Analytics for Authors: Putting Your Keyword Data to Work
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December 8, 2012

 Analytics for Authors blogs have been edited to reflect the 01/16/2013 Google Analytics update. — Mark Twain wrote to a friend, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.” – and the same can be said for Google keywords. It’s the difference between ‘swimming pool’ and ‘swimming pool installation… [Read More]

Analytics for Authors: Why your Visitors’ Browser Preference Matters
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December 4, 2012

Analytics for Authors blogs have been edited to reflect the 01/16/2013 Google Analytics update. — Analytics for Authors introduced you to the Audience Overview dashboard in our last post – but before we dive into more sections of Google Analytics and learn how to compare data sets, what’s some helpful information we can gain from the Audience section? Your Visitors’ Browser Data on Google Analytics… [Read More]

Analytics for Authors: Getting Started with Google Analytics’ Audience Overview
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December 1, 2012

 Analytics for Authors blogs have been edited to reflect the 01/16/2013 Google Analytics update. — Google Analytics is a free service powered by Google that allows you to see “how visitors use your site, how they arrived on your site, and how you can keep them coming back.” Once you sign up for GA and install a short snippet of code into your website, you… [Read More]

Can a Status Update Protect Your Privacy?
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November 27, 2012

You may have been noticing a particular status update making the rounds on Facebook. It’s a disclaimer that asserts the poster’s copyright and privacy rights, and it makes it seem like it’s as easy as copy/paste to protect yourself from anything you failed to catch in the Terms and Conditions you agreed to upon signing up for Facebook. Of course, it’s total malarky. Before you can… [Read More]

“Why can’t I see everyone’s updates?” (and a Facebook secret they don’t want you to know)
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November 24, 2012

It was only up for a few hours – a programmer stumbled upon a link to access the raw, unfiltered chronological newsfeed that so many users want. But as soon as the internet had discovered a glimpse of the pure stream of friend posts and status updates, it was gone. You may have noticed that your news feed doesn’t give your all your friends’ posts. In fact,… [Read More]

The Rules of (Facebook) Engagement
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November 20, 2012

When you first sign in to Facebook, your newsfeed automatically defaults to Top Stories – but how do these items get ranked? What makes your aunt’s status update rank higher than your soccer coach’s new car photos? And more importantly, how can you find yourself consistently ranked in the top stories? First off, take a deep breath, because you can’t control everything – if one… [Read More]

New strategy for authors to use Facebook cost effectively
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November 17, 2012

You’ve been told that as an author you can’t afford to ignore Facebook with its 3 million followers. So you created a Page and worked hard to gain those “Likes” with compelling content.  You stopped complaining that you had to do double duty with both a personal profile and an Author Page to maintain. You even accepted the changes with the new timeline without much… [Read More]

DRM – The Acronym that’s Deleting (or Saving?) Books
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November 3, 2012

DRM is an acronym that readers may not associate with good experiences – you’ll encounter it a lot in articles about the woman who had her digital library remotely wiped from her Kindle by Amazon  or ones about the poetic deletion of George Orwell’s 1984 from hundreds of e-reader devices. DRM is a topic that gets people in flames – and as a future author,… [Read More]

Getting Distracted? Try a Software Application for Focused Writing
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October 27, 2012

Not everyone has the willpower to sit down and write for an hour everyday. With pop-up notifications, the siren call of the internet, and everyday life getting in the way, sometimes even the formatting bar in your word processor can be enough to drive you away from wordsmithery. This overwhelming feeling of distraction is probably why there are multiple competing software applications aimed at creating… [Read More]