What Is Thunderclap and Why Use It?

thunderclap

I’m sure some of you have seen messages and notes about Thunderclap floating around the web and wondered what it is. I know I’ve had several clients ask me about it, which is why I’m writing this post.

Basically, it is a free promotional tool (though there are paid options you can explore) to help you get the word out about something. For the purposes of this post, I’ll use books as an example, as it’s what I deal with.

You sign up for a free account at Thunderclap.it, and follow the simple instructions to set up your campaign. Use graphics from your book if you can, as that way you’re increasing visibility of your book to those that click through to support your campaign. Spend some time crafting your message, adding some relevant hashtags if you’ve got room – bear in mind that this message will go out once and hopefully to an awful lot of people, so you want it to have punch, something to really make people want to click on the link you’ve provided. I’d also recommend only opting for 100 supporters the first time around – it sounds like a small number, especially if you have lots of social media savvy friends, but it’s tougher than you think to get people to click that link.

Once you’re happy with what you’ve done, submit your campaign and wait for Thunderclap to approve it (you can speed this process up by paying, but I’ve never done this). Then, when approval arrives, the really hard work begins. You have to get supporters.

Supporters are the whole point of Thunderclap – they’re the ones that are signing up to send out your message on the date and time you’ve selected. I think, since Thunderclap is fairly new, that people may be shying away from supporting Thunderclaps as they don’t fully understand what it means. So, in a nutshell, here goes: supporters are pledging to help you, by donating a Tweet, a Facebook status or a Tumblr post (or indeed, any combination of those three). That’s all. They’ll see the message they’re pledging to send out, hit those support buttons, and, providing you get enough supporters to “tip” the campaign, their social media account/s will automatically send out the message on the date and time you’ve selected.

The point of all this? Well, since we’re talking books – it’s to drive sales. If you have an upcoming book, you can set something up in advance to go out on your release date – then you’ve got a while to promote the Thunderclap, get your supporters and then you’ll get a big boost on social media on the day, which will hopefully get people clicking those buy buttons and pushing you up the respective retailer charts. Cool, huh?

There is more to it than just getting the supporters, though. Sorry to complicate matters šŸ™‚ Ideally you need supporters that Tweet/share/Tumble about books in your genre – so in turnĀ theirĀ followers/friends/etc are more likely to be interested in your book. Also, it goes without saying that the more followers/friends/readers your supporters have, the more people are likely to see your message once it goes out. So if you can attract people with a large reach on social media, all the better.

But to keep things simple, maybe start out small, and once you’ve dipped your toe in the Thunderclap water and seen how it all works – you can be more adventurous next time.

Bottom line: make sure you’ve crafted a powerful message to go out, that will catch people’s eyes and make them want to click. Then sit back and (hopefully) watch your sales increase.

Want to see how it works from a supporter’s angle? Here are three Thunderclaps you can sign up for (and I’d be grateful of your help):

Timeless Desire – M/F erotic romance story

Little Boxes – contemporary romance novel

To Rome with Lust – erotic romance novel

I hope this has helped you. Feel free to share far and wide on the web, to help people gain an understanding of how it works. If I get lots of questions and queries, I may do another article at a later date with more specifics.

Happy Promoting!

Lucy

Why Use Triberr?

Hi everyone,

I’m writing this post due to popular demand. I’ve had several clients ask me about Triberr, what it is, why they should be using it and how much time it will take up. I’ll do my best to answer these questions, and probably more, without writing a blog post that will be the same length as my latest novel šŸ˜‰

Here goes…

Screenshot 2014-03-13 10.19.02

1. What is Triberr?

Triberr is a type of social sharing site where a user will join “tribes” that are relevant to the content they create on their blogs. So, for example, I’m in several writing, erotica, erotic romance and romance-type tribes. Once a user’s account is set up correctly, their blog’s RSS feed will automatically add each new post into the streams of people who are in the same tribes as them. The idea of this is that because people in tribes share similar interests, the posts they will see in their streams are things they will want to share with their own followers. Which brings me neatly onto point #2.

2. Why should you be using it?

Because it increases your reach. Massively. At the time of writing this post, I have 5,653 Twitter followers. So when I go into Triberr and approve other people’sĀ relevantĀ posts (this is key for me. I don’t want to alienate my followers by Tweeting stuff about children’s books or young adult), they will automatically be Tweeted onto my account. Not all at once, but at intervals set by me, which are half an hour.

Imagine this reversed. Because each of my blog posts are fed into Triberr, they’ll appear on my tribemates’ feeds and they’ll share them. So without Triberr, my Tweets would be seen by 5,653 people and probably then by others because my followers have Retweeted me. But with Triberr, my blog posts are automatically fed to the Twitter feed of every tribemate that approved my post – and because I’m in tribes that are relevant to my work, this is most of them. So, depending on how many Twitter followers each of my tribemates has, you can see how much my reach increases. The biggest reach of the tribes that I’m in is 452,533 people! That’s HUGE!

3. How much time will it take up?

Not much is the short answer. If you simply join us as a member and don’t have a tribe of your own (there are currently enough tribes out there that you don’t need to worry about setting up your own), it’s a quick and easy thing. Now I have everything set up correctly, I probably spend ten minutes per day approving relevant posts. I know we’re all busy people, but this is a tiny portion of time compared to the potential benefits. Because if you’re seen to be active, to be approving other people’s posts, then they’ll approve yours, too. So where your blog posts might have only reached 6,000 followers beforehand, with Triberr this is multiplied many fold with a small amount of time on your part.

I realise this is a really, really short piece which doesn’t go into the nitty-gritty of setting up Triberr, finding tribes and so on, but as I said I didn’t want to write a novel in a blog post šŸ˜‰ . Ultimately, even if you’re not technically-minded, once Triberr is set up, it’s just a matter of going in once a day, going to your stream and hovering over that share button for each post you want to share. Technology does the rest for you. If you don’t want to share a post, then click the hide link. You’ll soon get into a rhythm. Once your stream is empty, give yourself a pat on the back and move onto the next item on your to-do list. But don’t forget to watch traffic to your site increase, especially if you’ve taken the time to write engaging blog post titles – something I personally am working on improving, and am already seeing results.

So, there’s Triberr in brief. If I end up with lots more questions and feedback on this post, then I may well write another article in a couple of weeks about the more nitty-gritty side of things. Alternatively, you could just pay me to get you set up on Triberr then sit back and reap the rewards šŸ˜‰

P.S. If you’re an erotica or erotic romance author and want to get started – come check out my tribe.

Confirmed Speaker at Smut by the Sea

I’m delighted to announce that I will be speaking at this year’s Smut by the Sea event, which takes place on the 14th June in Scarborough, England.

I’ll be giving a talk on promotion and marketing from 1pm – 1.50pm. Come along to receive hints, tips and advice on how to handle the dark art of selling your books once you’ve written.

There’s lots more going on, too, including talks and workshops on inspiration, writing better erotica and an erotic reading and poetry slam. There will also be a bookstall, a craft stall and an erotic tombola.

So, what are you waiting for? If you’re up for some smut by the sea, then come to Smut by the Sea!Ā Tickets and full details are available at http://smutbythesea.co.uk

Two New Websites and Scheduling for July and August

I’m very pleased to announce that I recently launched two more new websites.

 

Cass Peterson is a new erotica and erotic romance writer who wanted a website to help promote her existing publications and to compliment her future ones. Her publications include Smut AlfrescoĀ andĀ Smut by the Sea Volume 2,Ā published by House of Erotica.Ā See the portfolio and details here.

 

Celia J Anderson is a debut romance writer, who won her first contract from Piatkus Entice as part of the Festival of Romance.Ā Sweet ProposalĀ will be available from 1st August 2013, and Celia wanted her website up and running in time for that, as well as available as a platform for reviews, news, and anything else she wants to blog about. See the portfolio and details here.

 

I’m also scheduling blog tours into July and August, so if you’re interested in booking one, please let me know ASAP.

K D Grace and Grace Marshall

K D Grace has been a client of mine since I first launched Writer Marketing Services. I created and maintain her website, and deal with her PR. Now, excitingly, this popular author has also started writing under another pen name!

K D Grace writes incredibly hot erotica and erotic romance, and her alter ego, Grace Marshall, writes hot romance. The launch of this new pen name and the book deal that spawned it inevitably meant that another website and social media presence was required. Therefore, I created and launched GraceMarshallRomance.co.uk (with graphics designed by Kevin Mitnik of Blisse UK), and opened a new Twitter account and Facebook Fan Page for Grace Marshall. Grace is currently finishing her first book and it will be launched in coming months, so make sure to keep an eye on her site and social media profiles for further news.

Following the launch of the Grace Marshall website, myself and K D/Grace, decided that now would be the perfect time to revamp the KDGrace.co.uk website. So once Grace Marshall was made live, I started work on the K D Grace website. I used the same WordPress theme but with different colours and graphics (also created by Kevin Mitnik) to make it clear that K D Grace and Grace Marshall are one and the same, but write different books. Though I’m sure many readers will enjoy both sets of books!

So, please go and visit both sites and enjoy some superbly written books!