A couple of days ago, I was just thinking about domain names (because I get kind of cranky if I can’t buy a new domain every month or two!) and I don’t know how this idea came into my head but I started thinking about a site that has short, easy to read e-books at a really reasonable fee.

I know that one of the reasons I usually only get free e-books is because the ones you pay for are much longer and I seriously don’t have the attention span to sit at the computer and read for long and I don’t have an e-reader.  But I would pay a couple of dollars for a short e-book that had targeted info that I’d really like to know about.  Or would make me laugh.  Or was just plain fun.  It’s a couple bucks.  It would be worth it to me.

And I thought to myself, “Self, you could write short e-books that would be inexpensive and fun…”

But then myself reminded me, “Me, you suck at marketing your own work.  You need to involve others.”

And I realized that I was right.

But what if there were dozens of writers – maybe even dozens of dozens of writers – that just wanted to have a little fun writing what they already know about for residual income and PROMOTING the site?

What if those writers got to keep 100% of the money that they earned from their e-books by putting up their own paypal button?

What if all those writers were having so much fun that they kept writing their little e-books and promoting them?

And the idea kept building…and building…and building…until I finally went and bought the domain for it.

I’m not going to tell you what the name of the domain is but let me just tell you that they e-books will all have a theme – “22 Ways to________” (and if you have more than 22 ways, expand it to 44 ways and you’ve got a sequel).  And I’m inviting anyone that can write to take part.

When I formally start taking authors in I’ll ask only a few things:

• Have an outline of those 22 ways ready so I know you’re serious.
• Have your own PayPal account and know how to create the code to put it into a WordPress post
• Be on Twitter and/or Facebook and other social media marketing sites and be ready to do your own promotions

And I think that is it.

I’ve been putting out some feelers already and found that there is definitely some interest so I’m working on getting the site ready.  So start thinking about your e-book.  Heck, start writing your e-book!  The site should be ready in a week or two!

I’m a big fan of free.  Huge.  If it is free and I think that there is even just a little bit of value in it I’ll grab it.  But I’m sure you all know by now that free also means a newsletter of some sort.  The question is – are they just going to clutter up your email inbox or will they have some real value.

I know that sometimes I’ll sign up for a free e-book and the newsletter expecting something really great.  And then I start getting the emails and all they are is a regurgitation of their sales page.  And every single “newsletter” (or sometimes a section of a “course”) is selling me something.  I don’t need to see that every other day.

Then there are a very few email newsletters that amaze and inspire me.  And these are the ones that I am going to model my newsletter after (yes, there is one in the works!).  They have something that is not already on their blog.  They have personality.  They have VALUE in the form of information that has real use to me.  Sometimes they offer something that has to be paid for but it is not in every single issue and when it is offered it is something useful that might bring additional value to my work.

One of my favorite newsletters is Pat Flynn’s of the Smart Passive Income Blog.  I signed up for his newsletter to get E-books the Smart Way (see the sidebar on his blog).  I was thrilled to find that the e-book itself was great and answered a lot of my questions.  And it really made me think.  I was really glad that someone had recommended him.

When I started getting his newsletter though I was even more glad that I signed up.  His newsletter is one that I never automatically delete.  In fact, I have a folder dedicated to his newsletters.  Every issue has something new.  Every issue has something that I can put to use immediately.  Every issue makes me think.  And every issue shows some of his personality, which makes it infinitely more interesting to read than most newsletters out there!

What are your favorite newsletters?  The ones that you never miss reading?  I’d love to check them out.  And if you have one of your own don’t be afraid to plug it in the comments.  I’ll more than likely subscribe and if I like it I might talk about it here, too.

Getting re-tweeted is one of the points of Twitter.  Of course, the main point will always be to develop relationships and trust but if you want to get publicity, if you want others to visit your site, your followers need to find value in your tweets and re-tweet it.  But how do you get them to re-tweet?

I find that not as many people re-tweet my links as I’d like so I started doing a little bit of research.  A couple of weeks ago I jotted down some notes and came across them today.  I have no clue where this comes from because I forgot to write down the source.  It could have been an e-mail newsletter or a blog or maybe even an audio that I listened to.  If you know where it came from feel free to speak up in the comments.

Anyway, one of the things I jotted down was that,

Less is more; keep tweets to 1 per hour.  Especially if it is a post you want re-tweeted.

That’s something I’ve been working on.  I tend to go in and tweet several thing at at time because, well, no one I know really has the time to go in and tweet every hour.  But, if you use something like Hootsuite, you can schedule your tweets.

At first I thought that was being kind of manipulative because – well, it isn’t completely genuine.  It makes it look like  you’re always there.  But if you do it carefully, interspersed with your own casual comments as you go on, it can be a lot easier on your followers.  Personally, I hate it when I go into my feed and find that the same person/business has tweeted twenty links in a row.  I’d rather they space them out.  I want to see others’ tweets, too.

I found some more interesting advice today when I stumbled across Dan Zarella’s blog, The Social Media Scientist.  He wrote a great blog post on the 20 words and phrases that will get you the most re-tweets.    I was surprised to see that “please retweet” or “pls rt” were on that list.  But I can imagine if people start to see it all the time they’ll start to over look it.  I think it depends on how often you use it.  I know one guy (that I recently unfollowed) that would post about 10 things in an hour and ever single one of them said, “Please RT” at the end.  Did I?  Maybe the first once or twice – until I realized that he does that all the time.

So, have you noticed anything that helps you get re-tweeted more often?  Would love to hear your successes or your thoughts.  Leave a comment!

Audioboo is a new way of sharing. Well, not really new, but in a new format. Check it out and tell me what you think! Do you want more?