Barb Drozdowich's Blog, page 27
September 12, 2018
Complete Guide to Twitter Advertising Targeting Options (Infographic)
Today’s infographic is on a topic that I know very little about but is on my list of things to learn – Twitter Advertising.
Do you advertise on Twitter? If so, what level of success do you see?
If you don’t currently use Twitter for advertising, are you, like me…thinking about dabbling?
Let me know if you find this infographic helpful!
I found this infographic on Marketing Profs
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The post Complete Guide to Twitter Advertising Targeting Options (Infographic) appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.
August 12, 2018
Introducing my Resources Pages
As we all focus on how fast September is approaching…and looking forward to (eek) the Christmas buying season…I want to share my latest project.
I’ve created a Resources page!
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I’ve seen a lot of unethical behavior over the last few months. From phishing emails impersonating website hosting companies or domain renewal services to authors being taken advantage of by unethical service providers.
Breaks my heart!
Insiders often know what are ethical companies to deal with but beginners are often taken in by the cheapest service or a slick hard sell routine. Since many of you reading this blog are beginners, I wanted to create a Help page, or a Resources page to point in the direction of ethical service providers of various descriptions.
The page is here – go have a peek before we go further.
You’ll see I’ve divided up the help into categories – Domain registration/Website hosting, WordPress themes, Social Media Management, Newsletter Services and of course, an “Other” category for things that don’t fit anywhere else.
All of these services either I use or I use for my authors – so I have significant experience with them. I’m happy with the the value they bring to their customers and their ability to respond to customer concerns.
Many of these services I’ve created YouTube videos on or blogged about and those who haven’t been explained in this manner are on the schedule to be scrutinized over the next coming months. Stay tuned for more videos or blog posts explaining how these various services bring value to your work.
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If you haven’t already, enter your name and email address in the form over on the right side to join 18000+ subscribers and receive my blog posts in your inbox. While you are here, poke around and see if there are any posts that will solve a problem you have been wrestling with. Lots of posts, lots of YouTube videos!
In terms of book news – you asked and I created! I have created a workbook version of one of my most popular books – in paperback – so if you are a note-taker and are just trying to figure out the on-line presence or author platform, this is the book for you!
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The post Introducing my Resources Pages appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.
July 11, 2018
Infographic: Essential parts of your LinkedIn presence
Do you pay attention to LinkedIn? Do you find your audience is on that particular social media platform?
LinkedIn is a platform that I am starting to pay attention to more and more. When I found the Infographic below in my daily reading, I just had to share it. If you spend time on LinkedIn, I hope this is helpful to you also.
This post was originally found here
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The post Infographic: Essential parts of your LinkedIn presence appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.
June 17, 2018
I’m not famous – I won’t be hacked…I hope…understanding website hacking for beginners
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Today’s post is a result of several conversations I’ve had over the last few weeks. In fact this topic is one that comes up frequently in my world.
Our topic today is security – website hacking specifically.
Maybe we can be more specific and ask the question: “How likely am I to be hacked?”
In my experience, most of the authors and bloggers I work with focus on their writing. If they work outside of their house, that job is a primary point of attention. Their family is also a primary point of attention. Keeping a website monitored and up to date is near the bottom of the priority list.
I clearly have a different bent than most of the writers I know. However, since I look after around 75 websites, I can tell you with certainty that in my experience, the vast majority of authors don’t give their website as much attention as it should get.
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In fact, when I sent one author an invoice for the time I had spent keeping her site up to date over the last few months, she replied to let me know that she “just has a little blog.” She “only posts once a month” and “isn’t famous.” She told me that I “don’t really need to spend as much time” on her site.
This is a comment that I get fairly commonly. The thought that only famous people are the target of hacking attempts. This isn’t true, and in today’s post, I’ll try to show you in numbers what I see every day. But first, some facts:
If a hacker wants to get into a site, they will – see recent examples in Sony, Equifax, Yahoo and Target
Most of the daily hacking efforts are carried out by bots – computers programed to carry out certain functions – don’t picture a person hunched over a computer keyboard looking for a target
Hackers take advantage of known or discovered weaknesses in websites
Websites – especially WordPress websites – are much less vulnerable to hacking if their platform programming and plugins are up to date
Let’s go back to the first point – if a hacker wants to get into a site, they will. We can also go back to the thought that most authors aren’t famous and therefore aren’t targets. Generally speaking, the owner of a website isn’t the target, the website itself is the target. It is valuable real estate!
Let’s move on to how websites are hacked.
Brute Force Attack – this is where the hacker attempts to log in – repeatedly. This type of attack is usually carried out by a computer program which will choose common (or known) usernames and either common passwords or password lists obtained from previous hacks. The term “Brute Force” comes from the ferocity of the attempts. Remember, if a computer program is doing this, it can work much faster than a human attempting to use a keyboard.
Exploit a Weakness – this is where the hacker takes advantage of a security weakness in your website – either the core coding, the theme coding or plugin coding – to allow them entrance. Most ethical developers of website products will react to security weaknesses, correct problems and issue a new version. For that reason, we should promptly take advantage of updates that are issued for security reasons.
Attack a Server – this is where the hacker attacks the servers – the places where websites are hosted or stored. Examples are GoDaddy, SiteGround, InMotion Hosting, etc. Most ethical hosting companies will actively protect against hacking attacks of their servers without us being aware anything is happening. However, in some cases, the news picks up and we are made aware of it.
Why are websites hacked?
The next question is “why.” We’ve already covered the “I’m not famous” comment which indicates most people feel they must have something of value to attract hackers to their sites – hence the “famous” comment or the other common comment of “I don’t sell anything from my site.” This assumes that hackers are looking for credit card numbers or something similar of value.
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The “why” of hacking can range from simply boredom to the ability to spread viruses all over the world. A website can be seen as valuable real estate for a hacker to upload their advertising (think Viagra ads) or malicious coding (think viruses) and use your site as a launching pad of sorts. Your website probably has several gigabytes of storage that you aren’t using and a hacker can use without your notice. This can go on for quite some time, however, your website could be generating a bad reputation in the on-line world and you could find yourself black-listed. Not a position any author wants to find themselves in as that will cause issues with readers finding you and perhaps accessing information about your books.
I’m not like most authors who get caught up into a storyline and lose track of time – I love pouring over tech reports and stats that come across my desk. Most of the websites that I look after have one or more mechanisms in place to protect them. They may have a firewall or cloud protection and many have monitoring that lets me know if something untoward is happening. And because of my tech bent, I’m aware of certain security threats out there and am actively working to be proactive. This is not a perfect solution.
Although there are exceptions, in my experience, sites that are hacked are not kept up to date and are not looked at regularly.
I know I do better with graphics and indications of numbers and sources of threats, so I screen-shotted a small collection of numbers from reports I get from the sites I look after. These screen shots show the numbers of countries or IP addresses blocked (which occurs after more than one attempt to get into a site). Here is a selection:
Two easy take-aways:
The attacks are not only coming from Russia and China
The attack numbers vary widely from day to day and in many cases are quite large.
Lesson learned:
Keep your site’s theme, coding and plugins up to date, or pay someone to do it for you. In today’s world, we need to be proactive about guarding our security – especially when it comes to our on-line reputation as authors – or as a business.
If you are looking to learn more, you can check out the articles here, here or here.
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Hope you learned lots today and will actively keep your site up to date. If this is something you want me to take care of for you, it is a service I provide and I’d be happy to talk to you about it.
If you found this information helpful, be sure to share with your friends using the little share buttons below. If you are interested in having weekly blog posts delivered to your inbox, but sure to join the 8,000+ folks who have done just that. Look over to the right –> and you’ll find a subscription signup box.
As for work on the book front – I’m in the process of creating a number of workbooks that will be helpful to those of you who like jotting down notes as you learn. More on that soon!
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May 13, 2018
How to Upload a File to CreateSpace to Create a POD Book
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Happy Mother’s Day!
I’ve been taken out to breakfast and now I get to put my feet up and do my favorite things – blogging and reading. Yay! No laundry in my immediate future! Yay!
As I’ve written about before, I’ve recently published two books on Self-Publishing. One book is focused at my fellow Canadians, and one is more broadly focused at authors living in other countries (and yes, the country does matter!). I regularly interact with authors who struggle with technology. Let’s face it – the side of the brain that deals with creative things is the opposite side that deals with technical things. It makes sense that highly creative people struggle with technology.
I commonly hear comments about authors talking about self-publishing as a hugely technical task and certainly something that they couldn’t possibly do.
I don’t agree.
Are there technical tasks involved in self-publishing – yes. However, as technology changes with the years, these technical tasks become easier and easier to manage. Tools are created that turn what used to be a really complicated task into a matter of filling in a few boxes and clicking a button.
The topic of today’s post is how to conquer CreateSpace. CreateSpace is one of the places an author can upload a file to create a Print-On-Demand book. I prefer CreateSpace over KDP Print for a variety of reasons I talk about in the books.
To prove how straightforward it is to do this, I’ve created a video. This video is just over 17 minutes long and will walk you through the process from beginning to end. After watching this video, let me know if you think this is something that you are capable of doing.
***Thanks for dropping by today and letting me share a few pearls of wisdom with you. If you are interested in having these blog posts delivered to your inbox, enter your email address in the blog subscription box over on the right and join 18,000+ other authors like you – looking for a little bit of understandable technical information.
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May 6, 2018
Thoughts on GDPR and authors
I’ve been busy over the last few weeks accumulating information to share on the latest changes coming out of the EU on Data Privacy – generally known as the GDPR.
I’m sure your eyes are rolling with one more thing you need to figure out. It isn’t all that difficult to figure out and I’ve got some information to share and some suggestions to implement.
First of all, for any of you who have read my Newsletter/Mailing List book will realize, as authors who send out newsletters, we need to follow all the available anti-spam laws (or data security laws) not just the one for the country we live in. The charge comes from the country of the person laying the complaint, not the country you happen to live in.
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As one of my authors recently said:
I dare them to try to enforce them overseas. Good luck with that. The lawyers will have a field day.
I don’t disagree. However, we need to at least do our best to follow the various laws that are in place.
I fully admit that these data security/anti-spam laws seem overwhelming, they aren’t really. With respect to data privacy, in the US anyone can be added to a list, but they need to be able to opt-out – often by unsubscribing. In every other civilized country, the law is considered to be an opt-in law. This means that people must give permission before you can communicate with them in an electronic fashion (regular emails, newsletters, etc.)
Both these laws were fairly straightforward to follow. Anything that our readers signed up to (subscribe to the blog or a newsletter), we confirmed their choice with a confirmation email.
The new rules coming into the EU go a further couple of steps. They require people to give permission to be contacted freely. The implication of this statement is that we can’t tie a free book, or giveaway offering, to a signup to a mailing list. Although stretching things a bit, the thought is, if we tie a free book or giveaway to a sign-up, the consent isn’t truly freely given.
Because of this, I’m going to suggest that whatever words are used on your signup form, they be reviewed. What used to be phrased as “Signup to get a copy of X free book,” should now be more along the lines of “Sign up to receive your free copy of X book. I would love to keep in touch with news, etc that I think you would be interested in. Check here [ ] if you would be happy to receive emails from me.”
These new rules also require us to be able to respond to requests for people wanting to know how much of our information we have and also requests to change that or completely remove their data. By law you will need to respond to that. Although seemingly overwhelming again, it is quite easy. I’ve put in place on my site a Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. I simply copied modified already existing templates. (You can find templates here or here for privacy or here for cookies.) These policies will allow people to understand what my sites collect and how to contact me to remove their information.
As the screenshot below shows, MailChimp provides the ability to unsubscribe as well as change information in their footer automatically. Not all the email marketing services do this, but many do as long as you don’t delete it.
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Next, I’m going to suggest that you put a Cookie notification on your site and allow people to opt-out of Cookie collection. This is a functionality that has been mandatory for websites housed in the EU for some time, but I think it is an easy addition. I have one currently on all my sites.
Next, with respect to already existing names on your mailing lists – there is advice making the rounds that everyone needs to re-opt-in to your mailing lists. Not only is this not true, it is actually in contravention of the new law. What is generally suggested is if everyone has opted in through the newsletter service, then leave them alone. If you have people whom you have collected through mailing list growth exercises – have a look and see if they are opening, clicking, or otherwise responding to notes they have received from you. If they have, consider this implied consent. Ones that are not responding in any fashion, most newsletter services will let you see where they are from. If they are from the EU, consider deleting them.
With regards to the collection of information going forward, I like the quote I found here:
“The GDPR simply says you have to tell people why you need it. If you’re asking for their first and last name, tell them why. If you ask their birthdays, make it clear that you send out coupons as birthday gifts for example. Due to GDPR, there is no more asking for info “just in case” or “for future, undetermined projects.””
The blog post then goes on to say:
“But your #1 goal is to take nothing by default. And honestly, take as little as possible when you do get explicit permission.”
Focus on the deliberate choice of the reader – not assuming they would love to join you. To do that, they need to express choices by checking off check boxes or spelling out their wishes.
Going forward, there are a lot of questions about mailing list building activities. Because these companies will want to stay in business, I am assuming they will be changing how they do business and how they collect names. Look for more communication from them to help you understand what changes they are making.
Lastly, if you are using WordPress plugins for various signup functions on your website, changes to be GDPR compliant will automatically go into place. If you are using a newsletter collection service plugin, I am assuming they will all make available changes to their embedded signup forms
Ultimately, it is assumed that the EU will only go after big corporations in their enforcement actions. We don’t actually know this to be true. I know of several authors who have been sanctioned via previously existing laws and time will tell as to what will actually happen.
For now, consider yourself armed with accurate information. Feel free to ask questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer and/or refer you to accurate resources.
*****
This past week I published my latest book – focused at Self-Publishing in my typical no-technobabble kind of way.
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I’ve gotten several outstanding reviews already! Here are 2:
Barb Drozdowich in her new book “How to Self-Publish a book” has produced something lovely. Its easy to read and is packed with well researched information as well as practical advice. This is also very reasonably priced. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in publishing a book, even if you don’t self publish. This book gives you a great lay of the land with up to date information that will help you assess the best way to make your work sell. ~ Willy Marz
This book is not just for beginning authors it is also for the seasoned author who wants to try indie publishing. Not only does Barb go over all the key points she includes links and explains what each item is. If you forget why you go along you can use the glossary at the end of the book. Easy step by step to keep an author on track of what to do. She even assigns homework that helps you get use to doing specific things you might not already know. It is a laid back kind of style so a new person will not feel overwhelmed. ~Barbara Hightower
Available from Amazon
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The post Thoughts on GDPR and authors appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.
April 28, 2018
How to upload a book to KDP to create a Kindle ebook on Amazon
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Thanks for dropping by again! Today’s subject is Self-Publishing.
Does self-publishing intimidate you? If so, you aren’t alone. If I had a dollar for every author who told me they couldn’t possibly self-publish as it was too difficult, I could retire 
April 22, 2018
How to Structure a Perfect LinkedIn Profile (infographic)
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Happy Spring Weekend all!
Although many fiction authors don’t find LinkedIn of much use in networking with readers, many of the non-fiction authors that I work with get a lot of mileage from it. If you are one of the ones who favors LinkedIn, you may find this infographic helpful.
I found this infographic on PRDaily
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March 28, 2018
11 Social Media Engagement Boosting Tactics that Actually Work (Infographic)
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Another infographic that provides some interesting ideas to bump up Social Media Engagement. Hope you find a few pearls of wisdom that resonate with you and your audience.
Enjoy!
The post 11 Social Media Engagement Boosting Tactics that Actually Work (Infographic) appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.
March 21, 2018
Social Media Cheat Sheet (Infographic)
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Happy Wednesday!
Although I’ve posted a Social Media Cheat Sheet for 2018, I found another one that I really like. The image sizes are still accurate as of this posting. What I like about this graphic is the breakdown of all the images that can be found/displayed, especially when it comes to Facebook!
I hope you enjoy!
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