Today I’m going to share my top 10 digital tools for the business of being an author. Most of these are free and all of them are easy to use. I recommend them to you because I use them and find them valuable and think you will too. (1) WordPress for website and blogging – Hands down there is no better platform for authors to blog. And it’s free. Open source code, it is easy to download to any webhost and if you can read the documentation or watch the video tutorials you can build a site yourself, or have us set it up for you and then you can easily manage and administer it yourself. (2) MailChimp for newsletters and RSS blog delivery. This service is free up to 2,000 names on your email list. If you want a professional looking newsletter that reflects your brand and personalized to your readers this is how to do it. And it plays nice with WordPress. There’s a plugin and your blog is delivered to subscribers from your website. You can create and import lists directly from LessAnnoyingCRM which I mention below. (3) Google Alerts. Set up an alert for your author name. Using it is not an act of vanity. It’s called image management. Yes, you want to know when anyone anywhere at any time posts something on the internet using your name or your book title. You can set up google alerts for keywords, names, places, phrases, and let…
What good is all of this information if you can’t put it to use? By now, you know all the lingo to establish a baseline and understand where your site is currently at. A baseline is an essential combination of information – it’s the only way to see meaningful change. There are a lot of tools in Google Analytics for comparing your data – but you are an author,… [Read More]
Filed Under: Baseline, Google Analytics, social media metrics
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Analytics for Authors blogs have been edited to reflect the 01/16/2013 Google Analytics update. — To navigate to Visitor Flow, click on its name on the left hand menu when you’re logged into Google Analytics. What you’ll see is a visual map of how visitors used your site. The large veritcal columns are nodes: Nodes represent a single metric – the first column defines where the… [Read More]
Filed Under: blogging, Google, Google Analytics, internet, marketing strategy, social media metrics, WordPress
Analytics for Authors blogs have been edited to reflect the 01/16/2013 Google Analytics update. — You’ve gotten a feel for your audience and how they visit your site using Google Analytics, but you still might not have a clear idea what page is getting the most traffic. To get a good look at your content’s metrics, click on Content then All Pages in the left… [Read More]
So it’s cold outside. Steep a cup of tea and put in a teaspoon of pure, local, raw honey. Then take a sip, close your eyes, and feel that warm golden glow. Give thanks for the angels of agriculture: bees. Homegrown Honey Bees: Beekeeping Your First Year, from Hiving to Honey Harvest by Alethea Morrison is an introduction to beekeeping and a recruitment tool for… [Read More]
Analytics for Authors blogs have been edited to reflect the 01/16/2013 Google Analytics update. — Another key section of Google Analytics is Traffic Sources. Access this section’s overview through the left-hand navigation bar.* Your traffic is broken down into three types: Direct Traffic Direct traffic are the visits you get through someone typing in your URL into an address bar, by accessing a bookmark they’ve… [Read More]
Filed Under: analytics, analytics for authors, blogging, Google, Google Analytics, internet, search engine optimization, SEO, technology