Post #14–Two Women Business–Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler

The Blog Carnival, that is. And we’re about to tell you how you can have some fun while increasing visibility for your blog or Website. But first, you’ll need a little background.

When blog writers and editors want to collect a lot of information on a subject and share it with their community of interested readers, they often turn to the Blog Carnival for content. You can think of a Blog Carnival like a magazine; it brings together and reports on information from any sources/writers. The Blog Carnival host will set a schedule and topic. Blog Carnivals usually come out on a regular schedule, such as every second Monday or the last Saturday of the month. Topics can be as broad as general interest or as narrow (first-time writing experiences from sci-fi geeks) as the host chooses. Contributors with content that fits the subject can submit links to their blogs and Websites. If you make the cut, the host will provide annotation and links to your content. This is a great way to build your readership.

Since there are no guarantees that your site or post will be accepted, here are a few tricks that will help you increase your chances of making the cut:

1. Study the hosting blog. Can you detect any patterns or topics that suggest what the host likes? These are your cues.
2. Consider the hosting blog’s audience. Your best bet to make the cut is to deliver content that the host will agree serves their readers.
3. Deliver solid content. Since this is your chance to attract new readers, don’t waste your opportunity with vapid, vacuous content. You want these readers to return.

Your first step is to find Blog Carnivals that match your requirements. Here’s the place to start looking: The master list at BlogCarnival.com.

For fun, I ran a sample search on the category “writers.” Here are a few of the results that came up:

Carnival of beginning writers (first Monday of every month)

Creative carnival (exercise your creative writing muscles on every second Saturday of the month)

Just Write (share writing experiences every Wednesday)

Scribes (for any kind of writing or publishing on the last Thursday of every month)

The Mad Editor’s Round-up (both subjects and deadlines vary)

Writing Success Blog Carnival (chronicle one’s writing or blogging career due 25th of each month)

If you follow this blog, you may know that once a month we coordinate this post with a companion post at the Story Circle Network blog, “Telling HerStories.” This month the subject is creativity. You’ll find a link to a nice little test of your creativity. One of the exercises evaluates your ability to make associations. It’ll give you a little insight into how your mind works. Now, here’s your opportunity to put that creativity to a real-world test. My Blog Carnival sample above was the obvious first search a writer would run. You have the tool, now put it to work. How inventive are you? Good luck.

Post #8–Two Women Business–Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler

If you read much about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your blog, you’ve probably heard that video is a fast, easy, and powerful way to improve your standing in Google. All well and good…but most authors and entrepreneurs don’t know where to start. “I don’t have a video camera,” they tell me. “Do I need some complicated piece of software?”

Inexpensive video cameras and powerful software tools do exist. But today I want to give you an easy alternative…something that will get you started with video. It’s a new browser-based screencasting tool called ScreenToaster. “Browser-based” means the tool runs on your Web browser. There’s no software to download. It runs equally well on both PCs and Macs. And it’s FREE. “Screencasting” is video technology that captures action on your computer screen in real time.

You can see a quick demo of ScreenToaster:

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Post #7–Two Women Business–Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler

In my post yesterday I talked about the power of Web 2.0 to create a groundswell for products, whether that be a political candidate, ballot measure…or your book, service or latest widget. The case made by our recent elections serves as such a clear example that I want to follow up with a few numbers I’ve come across. The disparity in the social media presence between Senator John McCain and President-elect Barack Obama illustrates how Obama could raise record sums from so many small contributors.

• 150 million blog posts about John McCain v. 500 million posts mentioning Barack Obama (according to post on ReadWriteWeb).
• Just 224,254 MySpace friends for McCain v. 867,074 friends for Obama (figures as of 11/6/08)
• 4917 followers on Twitter for McCain v. 119,762 followers for Obama (figures as of 11/6/08).

So what do the numbers tell us? You should start building your ground game today. As entrepreneurs and authorpreneurs you can use social networking to create more than just buzz. You can connect with your customers and prospects (to provide a higher level of service) and build word of mouth support, both powerful marketing tools. And you can make sales. Social media translates into real dollars.

Your first step is to move away from your static Website and start running your site on a blog platform like WordPress. And when you start posting your blogs, aggressively use tags, keywords and search engine optimization. You’ll build valuable Web presence. While this is important regardless the market you are trying to reach, it’s absolutely essential if you target the Gen X and Gen Y markets (consumers 14 to 44). Fully 90 percent of the 130.5 million young consumers in the United States rely on the Internet for most of their information. Their collective annual income? Almost $6 trillion.

If you’re not sure how to start, let an Internet marketer help you develop a professional blog and create a blogging and social networking strategy. Getting started is not expensive, and once you’re up and running you’ll easily be able to manage most of the site yourself. This is a cost-effective strategy with huge potential for payoff.

Post #6–Two Women Business–Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler

It’s the day after our elections and there is one more winner that needs to be announced: technology. We call it by its many names–MySpace, Facebook, blogging, Twitter, YouTube videos, email campaigns, banner advertising, optin pages and list management–but make no mistake. Technology, Web 2.0, social networking (whatever you want to call it) was a real winner.

As authorpreneurs and entrepreneurs, I hope the significance of the Internet hasn’t been lost on you. Web 2.0 marketing has proved its potential–no, its power–by helping build and motivate the voter base from the ground up. Make no mistake.

The blog Mashable ran a post listing more than 65 sites designed to help voters prepare to exercise their franchise. Sites range from candidates’ home pages, background on the many Propositions, polling sites, and voting services (e.g., where to vote and how to get there). In addition to all the background and supporting sites, and major candidates’ social networking accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Digg, Twitter, and YouTube, tens of thousands of voters shared their thoughts and intentions openly…even aggressively.

This election season, Two Women Business had a personal experience with the power of the Internet to make a difference…in this case at the local level. The town of Gilroy, California, was preparing to put forward Measure F to support the construction of a larger, seismically safe library. Supporters of the measure had limited funds to get the word out. To augment the phone banks, publicity and community canvassing, we created a blog site to help get the community involved and keep them informed. You can see the site by clicking here. And the result? We did what many thought impossible. Measure F passed: We needed 66.67 percent voting YES for a super majority. We received 68.10 percent.

The 2008 election may indeed be a referendum on Politics 2.0. Don’t let the lesson be lost on you and your marketing strategy.

Post #5–Two Women Business & Publishing–Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler

Traditional media has been taking a beating of late. Well not just of late. Newspapers and magazines have been reporting declining readership, lost ad revenue, and dwindling stock values for some time now. Seemingly the only thing going up are the number of layoffs. And now after about a century of daily publication, the Christian Science Monitor will cut back to a weekly. Last night on the NewsHour with Jim Leher, we heard an interesting segment, called “Old Media, New Media,” and I’ve included a link to the audio file.

There’s no question print media has to change to remain at all competitive. And digital media is the cost-effective choice. Paper, printing and distribution costs make it difficult for publications to compete aggressively for readership that’s drawn to 24-hour news, cable TV channels tailored to virtually every interest, mobile media and the Internet. Add economic uncertainty to the equation and it becomes virtually impossible.

So what does this have to do with blogging? It’s this. For all I read and hear from the traditional media about the need to cut costs and reposition themselves in the digital arena, I hear very little about how they’re going to build their Web presence.

I grant that the major magazines and papers have a stronger brand than you and I, and that many of their loyal readers will follow them online. But will they stay? It all depends on how effectively the old media make the transition. Will they embrace interactive formats, encourage forums, blog effectively? Will they be able to compete with social networks? Some will. Many will not. The new media is not traditional media sans the paper and ink. Success requires a new template.

The same applies to authors and entrepreneurs moving online from traditional publishing and brick-and-mortar businesses. Blogging and social media are key components that we’ll continue to explore there. But I want you to leave you this link to a discussion between author-entrepreneurs Seth Godin and Tom Peters recorded for American Express’ Open Forum.

“I just don’t know what to blog about.” I can’t tell you how often I hear that one. While the obvious answer is, “Then don’t blog!” I suspect the problem is more fundamental. Many people who blog or think they should blog don’t know why they’re doing it…except that it seems everyone else is blogging. So before you start blogging…or give up on an apparently unsatisfactory blogging experience, consider these 21 steps. They’ll help you know how (or even if) you should go forward.

Now, as a twist today, I crafted this post in response to a challenge over at Copyblogger. Author Brian Clark suggested we all take a page from a current issue of PC World and create a post with a list headline. You can see his post by clicking here.

I’m not going to elaborate on any of these 21 items as my post would be impossibly long. But I promise to return to some of these subjects in future posts and explore them in greater depth. Also the items are in no particular order. Enjoy.

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“I have a great designer and a really beautiful website…it’s gorgeous!”

That’s what someone said to me the other day. My reply was immediate, “That’s great, but you want the interest value that an ever-changing front page buys you.” Since that exchange, I’ve been thinking more about the importance of a blog, and I’ve decided to devote several posts to the subject. I look forward to your questions and comments.

Okay, so let’s consider website beauty for a moment. I think we’ve all admired drop-dead gorgeous sites from time to time. I’ve seen some really nice sites, and their talented designers deserve our recognition and admiration. But to be successful, designers need the support of strong editorial direction.

Be honest now…How many times have you returned to a website because you loved the way it looked? Not many I wager. But how many times have you returned to a site that:

* Answered an important question
* Gave you guidance you wanted
* Helped you make a decision
* Introduced you to a new service or product
* Held out the promise of much more information and assistance

More than once, I suspect.

Here are the facts:

* Websites are NOT window dressing for companies.
* Websites are selling tools that encourage their owners to “sell” by informing prospective customers.
* Websites must be dynamic and stay current with all the latest information.
* Websites are not constrained by the costs and time of production…this fact must be reflected in the content.
* Content is STILL King…and we must never forget that fact.

Well, actually, in our current economic times Cash is the real king. So listen to me when I say that the quality of your content is the key to your ability to earn cash online. Or in the case of authors, earn readers who will buy your books. Blog platforms provide a built-in text editor that enable everyone to post and manage the content on their blog sites.

What you need is a blog strategy for your editorial content..the subject of our next post.

Whether you’re an author or business owner, you probably are looking to the Internet to expand your reader or client base. That means, of course, you’re using email to connect with prospects.

If you’re considering creating a blog or even a static website, you’ve got to have it hosted someplace. With so many free resources, you may be thinking of saving your money for other marketing efforts and taking advantage of the freebies. Here are a couple things you need to consider.

* There’s power in the right URL (that’s Uniform Resource Locator, and quite simply it’s your web address).
* You want to build your OWN brand, not someone else’s.
* The right URL builds your brand.

The free services are terrific. They enable you to do so much to get the word out about your products, services, even books. And in future blogs we’ll help you put these to work. But you need your own base of operations. And that’s your URL. Free social network sites can help you build a following, but eventually you’ll want to drive these followers back to your own blog or website.

So start your online efforts by securing a meaningful URL. The first thing you have to consider is what you are marketing and branding…yourself or your product. If you have (or plan to have) multiple products, books or services, you may want to promote yourself as the common denominator in all these. In that case, you should buy your name, such as www.yourname.com. If you want to push your book, you can lock in the title, such as www.booktitle.com.

It’ll cost you less than $10 to get most URLs. GoDaddy is a cost-effective source for buying URLs. And hosting should cost you something between $5 and $20 a month, depending on the services you select. Get your blog or website up and then be sure to create your email. Only a few years ago, it was acceptable to have an AOL, Yahoo! or similar free email account. NOT TODAY. Now it just labels you as a small player. Not something you want to broadcast to your customer or prospect base.

Start right. Be a pro. Create the brand that will impress readers, clients and prospects…YOUR brand.

You’ll find this and more in our eCourse “Write Your Way to More Book Sales.”

Unless you don’t use Amazon at all, you probably are aware of the Kindle digital book. It’s very cool. The basic unit:

* weighs just 10.3 ounces with a 6? screen capable of 600×800 pixels and gray scale images
* holds more than 200 titles (more memory available)
* has a library of more than 160,000 books, blogs, newspapers, magazines and ebooks available for download
* charges just $9.99 for most books
* handles audiobooks and music as well as text
* uses cell phone technology to link (so you don’t have to find a wi-fi hot spot
* lets you read for about a week on a single charge
* charges you only for what you download, no monthly wireless bills, contracts or service plans
* allows you to annotate text
* makes available free samples and first chapters for your review before buying

But even with all this to commend the Kindle, you may be thinking the price is still too high for you (at $359). Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device Are You Thinking Kindle? But did you know you can get a $100 rebate if you buy with your Visa card? And conventional wisdom suggests the price will continue to fall. Still some readers think it best to wait for Kindle 2.0 to come out before they buy.
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But as writers, you should know that about 250,000 Kindles have been sold. This is a platform you should probably be considering for your book or ebook. Amazon now has a section for authors to go to learn more. So check out the Digital Text Platform and start preparing to publish for Kindle.