Tag Archives: Book Marketing

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Effective List Building Techniques For Publishers & Authors

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extra newsMethod #3 – Press Releases

Authoring and publishing your own book takes allot of effort, the success of your book hinges on how well you’ve targeted your market/niche and marketed it effectively. If you plan to sell many copies of your book, you’ll need to take advantage of every tool/resource available.

With so many other books having been published and many that are probably sharing/teaching similar stories/content as you, what is there that will set your book apart from the pack?

One simple answer should be the content of your book. People like to read well written books that have plenty of useful/enjoyable information but which they also have a genuine interested in. If you are able to provide this you’ll be well on your way to selling books and doing so successfully.

But what if you want to take that extra step to make your book into a successful bestseller? There is one simple tool that you can employ if you want to ensure that you will get more people to purchase from you – create an eMail list that potential customers and current customers can sign up for.

The mailing list allows you to do something that most stores wish they could do: attract visitors and then market products to them on their schedules so the hard sale does not seem so hard to swallow in their eyes.

Even with a small eMail list you will have a much higher rate of sales than if you were to forgo the eMail list all together, so what do you say – perhaps it is high time that you create one for your book/website.

Unfortunately we cannot go around and simply collect random names and eMail addresses to add to our eMail database, so it is up to us to first generate enough traffic for our website and then convert those visitors into eMail list subscribers.

There are tons of different ways in which you can get traffic to come – some ways, like pay per click advertising cost you some money while others like search engine optimization are totally free so long as you know what you are doing. However, both of these techniques are totally passive.

Try as you might, it may take you weeks or months before you actually see any of these techniques come to fruition as actual inquiries on your eail list. Instead, if you want to grab the ‘proverbial bull by the horns’ and rake in people by the droves right away, then you will have to do something a bit more drastic!

Bring In Press Releases!

There is a method that’s a tried and true technique that has been employed by businesses of all types for centuries. It’s Known as the Press Release, you can use this method to drive people to your book’s website almost instantaneously the moment someone picks up and publishes the release.

At this point you are probably thinking that such a technique is too good to be true and would be impossible for an indie author/ publisher like yourself – but the good news is that anyone can draft a press release and submit it to many of the major daily publications, both online and print based.

All it takes is a little bit of time and some know-how of what you need to include in your particular press release.

Drafting Out Your Press Release

The first aspect of a press release that you need to concentrate on is the actual content of the release itself.

Nobody wants to read some drab, boring press release – and certainly nobody will want to publish it in their periodical, so consider jazzing it up to include a lot of content that people who would be interested in your website would want to hear.

Include facts, figures, statistics and even plans of action for what you and your business plan to do in the future in an attempt to get people to check out your website.

Remember: DO NOT make it a sales pitch! People expect something newsworthy when they read from a Press Release.

While you should make the content as interesting to your potential customers as possible, it is important not to lie as chances are that your potential clients will check up on you over time to make sure that you are backing up what you say in press releases with what you are actually doing or have done.

Also, when writing the content, be sure to address your possible clients personally instead of addressing them as some vague demographic as far too many press releases tend to do. This will make the reader feel more comfortable because it’ll feel like the message has been personalized and will likely make him/her more inclined to visit your website.

Secondly, if you plan on submitting your press release to mostly websites who will publish it, then you should try to optimize it for search engines as much as possible.

Remember that the more aligned your press release is with certain keywords – the more it will be read by people in your target market, your subscribers & readers to your eMail list, your fans and your potential customers. By knowing/planning this ahead of time, your Press Release will be more effective.

However, do not overuse the keywords you have decided to focus on, as it will make for a very dry, boring and uninteresting press release that will not allow you to get the maximum number of visitors.

Once your press release has been written and edited, you will want to find some spots to post it. I recommend some of these:

http://www.prweb.com
http://www.imnewswatch.com
http://www.i-newswire.com
http://www.prlog.org
http://www.prnewswire.com
http://www.marketwire.com
http://www.express-press-release.net
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com
http://www.businesswire.com

Be sure to get into contact with places that you know will be able to distribute your press release to the masses, but also try and find some avenues of distribution that take advantage of RSS or Atom feeds.

Using RSS or Atom will allow your press release to be sent directly to the masses like the top headlines for the New York Times or Google News and it’s a great way for your book website/s to get the right kind of publicity. Taking advantage of this type of technology will help grow and develop a well-targeted responsive eMail list.

So there you have it, the basics for using a press release to gain as many visitors to your book website as possible.

Since you are looking to establish an eMail list from many of those visitors, be sure to have the link from your press release pointing to your Subscription List Page, your Opt-in page or Landing Page, as you do not want people to diddle daddle around on your website and lose interest before they sign up for your eMail list – and you will quickly find that your website will be successful in much less time than you ever thought possible!

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Effective List Building Techniques For Publishers & Authors

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Article MarketingMethod #1 – Article Marketing

How many different email marketing lists do you belong to? If your mailbox is anything like mine, then you probably have subscribed yourself to quite a few during your browsing sessions online.

Whether the emails that you get are from other businesses that may be able to provide you with goods or services that you simply cannot get anywhere else for the price, for musicians who you like to keep an eye on in hopes that they will visit your city sometime soon or from bloggers who have great articles in your eyes – your email box is probably filled to the brim with notifications that you subscribed to at some point or another.

Now that you are considering moving into the realm of online marketing (more specific – online book marketing), it is high time that you learn to take advantage of the power of an email list and notification program. Potential clients and random visitors alike love notification lists, as it keeps them up to date on what you’ve got going on without them having to visit your website every moment of every day. People like things to be easy – and that is exactly what an email list is giving them – easy access to information on your website when they want it.

At this point in your career as a blossoming author/publisher, you probably do not know too much about the whole web design thing (or perhaps you do). However, even with your potential lack of experience, you have probably realized that it takes a well designed website with some killer content to draw people in and make them stick around.

While terms like article marketing and SEO may elude you, it does not take a rocket scientist to realize that you have got to have good, enjoyable, enlightening information on your website to make your guests, your readers and or your potential customers to stick around – and one of the best ways to do so is to be involved in an Article Marketing Program.

So What Exactly Is Article Marketing?

Quite simply it is just as it sounds – marketing your articles and taking advantage of articles written by other people to bring traffic to your own website. Because of the definition, there are two very different ways in which you can become a part of the article marketing phenomenon:

Submitting or Using.

Whichever method of article marketing your prefer is entirely up to you, although the former is much better way to attract traffic to your website and the latter should only be used in extreme situations.

Thanks to the wondrous power of the article marketing websites, there has never been a better time for you than now to become a better writer. Since you are probably already a writer, it shouldn’t be all that hard to do!

Writing Articles For Business Marketing

You see, in order to be able to take advantage of the amazing marketing potential of submitting to an article marketing website, you first have to be able to write your own articles.

For some of you who truly enjoy writing content all day long, this will not be a problem as you will be able to crank out great content in no time and flood the article marketing websites with lots of cool articles that everyone will want to have on their websites – easily getting your name out there so that you can start to establish a comprehensive email list of potential buying customers.

However, there is that problem that many people face who simply cannot draft an enjoyable document if their life depends on it. Perhaps you are tired of writing after completing your book, or you may have hired a ghost writer, if you are one of those types of people, the road to establishing an email list through article marketing will be long and arduous.

Eventually, you will be able to write an article that you deem worthy of submitting to an article marketing website. After some time you may even get a few hits on it and a few unique visitors to your website because of it.

But how much time are you willing to spend on something that may only net you a couple of people on your email list? Instead, why not try hiring a freelance writer (or ghost writer).

There are droves of them out there in cyberspace (check out http://www.Elance.com) who will work for relatively cheap rates and provide you with decent content (and if you don’t like what they have provided you with, you can always edit it).

Although many article marketing websites require that you write the articles yourself, if you have a ghostwriter do the dirty work for you, you can claim the article as your own and nobody will be the wiser.

Submitting To Article Directories

Once your article writing is finished, it is time to submit your work to an article marketing website. After it has been up there for awhile you will start to see people view it and you may even get a few downloads here or there. It is the downloads that you are really looking for, as it shows that someone found it interesting enough to put it on their website using your name, a link to your website/book, perhaps an email address and certainly some social media sites so that people will know who actually wrote the article in the first place. This will ultimately help a multitude of website visitors who may be interested in your content and also give them the opportunity to connect with you personally & ultimately bring your website more traffic.

Below, you’ll find a comprehensive list of some of the better article sites on the Internet. There are literally hundreds of sites, but these are the ones you should start with.

List of Article Directories:

Now, you can also use other peoples’ articles on your own website (but keep in mind that you are trying to direct traffic to your own site), so you’ll have to provide plenty of links to the original author’s website. However, there is a risk using this technique because you’ll be possibly driving people away from your own website before they get the opportunity to sign up to your eMail Opt-in List.

Getting people into your eMail Opt-in List through an article marketing plan can be tricky and arduous, but for the most part it is one of the more successful methods for establishing a good client base.

A lot of work must be done before you even think about posting that first article on an article marketing site, but once you are through with that all you have to do is sit back and watch as it brings in more and more potential customers to your website.

With each unique visit, there is another chance that person could sign up to your email Opt-in List. And we all know that the more people on your email list at the end of the day, the more people you’ll have the opportunity to sell your books to & ultimately maximize your chance for profits.

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How To Signup & Utilize Author Central Effectively

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Author CentralAmazon’s Author Central

Recently I answered a question related to signing up to AuthorCentral and if there could be a Step-by-Step process on how to use it.

I thought this was an excellent opportunity to also share it with you – my readers!

If you are an author and or publisher, you’ll realize this is another way to implement into your book marketing campaign. By utilizing all the tools within your Author Central account, you’ll have the ability to use additional methods to effectively market/promote your book/s.

Signing up & setting up Author Central is simple:

  1. Surf on over to http://www.authorcentral.com
  2. Sign up if you aren’t a member (I used the same login info as my Amazon Customer Account).

Once you’ve accessed your AuthorCentral Account, you can do a number of things to optimize your Author Page.

The following links/tools are available in your account profile:

  1. You can Add multimedia, blog feeds, a Twitter feed, events,etc. to your Author Central Profile:
  • You can edit your Biography.
  • You can create your own personal Amazon Author Page url.
  • You can add a Twitter feed.
  • You can add a Blog feed.
  • You can add an author photo.
  • You can share a video interview, book trailer, or book signing video.
  • You can share any upcoming speaking engagements, bookstore appearances, or whatever event you feel will help market and or promote you, your book and or your brand.
  1. You can View and Edit your list of books (click on the Author Title/Book Cover):
  • You can request to edit your editorial reviews.
  • You can Add a Review.
  • You can Add info for: ‘Product Description’.
  • You can add info for: ‘From the Author’
  • You can add info for: ‘From the Inside Flap’ (if you have a jacket cover).
  • You can add info for: ‘From the Back Cover’.
  • You can add info for: ‘About the Author’.
  1. Under the ‘Book Extras’ tab you can add additional info via Shelfari.com:
  • Characters/People.
  • Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis.
  • Summary.
  • Quotations.
  • Settings & Location.
  • Glossary.
  • Organizations.
  • Awards.
  • Themes & Symbolism.
  1. You can add a book to your bibliography:
  • In a pop-up search box you can search for books you’ve written by Title, Author or ISBN then add them to your bibliography.
  1. You can check sales of each of your books by geographic region (sales figures are an estimate from BookScan).
  2. You can view all the reviews of your books (and add comments to them if you wish).

Hope you find this helpful in your book marketing plan!

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Utilizing The Shortened Amazon Book Detail Page Url

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Amazon IconUsing a Shortened Amazon Book Detail Page Url

Many authors/publishers send potential customers to their books using lengthy Amazon Product/Book Detail Page urls/links.

Examples of lengthy Amazon urls:

  1. http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Niche-Marketing-Definitive-Competitive/dp/0977968421
  2. http://www.amazon.com/Dan-Poynters-Self-Publishing-Manual-Write/dp/1568601425/ref=pd_sim_b_39
  3. http://www.amazon.com/Well-Fed-Self-Publisher-Turn-Full-Time-Living/dp/0967059860/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327461633&sr=1-1
  4. http://www.amazon.com/Book-Yourself-Solid-Reliable-Marketing/dp/0470643471/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327461773&sr=1-1

You can actually use a shortened & simpler url/link that’ll ‘look’ better in your marketing and promotion.

You’ll also be able to access your Amazon.com page directly by typing in the following short url format:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/[YOUR_ISBN]/

Enter your ISBN where it says: [YOUR_ISBN]

For example: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0977968421/

The same books listed above as examples are also listed below but utilizing the shorter links (and substituting the book’s ISBN into the Amazon urls):

  1. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0977968421
  2. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1568601425
  3. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0967059860
  4. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470643471

Much better, yes?

Or, shorter yet, create a short custom url for your Amazon link using Bitly:

  1. http://amzn.to/0977968421

The website Bitly will generate an amzn.to URL with a random suffix but you could also choose to “customize” your own suffix with something else (in the above example the ISBN of the book is used).

By using one or both of these methods, you’ll successfully shorter your Amazon Product/Book Detail Page url/link.