All About Writing

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Posted on August 19, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Triberr & Writing

I joined Triberr originally for my other twitter account @dailydishrecipe, and was pretty excited when I got my first pick on tribes I applied to. I got hooked within the first week, became super active and felt like I had gotten to know many people pretty well. I eventually added my @simplywriting  twitter account and added the RSS feed for this blog. Then I set out to find some writing groups.

My whole goal with Triberr was to meet new people and become friendly with other bloggers. It definitely happened, but so did many other things along the way. I thought I would share some advice from my month on Triberr.

- When you first join Triberr – do not join another tribe, or create another tribe, until you have been a member for at least 2 weeks. This will allow you time to get used to the site, learn all the features and not make any mistakes along the way. (okay that’s silly because I’m sure you’ll make mistakes…. we all do.)

- When you do finally join new tribes, try to find out as MUCH information as you can about the tribe. Triberr has the settings set so that you usually can’t see who’s in a tribe until you get into it, nor can you have any idea what the frequency of tweets, etc will be in there. I learned this the hard way. I could see that there were 13 people in one tribe I joined, I thought that seemed manageable and small, which was what I wanted – only to find out that 3 out of the 13 people were deal & giveaway bloggers and they posted like 20 times a day. Yeah, talk about a clogged twitter feed.

- You can set the frequency of how often you tweet from Triberr. I usually have my set for 15 minutes, and then at night, I will up it to 5 minutes if there’s a lot scheduled. Also, remember that all of the posts in your stream from your tribemates are TENTATIVELY scheduled to go out at that time, does not mean they actually will. Triberr JUST added a “Tweet Now” button which as been WONDERFUL for me. I sometimes have huge gaps in my stream between posts/tweets, and posts that are clustered together, etc. This way, I can simply click the TWEET NOW button and it gets sent immediately. The only thing that would make it better is if we could schedule tweets for a certain time LOL.

- Don’t join whatever tribe sends you an invite. Don’t try to join every tribe. After I started paying attention to what tribemates were posting, I realized that there was a lot of stuff going out that wasn’t the type of information my followers were looking for – nothing like mixing yummy recipe posts with disgusting poopy diaper posts. Yeah, not really my thing.

- If you have a question, or a problem – and you ask a question in the Bonfire area – that’s okay. But don’t get mad when you don’t get a response right away. Both Dan & Dino have full time jobs and are extremely attentive during their off hours, but they have wives, girlfriends and a life. You’re not paying for the site, so just be patient. It’s still new, it’s going to have growing pains.

- Don’t be sucked into the numbers game. Many start paying attention to “reach” which is the number of people you “reach” with your post when it is tweeted to each of your tribemates. It’s hard not to notice it, but I don’t even pay attention to it anymore. Many want to have the highest, biggest reach – but by far this doesn’t mean anything and what it usually does is turn your twitter stream into a spammy mess, because in a tribe of 20, if everyone posted once a day (and trust me, many of these people do nothing but post ALL day) = that’s 20 posts that are going to go through your twitter stream in one day. Join more than once tribe and that number continues to climb.

- Which reminds me, make sure you pay attention to your twitter stream. Look at what you’re posting. Then think about if you were one of your followers, would you find that info useful? Or spammy?  Some of these “general” tribes are full of the giveaway gals, as I call them. They do nothing but post about deals, coupons and oh my goodness – the giveaways, all day. Which means, you do nothing but tweet about their posts about the deals, coupons and the giveaways. See? Great if you’re a giveaway gal, not so great if you’re not.

Don’t get me wrong – deals, coupons and giveaways are great but some of these gals were posting upwards of 6-10 times a day (most of the time more). I post MAYBE once a day. It was too much.

I don’t regret Triberr in any way, shape or form. I have grown as a blogger since day 1, I continue to pay attention to what is being tweeted, and I’m still having a great time. There’s been some snafu’s along the way, and they are what they are. I’m good with them.

So, with all the said – if you are writer, and you are interested in joining our tribe Writing Warriors, let me know (send me an inbox nicole AT nicolehumphrey DOT net, or send me a message on twitter. I do have inbreeding unlocked so if you are already on Triberr, I have you covered too.  We’re a friendly bunch with quality content – you do however need to have a writing blog where more than 75% of your posts are related to writing. But other than that, any genre, topic, etc.

If you have other tips & tricks for Triberr members or newbies, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

Wanna join my tribe? Shoot me a message! :0)

Have a great weekend!

Posted on June 9, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Pinterest Addict

It’s official…I am an addict. I have made the move into Pinterest and I have unpacked my bags. I’m not leaving anytime soon. Absolutely in love with that website. It’s so much better than book mark apps, etc. I can just save a photo, which reminds me of whatever it was I wanted and voila – a beautiful photo board of visual goodness.

These are just a few of my boards on Pinterest. Every topic under the sun is covered on Pinterest too. And you can add your own things complete with comments. I have found some amazing stuff on there.  Are you on Pinterest?

Posted on June 1, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Day 1 – Write an Elevator Pitch

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I am participating in a month long challenge to build a better blog. I have the workbook, I joined the group and now I’m taking off with the first days challenge.

I have to write an elevator pitch about my blog. It has to be 140 characters or less. Well, that’s cool, I’m a Twitter Pro. LOL Right?

I spent the past few days trying to think about what I wanted to say, and I came up with four. I have no clue which one to use, but I’m probably going to have to resort to playing eenie, meenie, miney, moe so I can choose.

1. Humor - YA & Romance Author and busy mom of five, shares her life and the road to publishing, while hooked up to a continuous coffee IV.
2. Lots of Info – Personal – YA & Romance Author. Mom to 5. Love books & photography. Addicted to sushi, coffee & chocolate. Writing about life & the road to publishing.
3. Straight Forward & Simple – Author and mom of 5 serves her crazy life up one blog post at a time, while helping other writers on their road to publishing.
4. Simple Non Sentences – Mom of 5. Author. Writer. Photographer. Sushi Addict. Drinks too much coffee. Writes Too Many Words. Shares her crazy life.

I realize they are all similar, mostly because I want to keep the same elements. But there are things about each one I love.

Here are my thoughts.

1. I like # 1 because it has a twist of humor at the end, while still explaining what the blog is about. It’s simple, yet has a twist which shows my funny side. (yes, I realize I’m probably the only one who thinks I’m funny)
2. I like this one a lot, because I think I was able to cram more info in it, while keeping it fun and light and still direct about what it is.
3. This might  be my least favorite, but the reason for this is because I feel like it is lacking personality at all. It’s cute, simple and kinda boring. I don’t know.
4. I do this a lot. Write with the stops. So I am drawn to this one too, but it reads too much like a Twitter blurb (hahaa it reads a lot like my twitter blurb) than I’m comfortable having on my blog. That doesn’t mean I don’t still love it though.

Arghhhhh!!!!  Glad you people aren’t at my end to laugh at me actually getting irritated. hahaha If I had time to put a poll up (plan ahead Nicole, it works better!) I would ask you guys to vote. Instead, just leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite one is, what your thoughts are or if you came up with a better one.

Why does all of this matter anyway? Because I am hoping to make it the description/tagline to my blog. That is all.

Posted on May 29, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Blog Facelift

In honor of my pledge to build a better blog in 31 days, I have given my blog a few small, minor tweaks – a face lift if you will.

What do you think?

• I created a new header, and since its a rotating header, I removed all other headers and only included this one and then one that matches it. One  has a subtle pink middle on the daisies and one does not. That’s the only difference. Probably not noticeable to most and I’m okay with that.
• I removed a ton of widgets off my blog. Some of them were annoying, they seemed too cluttery and it just looks neater. I felt overwhelmed by how much info I was providing or sticking in my sidebars, so I cannot imagine how it felt to others visiting my blog. I also removed the “welcome” text box that welcomed visitors to my blog. That info can now be found on my about page which is something else I plan to “facelife” sooner rather than later.
• I moved my left sidebar over to become an additional right sidebar. I didn’t used to like this look, but for some reason its working much better for me now. I don’t know why I like the look, but I do.

So please, be gentle but be honest – I’d love to know if this looks better to you and seems less cluttered and more clean?

Posted on May 29, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook

Let’s Do It – June 2011 – Problogger: 31 Days to a Better Blog

Awhile back (more than a year ago) I purchased Probloggers: 31 Days to a Better Blog workbook. I read through a bit of it, realized I did NOT have the time to devote to it, and it literally just got lost in all my files on my computer. However, back in January, I remember seeing a group of women putting on a month long challenge to complete the workbook. I was disappointed because by the time I discovered it, it was already halfway through. And we were so busy, I just couldn’t jump in, even late.

I am happy to announce that they are doing it again, in June 2011. Starting date, June 1. I am a lot less hectic and a lot less busy right now, and I feel completely positive that I can do this. So I signed up. I’m ready to have a better blog in 31 days. Definitely.

The thing I love the most, is that there are two options and ways to participate.

Starting in June, you can choose between two options:

Option 1:
Work through each of Darren’s assigned tasks Monday through Friday in The SITS Girls discussion forum. Because we will not be working on weekends, you’ll be done with the program about mid-July.

This option is for those of you who really want to work through everything the ProBlogger program has to offer. Starting June 1 under the 31DBBB June group, we’ll publish key points to discuss, a task to work on and questions to answer daily. Rest assured that your blog will improve. And you know I will be with you every step of the way to answer any questions you might have and even keep you going with a giveaway or two.

Option 2:
Focus on only a handful of the 31 activities. The plan is to slow down the program more than ever. On Mondays and Thursdays, we will publish a post in the Education channel on SITS, bringing you some of our favorite ProBlogger tasks. While we won’t be working through all 31 activities, we’ll be focusing on a handful of activities in detail and ensuring that everyone has a chance to complete them. What’s more, because the SITS Girls plan to run the 31 Day Challenge several times a year, you can join again and again as we work through different sections of ProBlogger’s book.

 

If you are considering doing this, you can check out February’s Winter ProBlogger Challenge Wrap Up post to see what you are going to be expected to work on during June. (and to see if you have the commitment to go with it).

If you have decided to do this, leave me a comment and/or follow me on twitter so that I can A) visit your blog and start commenting more often and B) follow you back on twitter and hopefully make new friends out of this whole experience.