I am thrilled to welcome Brinda Berry to my Hammock. Okay. That’s SO not true. She plans to tip me out of it and send me skittering between blog and facebook and twitter to perform daring feats of connectivity. Our goal? Optimize my web presence; minimize the time required to build and maintain a professional presence. I hope to do everything she suggests. When (not if) I have questions, I’ll jump in and ask them.
And, now I turn the Hammock over to Brinda. Thunk. Ouch!
SERIAL WEB PIMP BRINDA BERRY
Brinda Berry is the author of The Waiting Booth, a YA fantasy published by Etopia Press. Currently working in higher education administration, she spends her days thinking of ways to improve education for college students. Brinda spends her nights devising exciting tales that involve teens who might be saving the world.
PIMP BY BLOG PRESENCE – PART ONE
by Brinda Berry
I recently met Gloria online through Sherry Isaac. Heck… I had just met Sherry, and she was already introducing me to someone else. That’s how we writers operate. We go above and beyond the normal person. (We’ve never claimed to be normal.) We go to ridiculous lengths because it’s all about paying it forward in the writing world.
Gloria has offered me the opportunity to guest on her blog with all kinds of fun advice on creating a social presence. Now, I can see your skepticism from here. “Fun?” you say. ” I don’t think so. AND we’re already pretty social. See how easily you met Gloria?”
I could tell that I liked Gloria from the first introduction, and I want her to know everything that I know. In the meantime, I am constantly learning from other people who are doing it well. When I say “it”, I’m referring to a web presence. So, we’ll start today with some little things that I feel make a big difference.
First, let’s talk about Gloria’s blog/website. I feel that the blog/website is the MOST important building blockfor your web presence. The look and feel of Gloria’s site is very nice. It’ssimple and organized. The page titles are clever. She has a great author
picture and bio. She also has the sharing social media icons at the bottom of
her pages for Facebook and Twitter. I noticed that she posted her last blog
link on her Facebook fan page. I give her kudos for cosmetic appeal and easy navigation. 😉
Here are my observations:
1. Contact form or email link. What if an editor or agent would like to reach Gloria? My author friend Isis Rushdan has an agent who found her through her website. Gloria might add it to the “Who Me” page or create a “Contact” page. If she places her email address on the page, she needs to disguise it from the spambots online. To do this, she will perhaps say, “Contact me at WriterGloria(at)host(dot)com. Please replace the words with the appropriate symbols.”
[First Q for Brinda from gjr was: Huh? What to you mean by “WriterGloria(at)…”. After Brinda explained, I knew I needed “Contact me: Gloria(at)gloriarichardwrites(dot)com. Please replace the words with the appropriate symbols.” Spambots ’round the net collectively groaned.]
2. Analytics. I’m a believer in measurement tools…ROI (Return On Investment). How can you know if you are improving things if you don’t have data to measure your efforts? You might have friends tell you, “Wow, Gloria, your blog rocks!” BUT, I would also like to know that Gloria increases her blog readership from 10 readers a day to 100 readers…or maybe 1000 readers (let’s set high goals, right?). I’ll ask her to do something very easy for now. It will NOT track everything. Gloria uses WordPress, and I’ll ask her to privately document what her stats are as of NOW. Go Gloria- please print the page or write it down anddate it. 🙂 In WordPress, it’s called STATS in the menu on the left. Instructions are also at the end of this post.
3. QUESTION: Does Gloria automate the posting from her blog to Facebook and Twitter. Does she want this? I automate my posts to Twitter and to my Facebook author page AND my Facebook personal page. I do not automate my tweets on my Facebook page, but you can see my tweets in a box on my blog page. These are my preferences, and I see that Gloria has her Twitter feed in a box on her blog (automated). Gloria can let me know what she does manually that she wishes to set up with an automatic feed.
So, these are some of my ideas to help Gloria improve her site. Now, here’s the part that helps me. If Gloria has NO CLUE on one of the above and needs help, she’ll respond to me that I need to write a technical blog post on her blog or mine at www.brindaberry.com/blog.html to explain. Yay! Then I know I have a tech topic to do.
I’m going to explain #2 on her blog today, and she can tell me if she needs any help with the other items listed above. Please note that I do not use WordPress for my author blog. I can discuss other analytics (Blogger, Weebly, or Google) with more expertise since those are the ones I use.
Instructions for #2 : WordPress Stats
1. Login to your WordPress account and go to the Dashboard.
2. Here is a video showing how I login to a test account I made and
view the stats page. http://screencast.com/t/xn6GA7CotTOe
3. Note the information you see. This will tell you the number of
subscribers and traffic information. After a month or so, she can see if her
traffic is increasing. As for my own usage of analytics, I can look at the
history of my site over a month and see the days, pages, posts, etc. with the
most traffic. I can also see WHERE my traffic originates. I know if that person
came to me from a Twitter link or a blog post on another site. I will know if
these posts on Gloria’s site send traffic to my site. I won’t know who, but I
can look into my Google Analytics and tell the geographical location of a
visitor. For now, I’d like Gloria to know where she stands on traffic today and
start paying attention periodically to that information.
Well, this was fun. It’s very easy to look at someone else’s site and suggest. When Gloria is satisfied with her site, we’ll move on to other social tools. I look forward to my friendship with Gloria. Saturday morning on Twitter, she pointed out someone to me who rocks a tagline, and I desperately need one. So, it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. Let’s do this thing!
THANKS, BRINDA! You spoke with such authority when you told me to check out my stats, I ALMOST left the page without saving the latest draft. I also had two edit windows open and closed the wrong one. Hmmm. Hope this doesn’t turn into two posts. Deletes and U-turns I can do.
And, now it’s time for questions. I DO have some. I will post them as comments and Brinda will answer on-line. If the answer to any question is topic-length Brinda will let us know when and where to anticipate the blog response. CHIME in! Ask your questions. When you see mine, you’ll lose any fear you may have of asking a dumb question. My most pressing question at the moment? Do Spambots have bellybuttons?
Gloria Richard 
Question number one Brinda! You use a nifty hyperlink instead of the gloria(at)gloriarichardwrites(dot)com on your post. Can I use a hyperlink for email, too? It seems more efficient to add EMAIL GLORIA RICHARD WRITES and use the hyperlink tool.
Gloria- My hyperlinks are to webpages. When you hyperlink an email, it forces Outlook (or the default mail program) to open in addition to the web browser. If someone uses Gmail or another program for email, this would be an issue.
I wouldn’t recommend that you hyperlink your email addy. The spambot can read the HTML in the background that has your address. If someone uses javascript instead of HTML programming, they might avoid this. <–Does that sound like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo or what?! Even the method I've advised to you isn't foolproof. Programmers have developed spambots that identify the words we've snuck in stand for symbols. Most spambots only look for the @ symbol, etc. So, there is nothing perfect.
Thanks, Brinda! I’m off now to add my contact email on both WHO ME? and S’MORE. Then (ACK!) stats. I do want posts here to feed to FB and Twitter. Is that a topic for another day?
I made this for you and I guess I forgot to insert the link! Here is the video
LESSON VIDEO for linking you social media and WordPress blog: Begins after logging in and at Dashboard: http://screencast.com/t/7Uqp8euS1zL
This video was great, Brinda — you web guru, you. I’m going to dream up some really complicated questions now. 🙂
Hi Gloria and Brinda,
What a fabulous idea to do this type of interactive post. I’ll need to tweet about it right away! But I have a caution on this one, While I love the idea of everyone being able to contact Gloria, she might want to have a throw away email on here, so her regular email isn’t taken over by a person who spams or sells emails. That’s why a contact box works well, it actually hides your email. i did it on my site, and if I could remember I’d let you know how! maybe i can figure it out because I need to do it on paranormalfreebies.com too!
Very helpful girls. I’ve got some work to do. Thank you!
Thanks for dropping by, Vicki!
I launched my website 2 years ago, and it’s undergone many revisions since then. Almost like a rough draft, each revision clarifies my online website a little more. There is much I still need to play with, even more I still don’t know, but each step brings me closer.
Next step, de-spamitize my contact button. Looking forward to more tips. Thanks, Brinda!
Sherry- It certainly takes time. I know some people feel overwhelmed because they think they must have ALL their ducks in a row to launch a site. That’s just not true. Some of us would never roll out a site if we waited until it was perfect. Happy Wednesday!
WOO-HOO! I’ve done it. I checked the stats, connected to FB and to Twitter, and updated WHO ME? and S’MORE with my email information.
The stats. They show a lot of hits today, but we have few comments.
Is that normal?
Today’s post did not show on FB (personal or author). Is that b/c I activated it after the post? If yes, I’ll manually post an announcement on FB.
You are on a mission. Yes, lots of people stop in and read without commenting. I’ll have to look and see if your stats show unique visitors. If not, then some of those clicks are mine checking to see if I need to respond to anything. 😉
Today’s post won’t feed to FB and twitter since you did it after posting. I’d just do today’s manually. I’ve posted this artilce as a teaser on my blog, and it automatically went to Networked Blogs (posting on my personal and author Facebook pages). It also went to Twitter from mine. Voila. Easy… Breezy.
I do love this idea and I’ll continue to check back to see what other helpful hints Brinda has, because I can always use a helpful hint! And it’s so true about it taking time. It’s like lots of other things in life, if you put them off till you have time(or money) it will never happen!
Thanks for your suggestion, Jessie. I shall await Brinda’s input on the benefits of a contact box. My email here does not currently feed to my regular email, so I sign into both — one (at) Yahoo! and another a web based site attached to my domain.
EEE! Tweet away.
Gloria-
Jessica is right about the contact box being an ideal solution. I have a contact box on my site. It does completely hide the email. I didn’t suggest this because I wanted you to be able to jump in and get these items done quickly. I also don’t use WordPress, so I didn’t know if it would be difficult for you to add a contact form.
From my Google search, it appears that the best answer is to grab a WordPress widget for creating a form. Here is a Youtube example of a guy doing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08X-7wZVVxQ
Someone else may have a better solution for contact forms in WordPress. 🙂
The ONLY disadvantage to a contact form is that the person who contacts you has NO RECORD of what they sent you and when.
Actually, IDEAL is to have a great email filter to catch the spam being sent TO you. As far as SPOOFING email (when the spammer sends email FROM you), Jessica is right. The contact form would eliminate the spammer seeing your address and then setting up an email account that LOOKS like it comes from you. (They are not really using your account; they are putting your addy in the FROM line of the account they set up using all their own info.)
IN SUMMARY, go for the contact form if you know how to grab widgets for WordPress. If not, don’t stress over this. I went into WAY more detail than I intended in that last paragraph.
Gloria, just signed up for your blog. I love snarky-sassy women and you are certainly that and more. Look forward to reading you 🙂
It doesn’t appear my first response “took”. If it posts twice, my numbers shoot up and Brinda will be so PLEASED with increased activity in the stats. Here we go again…
Didn’t I see you over on Writer’s in the Storm this morning? LOVED your post over there. Your voice is fun, natural and has spew-coffee-on-the-keyboard humor hits. Jane Duh, indeed. (The link for WITS is under the S’MORE tab, for those interested in reading an AWESOME blog.) When I succesfully post this response, I’ll hop to your blog to follow you there.
If I’m wrong about the post on WITS, then (like Wiener)…ACK! I’VE BEEN HACKED!
This is great, ladies. I’m always looking for ways to improve my blog.
Thanks for stopping by, Ciara. Brinda is a treasure. I’m going to tackle that contact box tomorrow. Wish me luck. My brain goes into fzzzzt in the evening. It’s evening here in Texas. I’ll hop to your blog. I need the exercise.
Some good advice here. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for visiting, Shelley. Brinda will put up a new WEB PRESENCE post each Wednesday until we accomplish a fully integrated web presence. Stop by again. I’m automated now. One of my channels should reach you.
Brenda, Great info. I’m new to the website game, so can’t hear these kind of tips too often.
Thanks, Gloria for inviting Brenda to share.
LISA! So glad you stopped by. For those of you who don’t know Lisa, she is an instructor at Lawson’s Writing Academy (www.margielawson.com). I’m going to lure her to my SBUX or my house and make her critique my turning points. Lisa is NOT shy about letting me know if I’m being too soft.
Brinda will be back each Wednesday, Lisa. My regular blog posts begin on Friday. I read ahead to lesson two. I know Brinda plans to recommend regular posts. Themed posts.
So nice to meet you, Gloria.
Great post as always, Brinda. Thanks for the shout out. I’m thankful I had a website and blog with a clear way to contact me, otherwise I might not have an agent today.
I can consistently count on you to teach me something new!
Hey, Isis! If your agent handles Contemporary Single Title Romance, be sure to let her know you’ve met another author who has contact info on her blog. 😉 Just saying…
You break down blogging to an exact science. I never thought of it this way.
Isn’t Brinda a storehouse of information? I plan to pick up as many nuggets of wisdom as I can. I knew there were stats out there. How frequently should I post a blog? I can’t remember the answers, but it’s somewhere between “never” and “every day.” Too frequently and you become an annoyance in your subscriber’s inbox. There are (apparently) studies that also apply to FB. Brinda (peeking ahead) thinks I need a blog theme and regular posts. Both true. My NEW BLOG theme launches Friday. Hope you stop back. Thanks for visiting, Mike.
I’ve continually debated turning my blog into a full-blown web-site, but I keep telling myself thats putting the cart before the horse. Get published first, then do a website. When I do, I know now where to go for help! Great series!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, DL. I, too, thought I could either write a book or write a blog. I hope you visit again. The benefits of an online presence include building a virtual community of fun, talented writers. That’s how I connected with BRINDA–the star of this show.
Gloria- You are a great hostess. I’m trying to keep my head from swelling from compliments. Or it may just be this sinus stuff that has attacked me all of a sudden. Thanks for being a good sport and being willing to try anything.
DL- Your blog is great and shows off your writing talent. You’ve also networked with people so you have noticeable activity. Thanks for stopping in to read!
Wow, this is wonderful! THank you so much Gloria and Brinda. I will be tuning in as you keep progressing through the daunting social media world.
Susannah! Do you think we can talk Margie into a GloJo Acres IMC-3? Oh. Right. I have a book to polish. Golden Heart? I’m not missing the opportunity this year. Brinda is going to make my web life so much easier. For a while, I thought I could either write a book or write a blog. Now, I know I can do both. Check back tomorrow (EEE! I have an auto-feed to FB now). I got past my “must read like a thesis” brain frzzzzzt on blog posts. That epiphany happened during a one hour write-a-thon challenge at Carole’s house with Sherry–we visited her after the Atlanta convention.
Hi Susannah! Thank you for reading. You and Gloria must have some secret code handshake going on–GloJo Acres IMC-3? This sounds like serious stuff. 😉
Yes. It is a super-secret code, Brinda. Don’t put it out on the internet. Just between the two of us…
GloJo Acres is the name Advanced Immersion Master Class participants used when Margie Lawson (www.MargieLawson.com) conducted a four day, six author master class at my house. Gloria, husband John, two acres — you’ll work out the incrypted code. I’m sure of it. The one and only pic in my Scrapbook is from that class. Sherry Isaac flew in from Toronto to co-host with me.
Yes, I need to upload more pics. I can’t chase that shiny bauble today, tho’. ROW80 nips at my heels.
What? This is on the net? It’s not just between us? ACK! I’ve been hacked!
Wow, I’m a day late, but so glad I stopped by. Great article Brinda and Gloria. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series!
Thanks for visiting and commenting, Sharon! Is it time for another conference? Retreat? Girls’ weekend?
Brinda is wonderful! I know she’s guest blogging for Romance and Beyond early next year. You are going to LOVE working with her.
That reminds me, I need to hop over to R&B and subscribe now that you’ve added that option. How do I get there? Why, it’s listed under my handy-dandy S’More tab. 😉
Hi Gloria and Brinda,
I’m also a day late and I have a serious question about Google Analytics: How the heck does it work? Is there a video link explaining it like stats on WordPress? Help! Romance & Beyond, with fellow bloggers Sherry Isaac and Sharon Clare, is hosted by MobileMe. Can I still get stats on it?
This is a great series, and I’m going over to Twitter right now to promote it!
I’m also very late posting, but I have an important question to Brinda: how the heck does goggle analytics work? Help! I use iWeb to publish Romance & Beyond and I would love to have statistics.
Is there a vid somewhere showing how it works, just like for WordPress?
Posted on behalf of Carole St-Laurent (you’ll find links to her website and blog–Romance and Beyond on S’Mores).
Brinda, how does Google Analytics work? I publish Romance & Beyond through iWeb, using Apple’s MobileMe (soon to be iCloud) and would love to see some statistics.
Google Analytics is a FREE Google tool that allows you to paste a tracking code in your html of a web page(s). I have the site specific tracking code for each website I oversee installed and can check all analytics in one place. I haven’t used iWeb, but I have always found YouTube to be very helpful with users everywhere uploading videos. Here is a 4 minute instructional video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_UicUiE2r4
Let me know if this is useful or if you need something else.
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