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How To Monetize Your Blog 101 - Lesson 12 - Electronic Press Kits

My musical gal pal Alicia Anderson Brown wrote an inspirational book and published it on Lulu.com but now being an author has her all discombobulated (LOL). 

Ever start a side hustle only to discover in dismay that the business endeavor leaves you bewildered, befuddled, frustrated and flustered? Sometimes new authors get so excited about writing their books that they don't think about the ramifications of publishing that puppy.

One ramification one must never neglect is audience participation because consumers have expectations... especially if they become fans of your work.

Fans expect to learn more about you and your projects. They will assume there will be more projects forthcoming because fans invest their time, energy and money into the people, places and things they enjoy. Consumers expect to have something to consume (so you must give it to them - LOL). Not building your brand with the things they want to enjoy (e.g. more of your work) will disappoint them and eventually cause them to move on to someone more willing to fill the entertainment void you've theoretically inadvertently left in their hearts because you failed to plan a strategy to maintain structure and order in your virtual portfolio while building a virtual house to showcase it in.

If you are going to distribute work you must have an Electronic Press Kit.

There has to be someplace someone can go to get the official skinny on what you are doing with who, where, when and how. According to Wikipedia "An EPK usually takes the form of a website or e-mail, though they are also known to exist in CD and DVD form."

If you are a music band ArtistPromo.com ReverbNation.com and SonicBids.com can help you set one up. I like them. They're pretty painless compared to a few others I looked into and tried (LOL).

If you are a writer there are millions of websites to choose from so Google that puppy.

EPK-ElectronicPressKit.com has some good advice on the subject,"One of the fundamental rules of Web site design is to avoid annoying your visitors. This is especially important if your object is to get favorable response. People these days are always pressed for time. Your Electronic Press Kit or Web site should make fining the information extremely easy."

If you would like a nice explanation regarding "the advantages of an electronic press kit versus its “old school” hard-copy predecessor" then click the link for a free 3 page PDF by Merilee Kern, On-line Marketing Consultant, Kern Communications. To quote Merilee, "...e-mailing a clearly branded press kit is fast, easy and convenient for all parties involved, and the digital documents can be easily shared among colleagues at each end of the spectrum. The interactive nature of a digitized press kit also allows public relations/marketing communications professionals to embed hotlinks within the content that links the media professional directly to desired pages of the company’s Web site and/or other documentation offered online, which is an inherent, highly valuable benefit."

Marketing and PR by Suite 101 on Components on an Electronic Press Kit: "An electronic press kit should contain all the elements of a traditional press kit. This cost effective promotion tool should include search engine optimized press releases, company background information, question and answer sheet, staff or founder biography, business time-line, company fact sheets and any relevant brochures." Doing this is easier than a lot of you think. You can do this. All you have to do is try.

You will still need printed literature for your traditional press kits to send out your press releases, product samples for review and choice of visuals plus the discs for the newspapers and magazine to upload the files if they decide to print and/or review your products which is why it's important to coordinate your efforts between the brick and mortar packages vs virtual world downloads. The consumer, inclusive of the main stream media, will have personal preferences regarding how they want to receive their media about you. Whether CD or book signing, people will walk away with your fliers and postcards to see what else you've got cooking for them.

Once individuals invest in becoming your fan those same people generally embrace the virtual relationship that dictates their enthusiasm for your body of creativity. If no one knows how creative you are then what's the friggin' point? ;-)

Before I go I'm going to introduce you guys to the writings of NY Times Bestselling author Kim Harrison because I've read every single book and crave lots and lots more. My writing mentors made me do it on a dare and it took 4 weeks, 3 days, 6 hours of staying up late to do it (yes, when I get homework I'm anal that way - LOL). As a new fan I am hopelessly addicted (and bet you will get addicted too - ulterior motive alert - LOL). If you check out the following links you'll see what I mean about electronic press kits and social media websites being fun when writers interact with their fans and coordinate across websites. ;-)

Wanna have some fun? Go read Kim... in order (chicka has me rooting for a friggin' vamp in love with a witch - seriously - LOL). ;-)

Remember that good advice is harder to find than money...

My title is actually a quote from Penelope Trunk.

You can find it as item number four in her post entitled, "Get your next mentor by being slightly annoying."

Seriously... that's really the title... I'm not being facetious here... With a title like that how could you not read it? I was tempted the moment I saw the link. You have to admit that's a brilliant bit of word mastery that tickles the curiosity and makes one really tempted to take the bait.

Come on... you know you want to click that career advice link (LOL)

Turns out to be really good business advice because if you read my blog you know how annoying I can get (and become). Everything is a two way street with me and being a blunt person means I am liable to say just about anything. In this case, think of it as an exercise in equal opportunity shenanigans for the uninitiated (LOL). ;-)

In sum and substance here's some of what I learned today while lunching in Starbucks giggling over PT's get a mentor advice. I quote:

1. Don’t be discouraged by lack of response.

2. Find the person’s weakness, so you know where you can help him.

3. Be real. No one wants to mentor someone who is perfect.

4. Remember that good advice is harder to find than money.

5. In the end, you want the mentor to care about you as a person.

If the brief outline catches your eye then click the above link and go read her post to find out all the interesting stories you're missing under those headers.

Penelope also has a related post entitled, "Job hunt tip: The mentor matters more than the company," that's an excellent read. She talks about her writing mentor Jim and has inspired me to high-jack poor Emelia to test a few of my book chapters on before I e-mail my editor.

Penelope's advice may help some of you with your blogging habits as well. I'll leave you with a teaser quote to ponder before I go to Brooklyn on my photography session with Emmy:

"Read something you wrote out loud to a friend. If it's bad, you'll feel right away that boredom has overcome the room. If you have even one flat sentence, you hear it when you read it out loud. The first time Jim heard me read my writing, he said it was the best he’d heard anyone read in his class in a long time. Then he slashed everything I wrote for the next six years. Sometimes I'd hand in three pages of writing and he'd leave only five sentences. But this is the thing about those five sentences: they were great. And here's why I became a dedicated follower: Because I felt like he understood my compulsive need to write my life. And I understood his goal, which was to have interesting sentences. So when he cut full paragraphs that I thought were important because my sentences were boring, I felt grateful that he saved me from banality." - Penelope Trunk

I am going to get me a writing mentor...

I am going to annoy someone into mentoring me.

I will try to do this with less than 15 e-mails... which should be very interesting (LOL). What is the point of getting good advice if you don't take it, eh? ;-)

How To Sell Your Creative Writing And Monetize Your Blog

I spent the day creating hot links in my PDF newsletter. I like to link back to my blogs (and a few businesses that I enjoy) while wondering which friends I am going to high-jack for interviews. I need to do a minimum of 24 during the interim of 2010. Two per month are very do-able. You have 20 days to get each one done, so do at least one page a day.Your deadlines will depend upon which digital press you decide to use if you are going to create print publications. You will still need a schedule if you are only concerned with digital downloads of your work. Your e-mail distribution needs to be on a regular schedule or your readers will abandon you for a more consistent writer.

The cool thing about creating a PDF newsletter is the fact that anyone can do it. It is just as easy as writing a blog post and you can even use your old blog posts in there if you re-edit and update it into something more relevant and timely LINKING BACK to the original post. People enjoy blogs that learn and grow and a newsletter can show off the evolution of a writer if you do it right. It will bring some of your best writing back into the forefront of their minds because your hot links will send the reader where you want them to go.

If you didn't write it, do NOT touch another writer's work. This is YOUR project concerning your writing and it is an opportunity to showcase your talent while making some money with a PDF e-Publication because (1) you can offer a subscription service that (a) links back to all your stuff and (b) links back to the people who pay you for advertising there AND (2) If your readers share your PDF with their friends after they purchase it from you (a) it's free advertising for your brand and (b) it may lead to more subscribers and people contacting you about advertising fees.

My third point? You can submit your PDF as a file for a digital printer to produce your magazine from if you build it up to enough pages. Hard copy circulations make you one step closer to becoming an editor and/or journalist. If you have talented friends, now would be a good time to get them writing for you. Do something new for 2010. Monetize your blog.

People contact me by e-mail all the time regarding advertising on my sites and within the pages of my PDF. I say NO more often than not because I only want advertisements that fit my quirky disposition and/or are from businesses that I actually like and use. If life is sacred to you why would you accept an ad from an abortion clinic? If you are a mortgage broker, why would you accept an ad from another competitor?

If you are going to make a newsletter and/or magazine you need to decide from day one what type of advertisements you will and wont accept. Reserve the right to say no and just say, "No, thank you..." without a lot of fan fare or elaborate conversations. I would rather create a free ad because I like something rather than accept an ad that I am uncomfortable with because they offer money.

Go make a practice PDF. If you own MS Office 2007 it has a "Create PDF" button so you have no excuse not to create them. If you don't own any software that creates PDFs you may want to rethink that and invest in a Microsoft or Adobe purchase. Once you do, you can save your current blog content and reformat that puppy into electronic book form. Creating eBooks can create multiple streams of revenue for you. Try it. You may discover that you like it. :-)

If you don't own the 89th Annual Edition of the 2010 Writer's Market, you may want to invest in that as well. You will need someplace to send your writing, eh?