Yet, if you are truly interested in giving your book the best online marketing opportunities, you need to have your own book author website.

To begin with, if you use social media networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to promote your book, you will want to include a URL link that sends people to a dedicated website to show that you are a serious author.

And this is especially true because you don’t want to use a URL to a shared site where people can get distracted with the other books available and forget about checking out your book.

Second, you want to be able to offer a sample chapter on your site in order to entice potential purchasers to buy the entire book. This sample chapter can also be used to encourage people to give you their name and email address.

Thus, if you have this information, you can keep yourself in front of people who might not have bought your book the first time they visited your site. Now you can send emails with updates of your writing.

Another important reason to have your own website is to be able to include book club discussion questions on the site. Plus you can also include videos and audios.

Then there’s the advantage of having your blog on your website. With the constant addition of fresh material, you make the search engines happy with your site. The result of this is to help your site come up higher in the organic search results when someone is looking for a book related to the topic of yours.

Of course, you can add your own book signings and event dates to let your fans know when and where they can meet you in person. And you can add reviews and testimonials to encourage potential purchasers.

The bottom line is that, if you have your own book author website and you can control it yourself, you can greatly increase your online marketing opportunities.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of the social media marketing company www.MillerMosaicPowerMarketing.com and the company has a collaborative program with WordPress website builder Doron Orenstein at http://www.magneticwebworks.com/services/ultra-pro-websites/ Doron builds WordPress websites for clients and Miller Mosaic provides how-to videos to help these clients effectively use their WordPress websites/blogs.

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1. E-mail is efficient. It’s quick, easy to use and conserves time.
2. E-mail gets through. You can reach busy, powerful people who won’t ordinarily take or return your phone calls via e-mail.
3. E-mail has become the publicists’ most powerful tool. Sending short, gentle reminders helps publicists balance the need to continually follow-up and the danger that in doing so they might alienate important media contacts.
4. E-mail gets right to the point. E-mail etiquette encourages brevity and precision.
5. E-mail allows for Quick, Clear Messages.
6. E-mail can contain links to your website or other sites.
7. E-mail lets you transmit bulky files instantly.
8. E-mail delivers even when unread. When recipients don’t read their e-mail, they usually check to see what came in and who sent it. The subject line on e-mail inboxes provides a small space in which you can convey the gist of your message. It keeps you on the recipients’ radar, even if they don’t open your mail.
9. E-mail eludes electronic fences. E-mail gets past secretaries, answering machines, voice mail.
10. E-mail is a versatile marketing tool. It’s ideal for sending newsletters, fliers, and other promotional materials without incurring the costs of printing and mailing.
11. E-mail domain names can promote your business. Invest in a domain name that includes the name of your business.
12. E-mail signature files are the equivalent of letterheads on stationary. Make sure to include your contact information in your signature file.
13. E-mail demonstrates that you’re firmly in the 21st century.
14. E-mail shifts the cost and burden from senders to recipient.
15. E-mail has revived the lost art of letter writing.

By Rick Frishman
Reprinted from “Rick Frishman’s Author 101 Newsletter”
Subscribe at http://www.author101.com and receive Rick’s “Million Dollar Rolodex”

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If so, trust me, you’re not alone! As exciting as it is to be living in the most innovative time in history and with all of technology’s advancements at our disposal, it’s not uncommon to feel stuck or confused about how to get ourselves out there in this crowded digital age.

The truth is, business isn’t what it used to be. Things are moving much faster today than ever before – a fact that we must keep in mind when marketing ourselves. If we try to use the same old tactics that may have worked ten, five or even two years ago, it’s probable that we’ll be left in the dust. You’ve heard that change is good, but change is only good if you change with it. So, how do we change with these changing times to keep up with this fast-paced virtual marketplace? Here’s how!

STRATEGY #1: POSITION YOURSELF AS THE EXPERT!

Differentiating yourself in the marketplace is more important now than ever before. What makes you and your book unique? Why should someone buy your book over your competitor’s? If you don’t know how to position yourself as the expert to stand out from the rest, here are some tips to get you started!

STRATEGY #2: EXPAND YOUR DEFINITION OF MEDIA!

Obviously, one way to establish yourself as an expert is by garnering media attention. Fortunately, today we’re no longer limited to the conventional media outlets of TV, radio and print. Now we can expand our definition of media to include New Media. Take advantage of social media outlets, internet radio/tv & blogs, and keep growing your visibility, fan base or followers.

When you expand your definition of media in this way, the internet gives you endless opportunities to get yourself out there and be seen. The advantage is that in today’s world, you don’t have to wait around for Oprah’s producers to call you. You can cause your own media coverage. Here’s why!

Often times it’s new media that drives conventional media. It’s there that they find experts and pick up stories. So, re-purposing teleseminars, webinars, podcasts, articles or anything that showcases you or your book through social media or other internet marketing channels is paramount!

STRATEGY #3: INCREASE YOUR SPEED TO MARKET!

With online traffic becoming increasingly more congested, increasing your speed to market is the number one key to getting seen. This means, making it super easy for people to find you and get what they need from you in order to make that “buying” decision.

Addressing this demand and the new “give it to me now” mentality of consumers and the media that comes with it, is a must in your marketing strategy!

STRATEGY #4: HELP THEM HELP YOU!

You heard Tom Cruise say it in Jerry Maguire, “Help me help you!” Those words are gold today! The digital age requires that we help others help us in any way we can.

So, don’t make prospective customers, clients or the media work to find you, buy your book or feature you in the media! Make the process as easy as possible.

There’s no better way to help the media help you, than to make it easy for them to acquire your marketing materials. The new standard for the 21st Century is the online media kit and it’s what the media looks for when they’re looking to book you.

Having a website is one thing, but getting that website up to speed with the demands of the digital age is an entirely different story. Having a site that’s clean, easy to navigate, fully comprehensive, showcases all of your media coverage and makes it easy to access and download that content, already positions you to stand out hugely from the crowd!

STRATEGY #5: LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY TO KEEP CURRENT!

Doing business in the electronic age allows us to update our online content in a nano-second. Keeping your content current adds to your credibility and professionalism as the expert. Plus, it allows you to represent yourself in the way that YOU want to be represented, rather than leaving others to randomly search you out on Google and pull down old content. If you provide it, they won’t need to go looking for it.

So, don’t get left behind. Make sure you get up to speed on the new industry standard for the 21st Century and position yourself as THE go-to person in your industry!

Liora Mendeloff is CEO & Founder of InstantMediaKit.com, the 21st Century solution to help you get greater visibility and media pick-up. InstantMediaKit is used and endorsed by industry leaders, best-selling authors & world renowned speakers to help them stay up to speed with the demands of the digital age.

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Anyone can throw a Virtual Party for any reason and the set up is fun and free.

CREATE A PARTY WEBSITE

Do this at least two months in advance. It takes information time to travel throughout the web. Create a party website that’s attached to your author website. Build a party blog for the sole purpose of hosting daily or weekly party updates. If you are a multiple book author, keep the blog for all of your parties and invite current party goers to review your scrapbook of previous parties.

Plan out your weekly prizes, posts related to the book or guest, give tidbits about the book and your guest. Even spotlight like works from other authors.

Keep the party going and post monthly games, prizes, post related to your up and coming works. You can always point folks back to your party site and if you keep it going people will always want to return.

PARTY MUST HAVES

Offer party favors weekly(these are gifts given prior to the release day of the party), music, video interview of the author, video interview of guest, book trailer, gifts, contest, book excerpts, chat room, guest book, cover art, book reviews, email box, and anything you would think would improve the fun.

PARTY PROMOTIONS

To promote your party you could do the following; press release, tweet it, facebook it, newsletter, email it, tell everyone in the forums you visit and ask people to pass the word on.

Another author friend of mine used a service to offer up over $1000 in prizes for her Amazon Book Launch Party. She went on a week campaign of countdown advertising and prize offers with games. She updated her blog, sent email newsletters, tweeted, facebook, myspace, evite and the word spread. She’d moved up the ranks in the Amazon ranking system from the millions to around 20K. Not bad for a first party attempt.

COMPLIMENTS TO THE PARTY

Have a real party too! You can have a small local launch party and invite guest to log into the Virtual After Party while they are at the small local party. Sign the online guest book and do videos and pictures that will be posted on the Virtual Party site. After the local party, post pictures on the PARTY BLOG and kick off the next virtual party.

LM Preston is the author of The Pack and Explorer X – Alpha www.lmpreston.com and http://lmpreston.blogspot.com

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We decided to mount the camera on a tripod so there wouldn’t be any sudden quirks, dips or sways to the angles. If one were an experienced cameraman, I guess these sorts of devices (close-ups, pullbacks) would add some additional flavour and dimension to the clip but given that this was the first time we were even attempting to do something like this, we thought we’d stick to a classic route.

I was keen to shoot midmorning (get it over with!) but my partner urged patience – the light is generally better at the end of the day (or, alternately, in the very early morning), and we had been promised a gray afternoon, which casts a flattering light for skin tones.

We chose our enclosed sunroom to do the shoot, because it has a clean, slightly rustic wood-paneled cream wall and a good source of natural light.

We didn’t want the overall look to be too bland, so we chose an African batik throw to cover the chair but apart from that, there were no accessories or adornments to the shot.

The angle we chose was straight on and at eye level. I wanted the ambience and effect to be as if the person listening were sitting across from me, in the sunroom.

Since the batik was brightly patterned, I dressed in black, which was also an appropriate colour to suit the book’s tone and subject matter. I did apply a little extra makeup and although the afternoon was rainy, the sun made intermittent appearances. To counter this, my partner propped a piece of white board on each side of my face, about half a foot away. This kept the light nicely balanced.

We did a few tests for sound and angles and so I could get a good idea of the pace at which I was speaking. I wanted to make sure I was sufficiently animated to keep people’s attention for the whole reading.

I had asked for suggestions from people who had read the book, for which passage to use, and I made my choice from there. Although the chapter I had selected was one of the shorter ones in the book, it still came out at 8.22 minutes, which is a good median average of the readings on YouTube.

I tried to vary the reading in tone and expression, in order to keep the listener’s attention.

As we recorded, ambient noise from the neighborhood made its way onto our soundtrack and we weren’t sure if this necessitated a re-record or if it added to the reading-from-our-livingroom-feel we were trying to achieve.

We downloaded the clip onto YouTube (very easy to do, you just need a Google account) and I sent it off to a few trusted test subjects who all fired back enthusiastic responses of “post it!”

So, I sent the link out via email, Facebook, LinkedIn and to various blog posts and two weeks later the views stand at 192 (as of May 15th), which I am delighted about – I was aiming for a high of 60! There is wide range in the number of views of posted readings; ranging from 6 to the high thousands.

And the real measure of success of course will come in book sales and I will have no idea of those for some time to come, But the great thing about YouTube is that you can watch the numbers and get some kind of feedback in that way and it does add a personalized touch.

You can see Lisa de Nikolits‘ video book reading on YouTube: http://bit.ly/aFk37p

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Creating awareness is crucial and all you have to do is pick up the megaphone! Here are a few tips you can use:

Free media leads

Free services such as Reporter Connection, HARO and http://www.PitchRate.com can help you get valuable media coverage. This is a great way to find the media and build relationships with them. Experts and authors who have signed on with PitchRate have had great results pitching journalists and getting their expertise and products out to the world. It offers an amazing opportunity to gain free publicity for you and your book. Sign up for all of these and you will receive free daily opportunities via email to speak with the media about topics and trends related to your expertise.

Article portals

Free portals allow you to post articles on the Web to promote your book. They offer a great opportunity for you to implement your SEO marketing plan by writing articles with specific keywords that will drive more traffic to your Web site or online press kit.

Free press release distribution

Free press release distribution sites like http://www.1888pressrelease.com allow you to post press releases on the Web related to your expertise. They offer another great opportunity to implement your SEO marketing plan and build your Internet presence. One of the hardest things about PR is getting the information out there and read by potential customers. Sites like these provide an effective platform to help increase your Web site traffic.

Social networking

Free social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, offer authors endless possibilities to publicize their books. Social networking connects you with existing fans and readers, and potential customers. It allows you to get a feel for what is happening in your market and to provide excellent customer service. Create a fan page for yourself on Facebook and interact with your fans. Before you know it, the word will be spread throughout the network. Do the same with Twitter.

Video portals

Post videos to free portals like YouTube and Metacafe to increase your Web site traffic. Many of these portals will allow you to link to your site as well as offer a cool platform to market your book. Have fun and be creative with it. You never know; it may go viral.

What’s most important about these free marketing opportunities is the ability to test the waters. You are investing your time, but it’s a great chance to take some risks, be creative and have fun with your PR plan.

L. Drew Gerber is CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, a free media tool that connects journalists, publicists, and experts. Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with Online PressKit 24/7, a technology he developed (www.PressKit247.com). Contact L. Drew Gerber at: AskDrew@PublicityResults.com or call him at 828-749-3548.

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Well, that’s two, but many writers balk at attempting to play publisher.  If they only knew it’s not as hard as they think it is, not to mention all the profits are theirs, I feel more writers would be comfortable to take on a project like this.  Not only is self-publishing eBooks a profitable venture, but it also can be used as a valuable tool to gain expert status.  Plus, eBooks are really simple to promote as long as you take a no-nonsense guerilla approach to marketing.

As long as you have a market, and have a quality eBook that is free of errors, your eBook can become a success, thus give you that added income. You won’t be sharing the profits with anyone. There is no overhead except for website expenses, which you should already have if you’ve been published before.  If you haven’t been published before and don’t want to set up a whole website for this, use one of the free blogging platforms such as Blogger.com or WordPress.com to talk about your new money-making e-Book.

I have successfully promoted several eBooks for myself getting those eBooks into the #1 position in the search engines.

How?

That’s where your guerrilla marketing plan comes in.

Here are a few simple ways I have used to promote my eBooks and get them to the top of the search engines:

• Using key search words throughout my selling page and on every single piece of promotional literature I send out.
• Using free press release sites frequently, keeping in mind to use those key search words not only in the title, but also throughout the release.
• Using free content ezines as vehicles to get my selling page’s link on hundreds upon hundreds of websites (being careful to put the title of your article into google alerts so your article doesn’t get reworded like this to make it sound like another business wrote YOUR article).
• Using online storefronts (this is a suggestion; a search in google will find you more) who will list my eBook for free.
• Using writer forums and websites that will let you announce your eBook.
• Using blogs to announce your eBook and promote it.
• Using virtual book tours, thus using other people’s blogs to promote your book.

The secret to selling self-published eBooks (or any kind of eBook or print book, for that matter) is to get your link on as many websites and blogs as you can (an added bonus to this is that it raises your PR ranking in the process).

You have to remember, you have an electronic book. You can’t go on book signings so you have to rely on the Internet to get the word out. But, by following those seven examples above, I’ll guarantee you’ll get the sales you need if you have a market for your book.

So what if you’ve done everything above, and your eBook still isn’t selling?

Where some authors go wrong is that they fail to remember the most important thing you need in order to sell any kind of books—a market.

No amount of promotion is going to do you any good unless you have an audience who is willing to fork out the money.

Before you even put down that first word, you have to ask yourself these following questions:

• Who is going to buy my eBook?
• Why is my eBook any different than Joe Blow’s eBook on the same subject?
• What will my audience gain from my eBook?
• Can they already find this information readily on the Internet?
• Will my buyers gain something from my eBook, or is it simply to entertain?
• Pique your potential buyer’s interest.
• Post an excerpt on your website so they can judge for themselves whether your eBook will be something they need.

Once you get into the mindset of your buyer, things start falling in place, and you’ll get those sales you want.

Zero in on your market, do the steps I’ve outlined above, and I’ll guarantee you’ll be selling ebooks like flies on to honey.

Happy promoting to you!

Dorothy Thompson is CEO/Founder of Pump Up Your Book, an innovative public relations firm specializing in online book promotion and virtual book tours for authors who want maximum exposure online.  Visit us at www.pumpupyourbook.com.

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When an author travels on the web, before and after being published, they should realize that everything they’ve posted can and will come back to haunt them.

YOUR REPUTATION FOLLOWS YOU

With all of the advances of socializing, writing, chatting and traveling on the web there is the temptation to drop your manners and be wild. Well remember, ANYTHING you put out there on the World ‘Wild’ Web – NEVER EVER gets destroyed.

That means that twenty years after you blasted out your parents, took naked pictures for your boyfriend, cursed out your boss on a rant site – it can be found.

When you delete content from a site, it does not get deleted from the many replicated data sites that google has. That means that meta-data or subset of information about whatever you posted is held or replicated in the many different search engine databases.

For example: Let’s say you uploaded a picture on photobucket. You named that picture um ‘naughty name’ then after about a year, you delete it from your photobucket website. Now if anyone searched for that item in a year, and the search engine grabbed it – the picture and description may have been copied and saved. So years later when you put in a search – you have an 80% chance that it will pop back up.

WATCH OUT FOR PREDATORS

I know, I know…you’ve heard this before. Well I am here to tell you that predators are still out there. So set up your social networking accounts with proper privacy settings, and check those private settings continuously. Also, DON’T ever post your personal information (even though someone can plop in your name and find out anything they want about you on peoplesearch – scary thought huh?)

REMEMBER – YOU HAVE A FUTURE

When you are surfing the web, speaking your opinion, or having a wild time at Spring Break – remember you have a future. If something questionable is placed on the web about you – your prospective employer, spouse – even kid may see it. So just for grins and giggles – search yourself on the web. You may be surprised at what you find.

LM Preston is the author of Explorer X – Alpha and The Pack, http://lmpreston.blogspot.com

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Why? With millions of people tweeting every day, it’s a huge source of potential readers for your book. It’s easy to get followers and it’s a great way to interact with your reading audience. But one of the main excuses I hear about why people aren’t on Twitter-or they aren’t using it fully-is that it’s so time consuming. Well, it can be. But not if you try the following tips.

Automate Your Tweets

With so many people on Twitter, you need a lot of tweets per day to really maximize your exposure. But you don’t want to spend all day tweeting. Automation is the answer. You can use the following tools to tweet on your behalf.

Hoot Suite: This program allows you to schedule tweets ahead of time. So once a month, you can go into your Hoot Suite account and set it up to tweet several times a day for you. You have to enter each tweet and schedule them one at a time, which can be tedious, but it’s worth getting several days of tweets out of the way at one time. I use this tool especially when I’m announcing a teleseminar or other event that’s scheduled on my calendar.

Social Oomph: This tool also allows you to schedule tweets for later, but the true beauty of Social Oomph is that you can set it to send all your new followers a welcome message. This saves time contacting everyone who follows you, and allows you to start building a relationship with them right away.

Twitter Feed: This tool allows you to link your blog or any other RSS feed to your Twitter account. This means any time you update your blog, a tweet is automatically sent out. You only have to set this up once, and then it works automatically. And it’s a great way to get new eyes on your blog posts.

Make Tweeting Easy

You can only automate so much of your Twitter activity. You’ll also have to check in periodically through the day to communicate with people and send out the more personal tweets, like what you’re working on that day or what you’re excited about. The key to getting it down to ten minutes or less is making it super easy to tweet. Here are a few tips.

Link Your Twitter Account to Your Cell Phone: When your cell phone is linked to your Twitter account, you can take advantage of spare minutes in your day, like when you’re waiting in line or stuck in traffic, to post updates. When you sign up for a Twitter account, you’ll be asked if you want to use your phone with it. And they’ll give you the steps for setting everything up.

Use a Desktop Twitter Manager, Like Tweet Deck: Tweet Deck is a free program that you can download to your computer and use to see everything that’s happening on Twitter in one place. It has a column for the live feed, a column that shows everyone who’s mentioned you, and a column for all the direct messages you receive. This makes the all-important social interaction easy.

Send Quality Tweets

If you want people to respond to you and follow you, then you need to keep them interested. Plus quality tweets will maximize the time you do spend on this social media site. I’ve heard a few different formulas from different Twitter experts, but basically you want a daily mix of tweets that include:

Giving away good information that will interest people in your target audience, such as links to your blog posts, tips, interesting quotes, links to other people’s blog posts, links to articles, etc. This should be the bulk of your Twitter activity-and these are the easiest types of tweets to automate, by the way.

Being nice to people by complimenting them, retweeting their tweets, engaging in conversation, responding to their questions, etc. This is what you do when you check in with your mentions and direct messages.

Being real. Social media is all about being approachable. So once or twice a day, check in with what you’re working on, what’s bugging you, what delicious restaurant you ate lunch at, something funny you found on the web, or what’s going on in your life. Let your followers know the real you, even if you don’t think it’s interesting.

Asking for a sale. The whole point of your Twitter participation is selling books, right? Well, then, at some point you need to ask folks to buy your book. However, you can’t blatantly promote your book all the time (maybe once or twice a day if you have ten-fifteen other tweets going out), and you can’t just come right out and ask people to buy. Try tweeting about some tip from your book and link to a sales page, making it informational as well as subtly promotional.

Tweeting Your Way to Book Sales

Twitter is too big to ignore-especially if you’re marketing your book online. It’s a great, free way to get traffic to your site and find a reading audience. But no one wants to spend all day tweeting. When you use these tips for automating, simplifying, and maximizing your Twitter time, you can reap all the benefits from this using this social media site in ten minutes a day or less!

Melinda Copp helps aspiring self-help, business, and nonfiction authors write and publish books that establish expertise, attract clients and opportunities, and share their message in a compelling way. Visit http://www.writerssherpaprograms.com/writeabook.html for a free copy of her Write Your Book Quick-Start Mini E-course.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Melinda_Copp

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Here are six essentials of an author website to help you get started:

1. Purchasing Information: For most authors, selling books is a top goal. To encourage sales and for visitor convenience, showcase a link to buy your book on each page of your website. If you are selling your book yourself to maximize your profit, great! However, many people will not purchase from a site with which they are not familiar. We recommend also including Amazon, Barnes and Noble or other household name retail online and bookstore outlets. Place the link directly to your book’s page, not the general home page. If you offer bulk sales discounts, let people know and how to order!
2. Media/Press Page: To encourage the media to cover you, make availa ble both high resolution for print (300 dpi) and low resolutions for the Internet (about 72 dpi) images of you and your book cover for easy downloads. Once your publicity campaign gets underway and media runs are secured, list the press placements on your website. Not only will this build you and your book’s credentials, it shows media contacts that you do have a newsworthy story to offer. Note: If you receive copies of television and radio interviews, embed them in your press page for user convenience. Also, try to include direct links to magazine, newspaper, and Internet articles in which you and/or your book appear.
3. Author Background: A book comprises half of a publicity campaign; the other half is the author! Since you c an’t interview a book, it is crucial to provide visitors with a descriptive biography. This also allows you to highlight some of the topics not related to your book you feel qualified to discuss on the air or in an interview. Plus, this is a way to let your personality shine.
4. Post Reviews and Testimonials: Show visitors what everyone is talking about! If you are soliciting reviews from credentialed sources and consumers alike, create a ‘Reviews’ page on the site to give visitors insight into your work through reader feedback.
5. Showcase Your Expertise/Give Useful Related Links: You are typically an expert on the topics covered in your book, whether you have written a fiction or non-fiction book. Consider adding case study/by lined style articles showcasing real life successes of your philosophies in your business book, research papers you have written on the topic of domestic violence which is the theme of your new novel, or useful links and resources related to the topic of your book. Be creative and give people a reason to come back and send others to your website.
6. Build Your Social Network Connections: Did you know over 70% of adults regularly follow blogs, tweets and user-generated content? As your network of supporters builds, stay connected with individuals and businesses through social network accounts. This also helps ground your online presence. By including links on your website to your blog, and YouTube, Facebook and Twitter account profiles, you’ll encourage visitors to click through and connect!

Corinne Liccketto is the Sales & Marketing Manager at Smith Publicity, Inc.Beginning in 1997, Smith Publicity has evolved from a one-person operation run from a bedroom office to one of the world’s leading promotional firms. Fueled by a passion for making good things happen for clients, we’ve worked with over 900 individuals and companies–from authors and entrepreneurs to publicly-held companies and business representing a wide range of industries. The Smith Publicity reach is international; we’ve effectively worked with clients throughout the United States and Canada, and countries from the U.K. and Australia to Israel and Malta. Offices in New Jersey, New York City, Los Angeles, and London. For more information, please visit www.smithpublicity.com.

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