Jason Lee Overbey (HeyOverbey!)

“Writers will happen [even] in the best of families.” Rita Mae Brown

Love it. Rita is making the point that a true writer - the one with the ick - has to write. Born that way. There isn’t a choice in the equation. Fundamentally, I write because I have to. I write to stay sane - or to get and stay sane. This compulsion, this obsession to communicate through the written word, is more than an illness like, say diabetes, that can be treated. The only way to treat this ick is to surrender to it. So it reminds me that…

“Writing involves a commitment greater than illness.” Bernard Malamud

Still, since I have to do it anyway, someone else might as well read the stuff, right? Ultimately…

“One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time, in others’ minds.”  Alfred Kazin

Sure… we hear every hour new tips and tricks to maximize the circulation of our musings. Trying to avoid redundancy,  I offer these ideas as well: 

+ Use Twitter. Daily! Seems obvious but I am still a little surprised by how many people do not have a twitter account today. And those who do are not using it to its full potential. Create a pithy, pointed profile. Google uses keywords from your Twitter bio to help determine how you appear in search results. Use a clear pic. Follow a lot of like-minded, but quality people, and tweet relevant information. In between that promote the URL for your blog. Don’t forget to show a little personality in your feed or, I feel, it comes across robotic and dry. And pay attention - there are a lot of articles out there about how to maximize your twitter experience. One last quick tip for writing bloggers: follow the hashtag #amwriting. It is a great group of writers supporting each other. Okay, one more… suck up. ReTweet, mention, favorite people’s tweets (they will get that email from Twitter and see your name).

+ Use networkedblogs on facebook. It is a great way to follow quality blogs you like while promoting your own. You can also “syndicate” your blog(s) and choose publishing options.

+ Sign up for stumbleupon. After two or three of your pages getting submitted and “liked” by other stumbleupon members your presence increases and you are suggested to other users. Also, “thumbsup” your own pages. Kinda like voting for yourself on election day if you were running for office - it just makes sense.

+ Use Reddit and Digg, too. (But you already know about these… I’m cutting back on the redundancy)

+ Use www.problogger.net. There is a lot of good information on this site: articles, links, interviews, SEO optimization, tips.

+ Look into and use www.blogcarnival.com… ”where someone takes the time to find really good blog posts on a given topic, and then puts all those posts together in a blog post called a carnival… Carnivals come in edited “editions”, just like magazines or journals. The fact that carnivals are edited (and usually annotated) collections of links lets them serve as “magazines” within the blogosphere, and carnival hosts can earn their readership by providing high quality collections.”

+ Comment on other blogs. Scour the internet for like-minded bloggers. Go to expert’s pages/blogs. Find good, relevant conversations and add quality comment to the feed. This gets you exposure and if you are good it gets people asking who you are. Many times you have to fill out a profile before you can comment and that creates a blurb and linkback to your blog.

+ Try www.blogrush.com. Another great blog syndication tool.

+ Have more than one blog. Try wordpress, tumblr, blogspot and others. Even if your content is exactly the same on each site, you are increasing your presence on the web so you are more likely to appear in internet search engines like yahoo and google.

+ Visit www.superbloggingtips.com. They have super blogging tips. Sorry.

+ Submit your articles to www.addyourblog.com. We are assuming it is good quality stuff - they do not tolerate spammers. Who would? Don’t spam, people. Why do we have to keep saying it!

+ Google+ Even if you are buying all the hype that G+ is about to kick the bucket, they still have the ubiquitous power to control search results. At least get a Google+ account as a placeholder and post your blog posting links there.

+ Join www.bebo.com and promote your writing there. You can sign in with facebook.

+ Newsdag. I like http://www.newsdag.com. You can create an account quickly and publish each of your blog posts separately. The people there want to be there and spend a lot of time reading and commenting on posts. Be sure to linkback, of course, to your blog site.

+ 12Most.com. Over the last year 12most.com has grown phenomenally. If you can punch out a high quality proposal to them, following their clear guest submission guidelines, your exposure will grow exponentially. 

+ My favorite! http://www.triberr.com is now open to the public. So far, joining far-reaching tribes on the platform will get your links more exposure through this one site than any other I have seen so far. There is a commitment factor inherent in the tribe that ensures your links get Tweeted by other members in the tribe. The tribe chiefs are brilliant at monitoring other people in the tribe to ensure they are regularly approving your posts to be Tweeted and that quality content is being streamed for you to post in kind.

If you are a pro, you have heard most of these… thanks for bearing with us! Maybe some have helped. If you are new, you cannot afford to blog without checking into most of these supports.

No matter what, do not stop writing. In your journal, on bits of scrap paper, on a card you may or may not send to a good pal… WRITE! You have a story, a message, a voice - and we need to hear it.

Connect with me on twitter @HeyOverbey and email me: JLOverbey@gmail.com