Hear Me RAAAAAWWRR!!

Monday, February 21, 2011

You may have seen my Twitter outburst earlier today concerning contact info and how IT SHOULD BE PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED ON YOUR WEBSITE!!!!!

I'm setting up a blog tour for one of our fabulous authors, a crime writer with a book out in May. I've been clicking around all day and am surprised how hard it is to contact bloggers!

Of course, writers out there, your contact info is essential if I stumble upon your blog and am like "Oh sweet potatoes! This guy/gal can write! I must sign!" However, that's not really the reason you want your info accessible.

Maybe you're a black belt. Maybe a graphic designer. A dog fan? Your unique skillset and interests may perfectly fit the needs of someone who stumbles across your info because of a retweet or someone posting you on their FB wall. You just never know!

Notes and Disclaimers:

If you're afraid your inbox will be flooded: get over yourself. We're talking about serendipity here...it's not going to happen every day.
Be smart. Physical addresses and phone numbers? No.
"Contact Me" forms are handy...but if a longer message needs to be sent, it's just going to annoy you (those forms remove paragraphs). Just put your email somewhere!
I am indifferent between "Contact Me" tabs or putting the info someplace in the sidebar. Or even just having it in your larger profile (on blogger, etc.)

17 comments:

angelafrancis said...: I recently added a contact portion on mine. I don't know why It wasn't there to begin with. The thought that you, so nicely mentioned, was the reason why I did. Love the tweet. lol.; February 21, 2011 3:24 PM
lotusgirl said...: Thanks for the tip. I know it's available if you click through to my info, but I'm going to have to add it in my sidebar. It should be easy for someone who wants to contact me.; February 21, 2011 3:47 PM
Stephanie said...: Thanks for the reminder! I had it up on mine for a while, took it down to change some stuff and then forgot. It's back up now. :); February 21, 2011 4:21 PM
Manon Eileen said...: I do so agree!

And honestly, it's annoying in every case. Last summer I worked a temp job as a .. well, data collector. I had to find company's contact details and put them in my company's database for future use. You have NO idea how HARD it was to find the most *basic* contact information. And that's for the business in general - I could often not even find their address, or it was misspelled, or they didn't share a phone number or general mail address.
Even worse is when a relatively big company in the sector my company works in (IT for pity's sake) didn't even have a website.

After three months I left with a lot less hair.

(and really, it's generally not hard to put contact information somewhere visible); February 21, 2011 4:44 PM
Josin L. McQuein said...: I just added a nice, big "contact me" button on my blog sidebar.; February 21, 2011 5:36 PM
Maxwell Cynn said...: Opps, I thought it was there. Shows how often I look at my own profile. I did at least have my website link - which has a big "email me" button on the main page.

It's there now. On the blog. ;-); February 21, 2011 6:06 PM
Simon Hay Soul Healer said...: I had that sorted :) Do I get cupcakes?; February 21, 2011 7:10 PM
Tara Tyler said...: Oh all right. I know you were looking for me.

ps - advice to those still hesitant to put their email address, get another one just for writing, blogging, etc. gmail and others are free =); February 21, 2011 10:04 PM
Charity Bradford said...: AMEN! I've been trying to follow crusaders and it is hard just to find the "follow" button for the blog. Twitter following is even harder. I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to try and find an email address. I created an entire page for my contact info.; February 22, 2011 9:36 AM
TirzahLaughs said...: I've always had an email address available. :) No one ever takes advantage of me. Does that mean I'm boring?; February 22, 2011 11:42 AM
Sharon K. Mayhew said...: I have my email available on my sidebar and a publishinc company contacted me a few weeks ago and asked me to review a book for them. :); February 23, 2011 2:31 AM
cole linnae said...: hi meredith..
okay so- i hearad it through the grapevine you linked to me...
will you contact me? :)

nicole_linnae@hotmail.com; February 24, 2011 3:55 AM
AmyShojai said...: Uhm...I'm a fan of dogs. And cats. Actually, that's pretty much all I publish. But really got my tail in a twist to realize my email was NOT on the blog page, dang! Will have to take that up with the fur-kids (my editors).; February 26, 2011 12:51 AM
alwayscoffee said...: All along, I *thought* I had my contact email on my blog. After reading this, I went to check.

I didn't. What in the hell was I thinking? I wonder if I can blame this on a lack of coffee?

In any case, thank you for posting this. It was an excellent reminder. ~Ali; February 26, 2011 8:22 AM
Marjorie said...: All of my blogs list my E-mail address in "View My Complete Profile." I am not foolish. I want everybody to be able to contact me and let me know they love my cartoons, poems, and interviews.

Please add me to all lists. The blog book tour might be something great for "marjorie-digest." The author will be in excellent company there.; February 26, 2011 1:28 PM
jesse said...: Good call.
Just updated.
Thank you.
:); February 26, 2011 1:43 PM
dan said...: I thought mine was on there, but I guess not. Now it is, thanks to this post. Thanks!; February 28, 2011 5:00 PM

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Five Random Things About Suzie

1. I drink so much orange soda, it's probably running through my veins. I've been known to go through a twelve pack of diet sunkist in a day.

2. I'm legitimately nocturnal (or a vampire). I will be so exhausted at two pm that I'm falling asleep standing up - it has happened before, at Six Flags no less - but as soon as the sun goes down I'm wide awake.

3. I have a gorgeous unused $6000 Reem Acra wedding dress hanging in my closet, and it showed up on my doorstep the same day my (now ex) fiance broke up with me. And thank God for that. I wouldn't have wanted to waste that dress on him.

4. Social anxiety plagues me daily. I write a script and practice in front of the mirror when I have to make a phone call, but most people who interact with me have no idea how nervous I am (or perhaps they lie) because I've worked so hard to try to overcome it.

5. I'm actually worried that I will never love my children (when I do have them in the far off future) as much as I love my dogs. I just like animals better than people - they're sweet and innocent and soft and furry - is that so wrong?

quotes

金不一定閃
流浪者不都迷路

"I dreamed you bewitched me into bed

And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane
I think I made you up inside my head
I fancied you'd return the way you said
But I grow old and I forget your name
I think I made you up inside my head" ~Silvia Plath, Mad Girl's Love Song

"Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired." ~ Robert Frost

"Love is not love,
Which alters when it alteration finds." ~ William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 116"

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning-...So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, THE GREAT GATSBY

"For deadly secrets strike when understood
and lucky stars all exit on the run:
never try to knock on rotten wood,
never try to know more than you should." ~ Sylvia Plath, "Admonitions"

"The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become." ~ Milan Kundera, THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

William Wilberforce: "No one of our age has ever taken power."
William Pitt Jr: "Which is why we're too young to realize certain things are impossible. Which is why we will do them anyway."

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." ~ Mark Twain

"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform." ~ Mark Twain

“You know what I am going to say. I love you. What other men may mean when they use that expression, I cannot tell; what I mean is, that I am under the influence of some tremendous attraction which I have resisted in vain, and which overmasters me. You could draw me to fire, you could draw me to water, you could draw me to the gallows, you could draw me to any death, you could draw me to anything I have most avoided, you could draw me to any exposure and disgrace.” ~ Charles Dickens, A MUTUAL FRIEND

"I think the idea of life after death is a bad idea. It distracts you from appreciating the uniqueness of the here and now, the moment you are living." ~ Joseph Campbell

"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear...Cry for the broken tribe, for the law and the custom that is gone. Aye, and cry aloud for the man who is dead, for the woman and children bereaved. Cry, the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end." ~ Alan Paton, CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY

"To laugh often and much.. to endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better... To know even one life has breathed easier because you lived, This is to have succeeded." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"After telling the hard facts to anyone from lover or friend, I have changed in their eyes...[Some see it as] a mission, as if ...they can pull me back from the wreckage of that day. Of course, their best efforts are largely useless. No one can pull anyone back from anywhere. You save yourself or you remain unsaved." ~ Alice Sebold, LUCKY

"Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared." ~Tupac, The Rose That Grew From Concrete

Confessions

Monday, February 21, 2011