Musings On A Munday What Could An Author Do

 

Let’s say a genealogist authors a book on a subject related to genealogy research. The book is a how-to book, not a case study. What does the author want the reader to do with the book?

1. Buy it
2. Read it
3. Recommend it
4. Talk about it
5. Hire author to speak about it

More could be added to the list, but this seems like a good top five list of what an author would want. Now I wonder what the author could do to increase the number of times these five things happen? Obviously advertising in various ways online and offline are options. Also, depending on whether you self-published or hired a publisher your options would vary.

For the sake of this musing, let’s assume that you are an author that has self-published a book and you have limited advertising dollars. What could you do to increase the opportunities of 1-5 happening? What if 6 & 7 were added to the list?

1. Buy It
2. Read it
3. Recommend it
4. Talk about it
5. Hire author to speak about it
6. Market book to small genealogy libraries to use as a book club topic
7. Market book to small genealogy societies to use as a monthly meeting topic

The first objection I can see to this is “but that will limit the authors opportunity to present the book themselves, either in person or in a webinar format.” Potentially that could interfere with speaking engagements, however, there are a number of small libraries and societies that will simply never hire the author due to lack of funds. Does the author simply write that audience off? That, to me, looks like a missed opportunity.

What if the author actively encouraged the use of their book in this fashion? What if on the back flap of the book they added to the standard about me information?

• Contact Me
• Visit my website
• Read my blog
• Buy these other books
• Book me to speak
• Purchase learning guide for libraries and societies

What would be in the learning guide? Copyright details should be front and center, with something like: “You can talk about my book all you want while giving me all the credit for the ideas but don’t you dare copy pages and distribute them. “If your audience would like to purchase a book of their own, here is a coupon for 10% off.” The author could then list key points they feel are highlights in each chapter and maybe explain in detail any concepts that are particularly difficult. It wouldn’t have to be a long, lengthy study guide. The point is to get the library or society to contact you and pay you for permission to present your book.

I could go on and on with this entire topic, getting into co-branding, ambassadors etc. but I won’t do that here. My point is the fact that this isn’t a “potential” missed opportunity, it “is” a missed opportunity. Why? Because I will bet that somebody, somewhere is doing exactly what I’m suggesting, using somebody else’s book to teach a class. Can you as an author police all the uses of your works? No, you can’t, so look at this as another option in controlling your brand, mitigating missed opportunities and expanding your audience.

I’m interested to hear if some authors are doing this or have tried and it simply didn’t work.

Musings On A Munday Recruiting for Genealogy Societies

Do genealogy societies recruit for board and director positions? Do they approach current members about positions and hope they can "fit" the role they need filled?

If a company needs a computer programmer, they are going to hire a computer programmer, right? They will place the ad in places that computer programmers frequent to insure the ad gets in front of the right people. If a genealogy society is in need of a newsletter editor, are they getting that message in front of people with that type of experience? Is the assumption made that if they don't belong to the society or hold genealogy as a hobby they wouldn't be interested?

What has me wondering about this is I recently saw a person listed as the PR Director for a genealogy society. I looked the person up on LinkedIn (and asked someone who knew him personally, it's a small world ya know) and saw no reference to PR in their current or past positions, nor did they list PR as an expertise or interest. So why is that person now the PR Director? I know it's possible that this person did have PR experience, but for whatever reason doesn't publish that information. It's also entirely possible this was the only person that would accept the position.

I believe it's more likely that the society chose to make the position known only to it's current membership, newsletter subscribers and those in genealogy circles. Perhaps they didn't consider that many professionals are willing to volunteer in order to get that experience added to their resume. If you publish a newsletter, you are publishing a newsletter. It doesn't matter if you are getting paid or not, that gets added to the resume as experience.

How much due diligence does your society perform when looking to fill board or director positions? Have you ever been recruited for a volunteer position from a group or organization that you were not a part of?

Musings On A Munday Who Speaks To You

Why is it that some ancestors call to us more than others? Do you gravitate to one particular line more than another? Do you call yourself "German" or "Irish" even though you have just as many English or French ancestors?

Who speaks to you? My father's paternal line, the Baudermann's, speak the loudest to me. I never met any of the Baudermann's. I never knew I had Baudermann relatives to wonder about. After my father died, I found a court document showing a name change and that's how I found out that my maiden name should have been Baudermann.

I think that's why they speak to me the loudest. They are the true unknown. No, I didn't know all my other lines (like the SMITHS!) but I knew "of" them. I knew they were there. The Baudermann's are this mysterious group of people from Klepsau, Baden Germany that settled in Newark, New Jersey.

My hope is, that when I start finding living descendants of the Bauderman line, that they will speak to me, as our ancestors do.

Musings On A Munday Too Clever

I thought I was being clever, but maybe I am too clever for my own good?

It bugs me to no end that other researchers take documents from my Ancestry.com tree and add it to their own without contacting me. I know it's out there in the public and they are within their rights to add the document to their tree. That's not my issue with this situation. My issue is with the missed opportunity. Genealogy is an extremely time consuming endeavor, I can't afford the opportunity cost of not contacting potential cousins with potential brick wall busters.

I don't put all my documents on my public tree, I pick a few key ancestors and put a document or two out there as bait. My hope is that others will take the document and then contact me. I currently have 7 outstanding emails I've sent after finding documents on other's trees. I'm hoping their replies will be positive, that my family lines expand through the communication and I won't have to duplicate work.

Randy Seaver recently posted about this topic on his blog Geneamusings. I commented on his post, referring to a post I created along a similar vein last year and sharing my latest tactic shown above. This probate document for Samuel Gilpin is FULL of valuable information, including the married names of his daughters and property descriptions. I added the text boxes and the note in hopes of encouraging a potential cousin to contact me. So far, I've not been contacted, but neither has anyone downloaded the image. Ancestry Member Connect shows 10 other researchers with Samuel in their tree.

I could be cutting my nose off to spite my face in this situation. If people do add my documents to their tree, I see that and can contact them. Without the download I don't even have that option. I think I will run a test by putting the un-redacted image up for a week and see if that stimulates any activity. Maybe that will answer the question of if I'm being too clever for my own good.

Musings On A Munday Screen Shots from the iPad

I published a post last week showing how I save the show notes from podcasts to iBooks. I had a couple of people ask me how I was able to take screen shots on the iPad. I also heard a couple people at work saying they wished they could get screen shots from their iPad. Seems like inquiring minds would like to know.

It's very easy, simply hold down the Power and Home button at the same time and voila! The screen print will show up in your photo roll. Below is an illustration from Skitch showing this. By the way, Skitch is what I used to annotate the screen shots in my earlier post.

Musings on a Munday Rootstech

Two more days until I leave for Salt Lake City and Rootstech 2012. Wow, it seems like this has been a long time in coming and now that we are close I see how unprepared I am. That's ok though. Usually I'm on the other side of the equation at a conference with three inch think binders full of organizational goodness. This time I am an attendee...hear me roar!! :)

The excitement leading up to Rootstech has been at a fever pitch at times. You all know why (if you don't, it's a long story I'm not getting into). But you know what they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity. The social media and blogging world have been inundated with #Rootstech this and #Rootstech that. If my non-gena followers and friends don't know exactly what #Rootstech is by now, they certainly know it has a hashtag!

I may be tweeting from the conference (understatement). I may be posting on Facebook and Google + as well. And who knows I may even possibly get a blog post out (don't hold your breath). I have a full schedule of sessions selected and entered into my Rootstech app. Attending sessions along with the browsing through the exhibit hall, bumping, tweet-ups and networking with the over 80 Geneabloggers expected to be in attendance will keep me busy. At some point I may even make it over to the Family History Library and spend some time on the book floor.

I am looking forward to meeting new people, catching up with others and hanging with my roomie Caroline from For Your Family Story. If you will be attending (is ANYONE else from Missouri going?)be sure to look me up!

Musings On A Munday Lack of Courtesy or Lack of Common Sense?

 Is lifting/borrowing/copying documents and photos from one Ancestry.com tree to add to your own without contacting the tree owner a lack of courtesy or a lack of common sense?  Those "lifters" do realize that the documents and photos were added by another individual.  They don't think that Ancestry.com put them there do they?  Like maybe the shaking leaf appeared and so did a document?

I added a handful of photos and documents to my Ancestry.com tree last year.  My thought was that surely somebody would contact me once they see this great information.  That didn't happen.  Don't they wonder if there is more where that came from?  Don't they wonder how we are related?

One person lifted a German church record from my tree and added it to theirs.  This church record is from 1788 in Klepsau, Baden, Germany.  It took me a long, long time to find this record (scrolling, scrolling, scrolling through microfilm) and took me a long time to eventually get it translated.  The devil in me wants to email this person, that placed in on their tree, and ask "do you even have a clue as to what that document is or says???"  Well, I did email them...twice but have received no response.  I let them know that my Ancestry.com tree is what I use as a sort of "working" tree and that I have so much more than what is online.

At this point I'm wondering if they are really that rude as to not answer after I've reach out to them twice.  I also wonder if maybe they are embarrassed to have been "caught" lifting.  After reviewing their tree I can see I have a lot to offer them but if they don't have the comment sense to reply to my emails there is nothing I can do about it.

It's not the borrowing of the documents I have a problem with.  I do that myself.  But I never borrow without contacting the owner and letting them know we have a common ancestor and I am happy to share what information I have.

Musings on a Munday My Response to Genealogy Conferences - Selling the Goods

My response to Genealogy Conferences - Selling the Goods.


Exhibit Booths are a Gamble:  Gamble is Thomas' word, that I don't like at all, but I'll go with it.  Trade show exhibiting is like anything else...you must research, prepare and practice.  Exhibiting is a discipline (Certified Trade Show Marketer) unto itself and must be approached as any other marketing channel by setting objectives and planning out your strategy.  It's only a gamble if you don't do your research and take the time to educate yourself.  

• Why are you exhibiting?  Are you only looking for sales?  Do you need to perform product demos?  What about client relationships?  Face-to-face marketing at a trade show allows you to see 10, 20 or more current clients in one place.  There is real value in developing and maintaining client relationships. You need to calculate that into your return on investment for the trade show.
• Inventory. I am still surprised when I enter an exhibit hall at a genealogy conference and see how much "stuff" is in the vendors booths.  In this day and age of "going green", shipping boxes and boxes of pamphlets, books and do-dads is, and should be, a thing of the past.  Put your products on a slide show and have it running on your laptop or iPad in the booth.  If you feel you must have samples in your booth, limit them to what is absolutely necessary.  Run a special on shipping if an attendee orders from you ten days before, during and ten days after the show. That should help to alleviate any resistance to not having the product in their hands at the show.
• You should be advertising that you are exhibiting at a conference in the months leading up to it and the conference management should be assisting you with this.  Look at their media kit and sponsorship opportunities.  Ask for an email template that you can use to send out to your current customer base.  Use social media channels to promote your attendance, LinkedIn is a good avenue for pre-show marketing.  If you don't feel you can't afford to advertise or purchase a sponsorship, see if you can co-op with another vendor that is not in direct competition with you.  
• Staffing...you can not exhibit if you are not in the booth.  I realize many exhibitors go it solo.  Have you calculated the potential to make more sales if you have a second person with you?  You could be missing out on sales when you are away from the booth, but also while you are at the booth and helping others.  Attendees have a limited amount of time and may not wait around for you to finish talking to another customer.  If you truly can't afford a second person, have you asked the conference management for assistance?  Do they have volunteers that could, at a very minimum, keep your booth "open" while you go to get lunch?  Ask!
• Booth appearance is critical!  As an exhibitor, you want to put the same effort into looking professional as you do in any other aspect of your work life.  Too much information is not helpful, it is harmful.  Project a clear, concise message as to what your product is and what it can do for the customer.  This can be done very economically with some thought and pre-planning.  Booth appearance guidelines should apply to the staff also.  Make sure everyone in the booth is clear about what their attire should be.
• Booth layout is important and should be planned out.  Exhibitors have a tendency to place that 6 foot, draped table right at the very edge of the isle.  Exhibiting is full of barriers and obstacles why place another one in front of you?  Why barricade yourself in your booth?  Place the table in the back or to the side of your space.  This will give you room to welcome attendees INTO your booth.  Get them out of the isle where they are more apt to just keep on moving.
• This is where I will vent on my largest pet peeve against exhibitors.  Do not be sitting in a chair in the booth.  Just don't do it.  If you have customers that are in need of a chair, by all means provide them one but they are for customers only.  I know it's a long day (I've done it), I know your feet hurt (I bring a change of shoes to switch into during the day and that helps). When that exhibit hall is open you should be standing up front and center ready to draw the customers into your booth.

Welcome to the Land of Nickel and Dime:  The heading says it all.  Nothing is "included" you will pay for it.  However, you can minimize costs by making sure you place orders before the discount deadlines expire.


Education Included:  If you plan to hold a mini-class in your booth, educate yourself on the other vendors.  Work with conference management to make sure your booth is not near several other vendors that will also be hosting classes.  There will be less confusion and you won't have to try to talk over them. 

New Models:  Educate yourself and think out side of what you know (you thought I was going to say box, didn't you!:)  Don't worry about what you have "always" done or what the other vendors are doing.  You must tailor your exhibit experience to what you know, your product and your personality.  I've listed a few resources (there are many more) that can jump start your ideas.  Theses are NOT just for the large 20x30 booths and don't make the mistake of thinking your are not big enough to implement some affordable and effective exhibit strategies into your program.

The Booth Mom

Trade show Teacher

Trade Show Exhibitors Association

Exhibitor

Conclusion:  The exhibit hall is probably the most popular area at any genealogy conference.  I agree!  Exhibitors and conference management need to work together to provide a trade show experience that is interesting, informative and engaging.  Good luck to all the current exhibitors who are working on refining their strategy and to the newbies that are giving it their first go!  

Musings On A Munday Ancestry.com Shaking Leaves

Ancestry.com and their “shaking leaves” are they a help or a hindrance?

I’ve heard comments made that are negative towards the Ancestry.com television commercials that basically say “click on this little leaf and voila, there is your family tree all done for you”. While I understand that is an extremely simplistic introduction to family history research, it is an introduction, isn’t it?

Would you rather not have the shaking leaves? Do you really want to clutter up the process with pop-up disclaimers stating: DO NOT TAKE THIS INFORMATION AS FACT, check your sources, cite those sources, yada yada yada? I don’t.

I get the gripes, but I also know that I started using Ancestry.com without any notion of what I was doing or how I was supposed to do it. I think I figured it out pretty quickly and others will too. Sooner or later some family member, that the tree is shared with, is going to ask the question “how was our great-grandmother born before her mother was?” In the end I think it will all work out. I'm glad to have the shaking leaves.

Musings on a Munday Online Records will be the Death of Repositories

Absolutely Not!  No way, no how!

Online records have been my salvation and I know they are to many other researchers.  Performing fruitful research in your PJs...does it get any better?  Yes it does!

It gets better at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.  It gets better at the Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, Missouri.  It gets better at the Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City, Missouri.  It gets better all these well-known research facilities as well as the local and county libraries, historical societies and courthouses.  You know why it gets better there?  Each of those brick and mortar facilities has something that online records don't...vibe!

What's the vibe at the Family History Library?  Quiet...Quiet...Quiet...SQUEALS of delight and the genealogy happy dance!  Can you get that at home in your PJs?  Sure you can, but it's much more fun to do it in a room full of people who know exactly what that squeal means.  The vibe at research repositories is one of collaboration, experience, understanding, sharing, excitement and most importantly participation.

I will continue to keep plugging away with my research online and making progress.  But the first chance I have to go and perform in-person research, I'm there!  There is a saying in football that offense wins games and defense wins championships.  The libraries, research repositories and courthouses are the defense in the genealogy game and they are not going anywhere.

Musings on a Munday FHL Microfilm on Indefinite Loan

If you happen to live in the Kansas City metro area you have several options for viewing microfilm from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Two of the options are ordering film through a Family History Center near you or through our world-class Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, Missouri.

It's great to have options and the more the better.  For a third option, you may be fortunate enough to be looking for a film that is on indefinite loan to the Midwest Genealogy Center.  Check the list to see if the film you are searching for is available.  This will not only save you time, but money too.  I also urge you to call the reference desk as there may be additional films not listed on the guide.  There are over 11,000 rolls of film listed, one of those may be the one you are looking for.

Musings on a Munday Missouri Death Certificates

The Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services announced that beginning March 1, 2011 there are changes to the procedures for requesting death certificates.  See their updated requirements here.  You will now need to include a photo id when you request a death certificate and if applying by mail, your request must be notarized.  The appropriate fee is also required.

This is a minor hurdle in my mind, I've been including a copy of my driver's license when requesting death certificates from New Jersey for years.  Most generally, banks will perform notarization duties for customers with a small fee.

What I want to point out is that this new requirement applies to death certificates newer than 50 years.  In Missouri, once a death certificate group reaches 50 years old the certificates are transferred to the Missouri State Archives.  The Archives then scans the certificates and places them online...for free!  Don't be confused by the announcement and think that this wonderful service (thank you Secretary of State Robin Carnahan!) is no longer available.

Musings on a Munday Rootstech Effect

Sadly, I did not attend Rootstech 2011 but I plan to be there in 2012!  I've read many of the rave reviews those in attendance have given and my #rootstech Twitter feed is still very active.  There is a movement here that this conference started and I for one am looking forward eagerly to see where it takes genealogy.

On the Rootstech website the major conference sponsors are listed at the bottom of the page.  That's a fairly impressive list considering several are not companies you associate with genealogy:

• Microsoft
• Dell
• Novell
• Oracle
• Sprint

There are a couple of others, but these jumped out at me.  Hmmmmm who is noticeably missing???  Who could it be???  Maybe their name starts with an A and ends with pple!?!  I heard that there were over 3,000 attendees and I think 3,000 is worth Apple's time to visit.

It will be interesting to see how the sponsorships change and increase for 2012 along with the exhibitors.  I also hope the conference planners plan for significantly more than 3,000 next year!  Looking forward to it!

Musings on a Munday Primary Sources

Is a replacement birth certificate considered a primary source?  I understand primary source documents to be those that were created near the time and place of the event.  What if the replacement birth certificate was created 20 years after the birth?  Of course, I hope that the parent that provided the information does remember the circumstances surrounding the birth of their child, but one never knows.

Musings on a Munday SMASH Book

I came across a new product from EK Success Brands, a scrapbooking and paper crafting company. I imagine the SMASH Book was designed with scrappers and crafters in mind. While I do scrapbook, I immediately saw the appeal of this product from a genealogists point of view! I could see devoting a book to a single ancestor or family, full of those sticky notes and partial pieces of paper that we are not supposed to use. Perhaps you have ancestors that worked in an interesting field and you've accumulated little bits and pieces of information, the SMASH Book would be a perfect place to keep it all together. This would also be a great tool to scrapbook a family history road trip as you go.

The possibilities for using SMASH Book are really endless and I'm excited to get started! SMASH Book will be available in April, 2011.

Full disclosure...the video has music...and it's very addicting. You will be humming the song the rest of the day! :)

Musings on a Munday Maps

While I have attended many genealogy classes and seminars on a great many topics, by outstanding speakers, my favorite topics always end up being on maps.  I think I majored in the wrong discipline, I should have went with a geography degree!

I had a series of Wordless Wednesday posts on a group of caricature maps I found and fell in love with.  I also enjoy the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection as well as the panoramic map collections available online.  If you have some time, actually a lot of time, visit some of the map collection sites you can find through Google, Cyndi's List or at the GHLL site, you won't be disappointed.

Musings on a Munday Pocket Tree

Those non-genea family members (most all of mine) may get turned off when faced with notebook full of documents. Try thinking of small, everyday ways to share what you have found with them.

What about including a pedigree chart, completed with what you know, in the birthday cards you send out? The Pocket Tree is ideal for this approach!

Musings on a Munday Historical NY Times

The Historical New York Times has been a gold mine of information for me! My New Jersey born and raised Grandfather, Joseph A.G. Baudermann, attended NYU and was something of a track star there. I knew none of this until I started finding the articles in the Times.

I access the Times through my local library's remote database system right from home. There are many historical and genealogical related databases to choose from. See what your library system has to offer. You may find you have a "star" in your family tree also!

Musings on a Munday

The Generations Project, available on BYU TV and also online, tells the story of everyday people on their family history quest. There is a special preview of Season 2 on January 3, 2011.

I watched the series last year and enjoyed it. What is really interesting is that they are looking for people to feature on their show, people just like you and me! Have you applied? I have not but plan on doing so!

UPDATE: the Season 2 special preview has been canceled for tonight. :(

Musings on a Munday

My Baudermann line immigrated from Baden Germany, arriving at Castle Garden New York in 1852. The passenger list states that they sailed from Liverpool. That seems like an around about route to me: Southern Germany to Liverpool to New York?

Is this route telling me something? Why would they not have sailed directly from Germany? Was it cheaper to sail from Liverpool? Now I am also wondering how they traveled to Liverpool. I thought finding the family listed on the passenger list would answer all my questions, instead I now have a new set of questions!