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Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/14/2018 in all areas

  1. I am interested in learning strategies that publishers, self-published and others, can use to make their books visible to a wide Black readership and that could provide ways of selling their books on line, in bookstores, and hand sales. If such strategies can be developed and replicated, as well as show positive outcomes, I believe they will find many takers. I simply don't know what, if any such strategies are currently in effect.
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  2. The following quote was from the article, “How Google may be jeopardizing African-American literature websites”; which was published yesterday on the The Outline website: Ouch! The author of the article, wrote what I thought was an important article on a subject that has gotten virtually no coverage outside of what I have written, so despite the scathing critique, that I've shared above, I'm glad the article was written. However, the paragraph, quoted above, was over the top. The site does not look like it was developed in the late 1990's indeed none of the technologies the site deployed were available in the 1990. Now I'd accept the site looks like something from late 2000's which is why I'm engaged in a website upgrade. The site is sprawing and has well over 15,000 pages, but that is stated as if it is a disadvantage and opposed to being an good thing. With the exception of the sites homepages (homepage, and other main section pages), the typical page on the site is not busy-- certainly not as busy as many other content websites. I plan to residesign all of the main pages because they are busy, but the vast majority of pages on the site are fine, in my opinion, and I will not me change their design as part of this upgrade. I actually pride myself on the internal linking of web pages. I think it is a benefit of the site, and how the web is designed to work. I will not cut out internal linking of pages--that is a strange comment to make especially when using the word "zillions." It is just hyperbolic. I agree the menu is has more links that it should and I already know how I'm going to address that issue and it will also simplify how the site is organized to visitors. I do sell books directly (drop shipped by Ingram) and also though Amazon, B&N, and other affiliate programs — AALBC.com is not just an Amazon affiliate site. I also send readers to the author’s website or to the publishes website. All of the buy links for Black Classic Press and Just Us Book send readers to the publishers websites. How I sell books depends upon the book. I’m actually growing the direct to author/publisher websites to combat Amazon’s dominance. Finally, the majority of book descriptions are the same ones most booksellers use; they are provided by the publisher. If the writer looked or was familiar with how book sites typically work she'd know this. B&N, Amazon, Google, and I often use the same book descriptions. If any keyword stuffing is done, it is done by the publisher, in the copy they provide to booksellers. But keyword stuffing on the publisher’s part seems unlikely. I have never engaged in in keyword stuffing (the practice of using specific word in copy, more than you would normally to rank better in search). I did ask to author to provide me with an example of this to better understand how she came with this idea. Other than book descriptions, Kam's articles are the only "syndicated" content that AALBC has ever used, and I actually had to stop using Kam's articles because of Google penalties (I know one publisher of Kam's content who deleted almost 2,000 of Kam's articles. i refused to remove content that I have paid for and that was published legitimately -- I don't care what Google says). ALL the rest of AALBC.com content, articles, lists, reviews, etc is unique. So while I do not say that Kam's film reviews are syndicated, they are such a small portion of AALBC.com, to use this as a critique for the site overall is extreme. At the end of the day, Google is indeed using it's dominance in search to redirect traffic from book websites to their own book store and content they have copied from Wikipedia, Goodreads and other websites. This has prevented many website from succeeding, hobbled the efforts of the sites that remain (including AALBC.com), and have essentially prevented any new one from launching -- which is the point of the article. The issue is much larger than AALBC.com or any individual site, so despite the factually inaccurate smackdown of AALBC.com the fundamental issues raised in the article needs to be addressed and are worthy of broader attention, something I think the article will help accomplish. I thanked the author of the article, Adrianne Jeffries, for bringing additional attention to this issue. Of course I pointed out the issues I had with her critique of the site .
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  3. "If you can't explain it, you don't know it. If you can't teach it, you need to go back and learn it..."
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  4. If white women would not vote for Hillary, why does anyone think any of them would vote for Oprah? You know white men are not going to vote for a Black woman -- not even one who is a Billionaire. Sure Oprah would certainly command a large percentage of the Black vote, but this is not enough to win an election -- even f the only option is 45 who despite his baggage can claim low unemployment and record stock market highs. Even if 45 is impeached Oprah does not stand a chance against any white male candidate with his head screwed on.
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  5. I think any concept can be explained. It just some concepts may take more time as a foundation of more basic knowledge may need to be laid. A sign of intelligence is the ease at which one can explain a seemingly complex concept in a way anyone can understand.
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  6. Pioneer you hold up white people as a moral example. A casual look at history will show white people killing each other at an alarming rate. 600K+ killed in the war between the states. Millions killed in WWI, WWII, then there is our course Hitler, The crusades, and even the pate of massive shootings Vegas, Columbine, etc. And don't get me started on white folks and their genocide of the indigenous people in the American's, Australia, and the treatment of Black people--come on man! Surely you are going to use some random white guy, given their collective history of rape, pillage, and plunder across planet Earth, to make your point Again our willingness to debate and even argue, is more of a sign of unity than disunity.
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  7. I can't imagine what type of promotion makes being eith a man appealing to me. Having women problems. We have the solution. Date men. Date another woman and the toilet seat stays down.
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  8. @David Covin, I'm going to join in an #readingblackout effort I described earlier. I'm still trying to understand who is involved and how I can help promote it. But te idea of buying and reading Black for a year struck me. Plus it is as you and Mel described a proactive campaign. With enough support we can made it such that any reader with internet access will HAVE to be aware of the effort. I'll begin to share information about that effort here as well as reacting out to the booksellers. A few days ago I created a printable display of the Black-owned bookstore in my database, I'm encouraging people to the share information. They can copy and paste it and they don't even have to attribute AALBC.com as the source--I just want the information to get out there. I'll create a widget tomorrow which will allow anyone to share the list of Black-owned bookstore on their website as well. I'm planning to drop my Amazon links, striking the URL and linking to a page where I explain why the link was removed. I can sell the books myself link to other booksellers. I know I'm gonna take a hit, but I hope to lead buy example too. If anyone has other ideas please post them here I'll aggregate what I have and share with my mailing list. I like this approach
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  9. There has to be an active "remind the bloggers" part of this as well. Most info is found via search. I very rarely update CBP, but I will add info that is important and what happens is it gets indexed and searched. It shows up and is there for as long as the site is active. If someone writes me or tags me I will always add updates to CBP. I need a reminder because I'm off on my own war against Amazon right now in the sportswear biz, so I forget.
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  10. Hi Troy, Thank you for all the kudos. I think what you suggested - doing our own thing - is what we should be doing - independent of what Amazon does or does not do. I have long been a believer in Independent Black Institutions. I think that is the strongest base for Black people in every sector of human achievement. We have to do for self. We can work with others, we can use their vehicles, even their support. But we can rely only upon ourselves, and we must discover and implement the most effective means for doing precisely that. We must begin with experimentation. And as to the reason for aalbc.com's. twenty years. Three syllables will do: Troy Johnson. Dave
    1 point
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