Happy Bookaversary to Me

Photo of the book cover of Terror In The North Tower

Happy Bookaversary to me!

The number eight

Today marks eight years since I had my first book hit the market. When my book first came out I write a blog post titled  I Wrote A Book

Since then its first publication, over twenty books have been sold.  Don’t be sad.  I am just happy that I had book sales. 

Self Publishing

After having gone through the self-publishing experience,  I can honestly tell you I’d never do it again!!  Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher.

Marketing Plan

Maybe it’s because I didn’t take making a Marketing plan as seriously as I should have.  I didn’t have a “marketing plan” in place. My plan consisted of zero advertising, word of mouth, social media posts, book giveaways, and writing blog articles. Next time a publishing company can do it all. I’d be happy to attend book signings.

Writing The Sequel

Writing the sequel has been a challenge over the last few years. Life has gotten in the way of actually sitting down, and pushing forward to get it done.

My goal is to finish things up by the end of this year. Stay tuned.

#happybookaversay to me

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like and leave a comment. By all means, feel free to buy my book.

Gain The Advantage,

Alicia Osmera

Learning To Take Actions

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Three years ago I decided to start blogging more seriously about internet marketing, entrepreneurship, being an independent business owner and some things about life.

Decisions

Making a decision to change a technique, business ventures, careers or anything takes action. Deciding to become  a series blogger,  one of the first steps I took was to search the internet for blogs and blogging advice.  

According to WordPress.com  How many posts are being published?  (There are about 58.3 million new posts and 43.8 million new comments each month). MIND BLOWING!

My Improvements

How was I going to improve upon what I started?   Searching and searching the internet is confusing, and overwhelming to say the least.  During my search I found a little community called MLSP My Lead System Pro which lead me to eventually meet a community called the Power Affiliate Club.   Yes I write about PAC a lot.  Search my blog and you will understand why.  PAC’s Infectious Mission

Action Creates Learning

Taking the actions necessary to become a better writer, author and presenter has led me to where I am today, an expert Power Affiliate Club Author. Looking back over the last three years, I have looked at my articles from when I combined my two blogs.  Honestly I now see the major difference in my tenacious appetite to become the best.

I had to learn how to make words flow together, to include images, improve my blog site by adding more content for readers to view and hopefully interact.

 When  you consider the  fact that there are over 58.3 million new blog posts a month and over 43.8 million views, how can a blogger survive?

Necessary Steps

Finding the necessary steps to my journey started with a thought.  Searching throughout the world-wide web for answers.  Being teachable, willing to learn and implementing those concepts and ideas.

Becoming more involved with the blogging community, reading positive mindset books, listening to CD’s.  Basically doing anything to improve my mindset as well as my blogging skills. When a person does the  investigating and implementing then a true learning curve can begin.

These are the actions that I took necessary to achieve my goal to become a writer and blogger.

GAIN THE ADVANTAGE!

Alicia Osmera

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Free Blog Sites vs. WordPress.org

I am fairly new to the blogging community.  I have two sites one  (www.connectwithalicia.wordpress.com) the one your currently reading and  (www.tradingdimesfortime.gblogger.com) after setting up both of these sites it was brought to my attention that there are paid blog sites.  Having a paid site makes a “true blogging guru” seen as a serious writer with a WordPress.org behind the name or any other paid blog site. 

 

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What is WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com?  

According to WordPress.com, Word Press was founded in 2003 and Word Press has grown to become the largest self-hosted blogging site in the world.  It is used by millions of people all over the world.   

What are the options one can use with the WordPress.com? 

This site is a free service which offers a beginning blogger ( like me) a chance to develop a site you can design on your own, and all with the added convince of being able to avoid paying the fees to having someone else build your blog site for you. 

Being a new blogger I have had challenges as I am sure you have too.   When you first establish your   name then you can proceed forward with developing your site.  The difference between a blog address   and a blog domain name gives you an edge in the development of the site with strategic solutions to meet your needs.   

WordPress.com gives you;  

Ecommerce, a Custom Site Address, Space, No Ads, Custom Design, Video Press, Premium Themes , Google Analytics, Support, 3 GB and it’s Free for Life. 

WordPress.com Premium gives you all of the above and 13GB, Direct email.   Costs $99 per year. 

 WordPress.com Business gives you all of the above with Unlimited Features, Live chat.  Costs $299 per year.

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 WordPress.org 

Allows the blogger to set up a more professional website blog and have it hosted; which in turn gives the blogger more freedom to be creative with their content allowing them control what is being published. 

Features with WordPress.org include: 

 You’re the owner of your blog domain, Content Management System (CMS) software for free.  A CMS is a computer application that allows publishing, editing, modifying, and organizing, deleting, and maintaining content from a central interface (per Wikipedia). 

 Of course with the software comes the responsibility of hosting your site. 

 1 A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center

Word Press has its own hosting site called Blue host.   Blue host is one of the largest and most trusted web hosting service providers.  

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Of course then you will need to set up your theme, your plugin’s, how a reader can contact you, email list (if you choose to do one).  With WordPress.org the author has full control over what they are publishing and creating.  With WordPress.com you are limited and they monitor the content that can be published.  You can’t use third-party advertising, you’re limited on storage space and no FTP access to your files. 

  Which Word Press should you use? 

 First I recommend looking at the layout you want to create and then decide if you’re writing more for pleasure, to attract business, marketing a product, or more for informational purposes. 

 The one thing I have found with WordPress.com is that I can upgrade to WordPress.org at any time and still design the site the way I choose.  

Secondly choosing how to write your blog depends on your style.  Are you a colorful person?  Photographs make your articles pop and stand out to the readers. Be creative with it, don’t  follow what other people are doing.   

 My final thought.  —- Do what’s best for you and not what other people are telling you to do This is your project!  

 Gain The Advantage! 

 

 

BEHIND!

Oh my gosh! I am so far behind today.

With things that happen in life it truly can make you put things into perspective. A family friend’s Dad recently passed away and we have been busy with offering comfort and help where needed.

In light of helping other people I have put some of my needs and “business” duties on the back burner.

For instance, I try to write my blog in the morning so I can complete the task on my daily method of operations. Today as you can see did not go as planned. Here it is 10:45pm, and I am trying tonwrite to write something meaningful to my readers.

Next, I had to decide if I should write a short blurb or a long page. I think today I’m doing good with just writing anything.

Lastly, My mind is racing a hundred miles an hour about all the things that I have to get done this week. Where do I start? How do I get things done inspite of the fact that life happens?

There is no easy answer to this thing called life. We wake up each day with a fire in our belly, ready to tackle the days challenges. It’s up to each of us how we handle the obsticals that come our way. And if we get behind in our goals, then we can push forward to get things done in a timely manner.

Behind I maybe today, tonight but tomorrow is a new day to face new challenges.

Gain The Advantage!