Permalink Habits

I nag the BBT students about this incessantly - every day of your tour, change the host blog link to the permalink of that unique post. Do it before the day is over and tomorrow's post supercedes it. This is a habit that many authors don't develop early on - but if you don't do it, you'll be sorry when someone asks for the link later, or you want to reference some magnificent quote that fell from your pen in the interview.  Here's what I'm talking about. Today's stop on the Your Fantastic Elastic Brain is here:

http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com

But the direct link to that post is here:

http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com/2011/01/creating-book.html

See how Blogger tacks on the date and post title?

I always go to bit.ly to create a shortened URL like this:

http://bit.ly/fqaloJ

I can use this shortened link more easily when promoting at various social networks where a long URL is a bad thing (like Twitter where you're limited to 140 characters), and often I even customize it, though bit.ly has been a bit cantankerous the past two days. I would have liked http://bit.ly/BBTHel to make the link more memorable, but no luck.

Now here's the complete tour schedule and you can see by clicking all the links over at the blog (not here), that each one goes to it's exact post, not just the blog host's main page. It's a good idea to have a separate tab on your blog that shows your tour schedules like this. Here's a snip from Little Pickle Press.

Make sense?

Don't forget the next blog book tours class starts February 1. Cost is $20 each for up to 50 students with special rates for publishers with more than ten authors. Sign-up is here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blogbooktours

You'll learn lots more than this from the resident drill sergeant - for one whole month of book camp. You can do it!

Typing Tip of the Day

I'm promoting the latest Little Pickle Press blog book tour all week, and my hand is so sore from typing Little Pickle Press that I finally *duh* created a shortened URL that can be used from now on.

http://bit.ly/lppblog

Gee, what a brilliant idea straight from MY fantastic elastic brain to yours. See the post below to understand what I'm babbling about. Then go shorten your own blog URL.

The Blog Book Tour Daily Routine

This morning the blog book tour for Your Fantastic Elastic Brain kicked off - beautifully, seamlessly - thanks to the first host at Walking Nature Home. So my job as tour chaperone is to first leave a comment on her lovely blog. Then I test the links on her post, which takes me over to the publisher's blog.

Little Pickle Press has a corresponding blog post that directs people back to the host blog. It also has it's own grand prize drawing and readers have to leave a comment to be eligible. I'll leave a comment, as will other members of the LPP team, as this makes the blog and post more sticky to search engines.

With both of these blogs, I'll go to bit.ly and create shortened URLs that I can use on other social networks.

Next I go to Facebook and post a blurb and link to send my friends to the host blog.

Then I go to Twitter and do the same.

I also share on the Yahoo!Groups I belong to if it's allowed.

I now have the basic social networking for this tour stop in place. I'll promote the above links throughout the day, especially on Facebook and Twitter.

Also important is to ask your friends to promote. The easiest way to do this is have them Like and Share your status on Facebook, and to retweet on Twitter. If you don't know what any of that means, you don't have to do it. :) If you do, try it out by going to my Facebook page and my Twitter account. See how easy and painless that was? If only ten people do this, you have incrementally increased your book and blog exposure by thousands of readers.

You can help all your friends promote their books with this simple and easy method! It takes only a couple of minutes once the routine becomes habit.

Blogging Tip #25

Today I have a post up at Little Pickle Press about Green Halloween, a program of the EcoMom Alliance. I really wanted to promote this post because the issues therein are important to me. So I first placed a status on my Facebook wall. Then I went to the Green Halloween Facebook page and told them I'd written about them and left a link that they and their friends could read. (They've already commented.) Then I went to Twitter and left a short, pithy comment and a bit.ly permalink to the Little Pickle Press blog post. Later I'll post again to @GreenHalloween so they pick up the tweet direct. If I had a contact name for EcoMom Alliance I'd also email them.  More on that promotion technique tomorrow!

How much do you promote your blog posts? Do you think it makes a difference?