Writing Wednesday

A day later.

I was born a month late and nothing has changed since then.

As I mentioned previously I signed up for an online class about blogging called Write It Forward-Building Your Author Brand. With no surprise I found out I could be blogging better. I knew somethings weren’t where they needed to be but others I didn’t. Now I get to have fun fixing it.

The class is sponsored by Bob Mayer’s Write it Forward. There is one held every month with a different topic taught by him, Jennifer Holbrook-Talty or in this month’s case Kristin Lamb.  I’ve decided I want to take a couple more of the classes and look forward to them.

http://www.whodareswinspublishing.com/WIF_Workshops.html

Taking a class through Yahoo is a little different and new to me. I was late starting (no surprise here) so getting caught up and understanding how it worked was a bit of a drag but once I figured it out things went smoother.

Bob Mayer has a great blog and I love his concept: Write it Forward. Very much in line with Holly Lisle’s vision he shares what he knows and encourages others to write. So I recommend his site. He has a lot of knowledge and you learn things.

Besides the guy wrote the Area 51 books, a series I happened to like. He’s also funny or he wouldn’t be writing with Jennifer Crusie who writes very funny books. Come on, give him a try.

http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/

Kristen Lamb has changed my views about blogging. I’ve enjoyed her class and because it’s gone so well it’s been extended into April. Yay. She has a unique view about writers promoting themselves. Author branding she calls it. She illustrates her concept by using cowbells. Confused? It’s ok. I was too until I read her blog:

http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/more-blogging-cowbell/#comment-5992

Kristen’s energetic and fun to read. She turns the whole social media thing upside down, takes totally different ideas and ties them together. A good example:

 http://amyshojai.com/

Amy’s blog was spiffed up during the class. I’m actually going to link her and the others to my blog here soon while I’m working on the concepts I’ve learned.  Just learning about Amy’s blog was worth the money because as anyone who knows me knows-I got animals. And I’ve added some. We’ll talk I promise.

Here’s some more revamped or put up during the class:

http://dtrasler.com/

http://tiffanyawhite.wordpress.com/

http://www.thesurvivalmama.com/

http://daniellemeitiv.com/

If you go to these blogs you’ll notice they all have their names prominantly in the blog. Most of these have their own domain name so they were able to change their blogs to reflect this or if it was new then create it that way. This is something Kristen teaches will help to create author brand.

I don’t think I’m going to change my site name but I will be adding a tag line with my name in it prominantly, I’m still cringing a bit about that but she’s right.

Did you notice something else? I’m keeping my paragraphs shorter. This is something else Kristen teaches and I will be following that to the letter or er, paragraph.

I am going to get her book –We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media– and keep up with her website. She’s interesting and I’ve got to say I’m hooked on cowbells now.

Absolutely can not close this out without posting this hysterical video. Thanks to Kristen for sharing on her site:

Peace.

Oh. I forgot. Next Wednesday? We’ll talk about Stellarcon and the awesome writers I met there.