Words To Live By Gathers Speed

It’s great to be able to say to my students, I know just what you’re going through because I’m going through it, too. The book is on fast forward, moving faster than I ever dreamed it would.

Here’s what I’ve done:

• Had my manuscript copy edited
• Purchased my ISBNs
• Had my book cover and interior designed (now in layout)
• Applied for a fictitious name for my publishing company
• Opened an account with CreateSpace to publish the book
• Begun to fill out their voluminous application forms
• Created a new Web site and ShopSite store
• Developed a detailed marketing plan
• Registered my copyright
• Designed bookmarks

What are my next steps?

• Read galleys and have them copy edited
• Create list and send out readers’ copies
• Write press release and set up press room on Web site
• Make a list of local TV and radio talk shows
• Write talking points for interviews
• Contacted a copy editor for the galley proofs
• Begun to request testimonials from fellow authors

7 Ways to Get Your Blog Noticed

It's a jungle out there in the blogosphere. How do you get noticed? How do you get read? I've been trying to figure that out for as long as I've been blogging, so I decided to do some research. It may may look like a lot of work to post, submit, send, register, and so forth in all these places; but if you feel virtually invisible (as I do), here are 7 ways to get your blog out where people may actully read it. What a concept!

1. Submit your blog to blog directories: BlogCatlog (one of the largest on the Internet) and check out Search Engine Journal for the top 20 essential blog directories.

2. Recommend great blogs: copyblogger (more tips than you can implement on blogging), remarkablogger (remarkable blog consulting & coaching), writetodone (about the craft and the art of writin; also known as Zen Habits). They might recommend you back.

3. Check out biztipsblog.com (simple tools and tactics to grow your business on line), JTPratt's Blogging Mistakes (a virtual online guide to everything) and pingomatic.com (a service to update different search engines that your blog has updated).

4. Use TwitterFeed to link your blog posts to twitter.

5. Submit your blog to MyBlogLog (a social network for the blogger community that uses a popular web widget), Bumpmee (for creating your own page at www.habbo .com), weblogs.com (a ping server that automatically notifies subscribers when new content is posted to a website or blog), digg.com (a place for people to discover and share content from the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blogs) yahoo.com (major search engine and getting bigger every day), stumbleupon.com (which helps you discover the best on the web), blinklist.com (lets you instantly save and find any website with one click).

6. Link to del.icio.us.com (the biggest collection of social bookmarks in the universe).

7. Sign up for an account on Technorati, (an Internet search engine for searching blogs).