Doris-Maria Heilmann's Blog, page 74

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: Hootsuite, JustUnfollow, ManageFlitter, Social Media in 90 minutes/day, Social Media Tips, social networking, TweetAdder, Tweetdeck

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Published on September 11, 2013 20:42

5 Tips for Re-Blogging

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One of the 11 Tips How to Create Web Content Without Writing was re-blogging of other writers blog posts. Another article Re-Blogging vs Copyright Infringement in this blog explains the difference between re-blogging and copy / paste without attribution, which is theft.

WordPress.com set up an informative page, explaining: “You can re-blog posts directly from your Reader, which displays a stream of all the updates published on all the blogs you follow from your WordPress.com account. set up an informative page, explaining: “You can re-blog posts directly from your Reader, which displays a stream of all the updates published on all the blogs you follow from your WordPress.com account.

How does re-blogging work?
What happens when my posts get re-blogged, do I get credit for it?
What happens if I re-blog a re-blog?
Can I edit a post I’ve re-blogged?
Are there any restrictions on who can re-blog posts?

How does re-blogging work?

You can also use the re-blog button in the toolbar that appears at the top of the screen when you logged into the WordPress.com article. You’ll only see the like and re-blog buttons when you’re looking at individual posts, e.g. http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/11-tips-how-to-create-web-content-without-writing/ - NOT on http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com

Re-blogging is only available on WordPress.com posts, unfortunately not on Blogger / Blogspot, and not on WordPress.org, at least I haven’t found it so far, despite many searches.

Re-blogging is a quick way to share posts published by other WordPress.com users on your own blog. People have been re-blogging others’ posts since blogging started, but the new re-blogging system enables authors to retain greater control over their content.

When a post is re-blogged, it shows up with a link back to the blog it came from, the first image in the post, an excerpt of the post’s introduction (if it contains text), and thumbnails of any other images that the post contains. It also shows any comments left by the person who re-blogged the post.

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What happens when my posts get re-blogged?

An excerpt of your post will be published on the re-blogger’s site (with a link back to your original post), and you will receive a re-blog notification in the post comment. All re-blogs contain a link back to your original post, so the more people re-blog your posts, the more likely it is that you will attract new visitors – and perhaps new followers, too!

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What happens if I re-blog a re-blog?

It is better to always re-blog the post from the original source, in order to comment or add something of your own to the post.

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Can I edit a post I have re-blogged?

You can go back and edit the comments you left when you re-blogged a post, but you cannot edit any parts of the original post excerpt (including the post title). If you like, you can add categories or tags to the post. Re-blogs show up under Posts -> All Posts in your dashboard, and they can be edited the same way you edit your own posts.

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Are there any restrictions on who can re-blog posts?

If you aren’t sure if another blogger would want their post re-blogged on your own site, there’s no harm in asking them for permission first. Please note that re-blogging is not the same as lifting an entire post without attribution. If you’re not comfortable with others being able to re-blog your content, you may want to make your site private, under Privacy Settings. The Privacy Settings control who can and cannot view your blog. You can change your Privacy Settings via your Settings -> Reading page.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 880+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: re-blogging, Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org

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Published on September 10, 2013 20:26

Do You Put People You Know in Your Books?

Finding Characters

Guest Blog by Romance Writer Jan Scarbrough

“Do you put people you know in your books?” How many times have I been asked that question by friends?

Once the ladies in accounting asked my husband (then my boyfriend) if he was the inspiration for my love scenes. He blushed and hid his face, ducking quickly out of the cubicle where they were working.

Robert McKee, author of Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting talks about this very thing in his presentation at the Chicago Romance Writers of America (RWA) convention in 1999. I recently listened again to the tape.

Writers watch people, he said. They gather material through observation, assembling characters from the bits and pieces of people around them. Sort of like Dr. Frankenstein creating his monster.

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More importantly, writers find characters in themselves, because the only person they can truly know is themselves. We understand other people the more we know ourselves, because we’re all fundamentally human. McKee points out that if we are thinking it, feeling it, others are experiencing it too. Self-knowledge is the key to all great writing.

Okay, I’ll buy all that. I don’t have one person in mind when I create a character, but I admit to putting myself into each one of my characters. McKee says we have to love our characters just as we must love writing simply because we love doing it.

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All profound stuff. All eye-opening stuff. But I want to fess up:

I put my pets into my stories too.

In Kentucky Flame, I created a white English Setter named “Major” after a dog I rescued as a puppy from the Humane Society. The real dog, “Flops”, shared my life and my children’s lives for fifteen years. What better way to memorialize a faithful friend?

Kentucky Cowboy contains pets that have also crossed over Rainbow Bridge. “Ginger”, a tortoiseshell cat with a peculiar stripe down the bridge of her nose was the real life “Gloria”, a cat my daughter brought home from college for Thanksgiving. My husband’s cat “Jester” also stars in the book as “Joker”, the hero’s black cat. Our late Border collie, “Binky”, was my inspiration for the heroine’s pet dog.

When I wrote Santa’s Kiss, I had fun giving the heroine a traveling companion named “Little Bits”, who is the carbon copy of “Lenny”, my comical Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

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Lenny, the Welsh Corki

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Excerpt from Santa’s Kiss where a dog named “Little Bits” comforts the heroine:

That dull, nagging pain of regret hit her again, souring her stomach, making her want to throw up. Dawn reached for a Coke Zero in the console and took a drink from the half-empty bottle. It was tepid and flat. As flat as she felt. Flat and defeated. She was having trouble coping with the sudden changes in her life. Yip! Yip! Yip! The sound of barking from the travel carrier in the back of the SUV made her smile. “Hush, Bits. We’re almost there. Yip! Yip!

Dawn heard Little Bits circling in his crate, trying to get comfortable. The trip had been hard on the small Corgi, but he had been a trooper and her only companion on her cross-country journey. Self-pity surfaced and Dawn wiped another tear from her eye. No, she wouldn’t cry. She had done enough of that. She would make the best of this, no matter what. She just needed some rest, some peace and quiet, and solitude to figure out what had gone so terribly wrong.

There’s one important lesson I learned about putting pets in books—never kill a cat in a romance. In my first book Tangled Memories I broke the rule! I must admit the gray cat “Munster” that met a sudden death in the book is really a gray domestic long-haired cat named “Bugsy”. She lived long nineteen years until old age took her across the bridge while I wrote Tangled Memories.

Jan Scarbrough

http://www.janscarbrough.com

https://www.amazon.com/author/janscarbrough

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 880+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: Author Jan Scarbrough, http://www.goodreads.com/Jan_Scarbrough, Jan Scarbrough, Kentucky Cowboy, Kentucky Flame, Santa's Kiss, Welsh Corki

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Published on September 09, 2013 20:59

11 Tips How to Create Web Content Without Writing

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I get this questions so often from new writers, book marketing clients or those who start a new blog or website for the first time: “What shall I write on my blog?” It surprises me always to hear this from authors, that have written 200 or 300-page manuscripts …

Creating Content Without Writing A Word?

Is that possible? Well, a couple of words, headlines or introductions should be always there, along with links to other websites, photographers or resources. All writing – and if it is only one single sentence should contain keywords for Search Engines to find and increase the ranking of your web presence.

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Great content doesn’t only come by way of articles, it can be:

Photos
Videos
Podcast
Re-blogging
Slide-Shares
Guest posts
Infographics
Lists
Snippets from your book
Polls / Surveys
Research for your book

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Photos

Brainstorm what kind of photos you can shoot, that would be compelling to your readers and other prospects. These photos you take are not only useful for blogs and websites, but also for all your social media site, especially on Pinterest and Google+. Photos can certainly be free uploaded from a variety of photo sites, see a couple of URL’s on a former blog.

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Videos

Video engages your audience more than text because it includes sights and sound. Link to any

of the million videos on the internet or create your own.The content can range from quasi

power-point-presentation to an animation movie. It is a lot of fun, and if you are new to video

shooting and editing, get tips at 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer. Learn how to plan and

download free software, create and most important: market your video.

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Podcast

Become your own radio / TV station and post your creations on your blog. You can create what

is essentially a radio program that you can promote through iTunes or your blog. What pod

casting is, how it works, and how you can create pod casts, is shown an intro video:

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Re-blogging

Re-blogging http://en.support.wordpress.com/reblogs/ is considered legitimate

sharing when the original source is obvious and available, linking to the original source,

comparable to sharing on Facebook, where it includes the link and where only a small portion

is shown. Readers can then follow the link to read the full article on the original post. WordPress’

re-blogging also includes an excerpt of the blog post, a link to the original blog post, and it

encourages you to add your own comments or an introduction before the re-blogged post. Alice

Elliott explains in her excellent blog post step for step how it works and shows all the details via

computer screen shots.

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Slide-Shares

Slideshare.net is a site where you can host your presentations and share them with others. Your

presentations can be linked to the site itself or embedded in a web page. Use this link to your

slide show to embed it into your website, blog and all social media sites your are on. You can

also synchronize an MP3 audio file (podcast) with the slide set to create a slide cast – a more

powerful way of distributing presentations/tutorials. Slideshare is also a fantastic resource site of

presentations. See some samples from Slideshare.net website to get inspirations.

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Guest posts

Invite other writers to post on your blog. Let them add their bio and a short description and link

to their book’s sales page. And post often about this guest blog. A review for this writer’s book would also be a nice gesture. Your friendly guest blogger might even bring you some new readers. But at a later time write for them as well – it’s a two-way lane.

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Infographics

These visual stories became highly popular – the bloggers answer to cartoons in magazines

and books. Five years ago, barely anyone knew what the heck an infographic was. Search the

Internet for infographics that are free (copy and paste their code) or if you are fit with InDesign or

Photoshop and have time at your hand, you can create them yourself. Ordering them from a

designer might be a bit more than you want to spend. How to create infographics is explained here:

http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/07/25/how-to-create-a-popular-infographic/

http://readwrite.com/2013/06/10/5-tools-for-creating-your-own-infographics#awesm=~ogTr9VVEBhg3hJ

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Lists

are a very easy and friendly way to read a blog post as long as the list is not too long and is

structured correctly. Create fantastic headlines with lists: “The five best …”, “The secret of the

most successful …”, “Seven ways of telling ….”. You get the point?

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Snippets from your book

Use these short articles as a teaser for your book, always add your books blurb and a short bio.

And certainly add the cover image of your book, and links to all online sales pages where

readers can get it.

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Polls

Get to now your audience. Why not give your readers an opportunity to get involved and give you feedback on existing books or planned product feature releases, such as book covers to choose from, or the types of content they’d like to see on your page. Use apps from Polldaddy (a WordPress subsidiary) to start polls / surveys.”How to Supercharge Your Social Media Presence with Online Surveys” is an informative guide.

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Use the research for your book

You gathered a lot of material, newspaper clips, websites, you might have been even travelling

to places. Use every bit of information you have for blog posts – and at the same time write articles, using this very material to feed your stories. Check out this blog post I wrote about Content Marketing for Writers: How Smart Authors Get Paid for Marketing their Books.

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Don’t forget:

Your blog is the basis for your Social Media partizipation, the “bread and butter” and your

inventory. Use it! When it comes to updating your blog, the more frequently you do so the better.

To reduce the likelihood that you let weeks slip by without a blog update, set a schedule for

updating your blog, committing yourself to doing so every Monday and Thursday, for instance.

Read other related blogs, comments on posts, forums or ebooks. This is how the best ideas

come to my mind. And writing down your own experiences and answers you found when

looking for solutions.

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Some useful tips about blogging and the do’s and don’ts

http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/write-great-blog-post/

http://bloggingwithamy.com/15-basic-blogging-dos-and-donts/

http://www.probloggingsuccess.com/capturing-readers-interest/

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 880+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: blog photos, blog videos, book marketing clients, Content Without Writing A Word, great blog content, Online Surveys, Polldaddy, Snippets from your book

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Published on September 08, 2013 20:33

1st Book in New Childrens Series: The Sockkids Meet Lincoln

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FREE TODAY ON AMAZON !!!

New, … and The Sockkids received already 31!!! 5-Star reviews!

“I was intrigued with how a bit of important history was weaved in such a creative and unique fashion. I thought it was one of the most beautifully written, entertaining, and substantial children’s books I have had the pleasure of reading. This book shows history in a way that will plant the seed for learning and encourage kids to expand their minds with creativity.”

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The SockKids – Solving The Mystery Of Your Missing Socks!

Where do our missing socks go?

Readers find out in our children’s series, “The Sockkids”. We follow the Socker family through many adventures; from encountering the slobbery mouth of the family dog to meeting Santa as he comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve to helping a fireman save a baby to the most shy Socker going to the school dance for the first time. Thanks to the time-travel opportunities afforded by the spin cycle of the washer, they learn about some of the most important humans in the world.

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Great Gift and Delightful Read for the Whole Family

What a lovely and encouraging present – at the same time teaching children about US history through this first book in a series. Everyone loves the delightful illustrations by Sugar Snail Illustrations.

Children two and up and their parents will be drawn to the diversity of the family and the universal and timeless lessons they teach: don’t be afraid of new experiences; treat others as you would like to be treated, and of course, beware of the spin cycle!

The SockKids Meet Lincoln

Kindle edition by Michael John Sullivan, Susan Petrone, Sugar Snail. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Sockkids Meet Lincoln.

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Author Michael John Sullivan

Michael John Sullivan is the creator of the SockKids. Constantly searching for his socks, he wondered whether the missing foot comforters had found another pair of feet to warm.

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About the Authors

Before his interest in socks, Sullivan started writing his first novel while being homeless, riding a NYC subway train at night. After being rescued off the train, he spent much of the past tow decades raising two daughters while writing at home.

Sullivan returned to his subway notes in 2007, and began his first novel Necessary Heartbreak (Simon&Schuster, Gallery Books imprint). “Library Journal” named Necessary Heartbreak one of the years best book for 2010. His second novel, Everybody’s Daughter (Fiction Studio Books, 2012) was named one of the best books of 2012 by “TheExaminer.com”. In his novella An Angel Comes Home, Michael Sullivan takes the reader on a time travel journey filled with danger, mystery and intrigue. At the same time this book engages the reader in a soul soothing story.

Sullivan has written articles about the plight of homelessness for CNN.com, The Washington Post, the Huffington Post, Beliefnet.com, and AmericaOnline’sPatch.com service.

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Author Susan Petrone

When fiction writer Susan Petrone is not creating an arts or culture article for Cool Cleveland, she writes novels. Her first, A Body at Rest, was published in early 2009 by Drinian Press. An excerpt from the novel and some of her published short fiction are available at http://SusanPetrone.com.

Amazon.com

The SockKids Meet Lincoln eBook: Michael John Sullivan, Susan Petrone, Sugar Snail Illustrations.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 880+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

.

Tagged: An Angel Comes Home, children's picture book, Everybody's Daughter, Michael John Sullivan, Necessary Heartbreak, Susan Petrone, The SockKids meet Lincoln, The SockKids series, time travel

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Published on September 08, 2013 06:55

Part 3: Custom-designed Websites

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Website Planing and Designing

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Part 3 is the last in a series about website creation through a variety of platforms. Read these first Part 1: Choices of Websites and Part 2: Benefits of a WordPress.org Website

Custom-designed websites

Website design is split in three parts: the technical, programming and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) part:

programmers who make websites run
web designers who make websites pretty
and SEO specialists who make websites popular -

the art and science of getting a website to the top of Google or Bing.

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Planing is the most important step

Programmer, designer and SEO people can only work with the material you provide them. So,planning a website is just as important as creating one. The website must work in concert with your overall marketing plan. It might need a series of one-on-one meetings between you and an experienced designer in order to yield a great website.

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Question you should ask yourself:

why should there be certain features on the site
what will be the best possible result for visitors (and you)
where should the website be promoted
who should do what in the web creation process
which devices will be used to visit your website

Before you (or your web designer) start creating your website make a plan that should cover at least these points:

Checklist for Your Author Website

Domain Name
Web hosting
Programming language **
Font type*
Page layout
Website Title and Meta title
Meta description and Keywords
Text preparation and editing
Image preparation for web
Customer tracking system
Email opt-in buttons
Follow me buttons
Sharing buttons / plug-ins
Event calendar
About us
Privacy page
Payment systems
Site map and search function
Usability tests
Website marketing
Search Engine Optimization

* Arial or Verdana are available on all computers

** HTML or XHTML & CSS, if you sell your book(s) from your website: shopping cart PHP embedded

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Create a quality website, interesting content, be genuine and give your customers value. The following multimedia elements, will greatly enhance the appeal and usefulness of the website:

Images, illustrations – in high-quality
Documents (usually PDFs)
Audio
Video (i.e., embedded from YouTube or Vimeo, or self-hosted)
Content feeds (from other websites, or blogs)
Twitter stream
RSS feeds

How to Write Internet Content

Eye-tracking studies have shown that readers SCAN text (in an F-shaped pattern), rather than READ it. And: website visitors read more slowly on the screen than in print.

Reading on a screen is fatiguing. A screen, whether a massive 26-inch monitor or a diminutive smartphone, projects tiny points of light at your eyes. Reading long stretches of text can be very tiring. Users will scan for key points in the text, write short blocks of copy and bulleted or numbered lists to make it easy to scan your text.

Online content is not just about words. When you write for the Internet, think “presentation”. Print content is formally written and a passively read. Online content is informally written, interactive and dynamic:

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Use bullet lists, such as this one

Create lots of short paragraphs, and give them all a headline
Keep sentences short, they should never be longer than one line
Use spell check and a beta reader / software
Readers like to interact on the Web, so give them lots of links
Illustrate your text, use lots of images
Don’t let your readers scroll on the screen, keep it to one page
Except prepositions and the words “and” and “the”, all major words in a headline
should be capitalized

Webdesign books on Amazon:

The Web Designer’s Idea Book, Vol. 2, by Patrick McNeil

Learning Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide to (X)HTML, CSS, by Jennifer Niederst

Robbins

White Space is Not Your Enemy, by Kim Golombisky

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, by Jason Beaird

Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case

scenarios with XHTML and CSS, by Dan Cederholm

Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML, by E. Freeman and E. Robson

Beginning HTML, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript, by Jon Duckett

And this is the most important and useful book, you should read before anything else:

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition, by

Steve Krug http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000SEGQNS

Motto of the book: Usability as common courtesy – Why people really leave Web sites

“I thought usability was the enemy of design until I read the first edition of this book. Don’t Make Me Think! showed me how to put myself in the position of the person who uses my site.”

Another great resource for planning a website is a comprehensive article: Web Planning Guide

by Ben Seigle.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 880+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

.

Tagged: Checklist for Website, Create lots of short paragraphs, Customer tracking system, customized website, Don’t Make Me Think, Eye-tracking studies, How to Write Internet Content, Steve Krug, Usability tests, use bullet lists, Web Design, Web usability

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Published on September 07, 2013 06:09

Benefits of a WordPress.org Website

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Moving to a New Website / Blog

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Part 1 of the website series explained the possibilities of setting up a website and the pros and cons of free URL’s. In Part 2 you will learn about the differences between free WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress.org websites / blogs and the benefits of having your OWN website. WordPress started out as a blogging tool, focused on creating an easy user experience with nice design. It has since grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging platform in the world.

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Difference between WordPress.com – WordPress.org

A frequent point of confusion — what’s the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

Just some of the many: In a WordPress.org website you can install payment systems, you can sell your print books from your own website and earn more, all plug-ins are allowed. You get rid of the annoying ads that appeared on your WordPress.com site. If you want you can sell your own ads and monetize even on affiliate programs – which is all not possible on free WordPress.com blogs / websites.

The WordPress.org interface is clean and user-friendly. WordPress also offers a rich content editor, allowing immediate changes on the live website. Users can easily extend functionality with the use of plug-ins, adding features such as a shopping cart, contact form, gallery, or social media tools. WordPress is intuitively search engine-friendly. Built-in features and functions as well as a host of plug-ins aid a quick and easy search engine indexing of WordPress websites.

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Benefits of your own website

I love how relatively easy my new WordPress.org website works. You will need to learn the platform initially – done in minutes – as there is not much difference to a WordPress.com blog. Installing a PayPal button is done in seconds. Once you have done some editing to posts and pages, you will find how much you really have at your fingertips without having to sign-up for the big web maintenance plans of the past or have to wait for days and weeks for a non-responsive developer or coder to change an event date or update an article about your latest book on your site. You will become totally independent!

You can now update your own website in addition to adding fresh news, information, and posts about your books or add your latest blog post! Google’s Search Engines love frequent updated websites! Good for your Search Engine Ranking (SEO) too!

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Got rid of the dreaded Uploading…

I was always struggling to upload new content of our website to the web hosting, mixing up File-Zilla

panes and screwing up the website. As a “non-techie” it was always kind of trial & error for me, and I had to call more than once the web hosters technical help – including all the waiting times at the call center, having to listen to their annoying music or commercials… Now with the WordPress websites, I just delete the old text, and type in the new one or add/exchange images as easy as it is on my blog.

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Benefits of your own website

With your very own website or blog, you will get all the Search Engine Rankings – CONTRARY to “free” websites, such as Weebly, WordPress.com or Wix, where you are NOT even the owner of the site. You can add your own plug-ins, opt-in email address form for future newsletters, follow-me buttons, affiliate programs etc.

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Moving to WordPress.org using Guided Transfers

How to set up your WordPress.org website is explained in several YouTube videos, created by BlueHost. You find these step-by-step introductions in seven short videos. Being somewhat computer / web-savvy these instructions will help you. And there are also WordPress.org forums where you can find answers to possible questions.

If you move your WordPress.com blog or website to a new domain name, you will find that internal links to pages and references to images are not updated. Instead, these links and references will point to your old domain name. There is a free plug-in available that helps you change old URL’s and links in your website.

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In case you don’t want to do this yourself:

If you want to move your WordPress.com blog to a self-hosted blog using the WordPress.org software, you have the option to purchase a Guided Transfer. All your content will be moved, your domain(s) switched over, and support for your new WordPress.org provided for a two-week period. If you would like to get this help, the WordPress Guided Transfer is available for a one-time fee of $129.00 per blog.

… or for much less, if you find such a great web help as I found online:

Individual help for transfer

Changing existing websites / blog to WordPress.org, I was lucky to find a young British computer specialist over the Internet. He is a WordPress whizz and set-up three websites for us, but also transferred one of our existing websites to WordPress.org and the existing blog to the new address:

for a much more favorable fee. Drop me a line if you want to get his coordinates: 111Publishing a t gmail.com

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What we got: Blog or Website Set-up / Improvements

download WordPress website (free)
Email newsletter opt-in
Share buttons for Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Pinterest etc.
Follow-Me buttons
Background colors, font colors, font size change
contact form or set-up email
transfer of all images and text

Optional:

- Custom Logo (if you already have one)

- Transfer to Hosting (e.g. your own URL from GoDaddy.com to BlueHost.com)

Conclusion: If you run a professional web site – an author blog, a publishing business, a portfolio - then you are much more likely to need total control over your hosting, advertising, branding, sales and more.

Resources:

http://the247entrepreneur.com/list/wordpress-for-business/

http://mashable.com/2011/02/09/move-blog-wordpress-com-org/

http://diythemes.com/thesis/rtfm/differences-wordpress-com-org/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#moving-to-wordpress-org

http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-

wordpress-com-infograph/

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 880+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: benefits of WordPress.org website, contact form, content editor, Difference between WordPress.com - WordPress.org, gallery, installing plug-ins, installing sharing buttons, Search Engine Rankings, self-hosted WordPress.org website, shopping cart, social media tools, upload to hoster, Wordpress.org

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Published on September 06, 2013 06:19

3 Choices of Websites – Which One if For You?

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Website / Blog Considerations in a Three-Blog-Series

Get to know the possibilities you have to create your website or blog – and don’t wait any longer to establish or spruce up your web presence, don’t loose any potential readers / customers.

Find out the pros and cons of free-hosted websites, compared to WordPress.org and custom-designed sites.

I have had enough!

After procrastinating the move to a self-hosted blog for such a long time, I finally took the leap from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. The straw that broke the camels back was when I could not install an email opt-in form in my WordPress blog. With almost 280,000 readers in the last two years, I am sure we lost ten-thousands of interested newsletter readers already … numbers were growing every day.

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Something had to happen!

During the last year or so, I searched the Internet, looking for easy-to-use blog layouts and secured the URL I even created a website in HTML, which took me weeks. I was happy with the design, but missed the sophisticated functions, I enjoyed on my WordPress blog, such as the immense useful search function, the setting, appearance, tools and other functions, I was used to and had appreciated for years. But my own web design abilities were confined by the lack of CSS knowledge. So finally – with the great help of a very talented, and knowledgeable IT specialist / web designer from the UK (we work via Skype together), four websites including one blog will be online in a couple of days.

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3 ways of creating a website:

Through my former internet research I realized that there are three ways currently to create a website:

Totally free hosted web sites
Customized, designed web sites
WordPress web sites

Gone are the days where you need to pay someone to do it for you. Setting up your own website, you will encounter a huge choice between choosing a free web host or a paid one. However, when it comes to the free website builders, it’s very important to consider the pros and the cons.

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PROS

A free web site is what it says – free. There are no hidden costs associated with it so you save a couple of dollars per month.
A free web site or blog is usually easy to set up. You can set up a blog or a website with no knowledge of web servers or website coding.
You can set up literally hundreds of websites/blogs on a free web host. The blogging platform, Blogger, for instance, is used by many people to host dozens of blogs.

CONS

You can’t use your own domain – With a free web host, you end up building your site on a sub domain (e.g. http://waldensworldhistory.weebly.com/ or http://retrohair.weebly.com/ or savvybookwriters.wordpress.com ) rather than your own domain name. Thus, there is zero customization.
No control – You can’t control the software and programs you want to install on the web host. You have no control whatsoever on the back end, which, although it may appeal to the novice, can be a serious hindrance for the experienced webmaster.
Advertisements – Most free web hosts usually force you to display advertising in order to generate revenue. While this advertising is generally non-intrusive, it can be an eyesore and detract from your site/blog’s experience.
Low Space, Bandwidth and Uptime – A free web host is fine for personal homepages that will be visited only by friends and relatives. However, when your site/blog contains high-resolution images and starts becoming more popular, the free web host will not be able to keep up with the heavy traffic. Moreover, a free web host has much lower disk space as compared to a paid host, which means you will not be able to store as many files as you could with paid web hosting.

Online Up-time

This is the amount of time the web host is online, displaying your website. Most good paid hosts, such as BlueHost, Hostmonster or Hostgator have an up-time of 99%, which means that your site is always online and being displayed. Free web hosts have up-times that usually range from 90% to 99%. While this may seem trivial, an up-time of 90% means that in the worst case 10% of the time (say, 2.4 hours in a 24 hour period), your website will not be displayed. This way, you could even lose customers.

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Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog: Benefits of a WordPress.org site

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 880+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: BlueHost, free web sites, free webhost, Hostgator, Hostmonster, self-hosted blog, Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org

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Published on September 04, 2013 21:26

Amazon Bundles Print and E-Books

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e-books AND print books

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Discounted e-books for those who own the print version.

You might remember an blog post “11 Reasons Why You Should Offer Print Books Too“ last year where I wrote why it is smart to have print books too…

A complaint of Amazon’s Kindle users since day one was, that there ought to be a way to purchase the print and digital versions of a book together – and at a discount. Beginning in October, first in the USA, they will be able to buy cheap e-copies of books they have already bought in hardcover or paperback. The most expensive titles will sell for $2.99; the rest will be $1.99, 99 cents or, in some cases, even be free.

Russ Grandinetti, head of Kindle content for Amazon, said: “If you logged onto your CompuServe account during the Clinton administration and bought a book like ‘Men Are from Mars , Women Are from Venus’ from Amazon, Kindle MatchBook now makes it possible for that purchase — 18 years later — to add an e-book to your Kindle library at a very low cost.”

Joan E. Solsman wrote in a cnet.com article:

“The Kindle edition via MatchBook isn’t limited to reading on a Kindle device; the e-books will work on PC, Mac, iPad, Android tablet, or mobile phone too – contrary to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library that is part of an Amazon Prime subscription, which as its name suggests, lets only Kindle device owners participate in book borrowing.”

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What it means for readers:

Certainly a dandy offer, also they might not have a great selection in the beginning.

So far, when you purchase a book on Amazon, you don’t get it until at least a day or two after you order it. If you order the print and e-book edition “bundled”, you can start to read right away. However, it will take a long time until until they can get the e-book version of all their former book purchases – if ever. Some publishers might not participate or have given back the publishing rights after books went out of print. And as e-books or any digital content technically are not “owned” it might be a good idea to get the print version, just in case … or if it is such a pretty cover, readers might enjoy to see a certain book in their shelves.

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What it means for writers:

A great opportunity, and as a smart author-publisher they have already (at least a POD) print version of their work. See the blog post: “11 Reasons Why You Should Offer Print Books Too“. If they keep the book at $2.99, royalties (or rather correct: revenue, as Amazon is an online retailer for self-publishing authors, not a publisher!) will be 70%, almost $2.00, while at $0.99 for example, it is only 35%, about $0.30 per book. However, if they have written more than 3 books, they could also skip CreateSpace and go with Ingram / LightningSource - where they have worldwide distribution to bookstores, and are seen as publishers and can “bundle” their books too.

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And what it means for Amazon:

They will be the big winners, for sure, and certainly “MatchBook” is a clever sales tactic, as author-publishers and small publishing companies might order more POD-created books from CreateSpace (an Amazon subsidiary) to avoid large, costly, print runs – if they choose to “bundle”. And trade publishers may or may not agree with cheap versions of their soft- and hard-covers, and might start formatting digital books or reduce prices of an already digital version. People who are considering buying a Kindle, especially if they have already bought books from Amazon, would consider it a big incentive, and so it’ll drive sales long-term. And it might drive sales on Amazon, even if not many books are available, which can only be seen online. But once potential customers are on Amazon’s site, they might buy other things instead.

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So, what’s the catch?

The program launches in October and.includes so far only more than 10,000 titles, a very tiny fraction of all books available – actually less than 1% of the titles available on Amazon… So far, large publishing houses involved, include only Harper Collins and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Amazon said it was now urging other authors, self-publishers and trade publishers to enroll. Not an easy sell, especially to big publishers. That’s why you and me received Amazon’s email …

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Excerpt from Amazon’s Press Release and emails to self-publishers:

“We are excited to introduce Kindle MatchBook, an innovative new program which enables you to offer your Kindle book at a discount when readers purchase your print book, so you can sell more books. It’s easy to enroll.”

Select your Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) title on your KDP Bookshelf (your books account on Amazon) and check the Enroll box for Kindle MatchBook on the “Rights & Pricing” page.

Set the discount for your book by choosing a promotional list price of $2.99 or less.

By enrolling your book, you will be among the first to be able to take advantage of this new program. The discount you select will not appear on Amazon.com until the program is fully launched in the coming weeks. We will notify you by e-mail as soon as your Kindle MatchBook discount is live. Your readers will soon have an easy and affordable way to read your book in both print and digital formats.

Don’t have a print version of your book? Create one today with CreateSpace – Amazon’s independent publishing platform for print books. Visit your KDP Bookshelf today to enroll your books.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 880+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: Amazon ebooks & print, bundle of print & digital, Discounted e-books, MatchBook, Men Are from Mars, Russ Grandinetti, Women Are from Venus

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Published on September 03, 2013 20:02

Is YOUR Computer Save?

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Just a quick reminder …

Been a victim of computer viruses, trojans or malware already? You wouldn’t be the only one: banks, governments and big business all have been there. If you are not, chances are high you could be, if not properly protected. Computer security software creators are working very hard to catch up with the ever expanding threats of malicious attacks of cyber terrorists.

Here is the ugly truth about this epidemic of computer threats:

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Software Terrorists: Scams and Viruses

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

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Computer Security has a lot of meanings

Locking your computer room and your machine, protecting your log-in accounts with passwords, using file protection to keep your data from being destroyed or encrypting network communications lines for example. The least you can do, is to get a security software for your laptop or home computer.

Emails saying you’ve already won money, pop-up ads that want you to click and claim a free prize. Online scams and viruses can not only put your computer at risk, but also your privacy, identity, and money.

Don’t rely on free programs. Sure they are better than nothing, but to be on top of the computer scams and viruses software, specialists have to work hard and when they charge just a few dollars per months, this small change is worth it.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 880+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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