SEO Writing Strategies

Nancy Hendrickson, San Diego-Based Non-Fiction Author

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:16:46 +0000

Welcome to the official Website of freelance author, Nancy Hendrickson. Nancy specializes in writing non-fiction books and articles in fields as varied as computers, American history, collecting, and genealogy.

Here you can learn more about the author, her booksignings and her works-in-progress.

“I look forward to working with you on your writing project. For more information on my print or Kindle books and articles, pop over to Amazon and take a look.”

Latest Tweets

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:06:09 +0000

Make Money Writing About Your Hobby

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:01:43 +0000

Internet Market Strategy For Serious Online Marketers

Whether you have a yen for yard sales or a passion for pets, there’s an audience hungry for your articles. I found mine during a trip to Roswell, New Mexico back in the mid-90s.

Since the “Roswell incident” of 1947, alien autopsies and government cover-ups have become cultural icons and hot collectibles-thanks in part to the unexpected popularity of WB’s Roswell. Who knew TV’s sexy aliens and their glow-in-the-dark hickeys would heat up the auction circuit as well as the small screen?

When I visited the alien-friendly city, I bought up t-shirts and commemorative pens, just like every other tourist. However, once home, I shifted into my “writer” mode and slugged out queries on the “story that wouldn’t die”. Within weeks, I’d sold a piece on collecting aliens and UFOs to eBay Magazine and another to Collectors.com. I even got e-mails from readers who wanted to buy my commemorative pins at any price!

Those Roswell pieces were the first of over 400 niche-or specialized-articles I’ve written. Tightly focused and packed with know-how, niche articles are some of the easiest for new writers to sell.

What does it take to succeed?

· Write about your passion. If you’re a yard sale junkie, turn your vintage finds into a killer piece about starting a home-based business, or how to tell the difference between treasures and trash. Then pitch your articles to collecting magazines and Web sites. Do a Google.com search on “collectibles” to find hundreds of potential clients.

· Actually read the magazine or newspaper you’re trying to pitch. Writer’s Digest past-editor Melanie Rigney says her magazine hasn’t published poetry for two years, and yet she sent out a dozen poetry rejections in just one month.

· Got a hot tip on saving money? Find a way to twist it into a niche story, like how to pinch penny’s when buying top brand dog food (pet focus). Or, how women can avoid getting ripped off on car repairs (women’s magazine).

· Learn your way around the Internet. If you need to interview an expert on raising independent kids, do you know where to look? (Profnet.com) Or, can you construct an advanced search on AltaVista.com to track down statistics on child care?

· Find mailing lists on your specialty topic, then join in the discussion. This is where you’ll find those great anecdotes
other writers are using. Check out Yahoo http://groups.yahoo.com/

· Persevere. Editors want to buy from you. But sometimes they have a backlog, or they’ve already made a similar assignment.If you get rejected, immediately go back and suggest other topics. I pitched one publication for five months before they gave me a chance. Today they’re one of my bread and butter clients.

How Do You Find Clients?

Get on the Internet and use your favorite search engine to track down potential clients. For example, go to Google.com and type in “alien and collectors”. Then, go to the Web sites you think are appropriate and write the Webmaster or site owner about your background in the subject.

Then, tell them that you specialize in writing about “alien collectibles” and would they be interested in hiring you to write a few trial articles for their site?

Be sure to pick sites which are viable–but that I mean, don’t pick sites that are clearly hobby sites or sites which haven’t been updated since 1999. Look for sites that are selling alien collectibles and stress that your articles would add relevant Web content, which is useful for drawing visitors, and for getting higher search engine rankings.

If the site doesn’t offer a free newsletter to site visitors, suggest one–and suggest that you be hired as the writer. Remember, much of being a successful (paid) writer is about selling your ideas.

You can also find clients by subscribing to WritersMarket.com or by visiting your local bookstore and just scanning the racks for magazines you think would be open to your specialty.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!!!!

If you write about cats, don’t pitch just cat or pet magazines. How many ways can you find to sell a cat article?

I challenge you to go to the bookstore and find at least 15 magazines you can pitch a cat story too.

Hint: As an example, how about a parent’s magazine and an article like “how the family cat can help teach your child about responsibility.” Get the idea?

Or–if you love music, how about pitching a piece on the growing trend to buy musicians’ autographs or instruments at auctions.

What if you love outer space? Would you think about pitching a piece on kid’s space books of the 1950s? I did. In addition, I also wrote an article for Astronomy magazine on collecting “space stuff.”

Do you see where this is going? Take a topic and find how many ways you can spin it.

Social Media Analogies in a Nutshell

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:04:48 +0000

I sat in on an interesting webinar thrown by the 60-second marketer. The presenter gave these anologies for our favorite social media marketing sites.

Facebook is like a pub, an informal place where people get together, hoist a beer and shoot the breeze.

LinkedIn is like a Tradeshow – very business-like, watch your language, dress up a little.

Twitter is the famous cocktail party, with lots going on and very high energy

YouTube is like Times Square on New Years Eve – anything goes!

MySpace is like Woodstock - populated by the young and the crazy!

Write Your Novel in 30 Days

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:16:40 +0000

It’s almost on us again: National Novel Writing Month – - do you have what it takes to join NaNoWriMo, the fun “seat-of-your-pants” approach to novel writing? Here’s the deal, per the NaNoWriMo site:

Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. . . ”

Join the fun (and thousands of wannabe novelists around the world) and crank out 50,000 words in November. That’s a little less than 1,700 words a day.

For all the details, and to get signed up, hop over to the NaNoWriMo site, sharpen your pen (or keyboard), and get ready, get set . . . . .

Join Me At Publishing Business Virtual Conference & Expo

Nancy Hendrickson — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:31:15 +0000

Join me @ the Publishing Business Virtual Conference & Expo
Digital Content Day @ Your Desk

Here are a few details:
When: Thursday, October 29, 2009
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET
Where: Your Computer – It’s Virtual & It’s Free

Digital Content Day @ Your Desk is a free, virtual event (you’ll be able to access all sessions from your computer) that will explore how book publishers must adapt to succeed in today’s multimedia publishing world.

Topics of discussion will include:

* E-book Pricing Strategies (this is one I won’t miss)
* Shifting Role of Publishers in a Digital World
* The Piracy Threat and DRM Strategies That Work
* Social Media Strategies That Sell Books (I’ll be here too)
* How to Evolve to Remain Relevant and Profitable
… and more!

In addition to the dynamic conference agenda, you can take advantage of this fully interactive event featuring live chats, social networking opportunities, downloadable resources and giveaways. Best of all, we can accomplish all of this and more for free … and from the comfort of our own offices.

The event also includes an exhibit hall fully staffed with world-class suppliers, including Worldcolor, Zmags and Book Business magazine, to name a few. Sponsors include Oce and Lightning Source.

Hope you can join me on Thursday, October 29th. If you attend, e-mail me and let’s compare notes afterwards.

Nancy

First Look at Nook

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:08:26 +0000

Per Barnes and Noble, “Get bestsellers and new releases, your favorite newspapers, and magazines all delivered via fast and free 3G wireless. Great ebooks are just seconds away as you tap into the vast Barnes and Noble eBookstore. Sample any eBook for free.” It’s all about buying the Nook.

This new entry into the e-reader arena can store as many as 1,500 eBooks, newspapers, and magazines on your nook, so you’ll never be without your favorites. And with an added memory card you can keep up to 17,500. eBooks download in seconds. Many bestsellers and new releases are just $9.99, and thousands of titles are free, so you can enjoy more for less.

Plus . . . color touch screen.

More as I learn more.

Copywriting Grammar Ain’t Perfect

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:34:38 +0000

MSNBC had an interesting article on the use of less-than-perfect grammar for Web copywriting. The trick, the article says is "balancing proper grammar with a conversational tone." Since consumers need to relate to your message, write in the same conversational tone you’d use if you were hanging out at Starbucks with your ideal customer. What grammar rules can you break?

Contractions. When’s the last time you said "I had" instead of "I’d"? 1957?
Dangling prepositions. "You’re going to feel like a pro when you put this on."
Slang words (if appropriate to your audience). Sheesh, what would my English prof say?
Sentence fragments. "Got milk?" *Don’t forget, web readers SKIM. Short sentences are good.
One-sentence paragraphs. "See above"

Climate Change: Blog Action Day

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:13:14 +0000

I’m participating (along with thousands of other bloggers) in the 09 Blog Action Day – - the once a year event when we all blog about a specific topic. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.

This year’s issue is Climate Change.

I decided to write about the issues of food production and greenhouse gases. I know the food choices we make directly impact climate change – - in fact I just read that overall agriculture around the world is responsible for nearly as much total greenhouse gas emissions as all forms of transportation put together. In addition, with climate change comes decreased yield in food staples around the world such as corn.

What I want to write about is an idea I read about a year or so ago – that of building climate-controlled high-rise farms that take up a small physical footprint (think a skyscraper with each floor growing a different crop), with the ability to grow diverse crops, keep much of the "rain" from evaporating because it "rains" in a controlled environment, and keeps pests at bay because they cannot get into the skyscraper’s closed environment. Also, think solar renewable energy sources.

As I traveled through Kansas, it was evident that a huge amount of land is devoted to corn, wheat, soy and other staple crops. What if each of those vast fields was converted to an elevated farm (I’m imagining something like silos)? I believe they would require less water, no pesticides, and certain return more of the land to a natural (unfarmed) state.

Is this pie in the sky? I hope not, as we will be forced in the next few decades, to face the very real problems of an increasingly hostile climate and the challenges of producing food for a world population.

Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bree7/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Want to Know More About Social Media Marketing?

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:45:49 +0000

Click the horizontal buttons to learn more about social media marketing.

Where Did the Famous Authors Live?

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:10:39 +0000

Earn Passive Income by Teaching What You Know

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:31:36 +0000

My good friend, and fellow online entrepreneur, Lou Bortone (the OnlineVideoGuy) told me about a new service that is launching today at 11:00 am Pacific (1 Central, 2 Eastern). The service, Prfessor, allows non-techie people to set up their own "university", and teach the things they know – - and of course generate passive income while doing so. Think about that – getting paid from here til the end of time to share your knowledge with other people.

There’s an excellent video on the Prfessor site right now that shows you the basics, with launch scheduled as noted above.

I don’t know about you, but there are MANY things I can teach and I can’t wait to sign up for my own account. At this point, I don’t know what the charge will be, but I’m betting it’s going to be a monthly subscription. Lou told me he thought it was under $50, and if that’s the case, I’ll be first in line.

My "what I can teach" list right now includes:

Internet genealogy
Non-fiction book proposal writing
Non-fiction book writing
How to become a freelance writer
How to promote your book online
Basics of social media marketing

How about you?

This is the most excited I’ve been about a product launch in eons. Prfessor is THE system for anyone who wants to teach, earn extra income or at-home income, and doesn’t want to mess around with all the technical stuff.

Sell Your Books Internationally: Kindle Goes Global

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:25:55 +0000

Amazon plans to start selling its Kindle reader in over 100 countries and territories on Oct. 19.

Amazon is selling the Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless to customers in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America, for US$279 for a reader with a 6-inch display and the ability to wirelessly download books and other content globally, the company said on Wednesday.

The Kindle will not be sold in China because Amazon is unable to ship the Kindle and offer Kindle content to Chinese customers, the company said.

Bestseller books will cost $11.99 or more for international customers, with about 100,000 other titles available for less than $5.99, Amazon said. These prices are higher than in the U.S. where most bestsellers sell for $9.99.

Authors: Can You Measure ROI of Social Media Marketing?

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:31:21 +0000

An online quipster poised the question: "How do you measure the return on investment (ROI) of social media marketing (SMM)?" He then answered his own question with "You don’t."

Fortunately, that’s not exactly true.

Where to Start Measuring?

As authors, businesses, solopreneurs, and entrepreneurs scramble to set up Facebook, Twitter and MySpace pages, analysts are scrambling to discover how impactful their company’s SMM has been. For some, the answer is "we can’t measure this," but others believe there are statistics that reflect their SMM’s effect.

As Aaron Uhrmacher, the guru of SMM, recently said in an article on Mashable, "Social media measurement is one of those topics about which everyone has an opinion, but nobody agrees on the solution." His suggestion – - as a beginning point – - is to simply decide on what to measure.

What’s Your Social Media Marketing Goal?

If your goal is to increase your reputation-get potential readers or clients talking about you in a positive manner – - then get out onto the social media sites and monitor what’s being said about you. In a brief run-through searching Twitter, I found some very mean-spirited comments about a specific author’s e-mail campaign.

What to do? The author could have reached out via direct message or e-mail and turned a damaging situation into a win-win. After all, social media is about "social" – - building relationships.

If your goal with your SMM is to measure traffic, then setting up a solid analytics program that tracks incoming links will tell you if your visitors are coming from Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Although Google Analytics are excellent (and free), we also suggest Xinu, a free site that tells how your website is doing in terms of search engines, search engine optimization, social bookmarking, RSS, and other social indicators. Measuring ROI on social media marketing isn’t a precise science; but what I know for sure is that authors and entrepreneurs need to have a success metric in mind before jumping into the game.

Authors – do you need help with your book project? Contact me for information about my coaching programs. Get started today and get that book out into the marketplace.

Interview with a Mom-Author-Blogger

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:22:36 +0000

Tina Nocera, founder of the Parental Wisdom blog, and the author of Because Kids Don’t Come With Manuals: Contemporary Advice for Parents, recently shared her experience of using her blog to promote her book.

NH: Why did you start blogging?

TN: Interestingly, the book is a conversation on parenting; something I mention in the introduction. A blog seemed like a natural progression to continue that conversation and have a more interactive discussion with parents on current issues.

To listen to what people have to say. Example, in a post from yesterday – - very interesting situation. I have something in my book called a "Stupid Ticket" and a mom received one and was rather upset. I used the blog as a way to explain it from her point of view and also soften and explain the message. I would not have had any other opportunity to reach others if not for the blog.

NH: How did you build your readership?

TN: I connected it to my website and I also host a parents daily inspirational phone message where I often mention that they can visit the blog and write a comment as the blog and daily message are often the same.

I periodically offer free information which requires readers to sign up to my site. Once on my site, I offer a weekly email message – always with a very catchy title so it gets opened (running at nearly 50% opening the message). Shortly I plan to offer very unique content (I have 2 U.S. Patents on Child Development for my website and database) and will run EzineArticles on that as well.

NH: Have you submitted your blog to blog directories?

TN: I haven’t but it is something I should do. Like everything else – this is a constant learning process.

NH: Do you post on other blogs?

TN: Yes, I would recommend it, but haven’t done very much of it. It’s great exposure.

NH: Is there something about blogging to promote your book that you’d like to share with other authors?

TN: I suppose it’s the David vs. Goliath theory. You know the story about David and Goliath, right. Everyone said the little boy couldn’t possibly beat the giant. They told David, "Look at him and look at you, you can’t possibly win." David said, "Yeah, look at me and look at him. I can’t possibly miss!" I see blogging as evening up the odds for attention.

Authors – do you need help with your book project, blogging strategies, or social media marketing? Contact me for information about my coaching programs. Get started today and get that book out into the marketplace.

Nancy Hendrickson, Non-fiction author and coach

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:58:14 +0000

Welcome to the official Website of Nancy Hendrickson, non-fiction author and coach.

Here you can learn more about the author, her current works-in-progress, and her programs for private coaching. Or read sample chapters, reviews, and sign up for her newsletter containing exclusive behind-the-scenes information, book picks, and author interviews.

Current News

Right now, I’m finishing up my book signing engagements for Historic Photos of Old California (Turner Publishing, August 2009). My last event will be October 10 from 2 to 4 pm at Captain Fitch’s Mercantile, in San Diego’s Old Town. (Google Map)

The book signing event at San Diego’s Neiman-Marcus was the next to last September event. I had a lot of fun, and weirdly enough met two ladies from my hometown of St. Joseph, Missouri. Even stranger – the uncle of one of the ladies delivered me! (ok you math geeks – tell me the odds of THAT one!)

My Three Latest Projects

1) a work of fiction (you can keep track of it by clicking the work-in-progress tab above)

2) a non-fiction book (digitally published) on historic destinations in North Dakota (the least visited of the lower 48 states)

3) a podcast series (soon available via iTunes) on how to quickly & easily write your non-fiction book. Sign up for my newsletter to receive notification as soon as episode one is posted

Fun Stuff

I’m a digital photo/Photoshop geek, in love with shooting historic destinations. I created a collage I thought you might like – it’s a small sampling of the historic reenactors & places I’ve been in my travels. Hope you like it.

A Work-N-Progress

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:23:27 +0000

Scenes from my fiction novel

Locales: New York City, Bismarck, North Dakota, Montana Territory
Dates: 1932 and 1876
Genre: Historical fiction/time travel
Premise: Elizabeth Custer is given the opportunity to time-travel from 1933 to 1876, to see her husband one final time before his final battle on the Little Bighorn

Scene: After the birthday party, April 1932

Draft: She sank into the wooden rocker, grateful for the silence. It was only five in the afternoon, but she was already exhausted, as she was on days when the house bustled with company.

Birthdays.

As if a 90-year-old needed another marker of time. They meant well, she knew, but they could never understand the only thing a birthday meant to her was another year without him.

She settled back in her rocker, relaxing into the peaceful rhythm of its motion. Outside, an early spring drizzle pattered onto the sidewalk. If the temperature dropped low enough, the city would march backwards into the last throes of winter. But she would be warm, wrapped in the soft blue and gold throw, a gift from great-niece Caroline. Blue and gold. Cavalry colors. His colors.

What little light was left snaked across the window sill, barely illuminating the hand-painted scene on her Viennese clock. Not that she needed it to track the time. It ticked away as relentless as her heart pumped out the moments of her life. But what a life. What a life.

Would he even know her now, her face grooved with the remnants of smiles and frowns, her skin turned to parchment?

Reaching up, her bird-like fingers caressed the silver and gold ivy-shaped pin he had given her on her 21st birthday. Tarnished from years of her constant touch the metal was worn thin. Just like me, she thought.

Earlier, the interviewer had asked “Do you miss him?”

She smiled that girlish smile she had never lost, leaving his question unanswered. But now, in the dark and the silence, there was no denying the question.

As a single tear slipped down her cheek she chided herself for an old lady’s sentimentality. But even now, fifty-six years after his death, she missed the feel of his hand on her face, and the passion his deep blue eyes that made her gasp for air. But those days were gone . . . long gone . . . and she wondered if she would have married "that Custer boy" if she had known the future. A silly question, but one she couldn’t help but consider.

At the party, they had asked her, when she blew out the candles, to reveal her birthday wish. She declined, blaming superstition for her silence. The truth was, her wish was ridiculous and without hope, but wished for nonetheless.

All she wanted, before she died, was one last day with him.

*This work-in-progress is copyrighted 2009 Nancy Hendrickson. Reproduction is prohibited.

**Note to readers: Be kind, gentle reader . . . . and I do appreciate your comments.

Authors: Learn How to Promote Your LinkedIn Profile

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:08:59 +0000

LinkedIn isn’t the world’s most intuitive network, but you can do some pretty cool stuff – if you know where to look. For example, you can promote your LinkedIn profile by adding View My Profile buttons (like mine here), just by following these simple steps:

1. Click ‘Edit My Profile’ found in the left navigation area

2. Click ‘Edit Public Profile Settings’ in the upper right-hand corner of your profile page

3. Click on the ‘customized buttons’ link found in your Public Profile box.

4. Choose a logo button and copy the HTML code.

5. Paste the code on to your blog, message board or website. When site visitors click on the button, it will take them to your profile on LinkedIn.

Northern California Newspaper Reviews My Latest Book

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:46:42 +0000

The Times-Standard of Eureka, California posted a very nice piece about my latest book, Historic Photos of Old California.

In brief, they wrote: Author Nancy Hendrickson has written a new book that features a bevy of old California photographs.

”Historic Photos of Old California” (Turner Publishing Co., $39.95) includes 199 images from throughout the state, with text and captions penned by Hendrickson. The pictures are separated into four chapters: “Exploration and Exultation!” (1850-1869), “Civilization Comes West” (1870-1889), “A Kinder, Gentler California” (1890- 1899) and “From Disaster to Rebirth (1900-1920).

”California’s early days are documented in thousands of historic photographs that reside in archives, both locally and nationally. This book began with the observation that, while those photographs are of great interest to many, they are not easily accessible,” writes Todd Bottorff, publisher, in the book’s preface.

Click this Times-Standard link to read the entire article.

Nancy Hendrickson’s Favorite Internet Business Books

Nancy Hendrickson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:55:15 +0000

I’m a book geek, and among my favorite reads are the following Internet-business books

Three Easy Ways to Get Your Book Noticed on the Internet

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:03:51 +0000

In the years that I’ve coached authors and entrepreneurs, I’ve discovered that the majority of people think marketing their books is an expensive proposition – - particularly when it comes to selling on the Internet.

Truth is, it can cost a lot if you have the bad luck of working with an unscrupulous “publicist”, or spend thousands on an ineffective pay-per-click campaign.

There are good publicists out there, but even the best publicists in the business will tell you (or they SHOULD tell you) that their efforts will get you noticed, but that notice does not necessarily translate to sales. Additionally, you may get people to your website via pay-per-click, but traffic doesn’t always equal sales–particularly if you don’t write compelling sales copy.

In my experience–with my own coaching clients and with my own books–the best way to market your book is through grassroots or relationship marketing (building relationships with site visitors). When people KNOW you, they are much more willing to do business with you. Think of your own life experience re: buying from people you know and trust, and I think you’ll agree.

I invite you to “pick my brain”, and use these three no-cost ways of getting yourself noticed on the Internet – - all without squandering your kid’s college fund!

1. Blog

2. Publish on Amazon’s Kindle

3. Social networking

Blogging

For authors, blogging can be as second nature as breathing. After all, we ARE writers! But what benefits does blogging have, particularly when you’re just getting started?

First, search engines love blogs–particularly those that are updated at least a few times a week, and are filled with solid, no-B.S. content. Search engines swoop through blogs like bed bugs in the Bates Hotel–spidering content on a daily (or even more frequent) basis.

Don’t believe me? After doing keyword research for a client, I installed a blog for them on Tuesday and by Thursday they were already showing up on page #1 of Google for three of their keywords.

Savvy authors use blogs to build a solid fan base - – many have hundreds or thousands of fans even before they get a book contract. Think how much more effective your book proposal would be if you could say that you already have 1,000 avid fans who read your blog every day. Book proposal committees love a built-in audience.

Cost: Zero, if you use a free blog service like blogger.com

Amazon Kindle Publishing

Regardless of Sony and iPhone’s chest-beating about beating the Amazon Kindle in the digital reader wars, Amazon has one thing no one else has – access to more than 350,000 books and articles delivered wirelessly (immediately) to the Kindle.

Unfortunately, Amazon did NOT make it easy for people to convert their own books and articles to Kindle format, but it is doable. If you’re willing to do tech-stuff, you can do it yourself. I started converting my own work several months ago, and there is a learning curve.

The good news is, by converting your work to Kindle format, you can get your books, articles, and reports in front of Amazon’s 54.2 million monthly visitors for free. (If you need a referral to a trustworthy Kindle conversion guy, e-mail me)

Cost: Zero, if you convert the work yourself. About $100 if you use a service.

Social Networking

Millions of people have jumped on the social networking bandwagon over the past few years. In fact, one person I know brags that he’s on 34 different social networks. Don’t know about you, but I’d rather be writing than spending all day on 34 social networks. Don’t get me wrong – social networking is a fabulous way to get noticed. However, you’ll have far more success if you concentrate on the social network where YOUR target demographic lives.

How can you tell where to find your audience? Take an afternoon and cruise through MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Twitter, et al, and search for your target keywords. You’ll quickly discover which services house your audience; once discovered, devote your social networking time to that service only. Quality over quantity matters.

What next?

Regardless of your experience, background, or genre, chances are you’re already taking one of these crucial steps. The good news is, follow all three and you’ll soon have a marketing plan that costs you zero to under $100 bucks.

Internet Passive Income Opportunities

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:21:48 +0000

Yaro Starak wrote an interesting blog post the other day about passive income opportunities online.

In brief, he detailed how (if you filter out the spam), you can easily find opportunities, although most people fail to actually work those opportunities. We’ve all seen it – the website that is thrown up in hopes of generating leads or affiliate dollars – and never touched once the initial posts are published.

What struck me most, though, was his conversation with two business friends who have all the skills needed to succeed (Internet savvy, tech savvy, creativity, good work ethic), but have gotten caught in what Yaro sees as the time-consuming one-on-one trap of always chasing the next client.

In addition, because the two don’t really specialize, they end up competing on a price point with all the other jack-of-all-trades.

Sound familiar?

Thoughts on Internet Passive Income Opportunities

Like many, I run a service-oriented business. Occasionally, I find a great product I’d like to promote, or have created products of my own. But, as Yaro points out, the jack-of-all-trades consultant or coach is left in a position of keeping one eye on current clients while the other is constantly roaming the landscape in search of new clients. In my mind, this is a waste of both time and creative energy.

IMHO, a better use of time would be the creation of products and programs that keep current clients in the flow of my business, leaving one-on-one work for clients willing to pay higher dollars for your precious time. This is clearly NOT a new or complex concept – but one worth re-visiting.

Thanks for the read – and would appreciate your comments (below).

Nancy’s Book Signing at Neiman Marcus

Nancy Hendrickson — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:13:13 +0000

Had a lot of fun at the Neiman Marcus Fashion Night Out, signing my newest book, Historic Photos of Old California. If you’re in San Diego on October 10, head down to Old Town (Captain Fitch’s Mercantile) – - I’ll be doing another signing from 2-4 pm. See you there!

BTW – the Neiman event was a blast – free food and wine (or cocktails) on all three floors of the store – a great DJ, an artist – - lots going on to celebrate the world of fashion.

How to Use Twitter #HashTags

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:06:58 +0000

I just completed setting up a Twitter account with custom background for one of my clients, and in preparing his Twitter to-do list, I realized I’d never blogged about Twitter #hashtags – an often overlooked Twitter function.

What Are Twitter #Hashtags?

To quote our friends over at Mashable, "Hashtags are essentially a simple way to catalog and connect tweets about a specific topic. They make it easier for users to find additional tweets on a particular subject, while filtering out the incidental tweets that may just coincidentally contain the same keyword." (click the thumbnail for real-time results of the hashtag search #patrickswayze)

Because Twitter users search hashtags for content from people they don’t follow, using hashtags gives you another way to reach out to more people, as well as communicating your message to your current followers. Just be sure, though, that your hashtags are relevant t your topic, your site, or your business. Some spammers use popular hashtags (think: #MichaelJackson) just to get to the top of search results. Don’t do it.

Hashtags are an excellent (and effective) way to tracking conversations in topics of interest. For example, if you’re doing a survey of popular questions or posts about your industry, use Twitter Search to monitor topics and conversations.

An Effective Use of Your Own Hashtag

Create a hashtag for your business or your personal brand. This allows you to search for your hashtag to see what’s being said about you AND gives you the opportunity to spread your brand. For example, if you sell DVDs, you could tweet something like t

his:

"What artist is most overrated? Tweet using #jacksdvds for a chance at winning your choice of a free DVD."

Twitter Desktop Client for Tracking Hashtags

I personally use TweetDeck – - a desktop software that allows me to run several columns, including columns that I’ve set up to track certain hashtags. I strongly recommend TweetDeck. (By the way, it’s free)

Market Samurai Review: The Best Internet Marketing Tool for All Experience Levels

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:39:17 +0000

Market Samurai is the Only Internet Marketing Tool You’ll Ever Need (IMHO)

I had no idea, back in August of 2008, that I would discover one of the most professionally-crafted, lowest cost Internet marketing tools ever. Mind you, I’m not the type to oooh and ahhhh over much of anything -- - but this software is the real deal -- - I use it almost daily in my own business, both for myself and my clients. Once you download a free trial, you’ll see why major Internet marketers like Ed Dale recommend Market Samurai without hesitation.

(If you’re in a hurry, scroll down to watch a quick video of Market Samurai find high traffic keywords)

Click to download a free trial

In the year that I’ve been using it, Market Samurai has evolved into the Swiss Army knife of Internet marketing software.

New modules are added with NO additional cost to software owners -- - pay just once and you get updates that will blow your mind!

Your copy of Market Samurai contains competition-crushing capabilities that include:

keyword research
SEO competition research
content publishing
monetization
affiliate product finder
backlinks locator
page rank tracker

There’s virtually nothing Market Samurai can’t do. But don’t take my word for it -- - download your free trial by clicking this link, and see for yourself.

Ten Ways You Can Benefit from Market Samurai

Research niche markets to discover the most profitable
Discover niches with very few competing sites
Analyze the SEO effectiveness of your competitors (and how to end run them onto Google’s first page)
Where to easily find content for your niche site.
Discover the best paying affiliate products in your niche
Learn to write compelling PPC ads for affiliate products
Publish your original content to article syndication sites
Easily find high quality backlink opportunities
Laser-target high-traffic low-competition niches
Discover niches with buyers, not just lookers.

Watch Market Samurai Find High Traffic Keywords

I strongly encourage you to take 15 minutes and watch this intro video to using Market Samurai for keyword research. Again, download a free trial -- - if you’re not getting the traffic you want, or can’t find that perfect niche, use the software for the trial period and get your business out in front of the competition.

Increase Blog Readership by Crafting a Better Post Title

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:58:57 +0000

Steal.

Okay, I don’t mean go out and steal someone else’s title. What I mean is to emulate the format used by some of the smartest sales minds in the world – - people who design magazine covers.

(read to the end of this post for my own technique to laser focus titles for a target audience)

Click the Yoga cover to enlarge it, and you’ll see that everything on that cover is action-oriented: *10 poses to do at home; *build arm and core strength; *come into your power, etc.

Get off the computer and hit your local Barnes and Noble or Borders and spend an hour jotting down titles on magazine covers; these guys really know how to sell a magazine by the cover blurbs . . . so learn from the masters

Check out Men’s Health

One of my guy-pals told me to check out covers of Men’s Health; according to Terry there was rarely an issue that didn’t have a cover blurb about improving your abs or your sex life. Sure enough – I just popped over to their website and what do you think two of the cover blurbs were:

Lose your gut
30 Red Hot Sex Secrets

If you’re a 20 or 30-something guy, would these titles pull you into the magazine?

How About Wired?

Lo-Fi Tech (when good enough is pretty great)
How to Disappear Without a Trace
Folding the Perfect Paper Airplane

Think about it. Why would these titles appeal to Wired readers?

AARP?

13 Cool Ways You Can Make a Difference
Best Places to Live
How to Boost Your Social Security Check

It’s a no-brainer to see how these titles fit the AARP demographic, yes?

And what do you think about the blurbs over at Wild West?

Ten Myths of the Little Bighorn
100 Greatest Western Movies
How Railroads Took the "Wild" Out of the West

and the beat goes on.

My Stealth Technique for Blog Post Titles that Reel in Readers

So what’s my Stealth Technique – and the one I help my clients develop for their businesses – simple (as long as you know your demographic)

Get to the bookstore and pull out the magazines that YOUR demographic reads:

If they’re history nuts, check out the Civil War Times, American History, or Wild West
If they’re into hard-core business, pull out Forbes and other expensive lifestyle issues, like high-end travel or cigar mags.
What about the wanna be entrepreneurs: Entrepreneur, Home Business, Work at Home Moms (online)
Health seekers? Women’s Health, Prevention, Shape, Weight Watchers, Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, etc, etc!

Don’t know what your demographic reads? If this is a field you’re passionate about – what do YOU read? Your reading tastes should closely mirror what your target audience is reading.

Leave a comment if you’re stumped and would like some suggestions . . . it doesn’t take much to get me to the bookstore

Blatant commercial pitch: Need an hour’s brainstorming to kick your business into high gear? E-mail me and let’s talk about how I can help. I do as little as one (1) coaching session – - sometimes that’s all it takes.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:39:04 +0000

Taking the day off . . . .

Do You Need a Coach? I Did.

Nancy Hendrickson — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:51:05 +0000

I did business for many years before I realized I needed a coach. Too many years.

[and since I offer coaching services, I don't want you to see this post is a self-serving ad - cause it's not).

The turning point came for me when I received an assignment from F&W to write an Internet genealogy book. (By the way,the book is still available at Amazon – but I suggest waiting to buy a copy til I do a revised version.)

While organizing the book – or should I say TRYING to organize the book – I realized that I just couldn’t get my head around how to structure the contents. I wrestled this baby for weeks – and just couldn’t come up with a structure I felt worked. Finally, I threw in the towel and went looking for a coach.

As fortune has it, I found a great guy named Kim, and he quickly helped me get my head around the book’s structure.

Since then, I’ve called Kim many times to help with other issues–so don’t let anyone tell you that a good coach doesn’t need coaching herself!

Why Use a Coach?

Gain clarity
Use your thoughts to create, not negate
Identify your strengths
Learn to focus, focus, focus!
Determine your true values
Align your actions with your beliefs and goals

So maybe this is a little ad for my own Coaching to Zen services – - but I hope more than that, it gives you pause – - a few moments to think about what obstacles (either internal or external) are getting in the way of your reaching your Nirvana.

For me, there were a lot of inner gremlins chattering away, but the core issue was time management. For you, it may be a lack of clarity of vision, organizational challenges, or work that doesn’t align with your core values.

Thoughts to Roll Around In Your Mind, Both for Business and Life

I invite you to take a few minutes and think through the obvious answers like:

too hard
not enough time
not smart enough
don’t have enough financial resources
don’t have someone to help me
not enough knowledge

and get down to the core of those answers.

And, when you’re done thinking, if you need some help gaining focus or clarity, shoot me an e-mail and let’s talk. I offer a free 15-minute consultation – so you have nothing to lose.

Nancy

Using Google Insights for Search

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:12:26 +0000

How to Create a Free Twitter Background

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:49:59 +0000

Klok: Track Your Time with this Adobe Air App

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:38:09 +0000

I’m always on the look out for productivity tools, particularly those that help me track the time I’ve spent on various project or clients. Yesterday, I downloaded Klok – a project time tracker that uses the Adobe Air platform. Klok was created by Rob McKeown, co-owner of Mcgraphix, Inc., as a way to track hours spent on consulting projects and as an entry in Adobe’s AIR developer derby contest. It was released as Freeware and has been downloaded over 90,000 times.

How Klok Works

The main Klok screen (click on thumbnail to enlarge) shows your client, project, or task list, with a calendar showing the current week. To track time on any project/client just drag the item from the left-hand tree and pop it over into the calendar. If you want to change the start or stop time, use the up/down arrows at the bottom of the screen to make the adjustment. Made a mistake and want to delete the mess? Just drag the project or timeline down into the trash can icon, bottom left.

The features I really like are the ability to double click an item and add a comment; the ability to retrieve something from the trash that I’ve accidentally deleted; and the excellent graphical pie chart that shows at a glance where I’ve spent my time.

I’m still playing with Klok, but wanted to get this quick look out for anyone who works with multiple projects or clients. I’ve also just downloaded AgileTracker, another Adobe Air project tracker. More on that when I’ve kicked the tires.

New Direction: Coaching to Zen

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:04:11 +0000

I’ve spent many years coaching and consulting with clients who want to _________ [fill in the blank]. In almost all cases, the client has innately known what they wanted, but through coaching gained the clarity needed to take appropriate action.

It’s ironic, then, that I’ve struggled with "naming myself" because I can do such a wide variety of things: writing, ghostwriting, blog coaching, wordpress consulting, marketing consulting, book promotions, social media integration . . . . and the list goes on.

But recently I had one of those ah-ha moments; those delightful seconds when illumination is reached through introspection, and the world of possibilities becomes known.

What happened? I realized that all of my coaching and consulting (blogging, article marketing, site building, et al) was really about Coaching to Zen . . . . helping my clients reach a state of illumination (at times bliss!) through coaching them to their own clarity. My own ah-ha moment has caused me to rethink how I define my own services . . . with the result being . . . (ta-da!) . . .

Coaching to Zen.

I’m not a Buddhist, nor do I have in-depth knowledge of "zen". What I do know is that MY definition of it is about opening up to your own inner knowing . . . . and calling it Coaching to Zen simply felt right.

Of course, that means a restructuring of my site, a re-do of my social media profiles, new business cards, new e-mail sig files – - kind of like all that stuff you have to do when you lose your wallet! But in a good way.

To celebrate my own Coaching to Zen, I invite you to take advantage of a free 15-minute coaching session . . . let’s explore what paths lead to your bliss. Click that Contact button up above, or the hot pink button to the right . . . and let’s see what evolves.

How to Write a Compelling Ad using Market Samurai

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:57:32 +0000

Nancy’s Latest Book Arrived: Historic Photos of Old California

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:24:05 +0000

When a large, heavy box arrived at my door yesterday, I couldn’t imagine what it was – - until I saw it was from Turner Publishing – then I knew it was copies of my latest book, Historic Photos of Old California. Woo-hoo!

I have to tell you – I was thrilled at the quality job Turner did producing this book. It’s a hard cover with dust jacket, the paper is heavy gloss, and the images are beautifully reproduced. As an author (and amateur historian) I have to tell you – seeing a finished product like this really makes me happy

The book has 200 images of Old California, dating from approximately 1850 to 1920, divided into four historic periods. I wrote each of the chapters as well as all of the captions. Chapters are

Exploration and Exultation! (1850-1869)
Civilization Comes West (1870-1889)
A Kinder, Gentler California (1890-1899)
From Disaster to Rebirth (1900-1920)

If you’re a Californian, I hope you pick up a copy of Historic Photos of California! And let me know what you think.

Should You Use a Pen Name?

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:00:06 +0000

3 Simple Steps to Getting Noticed Online (without shucking your jeans)

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:53:01 +0000

In the time that I’ve worked with authors and entrepreneurs, it’s clear that many of them think promoting their services or products online is too expensive. Fact is, it can be. Bad news is, spending big bucks on pay-per-click or advertising doesn’t always translate to online sales – at least not for the "ordinary Joe".

If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ll know that I’m keen on relationship marketing – building conversations with blog readers and site visitors, being your authentic self, and establishing yourself as a trusted expert.

Three quick and easy techniques I’ve used time and again are:

1. Blogging

2. Publishing on Amazon’s Kindle

3. Social networking

Here’s my quick take on each:

Blogging

For authors, blogging can be as second nature as breathing. For non-writers, blogging may be torture (that’s why you hire someone like me to write your posts!)

It’s well-known – search engines love blogs-particularly those that are updated at least a few times a week, and are filled with solid, no-B.S. content. Search engines swoop through blogs like bed bugs in the Bates Hotel–spidering content on a daily (or even more frequent) basis.

Entrepreneurs use blogs to build a solid readership, add to their e-mail lists, and get comments so meaningful it gives them plenty of ideas about which to write.

If you’re an author, build your blog readership BEFORE submitting a proposal. Book proposal committees love a built-in audience.

Cost: Zero, if you use a free blog service like Blogger.com or Wordpress.com

Publish on the Amazon Kindle Platform

Regardless of Sony and iPhone’s chest-beating about beating the Amazon Kindle in the digital reader wars, Amazon has one thing no one else has – access to more than 300,000 books and articles delivered wirelessly (immediately) to the Kindle.

Publish your articles or special reports to Kindle, and you will achieve INSTANT expert status. Remember – we ALL love to do business with the best!

Truthfully, Amazon did NOT make it easy for people to convert their own books and articles to Kindle format, but it’s doable. If you’re willing to do tech-stuff, you can do it yourself. I started converting my own work several months ago, and there is a learning curve.

The good news is, by converting your work to Kindle format, you can get your books, articles, and reports in front of Amazon’s 54.2 million monthly visitors. If the conversion process makes you want to shoot yourself, contact my amigo Steve (the Kindle Guy) and tell him Nancy sent you.

Cost: Zero, if you convert the work yourself.

Social Networking

Millions have jumped on the social networking bandwagon over the past few years. In fact, one person I know brags that he’s on 34 different social networks. Don’t know about you, but I’d rather be on the RIGHT three networks, than the 34 where my audience does NOT hang out!

How can you tell where to find your audience? Take an afternoon and cruise through MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Twitter, Tumblr, et al, and search for your target keywords. You’ll quickly discover which services house your audience; once discovered, devote your social networking time to that service only. Quality over quantity matters.

Seek out questions in your field and answer them. Remember, it’s about letting the world know that you’re the expert.

Cost: Zero

Review: How to Really Use LinkedIn

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:01:12 +0000

For the last several months I’ve realized that my LinkedIn strategy has been less than brilliant.

Translation: It totally sucks, lacks imagination and consistency, and serves my marketing efforts about as well as a bipolar Congress does the health care crisis.

Solution: Get over to Amazon and buy How to Really Use LinkedIn, by Jan Vermeiren, with the assumption that the author (a networking expert) really knows what he’s talking about . . . AND, the book is new enough to still be meaningful. Mission accomplished.

But, what did I learn?

Leverage the Power of LinkedIn
Although you can learn the basics of LinkedIn, the real power of Vermeiren’s book is using LinkedIn’s existing tools to leverage the power of the network. I think many of us solopreneurs sit out here in cyberspace, forgetting that every person we contact or who contacts us becomes part of our network. Imagine the most intricate spider web you ever saw out back in the garden.

Filled with advanced techniques as well as the fundamentals of effective networking – - this book preaches what I have long believed to be true – - building relationships begins with you, not the other guy. Reach out and help, and you’ll get more people reaching back to you than you thought possible.

I’m particularly fond of the charts on pages 31-33, that show at a glance which part of LinkedIn to use to accomplish specific goals. For example, if you want an introduction, use the introductions tool; if you want to maintain existing relationships use personal messages or share ideas in Discussions and Answers.

There are plenty of advanced strategies, with a separate section devoted to:

finding new customers
finding a new employee
finding a new job or internship
finding a new supplier or partnership
finding expertise

I also liked the section on free tools to use when working on LinkedIn, particularly browser toolbar and widgets.

I’ve already highlighted and side-noted my way through How to Really Use LinkedIn, and am calendar-ing how to best implement both basic and advanced strategies. Because I’m just starting out, I can’t speak to how effective the strategies will be, but I do feel for the first time that I’ve been able to wrap my head around more of LinkedIn than ever in the past.

Anyone else read this one? Would like to know what LinkedIn strategies you feel really helped.

5 Best Premium Wordpress Themes

Nancy Hendrickson — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:04:13 +0000

Over the years of pro blogging, I’ve tested hundreds of Wordpress Themes, many free and others fee-based. Although I’ve seen lots of posts about the best free themes, I rarely read any about premium themes.

Based on use for my own or client sites, these are my picks for the 5 best premium Wordpress themes:

Education (click here to see a modification for a prototype client site) $59.95
Thesis (the ultimate in WP theme flexibility) $87 for single use, $164 for unlimited (I picked this as I use Thesis on many client sites)
FastBlogger by RichWP $59.90
Black Canvas by StudioPress (excellent for photo blogs – I’ve just started developing this client site) $59.95
Life Series by iThemes (particularly suited to a showcase site) $79.95

Of these, Thesis offers (hands down) the most flexibility; move columns, resize columns, choose which pages and categories to display, plus you have an amazing ability to add images to the sidebars globally, or page-by-page.

I like FastBlogger for the graphical nature; we all love pictures, and the first thing you see on a site using the FastBlogger theme is a lot of colorful images. This one really grabs your attention.

The Education theme was incredibly easy to work with (as are all of Brian Gardner’s themes); it’s more convervative looking, but perfect for colleges or business clients.

I’ve been looking for a great photo gallery theme for a long time, and Black Canvas is the best of the breed. It’s easy to use, I love the black background – I feel it shows off images far better than white – and again, Brian Gardner simply designs some of the best, easy-to-use, professional themes.

Life Series (I especially like Grunge) has a clean look, great for minimal text, with a highly professional appearance. If your site doesn’t require a lot of words, I highly recommend all in this series.

Do you have a favorite premium theme? Let’s add to the list and get these great themes out into the hands of pro bloggers.

Kaizen is Everywhere!

Nancy Hendrickson — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:13:10 +0000

I was sitting in a nail spa in Tallahassee, getting ready for my Department of Defense Worldwide Conference in Atlanta, and while getting "million dollar red" on my tootsie nails, I was half-watching a swimming meet in Rome.

One of the U.S. women won an event (smashing a world record); when an interviewer asked what she had done to improve so much, she said she had worked on the "little things" like her turns. Just concentrating on small pieces of the bigger whole had helped her improve so much she obliterated the current record.

I’ve written about Kaizen many times – and while I logically understand the truisms about small steps, my emotional self wants results NOW! I’m wondering how other people make small strides, without abandoning them after a week in favor of going for the gold in big (un-Kaizen-ish) ways.

If you’ve solved this problem, leave a comment. I would really like to find a way to rein in this "must do it all now" monster.

What Do You Do If Something Leaves an “Aggressive” Comment on Your Blog?

Nancy Hendrickson — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:00:38 +0000

E-mail them and start a conversation.

This happened to me just yesterday (and it isn’t the first time). As I was reading back through comments left by readers of the NancyHendrickson.com blog, one comment stood out because of its "aggressive tone". I actually thought the reader had a good point, so I e-mailed him and started a conversation about his concerns. My initiating contact wasn’t some BS marketing strategy (if that’s what you’re thinking) – - it was just me wanting to understand why my reader was upset, and what I could do to fix the issue.

In the end, the issue was fixed, I learned something new, and hopefully a friendly relationship began.

Interacting with blog readers or Twitter followers, or Facebook fans is really nothing more complex than what we all do out here in real life. If I step on someone’s toes, either metaphorically or physically, I’m going to apologize and do my best to make it right. And sure, mabe it’s impossible to defuse all confrontational moments.

Insead of just blowing off someone’s concerns, why not see if the enmity can be switched off, and a little relationship building turned on.

Thanks for reading another of Nancy’s musings . . .

How Close We Were to a Failed Revolution

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:34:13 +0000

If you’ve read my blog or articles, you’ll have discovered my passion for American history – particularly the post-Civil War era on the frontier. In fact, my sister and I have built a Frontier Traveler blog about places we’ve been – and I’m sorry to admit that we struggle to find time to keep it up-to-date. Between us we have thousands of images that we want to use in blog posts – and we’ve promised each other that this Fall we’re going to set aside one night a week to keep the blog updated with fresh content. (In the meantime, check out our FrontierTraveler Photostream at Flickr)

I spent last weekend with two of my nieces in Philadelphia and the surrounding area, and was struck with how close America came to losing the War for Independence. With the might of the British Army and Navy thrown against Washington’s farmers and villagers, who would have bet on the boys in blue?

I’ll post more about this on the Traveler site, but for now just wanted to share my morning at Fort Mifflin on the Delaware.

If you’ve flown into Philadelphia and are sitting on the left side of the plan, you can see the fort just as you’re touching down. Mifflin is called "the fort that saved America" because in the winter of 1777, when the British occupied Philadelphia and Washington’s men were up against the wall, the men at Mifflin stopped British General Howe’s ships from sailing up the Delaware and delivering supplies to the occupying forces. For six weeks 240 British guns blasted away at the fort in what is called the greatest bombardment in North America.

Although the Fort was taken by the British, it held off long enough for Washington to get his army to Valley Forge and safety. For the colonists, that reprieve meant everything.

Doesn’t it amaze you how one little action (a small garrison holding off a fleet) can change the course of history? Kaizen theory in action.

Be Yourself, Even if you Have a Social Media Planner (Like Me)

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:51:48 +0000

You may be tired of my talking about the Obama campaign and social media – - but having followed the SMB (social media blitz) for several months, I knew these guys were the top guns for using various social media channels to get out the word about the candidate and get out the vote.

Now, as companies FINALLY get the idea that being on social media sites is critical, we’ve suffered through the good (the companies like the Boston burrito company who uses Twitter to give away discount coupons), and the ugly (you know who I mean – those people/companies that hammer you every blankety-blank day with nothing but links to stuff they’re selling.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah! – - I read a great post over at Twitip this morning on the importance of being you. Lots of companies (and very busy entrepreneurs) hire people to tweet or facebook for them (I’ve done some of that ghost-posting myself) – - but what they don’t seem to realize is no matter how good a writer I am (and my fifth book is coming out in August!), I do not have your heart, soul, or passion – - and while I will sound authentic in terms of my knowledge, tips, or discount offers, I believe a little "je ne sais quoi" magic is lost in the ghosting.

Is this post simply a self-serving push for my own social media marketing planner services? Not really. It’s just my voicing a fervent belief (for about the millionth time) that doing business – whether on Twitter or selling books out of the trunk of your car – is all about being your genuine self – - AND sincerely liking the guy who comes over and wants to talk to you about your product or service.

Start building relationships by being the real YOU – - I know it’s scary to be so self-revealing online (unless you’re an Ed Dale kind of guy) – - but in this Social Media Era (SME), it’s time to dump the mask and let us all know the real you. I’ll like you more for it – and you know we ALL want to do business with people we know and trust.

What do you think?

Apollo 11 Landing Anniversary

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:43:22 +0000

How well I remember this – - sitting at Camp Namanu outside of Portland, Oregon – no TVs allowed but someone brought in an old set and we rushed through dinner to watch the landing. I met 2 of the 12 moonwalkers – - James Irwin (Apollo 15) and Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14) - – - boy, did I want to go too.

Accused of Twitter Stalking!

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:06:09 +0000

I cracked up when I learned that a Twitter-newbie referred to me as a Stalker – - all because HE followed me, then weirded out when he read I was in his town! We had a laugh over this at dinner (Settimo Cielo — if you care to Google!), and decided that my role was far more a "chronicler" – - which my team tells me must be a euphemism for Stalker!

BTW- – at Settimo Cielo (7th Heaven), the food was some of the best Italian I’ve ever had (including eateries in San Diego’s Little Italy). One of the specials was a pasta/sausage/eggplant/garlic/onion, etc special – - everything sounded great but the sausage, and when I asked if they’d make me a vegetarian version, the waiter said "no problem". It was truly heavenly.

Wine: Heartily recommend the red Clo du Bois (a Sonoma, CA winery). We split a bottle between four of us – and it was a perfect pairing with our meal.

In Philadelphia

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:07:05 +0000

Just landed in Philadelphia, on way to pick up rental car to drive to Trenton for a 7 pm meeting.

Am pretty sure when we landed that the old buildings close to the end of the runway are Fort Mifflin. Gotta grab a couple of hours and get over there.

Royals Now on Twitter

Nancy Hendrickson — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:11:42 +0000

Want to know what the Royals are up to? (think garden parties, charity events, church services) Pop over to their British Monarchy page on Twitter. Already pulling in more than 2,7000 followers, the Royals follow no one (what a surprise) – - but do keep the rest of the world up-to-date on day-to-day life with the Prince, the Duke, the Queen, et al.

Don’t expect any re-tweets or trending topics from Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Charles. A palace spokeswoman says the account won’t be used to air personal opinions.

Darn.

How I Got on Page #1 of Google in 3 Days (there is no magic)

Nancy Hendrickson — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:01:34 +0000

My client is a college who markets to military students. Because of the new GI Bill going into effect August 1, 2009, there was a huge push in this industry to reach out to veterans who might be interested in getting a – - basically free – - education. My goal was to build the site around the keywords most applicable to the a) topic; and b) demographic.

On Monday, June 29, 2009, I purchased the domain name.

On Tuesday, June 30, 2009, I installed a Wordpress Blog and plugins and set up my Feedburner feed.

Components used were:

Education Theme by StudioPress
Akismet
Add to Facebook
Feedburner
Google Analytics for Wordpress
Google XML Sitemap
Khanh’s Quick Feeds (this allowed me to pull in a related RSS feed from Dept of Veterans Affairs)
Mobile Press (for viewing on mobile phone)
WP-Polls (which I may remove)
StatPress

The rest of Tuesday I started building out categories and content

On Wednesday, July 1, I added more content. By late Wednesday Google had indexed the site.

On Thursday, July 2, I added more content, and by Thursday afternoon the site was on page #1 of Google for 3 of my main keywords and on page #2 for the other 2 keywords.

By Friday, analytics showed that I was already getting search-engine based traffic.

What’s the Magic?

There is none. Are you disappointed? Don’t be, because if there is no magic, my success is duplicatable.

My thoughts about the quick success:

The site used Wordpress, which we know gets indexed quickly by Google
The site has a laser focus
My target demographic was well-defined (meaning I knew exactly what information they were seeking)
My content was totally relevant to my focus and demographic

I believe the key to quick indexing was using the Wordpress platform

and the keys to getting on page #1 for my keywords are:

a laser-focused site
knowing your demographic so well that you know exactly what information they need

Let me know what you think.

31 Days to a Better Blog Workbook – 25% discount today only

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:44:43 +0000

Darren Rowse over at Problogger is selling his 31 Days to a Better Blog Workbook at a 25-percent discount for the next 12 hours or so. Instead of $19.95, it’s $14.95.

Don’t know about Darren’s 31 days program? Click to read my review of 31 Days to a Better Blog Workbook (and the program).

Do You Yahoo! Best Answers?

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:10:55 +0000

I received an e-mail yesterday that one of my Yahoo! answers was picked as "the best" answer to a question about posting book excerpts on a blog (asked by a non-published author).

You probably already know this, but answering Yahoo! questions is one of the easiest ways to 1) get your name out there; and 2) get a backlink to your site from Yahoo!

I’ve received several "your answer was the best" kudos over the past few months–not because I’m a super smarty pants, but because I take the time to actually answer the question, friend-to-friend, as though there was no business involved at all.

I don’t like to spend a lot of my marketing time answering Yahoo! questions, but if I find I have a spare 15 minutes, I’ll surf through and see if there are questions I can answer.

If you want to add Yahoo! answers to your marketing bag-of-tricks, make sure you use the "advanced search" and check the radio button next to: Open Questions – Best answer has not been chosen.

Let me know if you already make Yahoo! answers part of your marketing routine – - I’m interested in your experience.

Do You Dog-Food Your Services and Products?

Nancy Hendrickson — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:08:38 +0000

Would you buy your own products?

I heard something yesterday that really got me thinking about this.

Someone called into A Way With Words–the National Public Radio show that discusses language, as in regional dialects, slang, word origins, grammar, and weird expressions–and asked about the use of "dog food" as a verb.

Apparently the term had its birth in the software/tech industry, and was used as a way of saying that software developers should actually use the products they were developing. Dog food (the verb) has evolved to mean "to use a product or service that was created by you."

That made me think about all of us who are out here on the Internet, creating services and products for the consumer market – - and it forced me to ask the question of myself: Do I dog food my own products and services? If I wasn’t writing my blog, or my books, or creating my videos, would I read me?

I don’t know why such a simple question has thrown me into such soul-searching because I work hard to create quality work. But it did . . . and I’m still pondering the question.

What do you think? Do you dog food your own products? Leave a comment and let me know.

Major Overhaul to Nancy Hendrickson (the site, not the woman!)

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:04:50 +0000

If you visit here over the next several days and see a "maintenance mode" note, thanks for returning just a bit later. I’m in the process of doing a major site renovation that more clearly defines my thoughts, products, services, and publications.

I’m working as fast as I can to complete the new "me" – - – since I now have my vanity Facebook url, I thought it was time to spiff up the rest of the me. You might already have noticed the new header and menu bar . . . . stay tuned amigas and amigos.

Hey – I’m curious – - did you get your Facebook URL? If so, leave a comment below with your new URL – - gain a few new friends, fans, or followers.

Twitter and the 87-Year-Old

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 05:30:34 +0000

Just one question.

How would you explain Twitter to an 87-year-old who has never used a computer? (Comments welcome!)

Can You Publish on Kindle and Make Money?

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:52:33 +0000

I saw a blog post today over at iReaderReview.com, asking if authors could make a decent living by Kindle publishing. The blog post author, switch11, said that “J. A. Konrath put up a post talking about how he’s making $1,250 a month off of his book’s sales – these are unpublished books that he’s giving away for free on his website and selling for $1.85 on the Kindle Store.”

One of the factors cited in how more Kindle authors can become “rich” is the (relatively) small number of Kindles currently on the market. Although Amazon won’t release sales figures, it’s estimated there are about a half-million Kindles currently in use.

I totally disagree that the number of Kindles sold will impact the possibility for author success. Why? Because when Amazon made a Kindle app for the iPhone, they opened up the Kindle store to more than 20 million new readers.

It’s not the number of Kindles on the market, it’s how well you’re marketing to people who have access to the Kindle store.

What do you think?

Prepping for a Book Launch

Nancy Hendrickson — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:08:24 +0000

I launched my 2009 by signing a contract to write the chapters and captions for a soon-to-be-released title, Historic Photos of Old California. Today, I received an author questionnaire from the publisher’s Marketing Dept, getting more info for the press release and asking if I had a preference for a book launch site.

As the book covers the history of California from 1850 to 1920, I wanted one of San Diego’s many historic sites to host the book launch, and suggested one of the buildings in San Diego’s Old Town State Historic Park (possibly the haunted Whaley House), the historic sailing ship Star of India, or Balboa Park’s Museum of Man.

No word yet on where the festivities will occur . . . but if you’re in San Diego and want to attend be sure to let me know and I’ll put you on my special invite list.

Although this is the fifth book I’ve authored, it’s my first true launch party (isn’t that a crying shame!) – - so I’m jazzed to have a publisher (Turner) who rolls out the red carpet, and knows how to have a little fun!

Stay tuned . . .

Personal E-mails or an Autoresponder?

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:02:20 +0000

If you were browsing in a bookstore and the person next to you – - let’s call him Leo – - picked up a book you had written, you’d probably tell him you were the author, and before long a full-blown conversation would be in the works.

Leo would ask you about writing the book, you’d ask Leo about his interests . . . and a connection between the two of you would be established. This doesn’t guarantee Leo will buy your book, but it does guarantee he’ll remember you.

Answering potential client e-mails works the same way. While autoresponders are effective tools, I don’t believe they can replace a personalized e-mail when a “Leo” is inquiring about your services. I would rather cut and paste the “canned” info into a personalized e-mail rather than having everyone who asks about my services get an autoresponder response.

Getting personal is part of relationship marketing.

Relationship Marketing in Action

I got an e-mail a couple of days ago asking about my book-to-Kindle conversion and marketing services. Although my response contained the basic “canned” information about my services and fees, I looked for a way (as I always do) to make a more personal connection.

In this case, I noticed from his area code that he lived in a city I had recently visited. In the e-mail I told him that I had just been there, a few of the things I had seen, and how much I’d enjoyed the trip. Can you guess what his response was?

Yes, he signed up for my service . . . . but just as importantly he told me how much he appreciated my “friendly” e-mail. When he needs more Kindle or book marketing services, do you think he’ll come back to me? I’d bet on it.

One Last Thought: Being Genuine

My “friendly” response to potential clients is genuine; yes, I believe it’s good marketing, but I also think if you try to cram B.S. “warm and fuzzies” into these types of e-mails, the client will know it’s bogus. I’m pretty good at spotting an insincere salesman, aren’t you?

How do you handle those incoming letters of inquiry? Autoresponder or personal response. Do you believe you can build rapport with an autoresponder? Love to hear your thoughts.

Your Book is on Amazon . . . Now What?

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:34:52 +0000

Although getting your book on Amazon may seem like the Holy Grail of authordom, it’s really just the end of the writing stage and the first step of the marketing phase—an arena most authors shun with great dislike and/or disdain.

One of my recent clients (an entrepreneur selling a well-written how-to manual via the Kindle Store), asked me for a few marketing ideas he could do on his own. The easiest task, I told him (and one of the most effective) was getting several positive reviews for his Amazon Kindle book. My suggestion was to send e-copies to colleagues and friends, asking them to give the book a run-through and then post a review.

Do your friends actually have to read the book to give it a review? Well, no. But the plus of giving them a copy is:

They may catch some doofus mistake you made, saving you the embarrassment of a book buyer who revels in pointing out the dumb stuff they find in a review that will NEVER GO AWAY.
With a copy in hand, they can write a much more detailed review because they have all of the info at hand – not just the bits you tell them about
If your book is on a topic of interest to your friends, they’ll probably write a far more enthusiastic review because it’s something they actually care about.

Positive reviews – in my opinion – have accounted for dozens of my own book and article sales. Think about it – if you’re unsure about buying a particular book, don’t YOU read the reviews? I know I do.

Getting positive Amazon reviews is the least of your book marketing efforts – what else can you do? Stay tuned . . . and if you feel like commenting, I’d love to hear your Amazon book review technique suggestions.

10 Free Resources for Copyright-Free Images for Your E-Book

Nancy Hendrickson — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:05:28 +0000

Bureau of Land Management
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
Department of Defense
Images of American Political History
National Park Service Archives
National Park Service Historic Photo Collection
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Department of the Navy
Ansel Adams Manzanar Photos (I used one of these for my Kindle article on writing memoirs)
Stock.xchng (some free, some paid)

Review: 31 Days to a Better Blog Workbook

Nancy Hendrickson — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:33:52 +0000

When Darren Rowse of Problogger ran his (I hope annual) 31 Days to a Better Blog Challenge, I immediately jumped into the fun. Because Darren is one of the most financially successful bloggers on the ‘net, I knew his advice was 1) valuable; and 2) valuable! I stayed with the challenge through the whole 31 days, even though there were days I had to play catch-up, and days I had to miss altogether. And even though I’ve been blogging for a long time, Darren had brilliant ideas that I wouldn’t have thought of–at least not in the near now. Because Darren received so many requests, he put the entire 31 Days to a Better Blog into a PDF workbook form, and is currently selling it for $19.95. I bought a copy today, ran through the entire 94 pages, with these thoughts. (and if you’re asking why I would buy a workbook when I already have all the information, here’s why: I’m printing the workbook, then popping it into a three-ring binder with tabs for each of the 31 days – that way I can go through the workbook daily, checking off daily tasks, and at the end of each month, wash, rinse, repeat.

Review: 31 Days to a Better Blog Workbook

I like that Darren began by telling readers the purpose of the workbook (sold in PDF format): "The idea is simple. By the end of this challenge you’ll have learned 31 aspects of blogging and put them into practice. It is designed not only to fill your head with knowledge ABOUT blogging but also give you some concrete things to do to actually DO something with the knowledge." Each day consists of a blogging technique, examples, and a task. Some days the tasks will take you a couple of hours, other days only a few minutes. I like that Darren gives solid, concrete examples for each lesson. For example, on day one (write an elevator pitch), he tells you the exact

short and long versions of his own elevator pitches. If, at the end of the 31 days, you want to continue the challenge with more advanced techniques, Darren has a link to a newsletter that has occasional updates on the most important developments in terms of tools and resources to help you improve your blogging. In addition to the lesson, samples and tasks, Darren also includes a Notes section; this section typically includes more tips, other examples – - generally a place for more detailed information about the day’s lesson. Would I recommend the 31 Days to a Better Blog Workbook? I found the daily lessons to be valuable resources for building my own blogs, improving my blog techniques, and crystalizing my brand. The Workbook closely followed the lessons, but in putting the Workbook together, Darren cleaned up the lessons, added new material (and bonus material) – - even adding 6,000 new words of content. I think the Workbook is well-worth the $19.95; if you have a blog and want more traffic, exposure, or readership, I believe the Workbook is invaluable. Darren is one of the most respected bloggers around, and when he tells you how to improve your traffic and readership, you know his advice is based on real-life experience, not theory. So, if driving traffic to your blog is your goal, pop over and pick up the Workbook today. I suggest printing it out, getting it bound, or putting it in a 3-ring binder. But don’t stop there – - actually DO the tasks daily – - and I bet if you check your analytics on day 1 and your analytics on day 31 you’ll see an increase. I’m tracking my own traffic through the month of June – and will post a report in 30 days.

The Age of the E-Book: Opportunities for the Digital Entrepreneur

Nancy Hendrickson — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:21:07 +0000

Will E-Books Rule Them All?

Do you remember in Lord of the Rings how the Age of the Elves was ending as the Age of Man began? I think we’re seeing the same colossal change as the Publishing Empires of Old fade (so sorry, Elron), and the Era of Digital Media blossoms.

E-books have long been the step-child of the publishing world; tolerated to a degree, but looked down upon by those who wrote and published “real books”. With the launch of Amazon’s Kindle 1, 2, and now DX (and of course, Sony and Plastic Logic), not only are “real books” available in digital format, but anyone who wants to write an e-book can knock one off in an afternoon, publish on Lulu, Kindle, or their own site and (in effect) toss a virtual rock through Barnes and Noble’s front window, along with a note declaring “just try to keep me out!”

So how can an author or entrepreneur benefit?

There has never been a time in the history of man (or elves) with such an information-hungry audience. As infopreneur Eben Pagan notes in one of his vids, we have left the culture of manual labor behind and have moved into the era of “mind-work”. And with that era comes the need for information—and lots of it.

For you authors reading this, that means more and more eyes on your work (and hopefully bucks in your pocket).

For entrepreneurs, the outlets for digital media provide you a) a legitimacy that comes with having your name on a published work; b) cash; and (perhaps the most important) c) being seen as an authority in your field. Why? Look at the “authority” figures in your own industry – - you listen to what they say, you read their blogs and newsletters, and buy their products, hoping to emulate their success.

Plus (and this is a bonus) – - when media folks search Google for an expert in a field and your name keeps coming up, who do you think they’re gonna call?

[note: Because I'm known in a particular little niche (Internet genealogy), I've been interviewed by the New York Times, Kiplinger's, Better Homes and Gardens, plus numerous websites). Trust me . . . it PAYS to be seen as the industry expert.]

Action Steps

I loathe going to meetings and coming out without any action steps, so:

1. Dust off the articles, special reports, or books launguishing on your computer

2. Polish, edit, update

3. Sell on your site, format for Kindle, and pop them up on Lulu.

4. Let everyone you know that you have valuable information for sale.

5. Once your stuff is on Kindle, gets your pals to leave you a glowing review on your Amazon page.

6. Wash, rinse, repeat

Would You Sell Your Blog on Amazon’s Kindle? Join the Debate

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:17:05 +0000

I wrote a few days ago about the new program Amazon is offering to bloggers: Fill out a form, get approved, and sell your blog content on the Amazon Kindle platform.

(In brief, Amazon pays you 30-percent of the price THEY set for your blog, most starting in the $1.99 a month range.)

Now, two long-time literary bloggers who signed up for the program aren’t convinced of the merits of the program – but they’re taking a “wait and see” stance.

Lit blogger Maud Newton commenting on the GalleyCat blog wrote that “I don’t like the 70-30 revenue split. But I also can’t understand why people would pay for subscriptions when they can get the content for free online.” (Maybe because when you’re stuck in an airport, Maud, and don’t have a computer, you want to read blog posts on your Kindle!)

Levi Asher also had reservations, but he sees the Kindle as a machine that’s here to stay, so added his blog to the program.

I just added this blog to the program, so don’t have enough time on board to have an opinion. However, I do own two Kindles (v1 and v2) and based on Amazon’s commitment to the machine, I don’t see it folding up and disappearing into the night. Plus, as a Kindle reader myself, I’m often places without a computer, but I do have my Kindle in my bag – - so why NOT pay a buck 99 a month to read my favorite blog? I’m all for the program.

If you’ve signed up for the Kindle Blog Program, leave a comment below – - would really like to hear your thoughts about the program.

Review: Article Marketing: Take the 90 Articles in 90 Day Article Challenge

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:42:02 +0000

My colleague Rob Schultz has created the 90 Articles in 90 Days Article Traffic Challenge, and it’s open right now. Class starts on June 10, but Rob’s Early Bird Special (save 50 bucks) closes down at midnight Tuesday (May 26). Although I’ve written articles professionally for more than 15 years, I decided to take Rob’s last 90 Day Article Challenge to personally experience the program.

I can unequivocally say that the benefits I received from this traffic-boosting course were worth far more than the cost of the course (and the course is very affordable).

Using what you learn in the course, in less than 3 months it can help you transform your hard earned experience into hordes of new prospects eager to discover what you offer . . . and eager to buy!

It leverages the viral, social nature of the web to multiply your efforts many times over. It provides a simple system you can use to attract prospects not only months but years into the future. And it supplies under-the-radar secrets that trigger a never-ending traffic torrent you could not turn off . . . even if you wanted to.

Yes, the course taught me tons of article template s, lessons on crafting great titles, and Rob’s “hidden secrets” for creating many products from a single article. Better yet, after a small business owner read one of my articles he e-mailed me to book my Kindle formatting service. Not a bad return from one articles.

If you’re serious about marketing your business or book, click the 90 Day Article Challenge link and watch Rob’s video. I think you’ll be just as impressed as I was.

Good luck with the course.

SEO Content: Are you serving your clients a pain pill or a vitamin?

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:52:48 +0000

I talked to a web designer yesterday about a client we both share; unfortunately through her design time and my blog consulting time, we realized this client was going to fall into the “why aren’t I getting more traffic – my website has been up two weeks!” category.

That led, as many of these talks do, to a discussion of SEO content.

Like many website owners, our client didn’t want to invest any cash into even basic SEO tweaks, didn’t care about looking at site statistics (and even fought us on installing Google Analytics) . . . but worse (IMHO) was their inability to comprehend that they were writing “vitamin” content instead of “pain pill content”.

Huh?

Vitamin content is good stuff – but doesn’t solve a problem, and pain pill content serves up info that solves a problem.

For example: If I were writing about flying a stunt kite, vitamin content would tell you the benefits of being outside, the fun of stunt kite flying, or the history of stunt kites.

Pain pill content would show you how to put a stunt together together without tearing out your hair, or how to do loop-de-loops without killing innocent bystanders with an out-of-control kite!

Simple concept, eh? But one we often forget because we get so wrapped up in the theory, not the “how to”.

Want more examples? Check out Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits blog – - notice how many “pain pills” he writes about, i.e. How to Make Gmail Your Ultimate Productivity Center. Since most of us use Gmail, and most of us have time challenges, Leo’s post had information that solved e-mail overload and time deficit – - pretty good post don’t you think?

Does this give you an idea for writing some of your own articles or blog posts? Comment below – what’s your best pain pill?

(And if this “pain pill” concept is yours please contact me – it’s great stuff, but I can’t remember where I first heard about it!)

Bloggers: Get Published on Amazon’s Kindle

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:54:09 +0000

Amazing, fantastic, fun, exciting . . . news from Amazon: Bloggers can now (once approved) sell a subscription to their blogs on the Amazon Kindle platform.

You can now publish your blog (or any RSS feed) for sale on the Amazon Kindle store and Amazon will share revenue with you for every Kindle user who subscribes to your feed. And no, you don’t get to price your blog at a thousand bucks a pop, but Amazon will pay you a fixed 30-percent share of whatever your revenue your blog generates.

Here’s How to Publish Your Blog on Kindle

Fill out this form, add the RSS feed of your blog and submit.

Add as many blogs or news feeds to your account as you want.

Once Amazon approves your blog, it will be available to Kindle users on the Amazon Store and also Amazon Associates.

What else do you need to do?

Take an 800x 600 screenshot image of your Blog home page and 430×50 banner or logo of your blog.

Masthead/Banner: The masthead/banner image size should not exceed 430×50 pixels and should be in the file format, GIF, JPEG, TIFF or BMP. The file size of the image should be under 1 MB.

Screenshot: This is the image Amazon.com customers will see while viewing your blog on Amazon.com site. You need to provide a screenshot with a minimum size 800×600 pixels with a GIF, JPEG, TIFF, BMP are accepted image formats. Also make sure that the file size of the image is under 1 MB.

Kindle Blogs are auto-delivered wirelessly to the Kindle and updated throughout the day. Unlike RSS readers which sometimes only displays headlines, your blog on Kindle displays full text content and most images.

Get out there and start blogging!

Brainstorm Niche Keywords with Google’s Wonder Wheel

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:01:06 +0000

Want to brainstorm new niche keywords? Pop over and try out Google’s amazing "Wonder Wheel" – - a virtual mindmapping tool that digs into Google’s brain and pulls out related keywords.

Type in your search phrase using the standard Google search box. Next, on the left under the Google logo, click the link that says Show Options. At the bottom of that list is the link to Wonder Wheel – you can’t miss it – they used Google’s circus colors for the letters. Once you click the Wonder Wheel you’ll see your central keyword (search term) surrounded by spokes with related keywords. Click any of the related keywords and Google will dig deeper and deeper into your niche, returning more keywords. How far down will Google dig? If you keep clicking, Google keeps looking.

Explore the Copywriter’s Brain

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:41:27 +0000

Want to hear something just a *bit* crazy from my friend (and incredible copywriter) Derek Franklin?

Here goes…

Today may be the day to:

* Put your entire collection of copywriting books up for sale
on eBay
* Cancel your plans to attend that annual copywriting seminar
* Turn your stack of copywiting DVDs into drink coasters
* Clean your browser of every last copywriting blog, article,
and site you’ve bookmarked over the years

Have I lost my mind, you ask?

Not at all.

It’s not what I’ve lost that makes me say these things, it’s what I’ve found.

It’s something I can only describe as the closest thing to a treasure map for copywriters I’ve ever seen.

Here’s the brief story behind what I’m talking about…

Derek recently set out on a mission to learn everything about copywriting he possibly could.

He bought gobs of books, expensive training courses, DVDs, and even tore through the Web looking for anything he could find related to the art of copywriting.

In the process of his journey, he:

* Collected all the best copywriting tips, techniques and
concepts
* Eliminated all the fluff
* Eliminated all the redundant stuff (there was a lot)

And, here’s the BIGGIE…

* Organized all he had learned and collected into one of
the most unique and useful documents for learning
the art of copywriting that you’ll likely see for a
long time

I can say without a doubt that it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen!

Derek calls it (appropriately), The Copywriter’s Brain.

It would be virtually impossible for me to try and describe here what it is and how it’s used.

Fortunately, Derek’s put together a short video tour inside The Copywriter’s Brain.

If copywriting is part of your business or livelihood, then you’ve GOT to check it out by clicking this link to view the video now.

I purchased The Copywriter’s Brain today – - and will write a full review in the next couple of days. I believe I own every piece of software Derek has ever written, and have never been disappointed. More later.

Why I Love Derek Franklin’s The Action Machine

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:37:16 +0000

Derek Franklin’s software first came across my radar years ago with the release of Search Automator Pro. At the time, I was doing a lot of research – particularly for images – and Search Automator really sped up my online research time.

Yesterday, Derek released The Action Machine, a "get more done" timer that allows users to create specific tasks, set a time to accomplish them, and then be alerted when the time is up. If you’re thinking "oh great, just another timer", hang on – cause Derek’s software goes above and beyond. (Price is $27) Here’s the deal: I work on multiple projects throughout the day (like most of us).

For some of my projects, I need to keep close track of my hours because my clients have specified how many hours they want to allot for certain tasks. For other projects (like my own marketing or business development), I could spend hundreds of hours without accomplishing much because I bop from task to task. Unfortunately, I am not the world’s most organized person – I’m far better on the creative end of the process. That’s why I was so drawn to The Action Machine.

The Action Machine really forces me to 1) decide what tasks I need to accomplish today; 2) give them a finite beginning and end; and 3) do them! Today was the first day I put the software into use and I’ve already accomplished several tasks that have been hanging for a week or so. If you click on the screenshot to enlarge, you’ll see that not only did I get my laundry done ! – but also worked on client projects and this afternoon will start the timer on some of my own business projects.

You can use Derek’s default task list that includes items like "eat lunch", "read", "check e-mail", or "grocery shop"; or you can add your own items to the list, delete the default and create a new one, or use a combination of Derek’s list plus your added items. Watch the video to learn how to add occasional or one-time tasks to the timer without making them a part of the default list. Like Search Automator Pro, The Action Machine is a simple piece of software that allows users to complete complex tasks. Everything Derek creates is easy-to-use, highly functional, and priced so low that I’m not sure how he feeds the family! And, because I am an advocate of transparency in business, the link to The Action Machine is an affiliate one. And whether you purchase through that link or not, I hope you pop for the $27 bucks and use this piece of software to increase your productivity.

Why Smart Marketers Must Publish on Amazon’s Kindle

nancy — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 03:54:35 +0000

If you’re selling a service or product and not self-publishing on Amazon’s Kindle platform, you’re not leveraging one of the Internet’s traffic giants.

With more than 54 million hits a month, Amazon is the ultimate traffic-driver; even if you never own a Kindle why n ot get your e-books, special reports, or killer articles into Amazon’s Kindle store. Not only will it make you a few bucks, it will position you as an authority in your field.

Let’s face it – if we see someone’s name on a book, or for sale on Amazon, we take it for granted that the person who wrote it is an expert!

I’m not going to run on about the current economy or feed you a line about making millions. But I am going to tell you I think Kindle, when used as a marketing tool, will be one of the biggest buzzes in 2009. No bull. Here’s the deal:

* very few people are even aware of this technique
* you’ll be one of the few smart ones who jumped on the bandwagon as an early adopter
* if anyone is going to learn how to do this right, better you than your competitor

Here’s Why It’s Imperative You Publish on Kindle

When your Kindle marketing materials (i.e. e-books or reports) are sold through the Kindle store, they will appear in Amazon’s search results, just like a “real book.”

Stop a second and think about what that means! If you write an article (not a book) and sell it in Kindle format, you have as much a shot at Amazon’s 54.2 million monthly visitors as the guy who wrote a “real book” on the same topic.

Will everyone who sees your “book” buy it? No, of course not – because right now less than one million people own Kindles (by latest estimates). BUT, the cover you design and your book’s description will include your website URL – you WILL get traffic ported over from Amazon.

Are you getting how important this is?

Yes – it’s fantastic to sell your article to Kindle readers, but the real hidden gem (and I mean HIDDEN!) is that you can write an article, upload it in Kindle format, and it will have the same “apparent value” as a print book. Why? Because as soon as your Kindle “book” is published, you’ll get your friends to get over to Amazon and leave glowing reviews.

Within five days of publishing my article on Kindle, it ranked #15 in the Kindle store self-help/creativity category and #30 in ALL Amazon books on blogging! How fantastic is that!

Plug Into a Whole New Demographic

Kindle owners are a whole new demographic for your business – - and getting your marketing message in front of them is

1. Easy
2. Cheap
3. Effective

Successful Internet marketers publish on Kindle to get their business in front of Amazon’s 54.2 million visitors – - even if “only” less than a million people own a Kindle.

Here’s how to get your piece of the Amazon Traffic Pie

The 3 Steps to Successful Kindle Marketing

1. Write a killer article that revolves around your business. No PLR, no fluff, no off-the-cuff crap. I mean an article crammed with “you are never going to find this valuable information anywhere else on Earth” brilliance.

2. Somewhere in the article (front page, middle, back page) tell the reader about you and your business. Be sure to add your contact info, Website URL, etc. But don’t scream SALES SALES SALES! or you’ll be really, really sorry! Think of this as an opportunity to build your expert status.

3. Get yourself a Kindle account (they’re free), a book cover design, and then convert and upload the article to your account. Your new marketing materials have just launched.

“Is it really that easy?” Absolutely.

Converting Your Article to Kindle Format

To upload to Kindle, you’ll need to format your article so Kindle can properly read them. You can absolutely do this for free and by yourself. When you open a Kindle account, there’s a free FAQ on formatting. I won’t B.S. you – their FAQs are pretty awful – but if techie stuff doesn’t bother you, you’ll be fine.

If you need help, go to Kindilicious.com and e-mail me and I’ll get you through the whole process.

*To set up an Amazon account, you must have a US bank account and a US SSN, EIN or TIN. If you are not in the U.S., don’t despair! I can publish your materials under my own account. Let’s talk!

Amazon Releases Kindle for iPhone

Nancy Hendrickson — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:26:16 +0000

On Tuesday, March 3, Amazon announced the Kindle App for iPhone and iTouch users – opening the flood gates for Internet marketers to get their digital media (e-books, reports, articles) in front of 80 million users – - compared to the mere half-million who own the Kindle electronic reading device.

The App, a free download from the App Store, gives iPhone and iTouch users the opportunity to download books from their Amazon accounts. The Kindle app will also sync your place to Amazon’s servers, allowing you to switch between the iPhone and Kindle hardware without losing track of where you are.

As an avid proponent of publishing on the Kindle as a marketing technique, I was thrilled to see the App hit the iPhone demographic – one that, for many Internet marketers, is their target market.

Come on gang, don’t delay on this one. You have GOT to get your digital media on the Kindle. Contact me and let’s discuss how many of your e-books or reports we can format for the Kindle – and how quickly we can get your name on Amazon and begin branding you as an authority in your field.

Is Kindle 2 As Good As Advertised? My Vote is Yes!

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:54:25 +0000

My Kindle 2 arrived a few days ago, with a slender Amazon box, holding a heavy black sleeve interior packaging and a carton cradling the slimmest Kindle imaginable. I’d seen photos, of course, but was surprised how lightweight the new Kindle really is. To be honest, I never had a problem with Kindle 1’s size or weight, although I was among the chorus shouting to Amazon to moved those damned buttons so I didn’t keep inadvertently turning pages!

When I pulled the Kindle 2 out, it was clear the page turning buttons were far superior as well as the navigation – - morphing from a weird silver blob in K1 to a nifty 5-way joystick in K2. Best yet is the speed. K1 moved along at a nice even speed, but the K2 burns rubber. When you have as many books on your machine as I do (more than 25 pages of listings) navigation speed counts.

Playing with K2, I was curious to learn more about the text-to-speech function, which basically turns the Kindle into a books-on-tape reading machine. However, I’ve recently learned that because of copyright issues, Amazon has to get publishers’ permission before automatically making their books available via voice. As an Internet marketer who publishes on the Kindle primarily to publicize my business, I’m all for delivering my message in as many ways as possible.

As I have time to run the K2 through its paces, I’ll let you know if it stands the test of night-after-night of skipping from book to book, jumping ahead and back inside several books, highlighting pages and making lots of notes.

Can You Measure ROI of Social Media Marketing?

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:55:30 +0000

An online quipster poised the question: “How do you measure the return on investment (ROI) of social media marketing?” He then answered his own question with “You don’t.”

Fortunately, that’s not exactly true.

As businesses scramble to set up Facebook, Twitter and MySpace pages, analysts are scrambling to discover how impactful their company’s SMM has been. For some, the answer is “we can’t measure this,” but others believe there are statistics that reflect their SMM’s effect.

As Aaron Uhrmacher, the guru of social media, recently said in an article on Mashable, “Social media measurement is one of those topics about which everyone has an opinion, but nobody agrees on the solution.” His suggestion – - as a beginning point – - is to simply decide on what to measure.

What’s Your Social Media Marketing Goal?

If your goal is to increase your reputation–get potential clients talking about you in a positive manner – - then get out onto the social media sites and monitor what’s being said about you.

In a brief run-through searching Twitter, I found some very mean-spirited comments about a specific entrepreneur’s e-mail campaign. At another site, a customer was complaining that it took days for a company’s customer service department to contact her . . . leading her to wonder if she was dealing with a real company or a scammer.

In both instances, a social media point of contact–shall we call it a czar?! - could have reached out to customers via direct message or e-mail and turned a damaging situation into a win-win. After all, social media is about “social” – - building relationships.

If your goal with your SMM is to measure traffic, then setting up a solid analytics program that tracks incoming links will tell you if your visitors are coming from Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Although Google Analyltics are excellent (and free), we also suggest Xinu, a free site that tells how your website is doing in terms of search engines, search engine optimization, social bookmarking, RSS, and other social indicators.

Measuring ROI on social media marketing isn’t a precise science; but what we know for sure is that businesses and entrepreneurs need to have a success metric in mind before jumping into the game.

IBM VP on Social Media

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:28:59 +0000

I had the opportunity yesterday to sit in on a 90-minute presentation by Sandy Carter, an IBM VP who spoke about social media marketing. I wanted to share some of my take-away gems (hint, the biggie is at the bottom):

Marketing 2.0 is a combination of social media and traditional marketing channels
The “secret sauce” is the right mix of of marketing venues, all dependent on your goals
In a poor economy, you can move customers through the buying cycle faster
It’s critical to monitor and respond to buzz about you or your business
Look for opportunities to provide a human face to your brand
Look for opportunities to interact with your audience
Companies need to focus on loyalty to customers
You statisticians this is huge for you: track what’s valuable, not what’s measurable

All valuable – - but what really hit home for me was the same thing I’ve been telling you for months – - it’s all about relationship building. Ms. Carter said we’re moving away from the concept of B2B and B2C. What’s really happening is P2P . . . . . PERSON TO PERSON. (was nice to get validation from a Big Blue VP!)

Note: Presentation was via MarketingProfs

Lack of Knowledge Seen as Most Significant Barrier to Social Media Adoption

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:41:40 +0000

This just in from Marketing Sherpa (and reprinted with their permission)

“The most significant barrier to social media adoption named by 46% of respondents to a MarketingSherpa survey is “lack of knowledgeable staff” – whether an organization has used social media marketing and PR or not.

A danger to the effective adoption of social media as a marketing strategy is the large percentage of those who consider themselves knowledgeable – but have no social media experience.

Two-thirds of marketers at organizations that have not used social media marketing or PR said they are “very” or “somewhat” knowledgeable about the subject. Without social media experience, however, this level of knowledge is unlikely. It may be the reason “lack of knowledgeable staff” is seen as the most significant barrier.

There is good news, though. Lessons come fast once an organization engages with social media. Until those lessons are learned, though, initial missteps could lead to marketers abandoning the program.

A stagnant Facebook group doesn’t mean that ‘social media just isn’t for us’ – it simply suggests that there’s more to learn. Over the next several weeks, we’ll explore social media with charts from MarketingSherpa’s upcoming report.”

Nancy’s Take
The majority of my clients – particularly those in higher education – suffer from both lack of knowledge and inability to track ROI. In fact, I’ve spent three months trying to pry analytics out of one college client; their delay isn’t because they don’t want to share, but because no one knows where to find them!

Of all industries, higher education should (IMHO) be the ones on the front line of the social media revolution . . . after all, it’s where their target market lives. I’m sharing this chart with my client and hoping it will prompt a little action on their part. As the report shows, just because the initial Facebook page isn’t getting any love doesn’t mean to ditch it – but rather to pay attention to it!

Review: Article Marketing Just Got a Whole Lot Easier with Answer Analyst

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:00:54 +0000

I just purchased a new piece of software by Jonathan Leger called Answer Analyst. What’s it do? The user enters a keyword or keyword phrase, and the software goes out on the Internet, searching for the most common questions “real people” are asking about the topic. Can you imagine how much easier this is going to make writing relevant content on your site, blog, or in articles?

As a major article writer and article marketing geek, I plunked down my $77 as fast as I could, and then took this baby out for a spin.

Am I happy with it? You bet.

First, let me tell you WHY you want this

It you need content of any kind (articles, blogs, site, sales page) Answer Analyst will tell you exactly what your client/customer/consumer wants to know about what you do. (and this works even if you have an offline business)

For example, pretend you own a bricks and mortar “pest control” business and want to beef up your website with more relevant information so 1) your site will be found; and 2) you’ll get more customers.

. . . and now how it works

I entered “pest control” as a keyword phrase and within 3 seconds Answer Analyst popped out a whole list of questions, such as “is the landlord responsible for pest control”, and “what is biological pest control”.

But, as the Ginzu knife guy said, but wait, there’s more!

Highlight any of the answers being asked, click “Get Answers” and Answer Analyst surfs the net and pulls back information from other Websites about your topic. You can then save that info as part of your research, then write an article about it. At this point, not only do you know what info your customer wants, you have plenty of research material to write about it!

To Buy or Not to Buy?

I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly creating new content . . . not only for my own sites but for my clients as well. Having instant access to the questions people want answered about ANY TOPIC . . . and then having access to instant research is a no-brainer for me. I bought it this morning and it’s already saved me $250 of my own time in researching keywords and then researching the topics I need to write about. Probably the best $77 bucks I’ve spent.

Grow Your Business with Kaizen Strategies

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 05:55:44 +0000

Grow your business with kaizen strategies

For me, 2009 is the year of focus aided by the Kaizen Philosophy—a way of being that encourages small, continuous improvement.

Although generally associated with post-World War II Japanese industrial recovery, Robert Maurer, author of One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, noted that kaizen has its origins in Training Within Industries (TWI), a post-Depression era methodology of making continuous improvement.

As World War II hit America, factories were tasked to increase production, while at the same time losing factory workers to military service. Instead of making radical changes to the factory processes, workers were tasked with making small continuous changes. For example, if a factory line had 100 different processes, the goal was to make one small change per process. The results of WWII factory production is legendary.

Kaizen and Your Business
We human have big goals. When we diet we want to instantly lose 20 pounds. When we start an exercise program we want to run a half-marathon. When we start an online business, we want 10,000 people to sign up for our mailing list on day one.

What happens when the pounds don’t come off so easily, or a month goes by and only 5 people sign up for your mailing list? The natural temptation is to give up – - to reach for the Snickers, or to jump to another “instant success” business idea.

When meeting a client for the first time, I do my best to manage their expectations—for example, to let them know that they are not going to get effective articles for their article marketing campaign if they pay $5 each and have them written by a non-English speaker. The client may not like paying more for articles, but over time they have proof (through analystics and conversion) that the better content brings the better business result.

In terms of our own businesses, what do you think about mananging our own expectations but drafting a Kaizen-inspired blueprint for our businesses? What would that look like? Maybe

•    5 new mailing list sign-ups this week
•    8 the following week
•    12 the following week
•    18 the following week
•    24 the next week

Not very sexy, but by following the Kaizen philosophy, you will experience steady, continuous growth.

How else to apply Kaizen?
What if you focused on the small continuous improvements that will bring in one excellent client this month.

Or, if you wrote an update to your last e-book and re-releasied it at a discount to everyone on your list?

Or what if you spent one hour once a week calling or e-mailing your existing clients? Or 15 minutes?

It’s these small continuous improvements in your processes that will bring changes of legendary proportion.

What 2009 Continuous Improvements Will You Make?
As we swing in

to 2009, my small continuous improvements will be in the area of article writing and high touch customer service.

How about you? Please leave your comments -

: Grow your business with kaizen strategies

Why Relationship Marketing is an Important for You as for President Obama

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:44:13 +0000

I spent the last two weekends before the 2008 Presidential election in Florida, the state made famous by the 2000 “hanging chad” debacle.

While there, I had the opportunity to witness first-hand the grassroots organization built by the Obama campaign. I realized then that Obama was a master at relationship marketing.

Relationship marketing is a form of marketing that focuses on customer retention and satisfaction, rather than the “make a sale” transactional marketing. Relationship marketing recognizes the value of keeping current customers, versus the cost of constantly trolling the waters for new customers.

In Obama’s case, relationship marketing took the form of getting out the vote; specifically voters who fell within the target demographic, but who hadn’t voted for years. In effect, these voters were “current customers” in that they were registered Democrats, but in past years hadn’t made the relationship connection enough to cast a vote.

In 2008, the Obama team (at least the one I witnessed in Florida) used every campaign minute left to get out the vote; to encourage voters to take advantage of early voting, to give rides, to station attorneys in poor, rural areas where intimidation might be a factor. In most instances, the campaign was about reaching out person-to-person, not group-to-group.

So what’s the lesson here? As consumers, we want to be treated as individuals, not numbers. The big wave of e-mail list marketing that took over the Internet the last few years is on its way out the door in favor of relationship marketing.

All an Internet marketer has to do is look at Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, et al, to realize that the holy grail of word-of-mouth buzz is being fed through one-on-one relationships.

What Next, Marketer?
Pick the social network where your target audience lives. Then begin building relationships, not marketing messages. Build your fan base, be a resource, have a personality (brand), and make friends. Too easy?

Why You Need to Blog – Even If No One is Reading

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:26:22 +0000

One of the trends I’ve noticed is people who blog for a few days and then stop. The reason? “No one ever visits my blog.”

Guess what, you’re right.

No one IS reading your blog. At least not today . . . . and maybe not even next month.

In fact, it’s unlikely anyone even knows about your blog.

Building a reading audience requires some patience on your part, and a time commitment as well. Building a reading audience with a blog like taking the time to meet the neighbors – - it’s all about relationship marketing.

The first month I blogged, I had one visitor. The second month I had 10, the third month I had 71, and by month six I had 212 visitors. A year after start-up, I had 1,000 visitors, and then 3,500. What if I had stopped at month one or month two?

Scary thought, huh?

I’ve interviewed many blogging authors who have created such a passionate fan base that their readers can’t wait to buy the author’s new book. And I’m not talking about the reading audience for the NY Times bestselling authors of the world – I’m talking about authors you’ve probably never heard of. These authors blog almost daily, they build relationships with readers, and they have created a dedicated book buying audience.

No reason you can’t do the same in your industry.

What next? Keep blogging . . . even if no one is reading (today).

Does Your Website Pass the 5-Point Tune-Up?

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:44:42 +0000

Want more targeted website traffic? Use my 5-point checklist and see if your site rates as a clunker or a Ferrari. (Scores below) 1. Best Practices Wikipedia states that best practices are the most efficient and effective way of accomplishing a task, based on procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people. In medicine, if you go into the Emergency Room with chest pain, best practices dictate you’ll receive an electrocardiogram (EKG). On the web, best practices include adding meta data to your web pages, chunking your information into easy-to-read bites, and adding ALT tags to your images. Are you using unique meta data on each page or are you using the same title on every page throughout the site? Time to go back and start honing that meta data. SCORING: Give yourself 1 point if your pages have unique meta data, 1 point for ALT tags, and 1 point for info chunking. 2. Clear Value Proposition Why should I buy from you instead of the guy on the next website? What do you have that compels me to choose you from all others? A clearly-stated value proposition. Your value proposition differentiates you from your competition, and clearly states how your offering is better than anyone else in the world. You offer three books and a 15 minute consultation. Your competitor offers two books and a 30 minute consultation. It’s up to you to clearly tell me why I should pick you. SCORING: Give yourself 1 point if you have clearly differentiated yourself from your competition. 3. What’s In It For Me? The WIIFM mantra never changes. Your website isn’t about you (unless you’re Barack Obama or Michael Phelps!) – - it’s about how the customer will benefit from buying your product or hiring your services. For example, if you’re selling a new computer system with the fastest processor ever made, what’s in it for me is the ability to run multiple applications at the same time, or play computer games at a faster speed. Does your site focus on client benefits, or you? SCORING: Give yourself 1 point if site visitors instantly know how it will benefit them to do business with you. Give yourself an extra point if you’re WIIFM is extra clever! 4. Call to Action I analyzed an author’s website to improve their non-existent book sales. Guess what? There wasn’t any BUY button on the site. Even if you wanted to buy the book, you couldn’t! Don’t be shy about asking your site visitor to do what you want by stating a clear call to action. Ask them to call you now, e-mail you within the next 24 hours, click to buy, or purchase at today’s discount. Use action verbs, and even if the call to action is obvious to YOU, make sure it’s obvious to your site visitor. SCORING: Give yourself 1 point for a clear call to action. Give yourself a bonus point if you put your call to action above the fold. 5. Usability One of the best books written on usability is titled "Don’t Make Me Think". That says it all. If your website visitor has to click through five levels of navigation before finding important information, you’ve got usability issues. Keep your most important items no more than one click down in navigation, and remember – it’s more important to have clear and easy navigation than almost any other factor – - a site visitor who can’t find what they’re looking for because your navigation is fuzzy will never return. SCORING: Give yourself 1 point if your most important info is at the top level of navigation or one click away. Take away 3 points if your visitor has to click more than 3 times to find your most important info. RESULTS: 7-9 Points: Tighten your seatbelt – you’re obviously driving the Ferrari 4-6 Points: Congratulate yourself on the things you’ve done well. Get help to fix the components that are iffy. 2-5 Points: You’re doing something right, but there’s a lot of room for improvement. Talk to me – let’s see how we can fix you up! 1 or less Points: Can you say Studebaker? Please—Call.

Relationship Marketing in Action: KeywordLuv

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:47:56 +0000

I stumbled across a Wordpress Plugin that rewards people who comment on your blog: When a comment is left, the commenter will receive a link back to their site, embedded in the SEO keywords of their choosing.

How cool is that!

In brief, when you leave a comment (like I hope you do below), instead of just putting your name in the NAME box, put your name@ your SEO-rich keywords, i.e. Nancy@web 2.0 writing strategies Then, add your URL as you normally would. When you submit your comment, your keywords are displayed, hyperlinked to your site.

You can download the KeywordLuv plugin here. After download and unzipping, follow the easy installation instructions. I was fortunate in that the plugin worked seamlessly with my Thesis theme.

Here’s the deal, though. You also have to install a DoFollow plugin – otherwise the comment will default to a NoFollow. Where’s the love in that! I went hunting around, and found SEM-DoFollow. I installed it without a hitch, and was off to the races.

A major 2009 goal is relationship marketing – building win-win partnerships with my clients, and any time I can find a tool, plugin, or new approach that fits my goal is going to get some luv from me.

Is Amazon the Wal-Mart of the Supply Chain?

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:56:54 +0000

Great article in the Washington Post about the future of digital readers. An interview with Verizon exec Tony Lewis says he expects Kindle’s competition to launch in 2009.

Already experts are betting that new iPhone apps will “smoke Kindle”, but the Post article points to one huge factor in Kindle’s favor: In terms of solid relationships with publishers, massive traffic, and the ability to price to sell, Amazon is the “Wal-mart of the supply chain”.

It’s not really about connectivity or technology, the Post says, it’s about who has the biggest piece of the book-pie.

Review: How to Have More With The Power of Less

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 03:28:58 +0000

My copy of Leo Babauta’s new book, The Power of Less, arrived Friday evening, and by late Friday I’d read it cover to cover. Now, on Sunday, I’m starting it again. It may be about “less”, but is contains more than my brain could take in with a single read.

Leo, the owner of the wildly popular ZenHabits blog, has written one of those classics that apply to both our business and personal lives. In brief, The Power of Less is a treatise on the small steps (see my blog post on the Kaizen way) we can take to simplify our lives and in the doing find far more joy and success than all of our manic behavior could produce.

The book begins with Leo’s own story of being an debt, overweight, smoking, workaholic who rarely saw his family. His life was chaotic and he never had time for the things and people he loves. (Sound familiar?) Then, he made the choice to simplify his life in small continuous ways; first he quit smoking by focusing all of his energy on that one goal.

Then, he attacked other goals, one at a time, like becoming a runner, eating healthier, starting a successful blog, and getting out of debt.

One by one the goals were met (and exceeded). Leo has run two marathons, has doubled his income, became a vegetarian, decluttered his home, lost 45 pounds, and spends quality time with his family. Today, Leo’s blog is one of the top 50 blogs in the world, with more than two million readers a month. If that doesn’t make you want to adopt his principles, nothing will!

The Six Principles of Simple Productivity
The Power of Less is divided into two sections; the first walks readers through the six principles of simple productivity:

Set limitations
Choose the essential
Simplify
Focus
Create habits
Start small

Part II details practical tips for implementing the six principles in key areas including e-mail, health, time management, filing, Internet, and decluttering your work space.

Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy
While the principles are simple, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re easy to implement. Anyone who has started a new habit (like a diet) knows that for sure. However, with small continuous improvement, the principles are achievable.

For example, Leo has weaned himself off e-mail to checking only twice a day. I probably check e-mail 100 times a day – - and just as a nutritionist wouldn’t ask us to cut out every unhealthy food in one day, they would encourage us to cut-back. For me, that would mean (first) KNOWING how many times a day I check e-mail, and then (second) cutting back a little, then a little more, and then a little more. Until I reach a point that e-mail doesn’t rule my existence.

The Principle of Choosing the Essential
While all of the principles serve as stepping stones to a life of more, the one that hangs me up the most is the principle of choosing the essential. And it’s a bugaboo that’s been with me life-long. As Leo says, once you know the essentials you’ll be in a position to eliminate the chaos of incoming information, commitments, and clutter.

Thankfully, the section on choosing the essential has a series of questions to help define what’s essential – and this is the section I’m currently re-reading – because it’s the most difficult for me. I know absolutely that once I have those essentials defined, the remaining principles will be far easier to integrate.

The reason this principle is so important to me is that in knowing the essentials, I’ll know which projects or tasks have the highest priority – because they’re the ones that will have the biggest impact on the essentials. For me, this is the key to having the life of what truly IS more.

Putting the Principles Into Action
As a life-long “clean desk” advocate, I was ahead of the game on the decluttering principle, but way behind on e-mail, Internet, commitments, and health.

Fortunately, simplifying these areas are a matter of making small continuous changes (the Kaizen way), instead of radical ones. For instance, one of the life issues discussed is making time for what we love. As a self-employed person, I get so caught in the flow of work that I forget what I really love.

However, once prompted by The Power of Less, I really thought about what I love – then I made a list, and one-by-one will begin implementing them in my life.(and being a true Kaizen-ista) will NOT try to take on all of them at once!) By the way, my list includes learning to kayak, to play the harmonica, and hiking.

A Perfect Time for a Perfect Book
As I wander the Internet, I hear over and over the desire for simplification. The entrepreneurs I know have all hit the wall at the same time – - they’re on information overload, have massive (and unattainable) to-do lists, poor health, wretched time management, cluttered desks and minds, and no fun.

If ever there was a time for The Power of Less, it’s now.

How to Write a 500 Word Article in 30 Minutes or Less

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:11:15 +0000

Back in the day when putting bread on my table depended on my ability to write articles quickly, I developed an easy system that I use to this day.

1. Decide on the number of words in your article. For illustration, let’s say you want to write a 500 word article on collecting political campaign buttons.

2. Next, figure out how many sub-topics you want to write about, i.e. Republican, Democrat, Third Party, and value. So you have 4 sub-topics of the main topic: How to collect campaign buttons.

3. Assume you’ll write 75 words in your opening paragraph and 25 words in your closing paragraph (this is an estimate – but close enough). Opening and closing graphs take up 100 of your 500 words.

4. Take the remaining 400 words and divide them equally among your sub-topics. That means each of your topics will get 100 words each. Writing 100 words is a breeze. (This article already has 154 words)

5. Write your article!

Here’s the deal. Once you follow the formula above, you know exactly how many words you need to write about each sub-topic. This will keep you focused and concise–and if you use this technique consistently, writing an article in 15 or 20 minutes will become second nature.

Try this article writing technique next time you’re facing the blank page and let me know how it works for you.

Twittering My Way into 2009

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:59:26 +0000

I couldn’t start 2009 without writing about Twitter.

If you’ve been online more than 10 minutes, you’ve heard that Twitter is THE social networking tool of the century. Hype? Nope.

Twitter is a bonafide tool for relationship building and marketing, built within the confines of a seemingly impossible 140 characters. If you can’t say it short, you can’t say it.

In a Twitter-nutshell, Twitter allows you to “follow” the people you feel are worth reading, and people can follow you if they think your Tweets are worth following.

The smartest Twitter gurus Tweet a brilliantly balanced blend of humor, links to something of interest on their own site, a link to their newest blog post, or a link to something interesting they’ve read online.

Is Twitter a platform for blatantly pushing your services on your followers? Not unless you want to be thrown out of the virtual party

My Top 3 Twitter Services

1. Although you can Tweet directly from your Twitter account, my favorite Tweeting platform is Tweetdeck. This Adobe Air desktop platform. Tweetdeck allows you to take all of your Twitter feeds and break them down into categories – making it a lot easier to read your favorite Tweeters. It also creates a category for displaying direct messages and replies.

2. I’m also in love with TwitterButtons. Sure, you can put Twitter’s default blue bird as a link on your own site, but why not jazz it up a little? You can see my Twitter button of choice up there in the right column. I know. . . there are so many great Twitter apps – why bump one of them in favor or TwitterButtons? Because I’m a sucker for a fun photo.

3. And speaking of photos and photo sharing, you have to use TwitPic. This free service lets you share photos on Twitter with your friends–with no signup required. You can also post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, TwitPic API, or through the site itself. Twitpic works great with Tweetdeck.

I’ll do follow-up posts on other Twitter apps – but wanted to get my Top 3 out on this beautiful first day of the New Year.

What Internet Entrepreneurs Can Learn from the California Gold Rush

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 02:21:05 +0000

Above is a famous photo of deserted ships in San Francisco Harbor–left derelict by crews who jumped ship and headed to the gold fields, hoping to make an easy fortune.(Credit: San Francisco and a forest of masts. 1979.90.141. Mystic Seaport)

The general thought was that gold was simply there for the taking, and in fact a favorite parody of the popular ‘O’Susanna’ was:

“I’m goin’ to San Francisco
And then I’ll look around
And pick up all those Lumps of Gold
A ‘layin’ on the ground!”

Seeking El Dorado
More than 90,000 people poured into California in the two years following James Marshall’s discovery–and 300,000 in the next four, with San Francisco growing from a shanty town to a boomtown. The miners called themselves Argonauts, after the mythical men who accompanied Jason in search of the Golden Fleece.

While a few of the early miners did stike it rich, the majority did not; and as rumors of new strikes sped downstream, miners whose gold pouches remained empty broke camp and journeyed to what they hoped was the next El Dorado. In the end, it’s estimated that one in every five miners who came to California in 1849 was dead within six months.

Someone once wrote, “that the young men scrambling their way West left their souls on the plains, alongside with the useless gold digging machines.”

What’s the Analogy?
If the story of the California Gold Rush sounds familiar to you, it’s because it’s being played out on the Internet every day.

Thousands – tens of thousands – pour online in hopes of cashing in on the easy money just waiting to be grabbed. We’ve all seen the sales pitches with claims of “$10,000 for four hours work!” or “make your fortune in two days with our fail-safe system!”

And once entrepreneurs have bought a “fail safe” system that didn’t work, they move downstream to the next El Dorado - the next Internet guru with something to sell.

The truth is – there is no Internet El Dorado. However, there is a tremendous opportunity for the entrepreneurs who provide value to their customers and clients.

Do you know who made money during the gold rush? The people who sold the gold pans, shovels, picks, and food. The people who supplied the gold camps with the necessities.

As I write this, I think of the generous, talented entrepreneurs I’ve met over the past year who’ve supplied my necessities – like Lou Bortone (the Video Guy), or Leo Babauta who strives to help us simplify our crazy inboxes, or Darren Rowse who offers sane advice on getting the most out of Twitter. These are the “gurus” worth following – and pay attention to how many RSS feeds you get from these guys that have a “BUY THIS!!!!” message. Very few.

If you’re asking “So is this a guru-bashing blog post, Nancy?” The answer is “no”. This is me taking the long view – and recognizing that there will always be people who want to grab your dollars without returning equal value. That’s life.

This is about steering your ship to the safe harbors – the places populated with the Internet good guys who care about your success.

In the end, those scammers will end up like the derelict ships in San Francisco Harbor – and their customers will receive about as much value as the miners with empty pouches. While the Lous and Leos and Darrens of the world end up growing a solid business.

What Next?
A New Year is beginning – - how about making 2009 the year of growing the business that feeds your passion.

Be one of the good guys (and women).

You’ve worked hard to gain the level of knowledge and experience that you have – - so find a way to package it that provides real value to new and existing clients and customers.You won’t believe how well you’ll do with a clear focus, a valuable product or service, and a little grit.

Check back in next January and let me know how you’re doing.

Can Your Blog Reveal Your Personality Type?

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:21:33 +0000

Saw a great post by Tom Chandler about Typealyzer, a site that instantaneously analyzes your blog and pops out a personality type along with a diagram of the parts of your brain used to write your posts. The personality types are based (loosely, I believe) on the Myers-Briggs personality types. For example, if you are an ESFP (extraverted-sensing-feeling-perceiving) you’re called The Performer – - basically you’re a "where’s the party?" kinda person.

Based on my blog, I’m a ISTJ (introverted-sensing-thinking-judging) called The Duty Fulfiller. Well, SOMEONE has to do it! ISTJs are often called inspectors. We have a keen sense of right and wrong, especially in our area of interest and/or responsibility. (What that really means is, we want our work to be perfect!). If you’re really interested in learning more about me, there’s a detailed ISTJ profile here.

The second part of the analysis was the parts of the brain used when writing posts. Clearly, I’m a practical thinker with a little intuition thrown. I’m pretty certain this is the ideal brain activity for a website copywriter! (see brain diagram below) Just for kicks, I ran a couple of other blogs through the Typealzer–both blogs written by Tarot readers. I figured these would be pretty far afield from my own Dutiful person.

Interestingly, both Tarot blog writers had the same personality type (The Thinker) but the parts of the brain used to write their posts was quite different – one was very thinking, the other very intuitive. So what do you think kids? Hocus-pocus, or a fantastic new tool to get the inside scoop on the competition?

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Does your website pass the 5-point tune-up?

Nancy Hendrickson — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 06:04:55 +0000

Want more targeted website traffic? Use my 5-point checklist and see if your site rates as a clunker or a Ferrari. (Scores below)

1. Best Practices
Wikipedia states that best practices are the most efficient and effective way of accomplishing a task, based on procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people. In medicine, if you go into the Emergency Room with chest pain, best practices dictate you’ll receive an electrocardiogram (EKG).

On the web, best practices include adding meta data to your web pages, chunking your information into easy-to-read bites, and adding ALT tags to your images. Are you using unique meta data on each page or are you using the same title on every page throughout the site? Time to go back and start honing that meta data.

SCORING: Give yourself 1 point if your pages have unique meta data, 1 point for ALT tags, and 1 point for info chunking.

2. Clear Value Proposition
Why should I buy from you instead of the guy on the next website? What do you have that compels me to choose you from all others? A clearly-stated value proposition.

Your value proposition differentiates you from your competition, and clearly states how your offering is better than anyone else in the world. You offer three books and a 15 minute consultation. Your competitor offers two books and a 30 minute consultation. It’s up to you to clearly tell me why I should pick you.

SCORING: Give yourself 1 point if you have clearly differentiated yourself from your competition.

3. What’s In It For Me?
The WIIFM mantra never changes. Your website isn’t about you (unless you’re Barack Obama or Michael Phelps!) – - it’s about how the customer will benefit from buying your product or hiring your services.

For example, if you’re selling a new computer system with the fastest processor ever made, what’s in it for me is the ability to run multiple applications at the same time, or play computer games at a faster speed. Does your site focus on client benefits, or you?

SCORING: Give yourself 1 point if site visitors instantly know how it will benefit them to do business with you. Give yourself an extra point if you’re WIIFM is extra clever!

4. Call to Action
I analyzed an author’s website to improve their non-existent book sales. Guess what? There wasn’t any BUY button on the site. Even if you wanted to buy the book, you couldn’t!

Don’t be shy about asking your site visitor to do what you want by stating a clear call to action. Ask them to call you now, e-mail you within the next 24 hours, click to buy, or purchase at today’s discount. Use action verbs, and even if the call to action is obvious to YOU, make sure it’s obvious to your site visitor.

SCORING: Give yourself 1 point for a clear call to action. Give yourself a bonus point if you put your call to action above the fold.

5. Usability
One of the best books written on usability is titled “Don’t Make Me Think”. That says it all. If your website visitor has to click through five levels of navigation before finding important information, you’ve got usability issues.

Keep your most important items no more than one click down in navigation, and remember – it’s more important to have clear and easy navigation than almost any other factor – - a site visitor who can’t find what they’re looking for because your navigation is fuzzy will never return.

SCORING: Give yourself 1 point if your most important info is at the top level of navigation or one click away. Take away 3 points if your visitor has to click more than 3 times to find your most important info.

RESULTS:

7-9 Points: Tighten your seatbelt – you’re obviously driving the Ferrari

4-6 Points: Congratulate yourself on the things you’ve done well. Get help to fix the components that are iffy.

2-5 Points: You’re doing something right, but there’s a lot of room for improvement. Talk to me – let’s see how we can fix you up!

1 or less Points: Can you say Studebaker? Please—Call.

How Secure is Your Password?

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:32:03 +0000

Found a fantastic site today that gauges the strength of passwords.

The bad news is that a hacker can crack one of my blog passwords in 19 hours.

The good news is my major work password will take 402,895,492 days to crack.

Unsure how safe YOUR password is? Give this Brute Force Calculator a try. If you find your favorite color isn’t a strong enough password (!) pop over to the Strong Password Generator and have it generate a password that even Brute Force can’t get into.

Barack Obama and Relationship Marketing

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:22:57 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about the election returns yesterday – and why Barack Obama was so successful. The reasons, of course, are many. Economy, war, hopelessness, being mired in a broken political system–all messages and issues that will get out votes in just about every election.

But beyond that, I attribute at least part of the success to the Obama campaign’s brilliant use of relationship marketing. Yes, they did the big TV ad blitz . . . but they added a strategy (and philosophy) not seen in campaigns in my lifetime. Building a voting base one person at a time.

Through word of mouth marketing, massive person-to-person canvassing, and crafting messages that spoke directly to “we the people” this campaign was wildly successful. Plus, the strategists realized that part of the relationship we want to build with a new administration was one devoid of negativity, divisiveness, exclusion, and dirty tricks.

Congratulations to President-elect Obama, and best hopes for a new era of how we do business with one another.

Review: Thumbs Up: The Contrarian Effect

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:11:26 +0000

Michael Port, author of Booked Solid and Beyond Booked Solid, is out with yet another winner – The Contrarian Effect – Why It Pays Big to Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite.

The premise of Port’s newest book (written with Elizabeth Marshall) is that old sales tactics (cold calls, high pressure sales, door-to-door sales) no longer work. What does? Person-to-person interactions. Sound more early 19th century in philosophy than 21st? You’re right . . . and it works.

In my many years online (I got hooked back in 1986 with DOS-based Compuserve) – I’ve witnessed the evolution of business on the Internet: the dotcom boom to bust, the crunch of big business finally getting into online sales, mass e-mails, spam . . . basically, doing business as usual.

With the advent of social networks, the Internet is returning to more people-to-people interactions – - and this trend is reflected is how people want to be “sold”. Instead of “big business” pushiness, consumers want businesses to recognize that they are real people with real needs, who want to be treated as individuals, not part of a mass spam, high pressure, pushy sales techniques.

If your business sales are on the downslide, pick up a copy of The Contrarian Effect – and see if you can shake your sales out of the doldrums.

Thumbs Down on Multitasking

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:03:15 +0000

I used to be the Queen of Multitasking – reading e-mail, surfing websites, talking on the phone simultaneously. No biggie, right? Until I realized that my multitasking was merely multidoing, without many tasks actually getting done. Since that ah-ha day, I’ve been weaning myself off the multitask habit, and focusing on one thing at a time. Amazingly, I actually get more done.

Today, there was an article in the New York Times about multitasking, with a great quote by psychiatrist Edward Hallowell that “you have to keep in mind that you sacrifice focus when you do this. Multitasking is shifting focus from one task to another in rapid succession. It gives the illusion that we’re simultaneously tasking, but we’re really not. It’s like playing tennis with three balls.”

On a similar note, usability guru Jakob Nielsen wrote an insightful checklist for saving time. My favorite was not to use IM unless it added true value to the interaction. As Nielsen said, “A one-minute interruption of your colleagues will cost them ten minutes of productivity as they reestablish their mental context and get back into “flow.” Only the most important messages are worth 1,000 percent in overhead costs.”

I turned off IM a long time ago because of this; but I do use Skype when a colleague and I are on a conference call with a new client – Skype allows us to bounce ideas off one another before saying it to the client. In that case, IM definitely adds value to the interaction.

For all of Nielsen’s tips, pop over to his Usability site.

$500 for Best Travel Video

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:36:09 +0000

Lonely Planet TV is offering $500 for the best travel video submitted to their site. They’re looking for “anything and everything” , including footage from your cell phone about your backyard getaway.

Just read the User Terms before registering with lonelyplanet.tv and uploading your video. If they really like your stuff, you may just be $500 richer.

Don’t know about you, but I’m hauling out my Flip Video and heading down to San Diego Harbor – who can resist an iron-hull sailing ship sitting next to a Cold War era Russian sub?

Free Screen Capture Software

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:01:49 +0000

I just downloaded a tried a freebie screen capture program called SCREEN2EXE–and it’s definitely a winner.

SCREEN2EXE is a full-featured recording program that allows you to record any action (opening new windows, mouse movements, etc) on your monitor. Audio is optional but available.

You can then edit your capture, add images and annotations, delete clips, zoom in, and when satisfied with the end result, save the file as a standalone executable (.exe) file.

Amazon Releases New Kindle Figures

Nancy Hendrickson — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:30:20 +0000

Amazon announced today that there are now more than 185,000 books, blogs, newspapers and magazines available for immediate download.

As a Kindle owner, I can tell you there are things about the Kindle that I don’t like (i.e. no back-lighting) but they’re fabulous when it comes to portability and pricing. Because I travel so frequently for business, I appreciate being able to carry dozens of my reference books with me on the Kindle.

Plus, you can’t beat the $9.99 price for NY Times bestsellers (and most other hard covers).

I have to admit, in my recent 5 hours of being trapped at the Charlotte, NC airport because of a US Airways screw-up, the Kindle was a life-saver.

Yes, You Can Make Money Writing Shorts & Blog Posts Even When the Economy is Rotten

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:31:29 +0000

Shorts (not the boxer variety!) are 500-700 word articles that are generally found in the front part of a magazine or published as a blog post. If you’re new to a publication or blog site, the editor will probably assign you a short rather than a full-length feature. Once you’ve proven yourself, you’ll get the longer and better paying 3000-5000 word assignments or blog jobs.

Some people love writing shorts, and I’m one of them.

My natural style tends towards shorter pieces, so the more shorts the better. True, some authors feel that shorts or blog posts aren’t worth the money, but in my experience I can research and write a short piece quickly enough to keep my “pay per hour” rate high.

In his book for freelancers (that includes information on marketing strategies), Michael Sedge relates the story of a fellow-writer who wrote nothing but shorts, without decreasing his annual income.

Sedge’s friend said “ I’d say that 80 percent of today’s magazines use short news, humor, and human-interest items. For a lot of editors—including those at top-paying publications—this is an area in which they are desperate for material. . . I can put out one or two short items a day, in most cases with little research. The best part is I normally make $1 a word.”

When writing the blog post, keep in mind that every word counts. This is the time to use your editing skills and chop every unnecessary word you find. Shorts require the skill of pulling out the most important points of the story—there is no room for flab.

Once you hone your “shorts” skills, you may be surprised at the broad subjects that can be written as a short. Some of mine include the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Wild and Wacky Collectibles, Keeping Fit With Your PDA, and Collecting Elvis.

Structuring the Short

You can easily write a short (500-700 word) piece by following a simple structure.

Allow yourself approximately 100 words for a dynamite lead, and 100 words for a wrap-up.

What’s the most fascinating fact about your short? Find it, and then pop it up to the lead sentence.

Next, figure out how many points you want your article to cover.

For example, if you’re writing about a new handheld computer and you know you want to include information about its capabilities, software, and price structure, then you need to cover three points.

Give each of those points 100 words, and you’ve got a 500-word article. Or, give two of the points 125 words, and 50 to the third. Just divide wordage depending on the importance of a particular point.

A short doesn’t give you the luxury of four paragraphs to get into the body of the article. You’ve got room for a few sentences at best, so make them count.

Need to book a writing gig fast? Discover how to earn a living writing and you’ll be set, even in a down economy.

Want to learn more about freelance writing. Check out the video below.

Fundamentals Of Time Management

Nancy Hendrickson — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:27:00 +0000

Learning to prioritize is one of the most important skills one can learn in today’s somewhat hectic environment. Seeing to it that you accomplish the most important tasks first sounds obvious, yet that is not what many people in fact are doing. In that case a crash course in time management could come in handy.

Spending Your Time Efficiently

Rather than working harder, we can work smarter so that we may realize how much time we can save when we have organized our time a little. But the success of such techniques largely depends on how you appropriately follow your schedule. If you do this the right way you can greatly reduce your overall stress level.

We are involved in very different activities depending on what we do. But there are many time management techniques that would prove useful for several fields of life. A student for example can learn and practice time management by applying time management techniques to homework and assignments. Using time management techniques and practices can and will help to ensure the quality use of your time and the efficiency of the results that they produce.

Here are a few concepts you should be able to try out without too much effort.

The List

How you ever found yourself feeling simply “empty” when you have a lot going on? You simply can’t produce and image of what it is you are going to do next. This is where a “to do list” comes in handy. Simply by writing down the various things you need done, you can quickly get back on track (perhaps after having a short, refreshing break). But don’t make the mistake of cramming too much onto your list or even worse – have multiple lists.

Focusing

A very effective time management skill is the ability to say “no” when other less important tasks and affairs are brought up to you and you have more important pending tasks. By simply saying no, it reflects your commitment to follow your schedule and accomplish the task at hand. Once you have mastered this simple but difficult little thing, you will save a lot of time in the future. Not only did it help you to finish your tasks in time, but you also created more opportunities to accomplish more.

You don’t need the day to have 25 hours

There are many reasons for trying one or more of the above mentioned strategies. The most apparent one is merely completing the job within the time frame you have allotted for it. It keeps task A from eating up the rest of the time needed for tasks B, C and D.

For some, time is considered an enemy. But simply prioritizing and adding a few extra elements of planning will enable you to enjoy your tasks as you do them, and quit worrying about time as a factor. After all, you cannot stop time from running; you have to keep up with it.

There might no be dramatic changes that comes with proper time management. However, it allows you to become more effective and productive as you continue to plan your days ahead

Michael Hawkins is the owner of a new shop named Ebook Maniac, where you will find ebooks as well as many interesting How to videos in the near future. Quite a few of them will focus around marketing related skills.

Kindle Makes Popular Mechanics’ Top 10

Nancy Hendrickson — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:38:09 +0000

Popular Mechanics announced its picks for the 2008 Breakthrough Awards awards in what the publication called The 10 Most Brilliant Gadets of the Year. Amazon’s Kindle was #3, behind Microsoft Photosynth and Spore.

Using the 10.3 ounce Kindle you can read almost any popular book, newspapers from all over the world, or Internet blogs from Amazon’s Kindle reader. You can read the Kindle anywhere; it’s wireless, but there are no wireless fees. Instead of WiFi, Kindle uses EDVO like the advanced cell phones, so you don’t have to search for a hot spot.

Kindle On the Rise (again!)

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:33:59 +0000

Amazon.com Inc. announced in July that 11 Christian publishers will make a majority of their catalogs of books available for use on the Kindle, Amazon’s e-reader.

“Of the 135,000 books available on Amazon.com as a physical book and on the Kindle, Kindle books already account for over 12 percent of units sold,” says Ian Freed, vice president of Amazon Kindle. “

Authors – if you haven’t converted your book to Kindle format, you’re missing the boat.

Facebook is Overrated

Nancy Hendrickson — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:43:00 +0000

I read a great article at PC World about the 10 most overrated products. Some I agreed with (XP vs Vista), some I did not (Google Apps vs OpenOffice)–but the one that really hit home for me was Facebook. As the editors at PC World wrote: "Everyone seems to be on Facebook at this point. But to what end? Countless free applications of dubious value, plus scores of plug-ins and games that draw you deeper into the Facebook rabbit hole until you’re spending hours a day befriending complete strangers with whom you have nothing in common beyond a shared love of Raisin Bran." Amen. I know I’m swimming against the Facebook for Marketing tide – - but really, is Facebook where YOUR target audience hangs out? Not mine. Find the social network where your own crowd hangs out – - THEN market the heck out of it — by building relationships with people who actually COULD become your customer.

Facebook Marketing: Are You Using It In Your Business?

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:29:42 +0000

Guest Post (and not the opinion of this blog’s owner!) As a business owner, you know that you are constantly wondering how you can attract more clients. If you own an online business, the answer to your traffic problem is internet marketing. You need to remember that without marketing, you will never be able to get targeted traffic into your website. Today, any kind of business, whether online or offline are now using internet marketing in order to expand their reach for new customers. Facebook Marketing: Are You Using It in Your Business? Internet marketing is not quite as easy as it may sound. You have to consider the fact that you need to work hard in order for you to attract targeted traffic into your website. You need to make a lot of good articles to read that is related to the products or services that you are selling and you also need to join forums and the discussions in it. Also, you need to get your website to be attractive. Whatever you are selling, internet marketing is a hard task to do, but when it works, it is well worth the effort and money. However, thanks to social networking website, such as Facebook, you will see that internet marketing is a lot easier than ever before. First of all, in all social networking websites, Facebook is one of the most popular websites. Here, you will already have the numbers you need. This means that it already has traffic. With millions of subscribers logging and out each day and also millions more registering each day, you can be sure that you will be able to get your fair share of targeted traffic in this website. In Facebook, you will see that all kinds of people with different social backgrounds join. Also, the members themselves will try to separate themselves from distinct groups. The fact that Facebook will allow people to create and join groups you will be able to easily find your target customers. Whether the group is separated by age, school, gender or interests, you will see that you will find all sorts of groups here in Facebook. Another great thing about Facebook is that it will provide every member with the tools needed in order to communicate with their network. These tools can be considered to be great tools for you to use in order to advertise or market your products or services to other Facebook subscribers. From applications to news feeds and blogs, you will see that Facebook will be able to provide it all. More about Facebook Marketing.

Link Up at WikiTalk

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:48:58 +0000

The guys over at WikiTalk sent me info about their new social network. Here’s the skinny:

Most Internet users have heard of social networking, but relatively few are actively participating in social networks. This is probably because most of the current social network sites target tech-savvy young men and hard-core news junkies, and are heavily weighted toward technology, geek culture, academia, and news.

Targeting “the rest of us” is WikiTalk.com, the new social networking site that brings together a comprehensive listing of the most active and most popular discussions including gossip, videos, entertainment, lifestyle, sports and politics; and with chatter that folks should find a lot cleaner. But WikiTalk is more than just a social site. In an industry first, the downloadable WikiTalk Browser Add-On enables “split-screen” functionality, which allows visitors to create their own public or private discussion boards on any other website — and on any topic — by “framing” comments around the source news at that website, even if that site doesn’t have a comments feature of its own. This creates a much smoother, seamless and more powerful experience.

Using the WikiTalk Browser Add-On, you can also create your own groups (private or public) and invite friends to join the discussions online. For example, if you’re passionate about Ford Mustangs, you could create a group wrapped around that topic, then add a number of related websites to the group and invite friends and people with similar interests to join the group.

Or create group discussions at work, for clubs, leagues, etc. WikiTalk is highly interactive and community-focused with “Juice” rankings so members can rank current topics, comments and replies, and more. Juice measures how important, compelling, or interesting a user or a discussion or topic has become.

At WikiTalk you can post opinions without registering, but users who do sign up can vote on their favorites, track their own progress on the site via Juice, create and manage groups, and enjoy added credibility among their online peers.

WikiTalk officially launches October 22.

Get Twitter Alerts with TweetBeep

Nancy Hendrickson — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:19:02 +0000

I use Google alerts all the time to keep track of topics of interest; right now I have alerts set to deliver the latest news on Amazon’s Kindle, best practices for website design, and copywriting (of course). If you run an online business, Google alert is the best (free) notification service around. Using it, you can track topics in The other day I discovered a Google-alert type service for those of us who Tweet (you DO tweet, don’t you?) using Twitter. The service is TweetBeep and here’s how it works. First, set up a free account by picking a username and password. Then, choose the keyword alerts you want to track, i.e. your name, company name, topic of interest. Unlike Google alerts, don’t use quote marks for exact phrase matches. You can exact phrase match by ticking the box on your alert. Pick how often you want to receive alerts, and that’s it. Oh yes – you can also set up your TweetBeep to only receive alerts from specific Twitter accounts – a convenience I like when I’m tracking conversations from a specific individual.