Greetings and Salutations -

First up, I have 94 messages in my editor inbox. My quest for tomorrow is to work through those. Hopefully if you're in there I will get to you shortly!

Last call to test out the WildFire sweepstakes app for Facebook - you can see it here -

http://www.facebook.com/WeddingsAndCourtships

Let me know any feedback you have on how it works or doesn't work, and I'll report the findings to everyone when it's done with, which is Friday. This is the $5 app. After this I'll next test a free app to see how it works. Note that apparently smartphones can't use Facebook apps, or so I hear, so that's one drawback. Also, apparently this $5 version cannot "force a like". So people can enter without liking your page. One would hope that people would like it anyway, but it's something to keep in mind.

I went from about 90 (I think) likes to 115 likes, so the $11 investment gained me 25 new followers. And that's with pretty much zero marketing since this was just an app test. One would assume with proper marketing that it could get many more followers for you. Of course I realize many of the like were you guys, and I appreciate that :). But I think a similar (if not better!) fan boost would happen for you guys if you ran sweeps for your soap shops and editing services and so on. The key of course is to give away things you sell / do, so that the people who are liking you are people who actually are interested in your services. I.e. if I gave away an iPhone I could get a ton of likes, but most would be people who would unlike as soon as the contest was over and who had no interest in my products. You want the end result to be people who actually will enjoy and use your services.

A key to get powerful Facebook attention is to make posts people comment on. Facebook's programming auto promotes "popular posts" (judged by comments) and hides "unpopular posts" (again judged by lack of comments). So the more you can get people to comment on your entries, the more you then are seen by more people, which then gets more comments, which expands your reach even further. And remember it's not just "fans" / likes who see those posts. It's the world.

If you check out my low carb facebook page -

http://www.facebook.com/bellaonlinelowcarb

Scroll down to August 15th where I ask people for advice for a person who is just starting a new low carb diet. I got 22 comments and 4,224 views on it even though I only have 559 fans. And that then got me a bunch of new subscribers, people who saw the thread and joined up. So those comments are key. If you need help brainstorming comment-luring posts, post in our blogs forum and we'll share ideas!

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php/forums/389/1/Blogs_Social_Networking


MUSED

I just finished the final pass-through of our upcoming Autumn Mused content. If you have time tonight or first thing tomorrow morning, please do a quick read-through of a few items to look for typos! The more eyeballs we have the better. Even just one or two items would be a huge help for us!

http://www.bellaonline.com/review/issues/fall2012/tableofcontents.html

Also, LOL, not only did I miss the Mused deadline and have to scramble to get this all processed quickly, but I also somehow put up the summer issue with NO FEEDBACK BOXES. Which means we have no feedback on the issue! Clearly I need more checklists in my life :). So if you have a moment please read our summer issue -

http://www.bellaonline.com/review/issues/summer2012/

and submit feedback on the pieces you like the best. The artists love getting the feedback, to know which items readers really connected with, and I feel sad that my glitch meant they got none at all. Please put calls out to family and friends to help us with feedback. The artists trust us with beautiful, amazing works of art, and I like them to know how much we adore the things they create.

Thank you all for your patience on the email messages, and I will strive to get through those all tomorrow!

Lisa Shea, owner
BellaOnline.com

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