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emaginings: To Blog or Not To Blog? @LyndiLamont

March 16, 2014 by in category The Romance Journey by Linda Mclaughlin tagged as , , , , , , , ,

To Blog or Not To Blog? That is one question every writer must ponder.

I have a love/hate relationship with blogging. It’s not that I mind doing it, but I resent the time involved that takes me away from writing, and I’m not sure blogging has been worth my while. What I am sure is that I haven’t gone about it in a very systematic or effective way, though I try.

My big project for this year is to launch a new website and blog combining both of my writing names into one site, for easier maintenance. In the meantime, I’m still learning as much as I can about author branding, platforms and the use of blogs.

In January, I read Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World by Kristen Lamb, the well-known blogger and social media maven. The first chapter, The Changing Paradigm, was fascinating. She talks a lot about technological change in general, often quoting from Neil Postman, author of several books, including Technopoly. His contention was that technological change isn’t “addictive or subtractive but ecological”. Advances in technology change everything, including the way humans think, certainly changes the way we talk and write. Hashtags, emoticons, text speak… You all know what I’m talking about, like the changes or not.

Lamb is a big proponent of blogging, and while I value her advice, I’m not sure I can manage to do everything she recommends. But after reading her book, I think I have a better notion of what to do and, perhaps more importantly, what not to do. Some of her advice includes:

Be present on social media, at least some of the time; don’t automate everything.

Your name is your brand; use it in some version. Don’t tweet with a silly handle that no one will recognize.

Be careful what you share, esp. where politics and religion are concerned.

I wish her book had been available eight years ago when I started blogging, but as Kitty Bucholtz said in her time management class, it’s never too late to hit the Restart button. I’m hoping to do better when I get the new, better blog later this year, and I’d love to take a branding class from her some day.

In the meantime I have finally joined Triberr, the “Home of Influencers.” If you’re not familiar with Triberr, it’s a blog amplifier. Bloggers ban together in tribes and tweet each other’s blog posts, giving everyone an enhanced range. Since I joined, my blogs are getting tweeted more often, my page stats have shot up, and I’ve picked up new followers at Twitter. I’m still not getting a lot of comments, but I think that’s somewhat normal. Unless there’s a giveaway or a controversy, people are not inclined to comment a lot, esp. where the dreaded Capcha is involved. Personally, I hate those things. So does Kristen Lamb.

For more information on Triberr and how it interacts with Twitter, check out this post by Kayelle Allen, founder of Marketing For Romance Writers and another Social Media maven:

Blog Titles Matter in Triberr: Tips for Authors by Kayelle Allen #RLFblog #author

So to blog or not to blog? What is your answer. Leave a comment if you can get past the Capcha!

And if social media generally has you befuddled, OCC’s own Elena Dillon will be teaching an online class on Social Media for the Confused and Terrified from April 14 – May 11, 2014. I’m not terrified, but I often find myself confused, so I’ll be taking the class.

Linda McLaughlin / Lyndi Lamont

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emaginings: Blogging Around

January 16, 2013 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , ,

Last month I promised a report on the blog hop and mini-tour I’d planned for my latest release How To Woo… A Reluctant Bride. I ended up doing a second blog hop in January, so will include that also. This is by no means scientific, but just the results of my little experiment. Keep in mind that this was an attempt to revive a blog that had been essentially dormant for several years, so there was little or no base of support to draw from.

Note: I’m only going to discuss sales at Amazon.com since those were the only ones of any size.

The Secret Santa Blog Hop was first, from Mon. Dec. 17 through Thursday Dec. 20. My story was uploaded to Amazon on Dec. 11 and was live by Dec. 12, so the blog hop took place the following week. The grand prize for this blog hop was a Kindle Fire preloaded with a bunch of the participating authors books, including mine. The prize for commenting on my post was a $15.00 gift card, and over the course of the hop + tour, I also gave away two free e-books (winners choice). I got 25 entrants for the gift card. Not bad. The page views during the hop ranged from 66 the first day (some of them me until I figured out I could check comments from the Dashboard) to only 14 on the last day.

I checked my sales on Sunday and again on Thursday and saw I had picked up ten sales. Might have been more if I hadn’t offered e-book giveaways for the mini-blog tour. Someone, I’ve forgotten who, said not to do that. Offer something other than a book so they will buy yours. I think it’s good advice.

Starting on Thursday, Dec. 21, I blogged at several other sites including the main TRS (The Romance Studio) blog on Dec. 21. There were very few comments and I have no idea how many page hits were involved. However, by Monday, Dec. 2 4, I had sold another 15 copies. Again, not too bad when everyone is getting ready for the holidays. By Dec. 29 I was up to a total of 79 copies.

This month I participated in the Something New, Something Naughty Blog Hop from Thu. Jan.  10 through Sun. Jan. 13. Page views ranged from 26 to 42 and I had comments from 27 people. The grand prizes for this hop were gift certificates from EdensFantasy and two other gift cards of the winner’s choice. Again I did the $15.00 gift card giveaway.

I also guested at Louisa Bacio’s blog on Jan. 11 and she told me there were 138 page views. That’s awesome!

By the evening of Jan. 11, my sales for that month at Amazon were up to 102, in addition to the 79 in December. I realize that might not sound like a lot to some of you, but it was more than I expected, so I am happy.

My thoughts:

I liked the blog hop better as there was some camaraderie with the other writers involved and I only had to come up with one blog post for each tour. Writing blog posts can be time consuming. The mini-blog tour (3 days, 4 different blogs) was more stressful as each one had to be different. Next time I will try to plan further ahead to lessen the stress, but this was thrown together very last minute. 

Did the blog hop and mini-blog tour help?

I’ll never be certain, but I can’t imagine it hurt. The objective was to raise my visibility online and I do think that happened. Next time I may do a smaller amount on the gift card giveaway, but this is all a learning process. I’m not sure I recommend doing two blog hops so close together, but with a new release, and at this time of year, I think this was a good move. I would definitely blog hop again and I’m grateful to the writers who organized the hops, namely Tabitha Blake (Secret Santa) and Jennifer Wright and Lisabet Sarai (Something New, Something Naughty) as well as our own Louisa Bacio.

UPDATE: I forgot to add thanks to Tara Lain for her fabulous talk on blog tours at the November OCC meeting, and to my three Yahoo support groups where I learned about self-publishing and discovered organized blog tours: Indie Romance Ink, Authors Network and Marketing For Romance Writers. And a big thanks to Vivienne Westlake, author of A Marquess For Christmas, for doing an excerpt exchange.

Now I have to stop blogging for a bit and work on another story!

Has anyone else tried blog tours or hops? Any thoughts on their effectiveness? 

Linda Mac w/a Lyndi Lamont

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Does Anybody Really Care

December 19, 2012 by in category Archives tagged as , , ,

Mona Karel

In the iconic cartoon strip ‘Peanuts,’ Lucy van Pelt explains how one needs to be careful to hold the bat with the trademark in a certain position so it’s not damaged by the ball.  She maintains that hold on the bat while the pitcher sends one…two…three balls right past her and she’s struck out.  As she leaves the plate, she brags to Charlie Brown “See, I held the bat the right way and it’s fine!”  Poor Charlie Brown.
How often do we feel like Lucy, being so careful to follow every rule of writing.  To Show Not Tell; NEVER Head Hop; ALWAYS identify our speaker. And so on.  Only to find a head hopping sloppily written book is burning up the Amazon sales.
Why?
And why isn’t your perfectly written book selling well?
If I knew the answer I’d be busting all those Amazon sales figures myself.  We could blame luck.  We could blame the fickleness of the reading public.  Or we could take a step back and analyze what people read for.  Except for writers, how many people actually read to critique the written word?  Sure they’ll comment on an author changing their character’s name (or sex!) halfway through the book. But as long as a reader can believe in the requisite HEA the rest is all window dressing.
I’m not suggesting we abandon the rules of grammar. Nor should we blow Point of View out of the water (darnit).  But maybe we who worry about every misplaced participle and perfect use of punctuation need to worry first about the worlds we build, and the people who live in them.  Then we can paint the fences awesome colors and polish the sidewalks until they gleam.
Maybe we need to swing for a bases loaded home run, and risk cracking the bat.

Mona Karel writes books for Monica Stoner and when no one is looking she roll your eyes back in your head from trying to follow the head hopping.

Secret Santa Blog Hop Day TwoBTW, there’s still time to participate in the Secret Santa Blog Hop, and who wouldn’t like to find this guy coming down their chimney? Grand Prize is a Kindle Fire, next is an Amazon gift card, plus a lot of other goodies.  Many of the participants offer individual prizes on their blog.  I’m sharing the secret to home made vanilla extract, complete with pictures, plus other prizes.  That’s at Mona’s Final Secret Santa Blog

You need to head to Tabitha Blake’s to gather up lots of chances for those prizes, and that’s here: Blog Hop Central From Tabitha’s blog you can hop out to the other participants, some of whom are OCC members.

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emaginings: Blog hops and Tours

December 16, 2012 by in category Archives tagged as , , , ,

Tara Lain’s November talk on blog tours inspired me to throw together a last minute combination of blog hop and mini-tour to promote my latest self-published release, How To Woo… A Reluctant Bride.

It all starts tomorrow with the Secret Santa Blog Hop. I won’t be the only OCC member participating. I saw Tara’s name on the list and Beth Yarnell’s and there may be more of us.

Here’s my schedule:

Dec. 17-19, Secret Santa Blog Hop
Dec. 20, Servants of the Muse blog
Dec. 21, The Romance Studio blog
Dec. 22, Love in a Book Reviews

TRS is the prize and I’m not sure how I lucked into a date there at such short notice. Next month I’ll report on how my blog hop/tour worked out.

You can find an example of one of Tara’s blog tours here.

One of the best things about our Orange County Chapter is the way we all support and help each other, and I know we’re all grateful for our wonderful writing community.

Happy Holidays!

Linda McLaughlin aka Lyndi Lamont

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Yes, I’m Blogging About Blogging

September 6, 2011 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston, Writing tagged as , , , ,
by Linda O. Johnston


I’m not sure I’d even heard the word “blog” five years ago. Or maybe I had, but hadn’t imagined I might ever blog myself. I know now that blogs existed before then. But they’ve clearly grown in scope and importance.

And, yes, I realize that blogging is just one part of today’s social media. It’s probably one of the oldest–or not. Apparently Facebook was founded in 2004, and Twitter in 2006. I discovered them more recently, too, though–and I’m still managing to avoid Twitter.
In any event, blogging seems to remain one of the most utilized social media outlets. It has survived for a while and appears to keep growing.

It certainly does in my life.

I’m delighted to blog here on A Slice of Orange on the sixth of each month–a wonderful habit I began at the end of 2007. I’m in excellent company here, considering who the other bloggers are.

Every Wednesday, I blog at KillerHobbies.blogspot.com –the result of the mysteries that I write involving animals. Of course I’m always clear on the fact that pets aren’t hobbies, they’re family. Even so, I enjoy being a Killer Hobbies blogger. I began blogging there in 2007, too–earlier in the year. Once again, I’m in good company!


But that’s not all.

The delightful bloggers at Writers in the Storm–members of OCC–recently invited me to be a frequent guest blogger, mostly about mysteries and how I plot and write them. That’s always a pleasure to think about and describe, so of course I said yes.

At the moment, I’m obsessed by blogging. Why? Well, my second Pet Rescue Mystery, THE MORE THE TERRIER, a Berkley Prime Crime book, will be an October release. So will my next Harlequin Nocturne Bites, HAWK’S CHALLENGE, part of my Alpha Force miniseries about a covert military unit of shapeshifters. My next Bites, COUGAR’S CONQUEST, will be a November release. I’ve been setting up a blog tour to promote all of them. So far, I’ve got about ten blogs scheduled in late September through the end of October, with, I hope, more to come.

I’ll write them all. Each of the blog sites has faithful readers as well as new ones. I can’t wait to connect with every one of them!

I wonder how many blogs actually exist in the cyber universe. How many bloggers there are, and how many readers and followers. I tried to do a search before posting this blog and found a lot of references to sites that count statistics for other sites.

One website, Technorati, links to 1,278,867 blog sites, or it did at the moment I looked at it. I’d imagine there are actually more blogs than that, though.

I’m particularly curious about how many blogs there are by and about writers. If you happen to know, please tell me. I’d also love to hear what your favorites are–and be sure to include A Slice of Orange, Killer Hobbies, and Writers in the Storm.

Feel free to tell me about your own blog. And invite me to guest blog. After all, I’m psyched right now to blog. Bring ‘em on!

Did I mention I’m currently obsessed by blogging?

O? —
Linda O! Johnston
LindaOJohnston.com 
http://killerhobbies.blogspot.com/
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