Wordless Wednesday with Linky

Congratulations to President Barack Obama on his re-election! 

Did you exercise your right to vote today?

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A blog with book reviews, author interviews, book related info, events, conferences, tips and advice for readers and writers.

Wordless Wednesday w/ Linky

Toni Morrison at the interview session at the Sheer Good Fortune event

Maya Angelou at the reception for the Sheer Good Fortune event.

The drill field at Virginia Tech

We are sitting on the steps outside Burruss Auditorium at Virginia Tech, taking in the view of the drill field in the above photo.
Three ladies from Alabama as we called ourselves that day.
Poet Kimeko Farrar, Joneia P. Brown and myself, Lena Sledge

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Wordless Wednesday with Linky

Welcome to Wordless Wednesday. I recently attended the Sheer Good Fortune event celebrating Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize author Toni Morrison. There were so many acclaimed authors, poets and professors in attendance. To read more about my experience check out My Sheer Good Fortune post. In the meantime, enjoy some of the photos taken while I was there. Don't forget to add your Wordless Wednesday photo to the Linky list below.

Toni Morrison at the Sheer Good Fortune event.

India Arie performing at the Sheer Good Fortune Celebration

Nikki Giovanni at the reception before the Sheer Good Fortune celebration

Me and Nikki Giovanni after the press conference.

Wordless Wednesday w/ Linky

Me at the African American Literary Awards Show  held in New York on September 27, 2012, where I won  an award for my book, If I Had My Way. Check out the post about my trip to the awards show and the authors I met.

The shoes I wore to the AALA show. They garnered more attention

than I did. Photographers actually took pictures of just my shoes.

And finally, a picture of my award. Woohoo!

Isn't she purty?

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Wordless Wednesday w/ Linky

                                           

Would you play tennis this high up? In 2005 a helipad 650 ft above the ground on top of the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates was temporarily converted into the world's highest tennis court.

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Wordless Wednesday with Linky

Photo by Astro Twilight

Is this not a great writing prompt? Who is this person? Where is he going? Is he hiding behind the glasses and the hat? Hmm. The creative juices are flowing. Now type away!

Wordless Wednesday w/Linky

Actual Cake...Yum Featured by Style Unveiled

Antique Book Cake...Great Detail by Michelle Bommarito

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Answers to FAQ for Bloggers

Like many bloggers I'm often asked many questions when approached by other bloggers that are just getting started or that may have a very small following. So I've decided to cover six of the most common questions I'm asked by other bloggers. If you have some of your own questions, leave them in the comment section and I'll will try to answer them on the next round of FAQ's.



How do you keep your readers interested in what you write?
I don't know if I can answer this thoroughly, it's probably best suited as a question to my readers. But I would like to think it's a combination of being informative, personable and sorta funny on a good day. :-)

My advice to bloggers...be interesting. Be odd if necessary. But don't be mediocre. Offer your readers something. That something can be updates on current trends, news or reviews. It can be giveaways, contests or information about giveaways or contests on other blogs or websites. It can be funny joke to brighten their day, a picture that puts a smile on their face or even a rant about current trends or something that ticked you off that we can relate to on a daily basis.

How long should my blog post be?
However long it needs to be. But shorter is better every time. Readers come in a combination of skimmers, voyeurs and hungry word consumers. I'm a combination reader. I look around like a peeping tom and then I skim til I find something interesting and then I read the complete post if it keeps my attention. So the shorter the better. But whatever the length make every word count, so I would say one to two paragraphs. And don't forget to add some photos. Readers love visuals. We want to know how the photo relates to the post. It also helps readers decide if the post is something we are interested in reading in the first place. Think of it as a book cover.

Can you tell me where to go to get free photos for my blog posts?
Use your camera. Try Getty Images for royalty free photos, Picnik (Picnik will be free until April 19th. After April it will be taken over by Google Creative kit.) You can also use the Creative Commons search tool, FIST (Free Image Search Tool for Wikipedia) and Instagram.

What are some ways I can get more visibility for my blog?
Try guest posting. Guest posting gives you an introduction to new readers, provides backlinks to your blog and it's a great addition to your blogging credentials in the blogging community. To get a guest post, research blogs that may be similar in content to your own. Introduce yourself to the blog owner via email and politely ask if they'd be interested in hosting you as a guest blogger. Make sure and provide your blog URL, the theme of your own blog and the topic you had in mind. Or you can be open and state that you'd be happy to write according to what their own theme may currently be. Bloggers are fairly protective of their blogs, so make sure you have something to offer when approaching a blogger. Have some great ideas handy.

Another way to gain visibility is to visit other blogs, frequently. I personally believe you should visit other blogs more than you visit your own to foster a community of blogging and relationship with other bloggers. Once you make your post for the day, make a list of blogs that you will visit each day or every other day or weekly. Whatever the frequency is, just be consistent.

How do I get more comments on my blog?
Simple. Ask. Don't publish your post without asking a question, asking for feedback or ask the readers for help with a current task or future post. Also, remember when I said, visit other blogs? Well, when you visit other blogs, leave a comment. Hopefully, they'll reciprocate.

How can I grow my blog?
One post at a time. If you get involved in the blogging community, you will learn something from other bloggers. You'll find out about new gadgets, informative blogs to visit, innovative blog designers, new books being released or you may find a post on how to fix a particular bug on your own blog that you've been trying to figure out since day one. But you must be active. Every time you leave a comment on a blog, you leave your calling card...basically your blogging profile for others to see or visit, which in turn leads them to your blog. So tell the world in a meaningful way who you are. They don't know you have a blog if they don't know you exist.

Have questions or advice for other bloggers? Please share.

Wordless Wednesday