Thanks to everyone who listened yesterday to our live call-in show on BlogTalkRadio.com. I promised you more before we got cutoff, and I will deliver shortly. Alexa and I recorded an additional 37 minutes of content immediately afterward, which I will post as soon as I overcome some small technical issues. (Hopefully today – Thursday, November 6th. Just subscribe to my feed if you don’t want to miss it.)

Thanks again to Alexa Clark of MiniBookExpo.com, and to Renee Shupe for producing the show for us. This worked so well that all three of us agreed that we’d like to do more. Much more! Stay tuned to the player here on this blog for a complete playlist of all past and future broadcasts.

I’ve gained new insights in the last year or so about TV, radio and print media, and how they don’t work the way I always thought they did. I’ve also been confused by something I’ve observed via my husband’s internet marketing company, which is a shift away from television advertising by companies that previously relied heavily on commercials and other image-based marketing. These companies are now moving to the web as their primary platform for advertising and product information. They are taking advantage of the interactive nature of the web to educate their consumer, rather than emotionally motivate them to purchase.

Fewer people are watching television, and for those that are, regionalization is a trend that has been accelerating rapidly. Rather than debate why this is happening (there are numerous theories), clever entrepreneurs can take advantage of one of the cascading effects of this: working what I call the “Mini-Media”.

In a recent article at WritersDigest.com, (read it – it’s cool) Mary Curran-Hackett comments about what makes a great interview from both the standpoint of the interviewee and the interviewer. One portion of a paragraph really nailed this question of migrating advertising to the web. Curran-Hackett quotes NPR radio journalist Terry Gross as saying…

“… if you’re a writer or an artist who is being interviewed a lot and you’re asked the same questions and are giving the same answers, you sort of feel like it’s inconceivable—you can’t imagine that everybody on the planet Earth hasn’t heard you answer these questions. But the truth is, most people haven’t. Everyone used to watch the same TV shows and movies and listen to the same Top-40 music. Mass media was the glue that held people together. But now popular culture is fragmented. Everybody isn’t reading the same thing. They’re reading their favorite websites.”

Knowing that your customer is increasingly reading online, rather than watching television, we can focus our publicity efforts to a degree not previously possible. Websites are highly verticalized, and so are the visitors that read them. By identifying specific websites, blogs, discussion forums, and social media sites that tightly relate to our book’s subject matter, we are cutting costs, saving time and energy, and giving our readers more of what they really want.

I had such a great time tonight at the Vancouver chapter meeting of the eWomen Network, in BC, Canada. What a great bunch of gals! Thanks so much for making me feel welcome, and I was really enthused by all of your contagious energy!

The presentation that I made this evening was a bit over the time allocated, (sorry about that, Gail!) and it sounded like Members had more questions after I was done. So, let’s start a conversation here, on this blog, that carries over from tonight’s presentation. You can post questions using the comment form (in the bits below this post, there’s a link in the word “Comments” – just click it and type in the boxes that appear) and I’ll respond to them on this same spot. You might want to bookmark this page so that you can come back to it over and over again.

I’m sorry that there’s a delay in making the Private Resources page available for all of the attendees to use, but I promise it will be up by Monday when I get back to my office. Thanks for your patience. The postcard you received at dinner had a password on it, and you’ll need that to get to the page. The button mentioned on that same postcard will be available on this site by Monday.

Remember all that talk we had about feeds, and other magic words? You might want to subscribe to my site’s feed right now, by putting your email address in the boxes at right. That way, when new posts happen, you’ll get them delivered to your email inbox, without having to remember to come back to this page. And remember to Google yourself! (Yes, Google is a verb! Type your name or company name into the search bar, and see what happens!)

In addition to the Private Resources I promised, I’ll also include a set of overhead slides on the password-protected page that corresponds to tonight’s presentation. Just in case you didn’t take notes, there’s probably something there that will jog your memory.

A special thanks to Gail who was kind enough to fit me into your group’s schedule. I’m really glad that everybody got something out of the presentation. Hope to see you all again soon!!

P.S. – One of the winners of the door prizes didn’t pick up their book. If you had a blue Kitty Sticker on the back of your postcard, and you didn’t get your prize, please email me using the links at right. Thanks!

This week, I’ve had a number of readers ask me questions that relate to blogging; setting up blogs, writers and blogging, and promoting through blogging.

In response to this, I’m preparing a short eBook that will be available shortly for download from this site, which is essentially a re-work of a class that I taught some time ago, titled “Blog Essentials for Self-Publishing Authors”.

The eBook will include information that was not in the original course, including a variety of updates and lists of resources, both free and paid. As usual, comments will focus on resources that are open-source in nature.

To be updated when this free eBook is available, please subscribe to my blog using the sign-up box at right.

I didn’t wanna do it, I didn’t wanna do it… Being old and married, I didn’t really think that Facebook had anything to offer me. I was wrong.

It’s true that most traffic in social media is just that – social. I can’t host an open author-training Skypecast without somebody asking me what colour underwear I’m wearing.  But I’m obviously part of huge-and-growing marketing and business sector that is using these services. The third item in the top menu bar at Skype is now labelled “Business“, right after “Download” and “Use Skype”. And I’m still discovering new stuff on Facebook everyday.

It’s very important to know that when one is creating groups, events, inviting friends, writing on walls, and adding applications that the key thing to remember is to keep it a very soft sell. People don’t want to be oversold on anything – to offer them something of genuine benefit may have a cost associated with it. But that’s still cheaper than trying to sell something to someone who doesn’t want to buy it.