I created my first Facebook Page several years ago when I didn’t really know what the heck I was suppose to do with it. Back then my brand was a bit narrower (article marketing), so like the SEO keyword freak I am, I gave my page the url address of www.Facebook.com/Article.Marketing.Income. This url served me well because my page came up pretty high in search engine rankings when someone searched for “article marketing income”. But that was then, and this is now. My brand has evolved and grown and article marketing is only part of what I know and teach. So I was ready to change it and if you are too, here’s what you need to know…

Your Facebook Name & Username (URL Address) Are Two Separate Things

I named my Facebook page with my first and last name because that is what I use to brand my business, but I wanted to use keywords in my url for search engine purposes. There was no need to use the same words in the title of my name and in the url. So in order to bring my Facebook page up to date, the only thing I needed to change was my url–but I’m going to show you how to change both.

Your Facebook Page Username

Your Facebook username is the url address that people will use to visit your page. It’s important because it contains some SEO benefits but more importantly you will use it everywhere. Business cards, website, other social media sites, newsletter integration, your books, etc. It really is a part of your brand. That’s why I thought it was important that I change mine to reflect that. I’ve since changed my FB page url to: http://Facebook.com/Lisa.Angelettie.Biz (Make sure to LIKE my page if you haven’t already.) *Note that you can only change your username once.

Your Facebook Page Name

When you create a Facebook page, you can name it right away, BUT if you are changing your current Facebook Page’s name then you must have UNDER 200 likes to do so. Take note that you can only CHANGE your Facebook page’s name only once just like the username. So make it count.

Directions For Changing Your Username

To add a username to your Page:

1. From the top of your Page, click Edit Page 
2. Select Update Info
3. Click Create a username for this page? in the Username section
4. Enter a new username and click Check Availability
5. If the username you want is available, click Confirm to save it

(Change your name for the page in same area, right under the username section.)

The post How To Change The Name And URL Address Of Your Facebook Page appeared first on Adventures In Digital Writing, Publishing & Marketing.

There may be another indicator that independent writing and publishing is on the rise and profitable. Amazon has a new Kindle Cover Creator tool in Beta testing for those using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). When I say that adding this feature proves that indie publishing is profitable, it’s because I believe Amazon wouldn’t bother with the cost of creating and adding this feature if they didn’t know that it meant increased sales for them.

While the covers that you can create with this generator are average at best, some of them are still pretty decent looking versus some of the crap that I’ve seen slapped up on Amazon. While a little clunky to use at first, I think that it may be easier to get the hang of after playing around with it several times. Since this tool is in beta and is not available to all KDP users, you still have a shot of creating a cover that your competitors don’t have yet. Of course as the tool catches on, you may want to abandon it after that or perhaps Amazon will be diligent about uploading new templates on a regular basis.

Of course the best thing of all about this new tool is that it’s free! Here are some of the covers that you can currently create using the tool.

Source: The Digital Reader

Kindle Cover Creating Resources

Here’s where you can learn more about the new tool: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A1DHGMW609HBI8

Here’s another illustration-based cover generator tool I uncovered which is very niche-y but you might like it for a particular book: http://thrilling-tales.webomator.com/derange-o-lab/pulp-o-mizer/pulp-o-mizer.html

You can always search for someone who will create a Kindle cover for you on Fiverr. Of course you need to keep in mind that you have to search through people’s portfolios and understand that you may be getting what you pay for. A simple $5 cover.

Ninja Tip: Remember if you are making your cover image yourself that Amazon as well as the other big e-retailers (Barnes and Noble, Smashwords) recommend that you use a BIG image due to the higher resolution on computers and digital devices. For example, Amazon recommends that ebook cover images are 2,500 pixels tall, with the height 1.6 times greater than the width. So keep that in mind when making your own images.

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Finding The Time To Write Your First Book Can Be…Challenging

One of the biggest obstacles that new writers tell me they face when writing their first book is finding the time in their already hectic schedules to write the darn thing. It’s such a prevalent issue among writers, that it can totally cripple them and zero writing gets done. That’s why I thought it was a topic worth discussing on my blog. So here are my thoughts on this issue.

First Problem – Hearsay Paralysis

One of the problems I see is that writers and aspiring authors often psych themselves out based on what rhetoric (and some truth) on what they’ve heard about writing a book. How many times have you heard somewhere that it took them a year, 3 years, even 10 years to write a book. While this does happen a lot with fiction writing because of the sheer creative process at play, it really doesn’t need to happen with non-fiction writers. Non-fiction is concrete. There are no abstracts. You write the facts about a topic, your experience with the topic, and of course your opinion on the topic, wrap it up in a nice bow and present it to readers. If you KNOW what you are writing about, it should not take you years to finish your first book. That leads me to my second point…

Second Problem – Zero Authority

You may have a lot of great book ideas but it’s important to understand which ones make sense for you to pursue, especially in non-fiction writing. You will be a lot more productive when you write on a topic that you are an authority on versus one that you have no experience with and therefore have to do research around. You will also probably get a lot more sales when you write from a place of authority because most people rather learn from someone who knows through experience versus research. Bottom line – write what you know about.

Third Problem – Life Gets In The Way

The reality is that we all have families, careers, hobbies, emails to return, bills to pay and other things that fill our lives. There is only but so much time in a day and we have to sleep right? This was definitely a big problem for me and it’s one that I continue to battle. I guess on some level I will always be a distraction addict:) So one of the shifts that I had to make was to make writing my books a priority. It could no longer be the thing I got to once I was finished all the other things I had to do. It had to be #1 or at least #2 in my life at some point of EVERY DAY. That’s right. Making writing a part of my day (like brushing my teeth) was the solution for me. It may have only been a paragraph or it may have been 2000+ words but whatever it was – I got something written and that was crucial in getting the writing done. Which leads me to my list of suggestions for finding the time to write your book…

Finding The Time To Write – Real World Solutions

1. Change your mindset about writing a book. There are so set rules to how long it should take especially in today’s publishing climate. Don’t let the fear of how long you THINK it’s going to take dictate how much effort and energy you put into writing. Just do it!

2. Make a comprehensive and ongoing list of problems that you can solve for people based on your own credentials and/or experience. Do not put anything on the list that you know nothing about just because you heard it’s a “hot topic” for a book. You will refer to this list when deciding on what the topic of your next book will be.

3. If you get stuck with the getting your thoughts down on paper or on your laptop, then start getting them out by recording them using a smartphone or mini recorder while you’re on the go. You can transcribe what you’ve spoken later.

4. Wake up earlier or go to bed later. This is one that I use regularly. I use to think that I got more done when there was activity and noise around me (like when I was in high school and college), but I think I was deluding myself or maybe I’m just getting older:) The reality is that I get a lot more clarity in the earlier hours of the day when the kids aren’t up yet or late night when they are all tucked in. My mind is just too busy thinking about “what’s next” to write in the middle of the day sometimes. Plus it’s literally much quieter and I can concentrate on getting my thoughts down in an organized manner.

5. Make writing your book a priority and carve out time during your day dedicated to ONLY writing the book. Close all other computer applications. Certainly avoid email. Turn off ringer on the phone. And most of all – STICK to the time that you dedicate for writing and it will become habit.

6. Identify the biggest time sucker of your day or evening (like television) and use one of the hours you would spend on that activity and dedicate it to writing. For example if you have a favorite television show that is on for an hour every week, you may want to decide to record that show with your DVR or something and use that hour for writing. You can always watch the show later and there’s no rule saying that you have to watch the show the time that it actually airs.

7. Add a dose of accountability. Tell someone in your inner circle that you are writing a book and ask them to hold you accountable by asking you if you’ve written today – and be truthful about it. There’s no race with anyone to finish your book besides yourself. Sometimes having someone tell you at the end of the week that you’ve only written one out of seven days is just what you need to get focused.

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Learn From The Blunders Of Big Companies Like Nivea®

I have the hands of a great grandmother from years of neglect, so I thought that perhaps this year I’d start taking a little better care of them:) One of the solutions for that was to always be prepared with some sort of hand cream in my purse and at my desk (where I spend much of my time:) So I purchased a travel tin of Nivea hand creme probably about two months ago to keep at my desk. The tin lasts a pretty long time and today I noticed that they were running a promotion which was printed inside of the lid.

The promotion looks like a contest to win tickets to see singer Rihanna. I know that Rihanna is still on tour, so I thought there was a chance that the promotion was still running although I bought the creme over at least eight weeks ago. There’s a page url and a code for entering the contest but when you go to the page there is a dreaded “Error” page. Ugh!!!

This is because they deleted the page on their website, probably when the promotion was over. This is a HUGE mistake primarily because the goal of any business owner should be to keep the visitor on your site and once Google/Bing indexes your page there’s always a chance that it can be found organically through a search much less through any offline promotions that you may be running.

Let’s repeat that. The goal of any business owner with a website is to…

Keep the visitor on your site

Coming to an error page written in German from a company that distributes in Connecticut and which I purchased in Pennsylvania is not good business. Honestly it turned me off. So what could they have done differently? A few things. And they can all easily apply to our own businesses.

Change The Copy

1. If you run a promotion on your site which is time sensitive, when it’s over you should still KEEP the page up but change the copy on the page. Let visitors know that you were running the promotion but that it’s over. Announce the winner on that page. I’m pretty sure there are legalities around just that. Nivea doesn’t tell us anything about the promotion or if it even existed because we are sent to a generic error page.

Create A Special Page

2. If you are an entrepreneur who typically runs promotions, perhaps they are weekly or monthly, then it makes sense to create a CONTEST or PROMOTIONS page on your website and the copy for that page changes as your promotion changes. If you want to create separate pages for each promotion for SEO purposes, then you can set up your contest or promotions page and then send folks to various optimized pages for each specific promotion. Either way you choose to do it — all of those pages need to stay up live on your site.

Forward The Page

3. Forward the url of your page to another page that visitors of that promotion may be interested in. I would have appreciated being sent to a page with a $1.00 off coupon!

Forget About It!

4. I rather had been sent to an out of date Rihanna promotion page. You know the pages on your site that you’ve forgotten about. Where the information is outdated. I rather would have seen an old promotion then an error page. So at the very LEAST – leave the pages on your blog alone. If you don’t have the time or the inclination to make the changes yet to the page, then just leave it there, do NOT delete.

Outsource It

5. Sounds a little too tedious? Hire a virtual assistant to do this for you. That’ll work too:)

The post Why You Should Never Delete Pages From Your Blog appeared first on Adventures In Digital Writing, Publishing & Marketing.

This is a guest post by Steve Aedy.

Anyone who has spent time in the business world is familiar with the concept of building brand awareness. As a writer, you have probably never given this idea much thought – but you should.

You – and the writing services you provide – are a brand. And, to be successful, you need to build awareness for what you do.

It may seem strange to market yourself. However, if you think of your writing as a service, it seems less awkward to promote what you do.

As is the case with just about every other task you could imagine, the internet can help. Here are eight ways to market your writing services online and build brand awareness.

1. Create a website.

A lot of times, your website is the first point of contact for prospective clients, agents, magazine editors, publishers and more. They will look at your site before they do anything else.

This shouldn’t be surprising. Just like a retail store needs to have an attractive window display to lure clients, you need to have a space for the world to view the services you offer.

You don’t need to create anything overly flashy or super elaborate. Simply provide a place were people can learn about what you have done, the services you offer, and how to contact you. If you don’t want to worry about the mechanics of the site’s design, hire a website designer. Otherwise, there are plenty of online services that will walk you through the armature web design process.

Before you build your website, choose a memorable domain name. Believe it or not, some people do converse offline. For these people, you’ll want an address that is easy to bring up in conversation. Consider using your name for the URL. Or, create a name that portrays the services you provide.

2. Add a blog.

Once you have your website up and running, add a blog. Most people dread starting a blog because it is so time consuming. While that is true – blog writing does take time – it is a very effective marketing tool. Plus, you are a writer! Writing a blog should be right up your alley! Additionally, it will be pretty hard to sell yourself to industry people if you aren’t actively writing on a regular basis.

Don’t let a blog dominate your life. If you have time, write once a week. If you don’t, write once a month.

3. Optimize.

Trying to explain search engine optimization is like opening Pandora’s Box. This particular article isn’t about explaining the ever-evolving world of SEO. Instead, we will simply advise you to do some research. Familiarize yourself with the general idea. Even an amateur website can be optimized with just a few simple steps.

4. Submit to ezines.

Ezines are so much more than a web-based version of a printed publication. They are a great marketing tool for reaching a target audience.

Submit to sites like EzineArticles.com. Your article could get picked up by an ezine from anywhere in the world. All it takes is for someone to see what you’ve written and express an interest in seeing more.

Additionally, this is a great way to boost your SEO efforts. Link back to your website to increase awareness.

5. Comment on other blogs.

Find top quality blogs in the niche you are interested in. Comment on blog posts. This will draw the attention of other readers who might be interested in hearing more of what you have to say. Including a link in your comment will drive even more traffic to your site.

6. Send InMail messages.

Join LinkedIn at a paid level. When you do, you can send InMail to prospects. This is a great proactive approach; you can go looking for prospects instead of waiting for them to come to you. Recent reports have found that 30% of InMail messages get a reply. That means nearly half of your marketing attempts will be fruitful.

7. Use Twitter to research prospects.

Do a keyword search on Twitter. For example, search for a publication name you’re targeting. Once you have found potential prospects, follow them. Often times, that person will check you out and maybe even follow you.

At the very least, you can use this time to research the prospective lead. Get to know them. Find out what they are about. Then, when you send a direct mail, you’ll have a better idea of how to appeal to their needs.

Also, send out random tweets about what you hope to accomplish. For example, tweet something like, “I’m looking to connect with more business magazine publishers.”

8. Create a Facebook fan page.

Create a Facebook fan page for your blog or yourself as a writer. Use contests, polls, and other methods to engage visitors and increase awareness.

The internet is an ever-changing world. What is popular one day might be obsolete the next. The biggest thing to remember when it comes to online marketing is this: don’t ignore opportunities when they present themselves. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and try something new. Look for creative ways to build brand awareness and generate business leads.

This article was written by Steve Aedy. He is an in-house content writer for FreshEssays.com, a company that provides custom paper writing services and help with editing for college and university students. You can reach Steve at twitter and google+.

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