Selling Books | Selling Books

3D Author Promo Videos

Michael Volkin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:30:41 +0000

By and large the author promo videos I see on many websites do more harm than good. They are nothing more than the author sitting in front of a scratchy web cam bragging about the book. If you want to be professional, I would consider creating a high definition 3D author promo video.

The trick behind a quality video is your message and the effect. The message has to be a story, it has to invoke emotion.

Books, by and large are an impulse buy. A customer will come across your book and find it interesting in 7 seconds or less. During that time, the customer will determine if he is willing to shell out 15 bucks for your book. These kinds of sales are best done when you can invoke some kind of spark or emotion from the customer.

As for the effect of a video, avoid using common programs like Windows Movie Maker (WMM). Sure, WMM is easy to use, but it’s too common. So common in fact, that the videos I have created by comparison make just about any WMM movie look cheesy. Invest a few hundred dollars in a quality program (or contract to someone who does). The extra money spend will make your video stand out from the rest.

Not only will it help you sell more books, but a great video can get lots of hits on popular video sites like YouTube and Vimeo, you can actually capture interest in your book from people who would have never visited your website.

I have been getting better and better at creating author promotion videos to help authors have a professional presence online. Check out a couple videos I have recently created:

http://www.sellatonofbooks.com/author_video_promotion.html

Michael Volkin is the author of Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth, a new book that helps authors sell books online.

The Coolest Twitter App Yet

Michael Volkin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:07:55 +0000

If you’re familiar with Twitter, you are certainly familiar with all the third party apps that enhance certain features of twitter (i.e. Tweet Deck, Monitter, etc). When you post your messages to Twitter, no matter which of the popular applications you use, did you realize that you’re giving away valuable real estate and backlinks to someone else? If you use TweetDeck for example, every single tweet you post on YOUR page has their name on it, plus a link back to their website. So, every time you tweet, you’re advertising them! For search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, links back to your website are key to enhancing your website ranking. Before this new handy Twitter application, there was nothing you could do to fix this problem.

The solution takes 10 minutes and then you’ll be able to brand your tweets with your own name, and insert a link back to your own website. Check out my tweet below:

Posted by NetworkAuthor
“I love marketing on twitter, check out how I can provide a link back to my website (below). Neat trick huh?”
Posted about 10 hours ago from www.SellaTonofBooks.com

Be sure to follow me on twitter, username is NetworkAuthor. The handy application I use to do this neat trick is Tweetbrand, you can sign-up for free here: http://www.marketmetweet.com/tweetbrand. I have to admit, for a beginner, it’s a bit tricky to set up, but handy videos are available to walk you through the process step –by- step.

By Michael Volkin – If you want to learn how to sell books online, just get my new paperback Social Networking for Authors, it will be the best $18 you ever spent and it makes a great gift!

Authors – Make Money with Sponsorship

Michael Volkin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:07:33 +0000

Authors can have a variety of extracurricular activities. Depending on how involved the author wants to be with his/her book, radio shows, speaking tours and other activities can create extra income. Each of these activities could have a sponsor associated with it. For example, if you have an online radio show at BlogTalkRadio.com, you could have sponsors advertise on your show.

Doing this is a great compliment to book sales and can provide a good source of income. A good sponsor will not only pay you, but also help you sell books, so the partnership might be beneficial in more ways than one.

To find a sponsor, I would recommend going to the website GetYourSponsor.com, simply fill out a profile and other companies or entities wanting to provide a sponsorship might see a match.

If you want to learn how to sell books online, just get my new paperback Social Networking for Authors, it will be the best $18 you ever spent. I have a couple sponsors that even asked to sell my books for me! It doesn’t get any better than that.

Michael Volkin is the author of the new hit book: Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth. His book can be found at SellaTonofBooks.com

Sell More Books with OOVOO

Michael Volkin — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:28:42 +0000

Do you want a neat way to keep in contact with your customers? Try Oovoo.com. Oovoo allows you to have video calls with up to 3 people (free version) and more people with a paid version. Best of all, you can easily install a widget on your website. When a customer comes to your website, they can simply click the Oovoo button and your live video feed appears on their computer. What a great way to provide instant customer contact!

I can attribute Oovoo to a couple extra book sales per day. Would be web visitors who might have just left the site might be curious to click on the Oovoo video chat button. When they do, I give them the sales pitch and a smile and the book order shortly follows.

One tip that Oovoo users should avoid; always be dressed when answering a video call!

Michael Volkin is the author of the new hit book: Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth. His book can be found at SellaTonofBooks.com

What Do Your Customers Want? Find Out With Skribit

Michael Volkin — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:15:26 +0000

If there is one thing I know, that’s book marketing, and from time to time I learn about a neat new tool that makes selling books online just a little bit easier.

I would like to introduce you to Skirbit. Skirbit.com allows an author to easily add a small widget to their blog which gives readers a chance to communicate directly with the author. At the end of the blog, this small widget asks one simple question “What should I write about?” What a perfect question. This allows an author to customize blogs based on reader suggestions.

If you want to be one of those authors who are really in touch with your audience, Skribit allows you to do just that. Learning how to sell books on the Internet is a meticulous process but if you can get feedback, not only from customers, but potential customers, it will make the process much easier.

Once you create an account with Skirbit, you are presented with an easy to use dashboard to easily create your widget. Simply code the code given to you in your blog and you’re done.

Remember, the marketing calendar is finally available, and for only $5.95/month. You will get daily emails of exactly what you need to do to market a book online. I realized how hard it was to sell my books once they were published, but after years of experience, I am brining my knowledge to your email box on a daily basis. Even if you want to write a book, this will be a great preparation tool for you.

Michael Volkin is the author of the new book Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth. Check out his book and book marketing services at www.SellaTonofBooks.com.

Save Time on Social Media with OpenID

Michael Volkin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:16:04 +0000

Authors, it is no doubt that you use multiple websites to market your book. Websites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Technorati and more all require registration.

It is important for you to have the same username for each social networking site. This not only reduces the stress of remembering 50+ usernames but prevents other people from securing usernames using your name. MyOpenID.com helps you register on all these websites with ease. With MyOpenID Secure, you will have control of your digital identity, easy sign-in on enabled sites, account activity reports and more.

OpenID is even being adopted by the federal government. It will provide significant benefits to federal agencies and the citizens that they serve by facilitating faster registration to online resources, while allowing citizens to provide timely feedback to the agencies that serve them.

Efficiency is king when trying to market a book online. Authors have to know how to market effectively but that takes up precious time. MyOpenID.com can help save time.

For more tips and tricks on how to sell a ton of books, go to Michael Volkin‘s new website SellaTonofBooks.com and purchase Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth

Selling Books with Friendster

Michael Volkin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:10:06 +0000

I recently stumbled across a great website for book marketing called Friendster. It’s very popular in Asia, but is quickly making a presence in the U.S. The great aspect of Friendster is you can easily search for highly targeted friends. When you do a friend search, you can even group people by age category. The members on Friendster seem to be active as many members have 50+ friends.

Connecting with friends is easy on Friendster but they also have another nice feature for authors. You can add a 3D profile. Pick a landscape such as a cubicle in an office and that landscape is added to your profile. You then can customize that landscape and insert pictures of your book or any other relevant information about yourself. Then, someone can take a virtual tour of your profile in a 360 degree view.

Be sure to join the many groups they have available. If your book is on how to sell books online, as is mine, then join author groups.

For more tips and tricks on how to sell a ton of books, go to Michael Volkin‘s new website SellaTonofBooks.com and purchase Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth.

Sell More Books with Twitter Hashtags

Michael Volkin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:18:42 +0000

So you understand the basic concept of Twitter and even send a tweet or two a week. Good for you! That certainly helps with your book marketing. Knowing how to write a book, is different than knowing how to sell it. Twitter is not only good for keeping in touch with customers, but you can also find new customers with hashtags.

I have had great success selling books using Twitter hashtags. Let’s define what a hashtag is before we go any further. Hashtags are a way Twitter uses organize their tweets about a specific topic. For example, if you want to tweet about real estate, you could start off a tweet with a pound sign then the word real estate, like this #RealEstate. There are numerous hashtags that have already been established, and new ones cropping up daily.

So why use hashtags? Because Twitter users often search hashtags for content. So if you’re tweeting about your book and using proper hashtags, a potential customer can come across your book who wouldn’t have otherwise. Go to hashtags.org and search for hashtags that Twitter users are using right now. Who knows, maybe you’ll find a customer or two….or ten. Be sure to follow me on Twitter (username: NetworkAuthor), I’ll follow you back.

For more tips and tricks on how to market your book, go to Michael Volkin’s new website SellaTonofBooks.com and purchase his new book Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth.

Want to Get FREE Publicity for Your Books? Try Pitch Rate

Michael Volkin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:40:16 +0000

As an author you are considered an expert in the field in which your book is written. The press is always looking for experts to interview, especially during a timely news release. For example, my book on Social Networking for Authors recently drummed up some good press as someone interviewed me about the popularity of Facebook. The press called me because they noticed I was an expert in the field of Social Networking. You can get the same exposure for free, by going to PitchRate.com.

Pitch Rate is a free service that connects journalists with subject experts for free media coverage.

Simply create an account at Pitch Rate and fill in your profile as completely as possible. Your profile is what members of the press read before they decide to contact you. This is your chance to show the world what you are an expert at and why you should be considered an expert.

You can set your account to receive daily emails from Pitch Rate to see who is looking for experts in your area. Requests can be easily sorted by category or keywords by visiting the “Search Requests” tab once you’ve signed in. Once you’ve found a request you’re interested in, simply make a pitch and all of your contact info contained in your profile will automatically be attached. At this point, it’s just a matter of playing the waiting game to see if someone is interested in you and your book.

One of the constant struggles I see with authors is the need to be continually marketing your book to be successful. A website like PitchRate.com is great for authors to be able to quickly set up an account and receive marketing opportunities for an extended period of time. With just a few minutes of work, an author can expose him or herself to potentially hundreds of press opportunities.

For more tips and tricks on how to sell a ton of books, go to Michael Volkin’s new website SellaTonofBooks.com and purchase his new book Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth.

Viral Video Marketing to Sell More Books

Michael Volkin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:51:51 +0000

Viral videos are a great way to sell books. According to Wikipedia “A viral video is a video clip that gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or Instant messaging, blogs and other media sharing websites. Viral videos are often humorous in nature”.

There are three key points to consider when creating a viral video campaign:

Provide great, but ambiguous, content – Everyone loves to hear a great story. But in a viral video, the story has to be short (less than three minutes). Don’t think of creating a video that will sell your book, think of a video that will keep people entertained.
Generate a “residual” fan base – Once your video is built you can integrate other social media tools to build a user base and communicate with them. To do this, follow the lessons learned in Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth. It could be as simple as a subscribe link that notifies users of your updates.
SEO it– Your video has to be easily discovered through YouTube search and other popular online video sharing sites. Videos should have clear titles, an accurate description and appropriate keyword tags so that they can appears correctly in a YouTube search and targeted specifically.

A good viral video will spread over the internet like wildfire. See the top 20 viral videos circulating around the Internet now at:
http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/

Check out this viral video I created for an author during the last presidential election. It got great coverage. The video is ambiguous but gets people curious as to what is coming next. A typical viral video will cost about $2,000 but will be a great return on your investment if it works properly:
http://revver.com/u/jspinx

Michael Volkin is the author of the new hit book: Social Networking for Authors-Untapped Possibilities for Wealth. His book can be found at SellaTonofBooks.com