Friday, March 28, 2014

Triberr, The Basics for #MFRWorg

What I know about Triberr – The Real Basics
Putting it simply Triberr is a platform for blogs. It helps get your blog out to people who otherwise might not find it. Once you join Triberr and find the proper tribe your tribe members will upload your feed – your blog – to their twitter account.

I’m not going to go into detail on how to get started. Triberr has lots of documents that are easy to understand to help you understand the way it works. I’ve used them and they’re great, I found Triberr very easy to understand. If I had a question they had a tutorial for it. Anyway, once you load your RSS feed to Triberr, and there is a tutorial depending on the blog web site you use, you now have your blog programmed to go out via Triberr and your tribe mates. These tutorials can be found in the little drop down box labeled account, then help.

If everything goes smoothly, and most of the time it does, your blog will load to your stream within a few hours. I give it about a half hour and normally it is there, but every once in a while I have to give it a helping hand. You do need to know enough to know how to check your feed from time to time. I check for my blog and if I don’t see on my stream I go to my settings, then my blogs. There you’ll see the details of your blog, your rss feed and the opportunity to check and make sure it’s working.

Now your stream is the list of blogs waiting for you to release to your twitter account. I try to check mine twice a day and release the ones waiting for me. It doesn’t take long. I belong to ten tribes and can work my way through my list in about five minutes, but I don’t stop and read the blogs when I do that. My main goal is to make sure I release the blogs waiting for me. My tribe mates are kind enough to release mine, I should reciprocate. If I don’t release the blogs of my tribemates why should they release mine?

Since I joined triberr I have had a lot more visits to my blog. It has been a wonderful investment for me and it could be one for you too.

Want more information on Triberr?
Try these other INFORMATIVE ARTICLES...

This Post was provided by MFRW Staff Member, Barbara Bradley.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

MFRW Monthly Quote - March 2014 #MFRWorg

“The more I think, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”
 -Vincent Van Gogh








Emerald
Emerald is an erotic fiction author whose short stories have been featured in anthologies published by Cleis Press, Mischief, and Logical-Lust. She serves as an assistant newsletter editor and Facebook group moderator for Marketing for Romance Writers (MFRW), and she selects and posts the monthly inspirational quote on the MFRW Marketing Blog. Find out more about her at her website, The Green Light District.

Monday, March 17, 2014

#MFRWorg Authors Secret Weapon: Street Teams

Author Street Teams. Likely, you've heard this term before. They're popping up all over the place as authors take advantage of their most valuable resource - their readers. Readers -especially bloggers/ reviewers- are vital to a book's success because their opinion goes a long way. Some readers have an established reputation as being a person to turn to for book recommendations. Why not partner with them if they love your books/ series?

That's exactly what creating a street team is... partnering with readers who like your books so much, they want to share them with other readers.

A Street Team is an author's secret weapon. In this article at Kobo Writing Life, an in-depth description of one author's experience puts it all into perspective. Read it here.

A Street Team is a group of readers/bloggers that are fans of a particular author and want to spread the word about books they love. They're just doing what they already do - reading what they like and telling their friends. There's no recipe as to how many members per street team, benefits to offer or rules to follow. Each author has their own style.

Here are some Basic Guidelines:

  • Provide a central place/ method to communicate. Many authors use a private facebook group, google+ group or yahoo group. Regardless what you use, be sure to interact. Place a reminder on your calendar to post an update weekly.
  • Choose a creative name that suits your branding. Google "author street teams" to see what others are already doing.
  • Share WIP previews, excerpts and cover reveals.
  • Ask if any are interested in serving as beta readers/ proofreaders. DO NOT use them in place of editors!
  • Chat and give updates often, and always in advance, to the group.
  • Honor and recognize their commitment by commenting when they post on their blogs or other social media sites.
  • Have target tasks that you'd like members to help with... ask them to host a blog stop, like your books at on-line sites, place reviews on goodreads, share cover reveals, pin on Pinterest, post updates on facebook or tweet about your new releases. In general, you want them to spread the love for your book.
  • Have contests just for your street team. Be creative: winner chooses a name for a character in your next book!
  • Create perks. Provide swag and ARCs. Blog badges that members can display on their own blogs or social sites are great too. Not only do bloggers love them but it also increases your visibility.
  • Allow your street team members more "personal" on-line access to you. Answer their requests quickly. Group them for ease and then interact with them on facebook, google+, twitter,etc.

There are a lot of books in the world and authors need help to spread the word. A street team is a fun way to interact with fans while asking them to do what many already do … and it has added perks (for you both).

Here's a list of links to some author's street teams for ideas on how to begin your own:

I began my own street team after a few readers requested it. I keep it small and simple. There's no gimmicks or contests. Each member gets an ARC as soon as they're available in exchange for honest reviews on as many on-line sites as possible. And every week, I post an update and try to engage on facebook mostly. For the details, CLICK THIS LINK

Talk to me.
Do you have a street team? Post it in a comment to share. Do you want to know more about creating a street team? Just Ask. - Paloma