Greetings and Salutations!

I've updated our "Send a Friend" code - the code that allows a visitor to easily send a notice about one of your articles to a friend of theirs. You can find this code at the very bottom of your article. To find it, go to any article in your site and scroll down past the end, past any social networking, and past the large newsletter subscribe box. Right under that box, and above the copyright line which gives you explicit copyright of your content -

Content copyright © 2012 by Lisa Shea. All rights reserved.

there should be a row of buttons. The third one from the left says "Tell a Friend". If you test this out, you'll see it's a way for a visitor to let a friend of theirs know about your article.

This button sends out TWO messages -

One to the friend, letting them know about the article
One to YOU the editor, letting you know someone promoted your article for you. The message to you as an editor doesn't say who that person was, for privacy reasons.

I've updated both of these messages so they are now more clear and also less likely to get caught by anti-spam filters.

Please give the button a try and let me know if you have any suggestions or comments!


GOOGLE PLUS

Now that we all have Facebook and Twitter working smoothly, it's time to think about Google Plus! We have definitely found that the more ways you promote your projects - whatever those projects are - the more successful they will be. The key is working them into a routine so they don't take up more time :) The more you can optimize your time and make it easy, the better you can draw in high traffic with minimal effort!

I've made a new BellaOnline page in Google Plus here -

https://plus.google.com/b/103579605267938390758/103579605267938390758/posts

Does anybody know how to make that URL more pretty?

My page is here -

https://plus.google.com/b/103579605267938390758/109263407720411193859/posts

I will gladly join the circles of anybody who wants to.

I will be setting up a page for my low carb site next.

When you sign in to Google Plus, the page you use to create your own page is -

https://plus.google.com/pages/create

Post in our Social Networking forum if you have questions, and we'll all help each other out!

Again, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to have three different PR streams - Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Think of them as reaching different audiences. Once you get into a routine, just doing paste-paste-paste for each new article, you can easily triple your traffic just by using those PR streams.


WEEKLY WRITING CONTEST

Our first April winner is Susan D. Bates, our College editor! She's been with us since April 2010. Many editors have a resolution of going back to school - Susan is a wonderful resource to get you started! Post in her forum with any questions or concerns, and she'll help you take that first step.

Our second winner is Susan Kramer, our Meditation editor! She's been with BellaOnline since August 2003. I highly recommend meditation for all editors. It can be a short period of time - just 5 minutes - and it helps to train your brain to focus and relax. Stop by Susan's forum for great advice and tips!

Susan and Susan (grin) - send me an email and let me know what email address you'd like me to use for your Amazon gift certificate! Congratulations!


Lisa Shea, owner
BellaOnline.com

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