Monthly archives for April, 2010

Writers on the Move May2010 Author Tour

Apr30
2010 Leave a Comment Written by admin

April showers brings May flowers and with those flowers we’ll also have the Writers on the Move’s May author tour.

Each month, we have a great line-up of writing and marketing articles, author interviews, and book reviews. There’s something for everyone, so be sure to follow along.

The May Schedule:

1st Karen Cioffi is featuring Jane Sutton
2nd Kathy Stemke is featuring Marietta Taylor
3rd Vivian Zabel is featuring Nancy Famolari
4th Nancy Famolari is featuring Janet Ann Collins
5th Margaret Fieland is featuring Debra Eckerling
6th Elysabeth Eldering is hosting Dana Donovan
7th Helena Harper is featuring Heidi Thomas
8th Liana Metal is featuring Kari Wolfe
9th Gayle Trent is featuring Heather Paye
10th Mayra Calvani is featuring Karen Cioffi
11th Marvin Wilson is featuring Dallas Woodburn
12th Stephen Tremp is featuring Vivian Zabel
13th Darcia Helle is featuring Maggie Ball
14th Martha Swirzinski is featuring Helena Harper
15th Heidi Thomas is featuring Brigitte Thompson
16th Dana Donovan is featuring Elysabeth Eldering
17th Dallas Woodburn is featuring Gayle Trent
18th Debra Eckerling is featuring Mayra Calvani
19th Heather Paye is featuring Kathy Stemke
20th Maggie Ball is featuring Margaret Fieland
21st Kevin McNamee is featuring Martha Swirzinski
22nd Janet Ann Collins is featuring Kevin McNamee
23rd Katie Hines is featuring Darcia Helle
24th Marvin Wilson, Brigitte Thompson is featuring Marvin Wilson
25th Marietta Taylor is featuring Stephen Tremp
26th Kari Wolfe is featuring Katie Hines
27th Jane Sutton is featuring Liana Metal

We look forward to seeing you throughout the tour!

Check out:
Being a Gracious Virtual Host

Until next time,
Karen Cioffi
Author, Ghostwriter-for-Hire, Freelance Writer

http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com (visit and sign up for the FREE monthly newsletter and get a free e-book in the process)

Posted in Writing

Inbound Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

Apr25
2010 Leave a Comment Written by admin

The new big boy on the marketing block is Inbound Marketing. He used his muscles and pushed the older Traditional Marketing strategy to the side.

Okay, before you readers who do use traditional marketing get riled, I’ll be the first to agree that this strategy of marketing, specifically person-to-person networking geared toward referrals and business, is still alive and well.

But, for the online marketer, inbound marketing is the strategy that leads the race. Searching online is the first choice of people looking for products, services and information.

In case you’re not familiar with what’s involved in inbound and traditional marketing here’s an overview:

Traditional Marketing

We’re all very familiar with traditional marketing. I’m sure most of us have been annoyed at one time or another by the telemarketer, television commercials and infomercials, and radio plugs. There is also the newspaper advertising, and don’t forget the environmentalist’s arch enemy: junk mail.

This form of marketing is considered invasive. You are the target and the marketing companies take broad aim and bombard you with funny, stupid, crazy, confusing, annoying, dumbing down, and once in a while informative commercials and advertisements. These marketing tools go so far as to invade the privacy of your own home.

With traditional marketing, the potential customer is not looking for your product or anything similar. Again, the marketing company is taking a broad aim and spraying as large a target as possible in the hope of snagging a customer.

Inbound Marketing

While traditional marketing slaps you in the face with their promotions, inbound marketing gently taps you on the shoulder through Search Engines.

In fact, the inbound marketer doesn’t really even tap the potential customer—it cleverly uses information or entertainment as a means of drawing traffic to a website or blog.

So, instead of television, newspapers, and junk mail, inbound marketing uses blogs, article marketing, and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Digg, and Technorati.

In regard to blogging, the inbound marketer provides content that his niche target is looking for. When the target does a Google search to find out how to market a book, the search engines provide a number of places the target can find this information. Depending on your ranking in the particular search engine being used will determine how far up or down on the listing provided your site will be.

One of the key factors in ranking high in the search engines is to use keywords in your title and content. In addition to this, the content must be valuable to the target audience, your title must be representative of the content, and you need to post regularly. Write with an objective and make your content exceptional.

Related Articles:

Focused Keywords and Your Content

Beyond Book Sales Income: Marketing and Diversification

If you want to write for children . . . I mean seriously . . . if you are striving to actually get published . . . then the place to be is The Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club. Read this article that describes just how beneficial it is:  http://www.karencioffi.com/2010/02/write-for-children/

Finally, for a guide to writing, publishing and marketing, check out:
Writing, Publishing, and Marketing – You Can Do It!

Until next time,

Karen Cioffi
Author, Writer-for-hire, Freelance Writer, Reviewer

Karen Cioffi Writing for Children
http://dkvwriting4u.com
http://nothingventurednothinggained.org

If you haven’t yet, be sure to sign up for my FREE monthly newsletter, A Writer’s World, at http://dkvwriting4u.com. You will also get a free e-book that will help you with your writing and marketing!

You can also sign up for the newsletter at: Karen Cioffi Writing for Children.

Hopefull, by next month some time, I’ll have a opt-in box on this site.

Posted in Marketing - Tagged , , ,

6 Stepping Stones to Publication

Apr18
2010 Leave a Comment Written by admin

Do you need a degree in order to be a successful writer?  In researching this topic, the articles I read all agree that it is not necessary. But, there are at least six stepping stones needed to take to reach the golden ring of publication.

1.  Learn the craft of writing

While it’s not essential to have a degree in writing, it is essential that you learn the craft.

You can obtain this knowledge through a number of avenues, such as:

a.    Become a part of a coaching program or club. Just make sure the instructor or coach has the necessary credentials to teach or guide.

b.    Research blogs and sites that offer instructional articles on the genre you are writing in. You can also find articles through the article directories.

c.    Attend writing conferences. Even if you can’t go in person, or can’t afford to go, there are a number of free online conferences that offer great workshops, networking, and even pitches to publishers. One such conference is The Muse Online Writers Conference.

d.    Join a critique group that has new and experienced writers. Critique groups are a great way to learn the ropes. The experienced writers will provide a kind of one-on-one tutoring. Through the critiques you receive you’ll begin to notice your common errors and how to correct them. Through the critiques you give, you’ll be able to pick up on errors much quicker. All this will help you to hone your craft and become a confident writer.

e.    Read books about writing, self-editing, and books in the genre you are writing. Study these books.

2. Write and keep writing

Remember the old expression, ‘practice makes perfect.’ It’s important to make time to write every week, whether it’s daily or specific days, or even if you have to squeeze it into your schedule. The more you write, the more comfortable you will feel about writing.

3. Read your work, proofread your work, self-edit your work, revise your work…repeat

This is where you apply the information you’ve reaped from Step 1. After you think it’s ‘really’ good, submit it to your critique group. Then repeat Step 3. When you think it’s perfect you’re ready for Step 4.

4. Submit your work

In this step you can take two paths:

a.    Submit your work to an experienced editor. This is the path almost all writers will advise you to take. The editor is trained to spot things that you and you’re critique group will not. Yes, it will be an expense, but there are some reasonable and experienced editors out there that you can take advantage of.

b.    If you cannot afford an editor, be sure to carefully read a book about self-editing, print your manuscript out and go over it with a fine tooth comb. When you feel confident that it’s as good as you can get it, start submitting it to publishing companies and/or agents.

5. Read publishers’ guidelines carefully

Along with reading them carefully, you need to follow them carefully. Publishers have more submissions than they can handle, if your submission doesn’t meet their guidelines it would be highly unlikely it will avoid the trash pile.

6. Persevere

It’s not necessarily the best writer who gets published and has a successful writing career…it’s the writer who perseveres. Writing can be a long and arduous road and is usually filled with a great deal of rejection. But, if you work toward your goal, learn your craft, and keep moving forward, you have what it takes to become published.

Related Articles:

Write for Children (shows the benefit of a writing coach)

Freelance Editors: Should You Hire One?

And, be sure to check out this guide to writing, publishing and marketing:

Writing, Publishing, and Marketing – You Can Do It!

Until next time,

Karen Cioffi
Author, Writer-for-hire, Freelance Writer, Reviewer

http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com **
http://dkvwriting4u.com **
http://nothingventurednothinggained.org

** You can sign up for A Writer’s World Newsletter at either of these sites and get a free e-book that will help you with your writing and marketing!

Posted in Writing - Tagged , , , ,

Networking Like a Pro – A Review

Apr16
2010 Leave a Comment Written by admin

Part of every writer’s life is marketing and social networking. Networking Like A Pro is a useful tool to help you navigate the techniques of doing both.

Title: Networking Like a Pro
Authors: Ivan Misner, Ph.D., David Alexander & Brian Hilliard
Publisher: Entrepreneur Press
ISBN: 10-1-59918-356-0
ISBN: 13: 978-59918-356-5
Reviewer: Karen Cioffi for BookPleasures.com

It seems in today’s high tech world, a great deal of promotion and networking is geared toward online readers and businesses. But, the world does not begin and end with the internet—we tend to forget about the original form of networking which is face-to-face.

Networking Like a Pro is not only a reminder that face to face business networking is still alive and healthy, but in many businesses it is also a necessity. And it, along with online networking is a skill like any other that needs to be learned and honed. The co-authors took great care to cover all facets of the networking arena and show that whatever your method or focus, creating social capital is a necessity.

To better understand the importance of networking, the co-authors compare social capital to financial capital. While financial capital is material wealth, money or property, social capital is, according to Networking Like a Pro, “the accumulation of resources developed in the course of social interactions, especially through personal and professional networks.” They go on to explain that “these resources include ideas, knowledge, information, opportunities, contacts, and, of course, referrals. They also include trust, confidence, friendship, good deeds, and goodwill.”

It’s also understood that social capital can actually lead to financial capital as the subtitle of the book describes, Turning Contacts Into Connections. The essence of our marketing endeavors is to sell our services or products; those we come in contact with, whether online or fact-to-face, are possible customers, resources, or contacts leading to referrals.

Networking Like a Pro covers a wide-range of networking topics: The Networking Mind-Set; Your Networking Strategy; Networking Face to Face; Making Your Network Work; Secrets of the Masters; and Is Your Networking Working? Each of theses topics is thoroughly examined and explained through analysis, step-by-step instruction, conversational examples and even diagrams.

In Part III, Networking Face to Face, the co-authors examine: Joining the Crowd; The 12 x 12 x 12 Rule; Where’s Your Attention Focused?; Telling Your Company’s Story; and Quantity is Fine, But Quality is King. This section is so detailed it provides networking mixer diagram configurations with explanations on how to read a room.

In the chapter, Telling Your Company’s Story, the co-authors delve into the unique selling proposition (USP) which every marketer must have. A good USP is a memorable one sentence pitch that “simply tells people what you do, in a manner that gets them to ask how you do it.” Each section is conveyed in the same meticulous manner; nothing is left to guess-work.

I was impressed with Networking Like a Pro. It provides a tremendous amount of practical information in an understandable format. Co-authors Misner, Alexander and Hilliard created a comprehensive book that covers networking strategies from A – Z. It explains with great detail the ins and outs, and tricks of the trade of ‘Networking Like a Pro’ and turning contacts into connections.

About the authors:

Dr. Ivan Misner is Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His Ph.D. is from the University of Southern California and he has written eleven books, including his New York Times bestseller Masters of Networking as well as his recent number-one bestseller, The 29% Solution.

David Alexander is the CNO (Chief Networking Officer) of Referrals4life LLD. He is a respected author and keynote presenter. His books convey his passion and mission of teaching people how to create success, with a strong emphasis on referral marketing.

Brian Hilliard is a popular speaker and creator of the program How to Market Your Business in Less Than 90 Days. He is considered one of the leading authorities in showing busy entrepreneurs how to get more business right away.

Until next time,

Karen Cioffi

http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com

http://dkvwriting4u.com

http://nothingventurednothinggained.org

Posted in Marketing - Tagged , , , ,

FREE Writing for Children Beginner’s Workshop

Apr10
2010 1 Comment Written by admin

Yup! You read the title of this post correct. It’s a FREE one-day Writing for Children Beginner’s Workshop presented by ME!

The Date is Saturday, May 1st through The Muse Online Writers’ Conference.

Here’s how to join in:

Writing for Children – A Beginner’s Workshop with Karen Cioffi

To register for this FREE workshop to be held in the password protected room in the General Forum (link in the navigational area in the conference website), click here:

http://www.themuseonlinewritersconference.com

You’ll need to register by giving yourself a username & password, wait for a confirmation that you have been accepted; you’ll receive it in your email. Then you can link into the forum (the password will be issued to all who register a few days before the workshop begins).

As soon as you’re registered (accepted), send Lea Schizas the following within the body of an email:

Your name

Your email

Place “Karen Cioffi” on the subject heading

Email Lea Schizas at: museitupeditor AT yahoo DOT ca

WORKSHOP INFO:

Do you want to write? Do you want to write for children? Have you written a children’s story or other fiction story and aren’t sure if it’s in good enough shape to submit to agents or publishers? Do you know proper punctuation and formatting? Do you know how to show rather than tell?

While this workshop is geared specifically for new children’s writers, it offers the basics of writing in general with additional information for the children’s writer.

Some of what will be included is:

The different genres of children’s writing

Point of View (POV) when writing for children

Basic structure, formatting and timeframe (for all genres)

Basic grammar and punctuation (for all genres)

Different methods of writing (for all genres)

Building a three-dimensional character (for all genres)

Showing vs. Telling (for all genres)

Finding age appropriate words

Resources and tools to help you hone your craft (all genres)

This workshop will provide the basics to get you started in the right direction. You will also have the opportunity to get a critique of up to 250 words of your manuscript or article.

Karen Cioffi is a published author, writer-for-hire, freelance writer, and reviewer. She is the founder and manager of VBT Writers on the Move (a group of authors utilizing cross-promotion to increase visibility and readership) and on the team at DKV Writing 4 U (http://dkvwriting4u.com) where you can sign up for her FREE monthly newsletter. You can read more about Karen at: http://karencioffi.com/media- page/

Handout: (an exercise sheet and an ebook of writing instruction)

Door prize: Two ebooks:

Writing, Publishing, and Marketing – You Can Do It

A Writing E-book (a compilation of writing articles – untitled as of yet)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, if you’re a new writer and want basic guidance and tips to get you headed in the right direction, please join us on May 1st. Even if you’ve been writing a while and would like to join in, please do! It’d be great having you on board.

I hope to see you at the workshop.

Until next time,

Karen Cioffi

http://dkvwriting4u.com

http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com

http://nothingventurednothinggained.org

Posted in Writing for Children - Tagged , , , ,

Focused Keywords and Your Content

Apr07
2010 1 Comment Written by admin

Most of us think of keywords as something a marketer or affiliate marketer needs to be aware of. It’s their area of business and their problem to find these mysterious words that help increase the ranking on search engines. But, that’s not really the case.

Today, if you are promoting yourself, your book, service, business, or product, you need readers to know who you are, where you are, what you have to offer, why what you’re offering is what they need, and why you’re qualified to be offering this product/service. Yes, there are a lot of requirements that need to be met in order to be successful in this ever expanding and competitive internet arena.

One of the basic strategies used to get noticed is writing or providing content. I’m sure you’ve read or heard a hundred times that “content is king.” It is absolutely true. Imagine being a spec in the sky . . . so tiny and far away that you are invisible to the human eye. Well, that’s you in the internet universe. So, how do you get a flickering light going and build it into a steady strong beam?

Valuable Content and Keywords

The only way to get on the internet radar is to create valuable content, provide it regularly, and make sure it is keyword rich. As I mentioned, content is essential, without it you do not have a chance. But, even with it, you need to fine tune your ‘must read information’ with keywords.

Don’t fret though, it’s not that difficult to do. Most of it is common sense. I’m not one to search for keywords for every article I write, instead I think of what query words I would use to find a topic. While using a keyword tool would afford a much larger pond to fish from, I’m not a marketer, I’m a writer. If I don’t have the time to do a keyword search I don’t go crazy.

For this article I took the time and plugged in the word “keywords” at freekeywords.wordtraker.com (a free tool). The number one phrase for this keyword is “keyword research,” number two is “keyword analysis,” and number three is “keyword.” I really didn’t have to do a search to realize the word “keyword” would be there, I didn’t, however, know that “research” would be part of the number one phrase. Knowing the number one keyword phrase provides valuable information; this also means it is a highly competitive keyword.

The Long Tail Keywords

To make your keyword rich content even more effective look for what’s called long tail keywords. These are words that will move you away from the general querying crowd—and the heavy competition.

For example, if your niche is children’s writing your key words would be writing, children’s writing and possibly children’s fiction and/or children’s nonfiction.

To elaborate on these keywords—to get more specific and narrow your target audience, you might use: writing for kids, children’s fantasy chapter books, picture books, middle grade fiction books, or kids’ nonfiction magazine articles. You get the idea; you need to focus in on your niche. Instead of aiming at the outer rim of a bull’s eye, go dead center.

To get started try these free keyword search tools:
wordstream.com/keywords/
keyworddiscovery.com
freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

Related Articles:

7 Steps to Writing for Article Directories

Writing Books, Is There Money in it?

For writing, publishing, and marketing help, get your copy of:

Writing, Publishing and Marketing – You Can Do It!

For only $4.99, it’s a super great buy!

You can also order it directly from me – just contact me through the contact page!

Until next time,

Karen Cioffi
Author, writer-for-hire, freelance writer, reviewer

http://dkvwriting4u.com
http://nothingventurednothinggained.org

Posted in Marketing - Tagged , , , , , ,

Writing Dilemma: Pronouns and Non-Specific Genders

Apr02
2010 1 Comment Written by admin

Have you ever wondered how you should reference a non-specific gender when writing? What pronoun should be used?

We all know that for eons, the masculine pronoun was used when faced with these questions. It was the accepted unspoken rule.

If a writer needed to use a pronoun for a non-specific gender, he would use “he.” No one gave it a second thought. But, times have changed . . . is this strategy still acceptable?

Of late, it seems many writers are unsure of the correct pronoun to use. Many of us, including me, use a number of different pronouns when faced with this situation. As an example, let me backtrack a bit first and explain how I use to tackle this dilemma.

My Old Strategy of Referencing a Non-Specific Gender

When I wrote a sentence, and realized I was referencing a non-specific genre, I’d write “he/she,” “he and she,” or “he or she.” More often I would revise the sentence to avoid having to be in this situation. But, I was never sure if what I was doing was correct.

For example, I might have written the following sentence: When a child suffers with allergies, he/she should be seen by his/her doctor.

Trying not to fall into the old masculine pronoun strategy or having a clunky looking sentence, I would try to use both genders or eliminate the problem.

To eliminate the problem, I’d change the sentence to: When children suffer with allergies, they should be seen by their doctor.

While this works well, sometimes you need to reference “a child,” or “an adult.” Not all sentences can be fixed by changed the noun to plural. Working through these problems took time and thought.

But the days of guessing are gone . . . we now have a clear cut strategy to use.

The New Protocol for Referencing a Non-Specific Gender

We have finally progressed beyond the old standard protocol of tackling this situation with a masculine pronoun.

Now, using either the feminine or masculine pronoun is allowed and even encouraged. It’s actually fine to use whatever you want, even “he/she.” But, again we want to avoid the clunky looking sentence.

According to a post in Writer’s Digest, Questions and Quandaries, using either “he” or “she” throughout an article or post is perfectly acceptable. Another method is to alternate between “he” and “she” within the same article or post. I guess we can now be called equal opportunity pronoun gender writers.

Related Articles:

Showing vs. Telling Part 1

Showing vs. Telling Part 2

Until next time,

Karen Cioffi

http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com
http://dkvwriting4u.com
http://nothingventurednothinggained.org

Posted in Writing - Tagged , ,

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