Let’s face it, if people already know you and read your books, they are going to look for your website by searching for Jane Smith writer. Or Jane Smith author. They’ll find you. But what about attracting NEW readers? Readers who don’t already know your name or read your books? This is where your blog comes in. Attract more readers to your blog through search engine traffic.
You might decide to try and attract people searching for paranormal authors. Okay, let’s look at that. You can use the Wordtracker Free keyword suggestion tool. Type in paranormal authors.
Look, paranormal ROMANCE authors get searched for more than paranormal authors. If you write paranormal romance, it would make more sense to target the higher searched for term. [Read more →]
Have you seen the commercial for DirectTV, where Jessica Simpson says “I don’t know what it is, but I want it…” Well, I used to feel a bit like that about Stumbleupon. StumbleUpon can seem like visiting a foreign country. Let’s see if we can begin to help you speak the language.
What is StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is a social networking website. You set up specific topics that interest you, and StumbleUpon feeds you websites that match your interests. You can thumbs up or thumbs down sites as you view them. StumbleUpon figures out more and more what interests you and feeds you more sites that match your interests.
As more and more people enter the blogforce (yes, I’m coining a new word! — blogforce, noun, group of people engaged in blogging activity, similar to workforce), guest blogging invitations abound. Should you take up those invitations? How do you decide what is worth your time, and what isn’t? Should you invite guest bloggers to write posts for your own blog? And what unspoken (till now!) guest blogging etiquette points play into the process?
Here are my guest blogging pro’s, cons, and tips: [Read more →]
If you’re a writer and you’re blogging about writing and/or your books, who is your audience? Other writers and readers. And probably, they already knew who you were. That’s how they found your blog. You may influence some of them to buy your books more often, but they were likely to buy your books anyway. You’re preaching to the choir. Blogging inside the box.
How do you expand your audience and increase your traffic outside the box? Here’s how: [Read more →]
Steps to Add A YouTube Video to Your Wordpress Blog
Have you ever wanted to include a YouTube Video on your Wordpress Blog? I’ll explain how easy it is to do. Have you seen some of the great book trailers that have been uploaded to YouTube? We’re going to use one by author Sydney Croft in our explanation of how to add a YouTube Video to your Wordpress post.
Go to YouTube and find the video you want to include in your post.
Highlight the text in the box to the right of the video, where it says embed. Copy the highlighted code.
Go back to the post you are writing in the Wordpress admin panel.
Make sure your tab on the write post page is set to Code
Paste in the code where you want it to appear in your post. Save the post. You’re finished.
If you have any problems with a specific browser & operating system:
1)Go to your admin panel on Wordpress.
2)Click on Users
3)Click on edit by by your user name
4)On the page it brings up, uncheck Use Visual Editor in the upper left corner
5)Click on Update User
Here are some links to other book trailers on YouTube to give you an idea of what authors are doing with their book trailers: Merline Lovelace — Stranded with a Spy (she said she made it with iMovie on her Mac)
Warning on Embedding YouTube Videos on Your Wordpress Blog
Heads up…if your content section of your Wordpress theme is too narrow, adding a YouTube video to your Wordpress blog post will break the theme and mess up your page layout.
