This post first ran in 2009 - much still remains relevant. I've changed a few things in red.

At the Blog Book Tours class (which I no longer teach) , the next assignments for the month focus on the social marketing groups we all know... and maybe hate. These include Facebook, MySpace, Goodreads, and Twitter.

We're starting with Twitter because it's the fastest, easiest, and most powerful for marketing your other websites. It's also less of a time-suck than the more complex social forums. There are other added benefits about Twitter networking that I'll point out later.

In a nutshell, Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows snappy posts of 140 (now 280 + photos, videos, and GIFS - use them!)characters. To participate, you follow other Twitter users and this allows you to see their updates.

You, in turn, are followed by others and those people can read what you have to say. Keep this scenario in mind, because it's the key to how Twitter works, or how it doesn't if you don't "get it". Believe me, many people don't, and consequently feel it's a waste of time.

Let me repeat:

You must follow people to see their updates.
Only your followers can see your updates.

It's crucial you understand this. If you are enthusiastically following thousands of people, but only a fraction are following you back, then only that small fraction sees what you write. Therefore, it's important you spend your efforts offering information that is of value to others, so they will want to follow and read you.

Now, to get started, and before the following and socializing begins, you need a few things upfront:

1. An email account that is acceptable on Twitter like yahoo or hotmail


2. A name that coordinates with your other website efforts if possible - I use blogbooktours everywhere I can
3. A small photo for your homepage and post icon


4. A well-written short bio


5. The website link you will send readers to for more information

Now you're ready to set up your Twitter account. Go to http://twitter.com/ and follow the directions, plugging in the information above.
Once you've gotten this far, you're ready to practice entering some updates. Introduce yourself in one, leave a blog link in another, tell us what you're doing today in a third. Do this several times more, perhaps throughout the day, to get Twitter into your conciousness and just to practice writing concise but meaningful messages. Be sure to bookmark your Twitter page to make it one of your regular stops several times during the day, much like checking your email.


Now you're ready to start following people and have them follow you back. We'll talk about how to do that in the next post.
And then you can follow me @twitter!
Tomorrow I'll also post helpful links picked up at Twitter to help you even more. One of my favorites is TwiTip for ongoing updates and tips.

The Ever-Popular Thank You Note

Do any of us ever tire of getting a thank you? I don't. This one just landed in my e-mailbox for my participation in a blog book tour, and it's the final step in a successful one.


Hello all,

I just wanted to reach out one more time and thank you all so much for your wonderful posts for last week's blog book tour for Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food. The book is off to a great start, thanks in no small part to your efforts. Each one of you took the time to put together a thoughtful and interesting post, and all together this added up to seven days of unique insights, original approaches, and interesting comments.

Those of you who hosted a giveaway, remember to send me the name and email address of the winner, so we can give them a gift of the book.

Again, you were great to work with. I appreciate the time and effort you dedicated to making this tour a great success.

Thank you, 

Khadijah

Doesn't reading a thoughtful note like that  make you feel good? When was the last time you got a really great thank you note from someone? When was the last time you wrote one? Please 'fess up in the comments!

Promoting a Blog Book Tour with Social Media

When I'm promoting a blog book tour for myself or another author, my social media procedure goes like this. It's  basically what I teach to my blog book tours classes:

1. First thing in the AM, go to the host blog and leave a comment

2. Click G +1

3. Share on your FB and Twitter (usually there are share buttons right at the blog)

4. Pin to Pinterest (I have the pin bookmarklet on my dash)

5. Go to the host's Twitter account and retweet other relevant tweets

6. At mid-day go to the Twitter account and retweet more

7. Go to host's Facebook account and share the book promotion

8. Rinse and repeat in the evening (by then, you should have a shortened URL from somewhere which is handy)

9. Share on any other social networks you use

A good blog will make this easy for you and you'll notice most of the share buttons I mention in the photo below:

I try to do this at least three times a day because as you know, with as many followers as some of us have, the scrolls roll pretty fast and posts can be easily missed. 

This procedure works very well for anything you're promoting, not just books. The important consideration is frequency over a long period of time - don't post everywhere twelve times in ten minutes! 

End your day by saying thank you to your host blogger! Everyone loves a little appreciation.

Tip of the Day

Turn off blog moderation and word verification, often known as CAPTCHA code, during a daily blogging challenge or blog book tour. I don't find either to be very useful since I monitor my posts daily, and far more often during a busy project. Having these kinds of hurdles in place mostly just keeps people from commenting. Your goal is to get comments! Make it easy for your readers.

Happy weekend, everyone!

How Often Should I Tweet?

It's a common misconception that people on Twitter will think you are spamming them if you tweet about your new book all day long. But let's look at how repeated messages play out.

I'm promoting my other blog, the Blood-Red Pencil, like crazy today because I'm hosting a blog book tour stop over there. I'm interviewing Jodi Carmichael about her first chapter book published by Little Pickle Press.

So to promote Spaghetti Is NOT a Finger Food, the book in question, makes my Twitter page look something like this:

But it's important to remember that my posts won't run sequentially like this on YOUR Twitter page. They'll be interspersed in your Twitter stream among all the other folks you're following and who are tweeting, and the more you have, the less likely you'll see my tweets sequentially. In fact, if you have thousands of tweeps you're following, you may never see my tweets. So don't worry about looking like a spammer when you promote anything. Does that make sense?

Of course, I also like to mix it up by re-tweeting other unrelated information, adding some thoughts and quotes, just being a normal, sharing person along with promoting. The more value I add to my Twitter stream, the more people will like me.

Having said all that, keep in mind that Twitter doesn't like you to re-tweet the exact same thing more than once, so you do have to mix up your words a bit. That can be as simple as posting the same promotion, but with a different hashtag reaching out to various groups. You'll noticed I've used #kidlit as well as #Aspergers.

Tomorrow I'll talk a bit about HootSuite, which I use to queue up a bunch of posts to release on Twitter when I'm busy doing something else and can't tweet live. It's a handy tool.

And, yes, this re-tweet is absolutely true today:

RT @kitereaders: Get "Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food" for #FREE today on #Amazon! http://amzn.to/10P6Okw  @LPP_Media @Jodi_Carmichael #kidlit
 

Sage: Book 1 by Marian Allen

One of our pals at the BBT Cafe, Marian Allen, has just released her new Kindle book and we're please to help spread the news! You can buy and download a copy of the book for $3.99 here.  I love the cover and font.

When you go to the page, you'll notice something very important. Scroll down a ways and you'll see a "tags" category. If you're an author, get those filled in right away. Not only does it give you control over how your book contents are labeled, you'll increase your searchability at Amazon. The author or her publisher has done this and it looks like this:

Anyone can add to these tags, but getting a dozen or more in place right away gives you a good deal of control over your own book. Don't miss the opportunity!

A Permalink Lesson

Do you like this photo? No, it's not a picture of me. But I'm using it for this lesson about permalinks and their importance during a blog book tour.

Let's use Pat Bean's terrific travel blog as our example. Pat's blog URL is http://patbean.wordpress.com/ which gets you to the main blog page. But if I wanted to have a record of the specific blog post titled, Life Lessons, I'd click on the title and get this expanded URL:

http://patbean.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/life-lessons/

That unique post "address" is what we call a permalink. When you're on a blog book tour, having these unique links to your guest post after the blog goes live, is a good way to promote your book in the future. But only if you can find that post again, and on a very popular and busy blog, that can be a challenge.

Copy and save your permalinks the day the host blog goes live with your blog book tour stop. You'll be glad you did! If you like the picture of this old broad, go to Pat's blog and read about her. And don't believe everything you see.

Blog Popularity and PageRank

Blog popularity, or PageRank, is an important part of choosing blog book tour hosts. You want publicity on sites that are noticed by search engines and real people alike. But how do you check a blog's ranking?

I use PR Checker which works for all search engines. It's easy. Just type in the URL for the blog you are vetting, complete the word verification, and you get a rating between 0 and 10.

Most good blogs are rated between 3 - 5, but rarely higher. They will probably be good hosts for your blog book tour stop. Even a 2 ranked blog might be a good choice if it matches the niche market of your book. As you discover blogs you like, and when you think they will be good matches for your book, vet them at PR Checker and then add them to a running list you'll use later. A little work each day makes planning a blog book tour much easier when the time comes!

Spaghetti Is Not a Finger Food Blog Book Tour

The best way to learn how to build your own blog book tour, is to follow one in action. Here's one that is kicking off today at Little Pickle Press. See the entire schedule here. Why not stop at each guest blog over the next week and see how it works? You can practice leaving comments and sharing the blog post on your social networking groups. Here's more information from today's host:

How To Tweet in time for #blogboost

If you haven't yet dipped into the Twitter pool (and you must to promote your books!), here's a guide from Kathi Flynn that's available for free on Kindle today (1/6/2012) and tomorrow. Download it now by clicking here and start tweeting!

Have We Connected?

You can join my Yahoo!Group, the BBT Cafe, which is all about blog book tours.

Join me on Facebook, too.

Here I am on Twitter.

And don't forget Pinterest.

What about you? Leave me a comment with your links so we can stay in touch!

Photo Friday

Have a relaxing weekend, everyone!

Break it Up

Yesterday I warned you about blog posts that are too long for your hurried readers. How do you avoid posts that are time-consuming to read quickly?

First, just write without regard to length. Say what you have to say. But then really look at your writing with a critical editor's eye and notice where you can split the writing into two or more sequential blog posts. This critical eye will get you a week's worth of posts and return visitors in one writing session! With a little practice, you'll see how the mind naturally links related chunks of information that can easily be broken into segments and published over the course of a week.

I know many bloggers who write their blog posts over the weekend using exactly this approach and you can, too.

Keep It Short

Photo credit: shopwasteland.com

One of the most important tips about blogging is to keep your posts relatively short - no more than 500 words. Blog readers are always in a hurry, and they just won't stick around to read a long post.

Writing short is easier said than done, especially if you tend to procrastinate about blogging. Sounds contrary to logic, I know, but when you don't blog often, you tend to cram in as much information as you can. Who knows when you'll be back, right? Better say it all now, which usually results in a long and rambling blog post.

Don't do this.

Tomorrow I'll explain how you can use this problem to good effect!

Happy New Year!

What better time to spark up a blog than the first day of the year? I've joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge because I know from past experience how important daily blogging is to heating up the popularity of a blog. I often include a blog-a-day challenge in my blog book tour classes.

So what will I blog about for 31 days? How about my journey completing the Blog Book Tours Kindle book? I'll start by offering short daily tips to help you organize your own blog book tour.

Are you planning to have a blog book tour this year? Leave me a message and let me know what book you'll be promoting! I plan to host a few more blog book tour stops at this blog this year, so if you have a book related to these topics, keep me in mind as a host for your tour:

• Children's picture books
• Cozy mysteries
• History mysteries
• Organic and environmental non-fiction

May we all enjoy the best year ever in 2013!

Promoting Your Blog Book Tour

The first day of a blog book tour is always a bit stressful for everyone involved, because it sets the tone for the rest of the tour. Also important is getting the word out about the blogs hosting you and this is a process that you "work" all through the day, each day of your tour. Here's the basic procedure:

1. Go to host blog and make sure the post is up
2. Get the permalink (by clicking on the blog post title to expand the URL which is
the unique URL for just that post), then make a shortened link if you are set up
to do that (I use bit.ly)
3. Leave a comment on the blog
4. Post the permalink or bit.ly to your Facebook page and post a status update explaining a little about the tour stop
5. Share the link with your online groups and mailing lists (no reason your
friends and family can't help, right?)
6. Use the bit.ly on Twitter throughout the day
7. Share on Pinterest if you are set up over there
8. Promote all through the day and be certain to drop in on your host blog for the day and check the comments - then join in the conversation. You should be addressing the questions and comments throughout the day as any good host would

Today, Little Pickle Press kicks off a blog book tour for their new picture book, Ripple's Effect. Here's a link to the first host:


http://bit.ly/U49qE9

You can follow the tour for the next two weeks. The entire schedule is here.



If you have questions or comments, please share them here!

More Numbers To Consider

Originally published on 11/6/2009

One of the most important statistics on your blog book tour are those of your once-and-future blog hosts. You want hosts that get at a bare minimum, 100 or more hits per day. To some of you, this sounds like a paltry number because your own blog may get thousands of visitors each day. But more of you probably don't get anywhere near that many on your own blogs, and building the blog that does seems like an insurmountable challenge. But you must, because this will help you find and choose blogs at least as good as your own.

In the blog book tours classes, we experience great resistance to this concept of finding high-traffic blog hosts. Some people even get downright ornery about the idea, and insist that any blog is good enough, and it's just too much work to vet them for popularity.

Those people should simply pay large sums of money to a tour service to plan an impersonal tour for them. Why? Because it's simply too much work to put into a tour that no one will see if you insist on any old blog. Let's think this out.

You can expect to spend 40-60 hours planning a blog book tour of 10-15 stops. A good portion of that time - up to half - is spent crafting your tour stops and doing the actual writing of the blog posts that your hosts will enter on their blogs. You can plan on spending 2-4 hours for each stop, so why would you spend that precious time on a blog that gets 2-3 visitors a day? It makes no sense to gamble that those people will buy your book. Aunt Mabel and many well-meaning friends will offer their services, and by all means humor them if you must. Just don't count them as part of your professional tour of 10-15 really good blog hosts.

Work hard on your blog book tour, but also work smart. That means maximizing the hours you spend preparing a good tour for your very popular hosts.

To rank the blogs your are considering, click here. Contact blogs with a rating of 2-5. Few blogs will rank higher than that.

Welcome to The Corner Cafe Blog Book Tour!

Join us for the latest wild and crazy experiment at the BBT Café, the online social group for all the writers who have taken my blog book tours classes over the past few years! This community of about 100 authors supports each other’s writing efforts through daily social media interaction, blog book tours, and by sharing information and conversation as the publishing world changes. And, boy, is it ever changing fast!

In the past few years, the opportunities for self-publishing have burgeoned, and the stigma attached is virtually non-existent. Only an Old Publishing School dinosaur would think of self-publishing as an inferior option. Programs like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing have leveled the playing field, and more authors are jumping into the game every day.

This fertile publishing ground is what inspired The Corner Café short story collection. We noticed that authors were starting to give away samples and old titles in e-book format, and that it resulted in increased sales on their other titles. Even a free day or two tended to increase sales when the regular price of a title came back. 

Without too much forethought about what we were stumbling into, we decided to put together a collection of our very own around a common theme: The Corner Café. The object was for readers to sample various writing styles, and tempt them to link to other works by the contributing authors. We’d promote the new project via a month-long blog book tour (what else?), and track sales each day, as well as measure download bumps the five free days allowed by the KDP Select program. (Seth Godin suggests free is a good marketing strategy in publishing. Here’s his post about it.) So we’re putting it to the test. That’s the short version of how it all came about over the past four months. You can get more gory details at the various blogs listed below throughout June.

Let me tell you a little bit about the book’s content. Here’s the description on Amazon:

Sweet, dreamy, steamy, and sometimes slightly seamy, this multi-genre collection of short stories includes something for every taste. Prepared by the BBT Café authors: Marian Allen, Shonell Bacon, Karen Casey Fitzjerrell, W.S. Gager, Helen Ginger, Dani Greer, S.B. Lerner, Audrey Lintner, Morgan Mandel, Maryann Miller, Bodie Parkhurst, Bob Sanchez, Mary Montague Sikes, Red Tash, Christine Verstraete.

These are just a few of the teasers each author submitted for their respective stories:

• In The Catfish Enchantment by Marian Allen: Cosmo’s father deserted the family and died unforgiven, his mother is sinking into depression, he’s started cutting himself to relieve the pain, and his boss suggests…a tattoo?

• In The Eyes Have It by W.S. Gager: Crimebeat reporter Mitch Malone hates going to church, but when he gets rooked into speaking to the Bible-toting ladies, he may be facing the devil himself as he investigates the prayer group's missing purses.

• In The Consequences of Breaking and Entering by Audrey Lintner, Goldilocks gets an update and her comeuppance.

• In Perfect Timing by Christine Verstraete, a rescued pup helps Corner Café owner Gina Mason find love and thwart a would-be robber.

You can also read the first two chapters using Amazon’s Look Inside feature. If it sounds like something you’d like to download to your Kindle, here’s the link to buy. Only 99 cents!

Join us during the blog book tour all month as we visit these blog hosts:

June 4 Blog Book Tours Kick-off http://bit.ly/CCBBT

June 5 Bob Sanchez with Stephen Tremp http://bit.ly/CCBS1

June 6 Red Tash interviews Dani Greer http://RedTash.com

June 7 Magic Dog Press http://bit.ly/CCMagic

June 8 Heidi Thomas http://bit.ly/CCHeidi

June 11 Marian Allen http://bit.ly/CCCosplay

June 12 W.S Gager http://wsgager.blogspot.com

June 13 Chris Verstraete http://candidcanine.blogspot.com

June 14 Helen Ginger http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com

June 15 Kathy Wheeler http://kathylwheeler.wordpress.com/

June 18 Morgan Mandel Double M http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

June 19 Pat Bean http://patbean.wordpress.com

June 20 Shonell Bacon http://chicklitgurrl.blogspot.com

June 21 Alberta Ross http://albertaross.wordpress.com

June 22 Karen Casey Fitzjerrell http://karencaseyfitzjerrell.blogspot.com

June 25 Pat Stoltey http://patriciastoltey.blogspot.com

June 26 SB Lerner http://www.susanblerner.com

June 27 Maryann Miller http://its-not-all-gravy.blogspot.com/

June 28 Mary Montague Sikes http://marymontaguesikes.blogspot.com

June 29 Stephen Tremp http://breakthroughblogs.blogspot.com

We hope you join us each day to read more about how The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories evolved. For those of you out there who know little about how a blog book tour works, a great way to get an education is to follow along on a tour. You'll get lots of ideas for your own blog book tour. Join us and do leave questions and comments here!

Worrying About Time

An Excerpt from Creating Time by Marney Makridakis

Try this: Imagine who you would be if you didn’t worry about time. How might your life be different? I surveyed fifty-two people, and the results revealed that 90 percent felt “somewhat anxious” to “significantly anxious” about time. What’s even more startling is that these results don’t even seem all that surprising. Anxiety about time is very much a part of most of our lives. Think back to a time when you greeted a casual acquaintance and asked how he was, and he said, “Great! Things are fantastic!” It can be almost jarring when someone responds so positively. Somehow we’re more conditioned to expect to hear people complain that they are tired, or sigh that they are busy.

It’s helpful to dig deeply to figure out what is at the root of our problems with time. Why do we overschedule ourselves? Why do we want to be so busy? Why are we so consumed with time? Why does it seem so “normal” to worry about time so much? Why is it easier to be caught up in a drama about time than it is to be released from it?

In short, what is the payoff for worrying about time?

When I examine this question myself, I can recognize that the more I complain about time, the more I block my ability to accept and express love and connection. Violette Clark shared, “I suppose not having enough time, or the illusion of believing this, makes us feel important. I also realize it keeps me safe. There have been a lot of dreams that I’ve accomplished, including publishing a book, but there have been a lot of balls that I’ve dropped, too, in the name of ‘not having enough time.’ Putting myself out there more fully means more potential for rejection. Sometimes not ‘going for my dreams’ is safer.”

Similarly, artist Peggy Lynn boldly admitted that time complaints are related to ego: “The ‘I’m too busy’ implication does stroke the ego: ‘Oh, look at me — busy, busy, busy!’” A workshop participant shared that her worries about time give her an excuse and an outside source for not following her dreams. She said, “I’ve never been someone who likes to blame, but now I suddenly realize that I’ve actually been blaming time. I don’t have enough time, and so that’s why I don’t go after this dream, or that’s why I haven’t tried this or followed up on that. Then it’s not my fault. This was a big discovery for me!

  Here are some examples of payoffs that people might receive from worrying or complaining about time.

• Time is a good catchall: if I can complain about being busy, then I don’t have to look at other areas in my life.

• Worrying about time gives me something to talk about with other people.

• Worrying about time is a convenient excuse for not following my dreams.

• My schedule is wrapped up with my self-esteem. Being “too busy” means that I’m successful.

• I don’t plan things that I might enjoy because it is too scary — it just feels safer to be bored.

Do any other payoffs come to mind? Which ones resonate as possibly being true for you? For further reflection, refer to the questions in the sidebar “Exploring Your Time Anxiety.”

Once we can identify the payoffs that we get from worrying about time, we can see them for what they are: illusions that keep us from living our true potential. Simply being aware of what we are getting from our time worries allows us to make a different choice. Choice is one of the nine ARTbundance Principles, which are building blocks to self-awareness. Making new choices is one of the best ways we can explore new layers of freedom with time. Dana Sebastian-Duncan, a trainee in the ACT program, put it nicely: “When I really think of the Principle of Choice as it relates to time, it reminds me that I have the freedom to create my life and my own ‘reality.’ My daily choices add up to my life, and that is empowering.”

To learn more, please take a look at the book trailer by clicking here!
To purchase a copy for yourself, click here. 

Marney K. Makridakis is the author of Creating Time. She founded the Artella online community for creators of all kinds and the print magazine Artella. A popular speaker and workshop leader, she created the ARTbundance approach of self-discovery through art. She lives in Dallas, Texas. Visit her online at http://www.artellaland.com.

Excerpted from the book Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life ©2012 by Marney Makridakis.  Published with permission of New World Library http://www.newworldlibrary.com

Elements of a Good Blog

A major premise of the blog book tours course is that a good author blog is the foundation of a good blog book tour. Why? Unless the author is a dedicated blogger and has created a great blog for himself, it’s not likely he’ll be able to determine whether a blog host will be an effective tour stop. You must establish a strong comfort level and respect for blogging to engage in a solid blog book tour.

What are the elements of a good blog?

Here is the entire list which students use as a guideline to shape their own blogs:

Basic Design Attractiveness?
Title and url cohesive?
Consistency and clarity of blog purpose?
Loading speed?
Follow widget in place?
Hit counter?
Bookmarking in place?
FB and Twitter widgets?
Blogrolls?
Linking effective? Tags/keywords used?
Frequent posting 2-3 x weekly?
Quality of overall posts?
Comments section working?
Blog components arranged in optimum manner?
Too many/too few third-party gadgets?
Pages used effectively?
What's great?
What can be improved?
Is it ready for a blog tour?

Most of the criteria is self-explanatory. You might look at your own blog to determine if some tweaking would help make the blog stronger and more appealing to your readers.