It’s been years since I’ve worked in Photoshop or any other advanced sort of image editor that uses layers, and it’s one of those things that has been high on my list to learn. So I started by finding an image I wanted to modify through Flickr’s advanced search, looking for kitten photos in Creative Commons. This picture was taken by Andreas Solberg.

Using the layering functionality, I separated the kitten from the background and enhanced each layer separately to come up with this:

No, it’s not “perfect” and this was my first go-around, but it helped me get a feel for how easy getpaint.net is to use. I say “very easy” for photos, if you want to do something more advanced like blending and whatnot, then head over to the tutorials.

Like I mentioned earlier, it’s been 1,000 years or so since I first used graphic design and advanced image editors, so I’ll be looking for something a bit different out of this software than you might.

Do you have any other free software tips or programs to share?

Here are some of the things I look for when I either meet people online or read about them. I hope that my thoughts (combined with your feedback) will help shed some light on what might be a good “self-promotion” approach online.

Your Online Persona is Transparent: If you are a writer and are promoting yourself as such, it’s more useful to me if you have the experience to back it up. If you don’t have the experience and are providing commentary — link to the articles and the people who do. I can’t tell you how many times an individual will talk about all these larger-than-life concepts only to find out they don’t have the street cred or the articles to back it up. Honesty goes a much longer way for me than if you try to “pad” your credentials, especially because I am actively seeking to promote my peers through this channel and through others that I might come across.

You Don’t Tell Me How Great You Are or How Much You Think You Know: As a personal preference, I really don’t like pretenses. You’ll see this a lot with people trying to sell you something — they are exclusive, one-of-a-kind, different. Give me a break. Just because you are selling something doesn’t mean that your online persona has to be “on” all the time, nor does it mean that someone reading about you doesn’t already know what you know. Everyone is not an expert; in a lot of cases some of the folk selling what we want to buy are learning right along with you and me.

You Remember that There is a Time and Place for Heated Discussions: Whether it’s the election or global warming, it’s easy to get caught up in discussions that can get pretty heated rather quickly. For those that know me, yeah I can be pretty opinionated but I also strive to be very open-minded. I intentionally keep those opinions off of my blog because I don’t want to exclude anyone, nor do I want to get into a heated discussion that makes both myself and my reader look like idiots. I feel that way about other websites and blogs I visit as well because the comments just seem to get completely out of control. To me, there is a big difference between ranting and having good content.

Your Site Isn’t an Eyesore: If your site is a selling monstrosity that doesn’t offer any real content then I probably won’t stay on it for long. If it doesn’t have a search function and I have to navigate all over creation to find more information about you, then I’ll probably leave it shortly. I hate to admit it, but badly-designed (or outdated) websites and blogs are a really huge turn-off for me. Web design has changed so much in the last ten years. In a way, blogging has made the web more accessible — not less — so if your site isn’t more contemporary I have to wonder what other trends you’re not keeping up on.

You Avoid Spamming Your Network: Yes, we all have personal projects that we like to promote. Unduly spamming your network of friends and contacts multiple times to promote your event or project really irks me. At the most, I’d like to see one–maybe two max–emails about your book or seminar sent in a very friendly and helpful way using phrases like “I don’t normally do this, but…” and “I just wanted to keep you in the loop about what I’m working on.”

You Give Credit Where Credit Is Due: Have you plagiarized other people’s work on your own site? What if you have worked on a project with other people and take all the credit for yourself? Or how about talking bad about people you’ve worked with in an online, public way? Sure, it’s nice to be validated but it’s even better when someone says something nice “about” you. (Rather than you having to take the easy way out and try to say it about yourself).

What are your thoughts on good versus bad self-promotion? Am I being too harsh or too critical? Are there any exceptions to the things I mentioned here?

STEP ONE: NAVIGATE — Click on the Create a Facebook Page link. If you have an existing Facebook account, I recommend not logging in to Facebook until the prompt appears.

STEP TWO: CHOOSE YOUR PAGE TYPE — Choose what kind of a Facebook page you want to create. The choices are: Local (For a company or business), Brand or Product (Self-Explanatory) or Artist, Band or Public Figure (Band, Musician, Writer, etc.) for a personal profile. For this example, I’m going to choose the third option.

STEP THREE: NAME YOUR PAGE — If you’ve chosen “Writer,” you’ll want to type in your author name. I don’t have a pen name, so I’m going to create a page for me. Once you’ve put in what name you want to be referred to and searched by, click on the blue “create page” button.

STEP FOUR: LOG IN — Log in to the prompt here, or create your Facebook log in.

STEP FIVE: CUSTOMIZE YOUR PAGE — Now that you’ve created your Facebook page, you have the ability to customize it in a number of different ways, specific to the page type that you’ve chosen. Here are a few of the ways that you can choose to customize your Facebook page.

Add a Picture: The maximum filesize for an image is 4 megabytes. I’ve found that a good picture size to use is 250 pixels wide by 250 pixels tall because there is a lot of white space on the page.

Pull in Your RSS Feed: To pull in your blog or website’s RSS feed to ensure there is current content on your page, you’ll want to click on the “Add a Note” feature. On the right hand side in a small, grey box you’ll see “Notes Settings” where you can import your blog.

You will see your full expanded posts in the “preview,” but this is not how the RSS feed will show up in your Facebook page. Once you confirm the import at the bottom of the page, your RSS feed will display in the “Notes” box on a per post, per title basis.

Add Information: Underneath your profile picture is a place to add information about you, your brand or your product. I recommend adding one or two paragraphs of text written in a style appropriate for people who don’t know anything about you, your company or your product.

Add Video: If you’re playing around with video, I’d like to mention that there is an extra “verification” layer to use that option and the upload is not immediate. One option would be to have a shorter video in the “Video” box, and offer a link to your existing video by posting it on your wall.

Favorite Other Facebook Pages: If you are a company and have a product, you can add your product’s page as a “favorite” and vice versa. This is a good way to help your customers and fans become familiar with what you’re offering.

Rearrange Content: You may be looking at your page wondering where you can find photos or videos to add. If you don’t have content for every box, I recommend rearranging the elements on your Facebook page so the boxes that you do have content for show up first. I also recommend posting on your wall with a personalized message so the spot doesn’t appear to be empty.

STEP SIX: PUBLISH — After you’ve customized your Facebook page, you have to “publish” the page to make it live.

STEP SEVEN: PUBLICIZE — Now that you have your new Facebook page, you’ll want to publicize it and get “fans.” You can do that either through word-of-mouth advertising, through a Facebook ad or by adding a Facebook badge to your website.

Adding a Facebook Badge: To add a Facebook badge to your website once you’ve created your page, refer to the “Help” section of Facebook. In this series of articles about How to Create a Facebook Badge, you’ll be able to read more about it. If you’re logged in to Facebook, you can also click on create a Facebook badge and follow the customization instructions.

For an example of a recent Facebook page that I had created, take a peek at Musicnotes.com on Facebook. Remember, that getting fans and people to interact on your Facebook page will take time. Regardless, it’s a good idea to know what Facebook promotional tools you have out there not just because this page creation is free — but because Facebook continues to be a popular social media outlet that you may want to consider branching into.

Hope you found this article helpful in your quest to promote you and your work. If you have a Facebook page you’re looking to promote, either send me or post the link in the comments below and I’ll follow up later this week with a list!

After two weeks of actively seeking out these resources more frequently than I have in the past, I can completely understand why Wikipedia reigns as “the” resource. From professionals that don’t even have their own website to my inability to find the person’s “contact” page, I’ve been more than a bit frustrated in my quest to promote other people’s work. It’s no wonder why fansites for celebrities big and small rank (and subsequently profit) so well for their names.

My story begins with my quest to interview Danny Elfman. Our company features so many of his musical compositions, and I wanted to interview him from a songwriter’s perspective for a new feature on our company blog. Unfortunately, I quickly found out he didn’t have a blog or a website of his own. After Googling his name, I found what I expected to find: Wikipedia, IMDB, a couple of fansites and what looked like “the official” website of Danny Elfman on Sony BMG Masterworks. Unfortunately, the “official” website really doesn’t seem like one, it’s a website called Serenada Schizophrana which, according to the site, is his “first orchestral composition written specifically for the concert hall.” Reading the site further, I get quite a few mixed messages as I skim through the content. Yes, it has a bio page for Danny Elfman, but the content appears to be skewed toward the CD which was released in 2005. (Make sure you have JavaScript enabled, by the way. The text is invisible without it.) I left the site feeling more frustrated in my quest than I had begun, especially since some of the fansites were not transparent about their affiliation with this popular composer.

Google Your Own Name Today

Why do you need to Google your own name? Three, little words. Online reputation management. Google your name once. Go ahead, just do it and see what comes up. If your Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or LiveJournal accounts rank for your name before anything else — I say Houston? You’ve got a problem.

In this day and age there may be no way to completely separate your work from your personal life, but one way you can show off your personality and your expertise is to have your own blog or have tighter rein over what appears in your social media accounts. If you’re in any form of creative art, a blog is exceptionally important because it can serve as a vehicle for people to contact you, find out more about you and your personality or get updates about upcoming projects and subsequently promote your work. If you’re not creative but are either planning on or frequently use the internet for your job, it’s a great way to show off the tools you’re experimenting with to add credibility to an interview or professional profile.

For celebs, there is no question in my mind that they should ensure their reputation is protected. Some celebs are doing this already by embracing the tools available — and doing it well. Check out Wil Wheaton’s blog for example. He updates his fans with projects, talks about his triumphs and failures and provides people with everything they need to know if they need to get a hold of him — including a convention schedule. Let’s try Heroes actress Hayden Panettiere. No go. Google tells me there’s a fansite, but there’s no information on it declaring whether or not it’s “official.” (i.e. Blessed by Hayden, herself.) There is a MySpace page, though. Good sign.

Of course, the more popular the celebrity, the more difficult it might be to have a “contact” page. Solution? Right now there’s a paid subscription service you can use through IMDB Pro. I haven’t used it yet, but I might be willing to give it a try. Another way might be to set up a contact page on their website or blog that explains what the celebrity’s policy is on contacting and promoting them, but even then I could see that getting out of control. My argument here is that although the Internet Movie Database is an amazing tool, it shouldn’t be the only solution.

Ultimately, the point I’m trying to make here is that it’s important to Google your own name because you never know why someone is trying to contact you and when. Maybe that person is researching you for a job, to promote your work, to contact you for networking or for clarification purposes on a sketchy topic.

So please, do yourself a favor and Google your own name. After you do, set up a Google Alert for your name to help manage your online reputation. You’ll be glad you did.

As writers, we all know how important content is for a blog. If it isn’t written in a language readable to humans, it probably won’t attract us (or Google, for that matter). Besides being well written, good content also means having something that is sooooooooo cool, so fabulous that people will gape in awe.

Finding that amazing content is a lot harder than it looks — especially for a writing blog — because a lot of sites make their money by being cool, almost like the Ripley’s Believe it or Not phenomenon for the blogosphere. Boing Boing, TechCrunch and ThinkGeek immediately come to my mind, but there are others. That’s not to say that your blog can’t get attention by “repurposing” or “pointing out” cool content (Search Engine Optimization, anyone?).

Enter the comments. The writer side in us loves the appeal of having people comment on what we write, because it’s like a teeny tiny “thank you” for taking the time to write a post. Yeah, don’t hold your breath. Just because it’s published online–even on a place where people are reading your work–there is no guarantee you’re going to get people interacting and commenting.

Here’s my take on why:

Why Readers Don’t Comment on Blogs

Your Comment System Needs Improvement: From complicated log-ins to “yet another password,” overly complicated means of commenting can be a turn-off. One of the ways I want to improve my comment system is to figure out the “direct reply” WordPress plug-in, so that I can directly reply better to people who comment. (Here’s the Wordpress Thread Comment plug-in from Wordpress.org.)

Timing, Timing, Timing: In my experience, comments can depend on when you post a topic and how long that topic is visible on your front page. They can also depend upon whether or not your content is hitting the reader when they have time to comment. If they’re at work, for example, maybe they physically can’t comment.

Doesn’t Grab the Reader: If the content isn’t spectacular, and doesn’t hit the reader in that sweet spot, then they’re not going to post a comment. Comments require an emotional commitment on the part of the reader — they have to have a legitimate reason to want to post.

Your Readers are RSS Feeders: RSS feeds are such a time saver, but they are also a barrier to commenting. I view RSS readers to be a lot like window shoppers; they can read headlines and snippets of your content, but they don’t have to click through. That “click” is their commitment to your blog. Asking them to comment as well requires another step toward reader-writer commitment, so you had better be ready to offer them something good.

The Tone of Your Content isn’t Genuine: Blogs have the trouble of sounding too authoritative, because everybody is an instant expert. Something I struggled with when I started my blog, I try to go the route of “this is my opinion and your experiences may differ,” and that’s what has worked for me. Readers aren’t stupid, so if your content sounds too much like a sales pitch or talking down to them, then chances are your blog might get ignored.

Web Analytics Can Help you Prove your Theories

Anyone can make inferences as to why people aren’t commenting on their blog, but to get into the specifics you’ll want to check your web analytics toolkit and figure out “why.” For example, a post I did about two free fiction submission sites you don’t want to miss received a lot of attention and more comments than I usually get. Why? Someone thought the post was worthwhile enough to use StumbleUpon, causing it to be my highest-trafficked post on my blog.

From abandonment to click-through rates for RSS feeds, you can find out a lot of information about your reader’s behavior to ensure that you’re writing great content that they’ll want to read (and you’ll want to write). The same can be said for commenting, in my opinion, because they are somewhat related. I like to think about it like a party. Before you can ask people to have a conversation, you have to invite them to your party. Before you can invite them to your party, you should probably get to know them and engage them, to find the right group of friends that will stick around.

Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Admittedly, I don’t always practice what I preach due to time constraints (and a touch of procrastination, too), but commenting is a good way to build community and to get other people familiar with your own work and personality. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I have to find some blogs to go comment on today! Have a great one!

Bill Aicher — Congrats to Bill Aicher, for not only completing the philosophical thriller The Trouble With Being God, but for taking that next step. Now available on Lulu.com and shortly through Kindle, may your book find a home in the hands of those who will appreciate it.

Greg Stolze — Second round of applause goes to Greg Stolze, an amazing writer who put his unpublished works to good use. Greg is raising funds to release his unpublished backlog under Creative Commons and donating the funds to charity. Kudos.

Matt M McElroy — Congratulations to Matt M McElroy (of Flames Rising fame and my SO) for taking the leap of faith this month on his project, 31 Days of Monsters. Each day in October, he has featured a different monster from a different author and yesterday he posted his take on a ghost, his first piece of fiction featured on his webzine. Over the past five years Matt has spent a lot of time featuring other folk and their talents, so it was nice to see him writing something to share with everyone else.

Fred Schepartz and Alex Bledsoe — Sometimes, the hardest part about being a writer is promoting your books. Congrats to these savvy writers for landing a gig reading their fine vampire novels at Barnes and Nobel on the East side of Madison. See the Madison Vampire Coven event on Facebook and join them! They won’t bite!

Well, that’s all for now. I hope your projects are going strong and your creativity is flowing. And remember, be excellent to one another. If you have something you’re proud of, feel free to post them in the comments or contact me. I’m going to try to do this on a more regular basis; watch for new updates about some of the awesome areas I’ve been branching out into!

So the next time you’re flipping someone off on the road or get into an argument with a customer, remember that the basic principles of “being a good neighbor” still hold true. This election will (thankfully) be over in just a few weeks.

This has been a public service message from one citizen for peace, love and happiness. Now go do something nice for someone else, and PARTY ON!

I find that as part of “creating my workspace” to get a lot of writing done, I can’t shut it off completely because I really like the notification feature when I get an “important” email. Instead I go invisible when wi-fi is available and I close my browser.

I know that the internet is my number one distraction because getting an email is like feeling a little ray of sunshine, like you used to feel when you had a pen pal when you were a kid. Although I have to admit that pen pals are much cooler, because you get “stuff.” There’s nothing like getting a physical, non-spammy letter or care package in the mail. Kind of like that scene in Harry Potter when the mail shows up. [Insert diatribe about how the world of Harry Potter might have been changed by the internet.]

Anyway, so part of this idea of finding space to write has evolved into setting aside blocks or chunks of non-internet usage and figuring out exactly what I use the internet for in my non-work hours to boost productivity. On the surface, it sounds a bit lame to be “scheduling” social time on the internet but it’s like that analogy of “get your homework done so you can get out and play.”

My personal belief is that it’s important for me to stay on top of social media for the day job and beyond. Some of social media for me is experimenting and playing around with the tools to see what might work for what I need it to do. It also allows me stay on top of how the internet is evolving because you never know where a new rival to Facebook might pop up. Either way, I can’t ignore my social media channels or do away with them completely, but limiting them is probably a good idea.

So to get more writing done in November for Nanowrimo, I know I’ll also need to go through my 1,398 emails and my 74 unread emails in the one account — should probably check my other accounts, too. Good thing this heated election will be over early November, because that will be one less thing I’ll be following that closely.

The more I think about ways to get off the internet, the more I realize (Delete.) how dependent I’ve become on internet communication. (Delete.)

Make that 72 unread emails and counting.

Even if I’ve watched a movie a 1,000 times or can quote every line of Firefly, sometimes I’ll get sucked into my favorite parts of the show and whoosh! a half an hour goes by and I lost my train of thought. Other people can be distracting when a) I’m not expecting a screaming kid to come flying past our window or b) someone is super excited and they “have to just tell me that one thing.” (Okay, yeah I’m guilty of that.)

I’ve found that the first thing I need to do when setting aside or picking a space for me to write in, is to have a somewhat “closed” environment. An “open” environment is way too distracting for me because of all that residual noise, interruptions, or tendency to interrupt other people when an idea hits me. A “closed” environment like a desk in a small office that we’re beginning to create upstairs, putting on headphones, finding a quiet coffee shop, etc. definitely helps me increase my productivity and sends a signal to my writer’s brain that “Hey, writer! This is the time to sit down, shut up and write!”

So the first step in achieving my NaNoWriMo goal this year will be to set aside spaces for me to write. As I mentioned earlier, we’re creating an office (aka creative space) upstairs that somehow has to coincide with the Halloween party we’re having. There are a few places in town that I enjoy writing at depending upon whether or not I “need” wi-fi service, but the internet can be its own distraction. More on that tomorrow.

What about you? Where do you enjoy writing and what are your big distractions?

Like a lot of people I know, fall is the season to reorganize before the big winter. From last-minute “around the house” projects to ensuring the house is prepped for the cold (to avoid those skyrocketing heating bills) there is lots and lots to be done.

In the middle of figuring out where I am on my “to do” list and my goals, I realized that in order to reach a goal — you have to be prepared to meet that goal by getting your proverbial house in order. The biggest barrier to completing any project for me is not time — but how that time is used. Many of my friends and I have been talking about finding that balance between work and play which is really challenging if you’re creative. Sometimes, you just can’t stop working on a project or other times — you just can’t stop having fun. We realized that a work-life balance is not an ideal, but something we can make a reality provided we clear out our closets and sweep our basements of all those pesky little tasks that have been piling up for months.

Over the course of October, in addition to my other blog posts I’d like to get a little more personal and share with you how I’m getting organized for National Novel Writing Month — the finish line (of course) would be a complete first draft of the first book in my Violet War series, Argentum.

I hope that you’ll join me in October, preparing your outlines and your schedule for NaNoWriMo in November. Let’s get to work!