Over my writing life, I’ve written in many cluttered and noisy places—but it is not my preference or where I do my best creative work. For example, with my journalism training, I have written in busy noise editorial offices where everyone is pounding on their own keyboard right next to each other. The distractions are incredible in these situations. Some of my friends haul their laptop to a coffee shop and write.
I’ve discovered I do some of my best creative work when my environment is organized. Yes some writers use organization as a method of procrastination. They sharpen their pencils and other such tasks to put off getting their hands on the keyboard and writing words. If I take time to get organized, I’ve discovered my writing is more focused and less distracted and I become more productive.
Publishing a book can get quite expensive. A good cover designer can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, and the editorial costs alone can set you back even more.
While there are many important expenses, there are also many ways to spend money and get nothing useful back. For example, take the Bowker SAN. This costs $150, and is basically a way for you to list your physical address in a Bowker database – something you can do with your website, or dozen other services, at no cost to yourself.
I recently polled a number of experts, including David Gaughran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Joel Friedlander, Victoria Strauss, Jane Friedman, and Hugh Howey. The following post lists a few of the things they thought were a waste of money.
The first items was suggested by Robin Sullivan, business manager and wife of author Brian Sullivan.
In October of 2016 we dramatically changed our Facebook posting strategy.
A gradual, but noticeable shift in many social media algorithms and an influx of brand advertising on Facebook meant that it was important for us to either start experimenting or we’d continue to see a decline in organic reach and engagement.
Getting your content seen on Facebook is no small task. Especially when you consider all the content shared to Facebook every 20 minutes:
1 million links are shared
4.86 million photos are uploaded
763,888 status updates are sent out
We needed to make a change.
We cut our posting frequency by more than 50% on Facebook and began to truly focus on quality over quantity. What happened next, even the most optimistic social media manager couldn’t have expected:
Our Facebook reach and engagement began to increase even though we were posting less!
Here are some of the headline stats:
Reach has more than tripled from 44,000 to 150,000+ people per week on Facebook
Average daily engagements with our Facebook content has risen from ~500 to more than 1,000
More and more of our posts are reaching between 5,000-20,000 people (before we made the change, many of our posts were reaching less than 2,000 people)
I’m super excited to share the data behind this growth with you and take you behind the scenes of our latest Facebook posting strategy.
Let’s dive in!
read more https://blog.bufferapp.com/facebook-posting-strategy?
Today’s digitally savvy new media consumers are voracious consumers of content.
But this voracity has evolved over the years to become more refined and discerning in appetite.
Just as the proliferation of coffee shops has seen us become coffee connoisseurs, so too has the proliferation of online video content seen consumers’ patience with crude brand messaging grow thin.
Trying to keep pace with this demand for content means marketers can easily fall into the trap of taking a scattergun approach to maintaining their YouTube presence, firing off random status updates or uploading videos in a bid to appear ‘always on’ and ‘always available.’
Sadly, bombarding prospects with shallow sales pitches rarely pays dividends, and the customers already following your brand expect value-adding content in return for their loyalty.
If you’re willing to go to the effort of creating it in the first place, it makes sense to take a more considered approach when the time comes to release it into the wild.
Activating your video marketing content requires just as much thought as it does creation, and a useful starting point for your planning is the Help Hub Hero model of content planning and market activation.
You ask for it and now it’s here. The video is loading and I have it all written down. Make sure you comment below if you have your own tips and tricks. I’d love to hear from you and don’t forget to share this with other authors and writers.
TIME SAVING TIPS AND TRICKS FOR AUTHORS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Focus more time on platforms that give the best engagement.
Weekly checks on your stats can give you n idea of what is working to draw website traffic. Focus o. Items that you see have worked for you. Make sure you also check your search terms, how people looked you up, what sites they clicked on.
Also look at stats from you mailing list : sign ups, sales click thrus, and visits to the websites
You should spend more time a week cultivating. That ROI and riding the tails wind of any spontaneous traffic that came into your site.
Use social media management tools
When posting from your website/blog you should have automatic sharing tools, especially if you’re using WordPress, my favorite. When you publish you can instantly posting to Facebook, twitter GooglePlus, and even Tumblr. Using this method is timesaving.
Also, use Hootsuite.
After publishing or scheduling to post, take the subject and link over to Hootsuite. Paste blog subject and status there to your social media connected and schedule out for later in the day, week, month and or year. This will save you time with promoting the post properly.
Other apps like buffer and Socialoomph assist with scheduling social media statuses to multiple platforms. as well.
Reuse old posts or repurpose older posts
There is nothing wrong with Taking past posts and reposting them to your blog. There could be new ppl who are following you that haven’t seen you older content so giving them an opportunity to check out older post can solidify you to your newer followers as the expert you are.
You can also take past posts and repurpose them. Tweak them and add more content and them publish them again under a new title.
Remember you need a minimum of 52 post a year , once a week, to be considered active. Instead of coming up with 52 new ideas, repurposing and reposting posts, can be a great time saver for the busy writer.
Create systems or work habits to save time.
When posting to your blog, have checklists and systems in place to cut down on thought processes. Adhere to the steps and /or checklist closely initially to help keep you on track. WRITE THEM DOWN AND POST THEM AROUND YOUR COMPUTER AREA, until they become 2nd nature.
Not having to think and doing things naturally help you make. Sure things get done and not having to waste time trying to go back and do things when you really don’t have time.
Batch tasks together and stick to the system.
Doing task while you are in a general mode helps cut time on bumping from site to site or even from task to task and forgetting something. I’m very guilty of this, which is why I stick to batch systems
Batch 1 example
After While working on a blog post, check yr stats, update links and respond to comments, create social media images using canva.com.
Batch 2 example
Follow people on social media, respond to messages, retweet/share statuses
Batch 3 example
Save articles or links to read later, write down post ideas, delete expired promo statuses
Batch 4 example
Check book sales, set up next month promos. Write down promo ideas.
Outsource work– learn when to let go and assign tasks
Who can you outsource too: From new authors that ask to shadow you, older kids with idle hands and stare at their phone, unemployed friends who need gas money and virtual assistants
Guest blogging feature setups on blogs
Repeat general promotion and reminders on Hootsuite
Initial contacting bloggers and podcasters.
Research for upcoming events, library proposals and offline speaking engagements
Ready to watch the video?
Used correctly these tips can save time for all those busy authors that want more time to write.
Written by Brian Peters
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