5 Steps to Set Up Your Blog & Email List

September 17, 2015 by Lorna Faith

What does it mean to have a platform? Why is it important?

Have you ever walked down the sidewalk and noticed someone playing and singing? Or maybe you’ve heard someone speak passionately on a topic they love and a crowd started to gather around them?

A blog and email list is a platform much like that.

It’s a place to ‘stand’ and talk to those people who want to hear what you have to say.

It not only makes sense to have a blog as a writer, but it helps to grow your platform. The larger your platform, the more people you can reach with what you have to say.

My Blogging Story…

I started my first blog 3 1/2 years ago. I didn’t have a regular schedule. I just began blogging whenever I felt like it. Which is quite normal for many writers when they get started. However that blog and the one after it, ended in failure.

There were so many details I didn’t understand. I didn’t know how to reach out to others through blogging. These were simple details that I missed out on, that would have made my blog much more effective.

For instance, I didn’t create anything free to offer readers as an incentive to sign up and I didn’t have a newsletter that offered them great resources and free offers. Also, one of the key things I missed out on, was really listening to people who were connecting with me.

Through my many mistakes in blogging and reaching out to others, I learned a few things. I hope you find these steps useful to you as you set out on growing your own blog and email list.

5 Steps to Set Up Your Blog & Email List

Originally I started out creating a blog with Blogger.com, because a free blog was all I could afford. If that’s where you’re at, it’s a great place to start. You can also use WordPress.com as another free option.

However – as I learned much later – I was being limited by using a website I didn’t own. I was limited to what I could add to my website – I couldn’t use plugins – to help it function better, and I was limited by content as well. Also, I didn’t realize when I use a free website, that if they want to shut me down one day, I wouldn’t have any say in it. Without warning all the blogposts I wrote, could disappear without a trace.

So that’s why I wanted to set up my own WordPress site. Here’s the steps I took.

Set up your Website. If at all possible, set up your own wordpress.org website. WordPress.org works great to have your own email signup form. There are a number of ways to add sign up forms to your blog. I use SumoMe and I really like it. Copyblogger has a great article on 3 simple strategies to reach more people on your blog. At the end of the day, it’s really about having the freedom to add email signup forms where and how you like. Some people like to add the form to the top of their webpage or you can add your signup form to the right hand side of your website – like the one I have on this blog.
Find an email service provider. An email service provider will deliver your emails, newsletters and blog broadcasts to your readers. Most service providers have great customer service support. I use Aweber and they’ve been really helpful. Other email providers are also good. If you go with Mailchimp, your first 2000 subscribers are free. Other providers are iContact, Constant Contact and Get Response. In the end, the most important detail that matters is that you can add people easily to your list and send the messages you need to connect and give great information to those people who want to hear what you have to say.
Create a Sign-up Form. Like I mentioned in the first step, it’s really easy to create your email signup form. I use Aweber to the create the form that you see on the right hand side of this blog. I also use SumoMe at the top of the page as well as for a form that pops up once a week. I’m still tweaking this – still learning. but I like using those tools so far. At the start of this year, I decided to start offering a Library of free stuff, which I will keep adding to. So far it seems to be what people like. A key to choosing what to give your blog readers, is to start listening to what they want from you. When you hear what they ask about a lot, or what they struggle with, if you create a resource that helps solve their problem, you’ll make your readers happy. Or if you’re a fiction writer, offering your blog readers a free novella or the first three chapters of your book, is a really great to add more readers to your email list. At the end of the day, a happy reader is what you want.
Create an Automatic Reply Message for Subscribers. This is sometimes called a autoresponder message. (Look back to step #2 for a list of some service providers). This step is important because you want to be able to thank people who sign up to your email list and you want to use the autoresponder to deliver your free gift. It’s great when you begin to really connect with your readers and your emails become conversations with a good friend. This is the best part of writing the email messages.
Start to give the link to your book out to readers. If you’ve written a book that you’ve published on Amazon and other digital retail websites, it’s great when you can use your book to link people back to your website. On the back of your book, you can put a CTA(call to action). Think of what your readers wants when you’re writing your CTA. What would compel them to go to your website at that moment and sign up for your email list? Also, double check that your CTA link is clickable. There aren’t many people who will take the time to go to their computer and type your URL into a web browser. They want to get to the link as fast as possible, right from the ebook they’re reading. If you’re writing your book using Scrivener, this is easy to do. You just highlight the text you want to link, go to Edit, click Add Link and type in the URL. Then test the link to see that it works, and you’re good to go.

Once you’ve gone through the steps, your email list should begin growing. It might start off slowly, but if you add the different tools and your content appeals to your readers, it will keep building.

The beautiful thing is, the reason your readers have joined your list in the first place is because they were interested in what you had to say. So you don’t really need to be bashful about letting them know when you have a new book finished. And it’s awesome to begin to get to know and bond with your readers.

I hope these steps have simplified the process of reaching more readers for you.

What have you struggled with as you’ve tried to grow your email list? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

8 Simple Steps to Join the e-book Revolution

September 15, 2015 by Lorna Faith

I have no doubt that ebooks are here to stay.

Most authors I know are writing and self-publishing their ebooks. However there are a few authors, who so far, have their book only published in print book.

Here’s the truth. If you only have a paperback book right now, you’re missing out on around 90% of sales. Many indie authors report that the majority of their sales on Amazon and other digital retailers come from their ebooks.

I still love print books too, but I find buying and of course writing and publishing a digital book, quicker and easier on the budget.

The beautiful thing is that anyone with a smartphone, tablet or computer, can download the Kindle app for free and start reading books.

*Photo created with Canva

8 Steps to Write, Publish and Market your e-book

So if you want to learn the steps to join this ebook revolution, read on.

The sooner you can write and publish your ebook, the sooner you can sell it to readers that are looking to read it.

If you are a self-published(indie) author, if you went with a traditional publisher you would earn about $2 royalties for selling a $20 hardcover book. For that same book in ebook format, on Amazon, you would earn $2 royalties on a ebook that is priced between $2.99 and $9.99.

That’s great news for both readers and writers alike.

It’s awesome for the author, who can lower the price of her or his book and still earn good income from royalties, also the reader is also happy, because they get easy access to a great book at a good price.

So here are the steps to take, if you want to join the ebook revolution yourself.

Write Your Book. I’ve discovered personally, that’s it’s much easier to start a book, than it is to finish it. So decide you’ll not only start writing, but that you’ll set a goal for when you want your book done. Perfection is your enemy. If you’re worried about word count, don’t be. Many successful authors are writing great ebooks that are between 10,000 and 30,000 words. So if you have a specific topic or a short story, now’s the time to write it.
Edit Your Book. Editing your book is critical. If you want to compete with the ‘professionals’ and other successful authors, it means you need a good editor at least. First you want to read through your book yourself, asking yourself where your book is unclear and where you can add more detail. Then you’re ready to bring your book to an editor. Editors turn bad writers into great writers. Remember editing is to make your book readable, NOT to make it perfect. Some great places to find editors are elance.com and Odesk.com.
Format your ebook. I use Scrivener, which I like for reasons that I list out here. But the big reason I love to use this software, is because I can format for Kindle(.mobi) and for Kobo, ibookstore and other digital retailers(epub). Then it’s a simple task to upload your book to Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, ibookstore and other digital retailers. I learned how to format quickly, from Joseph Michael’s Learn Scrivener Fast online course – it made the process easy so that even a non-techy person like me could figure it out.
Choosing a Cover Design. Your Book Cover and title are what sell your book more than anything else. Your Cover needs to stand out so potential readers are interested to take another look. On digital retail sites like Amazon, your book cover and title is very tiny. So if potential readers can’t ready your title or see your image clearly, most likely they won’t buy your book. Another tip: If you’re writing fiction, have a title that creates curiosity but doesn’t confuse the reader. For non-fiction, people want to know clearly what solution you’re offering or how reading your book will help them. If you’re on a tight budget, you can go to Fiverr.com and find someone to design your book for less than $20.
Publishing on Digital Retail Sites. Once your book is edited, formatted and you have a great book cover, you’re ready to upload your book. Here you go to different digital retailers’ websites and follow the directions to upload your book. There’s a few ways to do this. You can upload direct or you can use an aggregator like Smashwords.com or Draft2Digital.com to distribute your ebook for you to the other retailers. I like to upload direct to Amazon, because that way I have more control. If I want to put my ebook on for free for awhile, I can, instead of going through the extra ‘hoops’ needed to change the pricing. I use Smashwords to distribute ebooks to Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBookstore and other retailers.
Use Some Free Promotions for Your ebook. There’s different opinions in the indie author world on whether using KDP Select on Amazon is a good idea or not. What is KDP Select? Basically if you enrol in the program, you’re giving Amazon exclusive rights to your ebook for 90 days. Which means you’re promising you won’t sell your book anywhere else… not even on your website for 90 days. I’ve heard some authors who have done amazingly well, when they’ve used the 5 free days to promote their book and have had 20,000 downloads during that time. Other authors haven’t got the results they wanted. I think getting your free book into as many readers hands as possible is a good idea no matter which way you do it.
Marketing Your Book. The key to marketing your book, is to give your reader what they want first, then give them what they need. That’s why your book cover and title are so important. Readers want to know what they can expect from you – what promise you’re going to deliver on, in your book. A big part of how you attract more readers, has to do with how well you package and position your book. There are free groups on Facebook, here, here and here or here’s some Twitter users who love to hear about free ebooks: @freedailybooks; @pixelofink; @kindle_free and @bookbub. Here’s a few websites where you can post your Free ebook: www.freebookdude.com, www.frugal-freebies.com, www.ereaderutopia.com. I hope that list helps.
Write more ebooks. At the end of the day, it’s really about writing more books. That’s the #1 key to success as an author. For instance, you could do a free promotion and buy Ads after that, or you could just write the next book, and that will promote your book for you. A great strategy is for your book to be marketing themselves as you keep writing more books. It’s about growing readers who love your books. Every book you publish is a new chance to attract a lifelong, raving fan. Isn’t that great?! With 7 billion people on the planet, there’s readers out there who want to read your books. And when you offer a free book, you’ll attract new readers. When you give something, people want to give you something back in return. So keep writing.

I’ve been inspired by many stories, like my friend Stacy Claflin, who in three years wrote twenty books and was able to quit her day job to write full time. We had a great chat for a podcast interview, that will be out soon.

Also, there another author, who has over 130 kindle ebook novels and short stories written. Even though none of them sell exceptionally well, all those books combined, earn her a high six-figure income.

So if you’ve been unsure about whether you should write your ebook, I hope this blogpost gives you confidence and some know-how to get going.

The takeaway in this ebook revolution, is that the more you write the more readers you will attract. And you might be able to give up your day job.

So keep writing.

What are your thoughts, on writing ebooks? I’d love to hear what you’ve learned and your story in the comments.

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

How to Draw the Biggest Rewards by Being Vulnerable

September 10, 2015 by Lorna Faith

“Go where the pain is; go where the pleasure is.” Anne Rice

When we’re feeling the most exposed – the most vulnerable – that’s when we experience fear.

Our fears are real and honest.

When we were kids, most of us were afraid of something – monsters, the dark, thunder and many other fears.

As adults however, instead of hiding from the monster in our closet when we’re afraid, we run from the possibility of sharing our honest self with others.

So what are these fears we face and how can being vulnerable when we’re afraid, draw the biggest rewards?

*Photo created with Canva

What are some of those fears?

There are many different fears we face when we write and share our words with the world. This fear is real and it’s the possibility they might come true, that scares us. Whether your stressed or maybe in denial about the fear, it can drag you down even when you’re focussed on getting through it.

So what are some of the biggest concerns that make many writers afraid?

Fear of being an imposter. When you try something new – like writing a book or a blogpost – you are stepping out into new territory. It’s risky and most of the time you feel like someone’s going to wave a neon sign that says she’s not a real author.
Fear of sharing your work. I remember sharing my first book with my critique partner and being scared of what she would say. There’s always the fear that our writing will be judged poorly.
Fear of failure. We’re scared that we’ll have bad reviews and that our book won’t sell and that people simply won’t like it.
Fear of success. You might imagine that once you have a book that’s successful, they’ll be too many expectations put on you and you won’t be able to write another book that’s good.
Fear of no work-life balance. This is one I fear. And it’s very real, that a ton of work goes into indie publishing, no matter where you’re at on the journey. I often get afraid that I’ll miss out on some of our kids activities because work overwhelm.

All these fears are like a signal, a little like having a pain in our body. Sometimes we can ignore the pain but if it’s bigger it’s a little more serious. When you are feeling more vulnerable and afraid, chances are, that’s a fear you should listen to.

When as an artist, you go where the pain is, you’re going to the place where you’ll have your greatest resonance with readers and your words.

Listen to what scares you. If you’re taking this risk of being vulnerable and exposing yourself to the world, more than likely it’s something worth doing. If it wasn’t worth doing, you probably wouldn’t have fear around it.

Brene Brown, in her incredible TED talk, says we have these fears because we are vulnerable. When we look at someone else and we see them being vulnerable and taking a risk and doing something other people don’t do, we see it as courage.

But, when we see vulnerability in ourselves, we see it as weakness and we say “if I’m feeling afraid it’s because I’m weak.”

When in fact it’s when we recognize that that vulnerability – their courage – that we see in others, this is the filter we need to see ourselves through. When we do that it will give us strategy on how to be brave.

So how do we bravely do what scares us?

Fear is basically waiting for something bad that hasn’t happened yet.

When you’re writing your book, you might be afraid someone will judge you, that you won’t make your deadline or that your reviews will be bad.

The biggest way to push past fear is to start doing something with our creativity.

Yes your fears are legitimate, honest and very real, but I’ve noticed when I write what I’m scared of – like I do in this blog – that somehow it helps me to sort through what makes me afraid and where I feel the most vulnerable.

For example, right now my biggest three fears I’m facing are around putting my first non-fiction book out into the world and the online class that goes with it on how to Write and Publish Your First Book. It scares me silly. I think my biggest three fears connected with that are: fear of sharing my work that it might be judged poorly; fear of being an imposter because it’s new for me; and fear of failure that despite hundreds of hours involved creating it, people won’t like it.

However, I went through a bunch of fear when I published my first fiction book, and when I actually finished the book and published it, somehow it gave me confidence that I could do this again. That’s what I remember and it helps me to be brave to try the next new thing.

Here’s the thing. No matter where you are along the journey as a writer, you’ll always face fear in one form or another. What important is that you practice countering that fear and risking vulnerability anyway.

People who take risks by being vulnerable – where they go out in the world and open themselves up – those are the people who become the most connected and have the strongest sense of worthiness and belonging.

This is how you can draw the biggest rewards by exposing the authentic you.

So be inspired by Brene Brown’s words today as you shake off fear through creative action:

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of creativity, innovation, and change. It’s also the birthplace of joy, faith and connection. To create is to make something that has never existed before. There’s nothing more vulnerable than that.”

Have you had moments where you’ve felt rewarded from being vulnerable in your writing? I’d love to hear your story in the comments.

*Photo created with Canva

How to Push Past the Fear of Launching Something New

September 8, 2015 by Lorna Faith

Have you ever felt fear when you’ve put something out into the world?

If you’re launching your first book, service or product, it’s a scary feeling.

I remember when I had finally finished my first book and then decided to launch it on Mother’s Day weekend. I felt like my whole body was nervous. There was a pain in my stomach and a tenseness over the real possibility that it would be a big flop.

I’m having similar scary moments as I’m getting ready to launch my first online class on how to Write and Publish Your First Book.

With my first book and now with the class, I’ve felt like I’ve done my best, wanting to help people and make a difference in others lives either through entertainment or educating others.

Yet, secretly I ask myself all these questions. Is anyone else going to value it? Would they purchase it only to really wish they hadn’t or to ask for their money back? Was I just wasting my time? Did I have enough talent and ability to create something that other people wanted?

I had all these questions and fears wondering how many people would be interested in what I had to say. There have been so many what ifs and no real answers. I’ve felt a bit like I’m walking on a tightrope with no safety net. That at any moment I’m going to fall and that will be the end of my hopes and dreams.

Have you ever felt like that?

So how do we push past the fear and put something we create out into the world?

*Photo created with Canva

A Little Known Secret

There’s a little known secret I’ve learned from successful bloggers and authors.

It’s this. They still have fear when they launch a new book, online course, membership site or anything new, even if they’ve already put quite a few products into the world.

I’ve discovered they have a different mindset. Successful authors, bloggers and creative entrepreneurs still ship what they’ve created even though they are scared of the unknown result.

Inaction makes your fear bigger and immobilizes you, but taking action helps you push past fear. [Tweet this]

When you launch something new, you silence fear when you move forward anyways.

I’ve realized that I’d rather try and fail a bunch of times, then sit back and wonder what might have been.

So even though it can be downright scary to push ‘send’ on that email, or publish the book you’ve just written, do it anyway.

That’s what I’ve been learning to do, even though my stomach is knotted with anxious thoughts, each time I put out something new into the world.

A big part of launching something new is to be persistent and to find creative ways to keep putting your valuable product or book in front of people.

However, the most important takeaway, is to keep your heart in the right place.

There are people out there who desperately need your information that you’ve created. It could be life changing for them.

Sometimes we spend so much time processing, researching and writing down the information, we forget what it’s like for someone who is brand new to learn and benefit from it.

The first time a reader soaks in your words, your book might be like finding water in a dry desert. [Tweet this]

Sometimes it’s easier said than done to believe that what we’ve created will have value to others. Many times our fear, hesitation or feeling of lack comes from thinking too much in your own head.

We can rationalize away why our product isn’t good enough – and tell ourselves:

there are others who can do this so much better than us
people would probably like to spend their money elsewhere
our prices are too high(even after we’ve evaluated other products like ours on the market)

Yet, even though we can use rational judgement to rule the day, we must remember our hearts.

Deep inside we want to see transformation and to see others become a success. Our hearts tell us that the content we’re teaching is life changing for others, because it was life changing for us.

We truly want to make a difference in lives of others.

When all is said and done, if you have created something that can transform someone else’s life in some way, why wouldn’t you want to share it with others?

So if you’ve been hesitating on launching a new product or service, keep walking and set your vision on the top of the mountain, because you weren’t created to stay stuck in the valley.

You can push past fear and launch something new.

How do you push past fear when you launch something new?

*Photo created with Canva

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help to support this blog

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