Day 10: Finding Yourself

We made it to Day 10, y’all! Ten down, twenty to go – and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m 1/3 of the way through Robert Brewer’s challenge to writers, helping us build a writing platform over 30 days.

Today’s task is not about going to Europe or quitting your job to eat/pray/love. No, this job involves a much more defined search. As in Google.

Day 10: Do a Search on your Name

Starting with Google, then Bing and Yahoo, followed by several other options for extra credit.

It’s handy in times like these to have a unique name – there appears to be only one other Cortney Matz on the internet, and her web presence consists of a Twitter account. I, on the other hand, have fairly saturated the internet with websites, social media profiles, video accounts, and press releases. Google returned about 6 pages of links related to me in some capacity before I started hitting redundancies.

Did you know that your comments on blogs and Facebook pages will appear in searches? I guess it makes sense – they are public forums. I’m glad to say I’ve never posted anything I’m ashamed to see turn up in a search. But still, it’s a little strange to find a story I wrote in 1998 showing on page 4 of my Google search.

For the most part, my results were unsurprising. My website came up first, followed by my LinkedIn profile and Twitter account. Only Bing listed my Scribbles blog, though – and that was nowhere near the top of the list. I guess I have some optimization to do for this puppy!

All three search engines pegged me with MySpace on the first page! MySpace, for crying out loud. An account I started years ago and haven’t done a blessed thing with since. It’s kind of embarrassing if anyone actually clicks through – I only have one friend, and it’s Tom, the came-with-the-account friend.

Like I said, didn’t do anything with it. I guess I should delete it.

Anyone know how long it takes for webprints to disappear…?

Day 9: Tweet Back

I don’t know many of the people I follow on Twitter, so oftentimes I feel I’m tweeting into a vast abyss with no guarantees that anyone will see – let alone care about – what I wrote. So the occasional response I get is hugely gratifying.

Wouldn’t we love to give that gratification to our fellow tweeps? Oh, good.

Day 9: Respond to at least three people on Twitter

So, I hopped on Twitter and wrote back to the first three posts I saw:

@DannyManus Lazy Saturday takes on a whole new meaning when it’s doctor ordered.
@cortneywrites Did it ruin it for you?

@WritersDigest Writing retreat on the Greek isle of Ithaca this summer
@cortneywrites *drooling*

@ASouthernYankee Today I discovered that if you argue with the groceries in your shopping cart, the checkout line magically clears.
@cortneywrites Nice

There they are. My responses. Tweeted them right out into the abyss. No acknowledgment of said tweets has been made in the last 13 minutes, but that’s okay. You know, my readers. You know it all.

If it were easy to build a platform, everyone would do it. At least I have 94 followers, even if they don’t always read my tweets. I guess that is the reason we keep writing… so we have something to engage readers with once we’ve pulled them all together.

Day 8: Get Linked In

More social media! Facebook: check. Twitter: check. LinkedIn… up next.

Day 8: Create a LinkedIn profile

Robert doesn’t have a lot to say about LinkedIn, other than to recommend getting on it, and then he asked for advice from readers. In my experience, LI is one networking site that seems to have a split opinion. Half the people love it and extoll the multitudinous ways for industrious folk to do business by connecting with friends of friends and answering questions about which they have expertise. The other half is there because they feel they should be.

But now what?

I’ve been on LinkedIn for a few years, and have taken the time to fill out my profile pretty completely. I have 129 connections, 5 endorsements for my work, and when I have new episodes of the chocolate show I post links there.

I’ve connected with a few folks I wouldn’t have met otherwise, and had one interesting email from a cable station (which didn’t go anywhere), but otherwise it’s been a pretty dry fount.

I’m sure it is beneficial for the sake of legitimacy to have a profile on LinkedIn. It’s kind of an online resume with accountability from all your connections to back it up. Plus there are lots of professional groups to participate in, and new job opportunities within your network are emailed to you regularly.

All that to say, I’m on the fence.

Any thoughts? Have you played with LinkedIn and found it a helpful tool? Let us discuss.

Join the link!

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Day 7: Facilitate Free Publicity

When God created the world, he rested on the seventh day. That’s sort of what I’m doing with the writing challenge, because all I had to do today was copy and paste.

Behold, I have buttons! Look to your right – just slightly to the right of this post, top of the sidebar. See it? Share buttons! This is today’s accomplishment.

Day 7: Add Share Buttons to your blog or website

Share buttons are basically free PR. Who hasn’t read an article or blog post and posted it on Facebook or emailed it to a friend? Who wouldn’t love to have their article or blog post circulated voluntarily by readers via the world wide web?

I have a love/hate relationship with share buttons. They always turn out looking funky, and some javascript varieties can go berzerk and take over your entire screen. Yet when you have those moments where you think, “This is great, I should pass it on to so-and-so,” the share button is hard to beat for ease and efficiency.

Thank you Robert Brewer, for opening my eyes to the Add This button! SO easy. It literally worked on the first try.

All you do is go to addthis.com and click the ‘Get the Code’ button, choose the format you want (little buttons? big buttons?) and which kind of blog/website you are working with. They’ll walk you through the rest. Once you have your buttons installed, then it’s time to play. If you want to have your mind blown, click the + button. Up pops eleventy-seven options for social media sites on which you may share.

Okay, it’s actually 321 social media sites, but still… who knew there was such a wide world of sharing beyond Facebook, Twitter and Google?

Go get it, you won’t be sorry.

Quick shout-out to new followers, JordanForty, DiniAndrianiPotas (I can’t read a word of your blog, but your photos are lovely!), Ooa Revo, Tali Norfali, Anna, and MonaD’E! I look forward to getting to know you all as we blog together and build our platforms.

Thanks also to Kirk, who suggested adding Share buttons at the end of each blog post… that is a bang-up idea.

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Day 6: Mingle

In case you’re just joining us, I’m a few days into Robert Brewer’s writing challenge, encouraging us to take steps every day for 30 days toward building a platform and developing your following.

It’s been a smashing experience so far, and I’m pretty excited to carry on.

Day 6: Read a Blog and Comment on it

A reasonable suggestion. Where to begin?

Since I blog primarily about stories, fiction, travel, and my personal experience with all those things, it seemed smart to look for other blogs with a similar focus. When I laid eyes on MORFIS, I knew my search was over.

MORFIS is a collection of art, illustrations, photography and design that takes you to another place. Browsing around the virtual gallery, I found myself smiling involuntarily. The imagination spread across the digital pages is really something. I was drawn in.

But it isn’t enough to visit a blog and merely appreciate it. We are to leave evidence of our appreciation.

I was hard pressed to choose, but I settled on a post depicting illustrations by Dan May, a highly detailed fine artist in Chicago. Take a peek at the blog and see what you think – I was quite inspired, and may even come up with some new stories based on what I saw. You can see Dan’s photos (and my comment) here.

Day 5: Put Your Writing on the Internet

In other words: blog. This is today’s assignment in Robert Brewer’s writing challenge, and I have to say, I think I’ve got it licked. I have a few different blogs with a few different focuses, and one Tumblr account that basically collects everything I’ve ever written online.

Now here’s the real question… how often do I blog?

How often do you blog? As writers trying to build a following, we have to blog regularly! It helps the Googlebots and the casual WordPress peruser to find us and all our writerly amazingness. Blogging once a week is my personal goal, and I think it’s a worthy one.

So let’s blog… about blogs.

Day 5: Create a blog

Since I’ve clearly taken this step already, I clicked through to some other of Robert’s posts about optimizing your blogging efforts. A few points that stood out to me:

»  Post relevant content

Maybe that’s a no-brainer, but I find it focusing. It’s tempting to just pop online and type out whatever streams from my consciousness. But taking the extra step to consider your audience and what they might like to read is sometimes a helpful thing.

»  Title your posts in a way that gets you found by search engines

For instance, “Blogging Tips for Writers” versus “Blogging Tips” – the ‘writers’ bit includes SEO vocabulary (in other words, a key word that Joe Blow might be plugging into a Yahoo search… if he actually ever used Yahoo as a search engine, but that’s another point altogether).

So basically, title your posts with words that clearly describe the content. This is something of an art, and I confess it drives me nuts sometimes. But I am prone to over-analyzation.

See prior point regarding ‘relevant content’. How ’bout let’s move on.

»  Find like-minded bloggers

This is a point well taken, and I really want to do this – often I find it’s all I can do just to post to my own blog, let alone go check out what others are writing. But I think there’s a rich community of writers, readers, and thinkers that is available to me through the internet… specifically WordPress does a great job of helping us connect… and I want to take advantage of that.

So look out bloggers, I’m coming to find you.

I think that’s probably enough for today. If you’re curious about Robert’s other blog optimization suggestions, take a look-see at the following:

15 Blogging Tips for Writers, 25 Ways to Increase Blog Traffic

Columbo in the Clue Mansion

I’m sorry to bother you ladies and gentlemen, Lieutenant Columbo here. Now this might sound silly, but please bear with me.

There’s been a murder.

I got an anonymous call last night that a person had been killed at Boddy Mansion. Right, that’s what I said. Are you kidding me? But I thought I’d better go have a look.

To be honest, the place gave me the creeps. And it was a dark and stormy night to boot. You just can’t make stuff like this up.

Long story short, I got there and no one knew anything about a murder. It wasn’t until later I realized I’d been set up. Because Mr. Boddy was killed while I was in the house.

I don’t know how they did it, and I can’t prove it, but one of Mr. Boddy’s six guests killed him. And they’re trying to frame me. Is that rich, or what? I think this is the first time I became a suspect in my own investigation.

So I’m asking for your help. I’ve got evidence to prove three of the seven of us have alibis, thanks to the security cameras placed around the mansion. I need you to sort through the details of who was doing what where, and what kind of a weapon they had with them.

Six of us were peacefully employed, minding our own business. One of us was committing murder. If you think you figured who did what, email me your solution. If you have any questions, you can post them below. Here’s what I can tell you.

•   Mrs. White was watching TV in the Dining Room with the candlestick on the table.

•   Col. Mustard was playing billiards in the Billiard Room with the lead pipe. I don’t know why he didn’t just use cues, but that’s not relevant to this investigation.

•   Mrs. Peacock was knitting in the Library. There were no weapons in the library. It’s a library, there’s only books in there.

No one was in the Hall or the Lounge. We’re not sure who was in the Kitchen or the Study, because there’s a secret passage connecting them. But maybe you can figure it out from these clues.

CLUES

1. Miss Scarlet was reading but didn’t have the knife.

2. The person with the gun was smoking but not in the Kitchen.

3. The murderer was in the Conservatory but it wasn’t Mr. Green.

4. The two people in the Kitchen and Study were myself and the guest who was making a phone call.

5. The guest who had the rope wasn’t in the Study.

6. Professor Plum had the wrench.

I’m sorry I can’t give you any more specifics than that – I need you to be unbiased and objective so that the answers you come up with are based solely on logical deduction, and not anything I tell you.

I’m depending on you folks to clear my name. I hope this doesn’t make you feel bad, but it’s my neck on the line.

Oh, and one more thing.

Good luck.

Based on a logic puzzle written by Shelly Hazard on Puzzles.com

Solutions will be posted next Monday. Meanwhile, put on your thinking cap to deduce Columbo’s innocence and the real killer’s guilt! Send your answers to cortneymatz@yahoo.com. May the best detective win!

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Day 4: Get Sociable (Part 2)

Twitter! Who’s on it? Me… and about 175 million others, depending on whether you count spammers.

Today’s challenge has been done already, so I will use the time to write a story. I’m excited about it. Meanwhile, if you haven’t cracked the Twitter code yet, here is the gentle nudge you have been seeking…

Day 4: Create a Twitter account

Once you do, don’t forget to look me up at cortneywrites!

Day 3: Get Sociable Part 1

Four new followers today! Wow, this is so exciting. I just got home from lunch and am jetting out in a few minutes, but I will check you guys out soon. Meanwhile, a big welcome to Daniel Postlethwaite, MarriageCoach1, Madmoiselle Gathou, and Mazhar Qureshi!

Today’s step toward building my writing platform is ostensibly done already… I’ve been on Facebook for a few years now, but as I’m reading Robert’s recommendations, I realize I could crank it up a notch. For one thing, my writing page is seriously neglected. I don’t have time right now, but later tonight or tomorrow I will for-sure beef that up. You can hold me to it!

Day 3: Start a Facebook profile

This is a little sneaky, because there are two other blog posts linked within the one on Facebook… which I don’t have time to read right now, but will come back to. For now let’s skip to the “Most Important Things to Keep in Mind.”

Here are the most important things to keep in mind:

1. Use your real name. Check!
2. Complete your profile completely. Hmmm… my profile is pretty bare bones. I don’t like to talk about myself that much, and posting all my likes, dislikes, job history and voting preferences cut pretty close to the Day 1 “Define yourself” challenge/phobia. But I will take this under consideration.
3. Use your account regularly. I do use my account, but I don’t post often. Robert recommends posting once a day. My last post was May 16 (today is May 20). Not terrible, but there is definite room for improvement.

In the interest of building an online platform for my projects and myself, the two main goals here are to make me easy to find and easy to contact. So I can see how mentioning something about writing and video production on my Facebook profile could be good. Even better, post my email address!

Things that make you say, “Duh.”

I’m curious what you all think of Facebook. There are a lot of privacy concerns flying around, and as I begin to use it more for business building in some ways, I don’t want to kill all the fun. I don’t want to be hyper-vigilant about what photos I post or are posted of me, for instance.

I also wonder if becoming more public with my profile in any way exposes my friends – if someone looks at my profile, do they then see all my friends’ posts on my page? Probably, yes. And depending on what they posted, that could be weird for them.

So… still figuring this out. Any thoughts from my new and beloved readers?

Day 2: Commit Yourself to the Impossible

Yesterday’s challenge went so well, I almost wanted to do Day 2 last night! This place has been neglected since January and with one post I suddenly have two new followers, Jill of all Trades and Kashfi Fahim, two fellow writers and bloggers on WordPress.

Now that I know who I am, Robert Brewer wants me to lay down some goals. I guess the plan is to confront all my phobias right at the beginning of this challenge, and then things get easier later. Part of the problem with setting goals is that I set unreasonable goals. I’m sure this is not uncommon, but still it bugs me to have items on my to-do list that are simply not going to get checked off.

Whoever said writing was therapy, I’m beginning to see the point. Well, here goes.

Day 2: Set Your Goals

Since it worked out so well yesterday, I’ll start with Robert’s goals as a template and swap out my own. I just noticed these lists both suspiciously end with ‘Etc.’ Hmmm…

Deep breath. I can do this.

Short-term goals:

• Complete this writing challenge (2 days down, 28 to go!)
• In June, finish editing my pilot TV episode for The Chocolate Tourist
• Increase traffic and visibility for online episodes of The Chocolate Tourist
• In June, get to page 60 on the rough draft for my screenplay
• Finish tweaks to 48HFP film entry for wrap party on June 6
• Get in the habit of blogging weekly at DCTravels
• Create my first e-newsletter for Pink Papaya
• Come up with a basic marketing plan for For The Glory by the time I leave for vacation
• Work out every day and track calories
• Play an open mic before the summer ends
• Go back to Europe with my mom and visit castles
• Figure out how to sync my cortneywrites.com domain with my WordPress or Tumblr feed
• Beef up my social media… with Google+
• Figure out Reddit and Digg

Again, I’m sure I forgot something… there’s always editing.

The trouble with these long-term goals is that when any one of these things happens, it will throw most of the others off course. I guess then I will just reassess and rewrite. I can do that.

Long-term goals:

• Get The Chocolate Tourist on air with a network
• Develop other show ideas for web and TV
• Teach some other people about what I’ve learned and am learning
• Sell my screenplay
• Become financially solvent with writing and production work alone
• Record a CD of all my songs
• Attain and maintain a healthy weight
• Find someone to marry and marry him
• Enjoy each day with whatever it brings
• Get closer to God
• Learn French
• Live in a treehouse

What about you? Are your goals in front of you somehow? Do they motivate you?

Courtesy of THE FLAMES THAT FUEL HER on Tumblr
http://theflamesthatfuelher.tumblr.com