Reprinted from a blog post of Phyllis Zimbler Miller as a National Internet Business Examiner.

twitterfollowPeople follow you on Twitter; they don’t friend you as on Facebook. And people can follow you without your “permission” as required for someone to become your Facebook friend.

When you are using Twitter for your brand, book or business, you want to have an effective Twitter marketing strategy. One of the most important areas of this strategy is your own “follow back” policy.

Some people automatically follow back anyone who follows them. This is not a policy that I personally recommend. I check out every person who follows me to see if I want to follow back that person.

I evaluate based on several criteria, including:

• Does the person have a headshot photo or at least an interesting logo icon? If the person is using the Twitter default photo place-holder, I probably won’t follow back this person because I want to see the visual image of who I’m following.

• Does the person include his/her real name besides the Twitter username? Again, I want to know with whom I’m engaging.

• Does the person’s brief Twitter bio sound interesting? Might I learn from this person? Or might I share info with this person?

• Do the person’s recent tweets seem interesting or are they filled with inane comments about what he/she ate for dinner?

You’ll have to decide on your own evaluation criteria. But do put some thought into who you follow back on Twitter.

The quality of the people you follow can directly impact the effectiveness of your Twitter marketing strategy.

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Internet Book Marketing: Joint Ventures Are a Win-Win

by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on May 13, 2009

Reprinted from Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s blog posts as a National Internet Business Examiner.

Businessman and businesswoman shake handsAs I wrote in my April 19th Examiner post, Internet business requires a mind shift from you against your “competitors” to you and your “colleagues” working together.

And an extension of this new mindset is: How can I help others? Is there information I can share? Is there a way to say thank you to someone online by helping that person’s brand?

Recently on Twitter the online book marketing Web site freado.com has been tweeting links to some of my book marketing articles. This was so unexpected and nice that I wanted to say thank you.

How to help a new site? What about a contest to help get the word out? I offered five autographed copies of my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT if freado.com wanted to do a contest.

Vikram Narayan, CEO of freado.com, enthusiastically said yes. Then he and his marketing manager Freya came up with three contest categories – book fans, book authors, and bloggers/reviewers.

The contest – with a Memorial Day theme – started on May 10th and goes through May 25th. You can read the contest information at http://budurl.com/freadocontest . And do enter the contest if you fit one of the three categories.

Now @freado, others and I (@ZimblerMiller) are tweeting about the contest on Twitter – freado.com gets exposure and my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT gets exposure.

Definitely a win-win situation that resulted from wanting to say thank-you online.

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Bloggers: KISS — make it easy for your fans to read your posts

by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on May 12, 2009

Reprinted from Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s blog posts at the LA Internet Business Examiner.

red lips "kiss"Excluding the really famous bloggers, almost all other bloggers are 1) constantly trying to attract more readers to their blogs and 2) have these readers consistently read new posts.

There are several strategies that can be used for one or both of these objectives: SEO (search engine optimization) of the blog, contests, giveaways, links from the blogrolls of other bloggers, links from tweets in Twitter, etc.

Yet there’s one basic strategy that many of us bloggers don’t often consider:

KISS — Keep It Simple

Recently I was asked by a book marketing colleague to review a post for his own site before the post went live. He emailed that it was the most controversial post he had written so he wanted another set of eyes on it.

I read the long post – and then told him to lose the entire first page. Because he was writing predictions, he apparently felt compelled to first wander all over the landscape justifying his ideas BEFORE making the predictions.

I told him to lose the first page and start the post immediately with the predictions – because that’s what people would want to read. If they first had to wade through his meanderings, they’d never stick around long enough to get to the predictions (which were quite worthwhile).

We all tend to do this – write “intros” to our posts that go on and on before we get to the relevant information. But our blog readers have so many choices that they usually won’t stick around if we don’t immediately get to the point.

Thus it’s a good business blogging strategy to jump right into the meat of your post, say the most important points, and then add as a wrap-up at the end some additional comments if you feel compelled to do so.

And here are my additional comments for this post:

• Keep the whole post short

• Break up long paragraphs into shorter ones

• Use a font size big enough for people to read easily

• Use a blog format with columns narrow enough to make it easy for people’s eyes to track the text being read

• Use bullet points where appropriate

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Reprinted from Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s blog posts at the LA Internet Business Examiner.

Town crier metal figureCathy Stucker, whose website is www.idealady.com, has come up with a great new idea – a free site for bloggers to connect in order to ask for guest posts and to volunteer to write guest posts. Then Cathy sends out emails listing the guest posts requested and the guest posts offered.

As soon as I learned about BloggerLinkUp.com, I joined and filled out a form about what types of guest blog posts I’d like to write.

This new project is a really terrific idea because:

• If you’re a blogger, having occasional guest posts relieves you temporarily of the continuous need to write new posts.

• If you’re a guest blogger, writing a guest post gives you the opportunity to get in front of a new audience that may not know about you and what you offer.

It’s a win-win situation – so if you’re a blogger go to BloggerLinkUp.com right now and join for free.

And if you’re thinking about starting a blog, read the blogging article excerpt by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and me. And then signup for free to get the whole chapter – if I do have to say so myself, it’s filled with good advice.

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Practicing “The Secret” on Book Promotion

by Carolyn Howard-Johnson on May 10, 2009

This is a Q&A a la Ann Landers from my newsletter Sharing with Writers. I thought Fiction Marketers would especially enjoy it, so I’m reprinting it here. Anyone would like to subscribe to Sharing with Writers may do so my sending at e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to HoJoNews@aol.com.

Question:

The Secret [by Rhonda Byrne] says that one reason people’s dreams don’t come true is that they give up just before they are about to succeed. I am ready to give up. Just call me Peggy, WannaBeWriter

Answer:

I believe that people do give up too soon. Especially when it comes to promotion. It’s one reason I talk about persistence so much.

And The Secret also talks about positive energy. That’s what promotion is. It’s your best shot being put out into the universe and that sometimes (not always) takes time.

That’s not to say that at times it’s not natural to feel like giving up. Putting aside having a well-written book that hits the market at the right time, the speed of an author’s success is usually strongly influenced by its genre. That’s one of the reasons I shared all the stuff I learned when I was promoting my first novel, This Is the Place, by writing my first how-to book, The Frugal Book Promoter. Fiction–especially nonspeculative fiction–is one of the hardest genres of all to promote and I wanted others to know it could be done.

This Is the Place won its publisher’s Mille Award for marketing and sales the first year it was published but only after it almost failed for lack of promotion by the publisher and by me! And not until after I lost a really big wad of money hiring a publicist who didn’t understand using the themes and other elements in a novel to promote it!

This Is the Place is a literary novel published in 2001 (though it’s still available in the new and used book section on Amazon for about $1). I think I sold about 2,000 and even that relatively small number was sold in part because it was set in Salt Lake City and was released just before the Winter Olympics in that city.

But that timing wouldn’t have helped had I not figured out that I needed to promote it and that I was the only one with the passion to do it right. The Secret also talks about passion–only they call it bliss or joy. Once I got started I even got my novel into a couple of airport book stores.

In fact, one of the reasons that The Frugal Book Promoter sells well is that it isn’t general. It’s personal and passionate. It’s full of ideas based on my personal experience selling the hardest of all genres–poetry, short story collections, and literary fiction. I could add memoir (my next book) to that list.

The point here is that none of the three were huge successes by publishing standards. But they were by my standards. They sold well enough, I learned from writing them and promoting them, and I really relished the little successes when they came. When I couldn’t trace great results from the promotion I was doing, I kept doing it and kept adding more ways to do it.

What if I’d given up on one of those dark days when nothing seemed to be working? My world–not just my writing world but my entire world–would be a different place. Am I bragging? Damn tootin’s. I knew The Secret long before it was written. And I’m still practicing it.

I hope you will, too.

Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Also blogging at Writer’s Digest 101 Best Website picks, www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com

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If Your Fiction Isn’t on the Internet, It’s Nowhere

by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on May 10, 2009

Reprinted from Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s blog posts at the LA Internet Business Examiner.

Dead End SignIf your business is selling used first edition books or new motorcycle tires, if you’re not on the internet you don’t exist for many people – people who might be your local customers. Even if you are not yet on social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn, you must at the very minimum have your own website.

Here’s what Angela Wilson said in a May 5th post on her website www.MarketMyNovel.com:

As a virtual book tour host and book reviewer, I rely heavily on author Web sites to flesh out my reviews, or to create unique questions for a great interview. If an author has a Web site hosted on free sites like Angelfire or Webs.com, I don’t bother. If they don’t have a Web site, they aren’t serious about their writing career. It isn’t worth it to chase information when so many other authors understand the benefits of a good site. I don’t consider Facebook-only authors. Period. And I am not the only reviewer/interviewer who does so.

Is this a harsh assessment? Not in my opinion. Angela is being honest and using something as basic as one’s own website to identify the serious book authors.

And this website evaluation is often the same for people looking up local businesses. If there are two dry cleaners in your neighborhood and only one is on the internet, which one is more likely to get my business? The one whose site enables me to check the dry cleaners days and hours of operation, etc.

And if that site sends me email discount coupons, there’s probably no contest between which of the two dry cleaners I’ll use. (Yes, I’m assuming both do an equally good job of dry cleaning.)

If you don’t have a standalone website for your brand, business or book, learn as much as you can about what makes a good website (hint: it’s not pictures of sunsets unless you’re selling paintings of sunsets) and then get your own website right now.

P.S. Read my articles on web marketing and Angela Wilson’s complete blog post from which the above quote comes.

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Twitter: The Microblogging Platform That Is Deceptively Simple

by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on May 7, 2009

Reprinted from Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s blog posts at the LA Internet Business Examiner.

twitterbirdOn side-by-side treadmills at the gym today I tried once again to explain to my exercise partner how she can use Twitter to promote her new children’s picture book Too Many Visitors for One Little House.

The problem is that Twitter is deceptively simple. How did you learn all this? she asked me. It took me months, I told her, and I could probably teach a 10-week course at UCLA Extension on this.

And the truth is that I’m still learning about Twitter. I continue to read every blog post on Twitter that I can and have bought special reports and a book about Twitter. In addition, I’ve written special reports on using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for marketing books, businesses and films.

So what can I possibly write here that can help you get started on Twitter for business (with additional posts later to add more information)?

My top Twitter rules:

Sign up for Twitter only when you are ready to do this:

1. Post a photo with your brief bio.
2. Choose a good Twitter username (can be your name or business name or brand but not something goofy – try to avoid using an underline and numbers; whatever capitalization you enter the username with is the way your username will show up although people can type it with or without the capitalization).
3. Put your real name in the NAME box in the settings/account info. (Your Twitter username goes in the username box.)
4. Start slowly watching what other people tweet instead of trying to amass 1,000 followers in one day and getting kicked off Twitter for “spamming.”
5. Include a URL if you have a website.
6. Write something interesting in your brief bio instead of something goofy.
7. Tweet at least two updates as soon as you upload your photo and write your brief bio (160 characters).
8. Include your Twitter username in your email signature.

Of course there are lots more tips for using Twitter successively, but this will get you started. You can follow me to see what I do – www.twitter.com/ZimblerMiller. (If you’re a blogger, notice that some of my blogs feed automatically into my Twitter account and some of my blog posts I enter myself in the update box.)

If you have a specific Twitter question, leave it below and I’ll try to answer it in upcoming blog posts.

And no matter what anybody says (and I’ve read the naysayers, too), if – and I mean if – you learn to use Twitter correctly and effectively, you’ll come to appreciate what a genius online tool it is.

And learn more about the children’s picture book www.TooManyVisitorsforOneLittleHouse.com (website built by my company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com ).

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Are You Making It Easy for People to Share Your Blogging Posts?

by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on May 4, 2009

Reprinted from Phyllis Zimbler Miller’s blog posts at the LA Internet Business Examiner.

get-share-thisIf you’re blogging in support of your brand, book or business, then it is especially important you make it as easy as possible for your blog readers to share your posts with others. The more people who read your posts the more potential customers/clientele you have for your products and services.

Let’s look at two major errors that many bloggers are making:

• Do your readers like to print out a really great post and then get annoyed when there’s no special print option? This is especially annoying when a site visitor uses the regular print function and gets the post PLUS pages of your blogroll, ads, etc., which wastes lots of paper. Does this absence of a special print option stop many of your readers from printing out your great post to share with others?

• Do your readers want to email a post to someone and there’s no email option? Believe it or not, at the moment there’s no email option here on examiner.com. (I’ve submitted a request for this function through the examiner.com support center.)

The interesting thing is that the examiner.com has the Share This plugin (http://www.sharethis.com), which usually includes an email option. But for some reason examiner.com has opted not to include this email option.

Perhaps the examiner.com thinking goes like this: We don’t want people to just email this post to someone; we want people to share this great post on a social bookmarking site.

But many people aren’t yet on bookmarking sites. Why prevent them from emailing a great post to their friends?

(You can seen an example of the Share This plugin with the email feature included as well as an example of a special print option at www.FictionMarketing.com/blog)

If your blog is missing a special print option and/or the email option, rectify this situation immediately. And then encourage your blog readers to use these options to share your posts with others.

P.S. And if you haven’t gotten our blogging chapter yet, do so now. We’ve provided a great deal of useful information for newbie bloggers as well as more advanced bloggers.

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Publicity Hound Joan Stewart Warns of Bloggers Being Sued

by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on April 29, 2009

Joan Stewart’s weekly newsletter arrived on April 28th and my attention was immediately caught by the lead article “Bloggers, What If You’re Sued?”  In fact, this subject is not hypothetical for Joan; she actually was sued for something she wrote in her blog.

After reading the article, I clicked through to her blog post that goes into this topic further.  And then I took her advice and I’m now taking a free online course on libel and defamation so that I can hopefully pass the quiz to become a member of the Media Bloggers Association.

I thank Joan for sharing her experience with the rest of us.  And read her entire blog post yourself – it’s for your own protection.

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Getglue.com Book Marketing Tweetchat Transcript

by Phyllis Zimbler Miller on April 22, 2009

gluehomepageHere’s an edited transcript from the April 21st tweetchat. Remember to read from the bottom of this post up to the top:

ZimblerMiller Thanks to everyone who participated tonight. It was a great tweetchat!

Fraser @ZimblerMiller Thanks for hosting this. And I look forward to seeing you around the web :)

ZimblerMiller @beatccr @anniebody I’m so glad you both were here on this tweetchat. Having such users really helped the rest of us.

Fraser And make sure to follow @adaptiveblue for updates and play @glue_genie’s regular games to win free stuff (recently gave away a Kindle)

Fraser Just experience the best way to connect to the book community by adding www.getglue.com to your browser.

beatccr @ZimblerMiller lol @anniebody and I LOVE glue. i believe we’re among the top users (currently at least). It’s a great tool!

mysteries Thanks @ZimblerMiller @Fraser and everyone else. Very informative! (I guess I didn’t sit in the back of the room for very long!)

ZimblerMiller @fraser It’s 7 — any last words tonight?

Fraser @ZimblerMiller we totally agree! So do early users of Glue like @beatccr and @anniebody

ZimblerMiller @beatccr I have so much to try out. I really want to figure out the book marketing opportunities with glue.

ZimblerMiller @fraser April 20th Wall Street Journal article about how e-books will impact how people read; glue can do similar things.

beatccr @ZimblerMiller the replies version to the 2cent was the best new feature for me. it’s a fun way to communicate with others

Fraser @community think of Replies as a web-wide community around books (and this is the powerful part) across ANY popular book site

ZimblerMiller @fraser What does new version have that original version didn’t?

Fraser @ZimblerMiller we launched new version start of April. Already people love it. Here’s book blogger thoughts: http://bit.ly/jxNem

communitygirl @Fraser I’m all about community and you’re building it around books. I’m impressed with that feature. May need to interview you.

Fraser @communitygirl that’s our new connected conversations feature. Web-wide discussion about books. See how to reply: http://bit.ly/8jLl

ZimblerMiller @fraser When did glue launch?

ZimblerMiller We have about six minutes left. What else do we want to ask @fraser? And then I’m going to try out all these suggestions.

mysteries @anniebody … to promote my own review! (Which just happens to promote the author’s book.)

beatccr @communitygirl yes the replies function on the 2cents function is very cool

mysteries @anniebody Point taken. Still, I do reviews but don’t (yet) use Glue. I’m not sure I’d be offended if an author asked me …

communitygirl @Fraser Someone on getglue has responded to my 2cents on @sethgodin’s book and asked me a question. Already. I replied. Cool.

anniebody @ZimblerMiller I’d definitely add that, yeah. Sounds more friendly, & then you could convince them why Glue is awesome.

Fraser @ZimblerMiller the best way is to encourage them to get Glue from www.getglue.com/spread and add it if they don’t have it yet :)

ZimblerMiller @anniebody If I asked nicely and give you permission to say no, wouldn’t that be okay?

anniebody @mysteries would have to be convinced it’s a good idea, install it, etc. It’s a lot of work PLUS it just rubs me the wrong way.

ZimblerMiller @fraser So there’s a real advantage in getting lots of comments on glue — because it could put your book in the popular section?

ZimblerMiller @Fraser How can we tell if someone already has glue installed? The person could have glue but not on her/his blog.

ZimblerMiller @anniebody So I’ll add to my email: Would you be comfortable doing a 2cents …. with a link to your blog’s review?

anniebody @mysteries Yeah, but since I already have Glue installed I would have already put a link up, y’see? Someone who DOESN’T have Glue…

Fraser @ZimblerMiller it doesn’t do it in secret, here’s the most popular books on Glue glue://popular/books Great way to discover good stuff

ZimblerMiller Incoming links from authority sites are very good for SEO. So having links from glue to your blog would be good I would think.

mysteries @anniebody But it isn’t as if you, as a blogger, don’t benefit as well. Presumably you’d get return traffic. It should be win/win.

ZimblerMiller @anniebody A link to your own blog?

anniebody if we hadn’t already agreed upon it before. It seems kinda…intrusive? But if I was a FRIEND that’d be different, of course.

anniebody Also, as a book blogger I’d like to say that I wouldn’t appreciate authors emailing me asking me to put a link up somewhere

ZimblerMiller @Fraser Does glue secretly track which books have the most 2cents?

mysteries @beatccr Yes, but I’m thinking one could just as easily do that with 2 cents. Simplifies one’s life (just a bit).

Fraser @mysteries each book in your collection can have a link to your blog’s review for the book. Check out @beatccr’s http://bit.ly/jJ7uZ

mysteries @ZimblerMiller @Fraser mentioned collections when he was explaining “like”

Fraser @mysteries here’s a 90 sec video discussing collections: http://bit.ly/dBj80

beatccr @mysteries there are times when you just want to show that you enjoy the book/movie/actor without writing a review, just so others see it

ZimblerMiller @mysteries I don’t understand what you mean by collections.

communitygirl @ZimblerMiller Yes 2Cents. That’s the lingo for getglue right? Will have to remember that. @Fraser Thanks for the link.

mysteries Actually that’s not strictly true. I do understand collections, just not in the context of promotion.

anniebody @ZimblerMiller (butting in) Nope, there’s no negative feature to Glue.

Fraser @communitygirl 140 characters also makes it easy to share your 2cent comments to Twitter. Here’s how: http://bit.ly/qhJmv

mysteries @beatccr If like is “2 cents-lite” is there another creative use for it? I’m not sure I understand the collection concept. #glue -6:46 PM Apr 21st, 2009

ZimblerMiller In StumbleUpon you can actually hurt a post if you do thumbs up without a review. Is this true for glue also?

Fraser 90 second video discussing LIKES, COMMENTS, and REPLIES: http://bit.ly/CJVV3

ZimblerMiller @communitygirl By review do you mean 2cents?

communitygirl I just posted a review via getglue for the book Meatball Sundae by @sethgodin. I like the 140 character limit reviews.

ZimblerMiller @Fraser And there’s no review with LIKE?

beatccr @mysteries like is pretty much 2 cents, without the review

mysteries Or maybe more specifically, how does like differ from 2 cents?

Fraser @mysteries LIKE is a 1-click way to let people know that you like the book. It also saves it to your collection: http://bit.ly/oz0yk

mysteries OK @Fraser, now that we’ve discussed 2 cents, how does like work?

Fraser @communitygirl here’s a blog post that describes how authors are using Glue to promote their books: http://bit.ly/zpvU

ZimblerMiller @fraser And Glue works for CDs, DVDs, audiobooks, right? Anything else?

ZimblerMiller @mysteries I’m so going to do this. I knew there was some way to do book marketing with glue — I just couldn’t figure out how.

mysteries @ZimblerMiller That way, you both benefit. You get a book promoted more widely via the review and the reviewer gets visitors.

ZimblerMiller @fraser So if you were @communitygirl — when your book is published, how would you optimize the use of glue?

ZimblerMiller @mysteries Great — I’m using your wording.

mysteries @ZimblerMiller Right. Like a “Thanks for the review. Please visit (short URL) and leave your 2 cents with a link back to your review.”

Fraser @communitygirl Glue recognizes every book that exists on popular book sites. current list: www.getglue.com/sites

ZimblerMiller @mysteries So the link to a book blog can be hot, right?

communitygirl @Fraser So when my book publishes next month, how do I get it recognized on getglue?

ZimblerMiller @mysteries Oh, the 2cents has to come on the book’s page somewhere? Okay — a link is good.

mysteries @ZimblerMiller Yes. Something I learned tonight was that 2 cents allowed HTML.

ZimblerMiller @fraser What about putting the request on a book’s website? How would that work?

Fraser @ZimblerMiller Yes! There’s no other service that focuses on the BOOK rather than the specific website.

mysteries @ZimblerMiller Make it as easy as possible for the reviewer to do this. Provide links to Amazon or BN book page in your message.

ZimblerMiller And the book bloggers (whom I email) should like this idea because it brings traffic to their sites.

ZimblerMiller So anyone getting reviews now or on a virtual book tour should make this glue request an automatic part of her/his review pitch.

Fraser @ZimblerMiller their review left on Mrs Lieutenant will then appear for all Glue-rs when they visit the book on other popular book sites

ZimblerMiller @fraser — Good. I’ll use that graph with my email.

ZimblerMiller And link to their review of MRS. LIEUTENANT.

Fraser @ZimblerMiller there’s a great paragraph describing Glue on http://getglue.com

ZimblerMiller I’m going to email all the book bloggers who gave MRS. LIEUTENANT a really good review — and ask if they’ll do a 2cents for the book.

ZimblerMiller I’ve just had an idea for book marketing using glue. @Fraser — is there a one-paragraph glue explanation we can send people?

Fraser @ZimblerMiller you can find friends from a link on this page: http://getglue.com/help and spread Glue from www.getglue.com/spread

ZimblerMiller @Fraser This is automatic or do I have to go back to glue and say “find my friends on Facebook and Twitter”?

beatccr @ZimblerMiller on the RSS logo and enter the site you want.

ZimblerMiller For example, an author could send emails to her friends asking them to join glue and do a 2cents for her book, right?

beatccr @ZimblerMiller on your Glue profile, there’s a place you can add what sites you would like to put it on. I believe for blogs you click

Fraser @ZimblerMiller Glue uses your networks on twitter and Facebook to find your friendships on Glue. You don’t have to find the same people

ZimblerMiller @Fraser So your glue bar — the FRIENDS were from Twitter and not from glue?

Fraser An example of author on Glue: 1 comment left that appears on many sites http://bit.ly/weRZ http://bit.ly/9er6j http://bit.ly/YrMKS

mysteries @beatccr I’m getting the glue concept on books. I’m still missing something when it comes to blogs.

Fraser @communitygirl then you’ll see a filtered view – reviews from your Twitter friends will appear in Glue ahead of the other recent people

mysteries @beatccr I see how you’re using 2 cents. Do you use the like (heart) for anything?

ZimblerMiller @beatccr I could do that at www.FictionMarketing.com — how did you install?

ZimblerMiller I’m beginning to think it’s better to get friends to do 2cents reviews on Glue (and easier) than reviews on Amazon. Make sense?

communitygirl @Fraser I see the same reviews for @sethgodin’s book on B/N. What happens if I connect to my twitter friends there?

beatccr @mysteries @zimblermiller I also have the glue bar installed on my blog as well

ZimblerMiller @beatccr Since you’re advanced on glue, are there some add’l features you’d like to see?

mysteries @beatccr I see that. Good example of how you promote your site through Glue.

ZimblerMiller @beatccr Okay, I’ll study all your links you gave us here.

ZimblerMiller @fraser Let’s say I wanted to do a contest for MRS. LIEUTENANT. Could I leave a 2cents and people would learn about the contest?

beatccr @ZimblerMiller if you notice on the glue bar, and hover over my picture you see the same link to the review on my blog

Fraser @communitygirl here’s the same Seth Godin book on B&N – it’s the same Glue bar with the same people.

ZimblerMiller So I might use Glue to get noticed indirectly by reviewing other people’s books — people notice me and hopefully check out my book?

ZimblerMiller As @Fraser explained to me when we TALKED ON THE PHONE — I don’t have to go from place to place to see what he says about BOOK A.

beatccr @ZimblerMiller here is an example of a review I posted on two different sites http://bit.ly/paXSQ http://bit.ly/7y1fH

Fraser @ZimblerMiller exactly! Their review will be seen by every Glue-r regardless of what book site they visit.

Fraser @communitygirl You’ll see Glue on MANY book sites. If a friend visits BOOK A on Amazon you’ll see their review on Shelfari, LT, B&N

ZimblerMiller @fraser So if someone wants to get noticed through Glue by doing 2cents reviews — it would be the same as doing reviews on Amazon?

communitygirl I see @sethgodin’s book Tribes has 50 recent people listed.

Fraser @annibody @ZimblerMiller here are all of the sites that Glue recognizes: http://getglue.com/sites

communitygirl I just saw the getglue bar on top of the Amazon page with info about who viewed the book. Do you have to be logged in to Amazon?

ZimblerMiller @anniebody So how could I put the links to all my book’s reviews on to my book through Glue?

Fraser Here are two book bloggers talking about Glue @j_kaye http://bit.ly/FQecp and @beatccr http://bit.ly/3rG3Zd

anniebody @ZimblerMiller Right! As long as that site is registered in the Glue thingy. Like Amazon or B&N, etc.

ZimblerMiller @anniebody So anyone with the glue bar who visits BOOK A anywhere will see your 2cents and link to your review of BOOK A, right?

ZimblerMiller @anniebody — Yes, a link would be good.

mysteries @anniebody Yes, please.

anniebody @ZimblerMiller Would you like a link to one so you can see?

Fraser Example: visit this book on Amazon http://bit.ly/11EL4f + Glue will show you the same people who visited it on B&N http://bit.ly/JJ07k

ZimblerMiller @fraser Can I translate for us non-geeks? The book comments can be anywhere and yet all are visible from, say, Amazon screen.

anniebody @ZimblerMiller What I do is go to a book, do a 2cents about it (including a link to my review), & then people follow it to my blog.

ZimblerMiller @beatcor Good. I have Glue — so when I check my novel on Amazon (MRS. LIEUTENANT) I see the glue bar at the top of my screen.

Fraser Introduction: Glue recognizes the unique book you’re visiting + connects friends through the common book, regardless of the site

beatccr @ZimblerMiller yes I can tell you how I’ve used it after @fraser shows the tutorial

Fraser @miriamparker Glue recognizes specific (popular) book sites and connects friends around the same book, regardless of the site visited

anniebody @beatccr @ZimblerMiller Same here! It’s brought people to my blog, for sure.

ZimblerMiller @beatcor Can you give an example of how you use glue?

communitygirl I just installed it, now I have to restart Firefox. I’ll be right back to the tweetchat.

beatccr @ZimblerMiller I’m a book blogger and I’ve been using Glue to promote the books I’ve reviewed on my blog. It’s been really great

ZimblerMiller @fraser And will you answer @miriamparker’s question as we go along?

ZimblerMiller @fraser And then an hypothetical example of how to use glue to actually PROMOTE books.

Fraser @ZimblerMiller and then I’ll provide example links and we can take a tour and discover how Glue works and the benefits of the product. #Glue -6:06 PM Apr 21st, 2009

Fraser @ZimblerMiller Great idea! Glue is easiest understood by trying it out. If you’re on Firefox go to www.getglue.com and add Glue

miriamparker I installed glue on my other computer. I am always surprised when it pops up. Why does it only track a few sites?

ZimblerMiller @fraser Give us an example of browse popular sites. Take a specific book and let’s walk it through the process.

ZimblerMiller @Fraser — so we ADD glue to our browser and it stays there while we do other things, right?

Fraser Glue is a product of @adaptiveblue (@alexiskold is CEO/Founder)

Fraser @ZimblerMiller www.getglue.com is a browser addon that works
automatically as you browse popular sites about books

ZimblerMiller It’s 6 in LA so I’m going to start by introducing Fraser — the getglue.com expert.

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