@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

self-publish

Turn Your Social Media Content into Something Incredible with FeedFabrik

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By now most folks who use the internet for work, play, or both, are likely to have generated a bit of personal or business content on their social media sites. Blogs, videos, articles, tweets, and more have their own special place online for quick and easy access when you need to reference them, share them, or simply enjoy viewing them.

What if you could take your already available content and give it a shiny new cover? What if you could avoid the inevitable process that most all content suffers from as it gets old, left behind, and falls into Internet Purgatory, likely never to be seen (easily) again.

FeedFabrik to the Rescue

FeedFabrik offers the ability to capture your own digital life and turn it into a proud display in a couple of different ways.

Create Your FriendPoster

Users can integrate with their Facebook account to quickly create a FriendPoster. This poster displays all of your social network friends by listing them on the date of their birth with their current profile picture. Users can choose from five different display theme styles as well as selecting different options for saving the creation. FriendPoster comes in:

  • PDF
  • Poster
  • Desktop Wallpaper

It will also be available with gift voucher options very soon.

Make a BlogBook

Turning your blog into a book may have endless possibilities. However, doing so has long proven to be a process usually full of bugs and issues and, in general, difficult to manage while retaining an aesthetically pleasing document. FeedFabrik’s blog book creator can smoothly turn your current blog into a well-designed book. FeedFabrik has full integration options on:

  • Blogger
  • WordPress.com
  • Self-Hosted WordPress Blogs
  • Typepad
  • Tumblr

Your book is prepared for you automatically and is ready in just a few moments. Users are free to take advantage of the customization options to tweak the book’s originality.

FeedFabrik has much to offer those who utilize social media on a regular basis and has several shining selling points when it comes to those who work in the publishing industry.

Alexa shows a 1500% increase in traffic views over the last three months and is currently ranked at #486,284 in the world with most users spending an average of three minutes on site.

Sources:

Tumblr VS WordPress

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According to statistic reports, as of January 2011, the 4 year old site Tumblr.com has 20,873,182 users. For the same period WordPress.com, the older site (by 4 years), announced they have 20,787,904 websites powered by wordPress.com

This is the first time anybody overtook WordPress.com, and it became kind of big news among the blogosphere. To set the record straight, it is important to note that WoldPress.com numbers do not include the open sourced blog platform WoldPress.org, where people have websites they host themselves. The comparison is between the two hosting blog platforms only.

Still, it is clear that many individuals have been signing with Tumblr more than they have been signing with WordPress.com. Which one is better? Well, that depends on why you want a site or a blog and what you want to include in it.

What do they have in common?

  • Both are free.
  • Each site has free themes which can be easily installed.
  • Both can be customized.
  • Both can be updated from any computer or device that has internet connection.
  • Both allow you to name your page the way you choose.
  • Both are well known and popular, with good reputation.
  • Both have export capabilities. If you want to move your site, you can.
  • Both allow importing content from other content management systems.

Tumblr

Ease of use –

  • No installation or configuration of the program on your computer is needed.
  • User friendly dashboard
  • Easy upload of multimedia files
  • Custom designs (which do require payment) are cheaper on Tumblr than on WordPress
  • Easy to update from a mobile device
  • Has a built in community functions that allows following like-minded bloggers, reblogging what they wrote and “liking” it, which makes Tumblr a more community oriented site.

Functionality –

  • The server cannot be controlled by the user; it has to be hosted by the site. However, you can use a unique url that does not include .tumblr at the end.
  • The user has complete control over the content and can move his site or blog to another platform.

Design and customization

  • Has one basic layout and it must be applied to every page on the site. They now added page support to make the navigation between pages much easier.
  • Supports only 3rd party calendars and contacts, but it requires knowledge in coding.

Social Integration –

  • Built in. You can post and link to twitter automatically. You can also connect it to your Facebook page.

WordPress

Ease of use –

  • Downloading their program is necessary, but it offers many more options and settings.
  • The design and functionality of the page is more cumbersome and requires some learning.
  • Allows multiple pages, download of plug-ins, widgets and sidebars.

Functionality –

  • With WordPress.com the user has to use their server.  WordPress.org supports sites hosted by another server.
  • The site can be easily expanded to replace the current site.
  • People who have not designed the site but have administrative rights can post on the site without much effort.

Design and customization –

  • Many page layout options.
  • Ability to use different layouts for different pages.
  • Allows including native calendars and contact forms.

Social integration –

  • Can be done with the help of plug-ins.
  • WordPress.com has publisize allowing for sharing with Facebook Pages, Twitter, Yahoo, etc..

The ongoing consensus among experts is that Tumblr is more user friendly, fun and easy to blog. Its design is slick and simple, modern and big. It is geared more toward pictures and media than WordPress.

Both can be customized but WordPress is more extensive and flexible. If you don’t need an extensive e commerce site with forms, listings, heavy content and advertising, Tumblr is simpler.

But the biggest difference is in the ease of social integration on Tumblr that is built in, while it has to be added to WordPress.com with different plug-ins. Tumblr functions as a cross between a website and a Facebook profile, while WordPress is more dry and functional.

Some companies in entertainment, news and fashion have blogs through Tumblr. The Washington Post Innovations, Newsweek, The Huffington Post and Rolling Stones are some examples. Musicians and photographer seem to flock to Tumblr as well.

WordPress.com hosts sites of top brands like CNN, National football league and TED.

Sources:

Digital Marketing Trend: Microsoft Tag

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Microsoft Tag is a new experience in connecting the digital world with the real world.  By scanning a tag – a new kind of bar code – with your cellular phone, you can have immediate access to information, websites, videos, reviews and more.

 

When you scan a Tag displayed on an establishment or product, it will automatically open a web page and give you all the pertinent information.

  • What was said about the coffee shop you are looking at?
  • Who is the owner?
  • What other users said?
  • You can also see if the place is offering special deals.

Scan a Tag on a concert poster and you will get the dates of their next performance in your city, you could buy tickets or sample a song.  The Tag will display a massage, dial a number or add the contact to your address book.

Shopping, Microsoft says, has become a lot smarter and fun; Tags lets you discover interesting new places, it can give access to the things consumers love and then bring them together.

Tags are free to create and use. They can be added to ads, posters, websites, packages, billboards and clothing. And this is but a part of the list. Adding the Tag to your business card will enable the user to add your contact information immediately into their address book.

For merchants, using the Tag not only give them access to customers they never had before, it also enables them to create media campaigns and have advanced analytics to measure campaign effectiveness. This can give you detailed information where the Tag was scanned and what was your most popular ad location.

The Tag reader is a downloadable application from a single website (to eliminate confusion) and can be as small as you want it to be so it won’t interfere with the design. Tags can be customized to your brand’s specific look and feel.

Microsoft is using a cloud based technology that provides access to data that isn’t possible with other bar-code systems because of the amount of information a cloud can store. Unlike other 2D codes that have permanent information and are associated with a single URL, Tags allows you to change the data in its source, update is as frequently as you want, allowing you to reuse campaign materials.

You can create a Tag by going to their website at tag.microsoft.com and sign in. Since May 2010, Tags has graduated from the beta trials and is now available everywhere. For some reason it caught on much quicker in Europe than in the US. In Amsterdam, for example, they are using the Microsoft Tag to advertise accurate bus schedules.

Since the beginning of its Beta trials and until May 2010, over 1 billion tags have been printed all over the world.

Sources:

Special Thanks to David Tesser for presenting this technology and subject to me for the blog.

Blog Tag: URL 2D

Your Book: A look at Publish America

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Publish America, or PA, is a Print-on-Demand, traditional royalty paying book publishing company. Since Publish America only prints books as they are ordered, they are able to extend authorships to many talented writers. PA believes that if one single book is worth being published, it only need have the idea of a market for it to be accepted by PA editors.

Publish America Facts

PA has nearly 40,000 satisfied authors. Every day, around fifteen of those authors ask PA to accept their subsequent works. This is an incredibly high number of return writers and one of the reasons why PA is known as one of the best print-on-demand companies available.

Although PA may have lower acceptance barriers than other publishing companies, they also have to be choosy in accepting manuscripts that meet the PA requirements. There are no contract fees with PA, ever.

PA authors have made appearances on FOX TV, ABC, MSNBC and CNN. Also the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Women’s World Magazine. PA authors have even been heard on some of the famous radio shows such as Rush Limbaugh, Oliver North and Don Imus.

PA is not a subsidy publisher, vanity press or publish on demand company. PA does not charge for their services. No catches or hidden surprises, and PA even regularly pays small advances to their authors to show their support. PA does not want an authors money, they only want rights to their books, and it stops there. The copyright, TV rights, movie rights, merchandising and audio rights will remain under the authors legal rights. Book publishing contracts expire after seven years instead of the life terms of many publishers.

Almost all of the biggest publishers use digital technologies for printing. The print-on-demand form of publishing is used by other publishers such as Random House.

They will assign a graphic designer to create your book cover, and also take suggestions and ideas from the author.

Publish America Issues

With such a huge amount of books and authors cycling through Publish America yearly, there are also a few problems.

  • Authors report that graphic designers are not always willing to take their ideas when it comes to their book covers, the second most important aspect of their creations.
  • Although Publish America does provide an editing service at no cost, it can be extremely time-consuming. If you do not plan to have your book proofread by an outside service, expect an average wait for editing of around 3 to 6 months.

Sources:

Get Published…Want to be a guest blogger?

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After a big week and response to my blogs I have decided to open the floor. I received a lot of great feedback and suggestions, so in addition to my blog articles M-F I will feature guest blog writers. If you would like to be a guest blog writer, forward your article to me no later than Sunday 31, 2010 at 12 noon. I will showcase at least 1 a day, perhaps two a day all next week depending on content quality, your name and your contact info will be posted with the article (your website, facebook, twitter or e-mail your choice).

Rules:

The article must fit the following categories:

  • Social Media
  • Social Brand
  • Visibility Marketing
  • New Tech for Mobile or Social
  • Small Business Education
  • Small Business Resources
  • Advertising & Marketing
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Social Brand Reputation Management

Format:

  • No More than 600 words
  • Language appropriate (English, Spanish, French or Russian)
  • No more than two external links for self promotion
  • No more than 5 links total

Content:

  • Author is given credit for content
  • Content must be original
  • Content cannot be syndicated elsewhere for sixty days.

e-mail: basil@puglisiconsulting.com

Pubit! A New Self-Publishing Platform

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The writing is on the wall; we are moving from reading books printed on paper to eBooks read electronically. That has become the reality for publishing companies and book sellers. Following the example of the music industry, you either adjust or you become obsolete. What the iPod and iTunes did to music distribution, smart book sellers are doing with the written word. Amazon came out with the Kindle, Sony with its E Reader, Apple with the iPad and Barnes and Noble with their Nook.

On October 4, 2010, Barnes and Noble launched its new service, Pubit! that takes care of the other side of this issue – publishing content electronically.

Pubit! allows authors to upload their work to the site and have access to millions of readers. Authors can self-publish books they have written, short eBooks, articles, short story collections or poems and make them available for sale through Barnes and Noble e-book store.

With a free and simple set up and registration process, books can be uploaded, including the cover and artwork and be available for download for less than $10.

When registering for their service the author enters into a partnership with Barnes and Noble. Every work is prices from $1.99 to $199.99, and every sale proceeding is split between the author and the publisher following a clearly spelled formula:  B&N gets 40% -65% of the proceedings, depending on the length of the publication and its popularity. There are no hidden fees, and no upfront costs. The author is able to track sales and payments through their site.

This is a very important partnership since Barnes and Noble has over one million titles in their online e bookstore, and millions of visitors.

Unpublished writers can now get published, E-books have another venue, poets and artists can be discovered by popular demand rather by the tastes of the publisher’s team.

What makes Pubit! even more exiting is the fact that Barnes and Noble went a step further than having it ready to be read on their Nook. They are offering a free e-reading application that enables readers to download and read books on other platforms as well; PCs, iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones. They are making the content readily available, accessed from different platforms, without cost to the authors.

In the same way YouTube provided a platform for people to display their video work and get noticed, Pubit! Is attempting to change the publishing world and allow people from all walks of life, that have been writing ‘to the drawer’, to get published, noticed and become successful by popular demand.

This opportunity also opens the door for hundreds of consultants and coaches allowing them to stretch the hand of social media from helpful advice to expert publications.