Image by Getty Images via Daylife Jamie Grove of the excellent writing blog How Not to Write has created something special for iPhone or iPod Touch owners who write: WriteChain. More than just a word-count tracker, WriteChain is built around the principle of the chain, encouraging you to write every day to avoid “breaking the chain”. […]
Image via CrunchBase Twitter is one of the most significant social media platforms to emerge in the last couple of years. If you’re not familiar with Twitter, have a look at this post where I explain the general concept, then head over to Twitter.com and sign up for a free account. I’m always interested in […]
Image via Wikipedia While researching an article about iPhones, I was contacted by Cheryl Kaye Tardif, best-selling author of numerous novels such as Whale Song. Tardif has embarked on a new project: writing a complete novel on her iPhone – the first major mainstream author to do so. I kind of stumbled onto this by accident. One night […]
Last month, I completed a project I’ve been working on for quite a while, a book of advice for college students called Don’t Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College. The book grew out of some of the frustrations I’ve had as a university instructor over the last five years, and […]
Though blogs and RSS feeds are the hot thing right now, there are still lots of people who prefer good old-fashioned email newsletter. Newsletters have a number of qualities that make them preferable to blogging for some purposes, such as: They’re “push” technology: Instead of waiting for a reader to visit your blog, or check their […]
Selling stuff is supposed to be easy on the Internet. Just put it “up there” and watch the orders roll in, right? If you stick with Amazon or eBay as your marketplace, it’s not all that hard — but they take a pretty sizable cut! Or you can set up your own shopping cart system and maintain […]
Every author should belong to Amazon’s affiliate program, Amazon Associates. With Amazon Associates, you can create a link which includes your unique tracking ID to a book (or any product) and get a percentage of the purchase from anyone who clicks through to Amazon from your link. You can create links to any product on […]
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could stand in the bookstore next to your books and recommend them directly to anyone who stopped to take a look? You could answer questions, talk about how you came to write it, mention the sequel you’re working on, and just generally connect with your readers. Wouldn’t it be […]
One of the reasons I recommend WordPress as the backbone of your writing website is that it is very easy to extend what WP can do using plugins. Installing a WordPress plugin is easy — for the most part, you just upload the folder to the wp-content/plugins folder on your server, go to the “Plugins” tab in […]
For most sites, especially when they’re getting started, Google and other search engines are the #1 source of traffic, especially for new visitors who might become regulars. It helps to know a little bit about how search engines work and how to make your site “search engine-friendly” so you an make sure your site is […]
