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Viral marketing is so aptly named because the idea, when promoting a product, is to allow for brand recognition to spread quickly, like a virus. In the case of marketing, naturally, the end result will not yield illness, but sales. For the author, viral marketing – or word of mouth campaigns – is an essential method of promotion.

When one thinks of viral marketing as a means to promote books, music, or other items, more than likely it is believed that such techniques are limited to the Internet. This is not necessarily the case. Viral marketing refers to the use of exist social networks or communities for promotion, and while the Internet lends a good amount of convenience here, there are ways to spread “the virus” beyond cyberspace if one is creative enough. By establishing recognition of your book within a small network, you have the opportunity to expand your audience as people engaged in that network move outward and employ word of mouth to recommend your books.

Here are just a few examples of online and offline viral marketing techniques designed to raise awareness:

E-Mail signatures: Every time you send an e-mail – to a friend, relative, or to anybody – you should take the opportunity to promote your work. You need not send a full-blown pitch with every message, but it is imperative to include your URL and catchy one-line slogan in your signature. You would be surprised how a few carefully chosen words can remain fresh in a consumer’s mind for years. Slogans are the core of advertising, and to include a tagline in your e-mail signature can entice readers to click through to your website.

Having worked with a number of romance authors with regards to promotion, I find a number of them have effective e-mail signatures designed to lure readers:

Bridget “an author who never goes” Midway

Do you dare? Ellwood…If She Could. Leigh Ellwood, Romance Author

Where spicier romances are concerned, a reader is going to want to know exactly what Leigh dares, and how far Bridget goes in her writing. Such a slogan, however, does not have to be limited to a body of work. If you have only one book to market, think of a phrase or line relevant to the story that will attract readers. Sell your book in ten words or less and offer visitors incentive to click through to learn more.

Forums and Messageboards: Depending upon the subject of your book, you can find readership in the many online forums available to you. While some forums may not allow direct advertising, equating such blatant promotions to spam techinques employed by robots, there are ways to steer around restrictions.

If you have written a non-fiction work, it is highly recommended to spend some time each day patrolling any message boards relevant to your topic. Whether you have authors a sports biography or self-help work, there is certain to be one or two forums where potential readers exist for your work. If you write fiction, there do exist a number of readers forums related to many genres, from romance to science fiction to fantasy. If your works are in similar vein to popular books and movies (a fantasy novel akin to Tolkien, or a hard-boiled private eye story), seek out those forums as well. Readers of a certain fandom may be willing to broaden their interests if they are duly enticed.

Depending upon the forum, signatures are permitted. Use the opportunity to create a signature (as with your e-mail) designed to encourage forum members to click through to your site. As you become a part of these communities, you also have the opportunity to establish yourself as an expert on forum subjects. Post and reply to posts, and increase awareness of your brand. Employing such a subtle, viral technique can be helpful in bring people to your website and your book.

Articles: Similar to the concept of being a forum expert, writing articles relevant to your book’s topic is a useful method of viral marketing. Whether your write fiction or non-fiction, poetry or plays, supplemental articles for distribution enhance your credibility and allow for the increase of traffic to your website.

Concise, short articles of about 300-400 can be submitted to third-party article databases for distribution. With each article you write, include a biography and URL link to your site. As website owners needing content pick up your material for use, they are obliged to use your links. This method of viral marketing sets you up as an expert on the subject at hand, and also increases opportunity for higher link popularity on your website.

Article writing as a viral marketing technique is also effective in print. Find periodicals and journals relevant to your book’s topic, and submit articles for publication. For mystery and romance authors in particular, there exist opportunities to write anecdotes on the writing process and story inspiration. Mystery Readers Journal and Mystery Scene Magazine are two such outlets that welcome author input.

Mailing Lists: Similar to the message board, the topic mailing list brings the conversation and information directly to the readers’ mailboxes. Visit a database for mailing lists, such as Yahoo Groups or Topica, and you will also find a number of authors have mailing lists set up to promote their works. Some lists are employed purely for newsletter distribution, while others allow for readers to interact with each other and the author.

Whether you decide to maintain your own list or join lists relevant to your books, viral marketing comes into play through your posts and signatures. Try not to be an overt advertisement, but maintain some degree of visibility and authority on relevant subjects. Build trust among the readership, and eventually you will find readers clicking through to your site to learn more.

Signage: Perhaps while driving you have seen the a window sticker on the care in front of you, advertising a URL. It might have been a commercial vehicle, or a mom’s van promoting an in-home business for cosmetics or other goods. You might have it thought it amusing at first, but such signage can be useful in imprinting a brand into the general consciousness. Billboards would not exist otherwise if there was not some proven effectiveness.

The good thing about a sticker on the back window of a car or truck is that it does not have to be too obnoxious, just large enough to be seen. Shop around for a custom design, then you have a traveling advertisement for your book everywhere you drive.

Just as word of mouth advertising helps promote books, music, and other items, so can viral marketing be as effective. Plant seeds of interest throughout the Internet and watch as your traffic and sales bloom.

Kathryn Lively
http://www.articlesbase.com/viral-marketing-articles/viral-marketing-to-improve-sales-92920.html

I just underwent a layoff, so this would be a great chance to earn some money while I continue my job search.

Thanks for your advice!
Please note that this is a contract position where I would be working on-site, on multiple projects for four to six weeks. As such, I anticipate being asked my hourly rate. It’s likely they will consider me a "temporary worker". Thanks!

It isn’t paid by the hour. It’s paid by the word. That’s if it is truly freelance work.

On the other hand, if they have you come in to their office and have you work a set number of hours a day, on assignments that they direct you on, and they’re directing and controlling the details of your work on the newsletter, website or whatever, then you should be classified as an employee and paid an hourly rate (at least minimum wage) with time and a half for overtime.

http://empoweredblogs.com

I missed the boat on this one for years!
I about fell out of my chair when a friend showed me what I was missing out on and it was literally thousands of dollars all because I was not adding the right keywords in my articles and videos.
You see I came from a social media background first. So for many months I was writing for my followers only. I was totally forgetting about the search engines. Big mistake HUGE! Once I fixed this and started to implement a couple of targeted keywords in every post, my comment rate, RT rate, and even my opt in rate went up.
Why more eyeballs!
At first I thought that it was due to a fluke. Maybe my post got a little more buzz on the social media scene. Yeah maybe but when I Googled my keyword and found my post on the first page I knew I found the missing ingredient.
There needs to be a balance between writing for the lovely search engines and for your followers. If youre too heavy on the keywords, people will notice something odd, and its a bit cumbersome to read especially if youre going after a long tailed keyword (a couple words or a phrase). And if youre too light on key words the search engines wont find you.
A good technique is 1 keyword every 100 words. You can use Word Tracker SEO Blogger as a tool to track and do keyword research as well. But heres a big tip you can use relatively close or similar keywords as well. For instance if you want to use the keyword social media tribes you can and should also drip in there tribes and tribe.
You should always write for your audience first and Google second, just dont forget about Google. Remember, those big search engines own the sandbox youre playing in.

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Blogging is good for your writing skills if you use it for that purpose.

Technocratic is basically a blog search engine that is tracking 112.Tagged social media numbers have reached over 250 million for social media, and over 8 million for blogs Technocratic will help you promote your blogs if used correctly Technocratic came onto the blogging scene well after blogging gained a great deal of popularity. Countless people as well as organizations have collaborated and provided candor to allow blogging to grow as it has.

Technocratic verifies the tags that are submitted by the owner of the site and the ranking is based on the count that how much blogs are linked to yours. Like a map, for more details visit to www.rss-announcers.com tags direct your audience to your blog and they let them know what your blog consist of. Technocratic Tags work on a variety of modes and can vary according to type of content. You can include your post on a Technocratic Tag page by including a specific link which will “tag” it. Every word that is wrapped around with tags will be moved to the bottom list of [tag] Technocratic [/tag] tags at the bottom of the post. Tags not only direct your audience to your blog but they also help identify what your blog contains. Tags adoption has become a phenomenon across the Live Web, and we are seeing a correlative explosive growth at Technocratic. Technocratic is absolutely the unchallenged power on the latest in the blogging world at present. Technocratic will help you promote your blogs if used correctly Technocratic came onto the blogging scene well after blogging gained a great deal of popularity. Countless people as well as organizations have collaborated and provided candor to allow blogging to grow as it has.

Blogs are conversational in nature, Levy said, and the long tail network
that Technocratic is assembling will allow brands to be part of that via very targeted advertising. Nowadays, for more details visit to www.blog-and-ping.com Blogs are considered as the most authentic type of communication related to news and is informative to people who read them.
I have always liked Technocratic, it has been a great site for keeping track of interesting topics and finding new bloggers.
Technocratic tracks what is happening on nearly 100 million blogs. Despite the problems building, improving and scaling a specialty search engine, Technocratic is a company built on passion for the Web, for blogs, for individuals and for society at large.

SONU SHARMA
http://www.articlesbase.com/blogging-articles/technocratic-verifies-the-tags-that-are-submitted-by-blogging-site-721308.html

Writing articles is one of the best ways of creating one way links back to your site. Many marketers know that writing articles are great and powerful methods to marketing online. The techniques for writing articles are numerous and beyond the scope of this article. Simple, easy to read articles are quite effective in achieving your goals of increased website traffic and profits.

Every article you write should be aimed at a certain keyword. Every article you write should have a good signature line. Nothing you write is ever wasted.

Articles get indexed by search engines like Google and rank very well in search results. Your Ezine will normally get indexed by Google within a week of publishing it. The reasons you need to submit to as many article sites as you can because of the number link backs you will receive. Ezine publishers and sites will publish them People who visit the site or read the Ezine will also ask you if it’s ok they use your article. What this means is that you will receive one way links to your site.

Remember “Content is King” and you can be that king. Of course, you still have the knowledge and are free to continue writing and publishing on the same subject. Original, informative content is a must. When you have content that is original you will see your search engine rankings increase. You need to make sure that the content that you submitting is relevant to the theme of your business.

For link building it is vital to search in the web and find out those sites that deal with similar product to yours. Once your article is submitted the link in your bio will be placed on many sites and it will be pointing back to your site which will increase your traffic. What you will notice about the articles though, is that they will come with link at the bottom of them. This link will lead back to the webmaster’s website. Some directories allow one or two links within the body of the article, but they must not be perceived as advertising or blatant affiliate links. If this is allowed, then the link must be relevant to the context of the article.

Try not to get links to quickly search engines have been know to penalize those sites that get links to quickly. Add links between articles and related pages on your site. Links pointing back to your site is very important for link popularity but those internal links are also very important. Getting one good article with the appropriate keywords that is distributed among sites will improve your serps and build traffic. As more and more directories and individual websites display your article, your back links will increase, as will your ranking.

If you think one article will help you with build link marketing campaign you are wrong, you need to consistently write articles to do this. Continue to build on your article writing and submit the articles to steadily build your websites traffic. One of the best sources of traffic is article-writing and submission. Writing good quality article will definitely help you receive traffic to your websites.

David Fishman
http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/writing-quality-articles-and-submitting-will-help-your-website-build-links-136967.html

The subject of good resume writing has never become obsolete, and in today’s tough job market, it is smart to get the process down to an exact science.

Computers and the Internet have made it a lot easier for the erstwhile job-seeker to craft and distribute a resume.

However, easier doesn’t always mean better. In fact, resumes have gotten longer – in some cases, three pages and beyond.

Do PR people have more responsibilities? Or, are word processing programs making it easier, faster and cheaper to write and distribute lengthy resumes? Or, are long-resume writers likely to be long-winded in person?

Good press releases

Follow the basic principles of journalism – who, what, when, where and why. That means, short, substantive sentences that actually convey facts.

The two-page rule still applies.

“Chronological” format (titles, company names, job descriptions listed in date order) is the preferred format. However, people with many years of experience often opt for the more abbreviated “functional” version.

Arial and Times Roman are the recommended fonts. Exotic fonts are distracting and hard to read. Be font consistent throughout.

Keep bolding, italicizing and underscoring to a minimum. They are generally reserved for sub-headings which include company names, titles and dates. Use underscores for references to publication titles, quotations and such.

Use one-inch margins top and bottom, and at least half-inch margins left and right. It’s better to have more white space than too many words.

Job and/or career objectives are okay when career direction is not obvious from reading the resume. Career summaries and highlights are also OK.

Avoid the “cutesy” approach. No gifts (like a chunk of Brie with a note inscribed to “The Big Cheese”), stunts (balloon/flower deliveries), teasers (telegrams delivered, saying on it: “I have a great idea for a campaign. Hire me today and I’ll tell you what it is”).

Resumes on tapes, CDs, disks and high-content rag pages are a nice touch, but expensive to produce and distribute. Keep it simple.

Word processing template resumes are certainly acceptable and useful at keeping the writer within basic format guidelines.

Letters

Keep to one page.

Don’t start your letter by saying “If you are looking for a person with, etc. etc. “Well, look no further.” Chances are our clients will definitely look further.

As your high school typing teacher warned you – don’t sound too chummy when writing a business letter. Maintain professionalism at all times.

And remember, just about all correspondence software has a spell-checker and, in some cases, a grammar-checker. Use them.

If you’re sending your letter and resume via fax or the U.S. mail, be sure to sign it. It’s a nice personal touch in an otherwise impersonal, digital world. When sending an e-mail letter, close the letter with your name typed out.

Thank-you notes

Nothing in the computerized world can replace a handwritten thank-you note. It’s polite, it’s personalized, it’s professional. Given the overabundance of e-mails that everyone, least of all employers receive, an e-mailed thank-you note can get lost, deleted or overlooked. By sending yours the old-fashioned way, you’ll be remembered for your good manners in addition to all you’ll bring to their table, should you be hired.

Job-seekers don’t need to spend a fortune; a box of simple letterhead and envelopes from the local stationery store will do just fine. Keep your envelopes stamped in advance – this way it’s harder to procrastinate about not having gone to the post office! Unless an interview was a complete disaster or you’re definitely not interested in the job, taking this extra measure can help a great deal.

Email

In the sender’s info area of your e-mail message, your name and the word “resume” in the subject is sufficient.

If possible, send both your letter and resume in the body of the email and also send them as an attachment.

Avoid email “priority” indicators. They are an alarmist tactic and should only be used in an emergency or when conveying classified information.

The beginning of a job search is a good time to change that “really cool” e-mail address to a more professional-sounding identifier. We’ve received materials from people with e-mail addresses with the words dudes, studs, vixens, gals, buddies, chicks, love machines and the like.

Unless you’re auditioning for the next Bond movie or ghost-writing the next Jackie Collins book, leave the personal stuff on a second, personal e-mail address.

For obvious reasons, home or private e-mail addresses are always preferable to that of your employer.

Requesting a “return receipt” is OK; still, follow up within a decent interval.

When in doubt, use a PC platform. Macs are fine, but can display some quirks when being read by a PC.

After putting the finishing touches on your letter and resume, send it to a friend to make sure it can be read and doesn’t have any viruses. Have a trusted associate double-proofread it to ensure it reads smoothly.

Lastly, computer address books are very handy. But it is easy to click on the wrong name and send your resume to THAT person – thus risking some serious embarrassment, or worse.

There you have it. When it comes to letter and resume writing, remember the old adage, “The more things change…”

Dennis Spring
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/the-artscience-of-writing-a-winning-resume-128167.html