Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Social Media for Authors a smash success!

Tonight I taught the Social Media for Aspiring Authors class at Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe. Not to toot my own horn (again), but I think it was smash success. The audience really seemed hungry for the content, and kept leading me right to my next point. And I only had to pull the "It's 2010" card once! Based on the feedback, I'm certain that Brandon and I will be working on a more formal workshop schedule. Excellent!

For those that made it: thank you. I truly enjoyed all of your comments and feedback. Thank you for being such an attentive audience.

And for those who didn't... well, it's hard to convey what we covered. I considered posting my outline, but I don't think in complete sentences. And I sure as heck don't outline that way. But here are the broad strokes:

  • We spent a good deal of time talking about the power of free. This is always a contentious topic, especially when talking to authors. And while I received a few questioning looks when I started, I think I won them over. Not that I attempted to convince them to give their stuff away for free. Not at all. But I did convince them that some authors are finding ways to use free to gain readers, book deals and real sales. They also walked away understanding this trend isn't a flash in the pan -- it will continue. And they have to try and work in that world.

  • I introduced my "Three Tees that Plague Underpublished Authors" concept. It went over well and I think made my further points hit home that much stronger. They are:

    1. Quality -- Can you hire the rest of the production team to make your book exceptional?
    2. Quantity -- You need more where that came from. Period.
    3. Obscurity -- By and large, people aren't waiting to steal your work. Because they don't know your work exists.

    Who said anything about them starting with "T"?

  • Done is better than perfect, great is better than OK, but success comes when you create something that is truly remarkable. Those terrible books that are terribly popular? They are so because they are remarkable. How do you create something remarkable? [Insert Your Answer Here]

  • Yes, we got specific on social media properties. But it wasn't the focus. Nor should a talk like this ever focus on tools. Tool-specific talks can, but not a survey class. We covered Gmail (there was and is a purpose, trust me), Google Alerts, Facebook, LinkedIN and blogging. Notice anyone missing?

    One common misconception I had to correct at least twice -- updating once a month. That's not nearly enough. How much is enough? Well... more is better than less. If you're trying to do weekly, someone is successfully doing it daily. YMMV.


[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Evo Terra signing Anne's book, courtesy of Nick Bastian"]Evo Terra signing Anne's book[/caption]And then suddenly, the two hours were over. Yes, like that. And someone brought a copy of one of my books and asked me to sign it! Thanks, Anne!

But not to worry. I'll be back. Based on the questions during the class and the feedback I heard afterward, there's a great need for more of this. Let's do it! Keep watching here and the Changing Hands website. I'm sure you'll see more -- and more formalized -- classes with me starting up quickly!

Quick question: do I stick with "for Aspiring Authors" or switch over to my personal favorite " for Underpublished Authors"? I'm obviously biased, and much of this depends on what CH wants to do. But your comments would be helpful to steer us in the right direction...

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Workshop: Social Media for the Aspiring Author

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Changing Hand Bookstore crowd"]Changing Hand Bookstore crowd[/caption]I think the writeup for this workshop I'm teaching says all there is to say:

Social media is often touted as the Holy Grail, a sure path to publishing success. But what about aspiring authors who don't have tens of thousands of fans waiting in the wings? Can social media help boost a budding novelist's career? Yes. And no. For nearly a decade, Evo Terra has been helping "underpublished" authors approach the world of new media. The co-author of Podcasting for Dummies, he's been a nationally syndicated radio show host, and is an influential social media practitioner. He's as jaded as he is excited about the opportunities offered by new media, and brings real-world examples germane to any author with dreams of publishing success. FREE.


The workshop is entitled Social Media for the Aspiring Author, and I'm teaching it at Changing Hands Bookstore on Tuesday, July 20 2010 from 6:30-8:30p. Changing Hands is an independent bookstore in Tempe, Arizona. They do an excellent job of introducing authors large and small to the general public and are probably the most frequented bookstores in town when authors are making their rounds across the country.

My friend and occasional co-conspirator Michael A. Stackpole teaches there regularly, often covering the topic of building a career as writer in a digital world. My approach (and hopefully my audience) will be a bit different, as I plan on addressing the foundational elements before the word "career" comes into play. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. You know. Just like everything.

So if you or someone you know might be interested, tell them about it. This first class is a free one!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Retweet and win a digital marketing prize pack

Who's up for some digital tool subscriptions and books valued at over $1,000? How about if I told you all you had to do was retweet something to win?

Yes, simply retweet. It's that simple.

It's part of a promotion from agencyside, an agency training firm (They're on the agency's side. Get it?) I've been known to affiliate with from time to time. Good people. Anyhow, they're looking for people to follow their Twitter account and to spread a hash tag around. Do that, and you're entered to win. Here are the steps:

  1. Follow @agencyside on Twitter. If you don't have a Twitter account, get one. If you're reading this blog, you need one. It's past time. Seriously.

  2. Retweet (cut and paste into your "What's happening?" box and send) the following message: RT @agencyside Win the Digital Marketing Prize Package from top experts! http://bit.ly/aw4wlk #ascontest


The end. It doesn't get any simpler. Do it, and you're automatically entered to win a killer digital marketing prize pack valued at over $1000. Heck, the lifetime sub to Authority Labs is worth it alone to anyone who has to do SEO rank tracking, as is the 6 months subscription to agencyside's reams of content.

Not a digital marketer? That's OK. Go ahead and enter. If you win, you can pass the prize on to the digital peeps in your organization. You'll be their hero!

The contest starts now (yesterday, really) and ends on May 21st. So get to tweeting!

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Monday, April 19, 2010

5 Simpler Ways To Stop Working All The Time

NEW YORK - MAY 20:  New York City firefighters...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Work, work, work. It's never done, is it? And in the world where you're always connected to to everyone else in your network, the line between work-time and life-time is continually blurred. You feel like you're drinking from the fire hose hydrant, and it doesn't feel like it will stop.

Hey, I feel your pain. Really I do. I often get asked how I keep doing all the stuff I do without going insane or tapping into the quantum universe. To be honest, sometimes I do a rotten job at it. But most of the time, I do OK.

Here are five simple techniques I use to keep myself from working non-stop. While they work for me, YMMV.


  • Never work from your inbox
    Treat your email inbox like you do your snail-mail mailbox. Sure, you may spend a moment rifling through the letters while standing outside. But you certainly never shove things back in the mailbox to get to later.

    Why do you do this with your email?

    Get to inbox zero. Now. Stay there. Anything that needs working on, stick it in a folder. I call mine "Action". You can call yours "Work" or whatever else you like. This is where you move stuff to that needs your attention. This is your new repository of work items.

    If you can, shut off your new mail notification system. Checking mail isn't real work. Your real work is in that new folder you created.

  • Remove chatty news feeds
    You don't have to be first to know something. Mashable, Techcrunch, BoingBoing... all are great resources that you don't have to read. Why? Because someone else in your network is. Probably several people. Use your network as your filter of cool information. The biggest stories will cause serious tweeting, facebooking, and blogging from someone else in your network. Someone who is a lot less noisy than those other sources that simply overwhelm you.

  • Stop answering your phone
    Phones are interruptions. And you can tell who is calling. Concerned it might be an emergency? How often does that happen? Not very. And if it is an emergency, they'll call right back. Or reach out to you in another way. Use your voice mail to keep communications on your schedule.

  • RSVP with a "No"
    You don't have to attend everything you are invited to. In fact, you shouldn't. But you want to keep being invited, so be sure and respond to all RSVPs with a polite "no thanks". If you really hate missing things, ask someone who attended for a quick recap. It's not the same as being there, but is better than missing out all together.

  • Work on "battery time".
    Work expands to fill the time allotted for it. It also -- sometimes -- contracts as required. Working on a project that will take you longer than 2 hours? Break it up into chunks. Working on something that won't take 2 hours? Then go on to something else. Or simply stop when you are done with that project. Take a break. File some papers. Check your voice mail. Then get back to work. :)


Got a quick tip others could learn from? Leave it below.

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Monday, April 12, 2010

Effective SEO: The ONLY 5 Things That Matter

Buring Money
Image by purpleslog via Flickr
Don't run away just yet. I promise not to turn this blog into one more place where some SEO1 expert moron spews out stuff they know nothing about. In fact, this will probably be one of the few times I talk about SEO. I promise.

But it's an important topic: The SEO "industry" has convinced everyone that this stuff is hard. Sorry, but it's not. I'm a firm believer that the most effective approach is to teach your designers and developers the basic and fundamental concepts behind good website design, architecture and implementation. Done properly, your web pages will get the rank they deserve. And you can worry about running your business instead of wasting money trying to find ways to subvert Google. Because you're never going to win that game.

Below is a talk I gave at Social Media Club Phoenix last week. I typically lead a "social media 101" discussion prior to the meeting. My class was about double the size from months prior. I have to assume that at least some of it was the topic: Dispelling SEO Myths -- something you wouldn't typically hear spoken about at Social Media Club. And because of that swell in attendance, I decided to post it here. Seems like lots of businesses are struggling with this. As usual, I have a simpler way to handle it.

Yes, just those five things. No, I'm not kidding. You could go deeper, but you're wasting your time if you haven't done those five things. You're also wasting your time if you can't do those things so are considering hiring an outside firm to do something else for you. That's wasting your money, because "something else" won't work. Do the things I tell you. If you can't, spend your money trying to get that changed so that you can do those things. Or if you want, give half of that money to me. I'll at least be upfront with you and tell you nothing will happen. Your expectations will be properly set and you'll know you're wasting money, rather than finding out what a waste it was six months from now. I'm kidding, obviously. Save your money until you can spend it on something that will work.

Preemptive strike for you SEO-types -- Don't bother. You may have examples upon examples of how your trick or technique works. I don't care. You and I both know the tricks you try have limited chances of working and only work for a limited time. You and I also know that every time it doesn't work, you blame it on the client's inability to implement your plan. I get that. See above. I'm trying to fix that. But no, I don't think you should be able to charge stupid amounts of money each and every month to unsuspecting clients who haven't the foggiest how your efforts actually help them sell more stuff. Because they probably don't. You can't argue me out of my position. I can't argue you out of yours. Let's just agree to disagree on this, OK?

Preemptive strike for those who want to hire me for SEO work -- If you want me to help you come up with a strategy to dump your outsourced SEO firm and bring it in-house, I can help. But if you're looking for someone to "just do the work", that's not me. I know plenty of very nice, very smart and very fair people who do SEO work and am happy to make a referral. That is, if any of them are still talking to me after reading this post.

1 - Search Engine Optimization. I hate the term and much prefer "SEF", or making your pages Search Engine Friendly.

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Monday, March 29, 2010

What I'm learning from my Give Evo an EVO campaign

Man vs. Machine 1
Image by otherthings via Flickr
Can one man really influence a large telecommunications company? Sure. Am I that guy? Hard to say. But I'm going to find out.

In case you missed the news, Sprint has a new smartphone coming out by HTC called the -- of all things -- the EVO. As I'm a customer of Sprint and a sucker for new gadgets, I obviously want one. Read up on the "why" here.

For the past five days, I've been producing a video a day on YouTube. And of course I've been tweeting and chatting it up on Facebook. Contrary to the evidence of those last 5 days, I'm a pretty lousy self-promoter. So I'm learning a lot that may be of some use to the readers of this blog. I don't think my actions as an individual make a direct parallel for businesses, but some lessons may be applicable. Like this:

  • Respond to comments. No big secret here. Conversation begets conversation. I asked my friend iJustine to spread the word on one of the videos. She did, and I got a load of comments, mostly from her fans. And mostly -- not surprisingly -- addressed to her. I blew it by not responding to these folks right away, but have since corrected my errors. If they took the time to comment, I should take the time to respond. And maybe they'll become a fan of mine, too.

  • Enlist those who do self promote better than you. Last night I roped Tyler Hurst into helping. He didn't need a lot of convincing to jump in front of the camera. And since he's part of the content, he's going to talk about it, too.

  • Don't neglect the backchannel. Not everyone wants to tweet, facebook and generally help a social thing spread. But some have connections and are happy to send emails. I'm getting some traction there, so maybe my goal will be realized!

  • Experiment! I didn't have much of a plan when I started this. That's OK. I'm refining as I go. Also OK. If you have discretionary time -- and I have only a little -- it's OK to take this route. But note that I didn't go out and spend a thousand bucks on new equipment or start paying people to help me. That needs a touch more planning.


A lot of folks are asking me about my end-game. Simple: I want that phone. But I also want to see how this process works and how it might be applied in other directions. Welcome to the experiment. I'm going to start a daily log over on FunAnymore.com that covers all the stuff I'm doing, and how I feel about it any given day. Watch over there if you like.

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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Obvious: I want the new HTC EVO phone, and need your help

Cross-posted from my other blog, FunAnymore.com. I don't do this often, but in this case it seemed appropriate!

Dear Sprint,

I just got off the phone with Monica. She's a great customer service rep of yours. She informed me that I've been a Sprint customer since December 1, 1999. Sure, we've had our ups and downs, but the scales have been tipped more in to positive for most of that time.

I pay you just under $200 a month for our service plans. Three of them. All phones with unlimited data plans -- the big ticket item for you -- because we use the heck out of our phones. My wife and I are both on the Pre, and our son -- 1st year of college -- is on the Rant. In a world where at least 75% of our friends have made the switch to the one that rhymes with "eye-bone", we've not. Primarily because I want a phone first and a device second. But also because I really don't want to switch away from Sprint. We just had our 10 year anniversary, and I'm sentimental.

HTCEVOBut enough beating around the bush. I want the new HTC EVO™ 4G, and I'd like it now please. You've already let Engadget play with one. Gizmodo gushed about the 3.7 seconds they had access to it. CNET, Slashgear... you must have employed Santa to get you all over town in a single day doing demos.

I realized I'm not those media outlets. I've got a decent rep in the social and digital sphere. Some say I'm an influencer. But I have one thing that those other places don't, and that one thing makes me the perfect spokesperson for the new HTC EVO™ 4G from Sprint:

My name is Evo!

Who better to be carrying around the EVO than Evo? It's not like you're going to get that guy from Bolivia to make you this offer. He's a little busy. And I don't think 4G coverage works there.

But that's OK. You don't need him. You've got me.

So let's do this thing. It's the least you can do, considering the branding hell you're going to give me with this product. Not like I already have to compete against the above mentioned guy, a car company, tree-huggers1 and dog food for my name, right? Reach me at 602-325-3045 and I'll give you an address where you can send the phone. We'll take care of the necessary paperwork when you're ready.

Yours in love with the EVO,

Evo.

Note to friends: Help me get this phone first and to be THE spokesperson for it. Or at least just the first part. Tweet it, re-tweet it, facebook it, re-blog it, call your congressman, pressure, pressure PRESSURE! Let's see what happens. :)

Update: I put a plea out on YouTube, recorded with my Palm Pre. You could help spread that, too!

1 - OK, OK... I'm a tree-hugger, too.

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