Goodreads Demystified

Happy Monday! Today, I'm making a post for all those new authors out there struggling to get a grip on good old Goodreads. There will be some info in here for old hands, too, so give it a skim and pick and choose what you think may help YOU. I'm going to break it down into sections so you can find what you need more easily. Not a long intro today, because this puppy will be LONG. Ready? Let's get going!

CREATING AN ACCOUNT

Go to Goodreads.com:

Fill out the boxes and click "sign up with email" unless your author name is your FB name (if they're the same, click sign in with Facebook--not sure how you'd choose to do that because of all the Amazon/FB "stuff" going on). ANYway:

Leave off connecting any of your social media right now. You can always do it later. Click "skip this step":

Please also skip the reading challenge question (dear me, this is a lot of stuff to add to an account setup):

Because Goodreads is primarily a site for readers, they want you to select your favorite book genres so they can match you with people with similar interests or recommend books to you. Do that and click Continue:

Skip the ratings page by clicking:

Yay! Now we're finally to your profile (sort of)! Click the big green button:

Now, really quickly, go to your email and verify your account.

APPLYING FOR AN AUTHOR PROFILE IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A BOOK LISTED

Now go to the search bar in the top and type in the title of your book (I'm searching for a random title because Jo Michaels is already claimed and can't be claimed again):

Click on it. Then click on the author name:

You'll see this. Click on "let us know":

Fill it out and click "submit application":

All done! Now, you sit back and wait to be approved!

APPLYING FOR AN AUTHOR PROFILE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A BOOK LISTED

After you have an account for 24 hours, go to the search bar in the top and type in the title of your book (going with something I know isn't published) and hit enter:

If your book isn't listed (and it shouldn't be), click "manually add a book" (for tutorial reasons, I had to go back to my other profile--this one hadn't been active long enough to add a book. You CAN have an established friend go in and add your book):

Fill it out. Goodreads will give you hints and tips on how to fill out the page as you go along. If you don't have an ISBN, go ahead and pop over to CreateSpace, create a new title, and click give me a free ISBN. Use that. Obviously, I won't be adding a non-existent book, but you get the idea. Don't forget to go to the top, right hand side and upload your cover. Once you're done, click "create book":

Wait about 10-15 minutes, then do the steps for applying for an author profile if you already have a book listed as outlined above.

Now, you're ready to rock and roll!

Tomorrow, I'll go through filling out your shiny new author profile that you should have by then, and I'll introduce you to some cool Goodreads features like events, giveaways, and groups.

Any questions?

If you're a SASS member, write your questions down and hang on to them. I'll address your concerns on our call later this week.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

HeadTalker - What it is, How to use it, and Why it's Awesome

Happy Monday, everyone! Today's post is going to be rather long-ish, but you'll want to read all the way to the end. We'll be getting into a new marketing tool called HeadTalker. I'll show you why it's awesome, how to use it, and go into how you can apply it to your current marketing strategy. Ready? Grab those pens and notebooks, and let's get going!

As you're all aware, I'm never paid for anything I talk about here on my blog, and there are no affiliate links. This is why I'm free to speak my mind. I don't owe anyone anything, and no one owes me. Recommendations made here are 100% because I loved the product. Now that I've restated that, we can move on.

I'm gonna start with a big WHAT IS HEADTALKER? snippet.

HeadTalker works like Thunderclap, a social media blasting platform, with more options and more ways to get your message trending. Plus, HeadTalker has some REALLY cool features Thunderclap doesn't.

If you don't know what Thunderclap is, go check out this post.

Please understand, I'm not saying you should use one of these over the other, but HeadTalker is another platform to put firmly in your corner because of the features.

Speaking of, let's get rolling on those, shall we?

Social Media Platforms - There are Four

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Tumblr
• LinkedIN

Campaign Features (this is where it gets really cool)

• Video (book trailer!)
• Share Image (I'd love to see them add design specs to this and the next one)
• Background Image (see comment above)
• Media Embed (images, music, etc...)
• Set Supporter Goal (between 25 and 500 - ANY number)
• Include a Giveaway

I have to be honest, when I saw all the bonus features, I got really excited. I did run an experiment to see just how it worked, and I'll get to that after I show you all the "fill me out" things (which will happen now).

CLICK THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

As you can see, you have a campaign title, message you want to go out, a URL, the place to embed your YouTube video, featured photo and background photo, a category, your story (which you can edit at any time without having to resubmit and will hold things like music and photos), your supporter goal, a start and end date with a time to go live, and a giveaway option.

Now, once approved, you can't change your URL or message. Those are fixed. You'd probably have to delete your campaign and start over.

Anyway, I did a little test to run through the functionality and check out all the features. Here's how I set mine up:

CLICK THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

I also did a $20 giveaway (the minimum, to see just how it worked). One thing I didn't use was the background image option because I wasn't sure what it was and didn't want to muck up the look.

Once my campaign was live, I got a PayPal invoice for $22. HeadTalker takes 10% off the top for handling the giveaway for you. Not too shabby. I put it out there and don't have to worry about it again. For what it's worth, I love simple. *grin*

Now, here are the stats broken down by time:

15 min shot

30 min shot

45 min shot

1 hour shot - Notice I hit my goal of 35

6:56PM

At 10:27PM I got a message that said my HeadTalker was trending and was on the homepage. 

SCORE! After that, this happened!

1:01AM

8:36AM

10:45AM

4:22PM

Today at 11:33AM

As you can see, the numbers are astounding (I'll give a comparison to the other one on Thunderclap in a moment). Now, when I first got the message that my campaign was ready to start gaining supporters, there were a number of links included (this is also pretty fun, so stay with me).

There was a link to the HeadTalker Academy (I highly recommend going through this even if you think you know what you're doing - several tips and tricks there.

Another took me to FAQ (self explanatory, no?).

Still another took me to Success Stories (those were fun and interesting to look through - think of it as a "what works well" class).

But, by far, the most interesting one took me to the HeadTalker Market. This is the place where you can pay others to support your campaigns or have others pay you to support theirs. Now, I don't know about you, but I think this is flipping brilliant. If you can't get the support you need any other way, or if you're serious about making the biggest impression possible and have the cash to lay out there, I don't see limits on your potential reach. Might be better than doing a cash giveaway. Hell, it might be awesome as a passive kind of income, too, if you have a strong social media presence.

So, anyway, for a price (from $1 on up, depending on social reach ability), you can get limitless support for your campaign. I didn't do this, but the option is totally there.

Now for a comparison screenshot of my other campaign. We set this one to go at noon, and HeadTalker to fire at 5PM day of release. This was taken today at 11:33AM.

Is there even a comparison? It's literally crazy, right? Or am I missing something?

What do you think? Will you make the jump from one to the other? Use both? Do you see any downsides?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Hootsuite vs. Buffer

Happy Technology Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! As promised, today I'm talking about digital stuff that'll help you on your way to awesome. It's all about Hootsuite and Buffer, and the pros and cons of using each. So grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

As you all may know, I wrote a post a while back on the benefits of using Buffer to schedule updates to social media. I love this feature! Sadly, I left Buffer for Hootsuite about a year ago. Let me tell you why, and what brought me back to the Buffer family as a paid subscriber. Let me start with links to the services:

BUFFER  ~  HOOTSUITE

When I first began using Buffer, it was still in its infancy. While on the free version, you can connect up to four accounts and schedule something like twelve updates. That worked well for me for a little while, and it was great for someone with a blog in the beginning stages. One of my biggest issues was not being able to choose which image appeared with my posts.

So, I left Buffer for Hootsuite.

Here was this new interface that it took me a minute to learn how to use, but I felt the time spent was well worth it. Hootsuite's free account will allow you to pull feeds from your favorite social media outlets, connect up to three accounts, and schedule your stuff a few days in advance on any timeline you wish. Your number of posts are still limited, but it's comparable to Buffer's. Here's a link to their plan comparison chart.

All good, right?

Everything was perfect until...

My posts refused to go and there was nothing notifying me stuff was down. I struggled with it for over a week. Page views hit rock bottom, less than 200 per day, and I tried to be patient while wondering in the back of my head if it was only my account having issues.

So, I waited.

And I waited.

And I waited.

Then, I pulled my head out of my rear and hit up those social media platforms to ask if I was the only one experiencing issues.

Guess what? You got it. I wasn't the only one! Relief flooded me at the same time panic set in.

What was I going to do?

A moment of clarity hit me between the eyes like a glass brick.

Why don't I see if Buffer will post my updates?

So, I cruised on back to my old friend. What I found there is nothing short of astounding. Not only could I pay a nominal fee (Buffer charges $10 a month for an upgraded account called the Awesome Plan), but that small amount gave me access to: Connecting up to twelve social media accounts (do you really have more than that?), scheduling up to 200 posts in advance, setting up a custom posting schedule for each day, adding a team member who can also schedule posts and stuff, and pulling RSS feeds.

But that's not the best part! In addition to all of the above, I also have access to a world of easy to understand analytic data.

Hootsuite gives you that, too, but it's only available to paid subscribers, whereas Buffer's is free, and Hootsuite's fee is more than I'm willing to put out of my pocket each month. Plus, their data breakdown just isn't this slick.

Take a look at what I'm talking about:

That's just a shot of how my posts performed. But, at the top of the page, there's a little box with a dropdown menu you simply must check out:

Yeah, that's about as easy as it gets! I know exactly which posts are doing well; thereby letting me know what content my readers and followers may want more of.

Quickly! Scroll back up to the top of my blog and look on the right hand side. See that little Buffer button? Yeah, that makes it super easy for my visitors to share my content on their own Buffer. One little click.

How does this save me time?

Glad you asked! When I publish a new blog post, or want to fill my Buffer with posts I've already created, I just navigate to the page and click the share button.

I don't even have to go to the Buffer main page if I don't want to. It's the same for people visiting my blog.

By the way, both of these services have an app you can download from the app store.

Now for a couple of numbers!

With Hootsuite, I got around 1k hits on my blog per day. Not too bad...

With Buffer, I've nearly doubled that number.

You tell me which one you'd rather have.

Now, there are "purists" out there who believe if you're tweeting or posting to Facebook, you should be present. But what author do you know that has the time to devote to being online as often as it takes to be able to do things like that? You can still be personable with an auto update. Plus, you can't really get all that analytic data without something backing you up.

Do you use either of these methods? Let's discuss!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Scheduling and Planning for Maximum Efficiency

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm sharing with you a little tip I read over on The Book Designer. If you aren't familiar with that blog, go check it out right now. Joel is a wealth of information on self publishing, book formatting, book covers, and typography. It's worth your time to browse around.

Anyway, one of the posts last week was about planning your blog posts (they were talking to market a book, I'm talking just planning). I used to do this, and seem to have fallen off the wagon since the move. Actually, everything has kinda been bananas around here since the move, UtopYA, and changing the kids' bus times and stuff around. I've been in headless chicken mode.

Why? Because I didn't take the time to re-schedule my life. To be fair, the kids did just go back to school a couple weeks ago, and I didn't know what time buses would run, etc...

I don't have that excuse anymore.

So, scheduling it is! You all know how much I love schedules. I've written about scheduling your day down to the minute so you're able to be more productive, and there's a post here about scheduling your social networking time so you can hit everything in a week. I even went as far as restructuring my schedule here once I got where I wanted to be search-wise.

That schedule has now been printed off and will be used to create a schedule like the one I shared on ChaBooCha (first link above). I'll also be scheduling in my editing/proofreading on a separate sheet so things are interchangeable when I have a job to do on that end.

Here's hoping.

How about you? Do you schedule like that? Would you like to? What's stopping you?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Monday Morning Musings

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had as fabulous a weekend as I did (though I doubt that's possible). Anyway, moving on! Today, I'd like to talk with you all a little bit about writing; as I so often do here on the blog. It's time for a bit of Monday Morning Musings. What are Monday Morning Musings? Well, it's time to reflect on your weekend and consider new avenues to take your work to the next level of publishing, sales, and other such fun stuff. Ready? Grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

As you're all very aware, I'm a meticulous scheduler. I like to plan my writing day down to the minute. This helps me stay focused (and off Facebook), and allows me to know when I need to call upon the most awesome muse in the world (mine). With that being said, I'm considering changing things up a little. I dominate Google searches for my name now, but that's not enough for me. I want to dominate the world.

Okay, that's going a little far, but you see where I'm headed with this, right?

My social media schedule needs tweaking. I need to drop focus on some things and use the time to aim my dastardly glare in another direction. Let's look at where I was putting my time, shall we?

Monday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post. You should have something integrated so your posts are automatically sent to your social networks when you click publish. I have the buffer button and all I have to do is click it after I post. 20 minutes to schedule posts across all media for the next two days. 10 minutes browsing Twitter and re-tweeting things you find interesting.

Tuesday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post. 10 minutes to answer a single question over on Quora. 10 minutes to share interesting things others post on Facebook. 10 minutes to visit and update your GoodReads page. Make sure you're clicking like on any reviews you've gotten.

Wednesday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post. 20 minutes to schedule posts across all media for the next two days and make sure it's all running smoothly. 10 minutes to record a video you'll use later.

Thursday - 10 minutes to upload video to YouTube. 20-30 minutes for a blog post incorporating said video. 15 minutes to create a Squidoo lens (can be about and incorporate your video as well!). 5 minutes to pin a couple of things over on Pinterest.

Friday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post. 30 minutes scheduling everything to update until Monday and coming up with blog post ideas for the next week and make sure everything is running smoothly.

Saturday - 20 minutes sharing on Facebook. 20 minutes re-tweeting on Twitter. 20 minutes to visit other blogs and pop in a comment or two.

Sunday - 30 minutes sharing on Facebook, 30 minutes re-tweeting on Twitter.

I do all of this between the hours of 8 and 9 am.

But it's just not working for me. So, I give you a new schedule that I think will help me reach more readers alongside the authors I try so hard to help:

Monday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post with an author interview. 10 minutes to schedule posts across all media for the rest of the day. 20 minutes browsing Twitter and re-tweeting things I find interesting.

Tuesday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post. 10 minutes to schedule new posts for the rest of the day. 10 minutes to share interesting things others post on Facebook. 10 minutes to visit and update my Goodreads page if needed.

Wednesday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post with a book review. 20 minutes to schedule posts for the day and post the review to relevant sites. 10 minutes to dink around on Facebook and "like" some status updates, answer people, and share stuff.

Thursday -  20-30 minutes for a blog post with something for another author. 10 minutes to schedule posts for the day and include at least one shoutout for one of my books. 20 minutes to pin a couple of book-related things over on Pinterest.

Friday - 20-30 minutes for a blog post. 10 minutes scheduling everything to update until Monday, coming up with blog post ideas for the next week and make sure everything is running smoothly. 20 minutes to update my Book Reviews magazine on Flipboard (I'm finally up to over 1k readers, yay!).

Saturday - Is my day off. I'll use this day to come up with new story ideas and spend time with my family.

Sunday - Is my day off. I'll use this day to connect on Facebook and Twitter if I want to.

So, this is where I think my time will be better spent now that I'm where I want to be regarding a Google search for my name.

If you don't dominate Google, consider using the first social media schedule for a little while before moving on to the second. Trust me, it works.

What do you think? Do you Google yourself often?

I won't be around tomorrow. Lots to do in my personal life and not a lot of time to do it in. See you all on Wednesday!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo