Winter Author Blog Challenge – Writing Prompt #12 and Recap of Day 11
StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, Reddit … where do YOU bookmark socially?
You had to know that GoodReads was going to be a popular topic with Authors, right? Some are using it more than others, but as with everything, there’s usually room for growth. Now we’re talking Squidoo! Saw great enthusiasm for this nifty platform. Keep reading for more thoughts…
Yesterday’s prompt was about Seth Godin’s platform:
Do you have a Squidoo lens? Founded by Seth Godin, Squidoo is a popular 
free site that enables users to create single webpages (known as lenses) about their interests and recommendations. Users can even earn money for charity or themselves. The credibility-building potential rivals Quora, but unlike question-answering sites, Squidoo users are free to create content of their choosing. The SEO rankings are quite high – but it remains incumbent upon the site’s users to double-check the veracity of information provided. Challenge questions: What are the benefits to using sites like Quora and Squidoo for building credibility? What can they offer that your website or blog doesn’t already do? How could this help you sell more books? If you are on Squidoo, remember share the link to your favorite lens.
SNIPPETS FROM YOUR POSTS
ALANA MAUTONE. I am on GoodReads, but, I rarely update. Why?
I like to browse around in my local library. Most of what I read is books in the new book (new-to-the-library, that is) shelves that catch my eye. Sometimes I’ll devour the book in a couple of sittings. Sometimes it will sit for most of the three-week period my library allows you to take books out for, and then “suddenly” I’ll get an urge to read it. Sometimes, time’s up and I haven’t even cracked the book. Back to the library it goes. Other times, I read 3 or 4 books at the same time. So, enough times, by the time I think about getting onto GoodReads, I’m done. READ MORE HERE.
Oh, Alana, I can so relate to the way you read. Isn’t it amazing how sometimes the books that call to you in the library don’t warrant a second look at home, and the ones you where you thought, “Oh, what the heck – I’ll see what this is about” sometimes grab you and won’t release you till they’re read? LO
ASHLEY HOWLAND. The prompt for today was about Squidoo. Now I thought I was doing okay with the whole social media thingamajug. However I have recently discovered I don’t use it very effectively at all. What do I need to be better? Well the answer is simple and it’s also impossible. I need more time! Who doesn’t? So I am making a plan and I will blog my process because I will need to get some feedback, but also because what I have learnt over the last week or so might help other authors. I am more than happy to help others, that’s why I started the Stitch Says blog! READ MORE HERE.
When you figure out how to make more time, Ashley, please come back and let all of us know! LO
MELISSA KHALINSKY. I signed up with Squidoo years ago, mostly to get names for my business before anyone else did. It was so long ago that I no longer have the email address I originally signed up with!! OK, it was 2010 – but in Internet terms, this is almost ancient history! It’s a pity I can’t change my username there, though… When looking at this prompt, I reactivated my account. I can see that I didn’t know how to use it properly back then, but now I can see a lot of potential for promoting books, especially some of the non-fiction work I’m writing. READ MORE HERE.
I love your user name, Melissa! Had the same issue with MySpace. My page still exists, and portions of the info are still correct (from 2001), but I cannot get into it to update it anymore. LO
LINKS TO ALL POSTS
Revisit the Mister Linky site to see links to ALL of DAY 11 posts.
DAY 11 WINNER
Congratulations to Rundy Purdy, winner of the drawing for Day 11 of the Winter Author Blog Challenge. He has won a gift from Tweaking MADD. This collaborative magazine caters to students, artists, photographers and writers. Its goal is to facilitate the publication of unpublished writers and existing artists, photographers, and administrative talents enabling smaller narrators a voice in the world of publishing. Tweaking MADD offers one free year of hosting for an individual or corporate blog, complete with links allowing for promotion within Tweaking MADD. By advertising and networking, the successful blog will be highlighted as an individual and star feature along with a joint product within the structure of Tweaking MADD. This is essentially free advertising for the owner of the blog.
Thanks to Cheryl Van Hoorn for this donation! We’ll email Rundy with info about claiming his prize.
WRITING PROMPTS
The end is in sight! Here we go with the Day 12 writing prompt for the Winter Author Blog Challenge…
A social bookmarking site is a “centralized online service” that gives its 
users the ability to add, annotate, edit, and share links to web documents. Bookmarking, also known as “tagging” is a significant feature of social bookmarking systems, enabling users to organize their bookmarks in flexible ways and develop shared vocabularies known as folksonomies. Popular social bookmarking sites include Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Digg. Do you regularly use any social bookmarking sites? Why do you use the ones you use? What are the benefits of social bookmarking? What are the specific benefits of social bookamarking to authors? If you’re not using a social bookmarking site, you’re missing out on a key aspect of social media: referrals by the users. Is social bookmarking something you should consider incorporating into your online book marketing strategy? Give us links to your profiles, if you have them.
POST YOUR LINKS
In order to qualify for today’s drawing, you MUST post your link on our Linky. Click the image below to access it. In the field that says YOUR NAME, you write your name AND the name of your post (not the title of your blog). In the field that says YOUR URL, include your link to TODAY’s post. Your post will not count for drawings and toward overall winner if you do not add your link to the Linky page. However, we still encourage you to share your posts on the wall for the Author Blog Challenge Facebook group.
As we head into the last few days of the WABC, we continue to encourage you to read each others’ blogs. The Author Blog Challenge works because you support each other by reading, promoting, sharing, and talking up the great posts you come across from your fellow participants. Explore each others’ social bookmarking sites – they may be sharing cool stuff!
Let the blogging continue!
Laura & Marcie
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The Winter Author Blog Challenge is hosted by Laura Orsini and her alter ego, Marcie Brock, of the Marcie Brock – Book Marketing Maven blog. Please visit Marcie’s blog for loads of great info about low- to no-cost methods of marketing for self-publishing authors.
famous you already are, the easier it is for a publisher to take notice of you. For example, how many publishers would give their left arms to be able to add Stephen King to their stables of authors? And how much money will they spend on the marketing and displays for the next E.L. James book? Authors who – for good or ill – do not need the support get it because they are already known quantities.
