A Christmas Message

Christmas is for children, not because of Santa Claus and the gifts he brings, but because of their joy, expectation, and innocence.  As adults we become cynical or sad as the result of failures, disappointments, and even from remembering happy days long past.  The warmth of Christmas radiates not from gifts but from the relationships of family and friends and the joy of being a part of something larger than ourselves.

People rant about the commercialism of Christmas, but giving gifts drives the momentum of expectation and turns us from thinking only about ourselves to considering the needs and wants of others.  Of course, we can’t satisfy those with purely material things, but in sharing time and special occasions together we bind ourselves in ways beyond what is possible in everyday living.

Christmas isn’t about the birth of a child in a stable thousands of years ago.  It is about the Grace of God that came to us to spread love and joy in the midst of violence, cruelty, hunger, and want.  Christmas is only the prologue to Easter and the power of redemption when we give up control of our lives to Jesus.  We have added many myths and celebrations to that of Christ’s birthday.

The traditions associated with Christmas in many lands and how they have come to set the context of how we celebrate that Holy Day add to the richness of the occasion.  Although many of them have nothing to do with Jesus’ birth, they still add to the joy of holidays that lift us from the work-driven world in which we are so preoccupied with making a living that we often forget to nurture the relationships of those we love.

Christmas is about sharing love, no matter how you express that even if it seems superficial at times.  We also receive love, and we can never reach beyond the depths of God’s love even in the midst of wars and despair.  Accepting that love doesn’t gloss over the problems that we face, but it offers hope where otherwise there is no hope.

May the joy of children be with you this Advent Season.

Killer Web Content

Killer Web Content

After reading Gerry McGovern’s Killer Web Content, I revised my home page to reflect his dictum of make it compelling, clear, complete, concise, and correct.   My concept of my audience has been that they primarily are magazine editors and not other writers, but I’m beginning to change my opinion on that.  I’ve presented an online portfolio on my web site for them to review my work and see my experience, but perhaps that’s not what they really want to know about me.  Gerry repeatedly refers to sales promotion techniques in writing content for the web.  For example, show benefits rather than features, use words with emotional connotations, etc.  But perhaps my potential client is looking for something more specific, such as am I reliable, and how would I demonstrate that?

Deidre Hughey told a long-winded story about her childhood during a recent presentation just to make a point.  Our idiosyncrasies are what make us interesting—not the labels people may give us.

I now know what locations people are from who visit my site, how often they visit, and which pages they visit, but I really don’t know very much about THEM.  How can I write for an audience if I don’t know who they are?  That’s why so many magazines do surveys.  They want to learn more about who their readers are.  I generally tend to ignore those surveys because I’m really not that committed a reader of a particular publication so why should I do extra work for them when I don’t know if it will make any difference.  When I published a magazine, I used alternately print and phone surveys (in the days before the WWW), and I also conducted focus groups.  We had a handful of very distinctly different audiences so it was just a question of determining what appealed to each one of them.

I’ve seen the mega sites, such as Time, CNN, New York Times, etc. evolve over time, and not always for the better.  In my opinion, USA Today’s site is much weaker than it was a year ago.  How many of these changes were based upon feedback and how many were made for other considerations such as cost, experimentation with advertising, or other factors?  For example, banner ads have gone out of fashion in exchange for content-related ads.

I don’t have a transactional site, i.e. you can’t “order” anything from me directly with a credit card.  That is a much higher level of complexity and beyond my capability.  For me trying to be “all things to all people” may be effective strategy for a politician but not for a writer trying to sell himself.  I reveal more of myself and my interests in my blog than I do on my web site because it occurs over a period a time and is not limited to a few seconds of trying to snatch the reader’s attention.

So does your web site effectively “sell you?”  What are you selling, and is that the intent of your site? How is promoting services different from selling products?  I don’t publish a “catalog of services” nor do I publish a newsletter because I don’t feel that I have something that newsworthy to say on a routine basis.  My blog posts are usually inspired by something I’ve read or from a conversation that I think is worth sharing.

The future of print media

The recent closing of Lambda Rising Bookstore in DC doesn’t reflect  ”gay market” problems as much as the issue of independent bookstores all across the country going out of business because of Amazon.  The owner also was at or past retirement age.  Gay publications are just another niche market now and readily available anywhere.  The Washington Blade newspaper failed because of corporate mismanagement (not the local paper) and the transition to online publication that is affecting all newspapers.

I have recently subscribed to the new weekly edition of Christian Science Monitor.  It is now a color print magazine rather than a daily newspaper and of course also has an online presence.  Part of my rationale was a consideration of possibly trying to write for them.  They were the only ones to respond to my queries promoting my article on Chicago architecture.  It was rejected (or ignored) everywhere else, and the N&O features editor didn’t even bother with a response.

The publishing industry is changing radically.  If you read Editor & Publisher, Publishers Weekly, and Folio, you would note that from their reporting.  What is even more disconcerting is the proliferation of “content mills” which literally generate thousands of articles for their web sites and pay their “so-called” writers pennies.  Of course, they get crap and publish it.  Whether anyone reads it I don’t know, but they must be making a profit off it.

Anyone can become a “publisher” now so the “establishment press” and the New York lock on the market is passé. The Amazon Kindle versus the Barnes & Noble Nook is just one example of significant changes using WWW2.  I don’t predict the disappearance of print, but it will be different in how it’s produced, marketed, and distributed.  The Writer’s Weekly ezine confesses that all of the print-on-demand book publishers use the same physical printing operation; it’s just the front-end that’s different.  Our local store, Quail Ridge Books, has survived with a loyal customer base and being on the tour circuit so they get the big names and well as the lesser known authors.

I live with my iPhone, but I still buy books and subscribe to magazines.  Of course, I’m different from the younger generation who don’t even watch TV. They “exist” only online.  They aren’t concerned about the rest of the world that isn’t directly relevant to their needs.

I finally plowed through the 700-page Social Media Bible and learned about the vast expanse of new communications tools that have evolved in the past 5 years, and there will be more to come.  The “information age” is still evolving, and who knows where “virtual reality” may go?  The folks who will get rich will be the ones who will know how to monetize it.

Phishing

Several weeks ago I got an email query about my bank account that raised my suspicion.  It had the Bank of America logo and some information, but it requested more information about my account.  That raised a red flag, and I did not respond and forwarded it to the fraud department at Earthlink.

Unfortunately, when I came home late Tuesday night from a meeting and was checking my email, I found an email from Earthlink with a notice about an upgrade to the software.  It requested my password to complete the upgrade.  As tired as I was, I responded without thinking—and you guessed it.  Some spam operator compromised my account and stole my password.  When I tried to access my account the next day, I was locked out because the operator was sending out spam using my account. I had to call Earthlink.  They already were aware of the problem, and that’s why they had cut me off.  When I provided adequate information that I was the owner of the account, the support person gave me a new password and reset the account.   As far as I know, the spam didn’t go to the accounts in my address book.  If it did, please let me know.

All this raises the question of Internet security.  Since I use a Macintosh, I don’t have the problems with viruses that plague Windows users, but I guess that has made me lax about other security issues.  We all get bogus offers in the mail and on the phone (even though I’m on the “do-not-call” list).  I’ve been fortunate that my credit card information has never been compromised even though I buy a lot of stuff online.

My three web sites and blog are all inter-linked and tied to my email account.  I also have a Yahoo email account that I use only for a few groups, and a Google email account that I never use, and a Mobile Me account.  My Earthlink service does a good job of scanning junk mail so ordinarily it isn’t a problem, but they missed this one.

The point is that while we don’t want to become paranoid, it’s not a benign world out there on the web.  Since I’m spread all over the web, my personal information is readily available.  I want potential clients to be able to contact me easily, but I don’t want my identity to be compromised.  It’s a delicate balance.

What’s your experience?

 

What happens when you spend more time online than offline?

I’ve spent all week working on updating and upgrading my web site:

• new template (basic look of the design ) – simple to change
• move to a new hosting site – very complicated & time-consuming – $183
• upgrade web page software  (Sandvox) – $50 + online help
• add services – Google Webmaster & GoDaddy statistics – we’ll see what pans out.  It will take time for the stats to run.
• hire a consultant to review my Google Adwords account – $235

All of this took time from actually writing something, sending out queries, or maintaining this blog.  But the project was long overdue, and since everyone says your web site is your face to the world it is worth the time and the effort to make it as professional as you can.  Of course, the quickest and easiest way to do that is to hire a web designer and pay them to do it for you.  That gets very expensive very quickly unless you rely on a friend, relative, or student — who may or may not be very professional.  A lot of amateurs try to add a lot of gimmicks that look good with lots of flash (pun intended), animation, and glitz, but they don’t get the message across or are slow to load.

So I’ve stuck with the “do it yourself” approach, which so far has been fairly cheap, but I’ve questioned its effectiveness.  I was getting a lot more inquiries that have suddenly dropped off.  That may be due more the effects of the economy than the web site, but that’s hard to measure—particularly since I didn’t have any analytical data until now.

Basically I use my web site as my “online brochure”, profile, calling card, etc. rather than a transactional technique to solicit business.  In today’s online word when I email a query, I simply refer to my web site rather than attach a bunch of clips.  That may not be very sophisticated marketing, but it’s what I have done.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m also very involved in the amount of time I’ve spent on “social media/networking” marketing, which has become a larger chunk of time than the web site itself.  That hasn’t worked very well either even though I’m on Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, and (as of yesterday) Twitter.  I follow/fan/whatever 6 groups on Facebook, 8 on LinkedIn, 6 on Yahoo, and 2 on Google so I think you can say that I’m “plugged in” to the web.  I also get 5 RSS feeds on my Yahoo home page that I read daily.  Yes, it has gotten to be a chore (and a bore sometimes).

So where is all this online stuff that I’m doing heading?  I don’t know, but I’m taking a hard look at it besides just reading books about it and attending workshops.  Any suggestions?

AHCJ in Miami

This weekend I heard Donna Shalala, president, University of Miami, and former secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, as the keynote speaker at the opening of the Association of Health Care Journalists at the workshop in Miami on “Aging in the 21^st Century: Getting There.   As a liberal Democrat, she did spout not the party line.  She threw out a number of notable one-liners:

1)    “It’s not who pays the bills, it is the design of the delivery system that is more important.”

2)    “We have very little evidence of how to manage chronic illnesses, but we are setting up some demonstration projects.”

3)    “It is not the insurance company who defines the benefits that are provided; it is the employer who sets limits on what he is willing to pay for.”

She spoke at some lengths about some of the proposed changes in the Medicare Advantage Plans and the higher rates paid by CMS than under the standard Medicare plan.  She noted the difficulty they had during her administration in getting people to get flu shots.  They were not afraid of the shots; they didn’t want to make the co-pays or deductibles for something “unimportant” and were saving their claims for a major claim.  She briefly mentioned a 6-month study she and Bob Dole had done of the VA and Army health care services with many of the same problems as the private systems in that they lacked continuity of care.  What we need is an integrated, accountable program with a team approach rather than the current silo plan where everyone does his own thing.  Our fee-for-service system doesn’t work, and neither did the HMO’s.

She speculated that even with the active opposition of the Republicans, we will see a health care reform plan this year.  The center of the Democratic Party position that is neither extreme left or right probably represents the consensus of the American people, and they will support it.  Health Care services are a major factor in the American economy, and the transparent and open approach that has been proposed by the Obama Administration is the right way to go even if it is messy and drawn-out.  We have to bring together a broad range of divergent interests to coalesce around some basic issues and provide support to get them passed.

She closed by quoting one of her students who stated that the key to health care reform is campaign finance reform, i.e. get the money out of the system that gives the lobbyists all the clout and makes the legislators dependent upon continually raising money.  That will be an even greater challenge.

Social Media Marketing

This week I attended a presentation on Social Media Marketing.  As a coincidence, I also was reading “The Social Media Bible” by Lon Safko and David Brake (http://www.thesocialmediabible.com) and had just gotten to the chapters on search engine optimization and social media marketing. So, what does that have to do with writing?

Most commentators I’ve read say that a writer must have a web site.  We need a web site not only to promote our writing, but we also need to promote our web site.  I won’t go into a long discussion about social media, but generally folks are talking about sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MeetUp, Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, MySpace, Twitter, etc.   This book also goes into Podcasts, instant messaging, mobile networking (cellphones), etc.  Everyone seems to have a different take on how to use them, and I’ve commented on my experience in a prior post.  Generally the theory is that you need to establish an online presence, meaning that your name/brand/company will become recognized not only by search engines but also by your target audience.

I guess that’s part of the problem for me —figuring out not only for whom I’m writing but who is most likely to buy my articles.  All of the editors I work with are online, i.e. we exchange information and files via email, and I make my pitches via email.  I don’t think that necessarily translates that they’re going online on these sites to search for potential writers.  I think it’s different if you’re searching for a staff writing position and they want to see that you’re hip and into the scene and are familiar with social media.

I’ve gotten a few jobs directly from contacts that came from my web site, but not as many as I would like or that would justify the time that I spend on it rather than on writing.  I’m setting up an appointment to discuss web site analytics, i.e. who comes to the site, what they click on, etc. that may give me some insight of how I’m missing the boat.

The buzz on SEM is basically just an extension of the old concept of networking.  Personal contacts both through affiliate groups and social contacts are important, and I still go to a lot of monthly meetings to “get my name out there.”  But none of them has ever generated a single lead much less a contract so I’m cutting back on a lot of my volunteer work and/or social in-person networking.  There’s a difference between  “friends” and “leads,” and it is difficult for me and for most writers to understand that we’re in the business of selling ourselves as much as selling our writing.

North Carolina Literary Festival

Chapel Hill was the center of literary activity this weekend with the libraries of UNC, Duke, NCSU, NCCU, and the NC State Library hosting the biennial NC Literary Festival on the campus of UNC.  Four days with 63 sessions, usually a panel of 2-3 writers, three keynotes by nationally known writers, two days of children’s programs, and three entertainment events drew hundreds of people in the beautiful fall sunshine to shop in the bookseller’s tents and to sit in the multiple sessions.  The keynote sessions in Memorial Hall were sell-outs.

I haven’t seen anything of this scope outside of the folk life festival that the Smithsonian sponsors on the National Mall in DC.  The crowds were larger, the events were better organized, and the enthusiasm was greater than any previous literary festival that I have attended.  I was struck by the wide range in ages, backgrounds, and interests not only of the writers who came from all over the country, but also by the families and children and the really holiday atmosphere of the place.  I didn’t think you could draw this big a crowd or energy outside of an ACC football game.

The festival was well advertised and attended, and since all of the events were free the long list of sponsors obviously had to pony up some big bucks to put on this big shebang — the tents alone must have cost a fortune.  I only had time to attend a few sessions and money only to buy one book, but I think I was in the minority.  A lot of writers live in North Carolina or are from North Carolina or write about North Carolina.

New Travel Brochure

I created a new travel brochure about the Triangle area of North Carolina that includes Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill and uploaded it to my web site today.  The web authoring software that I use is Sandvox, and it came out a couple of years before iWeb was available for the Mac.  It handles Acrobat (pdf) files differently than Word files so it was something of a learning curve in doing it.  The first mistake I made was not compressing the Acrobat file before I uploaded it, which produced a huge 100 MB file that took forever to upload and still too long to download.  So I had to go back and compress the file and upload it again.  Some how I still can’t get the thumbnail photo to work so it just displays DOWNLOAD in the header.  I had to put in an explanation in the home page what that meant and where it led, which isn’t very cool web design.  But because I opted for something relatively simple, especially in comparison with Dreamweaver, my software and my techniques are somewhat limited. I wanted a site that I could design, modify, and upload myself on my .me account without having to hire a designer and a techie to do the routine uploads to the host.  I did that on my first web site 12 years ago as a marketing consultant, and  it cost me a fortune that was not cost-effective.

The question is whether or not it is worth the time taken from actually writing to maintain a web site.  Everyone says that a writer has to have a web site and be actively involved in the social media sites, but does that really generate sales?  I have gotten some writing assignments directly from my web site, but it still doesn’t provide as much return on investment (of time) as old-fashioned query letters and personal networking.  If you have a book, all of the talk is about building and maintaining a “platform”, i.e. a public image or brand that includes public appearances both in person and online.  My platform is rather small although I was surprised the other day to show up in the local newspaper in Abilene, Texas when a reporter pulled a quote from my book.  I guess that just shows you never know where it all may end up.

Queries

I keep a log of queries on my computer and on Writer’s Markets.com  and track all my submissions (which are too few).  I read on one blog that a writer should keep at least 10 queries out all of the time, but that comes close to playing the numbers game.  I study Writers market, a couple of ezines, and other writing groups on Google, Yahoo, and LinkedIn to get ideas and leads.  It all comes down to what interests me, and that is what inspires me to write about a topic.  I can’t seem to “make-up” an idea or a slant or think of something new to say about a subject so I guess that is an indictment of my lack of creativity, or energy, or whatever.  I guess that’s part of getting older; it takes more for me to get inspired.  I suffer from too many superficial interests, have been there or done that, or generally have just become lazy.  I don’t suppose I’m unique in that regard, but when I read about other writers who juggle family responsibilities and full-time day jobs and still keep writing then I feel guilty.  Not so guilty that it ruins my enjoyment in spending my time doing other things.  My biggest theft of time is simply spending too much time on the computer, browsing news sites or social media sites without generating any productive results.  I’ve ordered another book on using social media, and I’ll report on it.  My last blog reported on a series in Inc magazine of how to use LinkedIn effectively.  I’ve found their writers groups less than effective — more self-promotion than a dialogue.