Tag Archives: Book Marketing

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Effective List Building Techniques For Publishers & Authors

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Mail IconList Building 101

List building is very, very critical to the success of any business – online or offline. And it applies whether you own a small, medium or big-sized business. Fortunately, the same can apply to publishers and authors who want to sell more books.

Brick-n-mortar companies invest a great effort in collecting prospective leads. Network Marketers often begin with writing a list of 100 names of people they know. An online business owner’s main focus is on building their Online Mailing List. As a publisher and or author, it’s just as critical to develop your eMail list.

List building doesn’t have to be as difficult as some attest to, as long as you know what to do, and how to do it. The aim of this article is to show you how to get started on building your own mailing list using multiple, unique and different techniques that add TARGETED leads to your database and at the lowest cost possible.

If properly managed you’ll begin to sell more books. I’ll introduce you to some techniques that you may be familiar with and perhaps some that you are not. You should be able to integrate one or more of these techniques into your list building strategy. The more methods you use, the better chance you’ll have with growing your list and getting the results that’ll help sell more books but ultimately develop a database of buyers that kep buying from you.

Building successful websites can be somewhat tricky – especially if your plans are to make those websites the cash generator for your business.

With so many other websites out on the world wide web, what is there to set your business apart from the pack?

One simple answer should be the contents of your website. People like a nice, professional & clean looking design for the sites that they frequent and they like to have plenty of enjoyable articles or copy to read that is genuinely interesting to them. If you’re able to supply these fundamental features, you’ll be well on your way to making it easier to sell more books.

In order to take the extra step to make your website attractive enough for your visitors, you’ll need a list of potential customers!

Before you can get someone to purchase from you, they need to know who you are, right? Or, they have to at least be aware of your “store” or the services you provide. List Building is finding leads, the people that have an interest in you (or your product), and this involves creating an eMail/mailing list (also known as List Building).

Your eMailing list allows you to do something that most stores wish they could do: “welcome in” your visitors, add value through your mailings (eg. via your eZine/newsletter and or blog), build credibility and ultimately trust. As a result you can then market/promote your book anytime you wish because you are not limited by store hours 🙂

Even with a small eMail list, you’ll have a much better rate of sales than if you were to not have an eMail list at all.

Unfortunately it’s not wise to simply go around and collect random names and email addresses to add to your eMail list. You need to attract targeted traffic to your website. Once you’ve accomplished this, you can then convert those visitors to eMail list subscribers when they opt-in to your eZine/newsletter and or blog.

There are a variety of methods you can use to generate traffic to your website. In the next series of posts I’ll discuss these List Building techniques. Here’s a list of the some of these methods:

  • Article Marketing
  • Paid eZine Advertizing
  • Press Releases
  • PPC Programs
  • SEO
  • Using Special Reports
  • Ad Swaps
  • Give away Events
  • Co-registration leads
  • Resell Rights

Advanced Techniques:

  • Affiliates
  • Joint Ventures
  • Book Launch Campagins
  • Maximizing your Mailing List

I’ll discuss how you can get started right away and explain how you can attract these subscribers so that they can be converted into buying customers.

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How To Leverage Amazon’s Tools To Increase Sales

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Eric Van Der Hope - Author Platform

Eric V. Van Der Hope

Eric’s Book Marketing Tip – #7

The world’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com, makes it possible for authors to connect directly with their audience through a variety of innovative tools. When these tools are used effectively, potential customers will find your Product/Book Detail Page. In the next couple marketing posts I’ll reveal these tools and explain how you can implement them into your marketing plan.

Here are the features you can exploit on Amazon that’ll help with your book getting the best visibility possible:

  1. Adding Book cover images
  2. Book Description
  3. From The Author
  4. Editorial Book Reviews
  5. Inside & Back Book Flap
  6. More About the Author
  7. Author Bibliography
  8. Amazon Best Seller Ranking
  9. Customer Reviews/Testimonials
  10. Tags
  11. Participation in “Customer Discussions”
  12. Creating Unlimited Listmania Lists
  13. Creating Unlimited Guides (a.k.a: So You’d Like to . . . Guides)
  14. Request “Search Inside the Book Program”
  15. Request Browse Paths
  16. Request Browse Categories (this benefits the “Look for Similar Items by Category”)
  17. Request Subject Categories (this benefits the “Look for Similar Items by Subject”)
  18. Add a video interview, book trailer or book signing video
  19. Your Author Profile Page (via your Product/Book Detail Page)
  20. Adding blog feeds to your Author Profile
  21. Adding your twitter feed to your Author Profile
  22. Book Extras – by adding the following via www.Shelfari.com:
    • Characters/People
    • Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
    • Summary
    • Quotations
    • Settings & Location
    • Glossary
    • Organizations
    • Awards, Themes & Symbolism

In upcoming Marketing Minute posts I’ll explain how you can leverage all of of these tools that Amazon provides to increase your book sales.

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Market Your Book Effectively Using Forum Marketing

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Forum MarketingDo you use Forum Marketing to market your books?

Well, this can be a very effective way to market/brand yourself and or help sell copies of your book.

However – there is a wrong way and a right way to do it! 😉

My participation in Forum Marketing was one of the reasons why my book, ‘ Mastering Niche Marketing ‘ became a #1 bestseller.

The secret – DON’T MARKET yourself and/or your book but provide useful, valuable information and answers to the questions that come up while participating in the community. This will build trust with the forum members and establish a relationship that’ll reward you sooner than you think.

Stay tuned to further updates on this tip & I’ll share with you 7 Keys To Successful Forum Marketing and 7 Common Mistakes you should avoid.

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Marketing Using Forums, Internet Groups & Guest Blogging

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Forum MarketingThe internet is full of websites, blogs, forums, groups and other forms of media. By using these resources effectively you could market your book effectively and at little or no expense to you. By sharing your expertise and helping others you are in effect promoting yourself and your product. This can be done without selling yourself or your product directly to people, just make yourself available to help and offer advice. After a while you’ll find that people will be seeking you out more often and as a result they’ll most likely purchase your books and or products.

Regularly participate in forums and or groups that are the same genre as your book. Be helpful by offering your advice that would help the person asking the question. You are promoting yourself and or your book by simply leaving a small signature file or signature box at the end of your reply.

Marketing yourself and or your book via Guest blogging applies the same way. Look for well established bloggers preferably in your genre, and ask if you could be a guest blogger on their blog/website. Some will accept, some will not. Many website/blog owners are looking for legitimate people who can add fresh content to their site for their readers/subscribers to review. For the most part these website and blog owners will allow you to use a signature box at the end of your article. Readers that find your information useful will usually follow your links to your site and as a result this further exposes your book (in a good way) and thus increases the chance of selling more copies of your book.

Taking advantage of specific internet groups, like Google groups, including Yahoo Answers, will also work in a similar way. By answering the poster’s questions you’ll get the proper exposure and for the most part you’ll get targeted traffic via your signature file to your book website.