Two Views of the same thing different times, different days.Swubird of Swubird's Nest asked me in his comments recently if I used my father's life stories in my writing. And Jim of The Truth About Lies had a recent post about inspiration and getting ideas. John Scalia in his book You're not fooling anyone when you take your laptop to a coffee shop mentions how most writers must do more than fiction writing to make a living. Helen Ginger of Straight From Hel had as a guest blogger Joan Upton Hall in a post about trademarks. My friend Kathy McIntosh of Well Placed Words often posts about her editing and has done so in her most recent post Word Use Watch.
Finally, my article The Sideline Syndrome is published in the January edition of Treasure Valley Family Magazine and in February my article Fit-For-Teens Gyms is coming out in Treasure Valley Teen.com.
So what do two photos, several different blogs and two articles from a fiction writer have to do with cross marketing? Plenty. As the photos above illustrate, the same thing can change a great deal from moment to moment, yet still be the same. This can be said of writing that is cross-marketing.
The answer to Swu's question is a yelled "Yes!" Dad is a character and a subject of non-fiction articles. He's an inspiration for myriad things, not just writing, and a deep well of where I get ideas. I'm an exercise instructor as my "other" job and now often sell articles on fitness, as well as using my knowledge in my fiction. Selling the articles promotes my exercise biz and also helps establish a trademark or "known" name as a writer. I try, whenever possible, to do as Kathy does so well, and provide "cross-content" in my blog and fiction and articles.
Around it goes, use and re-use and re-cycle, one aspect feeding into another, all of them creating success.
What do you do to cross market? Or have you even considered it? Or have you been doing it unconsciously (as was the case with me in many ways until my fellow bloggers started me thinking)?
Next post, a review and what a writer can learn from reviewing other work.
11 comments:
Hi Conda!
Love the images! Great article! When the kids and I go to the park, you can bet you'll see me swinging right along with them!
For my online content, linking things together really helps. For instance, I take an article I published on one site and re-vamp it to use somewhere else. Then, most times, I link to the original article itself.
This has really been working well for me. I can add information, turn a twist on it, or just introduce the piece and lead readers to it.
I've really noticed a difference in my residual page view income since I've employed the tactic.
Have a great day!
Conda:
Excellent article on use, reuse and recycling your writing. Plus, different pints of view.
The fact that you are publishing magazine articles today, in 2009, in this competitive market is definitely a mark of excellence for your literary abilities. I recently spoke with a publisher who told me it took his magazine at least six months to even decide if they wanted to publish your article and, if they did, actual publication would be 18 months from that date. That's two years! Meanwhile your article is being held up keeping you from either sending it to another pubisher, or re-writing it.
Thanks Muse! You give great examples of cross-marketing in your comment.
And your blog often has fabulous cross marketing ideas. Everybody check it out!
Oh, my, I have so much to learn. Thanks for the mention and the compliment, Conda, but I'm not even sure what Muse means by residual page view income.
I have to get to work studying all that and it seems all I can do to think up topics!
Great photos, too.
Gosh, Swu, thanks for the compliment--and I had no idea that some magazines had such long lead times now! That's as bad as fiction!!
You are most welcome, Kathy. And you do an excellent job cross-marketing your writing and editing skills. It shows in your success!
Interesting post, Conda. I was reading an article only last week which was stressing the advantages of concentrating on one specialist (literary) product because we live in a specialist world. I think I find your experience, as you portray it, more convincing.
Thanks, Dave.
I believe the "specialist" argument is the "name recognition" idea re-vamped, or it sounds like it. Because specialists? In a world where most will have at least 6 different careers in a lifetime?
I don't believe works in this world, unless you're already established, ala Grisham, King, Rowling. And that carries it's own problems, being branded to one genre. Ask Stephen King.
And even Stephen King breaks out of his "specialty" all the time!
Great post, Conda, and so true. The same thing can be said many ways, with many shades of meaning, just as your photos have the same content, but from two different perspectives.
Since no content is entirely "original" anymore, it's often the context and cross referencing that make a piece work and seem fresh and new!
Thank you, Lynda. Takes an artist like you to notice all "the shades of meaning"!
Technology truly has become completely integrated to our existence, and I am fairly confident when I say that we have passed the point of no return in our relationship with technology.
I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Ethical concerns aside... I just hope that as memory gets cheaper, the possibility of uploading our memories onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's one of the things I really wish I could experience in my lifetime.
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