For those who haven't already figured this out, this blog was initially meant as a marketing technique to get people to buy my books. As a marketing technique, I wouldn't recommend it, as book sales have remained as they always have - slow but steady.
However, as a means of keeping ones thoughts sorted while possibly helping someone else to avoid similar pitfalls, a blog is, indeed, top notch.
Take, for example, a recent experience with Yellow Pages online.
For months now, I've seen advertisements in my Facebook news feed. YP has been advertising a FREE ad, very basic, mind, but FREE nonetheless. I had been to the YP page several times, but kept running out of time before I finished researching.
I finally got to their page with plenty of time last week and clicked the right button to bring me to the page where one puts in all the information. They offer 5 categories for your ad, and I filled in for 5 things that Northern Bard Publications is offering. I clicked the "done" button and, after several days, started taking peeks at YP online to see if Northern Bard was showing yet.
Then I got a phone call from one of the YP salespeople. For a nominal fee, Northern Bard Publications could be GUARANTEED to appear on the first page of the searches that I had put us in for. Overtired, lacking coffee, and trying to get off the phone to get ready for my shift at work, I told the person on the other end of the line that I had to speak with my business partners (aka my "co-conspirators", as they keep referring to themselves) to see if any of us had the amount anywhere in reserve, as the book sales wouldn't support the monthly fee, no matter how nominal. I took his number to call him back.
My biggest mistake was to NOT let him "show" me what a difference the monthly fee would make, according to the lady we lovingly call our "finance director" (although her primary line to keep myself and the art director under control is to say "We can't afford that right now. Maybe if sales pick up."). She suggested that I go back over to YP and see where, exactly, Northern Bard Publications falls in the categories I put us in for.
Now, as I was told eons ago by my then-publisher, "One has really made it online if one appears on the first page of a search".
I searched "Publishers in Gray, Maine".
Northern Bard, because there are very few publishing companies in the state of Maine in general and only ONE in the actual town of Gray, came up as number 1. It's rather nice when one has no competition to deal with, right?
I searched "Web Site Design & Services", as I've been taking care of the web site, The Northern Bard, since I was badly damaged in a work related incident and had nothing to stimulate my mind for about two months. Northern Bard Publications comes up as number 2 in this category, second only to a service that is also in Gray.
I searched "Editorial and Publication Services". Northern Bard Publications came up as number 6 behind 5 other companies from other places that state "serving the Gray area"....but it's still on the first page and, once again, the only such company in the actual town of Gray.
Book and Catalog Covers also lists us as number 1. This one should make the art director feel especially good, as we are, once again, the only one in town.
Writers has the number 6 spot behind several other locals who have been at this longer than I.
Unable to reach the salesperson who had called me direct, I added a little message on my cell phone, as he had called while I was away from the cell, no doubt thinking he was about to make a sale. I suggested in my voice mail that he should actually look at the searches before he calls me back.....
Something tells me he may not call back once he's done his searches.
SO, my advice to those who wish to start a business and pull in some free advertising is simply this: Don't let the salesperson convince you to give an answer right away should someone call suggesting that you should fork over money for your free ad. Run a couple of searches on your own.
And with that advice, I'm offline to (hopefully) get some work done in my flower garden and gently stretch out my stomach muscles, which are still healing from a hernia surgery. Even as I'm thrilling over the idea that some red and black pepper added to the holes when I put in tulip bulbs last fall has resulted in a gorgeous grouping of multicolored tulips, I'm disgusted that, on seeing the flower garden had some bare patches, the maples and the huge, dying oak have tried to help me out by sprouting some trees around my daffodils, lilies, crocus, etc......
I guess you could say that the maples and the oak are sort of like salesmen, trying to convince me that I need THIS in my life right now....
And it will only cost me X amount in American Dollars.......
Maybe I should start insisting that every salesman has to convert the fee to Euros, just to see what happens.
However, as a means of keeping ones thoughts sorted while possibly helping someone else to avoid similar pitfalls, a blog is, indeed, top notch.
Take, for example, a recent experience with Yellow Pages online.
For months now, I've seen advertisements in my Facebook news feed. YP has been advertising a FREE ad, very basic, mind, but FREE nonetheless. I had been to the YP page several times, but kept running out of time before I finished researching.
I finally got to their page with plenty of time last week and clicked the right button to bring me to the page where one puts in all the information. They offer 5 categories for your ad, and I filled in for 5 things that Northern Bard Publications is offering. I clicked the "done" button and, after several days, started taking peeks at YP online to see if Northern Bard was showing yet.
Then I got a phone call from one of the YP salespeople. For a nominal fee, Northern Bard Publications could be GUARANTEED to appear on the first page of the searches that I had put us in for. Overtired, lacking coffee, and trying to get off the phone to get ready for my shift at work, I told the person on the other end of the line that I had to speak with my business partners (aka my "co-conspirators", as they keep referring to themselves) to see if any of us had the amount anywhere in reserve, as the book sales wouldn't support the monthly fee, no matter how nominal. I took his number to call him back.
My biggest mistake was to NOT let him "show" me what a difference the monthly fee would make, according to the lady we lovingly call our "finance director" (although her primary line to keep myself and the art director under control is to say "We can't afford that right now. Maybe if sales pick up."). She suggested that I go back over to YP and see where, exactly, Northern Bard Publications falls in the categories I put us in for.
Now, as I was told eons ago by my then-publisher, "One has really made it online if one appears on the first page of a search".
I searched "Publishers in Gray, Maine".
Northern Bard, because there are very few publishing companies in the state of Maine in general and only ONE in the actual town of Gray, came up as number 1. It's rather nice when one has no competition to deal with, right?
I searched "Web Site Design & Services", as I've been taking care of the web site, The Northern Bard, since I was badly damaged in a work related incident and had nothing to stimulate my mind for about two months. Northern Bard Publications comes up as number 2 in this category, second only to a service that is also in Gray.
I searched "Editorial and Publication Services". Northern Bard Publications came up as number 6 behind 5 other companies from other places that state "serving the Gray area"....but it's still on the first page and, once again, the only such company in the actual town of Gray.
Book and Catalog Covers also lists us as number 1. This one should make the art director feel especially good, as we are, once again, the only one in town.
Writers has the number 6 spot behind several other locals who have been at this longer than I.
Unable to reach the salesperson who had called me direct, I added a little message on my cell phone, as he had called while I was away from the cell, no doubt thinking he was about to make a sale. I suggested in my voice mail that he should actually look at the searches before he calls me back.....
Something tells me he may not call back once he's done his searches.
SO, my advice to those who wish to start a business and pull in some free advertising is simply this: Don't let the salesperson convince you to give an answer right away should someone call suggesting that you should fork over money for your free ad. Run a couple of searches on your own.
And with that advice, I'm offline to (hopefully) get some work done in my flower garden and gently stretch out my stomach muscles, which are still healing from a hernia surgery. Even as I'm thrilling over the idea that some red and black pepper added to the holes when I put in tulip bulbs last fall has resulted in a gorgeous grouping of multicolored tulips, I'm disgusted that, on seeing the flower garden had some bare patches, the maples and the huge, dying oak have tried to help me out by sprouting some trees around my daffodils, lilies, crocus, etc......
I guess you could say that the maples and the oak are sort of like salesmen, trying to convince me that I need THIS in my life right now....
And it will only cost me X amount in American Dollars.......
Maybe I should start insisting that every salesman has to convert the fee to Euros, just to see what happens.
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This is to COMMENT ON THE BLOG, not TO SELL YOUR STUFF!
If you insist on commenting that "you need this", be prepared to have your comment deleted PARTICULARLY IF YOU ARE ANJU SHUKLA!!