How to get a cool email signature

Hi folks! I am back to Athens after my heavenly Corfu holiday and feeling rejuvenated. This is where I’ve been enjoying the sun and the sea for the past two weeks. Hard to wipe out the dreamy smile on my face, I can tell you…

Anyway, I am thrilled to share today an amazing new tip! Thanks to this article on the Kindlepreneur that is run by cool dude and entrepreneur Dave Chesson, I now have an email signature that rocks!

Here are two different versions – check it out:

The free app is  called Wisestamp. Everything you see above is clickable. For example, the Youtube image takes you to the video, and the banner on the right takes you to my website where readers can browse through my books.

Creating your email signature on Wisestamp takes about ten minutes. And you can add all sorts of things on a free account. You don’t have to upgrade to a paid option.

Note: If you decide to use a banner, you can create it on the free program Canva – choose the format of a Twitter banner as the Facebook one is too big to be inserted whole on Wisestamp.

Once you’ve created your email signature, you get to choose your free email provider to use it on. I chose Yahoo but get this: in the options, Wisestamp set it to ‘all email addresses’ which means that without doing anything else, it is now available also on my Gmail mailbox. Wisestamp will make a quick installation on your computer so the signature will be available to you in future. Once installed, I set mine to not come up on emails by default, unless I insert it manually.

See this icon I’ve circled in red below? That’s where you click to add your signature to the bottom of any email. Easy!

insertwisestamp

Now, once you’ve set up your signature, Wisestamp will email you and prompt you to make use of another cool free feature: a webpage where you get to present yourself to others. You create this here and it looks like this:

wisesite2

Below, you can see the whole page…

wisesite1

Or, you can see it here live.

People can even email you directly via this page!

The doggie graphic you see on the top right is something I added with the HTML option and it points to my books on my website. With the HTML option you can link up to virtually anything you want readers to see. I also used the Youtube option to link up to my book trailers. At the bottom I added the RSS feed for my blog. Hope this gives you a few ideas if you decide to create yours. It’s all free. I expect this page will come in handy the next time I need to introduce myself to a new associate, reader or new author friend – you never know. And one thing I’ve learned in my interactions with people is that the cooler you look when presenting yourself, the better your brand looks… and that’s of paramount importance, right?

You can create your own presentation page here once you’ve set up your signature.

If you’ve enjoyed this tip, make sure to spread the word! And if you’re not signed up for the posts of  Dave Chesson (The Kindlepreneur), now is the time to do it, if only for the eye-opening free books you get to download. Trust me, you’re seriously missing out if you haven’t checked out Dave Chesson yet. If there’s one thing I could say about him is that he thinks out of the box. And this makes him unique. For me, he’s an absolute star. So go sign up and get amazed. I know I do. Every time.

TWEET TO SPREAD THE WORD:

Author, is your email signature as cool as this? #ASMSG #IAN1 #IARTG Click To Tweet
EffrosWrites LOGO new 280x77
Do you love Greece? Check out our guide to Corfu! For delicious Greek recipes, go here. Sign up to the newsletter for Effrosyni’s news and special offers (sparse emails) NEW: To read Effrosyni’s books for FREE (yes, free!), sign up to her team of loyal readers here. It’s free to join!
NEW! Are you an author? Check out my FREE author promo tips & resources here!

How to NOT lose your reviews on Amazon

Amazon-Search-URL-Structure

Image by Dave Chesson (Kindlepreneur)

Boy, do I have awesome tips for you today.  I’ve just had an epiphany, and I’m blogging immediately to share. I owe this epiphany to the genius that is Dave Chesson, or as he’s otherwise known, The Kindlepreneur. Have you ever had your Amazon reviews deleted? Or are you an author affected by this with reviews in your own books? Fear not, because thanks to Dave, we’ll all have a few ideas from now on to protect ourselves!

Let’s face it – we all give out copies of our books to friends, or readers we meet online, hoping for an honest review to be posted at some point. Personally, I’ve never asked close friends or family members to review for me and, as my books are written in a foreign language to them, chances are they never will either. But, I realize, some of you may have gone this far out of desperation – I am not judging! – but did you stop and think that this is actually a surefire way for Amazon to catch you out?

As you will see on Dave’s post and on the embedded youtube video therein, the easiest way for Amazon to catch you getting a family member to review for you is by your mutual postal address or bank account.

Now, on to the more elaborate ways that Amazon may be associating you with a reader: Dave puts forward a very educated guess that made a light bulb go on in my head. When you read it, I’m sure you’ll know he has to be right! Personally, I’ve never made this mistake and have never had my own reviews deleted (phew, at least, so far!) but knowing what I know now, I finally feel more confident I am well protected and know how to protect my reviewers as well.

But, before you head over to Dave’s site to be amazed, I’d like to share one of my own theories:

When an author friend asks you to uptick an Amazon review for the umpteenth time, don’t. And don’t keep doing it for several authors either. I mean that ‘yes’ you can click on to make the review more helpful. Why? Because a sophisticated algorithm on Amazon will find it child’s play to work out that an author who keeps clicking ‘yes’ (or ‘no’, for that matter!) on the reviews of the same people’s books over an over has to be their buddy. Think about it. Even if Amazon doesn’t associate you with a specific other author, if you keep doing this for several authors, chances are Amazon will brand you as a reviewer with an agenda… then all your reviews could be deleted in one go. Scary, huh?

Now, head over to Dave’s awesome post. Believe me, you’ll get more info than you think! For example, his advice to publish on paperback before you launch the kindle, if you care to sell more paperbacks, is great. It is a clever little trick that will ensure your paperback will be listed on the top (instead of the kindle) in the searches for your book (this may be useful to non-fiction authors of reference books that sell more easily in paper form).

CLICK HERE FOR DAVE’S AWESOME POST

I highly recommend the site of Dave Chesson for his tips on Amazon Kindle, so while you’re there, make sure to register for future posts. You’ll get an awesome freebie book and, trust me, you’ll be thankful you listened to me when you read it!

 

Logo 280x178 w font AR HERMANN
Are you an author? Go here to see how we can help you spread the word about your books!
Have you enjoyed this post? Follow the blog (see right sidebar) and miss no more posts! Sign up to Effrosyni’s newsletter to keep up to date with her news and special offers (very sparse emails). Interested to read more? Head over to Effrosyni’s Blog, where you’ll find her earlier interviews, book reviews, author tips, travel articles and even Greek recipes!