If you’re like me, you like to add tags for your keywords when blogging. Firefox had a great add-on that worked but when they upgraded the plugin no longer worked. And Technorati have either stopped or shifted the tag generator they used to have on display when you logged in. But a bit of searching found me one that works a treat and has many facets to it.  Free Tag Generator and Social Bookmark Generator.

I use it often, it’s very easy to use and it’s bookmarked so I can find it all the time.  Thought I’d share the treasure I found with all my readers.

Technorati tag, tag generator, tags for blogging

Regular readers will know that I’ve just published a new book and that I have set up a promotional book launch with sales through Amazon.com.  It does take some work to set this up and to bring others on board but when the day arrives, it is quite exciting.

I’m 4 hours into the promotion and my book sales ranking at Amazon.com has risen from #243,675 to #29,057  (see below).

I’ll be in bed during US daytime for the most part so it will be interesting to see what is showing up in the morning when I check in again.

I have a group of friends in the US, some lovely Baby Boomer ladies and I know they’ll be watching it for me as they did the last time, with great interest and excitement.  My previous book made the Top 100 Hot New Releases for its genre and I’m hoping to repeat the exercise.

amazon book launch, God-incidence, book promotion, sales rank

Then have I got something for you!

The moderators and administrators at Aussie Bloggers were given a short story, and asked to fill in the blanks. The results have been combined into The Lazy Bloggers Blog Post Generator. And they’ve made it available for you to use too!

No longer do you have to worry about writer’s block and I’m sure you could get some really interesting stories for your blog. Why not try it out and share here or at Aussie Bloggers the fun that you’ve been having!

blogging, writing, writer’s block, ideas

My book “Worth More Than Rubies” is being launched at Amazon tomorrow. And I’m doing a special offer with giveaways for a 24 hour period only. Of course, the book will always be available, but if you want to experience the special offers, then it needs to be purchased during the time period listed below.The date is:

Special offer (24 hours only): From 12.01am 27th June 2008 AEST(10am 26th June – 9.59am 27th June US EDT)

See Amazon Campaign for advance details.

If you’d like to be reminded of the launch and the goodies that will be available please register below – you’ll get an email from me just prior to the launch.

I’ve been looking at what’s involved in creating a viral email. You know, those emails that get passed around because they are funny, have a point to make, or are a feel good email. I want to create the latter and recently discovered Window’s MovieMaker program. I converted a PowerPoint presentation to a movie clip, added royalty free music (the images are royalty free too) and then uploaded it to Youtube. In the space of a week it’s had over 200 hits and I’ve been looking at how to turn it into a viral email to pass on the message of how much mothers are worth to their families. This is about the Proverbs 31 Woman.

For all those mothers out there. Do you know your true worth to your family?

Please do pass it on!

Proverbs 31 Woman, Worth More Than Rubies, Work At Home Mum

I use Google Alert to keep me alerted (pardon the pun) on topics of interest to me and often I see a blog post I want to go and comment on – and perhaps link back on one of my blogs. So I find it really frustrating when I can’t leave a comment on a blog because you have to sign up or register for whatever the system is that the blog is on. I usually go away again. Who wants to be forced to sign up to heaps of different services just to leave a blog comment?

Which made me wonder just how many bloggers actually lose out on comments and knowing about readers because they make it too difficult for others to comment? They might consider it’s a simple process but stop and think for a moment – how many blogging communities and platforms are out there? And if you have to stop and register (and sometimes wait for a password too) the moment of opportunity quickly fades and is replaced with one of annoyance and time wasted. This is often coupled with no contact information on these same blogs – I don’t know how much time I’ve wasted trying to work out how to contact owners of blogs too.

Make it easy on your readers and set your comment system so that anyone can comment. Simple process in most cases. You can set up moderation so you view all comments first and use a spam filter like Akismet or Captcha or something but don’t make it hard on your readers to leave comments – it could open up a whole new channel for discussion and further posts.

Some places that this occurs are: MySpace, AOL Blogs, Blogger, WordPress

Yes, that is what is happening. If you own a blog at Blogger, you’ll see mention of one blog that has recently become a book.

I have also turned one of my blogs into a book. There was so much interest in my personal walk through the Proverbs 31 chapter and about the Proverbs 31 Woman that I launched a book late September called “Worth More Than Rubies: The Value of a Work at Home Mum“. Those who have read Proverbs 31 will know where the title has come from. The book would make a great Christmas present for any woman who has a desire to return home to work and be there for family – or perhaps she already is but feels very much on her own. “Worth More Than Rubies” is available in Australia online, and also in the US at lulu.com. You’ll also find it in Koorong Bookstores Australia wide and Dymocks in Melbourne. See my website linked above for full details.

Going back to the blogger book – just in case you don’t have an account at Blogger, here it is for you. There are some great tips below.

Sasha Cagen’s To-Do List blog (which you may recognize as a blog of note) has just been released as a book! Both blog and book are collections of, well, to-do lists, mailed or emailed in by people. Think PostSecret meets Getting Things Done.

Watch the trailer, read the blog, buy the book, and make sure that you have an awesome screen name.

— Pete

I mix and mingle with a number of aspiring and published writers and have learnt much from them. And as I’ve been travelling my own journey of being an author I’ve discovered some things that I’ve been able to share with these other writers.

When testing content or wanting to see just how much content you might have for a book, a blog is a great way to get the idea out there, generate an audience, and assess whether there is real interest. I did this, quite by accident, with a blog I started early 2006. I was testing the WordPress software and had to find another topic to blog about as I didn’t want to shift my existing blogs from their homes until I was confident with this platform that was new to me.

Along the way a journalist in the US found my new blog and highlighted some of the content to prove a point in one of his articles online. After that I ended up with thousands of visitors and some who placed comments, and others who emailed me direct for advise or encouragement.

I shared this with my business coach and he encouraged me to take that copy and turn it into a book, adding my life experiences and other information.

It was a pleasant surprise to find I’d touched on a topic that held great interest for women around the world and now that I’ve done further research I find that the information online is growing but there are still a limited number of books out there. The topic? The Proverbs 31 Woman and I’ve expanded on how she was both a business woman and a work at home mum – bringing her into modern times.

So, if you’re a budding writer, looking to put a book together, why not consider putting up a blog to test your content and gauge the interest? You can get free blogs at Blogger.com or WordPress.com – or, do as I did, and have paid webhosting so you can have WordPress installed (which comes free) and a very large number of free templates available for your use and modification if you desire.

I’d love to hear about your writing plans – why not make a comment here?

blogging for writers, write a book, author, writer

For many months now I’ve been writing a book. I’ve written other books which are sold as e-books online and are business ‘how to’ books, but this one is different and is being published by a company in W.A.

I began a blog (yes another one – I own several) in January 2006 which has proven very popular and when I mentioned it to my business coach late last year he said I should really do something with it and turn it into a book. I thought about that but didn’t do anything about it, and at the following session I saw my coach I mentioned I’d been booked to speak at a Christian Business Women’s Conference in Brisbane for September 2007. ‘Great!’ he said ‘you can launch your book there!’

Up till that point it was just an idea but suddenly it began to take hold and thereafter at each session he would ask me how many words I’d written? I took the idea of the blog and the content and built on it, and wove my story into it, and now it’s soon to be a full-sized paperback – probably to be listed in the ‘self-help’ or ‘Christian living’ genres.

If you don’t have a business coach it is worth exploring.  I provide VA services to a few coaches and decided I need to get a coach I didn’t do work for – for a couple of reasons.  I didn’t want to have to choose one from the other, but also I felt they would already have a perception of who I am and what I do (based on what I do for them) and I wanted to have someone work with me from a separate viewpoint.  And then I went to a networking meeting about a year ago and saw a man from my church who is a business coach. We began talking and things just clicked.  Stuart really has been excellent for me.  Whilst my business had been moving forward, he’s had me dreaming, planning and pulling out things I had put aside because I was so busy concentrating on running my business.  Now I’m looking up and ahead again and the book has become one of those things that used to be in the distant future.

Going this road is new, exciting, scary and full-on.  I had to commit myself to write a few thousand words every weekend for months and had it set in my Outlook calendar to nag me into getting the work done. But now it’s done I’m filled with excitement and can’t wait to see the finished product.   Stay tuned!

I’ve just come across this article which I think is worthwhile reading for anyone who has content that could be copied.

Copyright Infringement: What If Someone Is Stealing From You?

Located perpetrator is key

By: John Dozier

As attorneys specializing in the litigation of Internet disputes, not a day goes by that we do not hear about a small online business getting ripped off through the theft of online content. Sometimes the property taken is a website or part of a website. Other times it is certain code or an e-book. But whenever it happens, you can be sure of one thing: It has value to the thief….

Click on the heading link for the full article.

copyright, stealing content, website, ebook