Tip of the Day

Turn off blog moderation and word verification, often known as CAPTCHA code, during a daily blogging challenge or blog book tour. I don't find either to be very useful since I monitor my posts daily, and far more often during a busy project. Having these kinds of hurdles in place mostly just keeps people from commenting. Your goal is to get comments! Make it easy for your readers.

Happy weekend, everyone!

How Often Should I Tweet?

It's a common misconception that people on Twitter will think you are spamming them if you tweet about your new book all day long. But let's look at how repeated messages play out.

I'm promoting my other blog, the Blood-Red Pencil, like crazy today because I'm hosting a blog book tour stop over there. I'm interviewing Jodi Carmichael about her first chapter book published by Little Pickle Press.

So to promote Spaghetti Is NOT a Finger Food, the book in question, makes my Twitter page look something like this:

But it's important to remember that my posts won't run sequentially like this on YOUR Twitter page. They'll be interspersed in your Twitter stream among all the other folks you're following and who are tweeting, and the more you have, the less likely you'll see my tweets sequentially. In fact, if you have thousands of tweeps you're following, you may never see my tweets. So don't worry about looking like a spammer when you promote anything. Does that make sense?

Of course, I also like to mix it up by re-tweeting other unrelated information, adding some thoughts and quotes, just being a normal, sharing person along with promoting. The more value I add to my Twitter stream, the more people will like me.

Having said all that, keep in mind that Twitter doesn't like you to re-tweet the exact same thing more than once, so you do have to mix up your words a bit. That can be as simple as posting the same promotion, but with a different hashtag reaching out to various groups. You'll noticed I've used #kidlit as well as #Aspergers.

Tomorrow I'll talk a bit about HootSuite, which I use to queue up a bunch of posts to release on Twitter when I'm busy doing something else and can't tweet live. It's a handy tool.

And, yes, this re-tweet is absolutely true today:

RT @kitereaders: Get "Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food" for #FREE today on #Amazon! http://amzn.to/10P6Okw  @LPP_Media @Jodi_Carmichael #kidlit
 

Sage: Book 1 by Marian Allen

One of our pals at the BBT Cafe, Marian Allen, has just released her new Kindle book and we're please to help spread the news! You can buy and download a copy of the book for $3.99 here.  I love the cover and font.

When you go to the page, you'll notice something very important. Scroll down a ways and you'll see a "tags" category. If you're an author, get those filled in right away. Not only does it give you control over how your book contents are labeled, you'll increase your searchability at Amazon. The author or her publisher has done this and it looks like this:

Anyone can add to these tags, but getting a dozen or more in place right away gives you a good deal of control over your own book. Don't miss the opportunity!

A Permalink Lesson

Do you like this photo? No, it's not a picture of me. But I'm using it for this lesson about permalinks and their importance during a blog book tour.

Let's use Pat Bean's terrific travel blog as our example. Pat's blog URL is http://patbean.wordpress.com/ which gets you to the main blog page. But if I wanted to have a record of the specific blog post titled, Life Lessons, I'd click on the title and get this expanded URL:

http://patbean.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/life-lessons/

That unique post "address" is what we call a permalink. When you're on a blog book tour, having these unique links to your guest post after the blog goes live, is a good way to promote your book in the future. But only if you can find that post again, and on a very popular and busy blog, that can be a challenge.

Copy and save your permalinks the day the host blog goes live with your blog book tour stop. You'll be glad you did! If you like the picture of this old broad, go to Pat's blog and read about her. And don't believe everything you see.

Blog Popularity and PageRank

Blog popularity, or PageRank, is an important part of choosing blog book tour hosts. You want publicity on sites that are noticed by search engines and real people alike. But how do you check a blog's ranking?

I use PR Checker which works for all search engines. It's easy. Just type in the URL for the blog you are vetting, complete the word verification, and you get a rating between 0 and 10.

Most good blogs are rated between 3 - 5, but rarely higher. They will probably be good hosts for your blog book tour stop. Even a 2 ranked blog might be a good choice if it matches the niche market of your book. As you discover blogs you like, and when you think they will be good matches for your book, vet them at PR Checker and then add them to a running list you'll use later. A little work each day makes planning a blog book tour much easier when the time comes!

Spaghetti Is Not a Finger Food Blog Book Tour

The best way to learn how to build your own blog book tour, is to follow one in action. Here's one that is kicking off today at Little Pickle Press. See the entire schedule here. Why not stop at each guest blog over the next week and see how it works? You can practice leaving comments and sharing the blog post on your social networking groups. Here's more information from today's host:

How To Tweet in time for #blogboost

If you haven't yet dipped into the Twitter pool (and you must to promote your books!), here's a guide from Kathi Flynn that's available for free on Kindle today (1/6/2012) and tomorrow. Download it now by clicking here and start tweeting!