for finding and building an audience. Create an interesting profile and get active in social networking communities. Invest a little time each day, be engaging, share great content, and watch your fan base grow!
Internet Radio
Unlike traditional radio where you might be interviewed for 10 minutes, online radio shows, podcasts and teleseminars typically have guests on for up to an hour. An added bonus: listeners are often at their computers ready to buy! To find relevant shows, search Google for keywords and investigate shows archived on iTunes. Also check out sites like www.blogtalkradio.com, www.alltalkradio.net, www.wsradio.com, and www.womensradio.com.
Ebooks
Kindle books are currently outselling all books on Amazon. Ebooks are also being read on Barnes and Noble’s Nook, the iPhone, the iPad, home PCs, and many other devices. Now is the time to embrace this excellent opportunity for authors to get exposure and earn higher royalties. Set up an account with http://dtp.amazon.com and http://smashwords.com.
Conduct a Virtual Book Tour
Contact bloggers, teleseminar hosts, and internet radio shows and let them know that you are available for interviews. Book tours are typically conducted over a period of time (two to four weeks). Cross-promote the event by posting announcements through your social media channels and blog.
Article Marketing
For years I have used article marketing as one of my top strategies. Here’s how it works: write a brief article (700 to 1,000 words) and make that article available to others to reprint on their websites and in their blogs. In exchange, users must publish your brief bio—a single paragraph about you, your book, and your website. You can distribute your articles through content directories such as http://ezinearticles.com, http://ideamarketers.com and http://goarticles.com. Also offer your articles for reprint to websites that reach your target audience!
About the Author
Stephanie Chandler is an author of several business and marketing books including The Author’s Guide to Building an Online Platform: Leverage the Internet to Sell More Books, From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products, and Booked Up! How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book to Grow Your Business.
www.AuthorityPublishing.com – Custom publishing for nonfiction books
www.StephanieChandler.com – Author/speaker details
www.BusinessInfoGuide.com – Resources for entrepreneurs
www.NonfictionWritersConference.com – The traditional writers’ conference goes virtual!
@bizauthor on Twitter
Don’t miss the final telesminar of this year’s WNFIN event on November 30th, “Content, Character & Connection: Becoming a Successful Writer in a Bottom-Up World,” with Michael Larsen. To be register, click here.
Like this blog? Vote it one of Writer’s Digest‘s 101 Best Websites for Writers. Learn how here.
Posted in information marketing marketing platform bulding platforms promotion publicity by .
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