Author: authorscatapult

Utah Valley Writers – Additional Marketing Material

Utah Valley Writers – Additional Marketing Material

LogoUVW

J. Washburn wanted to know how to Get More Traffic to his blog. This technique is awesome for that: http://backlinko.com/skyscraper-technique

We talked about blogging, but I felt uneasy how it ended. Follow this top blogger for good blog design: http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/07/07/11-essential-elements-of-a-perfect-blog-design-a-data-driven-answer/

Here’s a good blog post checklist, a bit overkill perhaps, but definitely in-depth: http://coschedule.com/blog/how-to-write-a-blog-post-checklist/.

I think an essential key for blogging is to do it regularly. Editorial Calendars are a great help there. Here’s a powerfully simple way to make one: http://www.digitalmarketer.com/blogging-editorial-plan/

Fell lost or distracted by social media? No worries, one of these daily social media schedules can help tons! https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-manager-schedule-checklist Use one of them for yourself or for your virtual assistant or intern.

And these Social Media Tools are very helpful for scheduling posts:

As you saw on Wed. MANY, if not most, big name authors aren’t doing email collection right. That’s probably because they don’t have to. But this gives you an advantage. Follow these examples and you’ll start building your own distribution network (email list) to broadcast to when you release a book:

Lastly, here’s a WordPress plugin to give your blog an opt-in feature box at the top of your site to collect emails: https://wordpress.org/plugins/plugmatter-optin-feature-box-lite/ (I haven’t used it yet, but it looks good)

To learn more about WordPress I like to search YouTube for whatever I’m trying to do, but for one central place for great WP training I like: http://www.wpbeginner.com/

Action Killer #3: Fatigue

Action Killer #3: Fatigue

Have you ever woke up and been staring at something you didn’t recognize, only to remember you weren’t sleeping in your bed?

Well, I did that once while working at 10x Marketing. I pulled a late night, probably to play video games, and then just slept underneath my desk. I dozed off about 3 or 4 and then woke at about 7 when a coworker came into our room.

He got us some blueberry tea and tried to revive me. I don’t know if there was something in the tea or if it was just the 3 hrs of sleep I was running off of, but my vision began to blur and I wasn’t quite sure if I was still sleeping or if I was again in the land of the waking.

You don’t need to be this tired to feel the effects that physical fatigue can have on your ability to act.  Getting a little amount of sleep is known to case impairments not only in vision like I was having, but also lapses in judgement, concentration and memory. So even if action in this state is plausible it’s not optimal to be sure.

In addition to the physical fatigue that has definitely drained my energy to take action towards my goals I have noticed that when I don’t take time to meditate and consider my life I get caught up in all the busynes of life and another type of fatigue crushes me, mental fatigue.

Lastly, when I have this level of drain I begin to see how far I am from my goals and get discouraged. My motivation wanes and I am even less likely to take action. And this because I have convinced myself, even if it’s unspoken, that I can’t accomplish what I set out to do. Thus inaction breeds inaction.

So, recently I have found that for me, some essentials to curbing fatigue are:

  1. 30 minutes of aerobic exercise each morning, I break a sweat, it feels great!
  2. Eating some good fats and proteins at about 2 hr intervals throughout the day
  3. Getting 7 1/2 hrs of sleep
  4. Drinking 1/2 my weight in ounces of water throughout the day
  5. Stretching or doing a little yoga throughout the day so I’m not sitting all day

I really don’t have worry about my action taking ability taking a dive if I am proactively giving my the body energy & rest that it needs.

Do you struggle with fatigue? What do YOU do that gives you the energy to take action towards your goals?

Action Killer #2: Procrastination

Action Killer #2: Procrastination

Just before I went out to Costa Mesa, CA to speak at Ann McIndoo’s 1st ever Author’s Business Mastermind I finished reading a report from one of my mentors, Rich Schefren. The report was all about procrastination.

Rich’s premise was that procrastination only happens when we don’t have clarity on what we want. When we’re not clear on what we resist moving forward.

That really resonated with me. I can’t say how many times I have procrastinated. Looking back, it’s true. My vision was unclear, murky at best.

A passage in the Bible says “without vision, the people perish.” And I refuse to perish. This weekend I am going to get some clarity again, revive my clarity if you will.

The more desire that burns within me to my clarity, the more I will move mountains to make it real.

In my talk last weekend I spoke about how important action is, but I also spoke about how the right action comes from creating first spiritually, in the mind and heart. When the picture there is  clear, when a why exists, there doesn’t need to be questions about how.

Those with a strong enough why can accomplish any how to get to their what.

Robert Kiyosaki said in his book Rich Kid, Smart Kid that instead of saying he couldn’t afford something, his Rich Dad would have him ask, How can I afford it. By changing the quality of our questions we get different answers.

What’s is most clear to you in your life? What’s your why? What vision do you see that you are pulled towards? What questions could you ask to get different results than you are currently getting?

Action Killer #1: Perfectionism

Action Killer #1: Perfectionism

An email from a friend today triggered my thoughts on why I don’t do the things I set out to do…

He mentioned that he had begun his writing, and now he just needed to go back and get himself to edit the whole thing. Here was my advice to him.

Don’t do it. Get used to blogging and not editing. Once you have consistency and confidence that blogging is a habit, go back and correct, but don’t ever let editing stop you from creating the content. Leave that to the editors that review your book.

Seriously, it’s like me and the piano. I never went anywhere because I didn’t keep with the process. Notes had to be perfect and after a while I was sick of beating myself up, so I stopped practicing, my mom took me out of lessons and I am here today, not a pianist because of my fear of making a mistake.

Well, tonight I almost didn’t post, missing my commitment. I could have said that it was too late, that I was tired, that even if I did write it wouldn’t be that much or that profound, but here it is, short & sweet.

Perfectionism has killed my action taking in the past, but when I relinquish my need to have things just right I really do get much further and learn lots along the way.

Do you struggle with perfectionism in your writing? In other things in life? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know that I’m not alone!

Taking Action & Keeping Commitments

Taking Action & Keeping Commitments

Ryan MendenhallDo you ever struggle to keep commitments…especially ones you make to yourself? Great! I’m not alone then.

If you’re like me, you sometimes let things that seem important get in the way of the essential. Sometimes I even know that the things that are getting in the way aren’t important, but I do them anyway. What’s with that?

I sat at lunch Monday with a friend. We’ve known each other since high school and it’s been fun to keep in touch. Not long after I jumped into the author marketing arena he shared with me an idea for a book. I LOVED it and am excited to see it come to fruition!

The topic of his book is taking ACTION. Over the last couple years I’ve noted how much energy comes from keeping commitments to myself. I grow in confidence and strength. So, I intentionally made a commitment to make a blog post a day for a week.

And as I write this first post for Author’s Catapult I am recalling several lessons I learned at The 2014 Book Marketing Summit.

My wife told me that she saw me researching more than taking action. That stung. I had just been reading a report from my mentor Rich Schefren and had just read about the necessity of taking action.

So, it was that day or the next that I sent out my first email to invite book marketing experts to join me in a Summit. That email was to John Kremer, author or 1,001 Ways to Market Your Books.

That book was influential in Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen selling 1/2 billion books. I was nervous to reach out to him to be sure, but with the recent kick in my pants I took action.  I sent the email at 3:08 PM. At 3:16 PM John wrote back. He was in! Momentum built and action became the order of the day, creating a successful entrance into the author marketing market.

Next, Jeff Goins’ wildly successful blog came about after he kept a commitment to himself and took action by getting up early and writing each day on his blog. That commitment, after 18 months, brought him a 100k visitor a month blog.

Those two lessons for me have been very powerful and they echo the thoughts of a recent book that I’ve been reading, The Science of Getting Rich. (HIGHLY recommend it!)

Clear thinking brings all that we want to us. Action allows us to receive it.

What action are you forestalling that could start the riches waiting for you flowing into your life? I’d love to hear about it below!!