Today I would like to share with you a few marketing tips that I've picked up along the way. Marketing themselves and their work is one of the dreaded things for writers. I know this from personal experience in the struggle to bring in readers. 
The first tip I have for you is that posting ads in Facebook groups are a complete waste of your time and energy. If you find a group on Facebook that you can engage with people, by engage I mean carry on real meaningful conversations with them, by all means join the group and participate. The ad groups can have anywhere from a dozen to forty posts an hour. With that many postings if you post isn't seen in that first hour then it's never seen. I've done actual experiments on this. The first experiment I posted in eight-five groups on Facebook and got only four clicks on the link. I used the analytic from Google's link shortener to get the statistics. Those clicks came within the first hour of the post. I later conducted another experiment. This time I used a post that I'd never run before. I posted in over ninety groups and the result was three clicks on the link. Facebook can be used as a good social tool to interact with people, but does not work as a good advertising tool.
About a month back I was made aware of Thunderclap and HeadTalker. They’re crowd-speaking platforms that help people be heard by saying something together. How do they work? It's simple you setup the message you want to be sent out, choose when you want it sent out and then ask people to support your post. If you reach your supporter goal, Thunderclap and Head Talker will blast out a timed Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr (HeadTalker also includes Linkedin) post from all your supporters, creating a wave of attention. Thunderclap requires a minimum of one hundred supporters for your message to be posted, while HeadTalker only requires fifty supporters. Setting up either one is completely free. Both of them have packages that can be purchased to get more analytical information on your supporters and who clicked on the links, but those packages are optional. Supporting is also free. Both of them have links that can be embedded into your website, making it easier for your supporters to help your cause. HeadTalker gives you free social reaches when you create a campaign. Starting you off with the potential of reaching three hundred thousand people. 
I've done a Thunderclap post already and had about twelve hundred people visit my website after the message went out. On Monday I will have my first HeadTalker go out. During the course of working with them I've learned a few things. The link shorterner bitly is unreliable with HeadTalker. The link fails to connect to the HeadTalker site unless you click on it multiple times or stops working altogether. I haven't had any trouble with Google's shortener. On Facebook there is a group that offers reciprocal support of your Thunderclap or Head Talker as long as it is book related. Use the button below to go to the group page. 

I currently have a Thunderclap and a HeadTalker campaign running. Links to them can be found on my home page. If you are willing to support mine then I would be happy to support yours.

For this blog I would like to share with you the personal transformation that I’ve been undergoing for the last several months. Earlier this year I decided that I needed to change a few things in my life. I’d been hearing more and more about how bad sugar was for you. All of the things I had been reading said that it didn’t matter whether you were a diabetic or not too much sugar is bad.
I decided to adopt a new way of eating. I would avoid eating any foods that had more than three grams of sugar per serving. If at all possible I would try for 1 gram or less of sugar. The only exception I made to this rule was for whole fruit or vegetables.
The changes that have occurred within myself have been profound. I’ve lost nearly forty pounds. I find myself needing only 7 hours of sleep per night not my usual eight or more that I required before. One of the biggest changes that I discovered was after I gave blood last month. The blood drive I do is on a Tuesday and the following morning is the day we get a truck in that has to be hand unloaded. I came to expect that after I’d given blood I wouldn’t be at full strength. Last month was a big exception. I didn’t feel weak at all. 
I used to have a massive sweet tooth, but one event early on cured me of that. I tried some root beer after I’d been doing this diet for a couple weeks. I couldn’t even finish half of the 20 oz drink. It tasted absolutely horrendous and top it off it gave me a massive headache. Now when I look at sweet foods I see something that is totally disgusting. How did I eat that crap before.
I try to encourage others to follow my example and change their lifestyle. It’s worked for me and I know it would work for them.