Beyond the Elements of Style

And Yet More on Blogging: RSS Feeds

I’ve been writing recently about a number of ways to market your books, and I received an email from one of my readers asking what an RSS feed is.

A lot of people use RSS to subscribe to blogs. Here’s the quick-and-dirty Wikipedia take on it. Instead of having to remember to visit a blog every now and then to see what’s new there (and who can remember?), you can use an RSS reader. It will notify you when there’s a new listing.

Both the Mozilla Firefox browser and the Mozilla Thunderbird mail and news client have RSS tools, as do many other browsers. I use Safari, and the blogs I subscribe to just show up in a blogs folder, looking very much like a mail folder. Each blog is its own subfolder, and the blog article titles show up like email messages.

Try subscribing to blogs that you read, and you’ll both save time and get more information. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

More on Blogging

So we’ve talked about book marketing via a blog, but haven’t really discussed how you can find and receive the information that you need from others’ blogs. Reading others’ blogs and commenting on them (always being sure to include a signature line with your name, your website, and your book’s title) is a terrific way to create an internet presence for yourself, network, and market your book.

Every blog has an RSS feed. Once you identify the blogs you want to follow, subscribe to the RSS feeds (one way to do this that is easy and free is Google Reader. By using an RSS feed, you can have the latest posts from all of your chosen blogs updated automatically, all in one place.

But what blogs should you follow? You need to be careful about what you subscibe to, because while blogs can be terrific sources of information, they can also constitute a black hole for your time and energy!

Be aware that searches on the net are all about keywords. If you’re looking for blogs on which you can comment and join the conversation (thus giving your name and book more exposure), then blogs related to the subject of your novel might be more effective than the writing and publishing blogs that most authors think they should subscribe to. With the exception of Beyond The Elements of Style, of course!

Technorati is a good place to start: go there and search for the keyword terms that interest you. The search function on the home page will identify posts with the search term; if you want to find blogs, then use the advanced search function.

Technorati gives blogs an authority rating based on how many other blogs link in to the blog. Although a high rating can indicate lots of traffic, don’t discount a blog just because of a low authority rating. You could still get traffic or search engine lift from being on a blog if it’s good fit with your subject.

There are a number of other blog directories and search engines, including Google Blog Search and Blog Catalog.

When you’re ready to comment on a blog, always make your comments useful and thoughtful. As you start to have a presence on your selected blogs, you’ll find that people start looking to you as an authority on your topics, visiting your website more often, and generally giving you the kind of marketing lift you’re looking for. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Resource for Online Publishing

Many thanks to Michael Brady for this particular resource: a website that will be enormously helpful for those of you who are thinking of true self-publication—that is, designing your own book—or who want to publish online. Thinking of starting your own literary journal? This is the place for it!

The site, Smashing Magazine, includes links to many good, new, free fonts, to CSS and WorldPress templates, to web usage surveys, and more.

It includes free fonts, tips on web usability, links to really useful articles on other sites (from pitfalls in using stock photography to icon use to emerging techniques for web designers, to … even more free fonts.

The site looks like a blog, but don’t let that put you off: the blog posts are from members of the Smashing Magazine network and connect to even more interesting sites, where you can lose a lot of time … but learn a great deal in the process as well. The articles are extremely useful and updated daily, so check back often. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

New Tool: Readability

So I follow techie news, and—like many others—often use David Pogue’s words for guidance on new apps, products, etc.

So what’s his take on the best of 2009? Here it is, in a NYT article:

I’ve installed Readability (yes, you can do the trick he advises with Safari, too) and am not quite as enamoured of it as he is, but that may be because I need to play with my settings some more, and it’s still well worth a try. Internet and computer tools are just that … tools, somthing meant to make your life and work easier. If Readability does that, good. If it doesn’t, move on. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Watch that Logo!

I’ve always enjoyed Google’s cartoon-like logos, often commemorating occasions I had no idea existed. That cartoon-around-the-logo actually has a name (but what else would we expect from Google?), the Google Doodle, and here’s a brief history of the Doodle from MediaPost’s Laurie Sullivan.

Remember that if you installed a Google toolbar on your browser and use it for search, you’re missing out on the Google Doodles altogether! So make it a point to visit the landing page from time to time. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

A Paradigm Shift

It used to be that marketing writers—like me—were always helping our clients to sell. And that worked for a long time indeed. It worked when we used to send out direct mail and slide infomercials into magazines, and it worked when we created websites and landing pages and advertising copy.

But change is the only constant, and the web is changing faster than anything else, it seems. The new paradigm, the essence of social media marketing, isn’t helping people sell—it’s helping them buy. Changing the focus from pushing Product X to pulling people in to buy Product X. It may seem like a matter of semantics, but if you think about it you’ll see that it’s far more radical than that, a seismic shift.

It doesn’t mean that other forms of marketing are obsolete. In fact, social media marketing sits in snugly with search engine optimization, because at the end of the day, it’s still all about content, still about getting people to one’s site and having them buy once they’re there.

And there are as many ways of getting them there as there are people in any given conversation. But that’s another shift, isn’t it: from advertising (i.e., talking at people) to evangelizing (talking with people). Social media types find advertising invasive, anyway, so we’ll be seeing less and less of it; but one can evangelize from within—a community, a club, a social group—specifically because one is a group member. One belongs. One listens. One supports.

So the first tip for those of you who want to join the conversation? Listen! And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Where Am I? Who Knows?

As the internet continues to grow and absorb more and more of our time and energy, it behooves us to take a step back and see what really is out there. So I’m going to write a series of articles here about the web, and how you can put it to use for you … instead of just letting it use you.

Because the reality is that your name is out there. Perhaps you’ve worked hard to get it out there, and this is a good thing. Perhaps you have no idea where it is, who might be talking about you, referencing you, mentioning you. Perhaps you don’t remember that forum in which you lost your temper one night and berated someone more explicitly than might have been appropriate. Words have power; isn’t it time to see where yours have ended up?

The first step is something that is occasionally and unfortunately called egosurfing. It’s simply looking to see how many places on the web your name appears. On Google and most other search engines, simply enter your name surrounded by double quotes in the search field (like this: “Your Name”). You may be surprised to discover that you’re famous on someone’s webpage or that the local committee meeting report you helped write got put on the web.

Check it out and see where you are. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Google Never Forgets

Help! I’m on the run from children’s Christmas ideas!

Let me note right away that I do not have children. What I do have, however, is a search engine optimization business, and not long ago I did a rather thorough evaluation of a website for a company that features children’s clothing, accessories, and furniture. We did not end up working together, but my computer … remembers.

The reason my computer remembers is because of Google. During the time I was doing this research, my ISP, for reasons unknown to anyone but itself, decided to stop sending my emails. I therefore relied on my Gmail account to correspond with the prospect and work on the website evaluation.

And Google, as we all know, Never Forgets.

So now as I meander around the web, pay-per-click advertising for this company is never far away. I check out the TV schedule and it reminds me about kids’ pajamas. I consider purchasing a book online and it’s right there telling me about a special on children’s dressers. I look into a writing contest and it wants me to pay attention to Christmas décor ideas for the kids’ rooms.

Inanely grinning child models are stalking me as I move through the net, haunting my every click. I want to run screaming from them, but they’re actually intruding into the real world, too. When someone mentioned the company name at a recent party I attended, I started looking around for the hidden microphones.

I could draw some political parallels, of course; but this column isn’t about politics, it’s about words. And today’s cautionary word-related tale? Be careful where and how you use your words, because Google Never Forgets. I’m lucky: I only have child-merchandise pursuing me. But the words you leave out there are there forever. It’s a great reason to think before you type.

Do that, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

There’s Search … and Then There’s Good Search!

Imagine searching the web, the way you do every day … but with a twist: what if your search included donations to your charity or nonprofit of choice?

I probably shouldn’t say this, since as an SEO goddess (a title I most humbly claim as my own) I make my living from people worrying about Google, Yahoo! and MSN; but now there’s a kinder, better way to search: GoodSearch.

Powered by Yahoo!, GoodSearch donates a penny per search to the nonprofit organization you designate. If you’re like me, this can amount to a couple of dollars on almost any day! You can use GoodSearch the same way you’d use any other search engine, and your charity or nonprofit of choice will reap the benefits of your research or curiosity.

To get started, just navigate over here: GoodSearch. Enter your favorite charity or nonprofit name into the space that reads “enter your charity here.” And voila!

Stuck on Google? Forget to do the right thing? Make GoodSearch your home page or add it to your web browser toolbar. Either way, you’ll be helping someone … and will find yourself far, far beyond the elements of style!

To Quote, or Not to Quote … (Copywriters: Read This, Please!)

I have to admit it: I have a new favorite blog out there. The marketing world — in which I spend a fair amount of my time — loves loves loves scare quotes. Almost as much as it loves to choose certain random nouns and give them initial caps. Almost as much as it loves choosing words it thinks will drive customers to action and capitalize them completely. And then there are the exclamation marks …

You end up having sentences like these: All of “our” Fine Sports Wear is ON SALE!!!!!!!

Okay, so that’s a slight exaggeration, but honestly –– only slight. Good copywriting isn’t about tossing eye-catching punctuation like errant confetti over your content: good copywriting is supplying good content. Period. And for you SEO mavens out there, all this extraneous stuff is horrible at attracting spiders. Do so at your risk and peril.

But I digress. There are, thankfully, two or three other people in the world who feel as I do, and one of them has a blog! Youpie!

When you’re ready for a slightly different take on the use of scare quotes as we all unhappily see them every day, do go visit The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation marks..

You’ll have a lot of fun: I guarantee it! And you’ll also be … beyond the elements of style!