 We spend so much time reading online looking for great ideas, we figured we ought to pass along the ones we like best. We'll try to do it regularly.
We’re doing it as much for ourselves as anyone. It’s a great way to keep track of stuff. Otherwise, we bookmark, clip for Evernote, post to our Desktop, send to Dropbox and then forget all about it. This week’s finds Promocave and Twitter Promocave is set up to help authors establish a platform. Truth is, we signed up ages ago and never knew what to do with it. Until this week. We received an email from Jorge Olson explaining how to use Promocave to increase your Twitter followers. Yes. We know. But it isn’t like that. It's real people and it works. We’ve been building our Twitter list the hard way for about 3 years. By hand, one or two at a time. Reading every profile. It’s taken forever and we’re still way below the magic number needed to have any kind of impact. So we tried the Promocave method. Somehow, Jorge Olson has attracted a really lively crowd. People are following back. It’s a little complicated to explain so go here to find out what it’s all about. Books for sale on Pubslush Crowdfunding. What could be better? You post the book you want to publish and people send money. We tried Pubslush and didn’t get very far (another story for another day). But. This week we were reminded that you can also list your books for sale on Pubslush even if you didn’t raise a million dollars. Haven’t tried it yet, but we’re glad to know it’s there. The Ideal Image Size to Share on Twitter and Facebook from the always informative Kevan Lee at Buffer So much good information from Kevan Lee at Buffer. We’ve seen the dimensions for images before, maybe a dozen times. And then we rely on Canva to tell us what to do. But it’s nice to know what works. This is what Kevan says: "Through much trial and error, we’ve found a single image size that works great for both Twitter and Facebook. 1,024 pixels wide by 512 pixels tall" 10 Sites for Free, Non-Cheesy Stock Photos from Hubspot We’re always looking for good pics. Cheap is great. Free is better. And if they’re not cheesy? That’s the best. Hubspot is worth checking regulary for great tips. Shout Outs When we published our latest book, Landfall by Joseph Jablonski, we were in a bit of a bind. The author died suddenly last May. His wife and son were eager to see his work published, especially since it’s such a good book. But there’s only so much other people can do. So we turned to a few experts and they did a great job helping us get the word out. Masquerade Crew We always like doing a promotion with Masquerade Crew since their Twitter street team is amazing. Tireless. Does Twitter sell books? In our case, not by the truckload. But what it does do is get the name of the book out there, so when the book shows up again, maybe for a free promotion, people will have heard of it. Pump Up Your Book There are blog tours and then there are really good blog tours. This is a really good one. Everyone posted when they said they would. And Dorothy Thompson, the brains behind the tours, took part in it every day. For a month. Did we get sales? A few. But we definitely got exposure. Kate Tilton We turned to Kate for help in reaching out to book bloggers and reviewers. We could, of course, do it ourselves, but we wanted some expert help. We've received a few requests, but it turns out an awful lot of bloggers would much rather do interviews. Still. Every bit of exposure helps. Really Bad Ideas
A note: We're not associates of any of the above. Not related. Just think they're working checking out. But speaking of associates. There is one more really bad idea gaining ground. Associate emails. Let's say there's going to be a podcast. And the person giving it thinks it's somehow worth $100 and an hour or two of our time. Only here's a discount code that will let us attend for the special rate of $50. Easy enough to dismiss. But then we start getting emails from all his or her associates, with different discount codes. According to advertising theory, you need to see something 6 or 7 times, before you "pull the trigger." Adspeak for buy. Except in today's marketplace, seeing the same thing 6 or 7 times is just as likely to lead to never wanting to buy that product. Ever. We're not against people making money. We're just against this onslaught of pitches.
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