Issue #887 Jan. 27, 2015
Publisher: Joan Stewart
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
In This Issue
- Easy Tool for Article Ideas
- Why Authors Hate Marketing
- Selling Online? Join Me
- Hound Video of the Week
This Week in the Hound House:
I’m catching up after a week on my Publishing at Sea cruise to the Caribbean. Even though I’m afraid of heights, I signed up for the zip line excursion in St. Martin. After zipping on the first of 20 lines, I felt sick and panicked, and asked to be taken back to solid ground. Everyone else in my group finished and loved it. I have removed “skydiving” from my bucket list.
1. Easy Tool for Article Ideas
You’ve heard me rave about ContentIdeaGenerator.com, the free tool that will generate hundreds of article ideas for you.
Here’s an even better one.
It’s a title generator offered free by TweakYourBiz.com. Unlike ContentIdeaGenerator, which asks you more than a dozen questions about your topic, all you do is type your topic, say whether it’s a noun or a verb, and determine how you want the results presented. TweakYourBiz returned hundreds of titles to me.
I printed them and put them in a three-ring binder for easy reference. Thanks to book shepherd Judith Briles, the cruise organizer, for this tip.
If you’re publishing a print or ebook, or thinking about one, start saving your money for next year’s cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, the largest ship in the world. We’ll be visiting Haiti, Jamaica and Cozumel Jan. 24-31. We’ll be teaching all new content.
Even though I was one of the presenters, I learned 10 times more about book publishing, thanks to the other three teachers: Judith Briles, book distributor Amy Collins, and Michele DeFilippo who designs book covers and interiors. I’ll be sharing many of those tips with you here and at my blog.
If you join us next year, you’ll shorten your learning curve by years and have a blast. If you want to see what you missed, go to PublishingatSea.com. There’s still time to listen to the four free content-packed webinars we offered last year to promote the 2015 cruise.
2. Why Authors Hate Marketing
After working with authors for almost two decades, I know that most of them despise marketing themselves and their books.
Many of them tell me they just want to be left alone so they can write.
If that’s how you feel, please don’t write a book. Instead, create a blog and write your heart out.
When I was a guest recently on Julie Anne Eason’s podcast for authors, I explained that one reason most authors hate marketing is because they see so many other authors hawking their books ’round the clock. Also, many authors are introverts and don’t like “putting myself out there.”
The secret is to promote your expertise, not your book.
But what, exactly, makes an author an expert? And what should you do if you aren’t an expert in your topic and you want to not only write books, but write books that people will buy?
I explained it in the blog post I wrote. You can listen to the interview right there and find links to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.
3. Selling Online? Join Me
You’ve seen me promoting helpful tips from Danny Iny, the one Internet marketer I know who’s come the farthest in the shortest amount of time.
Danny has created the Course Builders Laboratory, perfect for you if you’ll be teaching online, or promoting your own product or service.
I’m so impressed with Danny that I’m signing up for this program. I have some super ideas on things I want to teach you but I want to be absolutely sure it’s what you want. I also need to deliver the greatest value possible.
This course is perfect for anyone who teaches. That includes artists, nurses, authors, speakers, relationship coaches, PR pros and publicists. If you teach online, or you’re selling a product or service online, you need this.
It comes with a 60-day guarantee. If you’re on the fence, Danny or someone from his staff will talk to you one-on-one and answer any questions.
Full Disclosure: I earn a commission if you sign up for this. I stand behind Danny 100 percent. And I’ll be right there with you, learning.
Find out how Danny is removing all the risk from this smart investment.
4. Hound Video of the Week
Slippery roads are too much, even for a Bernese Mountain Dog. Thanks to Publicity Hound Dan Janal of PRLeads.com for this one.
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