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!

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.

Yes, I still miss Hawaii. Can you tell?

My word for 2010 (each year I choose one word to focus on for the next twelve months) is real.

Or as we’ve been talking about on the blog, authentic.

I had such big plans for this blog in 2009. These plans fell to the side because of a too-busy schedule, oh yeah, I went to Europe!

In 2010, I’m making decisions about what I absolutely MUST spend my time on to get to the goals I’ve set for 2010. I waver back and forth whether or not continuing to develop this blog is worth it. I think I’ve decided that it really isn’t a priority for me this year.

Don’t panic!

I’ll still update this blog, but on a less-regular basis. I’ll pop in with interesting tidbits that I find. I will finish an ebook on authenticity (that is on my list for this year) and you’ll be the first to know about it. I will create a blogger-author press kit and you will have first access to it as well. I am not in the mood to charge hundreds of dollars for these products. I like seven dollar ebooks, don’t you? So these will be seven dollars. Yes, 7 dollars.

I’ll be developing a book on blog content this year and you’ll get the benefit of my latest, zaniest thoughts on that. Plus you’ll watch as I attempt to sell a book based on a blog. And I may change my mind and come back here and really just churn out the content. Who knows?

For now, I’m focusing on doing the two things each day that will bring me the closest to my goals this year: writing 2500 non-blog-related words a day and marketing constantly to find top-notch clients for my editing, writing, blogging business. I really believe in marketing, even if you’re maxed out with work. We must market MORE. That is the name of the game in business for 2010.

I have some deeper thoughts about that and I’ll share them as my marketing gets underway this year. In the meantime, what two activities should you be doing instead of reading this blog? I’m serious.

The two greatest things to bring you the closet to your goals this year. What brings you the most results in the least amount of time? Expand your time. What brings you the least amount of results but takes the greatest amount of time? Downgrade the time you spend on those worthless tasks.

Read this article and tell me you will follow Ramit’s and my advice in 2010.

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.

A friend mentioned a marketing seminar that is free during the month of November from Sean D’Souza. Go here to sign up.

Why you may ask? Because it focuses on the same core marketing principles that I’ve been talking about on this blog: How to find customers? You come alongside them as a resource, not as a selling nuisance.

I want to point out that I’m not the person who came up with this either, I’m just sharing what I’ve learned from others (Michael Port taught me) and now Sean D’Souza can teach us. It’s what I was talking about on Monday when I said to find mentors that you can trust. This is how you find them.

And happy Friday, everyone! I’ll be writing content (to give away) this weekend in preparation for my big marketing push that starts next week. I’m a process person and so I’ve got everything set up so that it should run like clockwork. (We’ll see.)

What are you going to do this weekend to further your business?

In this post, I wrote about a few ideas for marketing in a tough economy. Heck, these ideas work for marketing in ANY economy. It’s been getting a lot of traffic lately, so I want everyone to click on it. I’ll wait. (Just make sure you click back, because I’m about to give you another really good post that you’ll want to read.)

Are you back? Good.

One of the ideas that I feel really has traction is a monthly eZine. Sure, as a small business owner you probably get way too many of these. Some aren’t that useful. But there are a select few in your inbox that you don’t delete, right?

I say you should create an eZine like that, for your clients/customers. An eZine that they don’t delete, but read in full each time, and that they save in a special folder in their email program just in case they need the information again in future. That’s the eZine we want more of.

1. What is your expertise? What do you sell? No matter what you sell, whether it’s services or products, the information you’ve learned about what brand of product is best, or the skills you bring when you sell a service, THAT is your expertise. Now, don’t give away the farm. But you want to share some of that information, just the right amount, so that your client gets something and still knows to come to you for the next thing. I don’t mean be stingy. I just mean you’re not going to hand over your proprietary info to anyone who asks for it (that is just stupid), but you are going to help your clients/customers to make better decisions BECAUSE of that proprietary information. Clear as mud? Read on.

2. An eZine is a compact, quick read. You’re not writing a 3,000-word feature article. You aren’t spending hours on this. You are choosing a topic from your expertise because of your proprietary information and expanding just a bit on it. You want how-to, very secular, easy-to-follow action steps. You want bullets, numbered lists, nut graphs that speak directly to the pain your customers/clients are feeling. You’re a QuickMart with this eZine. Just the stuff they want, not much choice, higher prices, but easy to get in and out. Kapish?

3. What kind of pain does your target market feel? I am not advocating that you cause pain to find the pain either. Every client/customer has a massive need that propels them to search out a company just like you for a solution. That is their pain, whether from needing more time, needing better equipment, needing personnel solutions, needing specialized services, such as accounting or editing, etc. This is the reason most of your clients/customers buy from you. It’s the one thing that they can’t do themselves (if they could, they would and you’d be out of business).

4. The eZine promises information toward a solution. It gives sales ideas, how to increase customer retention, how to keep your books cleaned up so filing taxes is easier, how to decide if the publications they produce are grammatically correct. All these are solutions that your clients/customers look for. What do you know about any of these? Go write something.

5. The eZine points clients/customers to you. By trying to help find a solution for them, they are more likely to come to you in the future. Say if you’re on a plane and scared to death of flying, wouldn’t you want the pilot to talk to you about what’s happening in the cockpit? Wouldn’t you want to know that all the instruments look good (how does he know that?), that there is plenty of jet fuel to get to your destination (how does he know for sure?), and that there are plenty of pretzel packs on board because you are suddenly very hungry (does he know someone he can ask to find this out?). Get it?

eZines are such a great marketing tool. If you don’t have one yet, what are you waiting for exactly? Make it short (less than 500 words total) and keep it free of fancy graphics and html. Just put together a plain text email version for now. Find a catchy title, tell them who you are, get a few nut graphs of information that you think your clients/customers need to know, and then include links at the end to your web site and blog. And always, ALWAYS include unsubscribe information. Make sure your clients/customers know you highly value the ability to talk to them via email every month. Be open to questions, comments, requests for information, and above all, be nice. Be authentic.

It’s Seth Godin’s term, not mine. I call it a following (sounds like a cult leader), others use different terms.
All in all, a tribe is vital in this digital age, especially if you intend to become a person of influence and sell products or services (or even garner interest in the humanity you serve with your non-profit).

So, how does one build a tribe?

I think Godin’s book on the subject is the best approach to it, but I have a few ideas myself.

1. Be who you are. No more can you run around without caring what people think of you. I don’t mean you need to be completely caught up in it, but you need to be aware. What comes up when you Google your name? Is that what you want people to know about you? Change it up. This is where all that social media really comes into play. What do you post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Squidoo? What does your blog talk about? It better be you. It better be what you want people to see.

2. Be smart with your strategy. It’s great to learn from the best. I learn from Seth Godin, Michael Port, Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, Chris Pearson, and Penelope Trunk. That is good. Have mentors, have people who know what they are doing and have written books or have blogs you can follow and learn from. But don’t rush around trying to follow every single self-proclaimed “expert” out there. Don’t follow the pack online. There are a lot of people moving really fast out there. It’s good to move fast, but I would suggest you move a bit slower. You know what they say “hire slow, fire fast.” (It’s HR, but apply this to who you allow to influence you.) Find out if you really want to do it their way. If so, follow them. If it’s not working, fire them fast.

3. Make as many mistakes as you possibly can. It sounds backward, but it’s actually the best way to find out what your tribe wants from you. You can sit and dither about what to say to them, but sometimes you just have to throw something out there. If they like it, you MAY be on the right track. I say MAY because in the long run, the initial response can’t be used to determine how successful the message was. If they don’t like it, you know right away and you haven’t wasted time building everything to rest on this angle. Plus, if someone makes a mistake and acknowledges it to me, I’m more interested in what they have to say. Others’ mileage may vary.

4. Slow and easy wins the race. The rushing and freaking out of everyone out there online right now drives me batty. Sure it’s fine to move fast, but remember, those who are steadily making progress will win. The more you find out what your tribe doesn’t want from you is slow and steady progress and takes the pressure off. Running around like a chicken with its head cut off is just embarrassing.

5. Look at yourself. I like to begin and end with a good look at what you can offer to your tribe. What are you hiding from them? What are you not wanting to talk about? What things do you gloss over because it’s easier to just not say anything? Those may be the very things that will build you the strongest, most loyal tribe. It’s the people who talk about the hard things, who face the hard things, that we most want to track with. Isn’t it?

Now go forth and multiply that tribe.

More questions lately about my favorite web sites than books, so we’ll be featuring the Love It Or Leave It Web Site Edition more often than not.

Best Grammar Sites:

Grammar Girl by Mignon Fogarty

Guide to Grammar and Writing

Grammar Book

Best Blogging Sites:

Problogger (disclaimer: I write for this site)

Copyblogger

DailyBlogTips

Best Twitter Sites:

Twitip (disclaimer: I write for this site)

Twittersweet

TwitterHandbook

More best sites coming up in the next few weeks!

Monday: 7:12 am
I’m up, bleary-eyed from staying up until 3 am reading a book, but I’m up. Brush my teeth, put on gym clothes, stumble downstairs to office and turn on lights and email. Review emails, read Internet news, respond to the first of the emails. Surf Facebook.

7:47 am
Turn on BMJ computer, check email, look at my task list, respond to emails.

8 am
Conference call from London begins, goes for around 20 minutes on a good day, about 40 minutes on a really good day. Ha. Can’t hear the jokes, but can hear the laughter.

9 am
London signs off and I begin my work. Crank the music, edit away, CMS freezes and I have to start over, or CMS does well and I am feeling good.

11:45 am
Save work, check emails from U.S. one more time, reply if necessary, surf Facebook. Go to the gym.

1 pm
Back from gym and after lunch and the last ten minutes of a previously started Law & Order, I’m back to work. Recheck U.S. email, respond, answer phone and tell hubby that yes, I’ll watch for UPS. Log back into CMS. Completely forget about UPS.

3 pm
Phone call from client; I ask if I can call them back. Another phone call from client. Then another. They know I’m almost available. I give up and deal with them. Save my work, answer emails, pitch a few blog ideas, send some invoices.

4 pm
Back to the CMS to finish for the day.

5 pm
Log out, and go find an apple to munch on. Put rice on in the rice cooker.

6 to midnight
An assortment of tasks: reading, writing, emails, blogging, book proposals
mixed in with DVR shows, dishes, chats with hubby, phone calls from friends and family, and laundry.

Isn’t not pretty, but it works. Moonlighting fits itself into the spare moments; it has to. And you succeed at moonlighting because you’re willing to fit it into those extra moments. Rather than watching prime-time television, you watch it at your convenience (often during dishes or meals or in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep). Moonlighting will take a bite out of your social life too; ready? It’s not glamorous at all. Moonlighting is hard work.

But the benefit (for me) outweighs all the hardship. I love it!

So, this week, is there space to fit more in? If not, what can you cut?

When visitors arrive at your blog, what do they see without any scrolling of their mouse? Do they see something that will compel them to stay at your site and read more?

Go ahead, comment on my blog while you’re here. I know. The reason I’m mentioning this is that my blog designer and I are working on a new design and this is what he has me thinking about.

1. Do they see a lot of text that does not explain what the site is, who you are, how to subscribe by RSS or email? That’s a problem.
Move your subscription options to the top of the page. Write an about me page, consider a static blog page or a static FAQ post. Consider your design. Can your readers see content? Can they quickly make a comment?

2. Is there a lot of art at the top? Art just for the sake of art is great, but for a blog that encourages traffic, large art is static, it doesn’t propel a reader to stay or continue to scroll. What about a large headline that doesn’t do much? A headline needs to draw in a reader. How about adding a subtitle? How about making it linkable? How about adding some menu buttons right underneath that title?

3. When your readers finally scroll, does music start to play or does the large amount of art or ads make the site slow to load? If you can avoid music (if you’re not a composer or dj), don’t add music to your blog. Folks are usually listening to their own music or their own podcasts or they are at work and a quiet office is not amenable to loud trance music coming on automatically. The auto-play on some blogs drives me crazy.

4. Do all your links work? If you haven’t updated your blog roll in a while, why not do that this week? Nothing like coming to a person’s blog and then hitting a list of dead ends. Also, a helpful WordPress plugin allows your blog readers to connect the comments on the post to the commenter’s most recent blog post (I’m adding that function) and that is a great idea. Why would your readers want to click through your blog roll unless they kind of knew who those people were and how they respond to you?

5. Is your blog mostly pictures? That’s fine. No problems, but you might consider captioning. Decide if you want captions above the picture or below it. Do you want to name real names or just cite initials (if people are in the pictures)? Do you have permission to post their images on your blog?

Just a few things that I’m working on this week. Hope they are helpful.

Any comments? What would you like to see on this blog? I’m redesigning, so go right ahead!