The Life Cycle of a Blogger - Ten Stages

Photo by Bill Stilwell

So lately there have been a lot of posts about blogging fatigue, twitter promotion overload (here and here), and the state of blogging in general. Also, many bloggers seem to have hit the overwhelmed point and are either thinking of stopping altogether or doing some major readjusting. And as I read through these posts, I often found myself nodding my head because I share many of the sentiments.

I've been blogging for almost 2.5 years now and have been on twitter about a year and a half. That's a lot of posts (both writing and reading.) And there are some days where it's still totally fresh and exciting; there are others where I want to crawl in a cave and forget all of it. There are also days where I find myself rolling my eyes at the constant promotion some people do or the same topics for blogs getting recycled over and over again.

But I realized as I was reading everyone's posts that many of us are in a certain stage of our blogging careers. When you've done something for years, there are bound to be points where you feel burnt out or annoyed or totally overwhelmed. And you may vacillate back and forth between those stages.

But for those of us who maybe have hit the cynical stage, we need to remember that every day there are new writers and new bloggers entering the blogosphere. It's all new to them. So a post on not using adverbs may be the hundredth one you've seen, but it may be another writer's first. And it will be an epiphany for them.

It's kind of like high school. When you're a senior, you look at the freshman and think--wow, I can't believe they're getting excited over that. But when YOU were a freshman, you had that same enthusiasm because it was new to you.

So I think it's important to recognize that, like anything else, blogging/social networking is a cycle. We're going to find ourselves in different parts of it at different times.

The Life Cycle of a Blogger - 10 Stages

Image via Daily HaHa

1. Bright, shiny newness. 
OMG, look at all this information that's out there for FREE!!! And look at all these cool people who want to be writers too! I must follow everyone I meet and we're all going to be BFFs and I'll comment on all of my friends posts because I want to be supportive and want them to comment on mine. And this is going to be amazing!

Photo by Rollan Budi

2. People are following me! I must be a totally killer, kickass blogger.
I must blog every day because people will wonder what happened to me otherwise and they won't be able to function in their day if they don't hear from me. They like me, they really like me.

3. Lucy in the candy factory.
Wow, it sure takes a lot of time to answer every comment and to visit every blog in my blog roll and leave a comment for them. And boy, my twitter feed is scrolling by at the speed of a CNN ticker. And crap, I need to write an apology post for not being a great blog friend and must promise to do better! *stares at unfinished manuscript*

Photo via Alex E. Proimos

4. Breaking down.
I need to take a blog vacation or an unplugged week or go to Mexico for a month because I'm not getting anything done and there's all this PRESSURE to blog and build my platform.

Photo by Nate Steiner

5. AHHH! Panic
Oh no, my Klout score has dropped and my follower numbers have stagnated. I'm barely getting comments! I must get back on the wagon because I must build my platform. But I don't know what to blog about anymore. I'm out of ideas. What am I going to do?

Photo by joseloya

6. Mania
I can do it all. Of course I can. I can be a parent and a spouse and a blogger and a writer and keep a clean house and pay my bills. Oh yeah, and write books and get published, because that was the point in the first place, right?

 

photo via BaileyRaeWeaver

7. Screw it All
I'm quitting. Blogging doesn't sell books anyway--especially ones I don't have time to write--so why bother? I need to dedicate my life to my art and writing alone. I need no one! No one I tell you!

Photo by Mr. T in DC

8. Reinvention/Streamlining
Okay, so maybe I do need someone. I miss my writer buddies. I'm going to redo my blog schedule. I'm going to take the pressure off myself. I'm going to talk about things that excite me. I'm going to stop apologizing for not being the "perfect" blogger or blogging friend.

Photo by Tim Pierce

9. Fatigue with a dash of cynicism
Why are the same posts being re-written over and over again. It's all been said before. And would people just stop freaking tweeting about their books and promoting themselves non-stop?! I want to stab everyone with a fork. My online world sounds like blah blah blah white noise.

Photo by Scarleth White

10. Finding the sweet spot 
I'm only going to do the online things I enjoy. I'm only going to read/interact/participate in the things I have time for and like doing. There are always people coming up with fresh content, I just have to be open to looking in new places. There is always something new to learn and a new friend to make.

I have to say I've probably stopped in at each of these stages at some point. I hang out at 6, 8, and 9 a little too often probably. :)

So how about you? Do you recognize yourself in any of these stages? Where are you at right now? Have any stages to add?

Tweet

---

"Revved up and red-hot sexy, CRASH INTO YOU, delivers a riveting romance!" --Lorelei James, NY Times Bestselling author of the ROUGH RIDERS series

CRASH INTO YOU is now available for pre-order!

Read an excerpt here.

---

All content copyright of the author. Please ask permission before re-printing or re-posting. Fair use quotations and links do no require prior consent of the author. ©Roni Loren 2009-2011 |Copyright Statement|

Five Ways To Guard Your Brand

So last week I got a lovely invitation from a friend of a friend to join Triberr (called the reach multiplier). Basically what happens with this service is you get invited to join a tribe of other bloggers (it's by invite only right now). If you accept, then what you agree to is that anytime one of your tribesmates blogs, a link to their blog is automatically tweeted by all member of the tribe. In return, you get the same treatment, you blog and your link autotweets from every one in your tribe's twitter accounts. The idea behind it is that you get exposed to lots more people and your reach is thereby amplified.

Sounds cool, right? And it is. But as I dug into exactly what it all meant, my control freak side took over. Did I really want to auto-tweet twenty-something different peoples blog links without really knowing them? What if they didn't blog content that I liked or that was relevant to those who follow me on Twitter?

I put out the question on Twitter to see if anyone had experience with Triberr and guess who tweets me back? One of the founders of Triberr (oh, the power of following keywords on Twitter). But guess what he told me? That I shouldn't use Triberr. He also sent a link to this post: Why You Shouldn't Be on Triberr

It seemed a little odd that the owner would try to talk me out of joining, but I realized why. One of his reasons the service may not be for you is: Your Twitter Stream Is Your Brand

Well, bingo. That's exactly why I was hesitant.

Everything I put out on the internet (whether I intend it or not) is part of my "brand."

The things I retweet on Twitter aren't haphazard.

I'm tweeting it because I: a) read it b) enjoyed it or found it informative and c) think my followers would appreciate it.

I do that because I want the people who follow me to trust that I am going to give them good content. (Well, in between my ramblings.) They (hopefully) know if I tweet or retweet a link that it has a high chance of being something worth clicking on.

Your brand is the promise you make to those that follow you

--whether that be on your blog, facebook, twitter, and your books for that matter. For instance, I know if Elizabeth Craig retweets something, it's often going to be something I find useful because she's proven to me that her content is consistently great. If she started tweeting random posts that weren't worth my time, she'd lose some of my "trust." I know if erotica author Tiffany Reisz tweets a link, there's a sixty percent chance it will involve nudity, lol. So of course I always click on hers. ;)

So don't be afraid to be protective of your brand. Sometimes it can feel like you're being snobby or something, but it's vital to keep your arms around it. For instance, I get many requests from people to read their book and feature it or them on the blog. For the record, I don't do reviews anymore anyway. But I've had to learn to say no a lot, which goes against my nature. I want to help people out. But if I don't know you or your writing (and don't have time to read it), I'm not going to feature you on my blog and let it look like an endorsement.

See it sounds stuck-up, doesn't it? But it's the promise I've made to you. If a book or author is featured here, it means that I either have read the book and loved it. Or I know the author and am familiar with the quality of their writing and their guest posts, etc. That's why I handpicked the Monday genre guests. I knew those ladies rocked at blogging, so I felt comfortable (and honored) to have them be a part of my blog.

So here are some suggestions...

Five Ways to Protect Your Brand

1. Don't accept every offer people give you to guest blog on your site.

Make sure you like their blog and know that they can provide something your readers will enjoy.

2. Don't accept every "free book" offered to you in exchange for featuring that author on your blog.

With the onslaught of self-publishing, there are a lot of people looking for places to be guests. They will offer you a free book in exchange for the promotion. That's cool. But what happens if you don't like the book or don't have time to read it? Vet it before you promote it to your readers.

3. Don't give 5-star reviews to all your friends on Goodreads and Amazon simply because they are your friend. 

If you really love the book, then great. But just agreeing to give a perfect review just because you're BFFs will teach people not to trust your reviews. (If you do reviews.)

4. Don't auto-tweet things you haven't looked at first and don't only tweet your friends posts just to be nice.

I don't expect my friends to retweet me just because we're buddies. I only want to be retweeted if the post is worth it.

5. Be very careful with group blogs.

There are many awesome group blogs out there. But be careful when deciding to join or start one. You need to know absolutely that the people you are blogging with are going to be a fit with what you want associated with you. This is why my group Tumblr blog lasted about, oh, five seconds before I went on my own. (Kristen Lamb would also argue that group blogs aren't effective because no one remembers the individual bloggers' names.)

So what do you think? Do you feel there is an inherent "brand" trust between people and their followers? How do you feel about services like Triberr? Has any blogger/tweeter ever lost your "follower trust"? Have you found yourself saying yes to feature people or books that may not fit on your blog?

Tweet

Five Promotion Tips for the Shy Writer by Lindsey Bell

For those of you who don't know, next week is the Romance Writers of America (RWA) Conference in NYC. This is the biggie, the grand poo-bah, the conference we romance writers start countdowns for the minute the last one ends. It's basically four days of non-stop awesomeness--workshops, book signings, parties, and best of all hanging out with writers/industry professionals from all around the world.

If you've never been and you write anything with a romantic thread (including you YA-ers), you should make a point to get to this conference one year. 

So anyway, this means that next week I will be too busy to blog. (Though I will be tweeting from the conference, so be sure to tune into that.) 

But since I won't be around, I've hooked you up with a week's worth of awesome guest bloggers. Yay! And I'm actually starting the guest blogging a little early. The fabulous Lindsey Bell sent me this post and I told her I had to put it up early because for those of you going to the conference (or any place where you'll have to pitch or promote yourself). This is great advice. 

So take it away, Lindsey...

How to Promote When You’re Too Shy to Promote

by Lindsey Bell

If there’s one thing you need to know about me, it’s this: I’m shy. I’m an introvert at my core. Public speaking makes me nervous. Talking to editors intimidates me. My voice even gets shaky when I talk to other authors. I guess there’s a part of me that still wonders if my writing is any good. You’d think getting published would alleviate these fears, but for me, it hasn’t. I’m still shy. But…I’m learning to manage it.

Last fall, I did something I’ve avoided for years. I pitched my book to several editors and agents at a writing conference. Yes, I was petrified. Yes, I was drenched in sweat by the time the pitches were over. (Seriously, I should have brought an extra shirt.) But it was worth it. I met my agent at one of those pitch sessions, and we’ve been working together for the past six months to get my manuscript polished and submitted.

As a writer who has finally learned how to manage shyness, I feel obliged to pass along some tips to other nervous writers.

1. Dress the part. I try to wear professional-looking outfits when I talk with editors, agents, or other authors. I’m telling you, it works. Just as wearing a fancy new dress makes you feel pretty, wearing a professional outfit makes you feel like a professional (even when everything inside of you is screaming that you’re not).
2. Come prepared. When you go to a writing conference and plan to promote your work, be prepared. Bring your book proposal and sample chapters. (In fact, I’d bring several copies of your proposal, just in case you run into another editor who likes your work). You should also bring business cards.
3. Perfect your pitch. The pitch should be a couple of sentences long and include the title, theme, and basic story line of your book. Once you’ve written your pitch, practice it. Have it so well memorized that you can say it without even really thinking about it.
4. Remember that they are people too. Editors, agents, and other authors are just like you. Try to take them off the pedestal and view them as normal human beings. It’s also helpful to remember that they are rooting for you. They want you to succeed.
5. Believe in yourself. So what if you’re a first-time author? So what if you are young . . . or old . . . or whatever thing you think makes you less qualified? Believe in your writing, and believe in yourself. Because when you do, you’re a lot more likely to find someone else who will believe in you as well. J

Good luck, and happy pitching!

Lindsey Bell is a nonfiction author, stay-at-home mother, wife, and blogger. She is working with the Blythe Daniel Agency to find a publisher for her parenting book entitled “Searching for Sanity.” When she’s not writing or chasing after her two-year-old son, Rylan, she’s likely spending time with her husband, Keith. Or then again, she might be taking a nap.

Contact Information:

Author Blog:

www.lindsey-bell.blogspot.com

Miscarriage Blog:

www.livingwholeagain.blogspot.com

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/AuthorLindseyBell

Twitter:

http://twitter.com/LindseyMBell

Thanks so much, Lindsey!

 So are you shy like me and Lindsey? Does the idea of pitching make you want to curl into the fetal position? What things have helped you get through conferences or pitch sessions? And who is going to be at RWA next week?

Tweet All content copyright of the author. Please ask permission before re-printing or re-posting. Fair use quotations and links do no require prior consent of the author. ©Roni Loren |Copyright Statement|

Twelve Ways To Scare Away Twitter Followers

Photo by Capture Queen (cc)

I heart Twitter. It took me a little while to get the hang of it, but now I'm addicted. I barely even remember that Facebook exists. I think Twitter is a far superior networking tool and makes it way easier to meet/chat with friends and promote whatever you need to promote. The power of the retweet is amazing. So, if you're not on there yet, get thee to Twitter.

However, as with anything else, there are ways to do it and ways NOT to do it. For instance, when people follow me, I like to follow them back. However, sometimes people make this exceptionally difficult to do. So please, if you are on Twitter or join up, don't do these things if you want to be followed.

Ways to Scare Away Twitter Followers

1. Protect Your Tweets
Yes, I'm sure some people have good reasons for making their Twitter stream secretive. However, if I can't see what you tweet about, I'm not following you. Sorry.

2. Promote Your Book/Program/Website/Whatever NONSTOP
OMG. So many people do this and I have no idea what they are thinking. Do not be an infomercial. It's fine to mention that you have a book releasing or pimp your blog post for the day. But when every tweet is Check out my book! Read an excerpt! Ten percent off my book! etc. you will drive people away.

3. Only Tweet Inspirational Quotes
I'm not following you to get Hallmark card vomit all day. Stop with your sunshine and rainbows!

4. Never Interact With Anyone (One-Way Tweeters)
This is equivalent to standing in the middle of a party and only announcing things about yourself and not paying attention to anyone else. Twitter is about conversation and interaction.

5. Don't Put Anything in the About You section
If I go to your site and you have NOTHING about yourself, I'm not following. I need to know what our commonality is. Are you a mom/writer/NKOTB fanatic? Who are you?

6. Don't Ever Respond to @ Messages
When people take the time to comment on something you said or retweet you, reach out and tweet that person back. You aren't Ashton Kutcher, you have time to do that.

7. DM (direct message) me right after I follow you to do #2 (no, not THAT number two, the one above)
Nothing will make me unfollow you quicker than if you send me a message right after I sign up to follow: "Hey, thanks for the follow. Check out my new book at lame website dot com."

8. Only Tweet When You Want To Promote Yourself, then Disappear
I see a lot of people do this. They've been told they "should" be on Twitter as an author. (And you should be.) But then they ONLY get on to do that promotion with a drive-by tweet. My book is releasing today! Woot! Then you don't see another tweet from them for a month.

9. Use the words "motivational", "entrepreneur", or "coach" (unless it's of a sport) in any way, shape or form to describe yourself.
All I hear with those words is "unemployed".

10. Be negative, hateful, or rude.
This one's obvious, but I see a lot of people go the negative route. They may not be rude, but they spend all their Twitter time bitching and bellyaching. It's okay sometimes, but if that's all you tweet about, it gets old fast.

11. Follow anyone and everyone just to get people to follow you back. Who can really follow the tweets of 35k people?
If someone is following super high numbers of people, it's a warning sign that they're not really engaging with anyone, probably just trying to promote.

12. Floods of lists of people to follow.
Writer Wednesday (#WW) and Follow Friday (#FF) are awesome, but it's a little much when all day you're pumping out constant lists of who to follow. We all stop paying attention after a while. And it seems like some people do this just to get followed back because oftentimes people who "mention" that you should follow me, don't even follow me themselves!

So those are the main pet peeves I could come up with. Thanks to those of you who contributed some of these when I posed the question on Twitter. What other Twitter behavior is annoying to you? What will make you not follow someone or unfollow them?

**Today's Theme Song**

"I Will Follow You Into the Dark" - Death Cab for Cutie

(player in sidebar, take a listen)

Stop Beating Me Over the Head With Your Book

Photo by Mark Wheadon

So we all know that part of our jobs as authors is promoting ourselves and our books. We hear it over and over again--build a brand, establish a presence, network with readers.

And I agree. All those things are necessary if we want to be successful in this industry. However, there are ways to do it that are effective and there are ways to do it that are ABSOLUTELY ANNOYING. *takes a breath*

Okay, I feel better.

So I thought I would look at the things that some authors have done that have worked on me as a reader and the things that turn me off completely.  

Let's start with the bad shall we?

Do Not....

1. Friend me on Twitter/Goodreads/Facebook and when I agree to be a friend, immediately send me the promotional email--Thanks for the add!  Check out my book. Here's where you can buy it.

Ugh, I hate this and will often un-friend people over it. If you've friended me, that means I went to your site to see who you are. Your books are listed there. If I'm interested, I will look into them. Please do not send these emails because it makes the "befriending" totally insincere. 

2. Only tweet or blog about your book, where to buy it, and the reviews on it.

It's okay to slip in an occasional tweet about your book and it's fine to announce when it's released or if it's hit a bestsellers list or gotten a review. That's fine and you should celebrate that. But if those are the only tweets or blogs you ever do and you never interact with anyone, you look self-serving (not to mention boring.)

3. Create a newsletter option, make people sign up for it to enter a contest, and then only send out newsletters about your book and how to buy it.

If people have signed up for a newsletter, give them something of value in it. Articles about whatever is important to your readership. For instance, my agency has a newsletter anyone can sign up for. Now, this is a chance for Nelson Lit to promote their clients' books, correct? Sure, and they will mention those books on occasion BUT the majority of the newsletter is helpful writing advice and industry information so the reader gets something helpful for signing up.

Okay, so if you can avoid those things, you're doing well. What are some you can do that work to promote in a positive way?

Things that will win me over as a reader...

1. Comment on people's blogs in a genuine way.

It's obviously hard to do this large scale, but this is where you can use the Google Alert feature to your advantage. If someone mentions you on their blog or reviews you and you see it, stop by and thank them for the mention. I've had a number of authors do this, including Les Edgerton, author of Hooked, who stopped by and commented last week after I mentioned his book. Erotic romance author Lauren Dane also commented when I picked one of her books as my favorites last year. 

And even if you weren't mentioned, but maybe the topic is related to what you write, say hi. Author Elizabeth Amber did this last year on a post I had about erotic romances I liked. I had never read her books, but when I clicked her name in the comments, I found that she writes historical EroRom and ended up buying one of her books and loving it. I went on to buy more in that series. It was totally effective. 

2. Be a real person on Twitter/Facebook/Blogging.

No, if you become a big author, you can't follow back everyone and can't respond to ever @ mention, but that's okay. If you can just be engaging in your tweets and seem like a normal, likable person, that will win you readers. And if you can interact with readers on occasion, all the better. I responded to something a big author said a while back, and she replied with a Bwahhahaha. It was simple, but made me like her even better because a) she took the time to respond and b) she liked my joke. Silly, but it's just that sense of brief connection that makes you like someone more and want to support them as authors.

3. If you can, offer something that benefits both you and the reader.

This can be a simple contest where you give away one of your books. Or, if you are so inclined, you can do something that gives back to readers or writers. Author Candace Havens, for instance, has a writers' workshop via a Yahoo group. She provides priceless writing info, runs contests to win critiques, and has great guest authors give online classes that are all free. In return, she gets an open mic via all our email addresses to reach out to everyone in the group. Therefore, if she has a new release or something going on, she can send that out to all of us. And because she's been so helpful to us, we want to help her too.

So, at the end of the day what I think it comes down to is BE GENUINE. If you are only doing something because you want to promote, then readers are going to see right through it. Don't go into something like Facebook or Twitter or blogging unless you are looking to honestly connect with other people.

Okay, so I'm curious to hear which promotional tactics annoy you. Which ones have worked? Outside of writing great books, what makes you really want to support an author?

**Today's Theme Song**

"Right Through You" - Alanis Morrissette

(player in sidebar, take a listen)

Pre-Branding Yourself as an Author

A few weeks ago, I debated on here whether or not I should start up an official (non-blog) website before I've sold a book.  Opinions were mixed, but most people seemed to agree that it really wasn't something to worry about until you got "the call."  So, I decided to reserve my domain name and then put the idea of a website on hold until later.

However, this weekend I attended my NTRWA meeting and the topic was marketing and promotion.  And although most of the talk was on how to market and promote yourself once you have sold your manuscript, there was also information for the not yet published.  And lucky for me, the authors who were giving the talk, Nikki Duncan and Misa Ramirez, provided just the answers I was looking for.

They interviewed marketing and publicity people from a number of different publishers (both print and ebook publishers) and asked them the pros and cons of pre-branding yourself as an author.

On the pro side, each person seemed to say the same things:

--It is not necessary to have an online presence before selling the book BUT "there is little advantage to waiting."

--Having an established presence/professional website shows the editors you are serious about your career because you have put forth time, effort, and a little money to put together a website.  It also in an indication that you "understand the importance of branding yourself" and are committed to helping in your own promotion.

The cons these professionals outlined were ones we have complete control over:

--Don't put things out there that will hurt your image.  We talked about that here.

--And don't let it interfere with your writing because obviously the most important thing is that you write the best book.

So after the talk, I made my decision.  I went ahead and created a basic website for myself.  I was a little intimidated by the thought.  My technical savvy is relegated to putting widgets in my sidebar, but I went to homestead.com and found the site very user friendly.  I was able to find a template I liked, then replaced the pics and info with mine.  Everything is drag and drop; you don't have to mess with html if you don't want to.  The only thing I have left to do is transfer my domain there.  But I'm waiting on that to make sure I like homestead for my format (I'm on a free trial right now.)  So for now, www.ronigriffin.com will get you there, but isn't the official address.

In addition to my basic info, I have my queries up for both my completed novels.  So, go check it out and let me know what you think.  I truly value your opinions.   

So what do you think about what the industry professionals said about pre-branding?  If you have your own website outside of your blog, feel free to leave the link in the comments.  


 
 

**Today's Theme Song**

"Just a Girl" - No Doubt

(player in sidebar--go ahead, take a listen)