Congrats to my mom!

I am so excited that my mom has published her first book. She is an amazing writer, a talent that was not passed down to me. From the first time I read her stories, I knew she would make it big. This is just the beginning for her but I know she will be a major success.  While her first book is in Spanish, future books will be published in English as well.

Looking for new books in Spanish? Don’t hesitate to read this one.

Also, thanks to Larry for helping out with the cover.

Her new website is coming soon and will look fabulous. Currently she is featured on the publisher’s website.

About my mom and her book.

Spanish

Miriam de la Torre Ordetx

Nació en La Habana, Cuba. Tiene un Masters de Florida International University. Profesora de español y de inglés como segunda lengua.

Se considera una persona muy positiva y vive enamorada de la vida, la cual respira por cada poro de su piel. Entre otros aspectos de su vida, Miriam nos confesó: «Me rebelo contra las injusticias, el abuso y la ignorancia. El escribir es más que un desahogo, es un compromiso que tengo con la época que me tocó vivir».

Contra Viento y Marea

La autora hace una analítica perforación de la sociedad que conduce a certeras conclusiones. Nos demuestra cómo la ignorancia, la mala educación, la falta de fe, el desconocimiento de las normas más elementales de la concordia, la confraternización, la tolerancia ciudadana, el buen léxico y gusto, constitutivas del basamento de vida de los seres con condición pensante, se han ido degradando en la isla de Cuba, para convertirse en caricaturas grotescas del Homo sapiens en su jungla de vicisitudes.

Hace gala de un realismo desgarrador en la exposición de la lucha existencial del emigrante; la vejez, en paralelo convulso y adverso no escapa a la lógica convergencia dramática del texto.

Carmenluisa Pinto
Editorial Voces de Hoy

Need fans?

If you are racking your brain trying to figure out how to increase your fan count, I have the simple answer. Facebook contests. It is fairly simple to do thanks to companies like Wildfire. The hardest part is probably coming up with the privacy policy, the official rules and the design necessary to carry out the contest.

First things first, you’ll need to figure out what kind of contest you want to run. Before you can decide this, it is important to know that every Facebook fan is worth approximately $74. If you are trying to sell a $20,000 car you will need to recruit approximately 271 fans to make one sale.

Choosing which type of contest to run should be based on your company. If you have a small company it is best to run a sweepstakes at first. After your initial campaign, once you have a nice fan base you can consider a photo or video contest.

Okay, so now you have decided which type of contest you will be running, the next thing is to decide on the prize. The prize should merit the effort the participant has to put forth and how big your company is. If the participant only fills out a form the prize should remain under $500.

The next thing to do is register for Wildfire, there you will be given pricing packages that range from about $185 a for 60 days to $5,000 for 60 days. The higher price point is of course the white label package which includes a tremendous amount of benefits. If your company can afford it, do it. However if you can’t afford it, one of the other options will do.

At this point if you haven’t already done so, you should outline the rules for the competition. Who can participate? Who can’t? Are there restrictions?

The only step left is to create the design work for your promotions tab and publish it.

A smart additional step is running Facebook advertising in conjunction to further promote your page/promotion.

Not only will you generate fans, you will also have a database of people who signed up with your company and whose information you now have. This makes a great list of people to email about new offers and promotions your company may be running.

So far my experience has been amazing and I recommend this to all my clients. Nothing better than iframes + promotion app.

Good Luck!

The new Facebook Page

I am ecstatic over the Facebook launch of the redesigned and more functional Facebook Page. Since its release on February 10^th, I have gotten to play with it quite a bit, and it is everything I hoped. It is about time that they make the Pages look and work more like the user profiles. The value it has for social media marketing is unquestionable.

Not only did it remove page tabs, but it also gives page admins the ability to post and comment on other Facebook Pages through a “Login as Page” option. Companies wishing to participate in the Facebook community can now do so.

One of the features I like best, aside from being able to communicate as the Page, is the notifications. I am now notified when an individual or page likes my page and when they participate on the Page. As a business owner, this gives us a greater control and ability to manage our followers.

Marketing Spend on the Rise

I have come to the conclusion that days are getting shorter or my work load is increasing. I am going to go with the latter, as I have yet to read that days have become shorter. My observation should not be misconstrued as a complaint, I am certainly not complaining.

I am very grateful and excited to see companies focusing on their branding versus cutbacks. So far 2011 has started strong, a pattern I hope will continue.

Prefer your food with no pesticides?

Orthorexia nervosa can be defined as people who are obsessed with healthy eating, concerned with quality rather than quantity, who refine and restrict their diet and often avoid foods containing pesticides, herbicides or artificial additives.

I suppose it was about time that someone classified the “obsession with healthy eating”. Now, who is going to classify and label the obsession with TV, junk food or partying? I assume that based on the recent article in the Gaurdian that those obsessions are “normal” and a completely accepted part of society. What about the person obsessed with finding lables for everything not considered “average”? Do those individuals get labeled ?

If I want to avoid being classified as having a mental disorder, I should buy some microwaveable dinners, bags of chocolate,  and lots of greasy chips and soda. If friends of mine were to look through my fridge they might have to commit me to food rehab, so I could learn to love and process the greasy and synthetic foods I don’t currently enjoy and which my body rejects.

Now really, on a more serious note, it might be those who don’t care what’s in their food who have a disease, perhaps called Ignorities, or more typical of the none-labeled lablers, Scientia Nervosa. After all, according to the article we should only be concerned with how much food we eat and not the quality or nutritional value of what we ingest.

There are many cultures who don’t believe we should eat everything we can get our hands on, in fact, there are many philosophies that suggest that the less we eat the longer we live.

Regardless of how they chose to label me, I WILL continue to question what is in the food I eat. To be honest, I should never have to worry about the poisons that are allowed to be in my food. However, until regulations change, I will have to question what is in the food I eat, at least when its in my control.

Perhaps someone should send the article written in the Gaurdian to the Ayurvedic cultures in India because a way of life that has successfully existed for over 5,000 years shouldn’t be in the dark about Orthorexia Nervosa, it could literally revolutionize their diet.

Multiple Domains

A lot of people ask me the question, “Should I buy more domain names?”. The answer is yes.

Type-in traffic is one reason to secure domain names that are closely related to your business. Someone might directly type http://www.organicgrocery.com while another may type http://www.organicBocaRatongrocery.com.

Misspellings is another important reason to own various variations of your actual domain name. It may also prove beneficial to own plural variations of  your website.

Once you secure all the names you were interested in purchasing, make sure you follow through and redirect the traffic appropriately. Have your web developer establish a 301 redirect from all your new domains to your canonical URL.

Owning multiple domain names will give you an edge, if done right. If you don’t redirect correctly you will sabotage your SEO efforts.

eBiotic Media Launches New Website

We are very excited to introduce our new website: www.ebioticmedia.com