/2014

U-Quotable: How to find the ideal location for your expert quotes

authors wanted

There is no such thing as an unquotable book. As an author, you have spent many days stringing words together, so it’s natural that you want to be memorable, sharable and remarkable. You want people to quote you, don’t you? After all, people quote other authors all the time! You see those quotes on social media. There are even websites that categorize and publish quotes. How do you make your words of wisdom shine in all their brilliance? We, here at Bookphoria, want to help you become more quotable by following the real estate mantra: location, location, location. To illustrate our point, let’s take a look at the example of one author who uses this principle with much success.

Dallas Clayton is an American author and illustrator of children’s books whose quotes amazingly appear in all sorts of places, all well documented on his Instagram account to the delight of his many readers and followers. Here are some examples:

On the pavement:

pavement

On a plate:

plate

On a billboard:

billboard

On a street poll:

street pole

On a tree:

tree

On a human body… One of his followers even got a tattoo of his drawing. Now, that’s a commitment!

tattoo

We are not suggesting that you should start copying Dallas Clayton’s ideas. Rather, use him as an inspiration to come up with some unique ways to showcase your quotes. There are many possibilities:

Share in the comments your ideal location for quotes.

And whatever you do, make photos and share them on social media to make your projects shine across various media channels.

We even created a Pinterest board just for you to pin your quotes and to view other authors’ quotes! Do you want to become a contributor to our U-Quotable board and share your pearls of wisdom with the world? Click here to fill out the form or email info@bookphoria.com, and we will send you an invitation to join the board as a pinner. Not on Pinterest? No problem, just send us your image with the quote and the proper attribution, and we will post it on your behalf. If your quotes get lots of repins, we may even send you a mug or some other physical artifact with that quote to celebrate! Happy pinning, U-Quotables!

P.S. We can help you design your visuals with quotes to share on social media. Click here to set up a free rapid fire mentorship session with us.

By | 2014-12-16T16:04:42+00:00 December 16th, 2014|Books, Communication, Learning|0 Comments

Book Lover Gift Guide from Bookphoria

“I don’t know what’s in the box, but I love it. Unopened gifts contain hope.”
~ Jarod Kintz

As our neurons sparkle with the anticipation of the holidays, many of us appreciate some gift ideas around this time of the year. Got a book lover on your list or need to indulge your Inner Writer? Look no further than our Book Lover Gift Guide from Bookphoria. Get your Santa bag ready…

1. Flip a book! We love these fast flip books from Japanese company Mou Hitotsu no Kenkyujo. Dive deep into three dimensional space with their artful animation through cut-outs and negative space that create movement. You can read more about fast flip books here.

3038660-inline-i-3-flipbookeat

[Gifs via Travelry]

2. Color yourself happy! Coloring is not just for children, grown-ups can color too. Did you know that coloring helps adults combat stress? What a better way to do it than with humor? With over 200 comedy videos and 75 million YouTube views to their credit, Ryan Hunter and Taige Jensen know how to make people laugh. These masters of offbeat Internet humor hilariously combine the mindless fun of children’s coloring books with the mind-numbing realities of modern adult life in their book “Coloring for Grown-Ups: The Adult Activity Book.”

“Coloring for Grown-Ups: The Adult Activity Book

3. Learn a fake language for brain health and fun! Living Language started offering courses of Dothraki, fictional language from Game of Thrones. Now, Game of Thrones lovers can boast their new language skills at holiday parties. And if you are not a Game of Thrones fan and couldn’t tell Mother of Dragons from Red Priestess before, you will understand even less now.

English: “Have fun storming the castle!”
Dothraki: “Anha zalak meme vallayafa yera, jin athvashar okrenegwini!”

Dothraki

4. Have kids, will cookreal recipes from Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s books. Would you like to try WILLY WONKA’S NUTTY CRUNCH SURPRISE? Pair it with Dinah Fried’s “Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature’s Most Memorable Meals” for grown-ups to enjoy.

Roald Dahl's Revolting RecipesFictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature's Most Memorable Meals

5. Eat like royals from Goldbook square china dinner plates! This exquisite book-shaped dish set is wonderful for hosting a book club.

book dish set

6. We have a perfect cup of tea to go with your book! A Novel Teas box contains 25 teabags individually tagged with literary quotes from the world over, made with the finest English Breakfast tea: “Spend teatime with CS Lewis, Rita Mae Brown, Alice Hoffman, and more as they share their thoughts on the delights and comforts of tea and books on each individually printed tea tag.” Serve it in this cute one-cup book teapot.

Novel Teasbook tea pot

7. Why do old books smell so good? Science has the answer. Old books have a sweet smell with notes of vanilla flowers and almonds, caused by the breakdown of chemical compounds in the paper. Now, you don’t have to go to the library to enjoy the smell of old books. Get this Old Books – Book Lovers’ Scented Soy Candle instead. From the product description: “Ideal for bibliophiles of all sorts. The scent is a sweet and floral earthy smell with a hint of must. (Not mildewy, rotten old books!)”

old books candle

8. Bring an old-book feel to your hi-tech world. Books, coffee and iPhones unite in this Vintage Book and Coffee iPhone Case.

vintage book coffee iphone case

9. Become a neighborhood library builder. You may have seen them around – Little Free Libraries where people share their favorite books with their community. Take a book, return a book. They are artfully constructed by their creators and carefully curated by the community. What a beautiful gift that keeps giving to your neighborhood. Learn how to become a library builder at http://littlefreelibrary.org/builders/.

Little Free Libraries

Since our Bookphoria team can turn just about anything into a learning opportunity, we believe that authors, experts and speakers can learn even form a gift guide. Here is how you can be a good Santa too.

10. Do you have boxes full of your books waiting to be gifted or sold? Build a book tree from your books in your office and offer your books as gifts to your clients. Advertise your book tree on social media!

book tree

What other physical artifacts can you create based on your expertise that can help you tell the story of your brand and share it with the world? Post your ideas in the comments below or send them to info@bookphoria.com. You may even get a surprise gift from Bookphoria!

And above all, don’t forget to smile! Happy holidays!

P.S. To make your holidays even more “sane,” download the “Ultimate Online Tech Toolbox” that will help you minimize your stress while dealing with technology this season!

By | 2014-12-03T15:02:23+00:00 December 3rd, 2014|Books, Communication|0 Comments

Bookphoria’s Magic Sanity Potion for the holidays

santiy potionIf your holiday season is anything like ours, it is not just “gratitude journals,”  “Santas” and “truffles.”

Putting on a couple of pounds,  frantically searching for presents, experiencing sudden nostalgia due to the lack of the vitamin D (not because of our Russian origin!), increased cravings for anything chocolate-covered are also a huge part of this season…

How do we deal with all this mess?

Here is our little secret – a special Bookphoria’s Sanity Drink that was created by combining both of our favorite recipes together, resulting in this majestic elixir of youth, slim waists, calmer moods, and glowing skins.  And today we are ready to share it with our followers!

Introducing….

Bookphoria’s Magic Sanity Drink Recipe:

Ingredients:

Green apple
Celery 5 stalks large
Ginger root (1/2 thumb)
Carrots 3
Lime 1 (peel the skin off)
Spinach 1 cup

Directions

Process all ingredients in a juicer, shake or stir and serve.

Benefits: The calming properties of celery, lime’s immediate uplifting qualities, carrots’ and apples’ youth benefits, ginger’s magical powers to de-bloat and keep the digestion healthy, and spinach’s alkaline powers will leave you refreshed, slim, glowing, calm and happy!

Please, keep the holiday season fun! Share below YOUR favorite recipe and the winner of the best recipe will get a prize! You can also send us your recipes to: info@bookphoria.com

To make your holidays even more “sane” download the “Ultimate Online Tech Toolbox” that will help you minimize your stress while dealing with technology this season!

Thank you for being a part of our community of passionate and dedicated experts!

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving!

Click the button below to get your free copy of “Ultimate Online Tech Toolbox” now!

By | 2014-11-27T02:58:31+00:00 November 27th, 2014|Peak Performance|0 Comments

5 ways to generate compelling visuals for your content marketing and presentations

collageAs the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words… well, maybe not a thousand, but 1.5 words at least. We do remember pictures better than we remember words. Studies by Paul W. Foos and Paula Goolkasian shed light on the difference between memory for pictures and words. They found that pictures were correctly recalled about 1.5 times as often as printed words. Researchers at the University of Iowa James Bigelow and Amy Poremba have found that when it comes to memory, we don’t remember things we hear nearly as well as things we see or touch.

Since visuals win the memory challenge, it only makes sense to incorporate them in your content presentation if you want it to be memorable. I once received an email from a member of a LinkedIn group after I posted a comment on one of the discussion threads. Something in my comment triggered his memory of an image I had shared in the same group many months before. He wasn’t sure but thought I might be the one who had shared it, so he emailed me to see if I could give him the source of that image. This illustrates the fact that visuals are memorable and that your expert brand can be associated with and reinforced by the content you share. In order to be effective, your visuals need to reinforce your message, be unique, and be able to stir some emotion or reflection in the viewers so that they could connect to your content on a deeper level. How do you find or create such visuals?

1. Stock up. There are numerous websites where you can search and legally download Creative Commons (CC) license or royalty-free stock photos. Always make sure you understand the restriction on the use of such images. Here are some of those websites:

Wikimedia Commons is a database of 23,769,240 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.

Flickr is another popular site where you can use an advanced search to find CC images.

Microsoft Office offers visuals you can use.

freeimages has a gallery containing over 350,000 quality stock photos by more than 30,000 photographers.

Getty Images now allows to easily embed and share its imagery at no cost for non-commercial use on websites, blogs and social media channels through their embed tool.

While stock images can get the job done, don’t underestimate your ability to produce your own visual content. Just pick up a camera, even if it’s your smart phone camera and begin to look around. Our surroundings abound with the rich and complex material that can help you tell your personal expert brand story. Train your eye to see it. It is easier than you think. Here are a few tips to get started:

2. Organize your existing photo collection. Chances are you already have plenty of good, funny, personal images tucked away somewhere on your computer drive or in photo albums. They all tell your story. Take time to go over your collection with an eye to possible future business use. It is a fun thing to do. Plus, it can trigger memories that may result in new stories to tell about your personal brand and your business. We did just that with our Halloween post when Marina found an old photo of us dressed up for Halloween.

3. Start taking pictures – lots and lots of them. Get in touch with your own sensibilities. Look at other photography sites and photo sharing platforms, such as Instagram and Pinterest. Notice what appeals to you and why. What moods, styles, colors, patterns resonate with you most? What makes you laugh, think or inspires you? Start capturing those “snapshots of the moment” – often mundane but also funny, puzzling, memorable aspects of your reality. Notice patterns and disruptions. Our brains constantly search for patterns and make predictions to make us comfortable in our environment. Studies show that bizarre and grotesque images are especially effective at grabbing attention. People tend to spend more time on such images as they try to figure out what is going on in the picture – their brains are busy deciphering the pattern. Be ready to capture anything surprising, bizzare, humorous, unusual – such images are likely to provoke thoughts and appeal to emotions. Analyze your own work just like you did with other people’s photos. Use Flickr or Instagram as a way to filter and store the photos you like, get feedback from your followers and grow your own collection of visuals that can be later used for various projects.

4. Turn your content into a collage. Here’s how it works. Pick the key elements and relationships that describe your concept. Then, find images that you associate with those elements. You can browse magazines if you want to make it low tech or find images on the web if you want to create your collage in a digital format, or maybe, you can sketch them yourself. After you are done collecting your visuals, arrange them in a collage trying to reflect the relationships among the underlying elements. The benefit of a collage is that it allows you to see the concept as a whole whereas the verbal description can only be sequential. Collages can serve as visual metaphors, allowing for personal interpretation. Visit Creativity Portal to explore various collage resources on the Internet.

5. Get moving with video marketing. Videos offer a great way to promote yourself as an expert, speaker or author. According to comScore, website visitors are 64% more likely to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video. In addition, visitors who view videos stay on the site an average of 2 minutes longer than those who don’t view videos. People have short attention spans and tune out easily. Keep your videos under 3 minutes in length. You can do a series of videos on different topics. If you use a webcam to record your videos, make sure you position yourself in the center, look into the camera, choose an appropriate background, and have light facing you. A webcam does not have the energy of a live audience, so you have to bring your own energy up through your body posture, smile, and variations in your pitch, tempo and volume. The good news is that you can re-record any number of times you want, so you get the result you like. Whenever you upload your videos onto video sharing platforms, such as YouTube or Vimeo, make sure to use appropriate keywords and links to your website to build traffic and subscriptions to your email list.

Ready to package your expertise online? Sign up for a FREE consultation with Marina and Anastasia!

By | 2014-11-14T14:09:56+00:00 November 14th, 2014|Attention, Communication|0 Comments

Explainers: Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Whether you are trying to assemble a new kitchen table or learn a new program, you have to deal with instructions. Reading instructions is rarely fun. They are often boring, confusing and full of jargon. We’d rather jump in and tinker with things to figure out how they work. That is why our Bookporia team favors an interactive, audience-driven approach to explainers.

In recent years, short explainer videos have become popular in business to introduce and explain the functions and benefits of various products and services and educate consumers. These videos are definitely more engaging than just text. An expainer video can also increase conversion rates by around 15% to 50%. However, even with explainer videos, viewers still remain passive and their attention can drift away.

What if you could get your viewers interact with your content right away by reflecting, making choices, and getting feedback? Interactive explainers let your audience experience your product, service or system by turning your sales pitch into edutainment. Would you rather read the recipe of a pie, look at its picture or try a slice? Which option will help you decide faster whether you like the pie or not?

Click on the picture below to see the following interactive explainer, which introduces scenarios where participants give their thumbs-up or thumbs-down to various public speaking techniques:

explainers

By | 2014-09-26T13:10:38+00:00 September 26th, 2014|Communication, Learning, Public Speaking|0 Comments