real/brilliant has evolved.

Not only do we serve small businesses with blogging, strategy, and coaching (a refresher on that next week), but we also have recently signed on several authors. Our offering to authors is a bit different; we’ve developed Social Media Packs: Starter Pack, Coaching Pack, and Mastery Pack. It’s a way for us to “productize” our services so that authors (who are overwhelmed by their publishing schedules already) can pick a Pack and get the same amazing service as always. Plus, authors know how to write, so they don’t need much help in that area. They just need someone to introduce them to social media, a bit of coaching on how to approach social media, and then an action plan of what to do next and when.

Our brilliant products page highlights these packs, but I’ll pull much of the information out here as well. Contact us if you’re interested or go visit our web site for more information.

1. Our Starter Pack is real/brilliant‘s mantra for authors: visibility online. You must be a search result for your book’s platform so that when people search for your subject (or you) in Google, they find you and your information first. Thus, you need a blog, a Twitter account, and a subscriber list. Our Starter Pack is a launch kit for authors, basically step one.

2. Our Coaching Pack is real/brilliant‘s goal to help authors make their online interactions authentic. An author must learn their personal mission with social media, and it’s not just to build a tribe, it’s to attract readers that “get” you and want to keep up with what you write. Thus, you must customize your blog and Twitter and create useful infoproducts for your audience. Our Coaching Pack is habit creation and step two.

3. Our Mastery Pack highlights real/brilliant‘s desire to help authors sustain a social media tribe for growth. Authors need to learn sustainable best practices for social media that fit their schedule and goals. Our Mastery Pack is a growth kit and step three.

We are excited by these new products and having a great time helping authors build their platform and tribe! We’d love to talk to you if you are an author struggling with social media. We offer a free 30-minute initial consultation. Just contact us and we’ll set up a time to chat!

I love my sponsors so much. This blog wouldn’t even exist without them.

GoDaddy sold me the domain name, provides the host, and while they have DREADFUL Super Bowl ads, the folks at GoDaddy rock. They bend over backward to help when I get stuck, answer the stupidest questions I have, and there are a few I even know by name and when I email, they call immediately asking, “What do you need? What’s going on?” Your mileage may vary, but my mileage is loving GoDaddy. So, of course I recommend them for domain name and hosting, because I use them and abuse them and they never seem to mind too much.

Starting Monday, if you purchase a hosting plan thru my GoDaddy affiliate link, I’ll give you a free WordPress install. That means you give me all your login info and password to your domain and I’ll install the basic WordPress blog on it. For free. Yep, just because I love Godaddy so much, and want you to get started blogging immediately. This offer good through February 28, 2010 at noon PDT. (Disclaimer: Your basic WP install will not get you a blog that looks like mine. See below.)

Aweber handles my email lists. I love Aweber so much that I actually signed up for two separate accounts and just realized it this month. Seriously, these guys rock my world. I just have to create the content and Aweber folks send it out safely with their double opt-in signups and their fantastic and fully designable email templates. Fantastic stuff. You can sign up for my brilliant/blogging eZine here or my Editas (for editorial clients) eZine here.

In fact, starting Monday, if you use my Aweber affiliate link to sign up for an annual account (one payment), I’ll send you the templates I use for my emails and eZine. They are completely customizable for your own use, SPAM safe, and trust me when I say that the template I use for my eZine is used by the best in the business. You can’t go wrong by simply copying what I do to make it work for your business! This offer good through February 28, 2010 at noon PDT.

Thesis is my blog theme. While the basic WP theme was easy to load, I really wanted some more customized options. So pretty and white and easy on the eyes, yes? I think so. Thesis was designed by Copyblogger Chris Pearson and is one of the fastest-growing paid WordPress themes out there right now. Once you buy, you get upgrades for life. I own the Thesis Theme and the Thesis Developer’s Option (highly recommended) and I know you’ll love it as much as I do.

Also, starting Monday, if you use my Thesis affiliate link and purchase the Thesis Theme and Thesis Developer’s Option, I’ll do a basic install of Thesis 1.6 for you and customize it by adding an RSS link and email RSS link in the sidebar. That’s a great first step for anyone’s blog. This offer good through February 28, 2010 at noon PDT.

Well, what are you waiting for?

You’ll notice my sidebar is becoming more colorful, albeit not quite centered correctly.

Yes, I’m adding sponsor advertising to my blog. It was a decision that I came to only after realizing that I can still be authentic in what companies I allow to use my blog for advertising. So there will be no miracle drugs, diet pills, or get-rich-quick schemes on this blog. All of the sponsors I’ve allowed to advertise are services or products I use for this blog and my business and I highly recommend them all!

Coming up next week, some special offers from me to invite you to test drive these services and products in the near future. You can ignore these offers, but you might want to try at least one or two out. If only to have something you can hold over my head, because if you’re not happy, I’m not happy either!

Also, starting up in March, the long-awaited ebook/ecourse on authenticity will start up. I’m hoping it’s a nice ease of entry way to introduce you all to some of the things I’ve learned and that I really want you to know too.

Anyway, I’ve got to go figure out how to make these sponsor ads line up better. Talk to you all next week!

Hey, look, they’re centered! That’s the beauty of Thesis! Even a blonde can make it work for her.

real/brilliant, inc. finally has a web site up specifically for authors! Check it out here.

It seems a bit stuffy on first glance, but many well-published literary authors look askance at blogging. To them, it’s hack writing. It’s not thoughtful, it’s not publishable, it’s not something to spend a lot of time on.

1. It’s the print versus digital divide. Years ago, I had to trick myself when I read something in print. As an editor, my job was to “doubt it all” and our brains have convinced themselves that if it’s in print, it’s final, set in stone, perfect. Now that we’re digital, we’re having the reverse problem. We’re doubting too much. We think that just because anyone can put up a web site, that most of what’s online is garbage. I hear the point and I agree; there is garbage online. But just because the format reminds your brain of garbage doesn’t mean it is, just as words in print do not mean they are correct. We have to get over this. Many authors and writers have to just get over this.

2. Let go of some control. Great revolutions happen when established cultures resist losing control. Just as the Boomers enjoyed their years of ignoring the constraints of their parents and their parents’ society, the next generational divide is happening. The Millennials/Generation Y are trying new things with communications, news, publishing, journalism, advertising, sales, literature, books, magazines, newspapers, anything that was set in stone with print is being attacked. A lot of “print” purists are freaking out, JUST like another set of purists freaked out during the 1960s and 1970s. This is the current revolution. Let go. Just let go. Trust the next generation. It’s their world too.

3. Embrace change. 2010 has positioned itself as the battlefield for ebook rights, ebook readers, ebook everything. Publishing stands once again on the precipice, just like it did when the printing press was developed. It’s good. It’s going to be just fine. It will be bumpy, just like back then (during King Henry VIII’s reign; alas!), but it will be just fine.

So, are blogs hack writing? Yes and no. I know a good many people writing blogs that are authentic and real, much better than the hackneyed fakeness of much of print journalism in the past thirty years, much better written than the horrific nineteenth-century newspaper headlines that screamed false news from every street corner. Newspapers can be just as much hack writing.

How to not exhibit hack writing on your blog?

1. Be thoughtful. Really think through what you’re writing. Test it out, revise, edit. Sleep on the first draft. Remember that if you can’t back it up, you can’t call it fact. But you can call it opinion. A great tutorial on writing op-eds is here, gleaned from the Huffington Post’s Guide to Blogging.

2. Be authentic. When you write truth, no one can call it hack writing. When you write from your heart, it’s yours. I don’t think the critics of blogs mean we must have these literary tomes as blogs (no one would read them), but we must not glaze over human emotion like a lot of people do when they write quickly (I certainly do).

3. Read it twice before posting. That catches grammar and punctuation errors, thought process errors, and perhaps even shows you when you need more time to process. And above all, write! Don’t just write when you’re at a computer, write constantly.

We’ll talk more about blogs and writing and the fears of social media taking over the writing industry in upcoming posts.

At least I think so.

1. Gretchen Rubin — The Happiness Project

2. Neil Gaiman — Novelist

3. Brandilynn Collins — Novelist, characterization guru

4. Seth Godin — Seth’s Blog

5. Jamie Ford — Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

6. Allison Winn Scotch — Ask Allison

7. J.A Konrath — A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing

8.  Tim Ferriss — 4-Hour Workweek

9. Jen Lancaster — Jennsylvania

10. Alexandra Sokoloff — Screenwriting Tricks for Authors

Got any you’d argue should be on this list? Comment.

real/brilliant, inc. finally has a web site up specifically for authors! Check it out here.

I was here four days ago (I have the sunburn to prove it!):

It was wonderful! I admit I was not thinking about blogging while I was there. I was snorkeling with the fish and sea turtles and having the time of my life! Now my burnt back itches, but I will survive.

Back this week with the 2010 plan for this blog. Finally, I intend to actually execute the plan. Sheesh!

Have a great Monday!

No reason to keep pushing as we near the holidays. Seriously. What’s the point? These days should be used to hunker down, to plan for 2010, to think about next year, to rest, to spend time with family and friends, to enjoy the results of your hard work in 2009, to really soak up the spirit of the season.

Some ideas:

1. Sit down, ignore the Internet, and read an empowering book. Read something that blows your mind, like Seth Godin’s new free ebook. Download it here (Michael Hyatt is one of the writers featured in the ebook).

2. Watch a good movie. Amazing how letting your brain rest actually inspires it. I like anything Christmas-related, but even something silly, like The Hangover, I hear, works.

3. Talk it up. Meet a colleague or fellow entrepreneur for coffee. Amazing how talking about your ideas for 2010 can flower into something amazing. I’ve been doing this lately (I’ve got one scheduled for this week too!) and it really kick starts my planning ability. It gets me excited about the new possibilities for the next year.

Say when the holidays are here and you’re busy with family and friends? Should you still blog? Should you just try to do it all?

It’s up to you. What would be the result if your blog wasn’t updated during Christmas week? Or if you took a break for New Year’s week? Would your clients wonder what had happened to you or would they understand?

A few ideas:

1. Post a picture blog. Just collect pictures from Flickr or elsewhere on the Web and post them that week.

2. Answer client questions. A lot of business blogs are doing this throughout the entire month of December.

3. Get a few guest bloggers. A business blog I know has asked a colleague to answer questions while she’s gone this entire week.

I’m deciding what my focus will be as I prepare to take an extended holiday trip over these next few weeks.

Stay tuned!

I think I qualify as dull. This week has been a blur of work, todo lists, and stress. The impending holidays make it difficult to continue the regular marketing and networking (no one is in the office or interested in talking too much business) and yet running a business continues along.

How to be more interesting?

I read.

Here’s what I’ve been reading this week.

The British Medical Journal is coming under fire for consorting with a television news crew in their quest to get Roche, the maker of Tamiflu, to give them a full set of data. Kate Johnson, a medical journalist, reports her take on the story here.

Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Workweek, has a 100k contest for entrepreneurs in the United States that starts January 1, 2010, using Shopify. See post here (and related information on contest rules).

I’ve been watching the newest TED talks. See all new release and archives here.

Have a great day!

What? There are risks?

Yep. Read on.

1. There are significant negatives in your company’s reputation and you aren’t prepared to respond to them. Blogging requires an authentic effort to attempt to communicate and interact with your core audience. If you’re putting up a blog to try and hide behind it, well, it won’t work. People will find out the truth. Just ask Tiger Woods.

2. You don’t have set guidelines in place that define what your blog is and is not. You don’t put Youtube videos on your business blog showing your firstborn singing in her first Christmas pageant, and you don’t use the blog to feature your own personal politics. Leave that for another blog. You can talk about that other blog, but SEND YOUR CLIENTS away from the business blog if you want to talk about your darling daugher’s first solo rendition of Holy Night, okay?

3. You’re boring. Well, we all have this problem at times. Are you still yammering about the same stuff you were yammering about a year ago? Time to move along. What new innovations have you found for your business? What new management technique has been working really well for you?

4. Comments left by readers leave the company liable to lawsuits. You know, when people tell you on your blog that the miracle cure cream you sold them actually made their hair fall out. That sort of thing. Or even more muted accusations can be just as much trouble. One tip from me: comment moderation.

But all these risks can be countermanded with careful preparation and careful execution. Blogging is a great way to get your company name out in front of a worldwide audience.