Weekly Statistics:
Week 2 = 130 Visits to www.Charles-Matthews.com (down 41% from last week), daily average = 18 visits
Just as expected, stats are down, but I am OK with that. They seem to have leveled off the last couple of days, so hopefully I won't have to report another decline next week.
Weekly Activity:
Just received my proof copy of Pinesport Divide this week. This was truly an exiting event!! Although I think my wife was even more excited than me. My target release has moved back a couple of weeks to mid March. No sales on Kindle yet, however publisher claims once the book is available the Kindle ebook should see some activity from it.
I made a couple tweaks to the website. The main change you will see is that I moved this blog to another site. Originally it was posted on www.Charles-Matthews.com, but my webspace is limited there, so I chose just to place a link from my website to here (which is actually a nicer blogging tool and it's free as well.)
I also set up a 'Lost' Blog since that is one of my favorite shows and I'm hoping fans of it would also be interested in checking out my book which is in the same genre. Right now I'm just toying with things to post there like fun survey questions. The idea is to try and generate traffic to my site, while having some fun.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Week 2: Progress and Blogs
Weekly Statistics: Week 1 = 209 Visits to www.Charles-Matthews.com, daily average = 30 visits
Weekly Activity: Pinesport Divide is not available in book form yet, although I expect to receive a proof copy this week. Then, once the proof copy has received my blessing, it is full speed ahead. I am targeting the beginning of March. The book is available for the Kindle now, however sales are slow (which is another way to say I haven't sold any yet). Not to despair though; ebooks are still an emerging market and I didn't expect to see much business there anyway. I'm pessimisticly optimistic.
Even with the 48 inches of snow the Northeast was pummeled with this past week, I managed to tweak my Home Page and Bio page a few hundred times. I also found and posted the first Short Story I ever wrote.
This Week's Lesson Learned: Blogs
What exactly is a Blog? Sounds like a creature from a bad 1970's Science Fiction flick, right? In a sense, they do resemble an alien force by the way they have crawled all over the internet over the past decade. But what makes them so popular, and why are they particularly important for writers?
Blogs first emerged somewhere in the late 1990's, but didn't really explode until just the past few years. Basically, a Blog is a routine way to disseminate information. It is information put on the internet which can be entertaining, fact filled, informational, personal, or business related. Think of it as a journal online. Speaking of Science Fiction, one example of a blog would have been Captain Kirk's log. He routinely recorded reports into his recorder to capture information. Today (or 2 Centuries from now if you are still on the Enterprise), this would be considered a Blog.
Blogs are an essential tool for writers, as it is a way to get your name and work out to the public. If you've been following me (for the whole nine days my site has been up now), then you know this is a new thing for me. I'll be honest with you; at first I winced at the thought of sitting down at least once a week to write a blog - just another chore to take care of. But then I thought about it again - it's a chance for me to sit down on a regular basis to dedicate to writing and to share my experiences. I imagine it's going to be a difficult challenge drumming up new things to discuss every week, but if I'm not struggling, then I'm not growing.
Weekly Activity: Pinesport Divide is not available in book form yet, although I expect to receive a proof copy this week. Then, once the proof copy has received my blessing, it is full speed ahead. I am targeting the beginning of March. The book is available for the Kindle now, however sales are slow (which is another way to say I haven't sold any yet). Not to despair though; ebooks are still an emerging market and I didn't expect to see much business there anyway. I'm pessimisticly optimistic.
Even with the 48 inches of snow the Northeast was pummeled with this past week, I managed to tweak my Home Page and Bio page a few hundred times. I also found and posted the first Short Story I ever wrote.
This Week's Lesson Learned: Blogs
What exactly is a Blog? Sounds like a creature from a bad 1970's Science Fiction flick, right? In a sense, they do resemble an alien force by the way they have crawled all over the internet over the past decade. But what makes them so popular, and why are they particularly important for writers?
Blogs first emerged somewhere in the late 1990's, but didn't really explode until just the past few years. Basically, a Blog is a routine way to disseminate information. It is information put on the internet which can be entertaining, fact filled, informational, personal, or business related. Think of it as a journal online. Speaking of Science Fiction, one example of a blog would have been Captain Kirk's log. He routinely recorded reports into his recorder to capture information. Today (or 2 Centuries from now if you are still on the Enterprise), this would be considered a Blog.
Blogs are an essential tool for writers, as it is a way to get your name and work out to the public. If you've been following me (for the whole nine days my site has been up now), then you know this is a new thing for me. I'll be honest with you; at first I winced at the thought of sitting down at least once a week to write a blog - just another chore to take care of. But then I thought about it again - it's a chance for me to sit down on a regular basis to dedicate to writing and to share my experiences. I imagine it's going to be a difficult challenge drumming up new things to discuss every week, but if I'm not struggling, then I'm not growing.
If You Build It, They Might Come
Apparently this famous quote from the movie "The Field of Dreams" does not apply to websites. So my next challenge is to get some traffic to this site, more than just the "pity" visits from all of my friends and family. The problem is getting new people to find your website.
The first thing I've learned is that every site contains something called Meta keywords. From what I gather, these are the keywords that search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo) use to find your website. Therefore, it is essential to capture the keywords that truly explain what your website is about. The Meta Keywords I currently have for this site are: sci-fi, science fiction, young adult, YA, teen, fantasy, civil war, novel,decisions,war,coming of age,love triangle,deception,spy,love,betray,book,fiction,new writer,blog,marketing,learn,advertise,gaining readers
Hopefully, if you have found this site through a search, one/some of these words was responsible.
The first thing I've learned is that every site contains something called Meta keywords. From what I gather, these are the keywords that search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo) use to find your website. Therefore, it is essential to capture the keywords that truly explain what your website is about. The Meta Keywords I currently have for this site are: sci-fi, science fiction, young adult, YA, teen, fantasy, civil war, novel,decisions,war,coming of age,love triangle,deception,spy,love,betray,book,fiction,new writer,blog,marketing,learn,advertise,gaining readers
Hopefully, if you have found this site through a search, one/some of these words was responsible.
Website Creation
One thing every writer must have, so they tell me, is a website. Therefore, my topic today is - yes, you guessed it - Setting Up a Website.
Step One: Decide on a website name. Easy enough, right? Not so fast. Chances are the name you had in mind is already taken, so you must decide on a variation of it. In my case, I settled for a hyphen in between Charles and Matthews.
Step Two: Buy the domain name. The going rate seems to be no more than $15 a year, and if you are planning to use the same company to host your website, then the website name is a lot of the times, free.
Step Three: Select a web host. If your like me, you have very little knowledge about web hosting. There are probably better methods in making your decision than my strategy:
Google 'best web hosts' and pick the one host that ends up at the top of the list three times in a row. I picked iPage and seem to be getting along fine...so far.
Step Four: Save yourself the headache and pay for someone to design your website.
Step Four (alternative): If you're broke like me, attempt to design the website yourself utilizing the free tools the web host has provided to you. Try to do this without smashing your computer on the ground.
Step Five: Maintain your wesite. I'll let you know how this is done once I get there.
Step One: Decide on a website name. Easy enough, right? Not so fast. Chances are the name you had in mind is already taken, so you must decide on a variation of it. In my case, I settled for a hyphen in between Charles and Matthews.
Step Two: Buy the domain name. The going rate seems to be no more than $15 a year, and if you are planning to use the same company to host your website, then the website name is a lot of the times, free.
Step Three: Select a web host. If your like me, you have very little knowledge about web hosting. There are probably better methods in making your decision than my strategy:
Google 'best web hosts' and pick the one host that ends up at the top of the list three times in a row. I picked iPage and seem to be getting along fine...so far.
Step Four: Save yourself the headache and pay for someone to design your website.
Step Four (alternative): If you're broke like me, attempt to design the website yourself utilizing the free tools the web host has provided to you. Try to do this without smashing your computer on the ground.
Step Five: Maintain your wesite. I'll let you know how this is done once I get there.
My First Blog
Welcome to my blog! I'm just one of the thousands out there who have just written their first book. Now, it's time to try and market it and I have NO money. So I have created this blog as a place where people in my similar situation can share their knowledge/experience on how to get your work into the publics hands.
For each blog I will post a paragraph about the general topic and will follow it with comments on what I learn through the process. Please feel free to chime in, the more we share with one another, the more we'll all learn. My college business professor would have called this 'synergy'. I really hate those stuffy management words.
For each blog I will post a paragraph about the general topic and will follow it with comments on what I learn through the process. Please feel free to chime in, the more we share with one another, the more we'll all learn. My college business professor would have called this 'synergy'. I really hate those stuffy management words.
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