Tag Archive | dan blank

Lessons From BuzzFeed on How to Grow and Engage Your Audience

Dan Blank (WeGrowMedia) talks about growing your audience, as a author, with Ze (Zay) Frank of Buzzfeed.

As with many things Dan talks about, it seems to be a matter of connecting and “collaboration” on a personal level with people. I think you can use that word “collaboration” in a few different ways. But I took it more as connecting.

And the fact that Ze says with some of his more viral posts, he doesn’t really know why they went viral, says a lot too.

Dan even says: But for the 1,000 other things you do to try to develop an audience for your work — articles, events, interviews, blogs, newsletters, social media — don’t assume you know what will work. Experiment and allow others to help you learn what does and doesn’t work to engage them.

That means trying a lot of different things. What I have found is things I do in person, work the best and sometimes lead to things I can’t predict (as I mentioned in this post I did on marketing).

Another point they make is you can’t be in one place (online or in person) and expect to reach a lot of people.

Ze says that only 15-17% of views of Buzzfeed content comes from Buzzfeed’s website and the same percent from their other channels: emails, social media… I think that is amazing! A big company like that and that’s how many people come to their site or visit their social media and share their content?!

What does this mean? Same thing, really. You can’t put up a website and decide that is good enough. You need to be in a lot of different places. And some (most?) of the sharing, of course, you have no control over.

Here is the whole post, if you want to read it.

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Source: Lessons From BuzzFeed on How to Grow and Engage Your Audience – WeGrowMedia – Dan Blank

CKBooks Publishing
Where Publishing Dreams Become Reality

An Incredible Marketing Case Study, with Author-Illustrator Lori Richmond (and Christine Keleny)

Apr19

“The most interesting marketing opportunities are those that are unconventional.” That is how author-illustrator Lori Richmond sums up the case study we are about to present here. In to…

This is the beginning of an interview Dan Blank had with author and illustrator Lori Richmond about an innovative marketing opportunity she saw and followed through on. I wholly agree with Dan – this marketing effort Richmond made has paid off in many small and cumulative ways for her.

I think that is how most of the best marketing works for most authors. It’s not that one post or that one event you go to or that one person you meet, but over time, it’s all those posts, all those events, all those people you meet who add up to opportunities to share yourself and your stories with others.

Everyone is looking for a quick fix related to marketing their book(s). Think about it – if it existed, don’t you think someone would have found it by now. It takes time and effort, lots of efforts, actually, and missteps (lets not call it failure – it’s a learning process, right?), but there will be targets hit along the way and lots of fun experiences, too!

Here’s my example: I recently was invited by a librarian that I met at a art and craft sale to present at an evening talk event her library has a few times a year. Now this library is probably smaller than 1000 square feet and this town has a population so small that they can’t get a grocery store to move in where the old one stood for years. But this innovative librarian has partnered with a small pizza/ice creams shop (Central 52) in town (a big deal for this town) to host evening speakers a few times a year on all kinds of topics.

I showed up early, met the owner (a woman), and had an ice cream while I set up my books for display. Six people came out on a cold, wet spring evening to hear me talk about writing and publishing. It was a interactive, intimate group and I made some new acquaintances, had my picture taken with the librarian and her friend, which was posted on the shop website (which I then reposted, of course), and I was connected to the daughter of one of the participants who does editing (I’m always looking for proofing help for my clients), and I sold 5 books!

I’m also going to go back for pizza with my husband. It smelled really good and we’re always looking for new pizza places to try. Who would have thought about all these connections and possibilities from a library that is no bigger than 1000 square feet in a town that isn’t large enough to have a grocery store.

Maybe that will be the end of it, but maybe it won’t. One never knows.

So keep, keepin’ on! Get out there! Meet people! Keep your eyes and ears open. Over time you can’t predict how it will pay off, but it will.

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Source: An Incredible Marketing Case Study, with Author-Illustrator Lori Richmond – WeGrowMedia – Dan Blank

“Don’t lose faith and quit on yourself.” Interview with New York Times Bestselling Author Thomas Greanias

Dec30

I get Dan Blank’s e-newsletter and this week he talks about the power we have as writers with the idea that we are starting a new year so we have the opportunity to move forward with ideas we might have as writers. This allows us to take advantage of the time we have and start telling the story you want to share – to make a plan!

I thought you might like to listen to the podcast he did with New York Times bestselling author Thomas Greanias. Come to find out, Thomas is from my neighboring state of Illinois!

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Today I’m excited to share my interview with New York Times bestselling author Thomas Greanias. What jumped out at me the most was his advice to writers, and how they have a power that they o…

Source: “Don’t lose faith and quit on yourself.” My Interview with New York Times Bestselling Author Thomas Greanias – WeGrowMedia – Dan Blank