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 🙂 Ideally you need supporters that Tweet/share/Tumble about books in your genre – so in turn their 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 😉

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’s relevant 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 😉 . 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 😉

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

Using Twitterfeed to Promote Blog Posts

Do you spend ages Tweeting, Facebooking in LinkedIn-ing (think I just made up a new word there) your blog posts? Perhaps you contribute to several other blogs, as well as your own, and all that social networking takes up too much time. Time you could be using to plot, write or edit your next book!

Never fear, Twitterfeed is here. In a few simple steps, you can be letting Twitterfeed do all the hard work for you.

1. Go to Twitterfeed.com and sign up for an account.

2. Add your first feed by clicking ‘create new feed.’

3. Add the feed name and the URL, then click ‘test rss feed’ to make sure it works.

4. Click ‘advanced settings.’ Check each of the settings to make sure they’re what you want. The most useful I found, particularly if you contribute to a group blog, is ‘post prefix.’ That way you can add text to show that it’s from a blog you contribute to, but not necessarily your post. For example, I prefix with ‘From BlogName.’

5. Continue to step two. You now have three available services; Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Follow the steps to add the Twitter account you’d like to feed the blog posts to. Then repeat the same steps for Facebook and LinkedIn. Pay particular attention to the Facebook settings, as you have the option to post to your regular wall, or you can post to a page, instead.

6. When you’ve selected all the services you want to post to, click ‘All Done!’ and you’ll receive confirmation that your feed is set up and ready to post automatically.

7. Click to go to your dashboard, and you’ll see the feed you just set up, ready and raring to go. Simply repeat from number 2 on this post to add more feeds.

And there you have it! Effort free blog post promotion for yourself and your fellow bloggers!

Testimonial from Liia Ann White

I just received this fab testimonial from Liia Ann White – who booked a blog tour for her latest release through WMS.

I used Lucy’s Writer Marketing Services for a blog tour and was instantly left wondering why I hadn’t used her earlier. I’ve used other promotional companies to organise blog tours and appearances, but none of them compare to Lucy. Within hours of emailing her regarding the tour, she responded – not an easy feat with the time difference between the two of us – and she had great spots booked up within days. The entire process ran smoothly and I couldn’t have been happier.

The tour was a great success and Lucy promoted my guest spots on both her personal Twitter and Erotica For All accounts.

I plan on using Writer Marketing Services again and again and again.

Getting Started with Amazon Author Central

Amazon Author Central is a great free tool to help you promote your books. Once it’s all configured and all your books are added, a link to ‘More About the Author’ will be included on each of your book pages. This means readers can easily find out what other books you’ve written/appeared in, more about you, see a link to your website, find out about upcoming events, and more.

Once it’s set up you just have to make sure it’s kept up to date, i.e. when you have new releases or arrange signings/events.

What many people don’t realise is you need SEPARATE accounts for the UK and US versions of Amazon. If you want to make the most of it, setting up just one account won’t do. It’s a nuisance, but you’ll have to do everything twice, and be aware that the two versions vary slightly.

Amazon Author Central UK: http://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk

Amazon Author Central US: http://authorcentral.amazon.com

Just sign up for free accounts on both sites and follow the instructions to set up your page.

Here’s an outline of what you can do:

  • Add an author photo (and additional photos)
  • Add your books (if you’re listed as the author, this should be straightforward. If, however, you’ve contributed to anthologies, you may find you’ll have to contact Amazon and have them manually add the book to your page.)
  • Add a biography (make sure to update this accordingly)
  • Add a blog RSS feed (a great way to get your blog in front of new people and encourage them to follow you – currently only on US version)
  • List events
  • Add videos (great if you have trailers for your books)
  • Add your Twitter handle so people can see your latest Tweet and easily follow you
  • See sales information for your titles
  • See customer reviews for your titles
  • Amend and add to product pages (a great way of adding great editorial reviews you’ve had for your books to your product pages – though unfortunately this is only currently available on the US version of the site)


Make sure to take full advantage of everything offered here – it’s free promotion, and a great way to make people aware of you as a writer and hopefully buy more than one of your titles!

All of the features are self-explanatory and easy to use, so get signed up today and make Amazon work for you!

Here are my author pages on both sites so you can see what’s possible:

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucy-Felthouse/e/B003ZA5I5E/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Lucy-Felthouse/e/B003ZA5I5E/ref=sr_tc_ep?qid=1316187928

**ALSO**

You can also do the same on the French and German Amazon sites now. Your books will be listed under English-language titles, unless of course you’ve had books translated and sold in those languages.

Use your browser’s translate function or have one of the English language sites open in another tab to help guide you through the process on these two sites, as the layout is identical.

9 Twitter Tips for Beginners


Twitter is a brilliant marketing tool for any writer. Not only can you use it to find and chat with likeminded people, it’s also a great place for exchanging information and, of course, promoting yourself. Lots of people just don’t “get” Twitter so they either don’t use it, or use it incorrectly.

I authored a guest post over at Piece of Tales called 9 Twitter Tips for Beginners. If you want to learn more about Twitter, you should definitely go and check it out.

You can follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cw1985

Completed Project Update

Here are a couple of small projects I’ve undertaken in the past week or two:

Writer Kay Jaybee asked me to build her a Facebook Fan page, to promote the work she already has out, and also in preparation for upcoming releases. You can get more information on the Portfolio page, or visit the page directly by going here.

K D Grace, also a writer, requested a Facebook Fan page too. Her reasoning was the same as Kay’s, to be able to communicate directly with her readers and keep them updated on current and upcoming releases. Again, more information is available on the Portfolio page, or you can see K D’s page here.

K D also wanted personalisation of her Twitter feed, in order to closely match the look and feel of her website. You can see the results on her Twitter page, here.