Expanding Your Audience Through Self-Promotion - Six Tips

Hi everyone. Yes, I am still alive. This post is going to be a little different from my previous ones because I'm combining yet another update with some tips and resources for self-promotion.
First comes the update part. I've just created my profile and first gig on a website called Fiverr, which allows people to sell their skills (such as writing and art) as "gigs". Basically you promise to complete a task within a certain timeframe for a certain cost, include descriptions and variations on your gig "package", and then upload it to the site. People looking for someone to complete a task similar to the one you uploaded as your gig can search and find your gig and hire you to complete said task. If you're an observant follower you'll see that there is a shiny new link badge in the sidebar leading to my Fiverr profile. If you're interested in starting to do a bit of freelancing, you may want to check Fiverr out.
Now a litle blurb on self promotion and what to do. Running this blog has given me the most experience with self-promo, and I have a few tips for you if you're wanting to expand your audience.

1. If you are running a blog, respond to comments.
This is one surprisingly few people do. Just take ten or fifteen minutes once a week to check your emails and see what comments have been left on your blog. Then, respond to them. All of them. Even if all you can think of to say is "Thanks for reading!" It shows that you're interested in interacting with your audience and also opens you up to being asked questions or for your opinions and advice. I've had several people ask my advice about their writing through comments threads, gotten into discussions about cliches in popular movies and books in comment threads, and also had people shoot down examples to points I made in my post. It can be difficult to respond to comments sometimes, but put in the effort and it really makes a difference.

2. Interconnect your social media accounts.
And by that I mean, provide links and buttons to your other social media accounts, online shops, webpages, blogs, facebook pages, etc. on ALL of those said pages and accounts. You don't want any account or shop or page which has anything to do with your online publicity isolated. Connect everything so that the audiences you accumulate through one account don't just stay stuck at that one account. Get them to explore your Facebook page, or your blog, or your Etsy shop, or your Pinterest. Allow people to explore you.
Now, I wouldn't reccommend linking your personal Facebook profile to all your public accounts and letting everyone see your private life. If you want to involve Facebook, I'd create a page for your followers to interact with you on instead. That keeps your personal information safer and keeps your accounts focused on whatever you are promoting and not your personal life.

3. PROMOTE. SHARE BUTTONS ARE USEFUL.
When I first started up this blog, I checked the self-promo rules of the Facebook writing groups I was part of and then shared whatever new posts I had during the weekends, when self-promo was permitted. I shared to my groups and my personal profile on Facebook, pinned my new posts to my Pinterest account as soon as the post was published, and shared new posts on Google+. Facebook got me started, since I was already part of several groups which had interest in my blog topic of creative writing. But once the blog was up and running, Pinterest became the website that brought the most readers into my blog. I started seeing my blog posts popping up in my own newsfeed because I'd followed people from the Facebook writing groups, they had followed me, and they were circulating my posts to the point where I'd see some of my more popular posts pop up three or four times in my newsfeed. I got curious one day and searched my post popular post at the time on Pinterest and got about thirty or forty results for people who had pinned the post! For a beginning blog that isn't too bad.

4. For blog posts, include title images in every major post.
This post doesn't have one because I don't have the time nor do I expect this post to be popular, BUT, if you noticed, all my posts from back when I was publishing new posts regularly had an image with the post title on it. I copied that idea from the blog The Write Practice, because it made the posts look so much more clean, professional . . . and shareable. Text won't capture the attention of potential readers just browsing through the internet on it's own. It needs the help of visuals. What I would do was search for images I could use on Google (make sure to check the copyrights!) or a website called Unsplash, a site that has hundreds of images free to use without worry about copyright. Then go use a program such as PicMonkey to spruce the photo up with special effects, banners, stickers, and a title. I personally also always included in smaller text the url to my bog's home page so people could find my blog if clicking through the image on Pinterest wasn't working. If you're going to do that, make sure you are consistent with your font and that it is easily readable.

5. Create a brand.
Your displayed name/username as well as any displayed picture associated with your accounts and websites needs to be consistent if you want to be recognizable. This is as simple as choosing a single clear picture of yourself or, if you have a little experience in digital art, creating a logo for yourself. I'm admittedly still working on this as I didn't try to bring all of my accounts together until recently and some places won't let me change my public name.

6. Socialize online with some people who are interested in whatever you are trying to promote. 
For me that is writing (no duh). My involvement in several Facebook writing groups, my connections to other writers over Pinterest, and my active commenting on other writer's blogs (NOT just leaving a comment with a link to my own blog in it! Say something about their post!) made me part of a writer community. Spreading yourself around will also spread what you're trying to promote around. Even if you're an introvert . . .you can do ALL of your socializing for this nowadays online. You don't even have to open your mouth to talk. Just be involved.

That's it for my self-promo tips. A lot of them are pretty common, so if you have any other tips for expending your audience, leave them in the comments!

Making a Fiction Timeline

I'm talking about timelines for your current WIP, by the way - not the timelines you made with a scissor and gluestick in elementary school.
Why would anyone make a timeline for their novel, though? What is the point of it?
Okay. Do you ever find yourself going back over your draft with a calculator, wondering how long it has been since Johnny left home with nothing but a sandwich in his pocket and a half-filled canteen clipped to his belt? You have to figure out if he'd be dead from starvation by now, but you have no clue how long it's been since the wolf attacked, since he lost the stockpile of berries he gathered in the river, or since his canteen sprung a leak during the rock slide. Maybe you have some vague idea. But every time you need to figure out how much time has passed you have to whip out a calculator or take notes while rereading over the last few chapters.
A timeline solves all this. All the events of your novel get put into a easy-to-read format so you can easily see when everything happened. No more rereading your chapters just to figure out if little Johnny should be dead by now (most of my character should probably be dead by now regardless of time frame, but that is beside the point).
So how do you go about making a timeline? There are a few ways, depending on your resources and preferences.

The first is the simplest. You make a list of all the events in the book that you want to be able to remember - plot points, phases of the moon, chapter lengths, etc. - and then write down the time and date next to it. You could use plain paper, index cards, or a word processing program (which allows for easier info changing).
I like organization and detail, so I'd spice it up by creating several columns of information, including name of event, character point of view, start time, end time, and maybe which characters were involved. You could use plain paper or index cards (one for each event) on rings.
You could do the same thing in a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel, which allows for limitless columns. Going digital, obviously, makes it a lot easier to change the information repeatedly as your novel progresses.

Even more tech-savvy is using a online timeline program. One program I know of, Tiki-Toki, allows people to create one timeline for free or multiple timelines with a premium account. It can be exported to a printable format and the timeline never expires. You just need a username and password to access it. What is nice about programs specifically for timelines is that you can add additional information likes notes on the event, character arc, labels, and more. You can also adjust the zoom to display varying amounts of time. The problem with Tiki-Toki is that events are not displayed according to their length (e.g. an event taking up three hours will only have an indicator the same size as an event which takes fives seconds).

A screenshot of the timeline I made using the online program Tiki-Toki.

Lastly you can buy a timeline program for your computer. Aeon Timeline is what I use and I love it. Events display according to their length so you can compare lengths of events and see if they overlap.  For speculative fiction novelists, you can create your own calendar with different year lengths, month lengths, etc. There are also several "normal" calendar settings to choose from. You can create character arcs and easily track which characters, organizations, and places were present or involved with each event. Various viewing settings allow you to filter events that are displayed or seperate events by arc. Additionally, if you have Scrivener Aeon can sync with it. Just like Tiki-Toki, the zoom can be adjusted and it can be exported. Aeon actually has better export options, with more formats and better layout. Particpants and winners of NaNoWriMo have had discounts on Aeon available to them the last two years (it's how I got the program).

A screenshot of the timeline I made AFTER the Tiki-Toki one using Aeon. The Relationship View at the bottom portion indicates who was participating in an event or observing, while the divisions at left split events up by arc. Both are optional views.

Of these methods I have used all, bur I quickly abandoned a simple list format and found Tiki-Toki. Then I found Aeon and never went back. It's the most convenient method and also the best designed. It is also the most expensive, but it isn't too bad with the NaNoWriMo discount.
Making a timeline has made it so much easier for me to keep track of the events in my stories. I now consider it a integral part of my planning process and keep my timeline up on my laptop when writing

What about you? Do you use timelines? How do you make them?

Recommendation: "The Art of SpeedReading People"

This post is not on the usual Tuesday. But this is not a usual post.

Turns out I should have left that post on Myers-Briggs & Characters until this Tuesday. I received a book I'd been waiting for in the mail yesterday which would have added some content to that post. The book? The Art of SpeedReading People: How to Size People Up and Speak Their Language by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger. This book basically goes over the Myers-Briggs Theory and tells you how you can determine people's types and then use that information to better communicate with them. I'm only one chapter in and I'm fascinated.
As I was reading the overview of the different functions (Introversion, Extroversion, Sensing, iNtuition, Thinking, Feeling, Perceiving, & Judging) and the questions the text asks you in order to determine your own type, I thought "Wow. I wish I'd had this when I wrote that post on Tuesday, because these questions are perfect for determining your characters' types." It seemed especially useful if you're the kind of person who finds it hard to get accurate results from an internet test.
I wish I could copy out that list of questions here, but alas, I must abide by copyright laws. I don't want to step on any toes. But for those of you who are interested in figuring out your characters' types, or just interesting in MBTI in general, check out this book.
I have nothing more to say. Go forth.