I think that the world needs more hopeful messages. We hear so much about negativity, but when you read something that lifts you up, it makes a difference in your day and even life. That’s one reason I look for positive bloggers. Enjoy this interview with Samm from The Inspiration Tree.

I really adore your blog. How did you decide to start it?

Thank you

I don’t ever remember sitting down and making the decision to start The Inspiration Tree, it kind of just became. I was going through sort of a personal revelation at the time and started writing down ideas that I found inspiring on a personal blog. I was changing my life and habits step-by-step and as I came across a new concept or a helpful tip that I found relevant I posted it on my blog. Gradually people started visiting and leaving their own thoughts so I made the decision to make The Inspiration Tree a place for learning and sharing. I asked people to send me their bits of optimism and it was amazing the things that people started to send in. Every time I would check my email I would leave the computer with a smile and often times, a deep feeling of gratitude. With everyone participating in The Inspiration Tree, to me my blog become a sort of mini optimism movement and to be a part of something so positive has been such a great experience.

What are some of the blog posts that have been most inspiring to you?

Wow, this question is extremely difficult to answer because everything that has been posted on my blog has been posted there because of the sole fact that it inspired me in some way. One of the posts that sticks out the most though is “I Believe”. A lovely girl named Kelsey submitted a list to me which is from a poem called “I’ve Learned” by an unknown author. (I’ve also heard, since posting it, that is is displayed on a sign throughout a certain restaurant in the United States.)

What was really inspiring about this particular post though was larger than the poem itself. Once the post was online, I started to receive comments, emails, tweets, private messages, etc. with people telling me what THEY believed. It was amazing. Day after day I was reading hundreds of peoples personal beliefs and each and every one was beautiful. Due to the response, I started the What Do you Believe Project where I asked people to continue sharing their beliefs with me, and to this day I am still receiving responses. I often scroll through both these blog posts and the response emails to read over the wonderful things people have sent me and I’m moved everytime.

Tell me about the design of your blog. Did you do it yourself or hire someone?

The design of my blog is quite basic. I drew the background (the silly, curly tree) on photoshop one day while playing around. I then uploaded it to a simple template and edited some of the formatting and voila, there was my design!

What are some of your blogging goals?

This question is actually very pertinent to my current situation, haha. Unfortunately, my dedication to my blog has been less than satisfactory in the last 6 months due to working full time and finishing up my psychology degree and to be honest, I really missed blogging.

However, now that I’m finished up at University (YAY!!!) I have made The Inspiration Tree one of my main priorities again… so back to posting it is

My current goals are pretty simple- to get caught up with the back log of submissions and posts that are sitting around waiting to be shared. After that I hope to expand on what The Inspiration Tree is right now and continue to reach out to the larger blogging community… how I plan to do these things must remain a secret for now though Stay tuned!

Let’s switch gears to books. Do you enjoy reading? What’s the most interesting book you’ve ever read?

I love love love reading. One of my favorite past times since kindergarten! The most interesting book I’ve ever read was The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. I was in junior high when I read it and although the major theme is concerning racism specifically I believe that it can lend itself to any form of discrimination. Overall, the theme/message within the story helped me make sense of the world around me at the time and I’ve forever remembered this book fondly.

To quote Morrison…

“We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. Her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor. Her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. Her poverty kept us generous. Even her waking dreams we used–to silence our own nightmares. And she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt. We honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength.”

“… And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life”

Favorite authors?

So many! Some all time favorites are Janet Fitch (author of White Oleander) and J.D Salinger (Catcher in the Rye). Something about the way they both write always gets to me.

Where can we learn more about you?

The Inspiration Tree is my little corner on the internet so that’s probably your best shot. I also love random emails so feel free to fire away

Anything else you’d like to add?

I think that I’ve covered most of it. Much gratitude to Cherie for being interested in my blog enough to email me with an interview, I’m truly honored!
☮ & ❤,
Samm

This poem from Robert Louis Stevenson reminds me a little bit of Lenny Kravitz’s “Let Love Rule.”

Let love go, if go she will.

Seek not, O fool, her wanton flight to stay.
Of all she gives and takes away
The best remains behind her still.

The best remains behind; in vain
Joy she may give and take again,
Joy she may take and leave us pain,
If yet she leave behind
The constant mind

To meet all fortunes nobly, to endure
All things with a good heart, and still be pure,
Still to be foremost in the foremost cause,
And still be worthy of the love that was.
Love coming is omnipotent indeed,
But not Love going. Let her go. The seed
Springs in the favouring Summer air, and grows,
And waxes strong; and when the Summer goes,
Remains, a perfect tree.

Joy she may give and take again,
Joy she may take and leave us pain.
O Love, and what care we?
For one thing thou hast given, O Love, one thing
Is ours that nothing can remove;
And as the King discrowned is still a King,
The unhappy lover still preserves his love.

More by Robert Louis Stevenson:

• Kidnapped
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
• Treasure Island

Ah… another Friday. Hear that sound? It’s the joy of an upcoming weekend creeping its way into my schedule today.

Hope you all had a productive week. My big project this week was creating an ecourse on Five Weeks to Make a New Friend. The class takes you from beginning to end on getting out, making small talk, evaluating the people you’ve met, and creating a connection. So many people I talk to are looking for new friends but aren’t sure how to go about doing it. It “just happened” before and now they’re stuck because it isn’t naturally happening now. Hopefully this ecourse will be a help in that area.

If you’ve never created an ecourse before, it can be a huge undertaking. You’ve got to get the text set, the links, etc. I’m glad I was able to check that “to do” off of my list.

Here are the other articles I’ve written this week:

• 5 Ways to Welcome a New Neighbor
• Review of the Book What Would Michelle Do?
• Small Talk Ice Breakers for an Event
• Making Small Talk With Strangers
• 5 Ways to Get More Responses to Your Online Ad
• Should You Stop Your Divorce?
• The Top Baby Name for 2011

At Daily Blog Tips, “How to Structure Your Posts (and Why You Need To).” Do you think about structure when it comes to blogging?

Anyone that has ever started a blog knows that finding the right theme can be a nightmare. I went through a couple versions here before I settled on this theme. Over at ProBlogger, they give tips on “How to Select the Perfect WordPress Theme for Your Blog.”

Michael Hyatt talks about “3 Characteristics of New Marketing.” See how you can make them work for you as a writer in promoting your work.

From Open Culture, “James Joyce Manuscripts Online, Free Courtesy of The National Library of Ireland.”

Social Media Today says, “Facebook To Consider Charging Users to Highlight a Post.”

Rachelle Gardner has “Bad Habits of Successful Authors.”

Media Jobs Daily has some tips on “How to Effectively Say ‘No’ at Work.”

I found this news item from Galley Cat really interesting: “20th Century Fox Options Self-Published Novel.”

CNN Tech had a scary and thought provoking post: “Could a computer write this story?”

Jody Hedlund had: “8 Reasons Not to Quit Social Media When You’re Burned Out.”

Galley Cat has a humorous bit about “How A Book Is Born.”

I can so relate to this post by Michael Hyatt: “The Fine Line Between Working Hard and Letting Go.”

A post from Famous Bloggers should be near and dear to the hearts of every online writer: “How to Prevent Content Scraping before It Starts.”

Lit Reactor has “36 Writing Essays by Chuck Palahniuk.”

At Writer Unboxed, they’ll give you some good ideas on marketing your book with: “You say Potato, I Say Potato, You Say Tomato, I Say Book Sales.”

Chuck Sambuchino‘s blog has some commentary on “The Short Happy Lives of Short Story Collections.”

From Yahoo News: “4 Ways the IPO Will Change Facebook Forever.”

The Huffington Post has “11 Mistakes Writers Make When Approaching Literary Agents.”

Galley Cat offers a really great list of tips on “How To Sell Your Self-Published Book in Bookstores.”

More on Freelance Writing:

• Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer (Second Edition)
• The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Commercial Freelancer in Six Months or Less
• Secrets of a Freelance Writer, Third Edition: How to Make $100,000 a Year or More

Image: Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The great thing about social networking is sharing a passion and finding other like-minded individuals. Lucky for book lovers (and authors), there are many sites especially designed to share the love of books. With the following sites, book lovers can discuss what they are reading now, favorite books, and even those they really couldn’t get into.

Best of all, they can get recommendations on what to read next. Here are some social networking sites especially for book lovers.

Shelfari

Shelfari allows book lovers to create a virtual bookshelf that helps log how much someone has read. Shelfari has a blog that talks about popular books, author interviews, and other popular book-related news items. There is a widget for book lovers to show what they are reading on their own blog or website.

Goodreads

Goodreads has a variety of options for book lovers. People can look up favorite book quotes, gather friends together to form a book club, and answer trivia questions related to the written word.

Library Thing

Library Thing lets users list books they have read and enjoyed like the other sites, but they also offer up books for review. Some local author events are listed as well. It is a good source for authors and readers to interact.

aNobii

aNobii is a based in Hong Kong, and encourages readers to strike up online conversations with others on the site. According to their website, the name comes from the “first few syllables of Anobium Punctatum, which is the proper name for bookworms.” Users can get help navigating the site with a “most popular” list that shows what others are discussing, as well as books that are “most buzzed.”

Like the other sites listed, aNobii allows users to rate and review books as well as find other sites that sell works by their favorite authors.

Book lovers today have plenty of options on how to chat and interact with other people who share their love of the written word. Not only that, but many authors also frequent the aforementioned sites, which provides opportunity to interact with the person behind the writing. Finding great things to read has never been so easy.

Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s a question I get asked a lot: “Why isn’t my book selling?” This question isn’t reserved for the author who is clueless about marketing. I’ve been asked this by savvy authors, even business people who can’t seem to figure out the system for selling.

Sometimes the reasons why a book isn’t selling are easy: the cover is poor, the content is not edited or the topic is unappealing. But in most cases that I’ve seen, you need to dig deeper. So, overlooking the obvious, let’s go a step further because the mysteries of selling might be a lot easier to fix than you think.

1. Start Early: In many cases starting early means earlier than you think. Often, I see authors beginning their campaigns a month prior to book launch. If you do that, keep in mind that your results won’t show up for months (and months), often it takes up to six months to see anything you seed start to grow. That’s partially why marketing people will encourage you to start early because it can take so long to see results.

2. Limited availability: Having a book that can only be purchased off of your website isn’t a great way to promote a title. You want to make sure that the book is where your consumer is: on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and even if you aren’t stocked on a bookstore shelf, you want to be sure that someone can order it. Limit your book availability and you limit your success. If you don’t give your consumer enough places to get your book, they will probably get someone else’s title instead. Don’t let your marketing serve the competition better than it serves you.

3. The rule of seven: You need to be everywhere. A lot. But what does that mean, exactly? It means that your reader (or potential reader) needs to see your book in a lot of different places. Have you asked yourself how many ways you are marketing the book? Are you active in any social media? Do you participate in blogs? Are you getting reviews? Think of the seven ways or access points that you need for your book to gain traction with the audience. Seven seems to be the magic number for many marketing people so go with that, use it as a goal. Your book should have access points in seven different areas. With so much out there begging for your readers’ attention you want to be sure that your book is getting an equal amount of attention.

4. Multichannel marketing: How many different ways are you marketing your book? No, I don’t mean the rule of seven, though this applies here, too. What I mean is how many channels are you using to market your book to the reader? Email? Video? Print mailings? A successful campaign is one that encompasses the rule of seven, so seven public channels to reach your reader, but also consider multi-channel marketing, as well.

5. You don’t think this applies to you: Often when I give these talks, I have authors who say, “Well, this may be true for some, but it’s not really what I’m about.” It might not be what you are about, but I can guarantee you it applies to everyone, across the board. Are there success stories that break out of the norm? You bet, but it’s rare.

Now You Know, What Do You Do?

Let’s say that you’re reading this, you are knee-deep in promotion and thinking “oh, brother, this is me. What now?” A lot of authors just toss the first book out and focus on the second figuring they made the mistakes with the first and chalk it up to a “learning curve.” I don’t think that’s a great idea. You put a lot of work into that book, yes? Don’t you want it to succeed? I thought so. Here are some tips you can implement, right now, to get things back on track:

* Get to know successful authors: Yes, it’s good and cathartic to commiserate with other authors who feel their book isn’t selling, but beyond that it won’t really do much for your success. Step out of your comfort zone and start looking for authors you want to emulate. Successful authors who have it going on. Build your list. Find at least 10 authors in your market that are doing well and presumably selling books.

* Investigate: What do other authors do in your genre? You now have a list of other, successful authors, right? If you’ve collected this list, follow them on their blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. Follow them everywhere, start to build your tribe. Get to know them almost better than you know your own marketing campaign. You may say “well, they have more money than I do to market!” That might be true, but I bet it’s not – not entirely anyway. Most of the really successful authors don’t get there with just a checkbook, they probably have a great sense of who their market is, what their market wants and exactly how to give it to them. I’m not telling you to copy, I’m telling you to learn from other successful authors.

* Google Alerts: Now that you have your list of fabulous authors, plug their names into Google Alerts and see where they show up. Yes, when I say investigate I mean doing just that. Do your homework. Why does this matter? Because the blogs they show up on will be great places for you to network, and guess what? All it costs is a little bit of time.

* Count the ways: How many different ways can a reader access you? Count them. I’m serious. You should have at least seven access points. Maybe you are syndicating articles, maybe you are on YouTube, maybe you are on Facebook, Pinterest, whatever it is it’s an access point. If you don’t have seven of them and aren’t sure where to start, go back to bullets two and three.

* Get rid of what’s not working: I was at an event a few weeks ago and talked to an author who was doing lots of Google ads. He was careful to stay within his daily budget, but he wasn’t sure if they were working. Why was he doing them? He had been to a seminar that talked about Google Ads and thought he’d give it a shot. Initially it did well, then not so much. He kept doing them because he thought eventually it would turn around. Sometimes things like ads have a lifespan, if you aren’t monitoring this stuff you’ll never know. Don’t hesitate to get rid of what’s not working and be brutally honest with yourself. Remember that if you keep doing something that’s not working it will take away time and probably money from doing something that could make your book successful. The choice is yours.

* Distribution: Make sure your book is out there, and I mean really out there. You may hate it that Amazon takes 55% of your book sales but would you rather have 45% of a sale or nothing at all? Don’t have an ebook yet? Why not? It’s easier than ever to have your book converted to an ebook. It’s so easy I’ve known authors to do it in less than 15 minutes. It’s no longer a matter of whether you can publish a book; it’s whether someone can find it. You might not be in stores nationwide, but if you can be on online e-tailers that’s a big and helpful start.

* Persistence: Maybe the biggest piece of success is persistence. I know I sound like a motivational speaker right now, but it’s true. Persist, persist, persist. Often I find that authors are just weeks away from their success and they give up because of some of the reasons cited in the first part of this article. Persist even on the days you can’t be bothered. On those days do just one thing. Just one.

The key to success isn’t always easy or clear-cut, but the key to failure often is. If you have produced a good looking, well-written book but it’s still not selling then go back through this article to find the missing piece or pieces. Once you do, I can almost guarantee your book will start to take off.

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

More About Book Selling and Promotion:

• Jump Start Your Book Sales: A Money-Making Guide for Authors, Independent Publishers and Small Presses
• 1001 Ways to Market Your Books (1001 Ways to Market Your Books: For Authors and Publishers)
• 21 Ways to Promote Your Book on Twitter

Image: Craftyjoe / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Ever wanted to write as part of a team? It’s a completely different process, as Helen and Lorri Carpenter will tell you in this interview. Enjoy.

Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from and how long have you been writing?

We’re Helen and Lorri Carpenter, a mother/daughter writing team. We write together as HL Carpenter.

We’ve lived in a lot of different states, and loved time spent in all of them, so we like to say we’re from everywhere. We live in Florida now. Though native Floridians believe you’re not a true southerner unless you were born here, we’ve been Sunshine State residents so long we figure we nearly qualify.

As for the writing, we’ve been doing that long enough that we think we’re almost natives in this strange land, too.

Tell us about your latest book. What do you hope readers take away from it?

At heart, The SkyHorse is a story of the special love between a girl and a horse. We hope readers understand why our heroine makes the decision she did, and that love sometimes involves hard choices.

Do you believe in writer’s block? 

No. It’s another term for procrastination. Writers write, even if they think what they’re writing is unpublishable.

Share some of your writing goals. What’s next for you?

More books! We’re nearly finished with the first draft of another young adult novel, and we have three other finished manuscripts cooling off and waiting for revision. We also have a completed series of cozies for adult readers, along with three novellas featuring the same character.

What’s the most interesting book you’ve ever read?

That’s a tough one, because we read so much, and we’re interested in so many different topics. The books we like best are the ones that teach us something new, or that capture our thoughts and experiences in a way we might not have been able to express ourselves.

And, of course, there’s the dictionary, which we actually do read. Should we admit that? Well, since the horse is out of the stall, we’ll just say you can find a really interesting article in the back of The American Heritage College Dictionary about Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans. Words and their origins – what could be more fascinating?

Book you’re currently reading?

A re-publication of Stephen King’s first novels, which he published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. He has a knack for sucking the reader in with his opening sentence.

What is one thing that frustrates you about being a writer?

Not being able to write fast enough. Those notebooks full of characters, settings, and ideas keep reaching out ghostly tentacles, moaning, When? When? When do we get our own life?

Any type of writing ritual you have?

We’re not superstitious, so there’s no sharpening of pencils or arranging of reference material or touching of lucky amulets, if that’s what you mean.

However, our favorite book – yay for the dictionary! – offers another meaning: A detailed method of procedure faithfully or regularly followed. So we actually do have a ritual, by that definition.

You could call it the graphic novel ritual, because it works the same way as books written in the comic-strip format. Here’s the routine: As co-authors, we take turns writing chapters. We go back and forth until we’re done with the book.

So how’s that like graphic novels? Because you always know there’s more coming, and though you’re not quite sure what the “more” is, you know it’s going to have an unexpected twist tying into what’s already happened, yet at the same time pointing the way to whatever exciting event will happen next.

What is one of the things you’re most thankful for as a writer?

Our partnership – and it’s not one of the things, it’s THE thing. Sharing words and ideas with someone who is so deeply into the same story is a great way to write. In fact, we did a post on the topic of writing together at LK Mitchell’s blog.

Where can we learn more about you?

At our virtual home on the web is Top Drawer Ink Corp. We write semi-monthly newsletters, and each issue contains a “Carpenter Country” essay. Since the essays date back to 2003, when we created the site, there’s probably more information available about us than we realize!

If that’s not enough to satisfy fans or the casually curious, we recently did an interview with Sharon Ledwith, a fellow Musa author.

Anything else you’d like to add?

We’d like to thank you for sharing your writing space with us, and for giving us this opportunity to talk about The SkyHorse. It’s our first published book, and we’re still bubbling over with joy. The delight we felt when we got the acceptance email from Kathy Teel, head editor at Musa Publishing – there’s no way to capture that in words, even for a team of writers.

I’ve been under the weather most of this week, so working has been difficult. How has your week been? I’ve noticed more and more of you are posting your links to the Working Writer Facebook page. Make sure when you’re promoting your links they are to your own writing, and do be sure to visit another’s writer’s link and give them some support when you do.

Here are some of the new articles I’ve posted elsewhere this week:

• Happiness Quotes
• Review of Quiet: The Power of Introverts In a World That Can’t Stop Talking
• Honoring the Other Women in Your Life This Mother’s Day
• Great (Really) Last Minute Mother’s Day Gifts
• Fun Questions to Ask Mom About Her Life

Here are the links and news items I found of interest this week:

Boomerinas had “How to Get Repins on Pinterest to Help Your Blog.”

All Freelance Writing has 18 local prospects you might not have considered to pitch for work.

I say this all the time but here’s more advice from agent Steve Laube: “Write a Fan Letter Today.”

At ProBlogger there is a very helpful post that talks about “Blogging Success and the Law of Averages.”

Daily Blog Tips has a really nice list here: “30 Essential SEO Resources for Beginners.”

Writer Unboxed has “5 Ways Novelists Can Benefit from Watching Movies and TV Shows” which I love because hey – I like TV.

Search Engine Roundtable has “Google’s Next Update To Be Named Panther?”

10,000 Words has “5 Free Sites to Help Journalists Build an Online Portfolio.”

Daily Writing Tips has “15 “Dis-” Words and Their Relations.”

Slate asks something we’ve all been discussing quite a bit: “What Will Become of the Paper Book?”

Media Jobs Daily has “The Freelance Hustle: Five Ways to Land New Gigs.” I’m not sure I agree with all of these, but I think you should always read as much as you can about getting jobs and making money. What works for one might not work for another, but at least you’ll get informed about the options available to you.

Galley Cat talks about an interesting study on how “Fictional Characters Can Influence Real Life Actions.”

At Novel Rocket: “Before You Hit Send on Your Manuscript.”

Interesting post over at Sticking to the Story about she got her agent: “Query Contests: The New-Fangled Way to Land a Literary Agent.”

Indies Unlimited tells us about “Conflict and Why You Need Some.”

How to Write a Book Now has “How To Create A Plot Outline In 8 Easy Steps.”

A fun post from The Kitchn: “10 Famous Fiction Writers and Their Cocktails.”

More on Making Money From Your Writing:

• How to Write and Publish a Successful Children’s Book: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply (Creative Writing Creative Writ)
• Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self Publishing, or How to Publish Your Books with Print on Demand and Online Book Marketing on Amazon.com
• How to Publish and Sell Your Article on the Kindle: 12 Tips for Short Documents

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About 10 months ago, I listened to Gary Vaynerchuck talk about this new site called Pinterest. He was really excited about it, though at first I didn’t get it. “Get on Pinterest now!” Gary encouraged. I didn’t listen, thinking “oh, dear, not another social network!” But Pinterest has proven to be anything but another social network.

First, its growth has been extraordinary. According to several reports, including a blog post shared on Mashable, from September 2011 to December 2011, unique visitors on Pinterest increased by 429%. That kind of growth has never been seen in a social network and while it’s still early for Pinterest, we’re seeing a lot of staying power, especially with established brands like Macy’s, Land’s End and magazines such as Real Simple – which got more traffic from Pinterest in October 2011 than from Facebook.

For those of you who haven’t been on Pinterest, the concept is almost deceptively simple. You sign up for an account (there’s a waiting period right now as Pinterest tries to manage traffic and new accounts, once you sign up it should take about a week before you can get in). The site is a collection of boards, sort of like virtual bulletin boards that you name and add to your page. You can have as many boards as you want and name them whatever you want (though make sure to read through the Pinterest terms of service so you know you’re not violating any of their regulations). The boards can describe your brand, book, message, or business. We’ll look at some board ideas in a minute but for now, think bulletin board.

So, that said, how can you make the most of Pinterest? Like any social network, I recommend that you poke around, follow a few people in your industry and see what they are posting about. There are a lot of creative boards and a lot of companies using Pinterest as a unique brand extension. Check out http://pinterest.com/chobani/, they have all sorts of boards that tie into their brand including Chobani Champions, recipes, spoons, and sans yogurt which is a board about all things non-yogurt related.

Picking your Boards

* First, it’s important to come up with creative and interesting board names. Keep in mind that these board names get shared whenever someone repins you so make them catchy!

* When you first start on Pinterest, you are a completely blank slate. It’s up to you to fill your new Pinterest page with exciting boards. But where to start? Well, your business, product, message, or book will often determine the boards you put up. You should consider your audience first and what they would like to see.

Here are a few ideas:

* If you do a lot of speaking or other offline events, create a board that captures the excitement of these by posting pictures and videos. This is especially great if you have a conference or other big event you’re planning. You could put the board up early with “teaser” content to encourage sign-ups, too!

* Create a customer or reader board that has pictures and/or videos of happy customers. I often talk about capturing endorsements or reviews on video when you see someone at an event, these can be posted to this board.

* How-to boards are great as well. You can create a board (or several) around how-to’s related to your product or service.

* Company boards are great too, you can create one that showcases your company, sharing your core values, and also highlights your team.

* Thank you boards are great, too. Consider creating a thank you board for clients.

* If you’re promoting a new book, product, or campaign you can also create a board to support that. The board can have tutorials on it, or videos of the new product. It can be a combination of how-to and showcasing what you’re offering.

* Tutorials are big for our company, so we plan to offer tutorial boards to help walk our clients through how to use social media, how to continue reaping the benefits from our campaigns once they are done, etc.

* Trends and seasonal stuff make great boards, too. So don’t hesitate to create a holiday or trend board if you think your audience will be interested.

* You can also let your customers work on a board with you. Create a user-generated content board and invite customers or readers to pin away!

Marketing Ideas

* If the idea of Pinterest is still intimidating, consider the following marketing ideas for your boards:

* Videos: Pinterest loves videos. What videos can you pin to a board?

* Keywords are big on Pinterest, so be sure to think carefully about what you name your picture and what words you use in the description. You can even use hashtags on Pinterest and if you’re trying to get the attention of another Pinner, use the @ followed by their Pin-name to tag them. You can also use a dollar sign to add a “ribbon” to your pin that will immediately show pricing. This is great if you’re selling product.

* When you add your pin, don’t forget to tweet it and add it to Facebook, you can do this as soon as the pin is loaded.

* When you blog, be sure to add great pictures to your blog so that when you pin your blog post to your board, you can capture a great image. Images on Pinterest are obviously important!

* Click the “popular” link on Pinterest to see what’s hot and what’s trending. You might be able to make this part of your content strategy.

* Be sure to promote your Pinterest account on Facebook, Twitter, on your website, and in your email signature line, of course

A Few Final Points

Be sure to add a catchy description to your profile and when you’re setting up your Pinterest account, link it to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. This will help you gain followers, and add the icons to your profile page so you can direct people there, too.

Make sure to engage on Pinterest. Repin pins you love, comment on pins and since you can see pins on the site from folks you aren’t even connected with, be sure to broaden your reach when networking. You never know where the next follower will come from.

Pinterest is a fun, if not highly addictive way to start marketing. Still not sure what to do on Pinterest? Then get started by following others in your industry and get a sense of what they’re doing. While the future of Pinterest is still uncertain, one thing we know for sure. The site has grown at rates that no one expected and continues to do so. It’s been the quickest site to monetize (to give you perspective, it took Twitter five years to monetize) and has already become a staple for many businesses.

Happy Pinning!

Other boards we love:

http://pinterest.com/societysocial/
http://pinterest.com/pulpwoodqueen/

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

More on Pinterest:

• The Ultimate Guide To Marketing Your Business With Pinterest (Internet Marketing, Social Media for Profit, Web 2.0, Web Marketing)
• Pinterest For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
• Pinterest Marketing Bible: The Definitive Guide to Marketing Your Brand and Products on Pinterest (Volume 1)

Freelance writing is a career that can be difficult to get into initially, and even harder to maintain an income. After all, it is filled with rejections and uncertainty. Even the most experienced of freelancers can get frustrated by the continual search for work and dealing with client’s objections.

As with every other area of life, attitude is everything with freelancing. How can freelancers keep motivated to continue? Here are some thoughts.

Writer’s Groups Can Help Freelancers Stay Upbeat and Positive

Writers typically work alone, so having other likeminded people around to understand and support you is an important part of succeeding as a freelancer. If you’re not able to hang out with writers face-to-face, an online forum can work just as well. A search for “writers” on Facebook can help you find groups that can also lend support.

The key to being successful in a writer’s group or forum is to listen and provide support for others. The more genuine a friend you are to other writers, the more support you will receive in return. This is something that can’t be faked, so take some time to get to know your fellow writers in order to reap the benefits of their understanding and advice.

Learn How to Work More Efficiently as a Freelancer

When you write for multiple blogs, clients, or assignments, you can quickly get overwhelmed. Organizing your day is a crucial part of the freelance life and can help you remain motivated to accomplish your writing goals. To make better use of your time, learn to write in chunks.

For example, rather than writing a blog entry, posting a link to Facebook, and then checking email simultaneously, opt to write three or four blog entries at once. Try and post ahead to the extent that you can. You’ll actually take less time to write three quick posts than you will continually going back and forth each time you have an assignment or idea.

Email can also derail your time, so only check it once or twice a day, as opposed to having it open throughout. This way you can quickly respond to items or delete them, saving yourself time. Doing this will help you feel more in control of your day and more motivated to get your work done.

Avoid Taking Lower Freelance Writing Jobs

Nothing is more frustrating than working all day and having little income to show for it. Writing large quantities of articles each and every day can quickly leave you feeling unmotivated. To avoid this, search for the highest paying jobs you can find. If you need to take a break and get a part time job for awhile, it is better than giving up freelance work entirely. You’ll keep up your motivation to get better freelance gigs and not settle for something that pay peanuts.

Find Clients You Enjoy Working With

Difficult and demanding clients can push your patience to the limit, especially if they pay slowly or require rework. Always reevaluate your client list so when you do add new people you can end a few poor client relationships. Any time you take a new job, look through the work you currently have to make sure you have the clients and work assignments that make you happy.

Take Time Away from Work

This one is a hard thing to do. I certainly need to learn to be better at it. If you’re like me, you have a tendency to log long hours, especially when you work in a telecommute arrangement. It’s important to take breaks throughout the day. Take a quick break every hour where you get up, stretch your legs, and allow your body to move. Focus your vision on something else besides a computer for a few minutes and allow your mind to wander.

Being a freelancer gives you freedom of choice in assignments and work schedule. However, the freelance life can also leave you feeling tired and unmotivated at times. Realize that this feeling is natural and with some of the suggestions above, you can better deal with the ebbs and flows of the freelance life.

More on Freelance Writing:

• Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer (Second Edition)
• The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Commercial Freelancer in Six Months or Less
• Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer: How to Win Top Writing Assignments

Image: tungphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Welcome to another edition of poetry Saturday! Are you a poet? Do you write poetry in secret? We love poets here, so if you are, let us know. Enjoy this poem by Thomas Hardy.

“Ah, are you digging on my grave,
My loved one? — planting rue?”
– “No: yesterday he went to wed
One of the brightest wealth has bred.
‘It cannot hurt her now,’ he said,
‘That I should not be true.’”

“Then who is digging on my grave,
My nearest dearest kin?”
– “Ah, no: they sit and think, ‘What use!
What good will planting flowers produce?
No tendance of her mound can loose
Her spirit from Death’s gin.’”

“But someone digs upon my grave?
My enemy? — prodding sly?”
– “Nay: when she heard you had passed the Gate
That shuts on all flesh soon or late,
She thought you no more worth her hate,
And cares not where you lie.

“Then, who is digging on my grave?
Say — since I have not guessed!”
– “O it is I, my mistress dear,
Your little dog, who still lives near,
And much I hope my movements here
Have not disturbed your rest?”

“Ah yes! You dig upon my grave…
Why flashed it not to me
That one true heart was left behind!
What feeling do we ever find
To equal among human kind
A dog’s fidelity!”

“Mistress, I dug upon your grave
To bury a bone, in case
I should be hungry near this spot
When passing on my daily trot.
I am sorry, but I quite forgot
It was your resting place.”

More Books by Thomas Hardy:

• Far From the Madding Crowd
• Jude the Obscure
• Poems of the Past and the Present