One of the big issues with self-publishing is marketing.  I know you’re and author not a salesperson but you do need to know how to best market your book or there will be no sales and that means no money.

It is pretty easy really, the Internet has made the job of marketing so much easier that it has been hammered and abused by millions.  Done right though you too could be come a household name like what’s her name.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

The point though is that you don’t need, or want, millions of sales to be a successful self published author.  A hundred or so raving fans can make your book sell it’s digital cover off.

Where do you get a hundred or so raving fans?  This blog has over 9,000 followers on Twitter, mostly accidentally.  While they are not raving fans, yet, they are there watching and that is a pretty good start.

We all need help to get our ideas and posts seen and read.  Google say that all you need to do is write good content but that just isn’t enough.  There are literally millions of good, well written articles, blog posts etc. online today and more pouring into the channels daily.  There is possibly a hundred times that of mediocre to poor to absolute rubbish adding to the pile daily as well.  Even the googlebots cannot search, identify, collate and store the volume of material in just the written word let alone the videos and images as well.

What you need is a little boost so people will come to your blog or wherever you have your book up for sale to give it a chance to attract readers.

To that end I have just signed up to what just might be an important tool in finding an ever growing fan base.  This is still in Beta so it’s a bit rough around the edges but it is an excellent idea (and free at the moment).  This is being promoted by a person I have never met but who’s emails I have been getting for several years now and I trust his judgement.  One of the few people who’s emails I actually read the day I see them in my inbox.

If I have managed to set this up correctly you should be able to see the Internet face of the SocialBuzz network on the far right sidebar.  It’s a bit ugly at the moment because I have a two column sidebar and the widget is clearly designed for a single column sidebar.  Just means I have to do a little adjustment.

I did want to get this post out so you can get a chance at joining this network sooner rather than later.  If you get to the site before they get the numbers they want for testing purposes then you can get started right away, if not you had better sign up to be notified when they do re-open.

Here’s the link http://www.socialbuzzwidget.com

I have been busy.  Not that you care a lot because you’ve been busy as well.

That’s the nature of our lives these days.  We are all busy doing things.

It’s also the nature Human Beings, which I’m assuming you are, that we get wrapped up in the busyingness of our day to day lives but don’t achieve what we think we might like to achieve.

This is because we get focussed on the little things like the things happening at work, what are our friends up to on Facebook, where will we eat tonight, how is our favourite sporting team doing etc.

What we do is fill our available time with things.  We can fill this time with anything we choose and we do.

That’s the key, YOU CHOOSE what to fill your time with.

Me, I’ve been coasting for the last few weeks.  Since the last post actually.  I’ve had a weeks holiday, I’ve changed job and it is now time to set some goals for this year and start working towards them.

What about you?  What are you going to do this year?  What did you want to do last year but haven’t done yet?  Do you still want to do that or have your goals changed?

As our lives change so do our goals.  What is suitable for a 20 year old may not be suitable for a 40 year old and that’s OK.  My goals are not your goals, they may have the same end result but the path may be very different and the reasons will be different.

I was going to tell you how to set a goal but really that’s not really the issue.  You know what you want to do and, if you refuse to accept limitations, the only thing you really need to think about is when you want to have achieved this goal.

That’s part of the process, you have to set a time for achievement.  Once you have that time frame you can break the goal down to smaller pieces and set a date for those smaller chunks.  This is really all there is to it.

You decide on the goal, you set a timeframe, you break the goal down to smaller chunks which each have their own timeframe and then you just stay on track to hit those targets.

What happens if you don’t hit the goal on the due date?  No you aren’t a failure.  You might have been a bit enthusiastic in setting the date or there were other issues.  Just reset the time frame, don’t change the goal.

I read some time ago that you set your goals in concrete and your plans in sand.

If you need some other help try this site or search Google for other sites, there are more.  Goals.