I) Blogging
A) Tools
- Easy, do-it-yourself blog platform (Blogger): http://www.blogger.com
- Blogger vs Wordpress: surprising reasons to choose Blogger.
- Ten Best Blogging Platforms*
*note: author bashes Blogger, which I've been using for seven years and am quite happy with.
- Find free, legal art for your blog: Creative Commons http://search.creativecommons.org/
- Free image editor: Irfanview
http://www.irfanview.com
- Audacity audio tool: (free audio editor) http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
- A Youtube-like storage site for audio. Box.com
http://www.box.com
- Capture and manage subscribers for your blog: Feedburner http://www.feedburner.com/
- Monitor traffic to your blog (free and easy: Statcounter
http://www.statcounter.com
Include Share buttons and tools: Social media sharing tools make it easy to share your blog posts
B) Articles to read
- Blogging Tips, Tools, and Resources:
http://www.theloneliestplanet.com/2012/08/blogging-for-writers-tips-tools-and.html
- Copy blogger http://www.copyblogger.com/blog (lots of free guides on blogging and SEO)
- Article: Is Blogging a Waste of Time?
http://www.theloneliestplanet.com/2012/10/oh-no-experts-say-blogging-is-waste-of.html
- Article: The types of articles that get traffic.
http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/7-content-archetypes-that-generate-natural-links
C) Blog to follow
Http://www.copyblogger.com
II) Driving Traffic to Your Blog with Social Media
- Social Media for Writers
(A presention and list of resources that discuss: pros and cons of social media, how to save time using common platforms -- Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, and more esoteric topics such as social bookmarking)
III) Optional/Extra Credit: Search engine optimization (SEO and Keywords -- for geeks only!)
A) Tools
- Find keywords used by competitors (site is in German. Paste competitor's url in top field that says," URL: Ihre …"
http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/tools/topword.htm
- Google Keywords Tool (you may need to sign up)
https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool
B) Articles to read
- Great articles: Keyword Basics
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/06/author-blogging-101-keyword-basics/
http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo
- Geeky but interesting piece about Google cracking down on folks trying to goose the system.
http://problogservice.com/2013/08/13/google-cracking-down-on-hyperlinked-keywords-in-press-releases/
- Keywords for Nitwits (humor)
http://www.theloneliestplanet.com/2012/04/book-marketing-for-nitwits-keywords.html
- Do Keywords matter anymore?
- List of Blog Carnivals
C) Blogs to follow
SEO Moz
http://www.seomoz.org/blog
IV) Links to other presentations and resource pages for my class series: "Self-Promotion for Writers"
- overview of self-promotion for writers (class discusses popular options for building an audience including: blogging, social media, e-mail newsletters, and old school tactics such as special events and public relations.)
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