As authors I think we all sometimes feel like the lonely space traveler stranded on some empty asteroid. But a little booster rocket can make all the difference, giving us that extra push needed for lift-off.
That’s why today I am announcing the launch of the WG2E STREET TEAM!
Our mission is to help writers reach readers.
Every day WG2E gets around 4500 unique visitors, mostly Indie authors.
I belong to several groups and have learned what a friendly and generous community Indie authors are. The WG2E Street Team is a way for me and for those who join our team to Pay It Forward in the community by helping our fellow writers reach readers.
I have set-up a Yahoo Group where we will form cross-promotion posses so each writer has a core group he/she can depend on in addition to the larger group.
You can Request to Join our WG2E Street Team here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WG2EStreetTeam/
I’ll also be setting up a Facebook page for the team where we can announce events. Plus Twitter fests, blog hops, tagging parties and an outreach program to connect with readers.
There’s no reason for any of you to feel like lonely space travelers on our Indie Epub Journeys…
The WG2E Street Team is here to help you reach readers!!!
And speaking of Reaching Readers, be sure to stop by The WG2E tomorrow when D.D. will announce the launch of our very own WG2E Ereader-centric blog…
The RG2E
The Reader’s Guide to Epublishing
(Launching February 1st!)
It’s Your Turn, WG2E-Land: Meanwhile, we’d love to hear your comments, feedback or any ideas you may have to offer about our WG2E Street Team.
Look forward to working with you on the WG2E STREET TEAM! — Alicia Street
http://aliciastreet-roystreet.com/
http://twitter.com/AliciaStreet1
http://www.facebook.com/AliciaRoyStreet?sk=wall
Great idea!
Thanks, Jamie. Hope you’ll be there.
Innovative! Exciting! Creative!
Alicia, you rule!
Ruth, I love your energy. You’re one of my inspirations.
Who? Moi? *bats eyelashes*
Seriously, thanks, Alicia. I appreciate your kind words.
Not sure how it works, but I’m in!
Great, Katherine!
This is just sooo darn exciting, Alicia!!!
And wow what another over-the-top Purple Cow idea!!!
Speaking of which, I would encourage all of you to read Seth Godin’s Purple Cow book…it’s these very kinds of Purple Cow ideas that we’re after in our WG2E Street Team!
And, tomorrow, I’ll introduce our very own WG2E Ereader-Centric Blog – The RG2E – The Reader’s Guide to Epublishing – where all of you WG2E Street Team members can begin trying out your ideas as well as showcase your books!!!
Stay-tuned…
Alicia has some A-mazing ideas to share with us to really gets this new feature of The WG2E going with gusto!!!
What a great idea. Have already joined. These guys have already helped, and still helping, me on my indie journey so anything to help others.
DD – Amazon haven’t put my ebook as free. It’s priced at 77p.
Amazon UK seems to be a different bird entirely, Julie, regarding price-matching. Every couple of weeks, they change my Bootscootin’ book from Free to 99 Cents then back to Free after a couple of days. Which, btw, does seem to give it nice boosts in visibility.
Interesting on the price-matching frequency now with Select in play.
Thanks bunches for the update!
Thanks for joining the Street Team, Julie. Look forward to working with you!
Looking forward to participating–off to join now! Love the e-reader-centric blog, too.
Welcome, Stacey Joy. Between the WG2E Street Team and the RG2E blog we’re gonna rock it in 2012!
Oh…and you’re welcome in The WG2E Street Team regardless of genre…and both fiction and non-fiction authors are included too!
Absolutely. (As you can see by the multi-colored peeps in our logo! LOL.)
I belong to a loop for Indie romance writers that has some amazing and truly wonderful ladies on it. But we’re all women writing romance, and my DH isn’t about to join in with the girls.
I have no idea either but I’d love to join up!
Just follow the link to the Yahoo loop, Elaine!
What a great idea…I just joined.
Welcome, Laina. Great to have you on board!
Alicia sounds like a great idea and a lot of fun. Great way to meet other writers. I think I’ll have to get in on this. Street team is great free advertising for indies.
But I do have a question. You mentioned 4500 hits a day, that’s pretty darn impressive. But last week D.D mentioned a million hits a month which averages out to 33K hits a day. Not sure how this all figures. Hits are those who stop by the site for a second maybe two, but don’t explore the site, possibly ran into it by accident. Visits are those who stay and look around like me, have a purpose and leave comments.
Regardless any site who does have the high numbers in the 4K region daily either by way of visits or hits is doing pretty good.
It’s 4500 unique visitors per day, Joanie, which it says in the post above, and yes, we’re over 1 million hits per month and will be well over that for January, which means exactly what you’re getting at…over 33,000 hits per day.
So ohhhh yeahhh…The WG2E is on fire!!!
And yes, we’ve got over 4500 peeps who as you say, “stay and look around” now every day!!!
You’re right…it’s “pretty darn impressive”!
Joanie, I was really curious about this, too, so I went to check it out on Alexa Rankings. The Writer’s Guide to ePublishing is only ranked #53,098 in the US while WoMen’s Literary Cafe is ranked #19,415 in the US. Seems WG2E’s numbers might be a bit off. One has to be very careful what they are stating publicly when asking others to follow. It’s great to help authors, I love it! Facts, though, should be correct.
Our stat sites as I’ve quoted are 100% accurate. Those are the real numbers, not based on some criteria of some ranking system.
I never go by algorithm rankings.
That’s like claiming that Klout is a true measure of your influence. It’s just an algorithm, taking different facts into consideration to create a random generated number. Although, those kinds of numbers are fun to talk about and base your promo around, they’re not “real numbers”.
I publish the real numbers as determined by our site’s stat counter.
Really D.D.? Most large corporations use Alexa. But, since you have a stat counter, why don’t you just make it public, then your members, such as Joanie (above) won’t have questions about it.
D.D. I’m not trying to be combative, I think it’s awesome that you are helping indie authors, I truly do. I’m just thinking that if you have people questioning your page counts, and if you are going to state them, an easy way to diffuse that is to make your stat counter public. Sites all over the web do that. Alexa tracks actual page visits, so they’re using real stats as well. They just present in a global fashion, because websites are really globally oriented.
Hope that helps! Rock on!
LOL, Melissa…great topic for a future post…thanks for the idea!
D.D. is the expert on this question, Joanie. She’s the lady with the stats.
Hope you join us.
Wow, ladies, this sounds surprisingly EXACTLY like WLC. Alicia, you’re a member over at WoMen’s Literary Cafe, too. Hmm…Good luck ladies.
Wavin’ atchya, Melissa!
But no, our WG2E Street Team will be NOTHING like your WLC…totally different philosophy and totally different approaches.
Let’s see “Pay it forward” exactly what WL C preaches. What else Tweet Teams, yeah, we already have them. Facebook groups? Twitter “fests”? Blog Hops. Oh, yeah, we’ve got them all, but then again, you and Alicia know this already.
It’s all good. Best of luck.
And WLC was not the first. There are plenty of great groups of indies out there who have been practicing the same team strategies for quite a while. Each of us has our own slightly different signature. The important thing is that we all be supportive to each other. We’re all in this together.
Well, as they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery.
Kudos to WLC for creating such an incredible forum in the first place.
No, Misa. I took workshops in street team techniques back when I was trad pubbed before the Indie movement even began. And Kristen Lamb has been teaching the cyber networking techniques for years. The same ones that WLC uses.
None of these methods are original and it is ridiculous that anyone would pretend they ‘created’ them. What we do on our team is no threat to WLC. I wish you the best. No need for all the petty lashing out.
Thank you, Misa. I’ve never taken or even researched Kristen Lamb or her concepts. We do work very hard to bring all readers and authors a warm and exciting environment.
When it comes to Pay It Forward, the concept creator Catherine Ryan Hyde is the one to thank.
Catherine has just joined us at MWiDP for her latest writing project, and to mark the book launch in June there will be a prize draw with nothing less than a genuine first edition of the novel Pay It Forward, signed by Catherine herself.
For more information check out the post at Anne R. Allen’s blog today.
http://annerallen.blogspot.com/2012/01/rejection-why-it-doesnt-mean-what-you.html
Very cool, Mark!
I’m a huge fan of Hyde’s book and the movie version as well!
She truly created a concept that can change the world, one person at a time!
So true, Mark. And very exciting for MWiDP!
I knew Anne had been working with Catherine. I subscribe to Anne’s blog, but it usually gets to my email a day late. Thanks for the link so I can catch it now!
Thanks for the shout-out Mark! And thanks Alicia–I’ve just signed up for the E-Street gang.
Yay! It’ll be great having you in the gang, Anne!
Yep, Melissa. I luv WLC. I’ll be doing a few things differently, but there’s room for everybody!
It’s a wide, wonderful world! Wishing you good luck, too.
Thanks, Alicia
I think that’s fantastic, Alicia! It’s so valuable to share all our experience and knowledge in one great, interactive place! Fabulous idea.
Thanks, Talli! And your super-inventive launching strategies were also an inspiration to me. BTW-Luv Build A Man!:)
Wavin’ atchya, Talli!
How fun is all this?!
We need more Pimms!!!
Thank you so much, Alicia! I’ve had great fun using social media to reach readers, and I hope to learn a lot from you and the street team! Just joined the group today!
Hi DD!
Pimms on its virtual way!
I love the idea for Street Team! Though I’m with a few others in that not sure how it works. Being new to the indie world (just published my first book, The Rookie, to Amazon yesterday–Yay!! What a feeling!), I am overwhelmed by all that there is to do in the promotion arena. I mean, Truly. Overwhelmed. I don’t know where to start. I hate to feel like I need so much hand holding, that’s why I love the concept of paying it forward. I really want to be able to give back for all that I’ve learned, I just want to make sure I’m doing things right. I’m joining Street Team right now. I’m hoping there will be some “hand holding” there for us newbies
.
Congrats on your first Indie Epub release, Trina!!!
U Go, Girl!!!
And u betchya there’ll be tons of “hand holding” in our WG2E Street Team!!!
Newbies welcome and ‘hand holding’ available, Trina! It’s great that you belong to a few groups. Learn all you can.
And, yes, I love the concept of paying it forward, too. Remember that movie that came out back in two thousand? It started a great trend. D.D. spoke about using this among writers in her MUSE THERAPY book that she wrote a couple years ago. That was one reason I was drawn to WG2E and have learned sooo many things here.
Congrats on your big step into Epub land!
I’m one of the stats!!! And an avid lurker.
This is a fabulous idea Alicia and I’m in. I’ve one totally finished ms and five under construction. When all are done, I’ll be launching. This is a fabulous group for the sharing of what’s new, what’s happening, what’s working/not working and I love it.
You’re so right, this is a lonely business. Family, friends, crit partners etc., can only take us so far. The way I look at it is we’re entrepreneurs running our own business ready to catch the wave of change that’s rocking the industry.
Thank you for paying it forward.
Christine
Thanks, Christine! I totally agree. And let’s see if together we can make your launch a super one!
Count me in! 2012 is the year I start promoting. This goes right along with my goals. I feel like even though it is only mid-January all of my goals are clicking into place.
Welcome, L.C.! Great news about your goals falling into place. Glad we can be part of them.
Hi:
I just hit “the street!” I’m new at indie publishing, but I’ve been writing and editing for a while. I’ve written and published everything from greeting cards to essays to ghostwriting memoirs. Writing can be a lonely endeavor. Looking forward to connecting with others.
Janice
Wow, Janice. Sounds like you’re really a versatile writer. Welcome!
Just joined and looking forward to learning more. I mainly write romance, but since I’m just beginning to seriously write (with the intent to publish, instead of just for me), I have no idea where I’ll end up.
Will it be possible to put the button on our website/blog?
Hi, Karysa! Thanks for joining!
And, yes, we’d love team members to post the button. You can link to WG2E if you like.
I’m in … of course.
So great to know you’ll be joining us, Sheila! Thanks!
Excited to join. Thanks for this (& everything) Alicia!