USA Today had a front page article today entitled "Social, work lives collide on networking websites. As 'friends' lists grow, personal information can spread even to strangers."

The article centered around a woman whose marriage pictures were seen by a work associate on her Facebook and MySpace personal sites. The problem being, she married another woman and didn't really want her work associates to know that much about her private life. While we might not be able to relate to that situation, how careful should we be on these sites?

As Christians we shouldn't have to hide the way we live our personal lives, but the article raised an interesting point that's worth considering. Since many people on ShoutLIfe and other social networking sites accept everyone and anyone as a "friend" it's worth rethinking that philosopy. After all, we are judged by those we hang with!

"You might control the groups to which you belong and the pictures that you post. But if a "friend" posts something on your public wall on your page that you don't like, others might see it before you can remove it. "You have no control over what other people write about you and what other people choose to say..." says Larry Rosen, author of Me, MySpace, and I: Parenting the Next Generation.

And if a friend does somthing embarassing on his own page, it might make you look bad. "Once you make (a) connection" on a networking site, "you in a way assume responsibility for your friends' actions and behavior," says Mary Madden of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which studies online behavior.

So, while I want to look at all the opportunities social networking offers, let's be sure to consider the downside as well and act accordingly.

After posting last week, I asked the question on my ShoutLife account:

"Does social networking help you sell books?"

I'd like to share with you all 2 of the responses I received as I believe they will encourage you all:

My friend, Terry Burns, Literary Agent for Hartline Literary Agency, said:

I'm in a half dozen writing groups including ACFW, Western Writers of America, Panhandle Professional writers and a number of others. I social network in Shoutlife, Facebook, Book Marketing Network, Christian Authors Network, Good Reads, Jacketflap, Edgy Christian Fiction Writers, Shelfari, and even a small presence on Myspace also plus others.

I do it to increase visibility and to keep a finger on what the writing community is talking about. Obviously I can't participate to any degree on all of these so I lurk a lot, but I do watch the subjects that are being discussed, somethimes just scanning content, other times reading, and sometimes participating. It probably has a lot to do with the number of submissions that I've received as an agent. I can't document what it has done for books sales, but I believe it has impacted it significantly. I believe it to be very helpful for my career and my reputation.

Am I shortchanging the groups by being in so many and participating so little? Probably. On the other hand it also gives me the advantage of watching what is happening over a wide range of internet activity, insights that I accumulate and pass on where appropriate, which is a tradeoff for the groups.

To this point I consider it beneficial or I wouldn't be participating to this extent.

Terry  

And WinePress author and parenting expert Brenda Nixon (who, by the way, just had her WinePress book picked up by Regal!) said:

Hey Athena - I've used shoutlife and other groups to make new "friends" and for socializing around the virtual watercooler. As you know, writing can be a lonely profession so it's healthy to reach out to like-minded people. On shoultlife, I've shared some websites and articles on parenting (since that's my forte) and also some speaking/writing tips to help my shoutlife friends.

I can't measure in numbers if social networking has made an impact on book sales. Probably, social networking has been more about creating an internet presence and gaining exposure for my expertise, products and services.
---

Brenda Nixon, writer/speaker
author, Parenting Power in the Early Years,
Creative Discipline, and
You Can Speak

We'll continue to look at all the nuances of social networking in my upcoming posts. :)

When I went to Randy Ingermanson's "Tiger Marketing" seminar last fall, one of the things he mentioned was to make sure we all joined "LinkedIn", and that it was a great way to network with peers and get exposure for your work. Click here to see my LinkedIn profile.

I've since done so on a somewhat limited basis and have networked with many of my peers and friends there as well. LinkedIn tends to be a more professional setting where many people make job contacts, so it's great for freelance writers and editors, etc., but I know that MySpace and Facebook (both secular and a little scary) are more social networking based. These are touted as great places to get yourself set up and begin finding those people who most need to read your book. There are now some Christian social networking sites to consider as well, the best seems to be ShoutLife.

This will be the first of a number of posts looking at the different ways to utilize social networking sites to promote and market your book.

*******************************************************

Social Networking - How to Promte Your Blog
by Jinger Jarrett

Blogging is one of the easiest ways to get high rankings in the search engines. If you can pick a popular topic that you're passionate about and then write about it, you can get a lot of readers.

The problem is that a lot of bloggers rely on search engines as their main source of traffic. If you write on a topic that's pretty competitive, it makes it very hard to get your blog to rank high, and you won't get many visitors, much less find the readers who may be looking for what you are writing about.

So, to get more traffic to your blog, you need to find more ways to promote. One easy way to do this is with social networking sites. The advantage of using a social networking site is that you have a lot of options when promoting.

Your first step, when promoting on a social networking site is to make sure that you add a link to your blog in your profile. This lets others know that you have a blog, and they can decide whether or not to click over to your blog and read it.

If you don't have a blog, then you have the option of using the blog available on the social networking site, if one is offered. This will allow readers to read your content. You can post your product reviews, articles, tutorials, and even videos or audios you've found on your topic. The only disadvantage I see here is that although your blog posts may be public on these sites, it won't be picked up by the search engines, so it's best to have an external blog and then cross post some of your entries to the social networking site. Also, you need to be careful about making your content too commercial. Otherwise, you might get banned from the site.

If the social networking site allows you to add RSS feeds, then you should add your blog RSS feeds to your profile. This saves you the time of posting any blog entries to your profile, as your blog entries will automatically show up on your profile. Sites like Orkut, that don't offer blogs, give you this option.

I like using RSS feeds for mine because it allows me to create a profile that's constantly updated, always providing new content to my visitors and readers. Another advantage here to using RSS feeds is that readers will have to click through to your blog to read the entire post. If you offer an email subscription, then this gives you another opportunity to get the reader to subscribe to your blog.

If the site offers forums or groups, make sure you add a link to your profile in your signature file. You just need to know a little HTML in order to code your link unless the site offers an editor that will code it for you. Again, avoid being too commercial. Your goal is to get others to click through your link to your blog and subscribe, not sell them something.

Finally, many of these sites have private messaging, as well as bulletins you can send out. When sending out private messages, you don't want to spam or just try to sell the person something. Make sure you are friends first. With bulletins, try to write a catchy headline and make your bulletin newsworthy. You want to use a soft sell. Don't make others feel like they're being sold to.

Want to learn how top marketers use social networking to expand their businesses?  Social Marketing teaches you how to easily bring in more profits in just a few minutes a day. Meet me on MySpace.

Jinger Jarrett is the author of "Internet Marketing for Free: The GUIDE." (On Amazon).

 

With the popularity of podcasts reaching record numbers, a suggestion I've been making for years now makes more sense than ever. Teleclasses or teleseminars are a great way to build a platform and market your book.

This article by Diane Eble gives you 5 reasons why!

********************************

"You don't make money writing books; you make money explaining your book."

So says Alex Mandossian, pioneer of the teleseminar Virtual Book Tour and other ways of using teleseminars to both "create information products at the speed of sound" and "sell from your seat."

As an author, I've discovered he's right! For instance, I sold 124 books in 6 days from my Virtual Book Tour on my book, Abundant Gifts. I had more people attend the teleseminar Book Tour than would usually attend a bookstore signing. (Average bookstore signing is 4-6 people; 22 showed up on my first teleseminar VBT, plus I have been able to continue to promote it. Oh yes--and "bad hair days" don't matter on a Virtual Book Tour!)

As an author and publishing coach, I am very excited about this easy way authors can get their message out.

"You don't make money writing books; you make money explaining your book."--Alex Mandossian

What is a teleseminar? It's simply you sharing your message over the telephone, via a "bridge line" which allows many people to call in the same number at once. You deliver your message one time, to many people, all at once.

That's it! Very simple, yet powerful. In fact, I've uncovered 5 great advantages of using teleseminars to expand the reach of your message (whether your book is published yet or not).

5 Good Reasons to Do Teleseminars

1. Easy and inexpensive. You can do a teleseminar any time, from any place you can use a telephone. I've listened to teleseminars that the speaker has done from a hospital room, a hotel room, a truck stop, an airport, even a closet using a cell phone, when the power went out! For myself, I do them in my home office, with a land line (corded) phone. Nobody sees me-- I can wear whatever I want-pajamas, shorts and T-shirt. (No "bad hair day" with a Virtual Book Tour!)

Furthermore, you don't need any special equipment-just a voice, a message, and a telephone. No medium is easier to use than a telephone. You can set up an account at several excellent bridge lines at no charge. No startup costs, folks!

2. Teleseminars help you build a highly responsive following quickly. Roy Williams, the advertising wizard, said, "If you want to persuade people, use the human voice." Teleseminars add what teleseminar specialist Alex Mandossian calls "marketing intimacy." When people hear your voice, they feel as if they know you, much more than if they just read your words on paper. They hear the inflections in your voice, the passion you have for your subject, the caring you have for them. They are much more likely to get to the "know, like and trust" stage, which is where they need to be to spend money on you.

3. It may be the easiest, fastest way to write your book. Many people find it easier to speak than to write. If this is you, teleseminars can be a great way to get you to "write" your book-at the speed of sound! Just speak your message, have it transcribed, and then edit. If you like to write first, you can do that, and then give your teleseminar from your notes. Either way, you expand your reach.

4. Your teleseminars can be the basis of products with high perceived value and high profit margins. People are conditioned to pay no more than $20 or so for a book. (And you only get $2-15 per book, depending on how you publish.) However, they might pay $200 for the same essential information, packaged differently--say, a home study course. It might consist of several audio CDs (which come from the recorded teleseminars) with a workbook (which you create from the study guides to your teleseminars).

5. You can do it once, and market/sell it forever. Once you do a teleseminar, you can repurpose the content into all kinds of other products you can use to sell and/or market other things. You can use the teleseminar as a bonus for if people buy your book (or vice versa!). You can bundle several teleseminars together into an audio course, re purpose it into an ecourse, or an ebook, or any number of products. You can chop it up and deliver weekly audio postcards that train or coach people in your area of expertise.

I hope you'll investigate this medium further. It just may become the "sweet spot" where your message makes a great difference to many people you wouldn't otherwise reach ... and prospers you as well.

Ask your question and listen to the teleseminar at http://www.wordstoprofit.com/ask-teleseminars.html on "how teleseminars can profit you as an author--before or after you're published." To find out how teleseminar Virtual Book Tours can help you sell more books, check out http://www.vbtexpert.com . 

It seems like writers tend to go to conferences to get published, and then once that has been accomplished, through traditional means or by some form of self publishing, they don't see the need to attend more conferences.

I have to say that I completely disagree with this mindset!

There are many reasons to go to a writers' conference besides getting published:

1) Networking with other published writers to be encouraged. Being around like-minded writers for a few days or a week can be incredibly inspiring and fulfilling.

2) Discovering what others are doing to successfully market their books, as some of those ideas may work perfectly for your situation.

3) Improving your craft in major morning tracks and workshops. You never know if the Lord will ask you to write a sequel, or something on a totally different topic.

4) Learning how to write articles. In other posts I've recommended writing articles to promote your book. What better way to learn to write articles effectively than attending a writers' conference and participating in an article writing track or single session.

5) To attend classes on marketing, building a platform, branding, and all the other classes geared towards the essential areas of expertise needed to have a successful book.

I could easily think of another 5, but I think you get the point. Christian Writers' Conferences are a great way to grow and mature in your writing & marketing skills. Here are a few of my favorite conferences, all of which Carla and I will be teaching for in 2008.

Florida Christian Writers Conference
Feb. 28 - Mar. 2, 2008

Mt. Hermon Christian Writers Conference
Mar. 14-18, 2008

Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference
May 18-22, 2008

Northwest Christian Writers Renewal (formerly SPU Writers Renewal)
May 2-3, 2008

Write to Publish Christian Writers Conference
June 4-7, 2008

Oregon Christian Writers Conference
July 28-31, 2008

Alright. Now that I've given you 5 good reasons to go to a writers' conference, it's your turn to pray and ask God which one He wants you to go to!

And with that, I hope to see you at a writers' conference next year!