I’ve been told that the best way for me to marketBecoming Alice is to join a bunch of social network sites and let other people do it for me. Those were the same people who wanted to help me by charging a ton of money to get me started to social network. Being a depression baby, my first gut response always is can’t I do this thing on my own? Perhaps if it would have only been a little bit of money I would have jumped at the chance. But, Holy Moses, the prices were astronomical.
I think the reason I haven’t posted blogs more often is that I am in the throws of figuring this thing out on my own. The first thing I did is register with so many sites that I didn’t learn anything about any of them. Luckily I could eliminate My Space right away because I was invited to “connect” with someone I thought to be an out and out pervert. Several of the other sites seemed not to be favorable for what I needed and I got rid of them one by one. Now, I am down to three sites: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and three others that I wish I had more time for: Shelfari, AuthorsDen, and the Librarything. Some other fun stuff is on You Tube and Flickr.
Of course, I also set up this blog on WordPress all by myself! At first I thought I was talking to myself on all of those sites. The pundits said it takes time, like five or six months. I waited patiently and found out they were right. Little by little, I’d get an invitation to “be a friend” or be asked to “connect” with someone. I’m very picky about my friends so that took a litlle time. But now I do have a handful of them on most of my sites.
As for my WordPress blog, I had only received three or four Comments and thought I was really talking to myself the whole time. Then I discovered that I can check my Blog Stats and found out that almost three hundred people had viewed my blog. Gee, why didn’t you guys ever say hello? Send me a comment. Tell me what you think. I’d love to know I’m not talking to myself.
I sympathize…I too am proud of the fact I figured out this blogging stuff all on my own. But my latest post is directed at those I call the “lurkers” at my blog.
Just the other night I spoke to a friend who I had not heard from in awhile. First thing she mentioned was how much she was enjoying the blog… she knew exactly what I’d been up to all these months and hadn’t felt the need to call. But she’s not left a comment or invited a friend to subscribe in months!
When I told her I’ve been contemplating quitting the blog, because there isn’t much satisfaction without feedback, she encouraged me not to. And I encouraged her to help me out by “passing it on.”
and yes… all this internet “conversation” is …. well, exhausting…. facebook, twitter, linked in…when do we have time to actually work at writing? And do we really say anything in tweets?
good luck.
Hi Alice, I started my blog in June.
http://www.vincentdifondi.blogspot.com
I was also getting frustrated that very few people were commenting or following my blog, but I have 160 viewings since June so I guess that’s not so bad.
My book is published with iUniverse and I did purchase a marketing package for $500 which includes 100 press releases to 4 cities, Kindle setup on Amazon, and read a random page in the book on Amazon.
I hope this all helps. Good luck in your venture. Vince