This tip is for the authors in the audience.

When it’s time to promote your new release try incorporating a three pronged approach.

Step one is to advertise.

This provides consistent promotion throughout the advertising period. Advertising online is affordable and you can target your audience.

Step two: provide an excerpt.

Show readers what they’ll be buying. It’s like giving a reader a test drive.

Step three: give readers something new by writing an article or guest blog.

You don’t want everything to be about you, you, you. Give something back. Educate and/or entertain your readers with an informative article or fun guest blog piece.

There you have it. Three simple steps to extend your promotional dollars and the number of times a reader will see your name.

If you write romance or general fiction consider advertising on the CataNetwork, posting an excerpt on one of our sites and then guest blogging for us. It’s time to take advantage of the three pronged approach.

Security is a constant battle on the Internet. I don’t need to tell you that. What you no doubt want (and need) to know is how to secure your Wordpress installation.

Here’s a great post with 11 steps you can take to make your wordpress website more secure.

• Remember to update often. Version 2.9.2 just came out by the way.
• Make your password stronger by including numbers and letters at random.
• And follow the steps outlined in the article above.

As I was scrolling through my feed reader today I saw that one of the blogs I follow has moved to a new domain. They reminded me to update my RSS. Now, when a site moves, I generally like to visit the new site a) to check out the new digs and b) to see if I still want to subscribe to their RSS feed. Such was the case today. So I click over to the current site.

Now call me lazy, but they’re trying to get me to visit their new site. They’re trying to get my to update my feed reader with the new RSS feed. But neither of these links is hyperlinked!

Lesson here: don’t make your visitors have to work to find you. No, copying and pasting isn’t going to kill them, but how hard is it to include a hyper link? With people short on time, make it easy. With virtually every blog client out there making it ridiculously easy to include a hyper link (not to mention that the html to include a hyper link is what, 10 extra characters?) there’s no excuse not to.

If you need help learning how to hyperlink things within your blog, contact me.

A recent visit to a new-to-me blog brought an “ah hah!” moment. I love those, don’t you?

This ah hah! moment occurred as I scrolled down the blog, reading the posts, each post written by “admin.” How unique or interesting is admin? Not very. It’s more of a title than a name and tells me nothing about the author. At least “porkchop” would be entertaining. Posted by Porkchop…I can just see it now.

Anyway, the point is, when setting up your blog (or even well after you’ve started your blog) pay attention to those little details that will make your blog sing. In a recent series on my personal blog I discussed good blogging habits. Number 2 was be personable. And what’s more personable than your name?

Depending on the tone and audience of your blog, you could be formal. Dr. House, MD. or Dr. Durham, Ph.D. You could be funny. IE. Alice “Crafty Pants” Anderson. Or you could just settle for your first name. Whatever you do, give your blog some personality and lose the “admin.”

If you have a blog but have a hard time remembering to login or just don’t like the interface, there is an easier way. Various programs will allow you to write a blog post locally (from your desktop) and publish to your blog.

My favorite is called w.bloggar. W.bloggar lets me connect to all the various blogs I write for. When I open the program I’m presented with a list of blogs, I select one, and then I start writing. The large text box is very similiar to that of a word processor. I can make things bold, underline them, add images and links. I can even select what category my post should be filed under.

I can do all of this, never logon to the internet and the potential distractions that brings. You give it a try.

And if you use a different desktop blogging application, I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Here’s the flyer (pdf) for the February Workshop

You’ll need adobe reader to view the pdf.

Alternately, you can visit the Workshop page here.

Are you developing your newsletter? Wondering what should go in a newsletter or how it should look? There are plenty of great resources out there to give you tips and how tos.

Here’s another:

Look at the newsletters you enjoy reading. Are they visually appealing? Is the size good? What about the content? Informative? Brief? Enticing?

Take those lessons and use them in your own newsletter. Now, I’m not saying to copy, but take elements you like and make them your own.

Come back on Friday for another Tip!

Some days I ask myself why I’m still doing xyz. Why do I keep going? Why do I keep promoting, writing, designing, etc.

I’m sure you’ve had those days.

Days when you’re discouraged and wonder “what’s the point?” But don’t give up. Keep moving. Promotion, like many things takes dedication, time, and perserverence. Same with writing. Selling real estate. College.

There are, of course, times when it’s smart to quit, but that’s another post. For now, don’t give up. Find a new angle. Find your passion. Keep going.

If you’ve spent any amount of time on the internet (and more specifically, communities and social networks) you’ve no doubt seen the icons that people use to graphically represent themselves. These little images are often called Avatars (no, not the blockbuster).

You can use your personal photo, a favorite picture, clip art, or even your book cover as your avatar on sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo, Blogger, etc.

Now, there’s an easier way to have an avatar and keep it updated on multiple sites. Introducing Gravatar. Okay, so Gravatar’s have been around a while. Where have you been?

So here’s what you need to know about Gravatar.

1) It’s awesome.

2) It’s free.

3) It associates your email address with an image of your choosing. (Psst… you can have gravatar remember multiple email addresses.)

1. To get your free gravatar, go to gravatar.com and sign up for a free account. Make sure you use an email that you use often for things like blogs.
2. Then, select a photo, clip art, or image you love. Upload it via the instructions there on the gravatar website.
3. It will then ask you to crop your photo so that it’s a perfect square. Do that.
4. Then save all your changes.

From now on, when you visit a Gravatar enabled website (like this one) your gravatar will show up next to your comments. And if you own the blog, you can set it up so that your gravatar shows up next to your posts as well.

Awesome, yes?

Best of all, three months from now when you get that awesome new haircut and want to change your avatar all you have to do is login to Gravatar.com, upload the new photo of your awesome self, recrop and save. Then your new image will show up across all the blogs/places you’ve visited/posted.

Double awesome.

So hop to it friends. There’s no more excuse for lack luster comments and posts. And wish Gravatar, you authors have one more chance to get your book cover in front of readers…all over the internet! Tell a friend. Spread the love.

It’s just around the corner. If you haven’t signed up to take the Wordpress as a Website Workshop yet, hurry. You don’t want to miss out.