blogging

Blog voting on blog branding

A few weeks ago I discussed the ongoing process Outskirts Press was engaged in to brand all our social networking channels–or at least the ones we were active with, which were/are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and our Blog).  

In those postings I showed screen shots of the new branding for each channel as it went live.  Our blog was the last one to join the branding party.  This week, it finally got a much needed facelift.  And, to continue the topic I started a few hours ago, we posted a poll on the blog to solicit our readers’ opinion of the change.

Now, this is always tricky, because people by their very nature are often reticent about change.  So we wanted to clarify WHY we changed the blog when we asked for feedback.   That way, votes would be more likely to be fair rather than impulsively negative based solely upon the notion that “Any change is bad.”  

And this is a very important part of Web 2.0.  Web 2.0 compels companies to take more time to explain WHY they do the things they do.  There are usually good reasons.   The reasons for why we changed our blog are outlined on this posting of the Outskirts Press blog, along with the poll.  Or, I’ve included the poll here, too — Yes, WordPress allows you to duplicate the same polls across multiple blogs, and share the same results. How cool is that?

blogging

How to add a poll to your blog

One of the major benefits of “Web 2.0” is that it facilitates and even encourages back-and-forth communication between companies and customers.  People can offer real-time feedback in the way of comments, star ratings, reviews, “likes,” “thumbs up (or down).”   Surveys, polls, and other widgets also encourage this type of “audience participation” in fun, friendly ways. 

We have two polls active this week on our Outskirts Press blog.   One is gauging our blog readers’ reaction to the new branded blog we launched this week.  The other is soliciting the winner of our 2010 Best Book of the Year Award.  More about both of those polls later today.

In the meantime, if you blog on WordPress, adding a poll to your blog is very easy. Along the left-hand side of your dashboard is a category titled “Polls.”   Click on that to “Add a New Poll.”  The functionality is self-explanatory, user-friendly, and flexible. You can control, to some extent, the width and color of the poll to make it “match” your blog theme.  You have a number of different settings for how the results are displayed (or whether they are displayed).  Since Web 2.0 is not only about feedback, but feedback ON that feedback, I would encourage you to set the results so they are publicly viewable, at least in percentages if not the actual number of votes.   One thing Web 2.0 has shown us is that people like being heard.  Not only do they want to vote on your poll, but they want immediate feedback that their vote has been counted.  The WordPress polls offer that voting feedback instantly.

Polls can be a great item to add frequently to your blog postings, and WordPress makes it easy.

Speaking of which, in a few hours I’ll talk about our polls that we’re running this week, and include the poll so you can vote (or just see how the votes are turning out thus far)…

self publishing, self publishing a book

How to Win the Best Book of the Year Award

Personally, if I were a finalist for the Best Book of the Year award, where my chances of winning were dependent upon the votes I received from other people, here’s what I would do to try to increase my chances.

5 Ways to Win the Best Book of the Year Award (or, 5 ways to get people to buy your book)

  1. I would make sure my author webpage was pristine, and loaded with content about the benefits of my book.
  2. I would make sure my webpage had a video that visitors could watch.  Statistics are telling us that nearly 50% of the time people spend on the Internet they spend watching videos.
  3. I would make sure I had a Facebook Profile/Page and that I was actively pursuing “likes” leading up to the vote. That way, on the day of the vote, I could broadcast a message to all my “fans” about where to go to vote for my book.  After all, if nearly 50% of the time is watching videos, the other 50% is probably spent on Facebook. All authors should have a Facebook account.
  4. I would have either an audio excerpt of a section of the book, or, if I wasn’t pleased with the sound of my own voice, an enhanced audio excerpt of a professional reading an excerpt.  People are more likely to vote (or buy) if they “like what they hear.”
  5. I would make sure I had some positive reviews (5-star reviews) on Amazon.  Some people may buy the book and make their vote based upon receiving and reading the book. That is ideal. But the reality is that most people will make their decision based upon other factors other than the book itself — those other factors might as well be as encouraging and positive as possible.

You may notice that these steps for winning a popularity contest don’t differ all that much from the steps required to sell a book — people make the decision based largely upon the same set of criteria: How much they can learn about the book in advance, and how much they like/respect the author.

It’s hard enough finding success in this world. If you have the power to move many things in your advantage, shouldn’t you?

Best of luck to the finalists. The polls open Friday on our blog and we’ll be accepting votes through the end of the month.

self publishing, self publishing a book

Best Book of the Year Finalists

Here’s more about each finalist to the 2010 Outskirts Press Best Book of the Year award. Find more details on our blog, where we are highlighting each of them on the 11th, 12th, and 13th, of this month.

The Key To Job Success In Any Career, by Frank B. Leibold, Ph.D.

 After a distinguished 30 year business career with three multinational corporations and nine jobs-culminating in the position of Group President, Frank B. Leibold, Ph.D., re-tooled himself by returning to school and obtaining his Ph.D. Frank then became a nationally recognized university professor of marketing while founding his own global management consulting company. He and his wife reside in South Carolina and spend time traveling to visit and spoil their nine grand-children- two in Australia.
Psych Consults, by Robert J. Mignone, M.D., F.A.P.A.
 
For decades, Robert J. Mignone, M.D., F.A.P.A., has helped people bounce back from all kinds of crises. A top-ranked psychiatrist in southwest Florida, Dr. Mignone has been called a gifted and inspirational speaker—in person and on TV. A two-time cancer survivor, Mignone shares his experiences in Ordinary Valor: How Cancer Saved My Life, Not Once, But Twice. He is also the author of Psychiatric Injury: Evaluation and Treatment of Psychiatric Impairment and Damages.

The Beads of Lapis Lazuli, by Doris Kenney Marcotte

Doris Kenney Marcotte has turned decades of studying Minoan civilization into two novels. She has researched at the Athens National Museum, the Heraklion Archeological Museum on Crete, and the British Museum in London, among others. She lives in River House in New Richmond, Ohio, and Hilltop House in Wyoming, Ohio.

Now, between you, me, and the bedpost, I think I already know who is going to win.  The votes will be open and public and available for everyone to see the results from April 15th through April 30th… But based upon my experience with Outskirts Press since 2002, and the respective tactics already being put forth by these three diverse authors, my experience points toward a winner. I don’t want to taint the votes by stating my guess here, but we’ll see if I’m right when the final votes are counted on the final day of April.

That perspective and that experience is one of the benefits of publishing with Outskirts Press (or any self-publishing company, actually) — but it’s only valuable if one chooses to listen to it and act upon it.    I’m always surprised at the number of authors who don’t listen to any advice or suggestions at all.  Yes, it’s your book and yes, we’ll do exactly what you want, but…. part of what you’re paying for is that perspective, that experience, and that expertise.  Just sayin’…

 And that brings us to the final post of the day, coming up later, where I share the 5 steps to winning the Best Book of the Year Award (or, in other words, the 5 steps to selling a book).

branding, self publishing, self publishing a book

Self publishing book awards

The finalists for the Outskirts Press 2010 Best Book of the Year Awards were announced on our Outskirts Press blog on March 31st.

They are:

The Key To Job Success In Any Career, by Frank B. Leibold, Ph.D.
Psych Consults, by Robert J. Mignone, M.D., F.A.P.A.
The Beads of Lapis Lazuli, by Doris Kenney Marcotte

All three finalists have an equal chance to win the $1,500 Grand Prize and receive the honor of publishing the Best Book of 2010 at Outskirts Press.  Yesterday, today, and tomorrow on our Outskirts Press blog at http://blog.outskirtspress.com we are highlighting each author and their respective book, including any multi-media or additional marketing efforts they have put forth, in the way of extra editions (hardbacks, Kindle, Espresso, etc.), book videos, teasers, or audio recordings, etc.    A successful book means a sound marketing plan.

Then, on Thursday of this week we will summarize the finalists and encourage members/readers of our social media networks to vote on their selection in an open poll that will start on Friday, April 15th. More on that process later today…

blogging

What is the “blogerati”

Since 75% of America’s population resides in the Eastern and Central times zones, you might think 9am Eastern time would be the perfect time to post. But that’s actually a little late. Why?

Because by then, all the blogger’s you’re hoping will link to your content have already committed to other sources or blogs for the day.  You see, there are many bloggers who have a daily commitment to blog about something…. they’re being paid to do it in one way or another, or perhaps they’re even doing it for free.  But, in any event, they ALSO know what I’m saying here — that blogs are best posted in the morning.   

So, many of them scan certain sources (namely other blogs in their industry) for ideas or stories.  So if your blog comes out BEFORE all those other bloggers (the coined term for these people is “blogerati”  – like “paparazzi” for bloggers), then your blog stands a better chance of being the source some of those bloggers use for THEIR blogs.  And that is how links are generated to your blog, and how your blog grows its audience.

So you want to make sure your first blog of the day is early enough to capture the attention of the blogerati, perhaps between the hours of 4-7am Eastern Time.  That also gives the entire day for your content to propagate through the search engines while it is still the most relevant (newest).

Then, if you are following some of this advice I’ve shared over the past week or so, your second and third posting of the day can target other time zones or audiences with the same strategic considerations…

blogging

Best time to blog post

Earlier we revealed that the “best time to blog post” was in the morning.  “The morning?” you might ask. What time zone is THAT?  Well, it depends upon the market you’re trying to reach.  Since I’m American and company Outskirts Press is based in America, my primary target for this audience is American.  Sure, we publish books by authors around the world, but when it comes to a specific social marketing tactic, it is best to target one primary market as well as you can.

For America, that means you should blog according to the Eastern time zone.  Nearly 50% of America’s population resides in the Eastern Time Zone, and in fact, over 75% of the population resides in either the Eastern or Central Time Zone.  Fortunately, and perhaps even coincidentally,  a New Yorker’s 9am is often the same as a Chicagoan’s 8am.

But both those times are a little too late to post your first posting of the day.  I’ll discuss “why” later today…

blogging

Best time to blog

In the recent past postings we have discussed the best way to blog (multiple postings per day, and why), and the best days to post (depends upon the goals for your blog), so now let’s discuss the “best time to blog.”

On a side note, did you know that if you repeat the title of your blog posting within the body of your posting surrounded by quotation marks you increase the chances of Google or Yahoo “scoring” your blog higher for that keyword term or phrase?

It becomes weighted even higher if you also link it somewhere… so, that’s just a little extra thing to consider today as we discuss the “best time to blog.”  (Although it’s better if the link actually goes somewhere relevant, but I didn’t have time to do that for this little example).

I don’t think I’m revealing anything shocking when I suggest the best time to blog is in the morning. But I’ll discuss WHY that is, and provide additional insight to that concept later today….  For instance, the “morning” for who, or where?  The world is big, and round, and the internet is worldwide. One man’s morning is another man’s night…

blogging

Blogging Advice

Ahh.. and there’s the proper spelling, because even though “blogging advise” is the second Google Search Suggestion, “blogging advice” is the first.  And this further supports one of the pieces of advice I am sharing about blogging that I learned at a recent webinar: that multiple postings throughout the day allow you to title blog headlines differently, which thereby increases your chances of matching a common or popular keyword or phrase. 

Yes, it’s true that “content is king” but the jewel in the crown is the content in the headline of the blog. The “weight” Google or Yahoo gives keywords appearing in titles of blog postings far exceeds the value content receives in the body of postings.

And that’s not even the advice I was planning to share with this post. This is:  We’ve discussed posting multiple times per day, and we’ve discussed on what days it is best to post.  Now let’s talk about the best times to post.   According to statistics compiled by “social media scientists” the best time to post is in the morning.  Well, that’s okay if you’re only posting one a day, but what about the second and third postings?  This is my third posting of the day and it is going “live” in the afternoon (or evening, depending upon your point of view and what part of the world you are on).

So, ultimately, the “time” you schedule for your posts depends upon the time zone you want to target… and we’ll talk about that next time.

blogging

Blogging Advise

Yes, I realize I’ve improperly used the word “advice” in the headline for this blog posting: “Blogging Advise” and here’s why I did it:  “Blogging Advise” is second in Google Search Suggestions, which means I’m not the only one putting the “s” instead of the “c” when looking for blogging advice.  It is apparently a fairly common thing to do. So when all those people are looking for “blogging advice” and they enter “blogging advise” into Google, there’s now a better chance that MY blog will appear higher in the search terms.  Do those people care too much about the contextual meaning of “advice” vs. “advise?” I doubt it.  They probably care more about getting what the are looking for, which is not a grammar lesson.

So, I’ve already given one piece of advice, which is, when it comes to blogging, it benefits you to title the subject of your blogs according to what people are actually searching for, and to use the terminology (and yes, even the actual spelling) of what they are typing into the search engines. 

I have a love-hate relationship with Google Search Suggestions, which I’ve discussed at length on this blog in the past, so I won’t reiterate it here, but instead, still coming up later today, I will mention another piece of blogging advice I gleaned from the recent webinar from the Social Media scientist, Dan Zarrella…  As you can see from these shorter, multi-day posts, one of his pieces of advice was to post multiple times throughout the day. So I’m continuing to do that. Another is to post on days of the week according to your objectives for the blog…