Jayme Soulati, Author at soulati.com

Blog Tips 2: Publishing Schedule

07/02/2013 By Jayme Soulati

When and how many blog posts to publish on a weekly basis seems to be a puzzle for many writers.

Time of Day to Post

The most important thing to remember is that the Internet never sleeps, but when you’re sleeping, someone else is awake and launching their day in another time zone.

While that statement may imply you should post at midnight Eastern Standard Time to get Europeans just waking up for work, Pacific Standard Time in the U.S. during evening or Hawaii just having dinner, it doesn’t!

Mornings in your time zone are the best time of day to post, preferably between 8 – 10 a.m.

From where did I get that? Oh, from 3.5 years of blogging and from this little chart right here off Google+ and Peg Fitzpatrick’s always-rich content:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/104858643838035519891/posts/WRKP8z6nHYX

How Often to Post

If you’re posting one out of seven days and believe you’re gaining, think again.

One post weekly, even if it is on Monday when peeps come around looking for good content, gets you nowhere.

You cannot build community.
You cannot gain momentum with content topics.
You lose readers you never had.
You take a modicum of interest in blogging.
You cannot build a brand.
You will not be an influencer.
You earn nothing in SEO.
Other bloggers do not link to a “near dead” blog.
The comment section is empty.

(Reverse each of these to positives and you see why blogging works.)

Post a minimum of three out of seven days weekly.

Your thoughts?

The Happy Friday Series: Thriving Or Surviving?

06/28/2013 By Jayme Soulati

People often say your destiny is in your own hands but there are times when you can’t control what life has in store for you. Most of us have a desire for happiness, though how many of us actually achieve happiness? You may be perfectly content with your life or you may be struggling with the challenges facing you now. Sometimes all we can do is try to get through each day and be done with it. But to achieve true happiness, you need to thrive.

Often we have routines in life going through the motions of our daily chores, but how often do we reflect on what makes us happy?

What makes you happy in life?

What can you do to achieve that happiness? The changes you make to your life may be small changes, such as taking a daily walk with the dog or writing in a journal, or large changes, such as moving to a new home or starting a blog. Perhaps your changes aren’t attainable in the near future, but it’s important to have dreams.

Do you have a plan to thrive? Are you thriving now? Are you taking steps to achieve a goal?

When I moved to England the transition was tough for me and my family. We moved in the winter, at the darkest time of the year when the days were brief and glimpses of the sun behind the clouds were rare. My husband was traveling constantly for work while I was trying to adapt to a new culture and develop new driving skills (roundabouts anyone?). Fortunately, we had the support of the ex-pat community at the girls’ international school and at the local American Women’s Club.

People aren’t considered new for very long in the ex-pat world. Three months after I arrived, I was asked to head the Welcome Team for the school, welcoming new families and helping them with the transition living in England. By helping others to adapt to their new surroundings, I was helping myself as well. I realized how far I had come in a short time and by sharing my knowledge I was able to learn a lot from the newcomers.

A year later, I started presenting “Tech Is Your Friend” to the newcomers at the American Women’s Club. I showed them how tech such as smartphones, Skype, GPS devices (called “Sat Navs” in England) and other tech could help make their stay easier and communicating with loved ones back home less costly. People started showing me helpful apps such as Tube Exits that tell you which car to board on the London Tube to arrive closest to your exit, saving time and hassle in your Tube travel.

The Wonder of Tech

Sharing tech knowledge and helping others in England was very fulfilling but when I returned to the U.S., that opportunity seemed to disappear. Friends encouraged me to start a blog about tech, so I launched The Wonder of Tech in January 2011. I wanted to continue writing for everyday people to show them how tech can help them in their lives. My blog lets me share my tech knowledge while helping others.

The Wonder of Tech has helped people around the world embrace tech instead of fear it. I have heard from many readers about what a difference tech has made in their lives. By sharing tech, I feel as if I am thriving and helping others thrive, as well.

I didn’t have a plan to thrive in my life, I was struggling to make it through the days when I was asked to head the Welcome Team. By accepting that challenge, I was led on the path to my passion, allowing me to thrive by helping others.

What dreams do you have? What passions would you like to pursue? What steps can you take to bring those dreams closer to reality? Are you thriving? Did you have a plan or did life guide you there? How can you change your life to make your dreams come true? Let us know in the Comments section below!

About The Author

Carolyn Nicander Mohr is a lawyer, wife and mother of three teens including a set of twins. She is a polygadgetist entranced with personal technology for 20+ years. The Wonder of Tech is her professional blog designed for tech lovers, tech haters and anyone else who wants or needs to learn about the world of personal technology in plain English. The Wonder of Tech also has appeared at philly.com, the website for The Philadelphia Inquirer. All opinions expressed in this blog are mine and are tech, not legal, opinions.

LinkedIn Profile: Carolyn Nicander Mohr
Facebook Page: The Wonder of Tech
Twitter account: @wonderoftech
Google+ Page: The Wonder of Tech

Always Publish An E-Book, Too

06/27/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Self-publishing a book in whichever format comes first is a wonderfully tedious, exciting, disturbing, and mind-boggling experience. I know this to be true because I just did it — with many trials, tribs and nail-biting.

Today, I’m so pleased to present:

If you download the e-book, and find you just can’t live without the soft-cover to hold in your hand, you can get this .

There’s an entire system of pricing you have to consider when setting yours. Because I used a hybrid publisher, they get a portion of every sale and so does Amazon. Hopefully, your first book is an experiment in the discovery of the process and not a get-rich-quick scheme (‘cuz I hate to break it to ya, that ain’t gonna happen).

My Biggest Mistake

I was so hell bent on publishing the manuscript for the soft cover to debut mid-April at the that I neglected the e-book.

I was exhausted after writing the book, proofing, fixing, proofing, seeing comps, building a presentation deck, traveling, and ohmygosh where did the time go…that I put aside that e-book.

When I went to tackle it, apparently, I couldn’t add the hyperlinks to the hard copy template. Something about InDesign vs. Mobi files…?

So, I created a spreadsheet with 40 hyperlinks that needed to go into the document on a respective page on a respective line and for a respective word phrase.

After two weeks, I got a file to proof and check those 40 links, and then I got another file and then I got another file to check those 40 links. So, if your analytics shows me pinging your blog for two seconds, you’ll know why — Jon Buscall, Danny Brown, Dino Dogan, Gini Dietrich, Adam Toporek, The Jack, New England Multimedia, Ralph Dopping, Kaarina Dillabough, Laura Click, Erica Allison, Fire Pole Marketing, 12Most.com., Steamfeed, and others.

My Best Move

Embarking on self-publishing is a mine field. Just hook into any thread on a LinkedIn Group or Google+ Community oriented to the topic, and your head will spin. There are about 24 gazillion pieces of software you can use to publish, and if you’re just an author/content marketer as I am, you’ll drown choosing the right fork in the river.

That’s why using was the best move I made. As a hybrid publisher, they help you with any aspect of the self-publishing journey from proofing/editing, designing the layout and cover, publishing the e-book, adding a QR code, and printing the hard copy. It even has a storefront on its website featuring a variety of little known authors writing on a breadth of topics.

Interested in working with a publisher like this? Try them; see my interview right here. David Braughler is top dog in my book.

And, speaking of “my book,” Thank you, world, for waiting patiently as I schooled myself in the self-publishing arena. A special shout out to who ALWAYS supports, shares and ‘raderies moi and Roho, aka , for that awesome review of this book.

I Am App Challenged

06/26/2013 By Jayme Soulati

via soulati

Really cool bloggers write about really cool apps. They talk about how they use Scrivener (Gini Dietrich) and MarsEdit (Geoff Livingston) and Evernote (Susan Silver) and Trendspottr (Danny Brown) to automate, improve productivity, enhance performance, and any number of other awesome results-driven tasks.

I cringe in shame when I read these lists and tools and apps, for I am app challenged. I can’t get beyond the manual jotting down of headlines for blog posts or tearing out stories from the 37 periodicals that come to my office monthly or putting everything into my brain to organize. I was never a great Day Planner or Steven Covey organizer, although I love those binders with all sorts of ways to organize and anticipate the date your hair needs coloring.

I am a manual sort of girl, and I really wish I could automate and graduate to the app world.

What’s wrong with me?

Wait, I think I know…it’s all about time. Taking the time to learn how to use another app better than scratching the surface means I have to spend hours doing so. Those hours are critical for me for writing content, working on billable deliverables for clients, and trying to keep the work flowing.

How do people find the time to be an app maven?

I need to learn video production, podcasting, how to install plug ins on my sidebar, manage my blog’s API, and read everyone’s books.

Would learning an app really enhance my productivity? Yesterday, in a frantic search for a new tweet chat tool, I turned to OneQube, a product of Internet Media Labs. While the tweets got sent, the stream never loaded so I had to resort to HootSuite for my 90-minutes as guest of #ConnectChat by @ProfNet, and there was a delay significant enough to cause me distress.

Which apps do you really love and use every day? Convince me to see the light!