Your Book Publishing Coach

Marketing on the Internet–many “gurus” purport to show you how.

Frankly, I’m always a bit skeptical. There are only a few people I trust.

For myself I look for:

1) people who have been doing it for a while.

2) people who evidence they are actually successful at it.

And, when I do take the plunge and buy their products, if their ideas work for me as an author and business person, only then do I recommend them.

One of the handful of mentors who meet the above criteria is

Read the rest of this entry »

For the past 6 days, I have been unable to access the Internet, except for a brief, inexplicable time when the DSL connection worked for a few hours, then went bad again.

It’s been very frustrating, but enlightening.

Frustrating because, of course, so much of what I do is dependent on being able to hook up to the Internet. Whether it’s research, email, Twitter, connecting to the various accounts that allow me to get my work done, I must be connected or I’m “up a creek without a paddle,” as the cliché goes.

It’s also been an enlightening experience because

Read the rest of this entry »

Companies with great service stand out, largely because so few of them seem to care about customer satisfaction.

Especially for service-oriented companies, good support is crucial to me in any firm that wants to keep my business.

I want to honor the wonderful service I’ve recently received from the company I use for my ecommerce needs: 1shoppingcart.com.

This is the company I’ve always recommended if you want

Read the rest of this entry »

We authors want to be read, don’t we?

People with ideas (or something to sell) want to be read. They want their emails, newsletters, blog posts, web pages, letters or other communications read.

If it’s video or audio, you want to be viewed or heard.

Bottom line: Human beings need to be “well heard” by other human beings.

What makes other people want to read, listen to, or watch you?

One thing, above all else.

I talk about that one thing in my latest Publishing Coach Weekly article.

Please read “The Heart of Success: What Makes People Want to Read You.”

This one is a writing AND marketing tip. I think you’ll be inspired.

I even give you (as usual) some resources to explore: samples of what I’m talking about, and a great brand-new book–just came out today–that will make you sigh, “Finally, an approach to marketing that I can embrace!” It’s THE alternative to the kind of hyped-up marketing we all find so wearisome.

Return on investment (ROI) is what we’re all looking for these days.

“If I spend X dollars, will I likely at least recoup my investment?”

This is a question I ask myself any time I spend money, especially on my business.

I operate on a shoestring budget. Not because I’m so cheap, but because I like to get the best value for my dollar as possible. It’s smart to keep things simple and lean. I am not afraid to spend money on training, tools, etc. if they will truly help me become a more successful author and business person. But any expenditure should, ideally, be an investment.

There are lots of ways to spend money, and some of it is an expense, some an investment.

I try to make sure as many of my expenditures as possible are investments, rather than merely expenses.

With that in mind, I thought I’d evaluate some of the smaller expenditures that turned out to be investments with very good ROI, and tell you why.

Best $14.39 (amazon price) I Ever Spent:

Read the rest of this entry »

“What is the most cost effective way to develop a global audience?” Star asked. (To ask your question about writing, publishing, or promoting your book or information product, go here.)

Aside from taking the “Develop Your Audience” class (which you can still do, it’s all recorded–hint hint <g>), the best way is to start a blog and then start to point to that through the MPOW technique, developed by Internet marketing expert, Bonnie Dillabough. (Bonnie’s techniques snag more than a quarter of a million hits on her Yaktivate.com podcasting network–per month You can attend her Internet marketing classes for free on Saturdays; details here.)

MPOW stands for

Read the rest of this entry »

I just took about an hour to get a new page for one of my Wordpress blogs (www.abundantgiftsblog.com) looking the way I wanted it.

It would have taken me 5 minutes at most to do the same thing in XSite Pro, the web design software I use for most of my sites.

People keep telling me WordPress blogs are better, so easy to use.

My experience has been: I could not even have a WP blog without Cathy Perkins, “the wordpress wizard.” I listen to her free weekly teleseminars and without those, and her expert help when needed, I’d be lost.

On the other hand, I’ve had very few issues with XSP. I can put up a web site in minutes. This one I put up in 10 minutes. The template came with the program. It was a matter of copying and pasting the copy I’d already written in Word. (And unlike copying and pasting from Word to a WP blog, I have little to no issues with formatting.)

What about search engine ranking with XSP vs. WordPress? Well, when I put in the keywords ‘develop your audience” into Google just now, my WP blog (this one, which I’ve been posting on for years) came up 3rd, and my NEW site (the XSite Pro site, www.developyouraudience.com) came up FIRST.

That’s because the search engine optimization is built into XSite Pro and it’s entirely controlled by me. Very easy to do, too. With a blog, supposedly it’s “built in.” There are plug-ins you can use to optimize. But that involves, again, a whole lot more work than what I have to do with XSite Pro.

AND, the work I did do on my new blog page, I had to know html to figure out how to format the look. I don’t have to know one thing about html to use XSite Pro. If you can use Word, you can use XSite Pro–they are that similar.

So, again, I have to say I much prefer XSite Pro web design software. It’s a very small investment to make for software that will save you gobs of time on creating a website. You absolutely do not need any webmaster with XSite Pro. Their support is fantastic if you do have problems. It’s honestly one of the best products and companies I’ve run across–period.

And I’m pretty picky.

Michael Hyatt wrote an interesting blog post about how we’re living in a transparent world where the truth will get out, one way or another.

This is especially true about your author platform. Hyatt points out all the ways a publisher can tell how many people visit your blog, or how many previous books you’ve sold. (By the way, the tool he mentioned, Compete.com, is something you can use to track your own progress. Especially if you take the “Develop Your Audience” class.)

One thing I’ll add that’s also part of this “New Era of Publishing”: we’re all so connected now. If I want to check out a person’s integrity, I have a whole network of people I can ask who probably have had dealings with the person or product. While I always give the benefit of the doubt to people, if several people say a company, person, or product did not live up to expectations, then I take note.

Hyatt gives excellent advice. Read it and take it to heart, and you’ll sleep well at night.

Yesterday’s “Develop Your Audience” class with Russell Cox was so good, I am doing something unusual.

I am extending the registration (and a special discount) for another couple of days.

Because the calls are recorded, you can easily catch up before next Tuesday’s class.

The class covered the basis of your “core promise” and introduced the tool Russell developed by which you can map out your “audience development path”–on one page.

Russell’s “audience development path” brings great focus and clarity to WHAT you want to say, WHO your audience is, and HOW you want to deliver your message.

In addition, Russell will teach you the right sequence of what to do to become very clear on these three things.

This kind of focus is, to my mind, absolutely necessary for

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the ways I see myself being “your book publishing coach” is to steer you toward resources that will actually help you become a successful author in the real world, and away from resources that will be a waste of time or money or worse, take advantage of you.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people and companies who prey on the desire so many of us have to be a published author.

That really gets me angry.

That’s why you will never see Google Adsense ads on this site. I know the kind of ads that will show up. All the ones that will steer you in exactly the wrong direction.

(Though, come to think of it, I could just have the ads show up, and somewhere have a warning: AVOID ALL COMPANIES THAT ADVERTISE ON THIS PAGE! Somehow I don’t think Google or the advertisers would like that.)

By the way, a good blog to check out is Writer Beware Blog. This publishing industry watchdog group, sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, shines a light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls.

Now, a word about people, products and services I do recommend.

The people or companies I recommend are those I have dealt with personally and checked out enough that I can vouch for their integrity and the quality of their services and products.

The products I recommend are those that I have paid for myself, in almost every case, and can vouch that they are a true investment–as in, whatever you pay, you will at least get your initial investment back in a reasonable period of time (assuming you do your part and apply what
you learn).

If you have never seen me recommend something you’re checking out … well, my silence is eloquent. You may notice that I don’t recommend a lot of products and people you may hear about otherwise.

However, obviously I can’t check out everyone and everything, and I will never publicly say anything negative about anyone. So if you are wondering if a person or product is a good investment, I invite you to email me personally about what it is you’re considering.

I’ll give you my honest opinion, PRIVATELY.

And if you have a bad experience with someone/something I recommend, I want to hear about it, okay?

‘Nough said on that.