How to Grow your Blog Platform: Supercharge your Stats

I still remember the first time I saw the numbers. It was an article entitled "How Big Should a Writer's Platform Be?" by agent and social media expert Amanda Luedeke. She wrote:

"The cold, hard truth is that solid author platforms come in the tens or hundreds of thousands.
If you have a website or blog, your monthly unique visitor count should be at least 30,000.
If you have a Twitter account, your followers should be pushing 5,000.
If you have a Facebook page, your followers should be pushing 5,000."

In his post, "7 ways agents measure social media", Thomas Umstattd ups the ante even further with the statement, "Agents and editors really want to see Facebook pages with 10,000+ fans." 

Wow. I remember looking up from my computer screen, equally intimidated and stirred with an odd kind of excitement. I had no social media following whatsoever at the time, but having those numbers in front of me felt strangely motivating.

Up until then, social media had been a mystery to me, something I had little interest in. But suddenly I felt a new clarity. Those numbers looked near impossible from my vantage point, but they were a goal. Something to shoot for. No more stumbling around blindly, frittering away time on social media and wondering in an abstract sort of way if an editor would give my paltry efforts the nod of approval.

Now I knew. I knew the actual stats that an editor or agent would find impressive in a proposal.

I also knew it must be possible, because those figures came from real people.

Today I'll be giving you a list of actionable tips you can use to supercharge your stats.


1. Incent people to follow you
One of the quickest ways I saw growth in my stats is by using Rafflecopter giveaways - you know the ones where you can get extra entries by following your host on Twitter, Facebook, etcetera? Well, they work. Supercharge your growth by partnering with other bloggers to run a giveaway. Not only are you able to offer a more enticing prize when you pool your resources, but the giveaway gets promoted across a series of other blogs, thus multiplying the total number of entrants and followers. Which leads me to my next point...

2. Partner up
Partnerships are the quickest way to grow. Partner with other bloggers to run link parties and blog hops. If you host a link party with a small group of other bloggers, whoever links up at the party is required to follow each of the hosts. It's a great way of cross-sharing your followers and gaining new ones. You could also agree to feature each other on your blogs, with links to follow on social media - it helps each of you to grow your numbers together.

3. Grow your Twitter following
The most organic way to grow your following is to consistently share great tweets that people retweet. This, however, can take a long time before you get anywhere. If you want to give yourself a starting boost, here's the method I used: follow a set number of people each week (I went for 100) and then use the app JustUnfollow to unfollow those who don't follow you back.

Why should you unfollow? Your ratio of how many people you follow to how many are following you says something to anyone checking out your profile. Like it or not, it gives them an impression of whether you're worth following. If you're following 600 people but only 180 follow you back, most people will assume there's a reason for that, and they'll pass you over too. Of course, there'll be some people you want to follow regardless of whether they return the favour, such as "big-name" authors, celebrities or anyone whose content you take a particular interest in. The app allows you to "whitelist" those people so they don't constantly show up on your non-followers list.

A great place to start is to find a blogger in your niche and then follow their followers. You can just work your way through their list. Although a percentage will never follow you back, many will, and if you're consistent you'll begin to see your numbers rise steadily over time.

3. Pinterest Power
Using Pinterest effectively is a whole blog series in itself. 90% of my blog traffic comes via Pinterest - its power as a traffic driver can't be overestimated. For today, I'll share my top tip: get yourself on some group boards, and start sharing your content on them. I have 3,000+ followers on Pinterest, which is respectable but nothing earth-shattering, but the combined following on all my group boards exceeds 500,000. That means even with my modest personal following, I can get my content in front of potentially half a million people each time I write a new post. Powerful, huh?

Try looking up the Pinterest profiles of some bloggers in your niche, and if they are on any group boards (distinguished by the little people icon in the top corner), click on the board and take a look at the header blurb. If they're accepting new contributors, they will usually have guidelines here on how you can apply to join - often it's as simple as leaving a comment on a pin or sending the board owner an email.

I hope these tips give you some practical ideas for increasing your follower numbers. I feel like I'm just skimming the surface of many of these, so any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

This wraps up my series on How to Grow your Blog Platform. 

If you missed any of it, you can find the rest of the posts here:

How to Grow your Blog Platform
Essentials for your Success
Guerilla Facebook Marketing

Karen Schravemade lives in Australia, where she mothers by day and transforms into a fearless blogger by night. Her popular creative home-making blog, A house full of sunshine, reaches over 150,000 readers a month. She's a Genesis finalist for women's fiction and is represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such. Find her on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Pinterest.

Popular Hashtags and How to Use Them Effectively with Edie Melson

freedigitalphotos.net 

Hashtags can be a confusing concept, so today I’m sharing a list of popular hashtags and how to use them effectively.

First, lets back up and evaluate the reason we’re all working at building an online presence. We are looking to deepen existing relationships and build new ones. But building new ones can be difficult if the only people we interact with are those we already know, either online or in person.

We can get a little bit of exposure to new folks by our existing connections introducing us, but that’s a time consuming way to go about it.

What if there was a way for someone to search a given social media network by topic and find new, interesting people to interact with? That would be a great way to grow our connections.

THAT, in the simplest of terms, is the purpose of using hashtags.

When you compose a social media update that includes one or two hashtags that summarize the topic, you are giving folks a way to find you.

For example, I’m working on a new series of Steampunk novels. Because of that, targeting a specific type of reader—one who reads Steampunk. I find those readers within the larger group of people who read science fiction (ABA – secular) or speculative fiction (CBA – Christian).

Here’s a sample tweet I might send out, targeted at those specific readers: 

Step-by-step instructions to help you turn a plain top hat into a #Steampunk masterpiece! Via @EdieMelson http://bit.ly/HoGs3w #Specfic

Let’s break down how I composed this update. I know that the Steampunk community loves to create costumes. So I’m giving them information they’d find useful and interesting.

•     I used #Steampunk so that anyone searching Twitter for others who are interested in this genre can find me.

•     I also included @EdieMelson, because on Twitter, that is a clickable link that takes them directly to my Twitter page.

•     Finally I used #specfic, because that’s the hashtag for speculative fiction to pull in readers who might find this interesting.

•     If I was targeting the general market reader, instead of #specfic, I would have used #scifi.

NOTE: Use # (hashtags) to denote a subject, and use @ (at sign) to denote a person or organization. With organizations, you’ll find some that hashtag their names and others use the @ sign.

Twitter isn’t the only social media network that has hashtags. You can use hashtags in the same manner on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram.

Hashtag Etiquette

Try to never use more than three hashtags in any one tweet. If you can make it two that’s even better. Otherwise you end up looking like a used car sales man. If you’re trying to reach more groups, schedule multiple tweets, at different times, about the same subject and target your groups two at a time.

Always research your hashtag before you use it. Never assume it’s the correct one. For example, I was targeting military families with tweets about my devotional for military families and I thought #military would be the logical hashtag. No, turns out that hashtag is frequently used by those trying to date someone in the military. Not really the demographic I was trying to reach. The hashtag I wanted was #militaryfamily and #deployment. The best place to research hashtags is also the easiest, just type it into Google or the search engine of your choice.

Now, I’m going to give you an updated list of popular hashtags. 

freedigitalphotos.net 

This list is extensive, but by no means exhaustive

For readers, the most popular hashtag right now is:

#amreading

For writers, there are two popular hashtags right now:

#amwriting

#write

If you’re editing something:

#amediting

If you’re quoting a literary agent:

#askagent

#author


#authors

#Christian


#Christfic Christian fiction

#devo Christian devotion

#devotion Christian devotion

#ebooks

#editing

#editmark


#fictionfriday


#flashfic flash fiction

#freebooks

#freelancelife

#freelancewriter

#fridayflash  flash fiction on a Friday


#Goodreads

#Indiauthor self-publishing

#Indiepub self-publishing

#Kindlebooks

#kindlefree

#Kindle_promo

#JesusTweeters from believers

#MBTWriMo My Book Therapy NaNoWriMo 

#microfiction

#MyBookTherapy writing community

#nano national novel writing month

#nanowrimo  national novel writing month


#novels


#novelists


#poem


#poet


#poets


#poetry


#pubtip  publication tips


#publishing


#reading

#scifi


#selfpublishing


#socialmedia

#socialnetworking

#specfic

#suspense

#twitter

#vss   very short story


#webfic  web fiction


#weblit   web literature


#wip   work in progress


#womensfic

#womensfiction

#wordcount


#writegoal


#writequote


#writer


#writers

#writetip  writing advice


#writing


#writingtips  writing advice

#wrotetoday


All of these should help you find the hashtags best suited to your situation.

I’d love to hear from you now. Twitter is ever-changing and hashtags come and they go. What are some of your favorites? Also, if you still have hashtag questions, post them below in the comments section.

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Edie’s an author, freelance writer and editor. She’s the co-director of the Blue RidgeMountains Christian Writers Conference, Social Media Mentor at My Book Therapy, and Social Media Director for Southern Writer’s Magazine, as well as the Senior Editor for Novel Rocket. Visit her on her blog, Twitter, andFacebook.

Social Media Etiquette by Edie Melson

The social media universe has developed into a world with it’s own ways of interacting, and its own rules of social media etiquette. Stumbling around this brave new world is exciting, but it can also lead to some embarrassing moments. Today I’ll share some tips to help you acclimate to this new online society.

Facebook

When to LIKE , COMMENT or SHARE on Facebook: When you read a post on Facebook you have three options if you want to interact. 

The First is to LIKE the post. When you click on LIKE, Facebook will register your user name and the fact you liked it. This carries more weight with the Facebook EdgeRank Algorithm than just viewing the post, but not as much as commenting.

The second option is to COMMENT. This carries the most weight with Facebook and will give you the most engagement with others seeing the post. BUT, and this is an important consideration, it will also include you in all subsequent conversations. This means that if you get email notifications on Facebook, every time someone else comments on this post, you’ll get an email about it. If it’s a popular post, that can mean twenty or more emails in your inbox. So think carefully before you comment.

NOTE: You can opt out of a conversation (what Facebook calls post interaction). But if you choose to do that, everyone in the conversation will be notified that you opted out. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s always good to know.

The final option is to SHARE a post on Facebook. This takes a copy of the post and pastes it on your page. When Facebook pastes the post, it gives you the option of deleting the name of the person you got the post from. Doing so is bad form. Not quite as bad as plagiarism, but it is in the neighborhood.

·       So LIKE a post, when you want to let people know you agree or enjoyed it.

·       COMMENT if you don’t mind becoming part of the ongoing conversation.

·       SHARE a post, always giving credit to the original poster. 

When to Hide a post, Hide a person, or just UNFRIEND them: 

HIDING a post will make that particular update disappear from your timeline.

Hiding a person can keep that person’s updates from showing up on your timeline. This is a good option if you don’t want to offend someone.

NOTE: To do either of these, click on the gray arrow on the upper right of the specific post

UNFRIENDING someone basically says you don’t want to have any interaction with that person. Depending on how many friends you have, this may be noticeable, especially if you interact regularly at work or socially. 

NOTE: To do this, you’ll need to visit their FB page, hover over the FRIEND button and choose UNFRIEND from the drop-down menu that appears

·       So HIDE someone who’s annoying.

·       UNFRIEND someone you don’t mind alienating. 

http://www.libertynews.com/2013/07/ifieverseezimmerman-trends-on-twitter-as-violence-spews-into-the-streets/

Twitter

When to RETWEET and when to REPLY: There are two ways to answer someone on Twitter, RETWEET and REPLY. And there are specific times to use each one.

A RETWEET, is a repeat of the tweet sent. This is used when you want to share a tweet with your followers. For instance, if I saw a tweet about how to avoid getting embarrassed on Twitter, I’d retweet it to my followers so they could learn too. I also use it to share good news about others.

A REPLY, is an answer to a tweet that’s been sent. This is used if someone asks you a question on Twitter. It’s also used when someone else mentions you on Twitter. It’s a way of saying thank you. It’s considered a very bad instance of bragging to retweet a mention of yourself. For instance if someone tweeted about this post, I’d REPLY and say thank you.

·       So RETWEET if you see an update you want to pass on to your followers.

·       REPLY when someone mentions you or asks a question.

Social Media in General

When is it acceptable to HOG THE STREAM? The short answer is …NEVER! Hogging or Spamming the stream, means posting several social media updates in a row. This can be on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. You can do this inadvertently by engaging the AUTOMATIC updates available on some ancillary programs like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or Buffer.

This option of automatic updates claims to identify when the largest amount of your followers are engaging on social media and update at that time. Unfortunately this can often result in multiple updates sent one right after another. This can leave you labeled as an irritation or even banned from certain networks. I recommend you avoid any automatic scheduling options to avoid this.

So schedule the times when you send out your social media updates and don’t post them one after another. Spread them out.

·       First, so you don’t irritate anyone by Hogging the Stream.

·       Second, so you reach people who are on at different times of the day. 

These are just a few of the worst blunders for social media. I’d like to know what social media faux pas you’ve seen and which ones irritate you the most.

Bio: Edie Melson is the author of four books, with two more due out January 2013. Her popular blog, The Write Conversation, reaches thousands of writers each month, and she’s the co-director of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. Her bestselling ebook on social media has just been updated and re-released as Connections: Social Media and Networking Techniques for Writers. She’s the Social Media Mentor at My Book Therapy and the social media director for Southern Writers Magazine. She’s also the Senior Editor at Novel Rocket. You can connect with Edie through Twitter and Facebook.

Free Self-Control: Download Here!

Top Apps to block internet distractions for writers

How many times do your mornings go like this?

You sit down to write just KNOWING it’s going to be a productive session. You crack your knuckles, stare at the screen, and think to yourself, I’ll just check my email first. After all, everyone needs a bit of a mental warm-up before diving in to the real work, and it’ll only take a minute.

So you check your email, tap out some overdue replies, watch the YouTube clip someone forwarded you, read the cool article on writing that’s landed in your RSS feed, follow the link at the bottom that leads you to another pertinent article, browse the comments section, and compose a quick tweet to share your findings. While you’re there you notice you have some new Twitter followers you need to follow-back. You work your way through the list, reading profiles and retweeting the best quotes you come across. Some of them are really good. Might as well update your Facebook status while you’re at it. The next thing you know you look up from browsing photos of your second-cousin’s friend’s daughter’s wedding on Facebook and realize three hours have passed.

Oops.

 

Haven’t you ever wished you could download some self-control at the click of a button? The good news is… you can. In this age of technology and distraction, many of us struggle with limiting the hold of the internet over our time. But technology itself might just be our saving grace.

Here’s a roundup of the best free apps I’ve found to help writers manage their time online. Click on the links to explore further.

1. Self Control (Mac only)

This is one I’ve been using for a while. Its genius is in its simplicity. If you’re sitting down to write for a 2-hour block and wish to remain focussed and productive that entire time, simply set your self-control timer for 2 hours. For that length of time, you will not be able to access any sites you’ve blacklisted – Facebook, email, Twitter, or any other time-suckers individual to you. I also blacklist some of my favorite writing blogs. Meanwhile, you can still access the rest of the web for research purposes – brilliant! Once started, the block cannot be undone until the timer runs out, even if you restart your computer.

2. Focus booster

This app is based on the popular “Pomodoro” technique which argues that the greatest productivity occurs by tackling tasks in 25-minute intervals, followed by a 5-minute break.

Focus booster will run a timer at intervals set by you, with a buzzer sounding at the end of a completed session. The color of the bar changes as your time lapses, giving you a constant unobtrusive nudge to stay productive.

3. Rescue Time

Many of us spend the majority of our time on the things that are least important to us. You may think you don’t have time to write, but have you ever wondered how much time you waste on the internet? This free app will track and analyse how you spend your time on the web, including on mobile apps, and rank your productivity accordingly. Knowledge is power! Find out how much spare time you REALLY have.

4. Stay Focused (Requires Google Chrome)

The next step, once you’ve discovered how much time you really are wasting online, is to restrict the time you spend on non-productive tasks. Let’s say you want to spend no more than 15 minutes on Facebook each day. With this app you can set a time limit, and once you’ve used up your allotted time, the sites you’ve selected will be blocked for the rest of the day.

You can also set this app to block time-waster sites at a specific time each day. Say you decide you want to write from 9-11am each morning, or 8-10pm each night. You can preset this app to block sites at those exact times. Genius!

5. Concentrate (Mac only)

Okay, so this one’s not free. I think it’s worth a mention anyway.

Concentrate costs $29, but is more customizable than any other app I’ve encountered in my research, and comes highly recommended. This app allows you to tailor a series of actions to run every time you wish to concentrate on a task. You can set your writing document to open, distracting sites to be blocked, your Skype and iChat status to be set as away, even your desktop picture to change – and much more – all at the click of a button.

So that’s it from me. Have you tried any of these apps? Any others you’d add to the list? If you decide to try one of these for the first time, let us know how you go. Wishing you productive and distraction-free writing!

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalpPhotos.net

Karen Schravemade lives in Australia. When she's not chasing after two small boys or gazing at her brand-new baby girl, she spends her spare minutes daydreaming about the intricate lives of characters who don't actually exist. Find her on her website, on Twitter or getting creative over at her mummy blog.

How Do I Network Without Being Obnoxious?

We hear about networking all the time as writers. It’s become the holy grail, the answer to everything. Want a job? Network. Want to promote your book? Network. Want friends? Network. We have social network accounts on everything from Goodreads to Pinterest.

But how do we know how far is too far? And do you ever feel like you’re being manipulative, starting new friendships with the hope of later selling those people a book?

I think it’s important to remember that networking really boils down to relationship. And all of our relationships should be God-honoring, even if they are purposeful. Is it okay to reach out to someone with the hope they will become a future reader? Sure! Think of book signings, for example. You wouldn’t invite a random person from a book signing to your house for dinner afterwards. There’s an appropriate boundary there. The key is that you don’t use (or abuse) that relationship out of its appropriate boundary.

When I think I networking, I can’t help but think of Colleen Coble because she’s such a superstar at it. In fact, most of you have probably been touched by Colleen in some way yourselves. I know I have. In addition to being so involved in helping others through ACFW, Colleen absolutely loves the folks at her publishing house. She sends them birthday cards and goes to visit them, creating a partnership. Is she being sneaky by being an easy person to work with? Of course not. She’s simply building a relationship with them, and she’s very good at that.

So how do you build relationships without coming across as pushy?

1) Show respect. We’ve all seen that person chasing agents around a conference, waving around a stack of one sheets and yelling, "You'll call me, right?" Don’t be that person. But this also applies to other relationships as well. Treat others as you would want them to treat you. Show genuine concern and investment in their lives, even if your paths only intersect for a moment.

2) Be yourself. This is very scary to do, but you can’t successfully network if you don’t put yourself out there. Some people aren’t going to like the vibe you give off. That's okay. But keep being yourself because when you do connect with people who are a good fit for you, it’ll be a more dynamic relationship.

3) Be honest. Think about the people on Facebook and Twitter who you enjoy following. What kinds of things do they post? With me, I enjoy reading updates from people like Jenny B. Jones because she always makes me laugh. What Idon't like is when people use social networking as a constant opportunity to promote their book. We want to get to know you. Otherwise we'd just read a book jacket. It's okay to say you haven't dusted the ceiling fans in eight months or that you just accidentally ate an entire bag of Peppermint Patties. These things are endearing, really.

4) Go the extra mile, whether it’s literally—to a conference; or figuratively—by putting forth effort to appreciate the other person. Again, you don't want to do this for ill reasons, but you do want to take time to appreciate those you are in relationship with, whether it be readers, mentors, editors, or friends. A relationship that is strictly "take" isn't really a relationship at all, because true relationship necessitates give and take.

5) Be available. If you're at a conference, walk around the hallways where the people are. If you're in your living room, reach out to others on Twitter and Facebook, and comment on blogs. Never burn bridges, so to speak. You can't network if you don't make yourself available and friendly to begin with.

6) Realize you don't have to connect with everyone. So often, people avoid networking because it overwhelms them. They think, "You want to me to connect with how many people? Do you have any idea how shy I am?" But the thing is, that's the beauty of networking as relationship. You just have to be yourself. Yes, you might have to step out of your comfort zone a little if you're shy, but you can adapt your methods of networking according to your personality, so that maybe you focus more on internet relationships rather than face-to-face or phone-based relationships. Customize your approach to what works best for you.

What do you think? Have you ever cringed at the idea of networking? Can you think of anyone who networks well? What have they done to make you feel that way about them?

*Image from http://mrazz.deviantart.com/art/Social-Cup-anyone-153448985?q=1&qo=1

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Ashley Clark writes romantic comedy with southern grace. She's dreamed of being a writer ever since the thumbprint-cookie-days of library story time. Ashley has an M.A. in English and enjoys teaching literature courses at her local university. She's an active member of ACFW and runs their newcomer's loop. When she's not writing, Ashley's usually busy rescuing stray animals and finding charming new towns. You can find Ashley on her personal blog and herTumblr. She's also on Facebook and Twitter. She is represented by Karen Solem.

Managing the Blog Madness Without Going Mad

We've all read somewhere that we should be blogging, right? And so like the good little children we are, we created our beautiful blogs or websites and wrote posts filled with inspiration, humor, and of course, wisdom.

Then somewhere along the line, we realized we needed friends to actually read our outbursts of brilliance. So we proceeded to read up on how to increase our blog traffic, which opened a whole new world of must-do's. You know how it goes...Visit other blogs, comment on them, then revisit them, then comment on them again, then sacrifice your firstborn. Er, something like that.

Now I'm being sort of snarky here, and in all honesty, I love all the friends I've made through blogging and would sacrifice my firstborn for them...My firstborn being Finny the fish, of course. But we can all relate to this time struggle, right?

Jody Hedlund addressed this topic on her blog recently and had some great thoughts, one of which was the importance of prioritizing interactions. So I wanted to share one trick I've found to do this, particularly in the world of blogging. But to better appreciate it, I want to show you my former life.

Here's the typical scenario. I get up at 6:30, do my morning time with God while eating breakfast, then cram in as much email and blog visits as I can before my kids get up and eat breakfast at 8:00. After that, I turn on Mickey Mouse and let my kids veg until lunch so I can finish reading more blog posts. Then I slap some PB&J together and put the kids down for naps, during which point I read more blog posts, make more comments, and wonder where my actual writing time went.

Can you relate?

Now, picture this scenario. During my morning cram session of email and blogging, I do this. I open up my dashboard and Twitter account in a separate internet window. Then I do a quick scroll through the blog roll, right clicking on the posts that are of interest or high priority, and select "Open in new tab".

Important note: I do not read the posts at this point.

Then I skim through Twitter and do the same thing. All new tabs. When I'm finished, I may have 10 tabs open or 50 tabs open, depending on the day.

Here's how the rest of my day progresses. If I'm home with the kiddos, I take those short snippets of time while my son is crashing hotwheels together and I read one of the tabs, comment, then click the X. One down, 9 to go. I continue to do this throughout the day so that by naptime, if the stars align, I can write.

Here's another scenario. Say I don't have kids at home, and I have a full day to devote to writing. (Did I say "scenario"? I meant to say "in my dreams".) So I spend my day like this: Focused writing for 45 minutes, then a 15 minute break which may include getting up and stretching, grabbing a snack, and visiting a few of those blogs I'd opened earlier.

See how easy that was? Focused time. By opening all the items of interest at the start of my day, I can more easily budget my time and sneak in my blog reading in little snippets. And it helps me avoid getting sucked into my blog roll or my Twitter account for five hours straight and never leaving. If my list of must-reads is ridiculously long on a given day, I copy the links into an email and save them for another day.

How do you manage the blog madness? Any tips or tools to share that can save someone else time in the blogsophere?

*Blog & Hourglass photos by Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

**Sandwich photo by Rawich / FreeDigitalPhotos.net