DOWNLOAD: THE BOOTSTRAPPER BIBLE

 

I am the underdog. I realize that others are rooting for me to succeed, and I will gratefully accept their help when offered. I also understand the power of favors, and will offer them and grant them whenever I can. 

                                                   -Seth Godin, THE BOOTSTRAPPER BIBLE

In my experience, a lot of writers feel like it's a little crass to sell yourself. I always thought this was silly for two big reasons:

1. Fiction is selling. Whether it be a world, a character, or an idea, you are trying to convince the reader to believe you and your BS.
2. Writers want to be read.  

Maybe it's crass that I'm not ashamed to admit it, I don't know. But I'm grateful for guys like Godin, who have done a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to providing a framework for guys like me.   

Read the rest, or download the PDF at SethGodin.com.

New Writer's Social Media Toolkit

This is brief list of the ideas and tech discussed Thursday, November 17 with the Scottdale Writers.

Blogging at www.blogger.com--your hub. Your online business card. This is what people see, and remember, when they 'meet' you online. Blogs are free, easy to update and design, you can experiment without any expense. Feedjit is a way to monitor traffic to your blog.

Twitter.com and Facebook to drive traffic to your blog. These are you 'handshakes.' Facebook will be mostly people you know, Twitter will be people you haven't met yet.

To manage your Twitter followers--Twitter Karma and Twit Cleaner. If the goal is to foster and maintain real relationships, then these two services help separate out spammers and bots.

Goodreads targets readers. It's a more specific approach to making friends. Amanda Hocking, anyone?

Klout, to measure the effectiveness of your social network.

Interview on MS. SOCIAL MEDIA

Ms. Social Media has posted my brief interview about blogging over on her website. It's worth checking out if you have a few minutes. make sure to take a look at some of the other bloggers she has profiled on her site.

A special thanks to Faydra for the opportunity!

http://mssocialmedia.com/2011/04/16/pa-blogger-jason-jack-miller/

Twitterly Promiscuous Week 3(ish)

So, you all know the deal by now. I followfollowfollow then use JustUnfollow to weed out the bad seeds after a week or so of not following back. At this point (because of JustUnfollow) it's difficult to determine how many people I've followed in the last 3 weeks. But, I do know how many people are following me. And as of 2:51 on Wednesday, March 30, 2011, that number is...908.

Is it working? Being aggressive has been more effective than not, obviously. I see some people surfing onto my blog from Twitter, and some even leave via Amazon. So we'll call it inconclusive and keep trying.

Twitterly Promiscuous Week 2

The start of week two find me changing the name, yet again. I didn't think 'whore' was an obscenity. Shows you how I was raised. (My mom doesn't read my blog.)

Results

Following: 2005 (I used justunfollow.com to unfollow 100 non-followers every 24 hours. There was a glitch one day and it let me delete, like, 500.) This is not an accurate count of how many people I followed over the last seven days.

Followers: 637 (If I was all scientific-like I'd give you a ratio of following:follower, but as I'm just a science teacher and not a real scientist, this will have to do.

What I learned: target tweeters who have list YOU want. For the first few days I was looking for other writers, then I was all, like, 'This is stupid.' So I began going after other writers' lists. Also, I learned if I stayed close to the top of the list (newest Followers), I was more likely to get followed back. New people aren't cynical to Twitter's attention-seeking ways yet. By the time they catch on I've already charmed them with my informative and witty tweets.

Social Media Experiment

Twitter Whore update:

Following-1953

Followers-411

It had been suggested that I might be more successful if i changed the name. Henceforth, it will be known as The Great Twitter Slut Experiment.

I think that will improve my results dramatically.