Monday Mailbox ~ Online Presence

As my leg bounces up and down, clonus, as I type,  I wonder if my being online is worth it all and long for the days when I could just write. I spend on average of 60 hours online per week between blogs, promotion, emails, writer forums, research, and games. That's more time than a full-time job. Or at least a standard job. I've never been lucky enough to have a 40-hour work week.

That leads us into your question for today.

How much time is enough when building an online presence? You are everywhere. How do you keep track of it all? LC

Start small and grow it bigger. I started with forums and blogging. To build an audience the forums are great. You just have to invest a few hours a week commenting and posting. If people like what you have to say, they'll follow your blog. This is where links comes in. I put them everywhere. They are in my email signatures, my forum signatures, my books, my author pages, etc.

For forums I belong to quite a few. Mainly the Compuserve Books & Writers, GoodReads, and SheWrites. Keep in mind that there are forums within forums. Join as many or as few as you think you can follow that pertain to information or promotion. There are many I do frequent but it's not a life long quest. It's a question of balance. I could spend hours in these places, but it would not allow me to create and that's why I joined these forums to begin with. I always keep in mind why I'm doing what I'm doing and "because" isn't a good enough reason.

My blog is my lifeline to readers and writers alike. I've got about an even distribution between the two where once it was more skewed to the writers. It's a place I can be me the expert and the novice, the doubtful and the assured, the comedian or the crybaby, the tunnel is black and goes on forever and the hope giver because the end of that tunnel is near.

I can't be in two places at once. I'm only human, but I can be with emails. While I might not be physically present in all areas, I'm just a message away. When I have a few seconds to spare I might open my twitter, or facebook, or my space, or linkedin accounts and post something or comment on something. But mostly I stay away from those time drains. Even this blog is pre written  on Thursdays or Saturdays during my non blogging days and scheduled. My Thursday and Saturday sporadic postings are the only ones that are off the cuff blogs and maybe written 24 hours in advance.

How do I keep track of it all? Digest options and emails. Those I can read or answer during the free seconds of my day or the middle of the night if I choose to. I believe in a less stress life, although I don't have one. Easy is better than hard, but hard is not without merit. While I do not promote my book per se with a buy-my-book plea I do use them as examples here in my blog. I'm all about building relationships with readers and writers alike. After all, writers are readers too.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.