I am an author of a book on youth sports and success in athletics. My purpose for posting here is to ask several questions regarding the blogs and website I have created for the book. The website iteself is designed to create interest in the book and direct visitors to my blog(s). My blog(s), at MomsTeam, Bleacher Report, WEBETUR, and my own personal one at Blogger, where created to support the book and to publish articles that can truly make a difference for young athletes and their parents. I am fairly new to this arena of media and am in need of advice. Here are my questions: 1. My comments on others blogs at MomsTeam where originally signed with my name at the bottom of the post and links to my books website and blog using their respective titles. I have since learned that this is improper and removed the links on these comments, however, I did leave my signature with the book title below it without a link. There is my name at the top of the blog, as is traditional, but it links to my MomsTeam profile, not my personal blog nor the books website. It is much more difficult for anyone reading the comment made that I have any expertise on the subject, unless I at least list the title of my book like this: Kirk Mango Author: Becoming a True Champion Here is a link of a post I commented on so you can see exactly what I am talking about: http://www.momsteam.com/node/348 Scroll down to my comment at the bottom to see how I have left my signature. 2. When I publish articles on my own personal blog I leave nothing because all my links are there for anyone to find if they want. On the other hand, when I publish these same articles at MomsTeam, Bleacher Report, and WEBETUR I do leave my signature at the bottom along with links to my website and personal blog. This is because the links would not be available without doing this, I think. To give you an example here are three links that you can examine to give a visual of what I mean: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/25191-More-on-Youth-Sport-Specialization-240508 http://www.momsteam.com/node/1012 http://webetur.com/content/content/what-we-truly-want-teach-and-end-really-want-%E2%80%9Cthem%E2%80%9D-learn My question is, is this looked down upon by the bloggers? The last thing I want to do is turn people off. That destroys the whole purpose behind trying to make a difference. 3. Since I appear to be a novice at this, any other advice that you can give after examining my posts and comments would be much appreciated.
Its great to see you are taking such an interest in commenting. I understand your concern about putting your links in your signature and really it is your opinion what to do with it. Personally I think putting your book title under your name (with or without the author: all it takes is a Google search to see you wrote it) or not is fine. The main thing I would consider is the site you are on. If you are commenting on a site where you are a member with a profile on that site, you really don't need to list your credentials (that is what your profile is for). If it is for some unknown site or that your not a member of then posting the book title and your full name is best. When you publish articles on another site, I would recommend that under your full name you put the name of the book with a link to the about page of your blog. On this page people can easily find out about you and you should have a link to your book page there as well. This is just my personal opinion, but I hope it helps.
Thanks Jargenhunter for your response. Your points are well taken. My big concern with having my signature and links to my books website and blog site on the posts that I publish, and just my sig and book title on my comments, is that many of the individuals who will visit these youth sports, sports parenting, and sports sites are not necessarily versed on the ins and outs of blogging. They are mainly there looking for information, at least the ones I am trying to reach anyway. It could be a young athlete, parent, or even coach looking for advice and having my links easily accessible for them, I think, is important. The problem is how others more versed in this media might view this. The last thing I want to do is look, well, unprofessional or novice. At least not when I am trying to get a book published and generate interest in the market for a literary piece. I think I read somewhere, when searching blogging etiquette, that experienced bloggers look at signatures and links at the bottom of comments as very ammatuerish. I think terms like "dork," "pinhead," "dumby," etc. are used to describe bloggers who do this. So I am trying to find a happy medium where I can still gain some respect from the blogging community and reach the people I need to. Please, any more thoughts are welcome!!!
For whatever it's worth I always sign my name and leave a link to my website when I post on other people's blogs. That way if they're interested they can go straight to the site rather than try to google it or do a search. Dee