February 2016 – Beth Turnage

#Howtoblog: Use #keywords to build your #author blog’s reach

February 28, 2016 bturnage 2 Comments

blogging, writing, pagerank, keywords, how to blog — Increase your pagerank with keywords

Pagerank seems to be one of those little things that many writer-bloggers ignore. Maybe it’s because Google keeps changing the game rules, maybe because so few authors understand pagerank, or maybe because in the hectic life of a writer (must put down words, no time for anything else) it seems a tiny detail in the world of blogging.

It is not.

Pagerank is your SEO report card and if you are scoring a goose egg on pagerank, one thing is not happening. The search engines are not sending traffic your way.

Yes, I know. I gave you five sneaky ways to get website traffic, but if you are in this for the long haul you need every edge you can get. Securing a page rank is one edge. Some authors understand this better than others. Chuck Wendig has an immensely successful blog with a page rank of five for his main site and four for his blog. Kevin Hearne a page rank of four, which is pretty darn good on the Google end for a non-corporate blog. Obviously Kevin had someone do all the shiny SEO thingies to get the blog to that pagerank. The first actual author’s blog on Google, which is on page two is Advanced Fiction Writing which has a page rank of three. Now if someone is looking for author blogs who do you think is going to get that traffic?

Well, not Chuck. (Sorry, Chuck) And not Kevin, despite that page rank (Sorry, Kevin). The winner here is Advanced Fiction Writing who took the trouble of crafting the blog title around what, class? (Holds hand to ear) Continue reading #Howtoblog: Use #keywords to build your #author blog’s reach

#BookPromotion: A #booktrailer and Story Cartel

February 14, 2016 bturnage No Comments

First off you may wonder why I’m putting hashtags in my titles. Courtesy of WordPress and with the correct settings my post gets auto published on Twitter and Facebook. The hashtags don’t count so much on Facebook, but on Twitter it sends the posts to lovely pages with similar content. It gives the post exposure to people you never met and a good way to gather a few new followers.

But as regular readers of my blog know, one of my characters called me out for my lack of book promotion expertise. (Shut up, it’s a writer’s thing.) And since us writers are called on more and more to promote our work we are forced to step up our game, regardless the snarky comments the imaginary people in our heads make.

I did two things this weekend. The first it I bought a token on Story Cartel and arranged for them to download my entire novella. Now, this is cash money, folks, something I don’t part with lightly. But it a platform created by The Write Practice’s Jeff Goins and Joe Bunting so I thought I’d give it a try.Continue reading #BookPromotion: A #booktrailer and Story Cartel

The Craft of Writing: 200 Most Common Words As Parts of Speech

February 10, 2016 bturnage No Comments

Two hundred words are said to comprise eighty percent of all English sentences. Here is the list broken down into parts of speech. Why? Because you should know what weapons you are hurling at an unsuspecting public.

It’s been nigh many years when the nuns at my Catholic grammar school made me memorize parts of speech at the age of seven and had me parse sentences at the tender age of ten. Funny thing is that my children never had to struggle with such exercises. Instead they were immersed in “whole language” where they were encouraged to write and express themselves whether or not they knew how to wield words. This is such a stark contrast to me and my classmates having to copy compositions and types of letters out of books to learn how to write such things that it is no wonder that writers today use sentence fragments and feel perfectly comfortable using them. Continue reading The Craft of Writing: 200 Most Common Words As Parts of Speech

#FlashFiction Challenge: A Blog Interview With Arekan Mor’a’stan

February 1, 2016 bturnage 2 Comments

Author: We are happy to have with us today, Arekan Mor’a’stan, the main character in two science fantasy serials, Arekan’s War and the newest, Pirate’s Luck. He also has a supporting role in The Mor’a’stani Chronicles, the series of full-length books about his daughter, B’yetishen Mor’a’stan. Thank you, Arekan for being here today.

Arekan: (irritably) Why are we doing this?

Author: We are participating in Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenge where we are to present a piece of up to one thousand words representative of social media. We are doing a blog interview.

Arekan: What is a Chuck Wendig and what do I have to do kill it? For that matter, what is a social media? Can I run my sword through it?

Author: (In an urgent hushed whisper) You aren’t killing anyone or anything today.

Arekan: And what in the seven hells is a blog? Sounds like something that happens after you drink one too many at the tavern. “Oh gods , I, uh, I’m going to blllooooggghh.” Continue reading #FlashFiction Challenge: A Blog Interview With Arekan Mor’a’stan

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