1. Why 50 posts? Daily bloggers who write a few sentences will get there in two months, but someone who blogs 2 or 3 times a week will not reach 50 for 5 or 6 months. Does that make a blogger less serious or not worth our consideration? What is the rationale behind 50?
2. If an author has more than one book, why are we limiting them to only one? It makes it seem as if space is an issue, but is it? The beauty of a web site is that there’s no printing, no trees, no expense, right?
3. Will the page be organized by author’s last name? By genre? Or how will members find each other’s books/blogs?
I’d be happy to feature a blog or a book a month in Write Angles. That is, I could assign someone to interview the member/writer. Would that be helpful?
1. I set 50 posts as a minimum to demonstrate an author that is seriously marketing his or her work. Serious authors will Blog until he or she has more than a thousand posts that focus on the platform being developed. A Blogger that posts a few times a year is not serious. However, setting the limit at a 1,000 is too much to ask for.
You are right about the few sentences. I suggest that all of the posts must be more than 100 words and demonstrate a common topic/theme that represents a Platform Blog designed to support a theme or an author’s work depending on how the work defines the theme.
A Blog that has a few posts is not going to attract much of an audience since there are more than 250 million Websites and Blogs (numbers that are growing daily) competing for search engine rank. A serious author should start four months to a year before publishing a book to build a platform, search engine rank and an audience for that book when it is published.
A serious Blogger that isn’t an author should be posting three to five times a week (slow track) or three to five times a day (fast track).
2. The author page will be designed to introduce member authors/writers with links to his or her Website/Blog where the authors work should be on display. The CWC BB Website/Blog is not a marketing tool for the author but a list of our members with links leading to the marketing tool, which should be the Website/Blog dedicated to building a platform that supports the author. Without a proper individual platform, the odds are against the author developing a loyal fan base.
For a win-win situation, the author should link back to the CWC BB Website home page where his or her one book and links will be found. These links help build page rank in search engines such as Google for both the CWC BB and the author’s sites.
3. My thinking is to develop several pages (maybe one for each author) with a link on the CWC BB homepage that leads to two menus: one that is alphabetical by author and the other divided into non-fiction and fiction with the genres for each category leading to a cooperative page that lists all authors that fit in a particular genre with links to the author’s Website/Blog.
I think this is a good way to showcase our authors who are published and/or planning to publish/self-publish in the next year or so. This would be a nice benefit for members who need and want to promote their work. This highlighting of our authors might draw people to our site and pique the interest of potential members.
I am wondering if, at some point, the blog or perhaps the posting of an excerpt/sample of a published essay/article/op-ed/poem, etc. might be an option for our members who do not have a book published or even a book on the horizon but who would like to get some exposure and perhaps begin building a platform for a possible book release down the road.
I’m wondering how this might be handled so that no one person (for now, Lloyd) would have to do all the work. That can wait for a later discussion. For now, I vote to implement this new feature.
As to Tanya’s suggestion to feature an author and their book/blog in Write Angles, that is also a good idea. Writers need places to display their work, and that is another option to consider. If we go ahead with that idea, I would be willing to take a turn and interview a blogger/author. Actually, I think it would be good to invite various members to take a turn and interview other members.
On the tech side, Lloyd, why do we need a different password for each new subject? Is that to keep track of the topics we are discussing? I noticed that I needed the password yesterday to see the discussion but today when I clicked on the link in the email you sent yesterday, I was brought to this screen and did not need to use the password. Does that mean you only need to use the password the first time and after that you automatically come to the discussion page?
“As to Tanya’s suggestion to feature an author and their book/blog in Write Angles, that is also a good idea. Writers need places to display their work, and that is another option to consider. If we go ahead with that idea, I would be willing to take a turn and interview a blogger/author. Actually, I think it would be good to invite various members to take a turn and interview other members.”
All good ideas. Thank you for suggesting them
Good idea. After the author/Blogger pages are built, we could start a series of interviews where one member author/Blogger interviews another member author/Blogger.
Those interviews would be posted on this site with Q/A if any readers wanted to ask the interviewer or author questions. Then Tanya could lift an entire interview for each issue of the Newsletter and copy it. Eventually, we would have an interview for each author/Blogger member with more links going to both the interviewer and the interviewee. A link to the interview would also be added to each author/Blogger’s listing.
And if the interviewer hasn’t started a Blog or published anything yet, he or she would be able to gain credit for hosting the interview.
A true win-win situation where we are also spreading the wealth. Then each author and/or interviewer may link to the interview from his or her Website/Blog. The more links, the better for search engine rank for everyone including the CWC BB.
As for why you didn’t have to sign in the second time, I have no answer. When I returend a second time, I had to sign in then another time I didn’t. I don’t understand what is going on with the password.
The reason I suggested a different password for each board FORUM topic is because if we use only one password and it gets out, which it probably will, there will be people that do not belong to the board dropping by to snoop and we won’t be free to express ourselves inside the privacy of the board.
Also, there may be discussions that will be for the executive board only and other discussions open to the entire membership then others open to everyone–nonmembers included, which would require no password.
The best way to keep track of passwords is to copy them and keep a CWC BB file. Then you only have to copy and paste the correct password into the proper private FORUM topic to read it.
I do not know what the options are yet with the WordPress theme selected for this site, but we should be able to add menus as we build the site so viewers will be able to navigate easily to topics of interest. If this theme doesn’t allow us to add easy-to-find menus, we may decide to select another theme that will, which is the reason I selected a theme for the marketing Blog that allowed for menus down the left hand side.
I plan to make it easy for viewers to find the author pages in more than one way. Hopefully, this theme will allow me to.
I concur with the thoughts and questions that have been asked and expressed so far. I have no insights or questions to add. I vote to include th feature on our site. I also vote to include author interviews in Write Angles. In both cases, I think we should be mindful of how or if we wish to expand the offering later.
allevenson 02/07/2011 (1:23 pm)
I am glad to see Lloyd has taken the initiative to solve our website problems. AL
Lloyd Lofthouse 02/07/2011 (1:51 pm)
Thank you. I discovered that Matt added me as an administrator in the last 24 hours.
tanya grove 02/07/2011 (6:45 pm)
I have a few picky questions:
1. Why 50 posts? Daily bloggers who write a few sentences will get there in two months, but someone who blogs 2 or 3 times a week will not reach 50 for 5 or 6 months. Does that make a blogger less serious or not worth our consideration? What is the rationale behind 50?
2. If an author has more than one book, why are we limiting them to only one? It makes it seem as if space is an issue, but is it? The beauty of a web site is that there’s no printing, no trees, no expense, right?
3. Will the page be organized by author’s last name? By genre? Or how will members find each other’s books/blogs?
I’d be happy to feature a blog or a book a month in Write Angles. That is, I could assign someone to interview the member/writer. Would that be helpful?
Lloyd Lofthouse 02/07/2011 (7:31 pm)
Tanya,
1. I set 50 posts as a minimum to demonstrate an author that is seriously marketing his or her work. Serious authors will Blog until he or she has more than a thousand posts that focus on the platform being developed. A Blogger that posts a few times a year is not serious. However, setting the limit at a 1,000 is too much to ask for.
You are right about the few sentences. I suggest that all of the posts must be more than 100 words and demonstrate a common topic/theme that represents a Platform Blog designed to support a theme or an author’s work depending on how the work defines the theme.
A Blog that has a few posts is not going to attract much of an audience since there are more than 250 million Websites and Blogs (numbers that are growing daily) competing for search engine rank. A serious author should start four months to a year before publishing a book to build a platform, search engine rank and an audience for that book when it is published.
A serious Blogger that isn’t an author should be posting three to five times a week (slow track) or three to five times a day (fast track).
2. The author page will be designed to introduce member authors/writers with links to his or her Website/Blog where the authors work should be on display. The CWC BB Website/Blog is not a marketing tool for the author but a list of our members with links leading to the marketing tool, which should be the Website/Blog dedicated to building a platform that supports the author. Without a proper individual platform, the odds are against the author developing a loyal fan base.
For a win-win situation, the author should link back to the CWC BB Website home page where his or her one book and links will be found. These links help build page rank in search engines such as Google for both the CWC BB and the author’s sites.
3. My thinking is to develop several pages (maybe one for each author) with a link on the CWC BB homepage that leads to two menus: one that is alphabetical by author and the other divided into non-fiction and fiction with the genres for each category leading to a cooperative page that lists all authors that fit in a particular genre with links to the author’s Website/Blog.
Madelen L 02/08/2011 (11:46 pm)
I think this is a good way to showcase our authors who are published and/or planning to publish/self-publish in the next year or so. This would be a nice benefit for members who need and want to promote their work. This highlighting of our authors might draw people to our site and pique the interest of potential members.
I am wondering if, at some point, the blog or perhaps the posting of an excerpt/sample of a published essay/article/op-ed/poem, etc. might be an option for our members who do not have a book published or even a book on the horizon but who would like to get some exposure and perhaps begin building a platform for a possible book release down the road.
I’m wondering how this might be handled so that no one person (for now, Lloyd) would have to do all the work. That can wait for a later discussion. For now, I vote to implement this new feature.
As to Tanya’s suggestion to feature an author and their book/blog in Write Angles, that is also a good idea. Writers need places to display their work, and that is another option to consider. If we go ahead with that idea, I would be willing to take a turn and interview a blogger/author. Actually, I think it would be good to invite various members to take a turn and interview other members.
On the tech side, Lloyd, why do we need a different password for each new subject? Is that to keep track of the topics we are discussing? I noticed that I needed the password yesterday to see the discussion but today when I clicked on the link in the email you sent yesterday, I was brought to this screen and did not need to use the password. Does that mean you only need to use the password the first time and after that you automatically come to the discussion page?
Lloyd Lofthouse 02/09/2011 (8:37 am)
“As to Tanya’s suggestion to feature an author and their book/blog in Write Angles, that is also a good idea. Writers need places to display their work, and that is another option to consider. If we go ahead with that idea, I would be willing to take a turn and interview a blogger/author. Actually, I think it would be good to invite various members to take a turn and interview other members.”
All good ideas. Thank you for suggesting them
Good idea. After the author/Blogger pages are built, we could start a series of interviews where one member author/Blogger interviews another member author/Blogger.
Those interviews would be posted on this site with Q/A if any readers wanted to ask the interviewer or author questions. Then Tanya could lift an entire interview for each issue of the Newsletter and copy it. Eventually, we would have an interview for each author/Blogger member with more links going to both the interviewer and the interviewee. A link to the interview would also be added to each author/Blogger’s listing.
And if the interviewer hasn’t started a Blog or published anything yet, he or she would be able to gain credit for hosting the interview.
A true win-win situation where we are also spreading the wealth. Then each author and/or interviewer may link to the interview from his or her Website/Blog. The more links, the better for search engine rank for everyone including the CWC BB.
As for why you didn’t have to sign in the second time, I have no answer. When I returend a second time, I had to sign in then another time I didn’t. I don’t understand what is going on with the password.
The reason I suggested a different password for each board FORUM topic is because if we use only one password and it gets out, which it probably will, there will be people that do not belong to the board dropping by to snoop and we won’t be free to express ourselves inside the privacy of the board.
Also, there may be discussions that will be for the executive board only and other discussions open to the entire membership then others open to everyone–nonmembers included, which would require no password.
The best way to keep track of passwords is to copy them and keep a CWC BB file. Then you only have to copy and paste the correct password into the proper private FORUM topic to read it.
bjgilvar 02/09/2011 (11:41 am)
My concern is that it be useful to members or visitors to the site. Too much info will dissuade some viewers. Organizing by categories is key.
I think it is a good idea. Some people in the latest orientation meeting asked about published authors.
Lloyd Lofthouse 02/09/2011 (1:32 pm)
Barbara Gilvar,
I do not know what the options are yet with the WordPress theme selected for this site, but we should be able to add menus as we build the site so viewers will be able to navigate easily to topics of interest. If this theme doesn’t allow us to add easy-to-find menus, we may decide to select another theme that will, which is the reason I selected a theme for the marketing Blog that allowed for menus down the left hand side.
I plan to make it easy for viewers to find the author pages in more than one way. Hopefully, this theme will allow me to.
clifford hui 02/10/2011 (12:11 pm)
I concur with the thoughts and questions that have been asked and expressed so far. I have no insights or questions to add. I vote to include th feature on our site. I also vote to include author interviews in Write Angles. In both cases, I think we should be mindful of how or if we wish to expand the offering later.
Lloyd Lofthouse 02/10/2011 (8:26 pm)
Clifford,
I agree. In both cases we should be mindful of how we expand and take it slow. Thank you for your thoughts.