Read and Share with Others

Throughout my day, I receive a variety of newsletters and blog posts. Plus I'm reading about the world of publishing. As I read, I'm looking for the share buttons which could be in a sidebar or at the top or bottom of the article. With one click of these little buttons, you can pass the information in the article along to the people who follow you on Twitter or your Facebook friends.

I enjoyed reading what literary agent Rachelle Gardener wrote about wanting to throw a book across the room in a recent blog post. So I tweeted about it (see the link for my tweet).

Joan Stewart the Publicity Hound put a compilation of some of her tweets which contain valuable insights about working with journalists or editors or getting more publicity. So I tweeted about it (once again use this link for my tweet).

Today I was reading my local newspaper and on the front page was a fascinating feature about how bestselling novelist Philip Roth has decided to stop writing novels. At the age of 80, I applaud his decision and I tracked down the article, located the share buttons and tweeted about it.

Book Marketing Guru John Kremer has some great info statistics about social media. When I read it, I found the share buttons and tweeted about it.

To locate these buttons and use them only took seconds. It gives my twitter feed and my Facebook page fresh content—which is diverse and focused on my topic of publishing and writing. 

Are you using these buttons to pass along information on your topic and focus to your readers? It will help you grow your readership and increase your presence as an expert in your area of the market.

Finally, are you adding these share buttons to your own blog posts and websites? It is through these little share buttons that you spread the message to others and build your own visibility. 

Notice the buttons at the bottom of this post? That's why I include them each time. I hope you will use them to share with others.

A Viral Blog Traffic Tool

Today I received an invitation to join the Blog Rush site. It's a new syndication method to get your blog entries out to a broader audience and generate more traffic. The traffic is divided into different categories and I selected "writing and literature" for my entries on The Writing Life.

Registration is simple and to activate your account, you put a widget on your blog like this one:

Notice that it is pulling from other blogs which are in the system in my category. Behind the scenes they are monitoring abuse and will kick the spammers and others who have bad motives off the syndication network. It’s brand new but I suspect it's going to be viral and spread to many parts of the blogsphere in a short amount of time.

I plan to keep an eye on the various entries, check them out and see how they relate to my entries. You can do the same. Try it and see what happens.

I hope Blog Rush helps some of you.

Can You Start Something Viral?

While at Mega Book Marketing University, various speakers often used the phrase viral marketing. For example, they talked about The Secret DVD which has sold millions of copies through word of mouth viral marketing. The DVD has turned into a bestselling book which will top the New York Times nonfiction hardcover list for the next two weeks. I understand the controversial nature of The Secret yet you have to admire the viral nature of this effort.

Can you start something which will spread like wildfire? As you start it, can you give the enthused person the tools to help you spread it. Here’s one idea that came from the massive amount of information last weekend--and it's free.

Just look at this button related to my FREE Right-Writing Newsletter:

I've added one of these buttons to my newsletter page. I've also added a different button in the right-hand column of these entries about The Writing Life:

Why in the world would I want to add these buttons? If you go to the pages, you will notice that I've added different buttons than the two above. This simple tool can become viral or the reader can easily pass your site on to others. It's the type of action we want to take as we tell people about our books and other products.

This tool is free--that's right FREE. The site is at Tell A Friend Generator. You fill out your first name, your email where you want the script and the location that you want passed on to others. In seconds, you will receive the email buttons like above yet leading people to your website. It's just one of the numerous resources I learned about this past weekend.