Virtual Assistants I’m not really sure why they are called virtual assistants or VA’s because there is nothing virtual about them. They are real people who provide a really helpful service, although often from a great distance. If you have never heard of virtual assistants, then the clue is in the last part of the …
Promotion for Art-Lovers If you are one of the growing number of creators of art without an agent, then you will have to do your own promotion. This was the realisation that I came to three years ago, when I joined the not always so merry throng of indie writers and artists. Promotion is tough …
Promo and Collaboration Yesterday, I talked about seeking publicity, and today I’m going to continue in a similar vein. Seeking publicity boils down to promotion or promo for short. Many writers and other artists consider promo to be the bane of their lives, but this is pointless, since it doesn’t get anyone anywhere. I have …
I Couldn’t Help Myself There it is, I just couldn’t help myself! A very good friend of mine tried to slow down on his blogging earlier this month, and failed, and I said that I would take this month off from writing books, and I have failed too. You see, I published a novel in …
Introductory Offer The starting price of all the banners on this site is now $10 a month! First come first served. Look around this and other pages on this website and you will see banner ad placeholders clearly mararked. To use one for one month, simply send me your ad and $10. Exact sizes can …
Advertising My Books on Facebook My experiment in advertising my books on Facebook has been disappointing. I normally promote all my books by any means at my disposal, but for this month, I decided to try selling the Behind The Smile series only by means of Facebook ads. One of the main criteria of …
A Few Days Ago This early afternoon, my friend Dave came calling. I think that that is the earliest by three or four hours he’s ever come around. Anyway, the reason was that a mutual friend, Murray is leaving the country in two days and he thought that my email from yesterday inviting him to …
Tracking Online Book Sales I am writing this article on book sales as a follow-on from my piece yesterday entitled ‘Selling Books Online’. If you are going to be spending your precious life promoting your books, or anything else for that matter, it’s only sensible to want to know which activities are producing book and …
Wales Loses, But We Don’t Have To and 404 Error Messages I awoke this morning to discover that Wales had lost to England at the annual Six Nations rugby internationals, or is it Seven Nations now?. I’m not a sports person but I would have watched that game, if the alarm had gone off. …
Using hashtags (#) is a major way of letting readers search for content that they want to read. On other media, they are called keywords…
This is Read an e-Book Week! Hi Readers! I’ve got some great news for you. For one week only, I am heavily discounting my e-books at Smashwords for the annual ‘Read e-Books Week’. Coupon codes are on the site and you can get there by clicking the link below. 18 books, in several genres, heavily …
The Disallowed Giveaway Chupacabras on Backpacker Blood Milkshake a Rafflecopter giveaway Heng Lee is a goatherd in the remote mountains north-east of Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, very close to the border with Laos. It is a tight-knit community where everyone knows one another. Heng gets sick all of a sudden, but not too sick …
Buying Likes and Other Social Indicators All of us who have web sites, which includes blogs, want them to be read. I think that that goes without saying, even if the site has not been monetised to earn commission or sell something. What is the point of writing if no-one is going to read it? …
The Megan Series PLEASE WAIT FOR THE NEXT COMPETITION Win one of ten copies of ‘Megan The Misconception’, the first in the Megan Series of monthly novellas about the psychic development of Megan, a teenage girl! or buy it here if you can’t wait, now only 99cents ! Megan is a 13-year-old teenage girl, who …
Critical Book Reviews I write books and buy books and, needless to say, I read books too. However, at the age of 60 , I can honestly say that I have never read any critical book reviews that have influenced my decision whether to buy the book in question or not. As far as I …
Book Reviews I write books and buy books and, needless to say, I read books too. However, at the age of 60 , I can honestly say that I have never read a review that had influenced my decision whether to buy the book in question or not. As far as I know anyway, because …
Geo-Targetting It seems that everything on the Internet is geo-targetted these days. Just in case you are not sure what I am talking about, I mean that advertisers (and others) first check where your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is located by reading IP address in the message header and then assume that you are a …
So You Want To Access My Email Inbox? You see people on line, guru types, giving advice on how to get into surfers’ email inboxes all the time, so first we’ll just be certain what they are talking about or what I am talking about anyway. They are talking about getting hold of your email …
