Author Archives: Deborah H. Bateman

Online Book Marketing – The 5 Things Authors Get Wrong

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The more I work with authors to help them understand the ins and outs of online book marketing, the more I realize that there are five basic and fundamental mistakes that 9 out of 10 authors consistently make.

If you don’t fall victim to these five book marketing fiascoes, you’ll be ahead of the pack…way ahead. So, here are five things to avoid when marketing your books online:

1. Inadequate Keyword Research

This is the #1 big kahuna and the place where 99% of authors quite simply stuff it up. Most of the authors I work with have had little to no success marketing themselves and their books online because they’re not thinking the way Internet marketers think — they have no systematic plan for finding, targeting and ultimately dominating a list of keywords and phrases related to their book or expertise.

In order to have success online, you need to familiarize yourself with the concept of long-tail keywords; to understand how to analyze your competition; and how to know, with almost certainty, how much traffic a particular keyword gets.

Thankfully there are tools out there that do all three. You can find them at the links at the end of this article. Be sure to check them out.

2. Thin Content

Surprisingly, even prolific authors with many books to their credit — gifted writers who can write volumes on their area of expertise — somehow think that they can skate by online with just a couple pages (or even paragraphs!) of content.

Not true.

Here’s the deal: Google and the other search engines LOVE content-rich sites. This is why behemoths like Wikipedia get so much traffic. They have millions of pages in Google’s index. How many pages from your site does Google know or care about? My guess is it’s probably between two and five.

You’ll never rank well for anything other than your name with that kind of site. Bottom line: don’t think you can shortchange people online. If you want your site found, and you want potential readers to care about your book, demonstrate why they should by providing great free content upfront.

3. Ignoring Social Marketing and Web 2.0

If you haven’t noticed, the Internet is changing. In just the past couple of years, sites like Facebook, Digg, YouTube, and EzineArticles.com, along with services such as Twitter, have completely changed the way people interact online.

Gone is the top-down approach of “yesterday’s” media, which is quickly being replaced by a bottom-up system where real people, not editors, decide what’s hot and what’s not.

If you’re not using the sites mentioned above, along with about 100 others that can help you sell more books, you’re missing the biggest sea change in online marketing that you’ve ever seen. (See the links below for resources that will help you identify dozens of sites where you should be marketing your books.)

4. Failing to Build a Base of Support

It’s amazing how many authors don’t take advantage of the most powerful online marketing tool there is — the ability to build a base of support and loyal fans through things like mailing lists, or “followers” on Twitter, or subscribers to an RSS feed, or any number of other methods that traditional Internet marketers simply take for granted.

Here’s why this is so important: it’s infinitely easier to sell to people who already know, like and trust you than it is to sell to people who have no idea who you are.

If someone buys one of your books, they’re an ideal customer for your second, third, and fourth books. But if you have no way to reach the people who bought your first book, you’re going to have to go through the entire “customer-acquisition” process each and every time for every new book.

Wouldn’t it be easier to write a couple emails and send them to your fans? Or to simply put a post up on your blog with a new book announcement? This is the way authors build empires.

5. Trying to Sell Your Book

What? That’s a mistake? But isn’t that the point? Yes and no. I’d argue that by focusing on selling your book to the exclusion of everything else (see point #4 above), too many authors actually miss out on the long-term benefits of generating a loyal following online — the kind of following that buys hundreds of thousands of books.

What’s better, selling one or two books a day now, or selling thousands of books a day a year from now? Stop struggling. Start building information empires the way the most successful Internet marketers do. Stop trying to sell a book or two here and there. Start focusing on getting great content out to the people who need your book.

Sales (like you’ve never experienced before!) will inevitably follow.

If you’re not selling enough books online to make a comfortable full-time income, you’re not doing it right. I know for a fact that at least 90% of authors make crucial — but completely avoidable — mistakes when trying to market books online Want to find out if you’re one of them? Visit my free online book marketing blog and find out what the “Ten-Percenters” know that you don’t.

Author: Chris Simeral
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Write and Sell Ebooks Online: 6 Reasons It’s Easier Than Ever to Self-Publish and Make a Profit

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I write and sell ebooks online for a living. I published my first ebook in 2004. To date, I’ve written and self-published 18 titles. Anyone who wants to can do this. Why? Because what I call the “eSelf-Publishing” world has evolved a lot since 2004.

One of the biggest changes has been the explosion of e-readers (eg, the Kindle, iPad and Nook). These little devices have made reading on electronic devices more popular than ever. And this is just the beginning. For those who are ambitious and hardworking enough, starting an online business writing and selling ebooks can be one of the most lucrative enterprises of the 21st century. The following 6 reasons detail why.

6 Reasons to Write and Sell Ebooks Online

The following changes highlight why there are more reasons than ever to write ebooks and self-publish them if it’s something you’ve been wanting to do.

I. EPubs Outselling Hardcovers: In July 2010, online bookseller Amazon reported sales of ebooks for its proprietary Kindle outnumbered sales of hardcover books for the first time ever during the second quarter of 2010, saying it sold 140 e-books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there was no digital edition. [Source: Wikipedia]

II. Bestseller List: In an acknowledgment of the growing sales and influence of digital publishing, The New York Times said on Wednesday that it would publish e-book best-seller lists in fiction and nonfiction beginning early next year. [Source: Times Will Rank E-Book Best Sellers, The New York Times, 11/10/2010]

III. Sales Explosion: U.S. consumers are projected to spend $1 billion in e-books this year, according to a recent report from Forrester, who also expects that sales will surpass $3 billion by 2015. [Source: “The New York Times” to Launch Bestseller Lists for E-Books, Mashable website]

IV. Free to Publish: When I first looked into publishing my titles on Amazon in 2007, you had to have an ISBN number. They cost was somewhere around $150. I put it off ostensibly to “get to” later. And of course, I never did.

Now, you don’t need an ISBN number to publish, write and sell ebooks ebook on Amazon. It’s 100% free. All you have to do is upload your file.

V. Forget Traditional Publishers: In traditional publishing, author’s get around 17% of a book’s cover price – yes 17%. Usually, publishes get over half, and the distributors get another 25-30%. So, it leaves you, the writer/author, with very little profits.

But with ebook publishing, you don’t have to wait to be signed and published by a big name publisher. You can actually sell fewer ebooks and do quite well for yourself because you keep all the money.

VI. Make More Money: This year [2010], more than 50% of my income came from ebook sales (I’m a freelance writer). The more I write and publish, the more money I make. With 32 new titles planned for next year, and writing with this in mind, I only expect this to increase.

What I hope you’re beginning to understand is that if you want to write and sell ebooks online for a living, now has never been a better time to take the plunge.

May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is a prolific ebook writer and publisher. She says, “There’s no better feeling than being able to make money writing what you want, when you want — and make money doing it.” Did you know that you can write and publish an ebook, and start getting sales within a week — really? Learn how in the Inkwell Editorial Ebook Writing and Self-PublishingTournament. One participant sold 14 ebooks in less than 24 hours! You can take the knowledge you learn and write and sell ebooks online for years to come.

Author: Yuwanda Black
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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How To Publish Your Own Book And Save Money

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A book being published by its author is not a new concept. It is practiced for the various reasons discussed here. To find out how to publish the book on one’s own economically, first let us look at what are the needs behind a self-publishing venture.

Sometimes an author wants to have complete control over the editorial process. It is also possible that a manuscript is ignored by many publishers, especially when the author is relatively unknown. If the book has an interesting subject, but limited target readership, the publishers might turn it down. Self-publishing remains the solution in that case.

There is a possibility of publishers declining to publish your work if the subject of your work appears controversial. It is also possible that an author might be so sure of the success of the book, yet does not wish to let go of the substantial part of the profits to the publisher. Self-publishing and promoting the book yourself gives you, the author, 100% of the profit.

The following suggestions will help you save money on publishing expenses.

Make your book available in print as well as eBook form. It is possible to get more customers for your book if it is made available in hard copy, as well as soft copy (ebook). An eBook costs next to nothing as compared to conventional printing. It may be possible to generate many sales by offering your eBook at a lower price than the print copy.

In addition, when the customers confirm an order for such print plus eBook offers, you can determine the exact number of copies that need to be printed. This saves you from having to spend money on unsold inventory.

Cutting costs at production level

Consider prepress expenses such as copy-editing and proofreading. If you have expertise in editing or proofreading, then rather than employing the services of a professional, do it yourself, or seek the help of family members, friends or colleagues who can offer their expertise. A word of caution, though, make sure there are absolutely no mistakes or errors before printing, as you will have to reprint later in order to change anything.

Make your book part of some other marketing program

Try to find any commercial organization that will use your book as a part of their marketing program. It is possible to market your book to such enterprises if the subject of the book is relevant to their products. By successfully marketing your book for their own marketing schemes, they help you to cover the production expenses with an advance payment.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant about books. When shopping for books, we recommend you shop only at the best bookstores for used books, autographed books, and vedic books.

Author: Victor Epand
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Unix inter-process communication (IPC)

Social Media Tips – Straight Shooting Advice For Small Business

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Learning and implementing a social media marketing campaign can seem like a daunting task, so picking up any social media tips from reputable websites, forums and peer groups can definitely help you on your journey.

There has never been a better reason to learn as there are now more than 600 million people on Facebook, and at least 150 million of those are Americans, which equates to one in two adults. Twitter has recently topped 300 million users since its creation in 2006. For those that can master the social networks there is an endless supply of potential customers surfing the limitless end of status feeds on the internet highway.

Meanwhile small business owners are desperately trying to catch up and capitalize on this business platform while trying to juggle being, finance, marketing and H. R. H managers. As well as somewhere amongst it all fit family life. So unless you have stacks of cash and can employ social media guru to do it for you, then you really need to become your own social media expert.

The Following Are A Few Social Media Tips Consider When Setting Up A Campaign.

Break It Up And Keep It Social

Social media is about engagement and having and interaction, not promoting. Try to aim to be the person at the party that, shows interest in others, listens attentively, asks good questions, can hold an audiences attention with interesting and relevant content, oh and you need to be an authentic and just generally an all round likeable person. Ask question get interaction with your audience, such as Victoria Secrets doesn’t splash a two for one sale on their status feeds constantly, sure they show up and coming promotions and sales but they mix it up by asking questions instead. For example they might ask for interaction by asking what your favorite colored slip is or which was the most comfortable Victoria Secrets bra you’ve ever worn. (Obviously targeting the female audience). The visitor is encouraged to interact and is more likely to keep coming back

Don’t Come Across Desperate

“Like us on Facebook” and “Follow us on Twitter” are everywhere. I find it kind of desperate how the social media culture tells customers to “Like” and “Follow” them. Surely, if your marketing was interesting and engaging it would be a given that they would “follow” or “like” you anyway? Remember to think what’s in it for them and then work from a place of power not need.

Be Accessible

Make it simple and easy for your audience to stay in touch with you. Social plug ins such as “Share this”, ” Add this” or “Digg-Digg” are all easy to install on your site and show up as many of the social networking sites that you load up and make it quick and easy for your fans to share your content with their friends on any network. Then there are Facebook Business or “Fan Pages” that give the visitor a chance to “like” your page. This gives you the opportunity to market to them by way of updates to keep the conversation going.

In summary these tips are designed to be just that, a bit of “food for thought”, to bear in mind when you are setting up your social media marketing campaigns. My other recommendation is to think about enlisting the help of a mentor. There are reputable companies available online that you can team up with that are affordable for smaller businesses and have the social media systems, training and support available so you don’t have to do it on your own. Why not have your own supply of social media tips and strategies on hand 24/7 when you need them.

Deanna Hibbs was a full time-working mum, who, after looking for an alternative to 9-5 came across the world of Internet Marketing. She now works from home with as one of the founding members of World Wide Partnership and is teaching others her daily success blueprint to make their own lifestyle choices. World Wide Partnership in no way promotes any individual Network Marketing Company, but instead acts as a Training Company for any Online Marketers by providing the tools, training system, Skype and syndication support.Our 3day video email series Our 3day video email series ” The secrets Behind Social Media Video Series” can be found on my blog WhoIsDeannaHibbs.com/” It is the first step on this journey and contains essential training on social media tips

Author: Deanna Hibbs
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital economy, mobile technology

Publishing – Self-Published Authors

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When we read a blog, can we safely say that its author is a self-published writer? And the answer is yes: we can safely say that the author of a blog is a self-published writer. That means that anyone could become a writer online and that includes you! All you need is a blog (hosted on a free domain, but preferably on your domain to avoid any data loss) and the will to succeed.

A blog is a space where an author can publish his/her thoughts. It doesn’t matter why people blog. Whether they blog for fun or for financial revenue (generated through AdSense ads, other ads, paid entries etc) all blog authors are self-published authors.

Successful bloggers are powerful bloggers. They are consultants for other bloggers, for businesses that want to achieve similar online recognition and so on. These people prove that blogging could be the path to a successful career. All you need is a brilliant idea, dedication and perseverance.

Some young talented writers start a blog hoping that a publisher will discover their art online and make them an offer for a hard cover chance. Many of these authors blog daily just to collect their entries and turn them into a book or an eBook using a free publishing service such as the ones offered by Lulu. Then they offer their work for free or for a small fee, or they start a slid marketing campaign to sell it both online and offline. Some are really successful. Others still spend their time online trying to make it to the top of the search engines and to become the crème de la crème of the blogosphere.

There are so many wonderful poems and literary works online waiting for you to discover them! All you need to do is start browsing the blogosphere or some high quality article directories like Associated Content or Ezine Articles.

Some bloggers consider their blogs private spaces. Yet they should understand that a blog becomes public if it is cached in a search engine and submitted to some directories, if it’s a part of any blogger community or interlinked with any other blog or website. So even a “private” blogger is a self-published author.

Self-publishing doesn’t refer solely to literary work and words. Publish your artwork and photography online and guess what: you become a self-published author. Any original contribution you sign with your real name or with a pseudonym and publish online wears your copyright and it’s your sole responsibility. Even when you choose to hire a ghostwriter, once the deal is done, if you were not smart enough to check the accuracy and originality of the content you paid for, you become responsible for what you publish.

Practically, self-publishing means that you publish your work alone – without being paid in advance by a traditional publishing house for your work.

The Web is full of surprises. HowStuffWorks started out as a collection of self published articles on how stuff works. Today this is a billion dollars business. I’ll not waste your time with similar examples. Have a brilliant idea and you’ll reach fame in no time, even in such a highly competitive world as the WWW!

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Publishing [http://publishing-guideto.com/]

Author: Michael Russell
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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