What Is New Media?

Old School: Traditional hard and soft-cover books
New School: Digital books, ebooks, Kindles, iPad and other wireless reading devices are on the way!

Those Golden Days of Publishing are Gone!
In the golden days, an author would secure a book deal through an agent, publish the book, go on tour escorted by the publicist or media escort - and if they scored enough publicity, they'd become a "best selling" author.
Or at the very least, the author's book sales would cover the tour, pay back the advance and make the publisher some money. Profit was the name of the game - and the system was working - until about 2005.
Suddenly bookstores, media properties and publishing houses began to crumble. The internet was the "game changer" and the traditional book publishing and promotion process have become ineffective.
Up until this point, the world wide web was for those techy-geeky folks and had no real impact on book sales. But now Amazon.com, print-on-demand, viral marketing messages, social media and powerful online communities have leveled the playing field.
Bookstores, agents, fat clunky press kits and publicists scoring traditional media are not the keys to an author's success anymore.
There are tons of self-published or independent books that have made history - and surprised the publishing world. Like The Shack, a Christian novel by William P. Young was originally self-published in 2005. And as of February 2010, over seven million copies in print worldwide, spent seventy weeks holding the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list, and it continues to remain in the top ten to date.
The success of The Shack demonstrates what word-of-mouth and community networking can do for a self-published book, but more interestingly, the market strength of religious books in the United States, within and without the book publishing industry.

So let's compare old school and new school way of doing things:

Old School: Traditional hard and soft-cover books
New School: Digital books, ebooks, Kindles, iPad and other wireless reading devices are on the way!
Old School: Book tours
New School: Blog tours & webinars
Old School: Getting reviews in magazines and newspapers
New School: Getting reviews on Amazon and in book communities where readers hang out like Shelfari, goodreads, librarything.com, rawsistaz and more
Old School: Web 1.0 (webmasters needed for HTML and complicated stuff)
New School: Web 2.0 (freedom - just a blogger blog or WordPress.com blog) Two-way communication!
Old School: Mailing out ARCs, books and big press kits
New School: EPK(electronic press kits) and ebooks
Old School: Media Escort
New School: Virtual Assistant
Old School: Press releases emailed and mailed to media
New School: SEO press releases sent or using online media matching service like Pitch Rate or Reporter Connection
Old School: Printing, stamping and mailing newsletters to mailing list accumulated over the years
New School: Sending out eNewsletters & continual email marketing campaigns using autoresponders and broadcast emails
Old School: Creating & updating media lists
New School: Capturing emails of interested readers using an "opt-in" database program like AWeber
Old School: TV interviews
New School: Creating book trailers, viral videos and streaming LIVE online
Old School: Authors visiting reading groups and libraries
New School: Teleconferencing or streaming live to many groups at the same time from the comfort of your home via Skype or a bridge line
Old School: Postcard mailings to readers, bookstores and organizations
New School: Eblast postcard to thousands using email marketing services like Goodgirlbookclub, BlackGospelPromo, ChristianPRGroup or DetroitGospel
Old School: Radio Interviews
New School: Podcasts and internet radio shows (heard online or downloaded via itunes)
Old School: Magazine features
New School: Ezine Features
Old School: Writing a column in newspapers
New School: Syndicated articles submitted on article directories like Ezine using keywords and generating web traffic or writing a regular blog
Old School: Stigma that self-published books "didn't cut it" and that's why they're not with a major house
New School: Savvy self-published authors are doing it big, getting noticed, making money and living a successful career doing what they love - writing!
Old School: Generating publicity in media outlets and getting no immediate input from audiences
New School: Building relationships, getting direct response from readers and creating communities online
Old School: Getting radio, TV, Newspaper and magazine reviews
New School: Creating thousands of followers, friends and fans online who interact with you and are connected with you through your whole career

Ministry marketing pioneer, Social Media Expert and PR Coach Pam Perry helps African American Christian authors garner publicity and leverage online strategies. As a 20-year PR veteran, she is also the co-author of "Synergy Energy: How to Use the Power of Partnerships to Market Your Book, Grow Your Business and Brand Your Ministry."
For a free MP3 of "What Every Author Should Know," go to http://www.PamPerryPR.com She's also the creator of the ChocolatePagesNetwork, a social network for Christian authors and the Chocolate Pages Show at Blog talkradio. She offers free help at her blogsite: http://www.MinistryMarketingSolutions.com with her monthly Ezine and teleclasses.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pam_Perry

Networking for Newbies - Creating a Page - The Difference Between a Page and a Post - Adding a Link

WordPress is a Content Management System and blogging tool. A blog (web-log) is an online journal, diary or commentary, presented as a website. Generally, one or more contributors (bloggers) add new content to the top of the website on a semi-regular basis. 

So...now here's your lesson: 

If you've been following my articles on setting up a WordPress blog and creating your first post, you may now be wanting to create your first page. Before we begin however it's a good idea to make sure you understand the difference between a page and a post.

Although a page and a post seem similar, there are in fact two distinct differences....
• A page is 'static' - that is it doesn't change. People use 'static pages' for such things as your front home/welcome page or an about me page or a contact page
• A post on the other hand is your 'constantly updated content' such as a series of articles or discussions about your business, hobbies or personal life.

So let's presume you want to create a 'static' about me page.

The first thing you need to do is to log into your back office (dashboard) by going to:
http:// yourblogname / wp-admin, then log in as usual.

From your dashboard you need to look to your left hand column and click 'page' -
Here you'll see two choices: 'add new' and 'edit' - if you want to create a new page you obviously click on 'add new' but if you've not done this before, you'll need to click 'edit' first because by default WordPress will have given you a sample about page already.

After you click on 'edit' you'll see to the right, a tab to the 'about' page, so click on 'about' and it will open up the work station for your 'about' page. You'll notice here that WordPress has kindly put in some example text for you, so you're going to need to change this.

First of all you may want to change the 'about' title box to: 'about me' or 'about yourname' so that people know exactly what it's about. Then in the main box underneath you need to delete the sample text and replace it with your story.

Your story needs to tell people all about yourself, for example; where' you're from, your interests and how you came to be writing a blog or starting an online business. This will help to give you credibility, build your brand and portray 'you' as a real person to whom people can relate - it's all about building relationships.
Once you've finished, all you need to do is go over to your right and click 'update page' and that's it, you've created your first page.

The only other thing I want to cover here is creating a link. A link is just a 'clickable word' that takes you either to another page or post on your blog or to another website.

You may be wondering if you're new - 'why would I want to create a link'? - well the main reason is because Google likes links! - it helps to join related posts, pages and sites and Google likes 'relevance' so it will help with your SEO.

The good thing is WordPress makes it really easy to create links. All you need to do is open your page or post and click on 'edit' then simply highlight a word in your page or post that you wish to 'link from' - once your word is highlighted go up to the editing tools and look for a little 'chain link icon' - 'click' on it and this will open up a little box - here you simply add the url of the page you want the link to transfer to - click insert and that's it you have a link!

Look out for my next article on creating a static front page.

If you'd like more information on starting an Internet business please visit my site at: www.louisemarsden.com NetworkingForNewbies or join me on my Facebook Page:

Visit at www.PamPerryPR.com too!

What is a QR CODE?

  You probably have been hearing a lot about the QR CODE. Know what it does? Know how to use it?  Here is one of mine:

http://bit.ly/ceh41y.qrcode 

Visit me at www.PamPerryPR.com too!