Tim Ferris gives an excellent talk at WordCamp SF.

Takeaways for me:

1. I like the concept of using crazyeggs.com to track user action vs referral sources.

2. Change label ‘categories’ to ‘topics’ increase views alot.

3. He only posts once 0r twice a week.

4. He would rather keep on site then send viwers off to Twitter

5. He test everything.

6. He likes using StumbleUpon and says the traffic is high quality(I had no idea).

7. He uses Twitter for polling and Evernote to gather notes for research.

8. Edit your posts by hand and do SEO last.

9. If you are not having fun posting your audience won’t either.

I am trying out a new plugin on this post. Apture

It is easy to use and you have total control of which content type and data you link to. Nice.

Seth Godin elaborates.

Rex Hammock on how Apple will change everything about Podcasting.

1. iTunes won’t be the eBay of podcasting, it will be the iTunes of podcasting.

2. How much could Howard Stern make podcasting via iTunes vs. broadcasting via Sirius?

3. A long tail of podcasts on iTunes will make us stop thinking of "podcasts" as just Wayne’s World programming or radio-like genres.

4. How Apple will change everything about Podcasting, #4 — They’ll make it simple.

This is the future about to happen. Now that Apple has announced that the iTunes store will carry podcasts watch out. Read the about the full implications here. rexblog.com: Rex Hammock’s Weblog.

The big takaway for professionals and consultants is this:

How iTunes’ 99¢ download model should make a light bulb go off above the heads of conference and seminar & convention planners, motivational speakers, audio tour-guide creators, etc. that makes them go, "Hmmm, every speech made at every conference we put on can be sold via iTunes" — for a lot more than 99¢, in some cases. In other words: A BUSINESS MODEL that even a media company executive can understand.

By Justin Davidson Newsday NEW YORK

On Sept. 29, 1855, the Brooklyn Daily Times ran an unsigned and startlingly exuberant review of a thoroughly obscure book of poetry. The anonymous critic quivered with admiration for the poet, as well as the verse. “Of pure American breed, of reckless health, his body perfect, free from taint top to toe,” he wrote. The article did not mention that this lyric superman had printed the book himself and delivered the clothbound volumes to the only two bookstores that would take it, where they spent months moldering in stacks. He also omitted that he was using the newspaper to review his own book. The name of this shameless self-promoter was Walt Whitman. The book was “Leaves of Grass.” A seismic tremor in American literature began as a dreary little vanity project.

Today the phrase “vanity project” is an accusation redolent of bloated ego, absence of talent, ill-used money or clout and contempt for the ethics of merit. Most of all, the phrase implies scorn for the normal artistic filters: all the editors, directors, producers, investors, curators and institutional functionaries who make things happen and bestow prestige. Lurking behind the term is the assumption that the only reason to produce, distribute and market your own creation is that nobody else will do it for you.

But in this world of blogs, pocket video cameras, on-demand publishing and instant Internet distribution, dismissing an artistic undertaking for its vanity quotient has become so 20th century.

Are You An Unpublished Author? Learn “Everything You Should Know” from America’s #1 Book & Author Publicist 

I recommend blogging to all writers. It disciplines you to write on the fly, like a journalist. Only one caveat: I haven’t started my next novel yet. Does blogging replace the novel-writing impulse? There’s some irony here, since I started blogging to promote my novel-writing. If I’m still blogging 6 months from now and I haven’t started a new novel, I will face a big choice. Who am I — a blogger or a novelist?

A web presence for writers and artists Terry Teachout unwittingly describes the essence of the WOLves Promotional Group here. His focus is on artists, but there isn’t any reason why those in other fields beyond writing couldn’t be part of the writer’s Group!

If you’re an artist, ask yourself this: how are you using the new media to interact with your audience and spread the word about your work? I’ve said this before, but it can’t be said often enough: the mainstream media aren’t especially interested in serious art, and such interest as they do have is diminishing daily. If you’re looking to big-city newspapers to start reviewing more literary fiction, or to PBS to telecast more ballet and modern dance, or to your local radio station to continue carrying the Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday broadcasts, you’re kidding yourself. They don’t care. Which leaves you with two options. You can sit around complaining about their indifference—or you can do an end run around them and use the new media to reach out directly to your audience, both existing and potential.

Heck, we could even start calling it the WOLves Writers & Artists. We’re all doing the same thing, and appreciate each other’s disciplines.

I realized today that I have been writing about self-publishing without sharing some of the key factors that went into my decision to self-publish in the first place. Although I like breaking new ground, I am primarily inspired by the chance to make money doing so. Pioneering for the sake of getting there first does not pay the bills. Traditional publishing offers little or nothing for the first-time author. The new model of self-publishing is a lot more author-friendly. Writing is a creative act. Publishing is a business. To paraphrase Dan Poynter, a publisher is the one who puts up the money and takes the risk.The publisher assembles the book for the printer, gets it printed, and then markets it, hoping to make back more money than has been spent to produce the book. In short, the publisher is the investor. When you invest in something, you want a sure thing at the lowest possible cost, with a high rate of return, and you are prepared to cut your losses as soon as it looks like your investment is not going to fly. This is why traditional publishers screen hundreds of thousands of books every year, searching for those four or five that will sell enough copies to keep them in business. As a new author, you have almost no chance of getting their attention, unless you know one of their editors.

Are you willing to invest $2000 – $4000 in your new book? If you are not, then why should a publisher be interested?

You must do your homework and determine that there is a market for your book. Once you have done that, why go to the bother of trying to convince a publisher that you have a viable market? On the other hand, if you are selling your book like gangbusters, you will probably attract attention from a publisher who specializes in that particular market.

I will be directly involved in all aspects of the marketing and sales cycle and expect to ship books within one business day of receiving payment via PayPal. If Dan Poynter is right, I should make 4-6 times as much on every sale as if I were going the traditional route.

The one thing you have to realize is that it is the author who promotes and publicizes the book until it is selling well. Generally, the traditional publishing house puts it in a few ads with lots of its other titles and calls it a day.

If the book sells, it is you, the author, who accomplishes that. Why not fan the flames until the book is selling well and take the profits you deserve. At that point, if you have a runaway seller, you should have a much better bargaining position when a publisher or agent approaches you.

This is an area where you new writers may be able to achieve a stunning breakthrough. Getting a book out in 90 days and keeping a healthy percentage of the selling price beats waiting for eighteen months and getting 50 cents on the average sale, with the royalties paid quarterly. 

Wake up and smell the coffee.  This is not your father’s economy.  And it’s not the boom that inflated our expectations and then exploded.  But it’s also not the doom and gloom we’ve been mired in for nearly three years now!  So, wake up.  Pull yourself together. Get on with it.  With what you ask?  With the rest of your life.  It’s a bright, fresh world full of opportunities.  I know that runs counter to many of the opinions all around us, but it’s true, and I can show you why.  It’s true for the investor, the entrepreneur, the CEO, the unemployed, and the human being seeking balance.  This blog will be dedicated to insights and discussion about life, business, and investment in what I call The New Normal. Please join in! 

Looks like this will be a blog with refreshingly unique content. This is a very well executed blog by Roger McNamee supporting his new book. Notice the accolades and excerpts tabs.

Best selling novelist Jennifer Weiner.  SnarkSpot

Scott Mitchell’s web log about technical writing, technology, and ASP.NET. He is an author of a few technical books on ASP, as well as an independent consultant/trainer. Scott on Writing

Claire Cook, her novels are being made in movies right now. clairecook.com

Blog for authors. Book Marketing and Publicity: Tips for First Time Authors

Consider writing a blog on you general topic. This has several advantages. If you are expert enough to write a book, then you certainly can expound about your topic without giving away all the goodies. It’s called developing trust in marketing terms. By establishing a relationship over time with your blog readers, you become trusted as a valuable resource. Their comments to your posts will give you valuable insights into which areas need more clarity. You may even get an idea for another book.

Now when your book is complete you could self publish and sell it from your blog and elsewhere. Check out on-demand printing. One of the best is Trafford Publishing: Your Book, Your Way. Don’t miss their publishing profit calculator.

Even better convert it to an e-book in PDF form and sell it via ClickBank. No inventory, no packing and shipping, and no unit cost. With a physical book you might get a few dollars per book sold. With an e-book, your profit is the selling price minus 7.5 % for ClickBank to manage the secure download and credit card authorization.

Writing an eBook is easier than you may think.
How to Write and Publish Your eBook in 7 Days

Now lets assume you have a sizable following. You then can solicit feedback from your blog readers if your book idea would be of interest to them. One blogger put the positive responses as pull quotes in her proposal and subsequently sold her concept to a book publisher. The blog showed publishers she was committed to the subject matter and already had an audience. In fact some book agents are now actively scouring the blogs for talented writers and developing their blogs into books. No less than the New York Times wrote about this aspect of blogging on December 15, 2004. The New York Times > Books > A New Forum (Blogging) Inspires the Old (Books)