Posts Tagged ‘blog’

Did you know that Facebook “shares” is the most popular way to drive traffic to your author website or blog? Yup … according to the most recent statistics, people visit a website more often because a link was shared by a friend than as the result of a Google search.

But there are certain types of articles. blog entries or Facebook posts that are shared far more than others. With that in mind, here are five different techniques that you can use (ideas courtesy of Internet & Marketing Report) to make sure that your post gets spread around the world of social networking.

1. Be an advocate. Write Facebook posts that are helpful and informative, or advocate for a cause. People love to share something when they feel like they’re doing it for the greater good. A great example is sending around a link about an injustice related to the subject matter of your book, or information about how a percentage of your sales this week will go to charity.

2. Connect people. Some people love to share links because it helps them strengthen relationships with others. So give them something that tugs on their heartstrings and they will enjoy sharing it.

3. Be provocative. There’s nothing that gets people talking — or sharing — like a provocative post. Talk about a hot-button issue related to your book’s subject matter, or ride the coattails of a controversy in the news that’s somehow similar to the book.

4. Offer information. Provide lots of helpful information and people will want to share it with friends and co-workers. Offer a “how to” list or Q&As related to being an author, getting published, etc… It’s almost guaranteed to go viral.

5. Start trends. Everyone loves to be the “first to know.” So stay on top of the news related to your book’s subject matter, and post immediately about it. People will want to share it with their friends …. whomever knows before everyone else is automatically the “cool” person.

Aren’t we all secretly authors? Some of us have already published books, others are working on books. But the majority of us are just thinking about the book that we dream of writing, be it a novel or an autobiography.

Regardless of your status, there are tons of things you can do to get your author career off the ground. Not surprisingly, I’m going to recommend that you start with an author website.

Before you even ask: yes, it’s okay to have an author website even if you haven’t published anything yet.

But what should be on that author website? And how can you use it to catapult your writing career? Here are a few ways…

1. Offer writing snippets. At some point, you will be reaching out to agents and publishers in the hopes that they will be interested in your works. Well, how will they know how good a writer you are unless they can actually read your writing? Make sure to offer articles, short stories, book excerpts, etc… on your author website so that they can get a taste of your work even before it’s published.

2. Show your personality. The publishing field is much like the music industry: it used to be all about talent, but now it’s as much about “sellability” as anything else. All of this means that it almost doesn’t matter how great a writer you are. You also have to be personable, outgoing, funny, etc… in order to make it in today’s publishing world. Make sure to include photos of yourself on the website, any audio/video of yourself, and a blog that really lets your personality shine through.

3. Build a fanbase. This is probably the most important of the three items listed here. Why? Because a publisher is far more likely to work with a writer who already has 100,000 followers than one who doesn’t have a platform. Here are some creative ways to start building that platform and watching your number of followers climb:

• Blog, blog, blog. This is the best way to drive traffic to your website and keep people coming back from more. Pick a subject to blog about and stick to it. Make your blog informative, humorous, and a must-see destination. You’ll be surprised how many people keep coming back …. and even better, “sharing” your content.
• Interact. People visiting your blog will start commenting on it. You need to comment in response. Join the conversation with your readers. They will appreciate it.
• Offer email sign-ups. Give readers a good reason to enter their email address. Maybe it’s a little trinket or something. Regardless, collect as many email addresses as you can. That will be invaluable when you talk to a publisher.
• Use social networking. It doesn’t matter if your preferred network is Facebook, Twitter, etc… Ideally, it’s all of them. But make sure you build fans/followers and keep them informed on what you’re doing. Pose questions, offer tips, etc… Whatever is working, just keep doing it. And watch those numbers continue to rise.

No one said becoming a professional author is easy. But it is doable. And hopefully these ideas will help you get started.

Ready to talk with us about building you an author website? Contact us today for a free consultation.

They say that no press is bad press. I would venture to say that book reviews are similar. The more mention your book gets throughout the web, the more likely people are to hear about it and decide to check it out for themselves. Of course, a rave review will garner far more interest than a bad review, but getting your book reviewed at all can only be a good thing.

With that in mind, here are four ways to start racking up those online book reviews…

1. Think GoodReads. Scour GoodReads to find people who regularly review or recommend books in your genre. According to a blog post on Build Book Buzz, “With more that 7.3 million members, Goodreads.com gives book lovers a chance to create virtual bookshelves (with more than 260 million books!) that others can peruse. Those members not only share what they’re reading with their personal Goodreads networks, they also review and recommend those books, or create lists that announce what they want to read next.”

2. Contact Amazon reviewers. Go to the Amazon pages of other books in your genre. See who is reviewing them. Then, compare some of those names to the list of top Amazon reviewers (which you can find here). This will allow you to identify the regular reviewers who are most respected on Amazon. Reach out to each of them, tell them about your book, and offer them a free copy of the ebook. If you’re lucky, they’ll take you up on it.

3. Think bloggers. If you’re a nonfiction author, track down bloggers who regularly write on the subject matter of your book. Reach out to them, tell them about your book (and how it would benefit their audience), and ask if they’d be willing to review it. You may also want to consider offering something to sweeten the deal, like a link to their blog from your site or an article you’d be willing to write exclusively for them. Again, this is a great way to get your book right in the face of your target readership.

4. Mind your manners. There’s a blog entry on the Infinity Publishing site about the to dos (and not to dos) when contacting a book reviewer. You can read the full list, but here are some highlights:

• Don’t ask when the review will be completed.
• Don’t tell the reviewer what you want them to say.
• Don’t be offended if they don’t like the book.
• Always send a “thank you” note

Remember, even if a book review isn’t as positive as you’d like, you can probably find a sentence or two to pull and use in your promotional material. As I said … no reviews are bad reviews.

I just read a great blog post this morning. It was by Sonia Marsh, author of the forthcoming travel memoir,  Freeways to Flip-Flops: Our Year of Living Like the Swiss Family Robinson.

Sonia’s premise is one that I have focused on in previous blogs: Building a successful author website is about providing valuable information to your readers and thinking about them more than thinking about yourself. She puts it like this:

There is a secret which writers tend to forget, especially if they are not familiar with the way social media works.
Stop focusing on yourself and your book, and your audience will grow.

Here are some of the ways that both Sonia and I think you can do this…

Step 1. Bring all of your work together under one umbrella. I don’t care if you’ve written two fiction books, two nonfiction books and a wealth of poetry. Find some common factor that carries through all of your work and use it to build a brand. In Sonia’s case, the theme was “gutsy living.” Figure out what yours is.

Step 2. Develop a tagline. I tell all of my authors to have some kind of tagline under their name at the top of the website. Otherwise, how is someone going to know what they will be getting from “JaneSmith.com” or “JohnJones.com.” Once you have the branding figured out, find a way to briefly, succinctly, and creatively express it in a tagline. Sonia translated her “gutsy living” theme into the tagline, “Life is too short to play it safe.”

Step 3: Carry your theme into other works. Make sure that all of your online efforts fit under this same umbrella. Blog about the topic that ties together your work. Comment on other authors’ blog posts or articles on the topic. Use social networking tools to build a following among people interested in that subject matter. Remember, you’re building a brand here. As Sonia puts it, “You wouldn’t shop at Target for a car, so when a reader visits a travel blog, they expect to get information related to travel.”

Step 4: Interact and inform. Now that you have a “brand,” it’s important to get people interested in it and willing to come back for more. Remember, your readers are more important than you are. Provide them with information, education, etc… relevant to the subject matter. Ask them questions, and respond to their questions.  If you give more than you get, you’ll be rewarded for it.

Sonia wraps her post up wonderfully, so I will simply quote her here:

The more you connect and help others, the more people will subscribe to your blog or website, and you will gradually build an authentic platform with loyal followers. It won’t happen overnight, but once people realize that you care about them, and are willing to share helpful information, all the pieces suddenly fit together. That’s when the magic happens, and you know you’ve accomplished something more than simply being an author who wants to sell her book.

We build all of our author sites on WordPress. And if you’re familiar with WordPress, you know that it’s all about plug-ins. They’re what turn a flat site into a dynamic one. They’re how you integrate SEO and social networking into static text. Here is the list of plug-ins that we’ve found to be most effective for authors. Best of all, these are all free!

If you have other plug-ins you’d like to recommend, share them in the comments box below!

1. All-In One SEO Pack: This plug-in automatically submits your website to all the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc…). It also allows you to write unique metadata for each site page and each blog post. That information is then submitted to the search engines and can help your placement on results pages.
2. G-Lock Double Opt-In Manager: Want to start collecting email addresses? Of course you do. This easy plug-in allows you to have a sign-up box anywhere on your site. You can customize the text to offer promotions, etc… for people who sign up. All the email addresses collected are then stored in a database and you can use them as you wish.
3. WP-DB Backup: We’ve all done it. We’ve made a mistake that we wish we could undo. That’s the beauty of this backup plug-in. It backs up all of your work so that you can go back in time and undo any screw-ups that may have arisen.
4. Simply Sociable: You want people to be able to share your site and/or blog post on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc… right? That’s what this plug-in does. It automatically adds those sharing options to every page and every post.
5. Ultimate Google Analytics: What good is a website if you’re not keeping track of how many people are visiting it, what they’re doing there, etc…? Set up a free Google Analytics account and use this plug-in to implement it on your site. Just enter your account information and you will automatically have access to a wealth of information about your site traffic.
6. Akismet: If you’ve ever had a blog before, you know the biggest pain in the neck that can accompany it: SPAM comments. Akismet can block a HUGE percentage of that SPAM before it even comes into your mailbox. It doesn’t work 100% of the time, but even 90% can make an enormous difference.

What plug-ins can’t you live without? Share them with us!

I have written more posts than I can count on author blogging: how to do it, when to do it, and why to do it.

It seems that I’m not alone. A blogger with Infinity Publishing — a self-publishing company with which we have a partnership — thinks the same way. Today, I present you with Sherrie Wilkolaski’s Blogging Is a Goldmine for Self-Published Authors.

Here are the highlights of her top 7 secrets to blogging success … with which I whole-heartedly agree.

1. Select the key words for your website. Do you your research and find the right keywords that make the most sense for your title.  … Tag your content with those key words with every article.
2. Write on the subject matter associated with your key words. It really is as simple as that.  It may take you some time, but find your voice.
3. Fresh content. Write a new article every day, or at least 3-4 days a week and you’ll be a hit with the search engines.  Note:  Don’t just throw up anything on your blog.  Make sure it’s a value to your audience.
4. Blog on the weekends. You’ll be a rock star with the search engines.
5. Invite guest bloggers to the party. Blogging 356 days a year can become daunting, so why not invite some guest bloggers to join you in your effort to fill your blog with relevant content.  It also helps with cross-promotion, have your guest bloggers provide you with a link back to your site and ask that they let their audience know about their guest appearance.
6. Syndicate your blog. Distribution of your content is key.  Make sure you have an RSS feed and an email subscription option to your blog.  Use your social media outlets to help market your daily blog posts and your content will go viral.
7. Track your results with Google Analytics. Monitor the traffic on your site and see what content your visitors are most interested in…then write more of it.
   

Sherrie finishes her post by saying:

I’m living a bloggers dream.  Not only am I seeing the results in the website traffic.  It has rekindled my romance with writing.  It just doesn’t get any better than that.  Well, only if I was writing in Paris.  Cheers!

If more self-published authors took Sherrie’s advice, my job would be a whole lot easier!

It’s one of the greatest challenges of an author website: keeping it both active and interactive. It’s easy to just build a site with your bio, your book descriptions, etc…. But why would a reader continue to come back to a site like that? That’s where interaction comes in.

It’s important that an author continue to keep their site updated with news, events, and commentary (enter the blog). But it’s equally important that an author allow a reader to also feel involved in the site. It’s only those readers — the ones who really feel like they’re interacting with the author — that turn into your loyal fans for years to come.

So how can an author make their site interactive? Here are some ideas:

1. Encourage reader reviews. Allow people who have read your book(s) to submit their own comments on it. Approve anything that’s appropriate to appear on the site … even if it’s somewhat critical.
2. Ask and answer questions. Pose questions to your readers. Ask them what they thought of certain parts of the book. Encourage them to submit questions to you, too … and answer them. Create a conversation.
3. Hold contests. If you write for kids or teens, then allow children to submit their own short stories for possible inclusion on the site. Ditto for adults. Come up with a creative way to tie a contest in to your book and your genre, and offer a sweet reward (like an autographed copy of the book) for the winners.
4. Let readers contribute to your next book. Working on another book? Ask your readers to submit ideas for character names, locations, etc… Not only does this excite readers, but it may help you come up with new and interesting ideas, too.

Have you done other things to make your author website interactive? Share them with us in the comments box below!

And if you’re ready to get started on your author website, contact us today for a free consultation!

Someone started a conversation about this on LinkedIn a few days ago. The question was very simple:

How does one really get people to go to their web site so they can follow their blogs?

I thought it would be valuable to compile some of the responses. I will continue to add to this as I see more valuable recommendations posted…

• Write stuff people want to know. They will tend to find it.
  - Emily Veinglory
• Contact other bloggers and trade links. Participate in relevant forums and put the link in your sig line. (Not just forums for writers, but for readers, too.)
  -William Penrose
• It takes time and lots of it. But content and guest blogs work.
  -Derksen Barb
• If you build it, and search engines can find it, in my experience they do come. You can then add value with all these SEO and networking strategies.
  -Emily Veinglory
• When I post a new blog piece, I blurb it out on Facebook and Twitter and I find that if I do it repeatedly, two or three times a day for a few days, my web traffic increases commensurately – often at least 9 or 10 times the norm.
  -Linda Hales

If you have any words of advice, share them in the comments box below. Otherwise, I’ll keep adding other ideas shared on LinkedIn…

UPDATED 2/21

• So far, the only method I have found is to tweet like crazy, and tell people I have a website. I also have several people in my email contact list, and include my website URL with every email I send.
  -R Clint Peters

• One easy thing–you can set your social media profiles to automatically pull in your blog.
  -Shel Horowitz
• The first and most basic step, however, is quality content. We are all completely overwhelmed with information. Everyone is vying for our attention. The best way to stand out is the write something great that will create a strong emotional reaction or resonance with readers. Make them laugh, cry, scream, learn or think of something in a completely new way.
  -J Bennett
• There are some aggregator which promotes your blog/ sites address. You have to be register there your blog or site. Also whenever you write something you can share the link on facebook or other social networking sites, from where the people will come to your blog.
  -Grijesh Kumar
• Share your website on social media, share it with your friends, share your blog with other people who are using the same blog website. Link to other peoples blogs, post comments on other people blogs and websites so that they might take a look at yours in return.
  -Katherine Fish
• Generous unselfish comments on relevant blogs are a great way to build connections. Your name will be a link to your site.
  -Joel D Canfield

I just finished reading a great post by a woman named Sonia Marsh. It was titled A Successful Way to Build Your Author Platform. I’m going to take a few ideas from that article and give them a slightly different angle: how to build an author blog that can get your name and profile out there.

1. Remember what your readers are looking for. Nobody will follow your blog if you’re writing about your trip to the supermarket or what you ate for dinner. People want to get something of value out of your blog. If you’re a nonfiction writer, blog about the subject matter of your books. When possible, take stories in the news and give them your own spin. After all, you’re somewhat of an expert in the topic. If you’re a fiction writer, think about what readers and other writers would find most interesting. Would they enjoy following your characters’ lives after the book? Would they want to hear about what went into writing the book? Where you might have hit writers block? Find your niche and stick with it.

2. Be patient. I can’t tell you how many authors I’ve worked with who start to blog and then stop because they feel like no one is reading their blog. I have two things to say about that: one is that you always need to remember that the number of comments on your blog is not a reflection of how many people are reading it. One comment may be showing up on a particular post, but 100 people might have read it. The other thing I always remind authors is that a blog can take a long time to build a following. Give it 3-6 months before you make a decision about whether or not it’s worth the time.

3. Pose questions … and answer them. A blog is an interactive tool. That’s one of the wonderful things about the internet: you can use your blog to pose questions, encourage comments, etc… Make sure to end each blog post with a question for people to respond to. And then respond to the responses. By interacting with your readers, you’ll build a loyal blog following.

4. Don’t be afraid to give things away for free. You can never get something for nothing. A blog is very much an exchange: you provide your readers with helpful information and they, in return, follow your blog, recommend you to friends, and help get you the exposure you’re looking for. Give away your ideas, your advice and your words of wisdom. Readers will return the favor.

Sonia ends her blog post with the following paragraph:

The more you connect and help others, the more people will subscribe to your blog or website, and you will gradually build an authentic platform with loyal followers. It won’t happen overnight, but once people realize that you care about them, and are willing to share helpful information, all the pieces suddenly fit together. That’s when the magic happens, and you know you’ve accomplished something more than simply being an author who wants to sell her book.

I couldn’t agree more!

If you’re ready to start building your author blog or author website, contact us today for a free consultation!

I came across a great post today (which I found through an author group on LinkedIn) on BookBuzz. It lists the 12 essentials to an author platform. But for the purpose of this blog, I’m going to pull out all of the things related to the online experience, since that’s the focus of what we do.

Here are excerpts from the post that are relevant:

1. E-mail list/Newsletter subscribers. Offer a freebie on your website – the first chapter of your book, an audio interview, or a white paper or report – in exchange for a name and e-mail address…. It’s important to keep your name and topic in front of the people who are most likely to buy your book; a regular e-mail newsletter is an excellent way to do that.

2. Facebook/Twitter followers. You don’t need a completed book to create a Facebook fan page [or a Twitter account]. Post content that gets followers involved and engaged. Invite your fans to bring other fans along, too.

3. A blog plus subscribers and traffic. I’m surprised at the number of bloggers who don’t make it possible for visitors to receive their blog postings by e-mail or RSS feed. They’re missing the opportunity to generate repeat traffic – and to measure their fan base. Google Analytics and other tools and resources help measure traffic volume, too, but a truer measure of your fan base is that list of people who sign up to receive more of your content

4. Syndicated column. Whether you’re self- or service-syndicated, your column helps you create fans all over the country or the world. Similarly, a regular column in a traditional or online media outlet makes a key contribution to your author platform.

Start by building your author website. Everything else branches out from there. If you’re ready to get started, contact us today for a free consultation.