Once authors publish their books, they become public people. They are subject to having people do online searches about them and their books. Authors need to be proactive, therefore, about creating and sustaining a positive online image.

Once you become an author, you are, in the eyes of others if not your own, a celebrity. Even if the paparazzi aren’t chasing after you, people will be interested in knowing more about you and they’ll be looking online for that information. You need to remember you are no longer a private person, and anything posted online about you is subject to public commentary and can affect both your image and the sale of your books. Therefore, you need to be proactive in promoting your online image and branding yourself appropriately, as well as monitoring how your image is being presented by others with or without your permission.

Branding Your Website

Your website may be the first place people go to learn about you and your book, although it won’t be the last place. Do everything possible on your website to make sure your image is professional and promotes how you want people to think about you as well as the tone you think will promote your book. Plenty of articles have been written about creating good websites for authors so be sure to do some research, look at other sites, and capitalize upon what you see at other sites that you like while learning not to make the same mistakes other authors have made. Remember that just like Coca-Cola and Nike are brands and use branding, as an author you can do the same. You want to present a consistent message about who you are online. While your website may be the primary spokesperson for that image, don’t forget other sites where your author image is being created, whether you intend that or not.

Social Networking

After your website, social networking sites may be the place most of your readers will look for information about you. One author I know has several websites, and he has done hundreds of interviews and written dozens of articles, all of which can be found at numerous different sites online. Yet when you Google his name, in the top ten search results are his Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace pages, which means they will be among the first stops people will go to find out more about him.

Because social networking sites have high search engine results and are frequented by hundreds of millions of people, you need to be very conscious about how you promote yourself in these forums. The author I mentioned above specifically joined these sites to promote his books, but especially if you’re a newly published author, you might have joined these sites before your book was published so you may need to reassess your profiles to see whether they now promote the image you want.

For example, a lot of people post photos on their Facebook pages. Do your photos flatter you or show the tone you want to promote as an author? You may have been on these sites for years before you became an author, but now that you are one, does that change what you should have posted there and how you want to present yourself? Although not an author, I know a bookstore owner who has photos on his Facebook page of himself at some wild parties where he is obviously drunk. Yes, he’s in his twenties and that may be what twenty-year olds do, but are the authors and customers who come into his store going to approve of that kind of behavior? Are they going to feel he is going to do his best to sell their books or provide reliable service when his Facebook page makes it appear that getting drunk is his primary interest? Even fun photos can sometimes go overboard or could be misinterpreted by people who don’t know you as well as the friends for whom you primarily posted those photos.

Don’t forget to protect your privacy in posting information. For example, people have strange ideas about the celebrity statuses of authors. Too many people assume you are suddenly rich because you published a book. I’ve known authors who have received requests from people they haven’t heard from in years for large sums of money just because those people assume an author is a millionaire. You don’t want to put yourself or your family in a compromising position because there are unsavory or foolish people out there looking at your photographs or other information on your site and scheming for a way to use information against you. In short, not only must you protect your image, but be careful about the information you put on your site—your phone number, address, children’s names, may not necessarily be the best things to post. Just a website or email address is usually sufficient.

Be careful about the information you write about yourself as well. I saw one author who has listed under the “Favorite Books” section only one book titled “Everyone Poops.” I didn’t know anything about this book, but I looked it up on Amazon and it appears to be for potty training, so it’s an odd choice when this author has no children. Remember, people like to know what authors like to read, so think twice about what you post here and everywhere else.

Make sure you have all your social networking accounts (and your blog and website’s guest book) set so you can pre-approve comments or you have the ability to remove comments made by others. Also remember that when posting your own comments, while you may be able to remove them, once they are posted you cannot edit them, so double-check before you submit them so there are no typos.

Yes, you can create new social networking sites for your books or a separate author profile and keep those other sites for family and friends, but unless you set your sites to private, you’re going to be sharing them with your readership, whether they make you aware of that or not. And even if you set the sites to private, you are going to get friend requests from people you meet at book signings or places where you gave presentations. It’s up to you whether you add these people, but if you don’t, they may feel offended and then you are doing nothing to build a relationship with your readers. It’s better to use common sense in what you post than giving people the cold shoulder via the Internet.

Monitor Your Publicity before It’s Posted

You will get requests from journalists, bloggers, and other people to interview you, or post stories about you, or you may simply hire people to write press releases or other marketing pieces. Make sure you let these people know you want to see the piece and approve it before it is posted. You may not always be able to approve such pieces, but if you request it, most people will be willing to share it. That doesn’t mean to rewrite the piece; just make sure there’s nothing misleading in it. For example, one author I know had a press release done with a title that said something like “Author Grows Up in Ghetto but Now Lives in Fifth Avenue Penthouse”—sounds like an inspiring story, only the author didn’t actually grow up in a ghetto—the area became more of a bad neighborhood after he had grown up. The headline might grab attention but it wasn’t wholly accurate and the author felt it actually hurt his image. However, once it was submitted to an online site that handles press releases, that site would not allow the title to be changed. Even if you are successful in requesting something to be changed or removed once it’s posted online, you have no control over people who have copied, forwarded, or reposted the information elsewhere online—like a virus, that information can spread across the Internet, so take preemptive measures.

Google Yourself

Search periodically to see how other sites are promoting you. If you find unsatisfactory or defamatory content, ask that it be removed. You’re less likely to have this issue if you use good judgment in creating your online presence.

The best advantage to seeing how your image is being promoted online is to find places where you and your books are mentioned that you might otherwise not know about. For example, one author found his books listed for sale online, unknown to him and via his publisher, in Korea, the Netherlands, and Italy. He then made a point of posting to his blog that his book had become an international seller, complete with links for how to buy it in other countries. I don’t know whether he ever sold a book in any of these other countries, but I’m sure it impressed his potential North American audience and made some people curious enough about his book to purchase a copy.

Be sure to sign up for Google Alerts. Google Alerts searches whatever comes up in the Google search engine and Giga. This is a free service with options to purchase more advanced services. This site allows you to submit a few keywords, such as your name, your book title, and your publishing company, and then get emails whenever new listings of those keywords appear on the Internet, thus allowing you to monitor your online image with little effort. You can also use this service to find opportunities to promote your book. For example, if your book is about divorce law, use that as a keyword—then when a news story breaks about divorce law, you can chime in and comment on websites or volunteer to be a guest on a show discussing the issue.

Remember, your online image is how your readers will view you. While it may be true that even bad publicity is good publicity, being proactive about creating and maintaining your online image so it’s attractive to your readers will go a far way toward selling your books.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Your “About the Author” or “About Me” page is one of the most important pages on your website, perhaps second only to the page that allows people to buy your book. Why? Because your potential readers want to know you are human and to be reassured that you know what you are writing about. They also want to put a face to your name, so that means using an up close and personal headshot.

Before you rush to put up that “About the Author” page or you go to revamp one you already have, here are some key Do’s and Don’ts for creating your “About the Author” page, including what to include and what to leave out.

Your Bio Content

Your bio needs to accomplish several things and in a small space. Here are key things to include:

• Where You Were Born: Your city, state, or country if you were born outside the United States. This simple fact helps to start building a relationship with people. If a reader is from the Midwest and you were born in Ohio, the reader might feel a connection to you, or the reader may have visited and liked Ohio. That connection makes the world a smaller place. If you were born in Sri Lanka or Germany or Australia, the American reader might find you a little exotic or intriguing and want to know more about you and how you ended up living in Delaware, thereby piquing the reader’s curiosity about you—and your book.
• Your Education: You don’t need to include every school you went to, but simply any universities or programs relative to what your book is about. For example, if you wrote a novel, mentioning that you have an MFA in Creative Writing is important. If you are a novelist, a degree in computer programming may be less relevant, unless maybe you’re writing a science fiction novel about people who get sucked into a video game they are playing, which may reflect that you know something about how computer programs or video games operate.
• Your Experience: As with your education, your experiences might be noted. For example, if you’re writing about health and nutrition, then your experience as an Olympic athlete is definitely relevant. If you’re writing about the Civil War, that you belong to a battle reenactment group is interesting and gives you some expertise for writing battle scenes.
• Previous Books You Have Written: If you haven’t published any other books, no problem, but you could say something like, “Joe has been writing stories since he was eight years old” or “After fifteen years of researching his topic, Mark finally published his book.” If you have written several books, go ahead and list them all. Readers may not know your name, but they may know the title of one of your books, which may make them more willing to take a chance on buying your newest book, or even an old one.
• What You Stand For: Perhaps you want to mention groups or causes you are involved in, preferably not controversial ones, unless relevant to your book. For example, if your book is about teaching sexual education and you’re involved in a Planned Parenthood group, it would be appropriate to mention it. However, if your book is a fantasy novel, Planned Parenthood may be irrelevant, or it might even hurt you if people have different opinions than you on birth control and then don’t want to buy your book. If your book is about education, by all means, mention the teaching association you belong to. Stating that you’re a Republican might make you lose most of the readers who are Democrats, or vice versa, so pick and choose who your audience is and avoid anything that will isolate potential readers.

Tone

It’s more important that you come off as a real person than that you come off as intimidating or overly knowledgeable. Depending on your topic, that you have three cats might help you sell more books than that you have five Ph.D.’s. People want to read about people like themselves, or whom they perceive to be a little smarter, more advanced, or more successful than themselves; they want to feel good about themselves and believe that you have been where they are, but that you have gotten farther than them and maybe can help them to do the same. In short, you want to inspire people. Try to come off as a real person your readers could sit down to chat with, not someone too stuck up to talk with them or who will intimidate them. Write like you talk so the reader can resonate with you. Be human.

The tone you want to convey may also influence whether you title your page an “About the Author” page and write it in third person, or an “About Me” page and write it in first person. Either can be fine, but a first person page that lists a lot of accomplishments may sound like you are bragging, so be careful how you word it. At the same time, you can sound more human and friendly in first person. You may want to write two separate bios, one in each voice, to see which one feels more comfortable to you. Then get some feedback from others to see which one resonates with them the most.

Length

I just gave you a bunch of things to include in your bio, but remember to include it all in a short space. You’re not writing your life story, just enough information to interest the reader. No one wants to read a long biography of you. Aim for about three paragraphs or a page at most, and less than five hundred words. You probably want a bio that will fit on a website page without the viewer having to scroll down much, and you may want to include the same bio on the back page of your book, generally so it fills one page while leaving room for a photo.

Remember that online, people tend to skim, so if you really want them to read your bio, shorter is better. You might also consider breaking it up into bullet points or a timeline, such as for listing all ten of your books or some other key information, so it’s easier to read.

Finally, consider that the media may need just a short blurb about you if they interview you. Keep it short and to the point so they can just copy your bio from your website without their having to do a lot of rewriting. You may also get requests from the media to email them your bio, in which case, you may want to keep a copy of it, maybe even a shorter version, on your computer to have handy when they request it.

Author Photo

It’s imperative you have a good, high resolution, author photo. That doesn’t mean a photo taken with a cell phone that is blurry, dark or small, nor a mug-shot or driver’s license looking photo. And not a photo of you with your spouse, three kids, and two dogs where the viewer has to pick you out from among several people. You want a headshot of yourself that is large enough that it makes the viewer feel like he is making eye contact with you. It doesn’t have to be a fancy studio photograph, and you don’t have to get all dressed up for it since it’s a headshot that will at most only show your shoulders. But you can wear a tie if you like, or a necklace, or whatever clothing you feel will project who you are as an author in relation to the kind of book you have written. You basically want to look like yourself on a daily basis.

Consider also the background of the photo and how it reflects your author image. If you’ve written a business book, you may want to wear the suit and tie and have a plain background. If you’re writing a vacation or travel book, you may want to wear a Hawaiian shirt and have the ocean in the background. If you’ve written a book about dog training, you might be holding a puppy, but if your book is about gardening, trade the puppy for a gardening smock and some greenery in the background. Remember, you’re telling the reader through this photo who you are so the reader can resonate with you—at the same time, you don’t want to disappoint readers when they meet you in person, so make sure it’s a current photo. A photo of you at twenty-five may look nicer than a photo of you at sixty, but if you’re sixty, use a current photo. Stay current by updating your photo at least every few years.

Contact Information

You may have a separate page for contacting you on your website, but it doesn’t hurt to include your contact information on your “About Me” page. Once readers see and resonate with you, they may feel a desire to contact you, so it’s best to have that information on two pages. A lot of authors have contact forms on their pages, which works to decrease spam. Be sure if you are going to give your readers a way to contact you that you respond to their emails, and make sure your contact information (email address or phone number) is always current.

Remember it’s an honor to have someone interested in you and your book enough to want to write to you. Be polite and friendly by responding. Your “About the Author” page can become the stepping stone for building a relationship with your readers, and a simple personal email can be the second step toward a lasting relationship. Not only will you sell more books to the individual reader by letting him or her contact you, but you never know what information or stories readers may have to share with you that will lead to new ideas for future books or speaking engagements.

A Final Note: Does Your Reader Know Who You Are?

By following the advice above, you can create a simple and effective “About Me” page. When you are done, ask yourself and some friends/potential readers:

• Does the page tell my potential readers who I am?
• Can the reader resonate with me?
• What is on the page that makes me human?
• Is there something on this page that will make my potential reader say, “Yes, I want to read this author’s book! This author sounds like someone I can relate to”?

If the answer to all those questions is “Yes,” you’ve created a successful author page. Just remember to update it (information, photo, contact information) as needed so it stays effective. Now, you’re ready to meet your readers online.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Freeman spends the first six chapters of the book making a powerful case for one rather sobering insight: We are all hopelessly addicted to email. It has taken over our lives and we have virtually no strategies to manage it.

The good news is that in the final chapter, “Don’t Send,” he presents ten prescriptions for breaking the email addiction and handling email with a degree of sanity. I’ll summarize them here, but if you want the full impact, get the book!

1. Don’t Send

Email begets email. The more you send, the more you get. So before you send an email message, take a few seconds to think: How essential is this email? What’s it’s purpose? Could I combine email messages to a single recipient in response to several emails? It is urgent or could it wait? So slow things down a bit and don’t be so reactive. Send email intentionally.

2. Don’t Check It First Thing in the Morning or Late at Night

Don’t you have a business so that you can have a life? And if the very first thing you do in the day is check email, you are a slave to email, not to your priorities. Much better to take some time to plan your day, look at the appointments and priorities YOU have first and plan how you’re going to get them done. Focus on the big stuff and then email can fit more easily between the cracks.

3. Check It Twice a Day

We often check our email several times an hour. The truth is, it’s not necessary. You won’t actually get behind. Better to schedule time to “handle” email, so you can do it more completely. Can’t reduce it to two times a day? Try three or at the most, hourly.

4. Keep a written To-Do List and Incorporate Email into It

Your best time management tool is a simple to-do list. I make a weekly list of about 5 to 10 major items I want to complete that week and then a daily list of 2 or 3 priority items for that day. Email is something I fit between these priorities but don’t let it dominate my day.

5. Give Good Email

The best emails are short, concise and clear. After all, email is about communication not a deluge of information. Take an extra minute to proof your email, make sure the message is clear and also makes a specific request or promise for action. Include your phone number in your email signature so that they can easily call you if needed. I also proof my email for typos and format the email for easy readability such as using bold type.

6. Read the Entire Incoming Email before replying

We’ve all done it. We scan an email quickly and dash off a reply. Then we read the bottom part we missed and realize our response was incomplete. So we send another email. Meanwhile you’ve gotten an email back, trying to clarify this… Again, the key is to do email intentionally. Write and respond with the intention of moving something forward without confusion.

7. Do not Debate Complex or Sensitive Matters by Email

Sometimes you just need to pick up the phone. Nuances of emotion are hard to express in writing. Especially when you’re in the habit of dashing off emails quickly. Remember that you have a relationship with your correspondent. Treat that relationship with care, and communicate in a way that will get the best outcome. Besides, a quick phone call can often be faster than writing an email.

8. If You Have to Work as a Group by Email, Meet Your Correspondents Face-to-Face

In my one-year Marketing Mastery Program we connect by teleconference, email and phone. But I also hold a 3-day workshop at the beginning of the program so that people can connect person-to-person. They get to know each other, feel more comfortable with everyone and a more powerful community is created this way. When they send emails after the workshop, they are no longer emailing to strangers.

9. Set Up Your Desk to Do Something Else Besides Email

A big desk helps. My computer is in the middle of a v-shaped desk and I have four feet on each side of the computer for my planning books, for taking notes, for my laptop computer that acts as my “jazz jukebox,” etc. Yes, the computer is the central hub of my business, but lots of space leaves me options to do other things than be on my computer.

10. Schedule Media-free Time Every Day

What do we do after our full day at our computers? We visit Facebook, watch TV and play video games! We are not only addicted to email, we are addicted to electronic media to the point of obsession. I include myself in this. If you don’t have a TV, I honor you! But for the sake of your own well being, make sure to unplug for several hours a day. If you don’t, you’re opening the door for serious stress issues.

The More Clients Bottom Line: Work at handling email consciously and intentionally. It’s one of the most powerful communication mediums in the world but it is both inescapable and addictive. It can severely damage your quality of life if you don’t take the kind of steps outlined in the article above. And do your self a favor and get John Freeman’s book: The Tyranny of Email. Powerful stuff.

By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert’s web site at www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses.

1. Author Name – Track your name so you see when it’s mentioned online.

2. Website URLs – Create alerts for your website(s) and/or blog(s). Note that you can leave off “www” or “http” and simply create the alert for “mywebsite.com.”

3. Book Titles – Whether you have one book or twenty, track mentions of your book online with an alert. This gives you the opportunity to thank reviewers and others who mention your book. You may also want to write a blog post for your own blog and link back to any major media mentions.

4. Industry Statistics – Depending on the subject matter of your book, create alerts to track what’s happening in the industry. For example, if your book is about small business financing, you might have alerts for “business loans statistics,” “angel investing,” etc. When you’re alerted to new statistics, you can use them to write a relevant blog post, share on social media, or as fodder to create a new PR campaign. Sharing statistics and then providing supporting data or tips can be a great way to capture media attention.

5. Competing Titles/Authors – If you’re serious about book promotion, it never hurts to keep an eye on the competition. If a competing author lands an interview with a major media outlet, see if you can follow up on that with a slightly different perspective.

6. Article Titles – If you distribute articles to sites like ezinearticles.com, ideamarketers.com, or any other content distribution service, create an alert for the title of each article to find out where it appears online.

7. Speaking Opportunities – If you speak on the topic of healthy living, create an alert for “call for speakers health” or “health conference” or “healthy living event.” Use Google Alerts to uncover new opportunities for speaking, contributing articles, etc. This takes some creative testing, but can bring you some fantastic opportunities.

8. Blogs and News – Staying on top of news for your industry is a great way to learn and get engaged with your target audience. Create alerts that lead you to news stories, whether from major media sites or blogs. Then, take time to comment on related stories. And don’t just say, “Nice article!” Instead, demonstrate your expertise and contribute to the conversation. Add a missing tip that the writer didn’t include. Make it interesting and valuable and readers will notice.

Stephanie Chandler is the author of several books including “Booked Up! How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book to Grow Your Business” and “From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products.” Stephanie is also founder and CEO of http://AuthorityPublishing.com, which specializes in custom publishing for non-fiction books, and http://BusinessInfoGuide.com, a directory of resources for entrepreneurs. A frequent speaker at business events and on the radio, she has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, BusinessWeek, Inc.com, Wired magazine, and many other media outlets.

So, reporters, editors, and producers search the authors’ names and their book titles using their favorite search engine and on the sites of online booksellers. They read everything that’s posted about them and visit their websites. From that, they start forming impressions. Usually, they’re trying to determine if this author or book would be of interest to their readers, listeners, or viewers.

In today’s media world, you must have a great website; it’s the sign that you are a professional, someone who should be taken seriously. Like it or not, your website can play a major role in how you’re initially perceived. For many, the fact that you don’t have a website will raise questions that you must overcome. So, do both the media and yourself a big favor and put up a great website.

Your Mission

A website is a tool, and its main purpose is to support your mission. Some sites can be dazzling; they can have all the new and most exciting technology, all the bells and whistles, but most visitors—especially the media—won’t go there again if the sites don’t provide the information they want. Visitors won’t waste time with sites that are all style and no substance, are not clear about their purpose, and don’t deliver what visitors need.

Before you even consider creating a website, clarify its purpose—what you want it to achieve. Know exactly what you want your site to do. If it has several purposes, prioritize them and then apply your efforts and resources to those that matter most.

Authors often have multiple objectives: they may want their websites to help build or maintain their careers, promote their books, and sell their products or business services. Experienced website designers know how to build sites that will accomplish all of your objectives. They know and can advise you on all of the elements that should be included and how they should be structured and work.

Think of your website as a storehouse of information about you, a one-stop place where the media can go to find out about you and your book: who you are, your background, your platform, what you’ve written, and what has been written about you. In this chapter, we will discuss the specific elements that your website should contain.

Author 101 Advice

Your website can also shape the direction of your writing career and move you into new areas. For example, you may wish to fill it with content that presents you as a historian, a novelist, a biographer, a journalist, a copywriter, a technical writer, a speechwriter, an editor, an indexer, or a writing coach.

Your site also reflects how you have decided to present yourself, what you wish to feature, highlight, and stress. If you wish to appear academic, technical, sophisticated, artistic, trendy, classic, or irreverent, you easily can. It’s up to you.

Remember

When the media hears about books and authors, it checks them out the Internet. So, it’s essential for authors to establish a strong Internet presence. Make sure that your site supports your mission, which can be to publicize your book. Find a great domain name that is easy to remember, and register that name with all the major search engines. Create a site that looks great and is easy and intuitive to use and understand.

Reprinted from “Rick Frishman‘s Author101 Newsletter”
Subscribe at http://www.rickfrishman.com and receive Rick’s “Million Dollar Rolodex”

1. Invest Small When Starting Anything New.

Always invest small when starting out. It’s possible any ad you run may lose money. Always keep your risks and investment small whenever you’re starting a new type of advertising. Even if you had that top level copywriter write your ad, not everything they write will be a home run. It may need a few changes to produce the results you want. The market you’re advertising to may not be perfect. There is no such thing as a “Sure Thing.”

2. Test Everything.

Only one expert is right, and it’s not me. It’s your own personal test results. Test headlines. Test the length of your ad copy. Test audio and video on your sales page. Test a squeeze page before visitors get to the sales site. Constantly run 2 ads on Adwords for every ad group. Test a “try before you buy” offer. Test telephone follow-up. Quit blindly following gurus and test everything!

3. Be Unique.

Don’t ever be a me-too business. Take a look at everyone in your marketplace. What is different about you from them? Here’s a quick exercise. Write down all the benefits someone gets from your product or service. Now cross off all the benefits they can also get from other people’s products and services. What’s left? If nothing is left, you may need to rethink or modify what you offer to provide something unique in your marketplace.

4. Target Your Ads Only to Buyers.

You’ve chosen your niche, but do you write your ads to all your visitors. No. You will never achieve a 100% buying rate. Much more common is 1%…and 10% is extremely high (possible at times with strong follow-up). This means at least 90% of your website visitors are NOT your target audience even though they came to your site. You’re not writing to them. It doesn’t matter if those people like what you write at all. You’re writing only to the BUYERS…that 1 to 10% of your unique visitors who will take action.

5. Develop a Backend From the Beginning.

You should already have a basic idea or outline for your next offer before your first one is done. If your first product is an ebook or CD, what will you offer next? You may start your backend by offering joint venture deals and affiliate offers from others. The money is any business comes from repeat purchases and backend sales. In fact, I’d never want to be in any business where I HAD to make money from one product. It destroys your marketing ability. If your competitor can break even or even lose money on their advertising, how can you compete if you have to make a living off the same offer?

6. Your Network Determines Your Net Worth.

First heard that expression from Mark Victor Hansen. Strategic Alliances, social networking, referrals, viral marketing, etc. are the key to building your business online. Going it alone is a recipe for failure. In most businesses, affiliates make up 50% to 75% of sales. Incoming links from other sites is the key to search engine optimization. Find ways to serve the other top players in your niche. Network. Mastermind. Grow together…even with competitors.

7. Don’t Restrict Your Business to Internet Only.

You’re not an Internet business. You’re an Internet based business. Develop your business model with both Internet and offline strategies. Follow-up on customer by phone. Here’s a quick tip – call people who just purchased from you to thank them for their order and also offer them something else at a discount price right now (I’ve seen people increase profits by 40% from that alone). Send direct mail to your customers. Rent a targeted mailing list and send postcards to drive people to sign-up for your list. Use offline publicity and networking to generate leads.

8. Build your Relationship with Your Lists.

Yes, I said “lists,” not “list.” Concentrate on educating your list members…both with good content and about your products/services. Use online follow-up methods such as email and be willing to use direct mail. Send thank you cards to JV partners and customers. Run a teleconference where you meet with your customers or prospects. Create a blog. Put a face on your company and let them get to know you as a person.

9. Focus on Your Gifts.

Focus your time and attention on what you’re best at. There’s dozens of ways to market your site. Concentrate on the ones that most fit with your style and skillset. If you hate writing, then don’t use writing as your primary advertising method. Or hire out the writing. Figure out what skills you have…and focus on those. Outsource the rest to others. If you try to force yourself to be just like “Guru #1,” it’s simply going to be an exercise in frustration. You’re unique. Build a unique business suited to you.

10. Plan for the Long Haul.

I’m sure you’ve been told about instant riches overnight. Quit trying for that. And quit trying to jump on the “new thing.” Pick a business and work on it. Yes, I said work…that dirty four letter word so many people hate. Things might no go right when you first start. You might have to modify a few elements of your presentation. You might have to change your product. To be successful in this business requires you have a backbone and stick to it even when things don’t go your way! Develop at least a one year plan with daily actions to push you to success. You’ll make modifications along the way, but at least you have a basic roadmap of where you’re going.

Terry Dean helps business owners Earn More, Work Less, and Enjoy Life. Receive his Special report, “10 Key Strategies for Any Business Owner to Earn More, Work Less, and Enjoy Life” along with “Live the Internet Lifestyle…Retire Young and Wealthy” here: http://www.theterrydean.com

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Should I Write an Ezine?” or “Is it worth writing an ezine?” then read on.

I started writing my ezine last year when the economy was bad, business was getting harder and I realized I needed to do more outreach to prospects. I also needed to strengthen my ties with current clients so they wouldn’t leav e and also have the opportunity to buy more services, like press releases and media databases.

I thought I had a good customer communication system going by offering teleseminars several times a month for free. But as business continued to slow, I realized that tactic wasn’t working very well.

So I thought it was time to start a newsletter. I had done one years ago, but since it was a lot of work and business was easy, it fell by the wayside. Sound familiar?

Here’s what I’ve learned in the past year.

1. Consistency. In the past year, I’ve written 98 articles. I never would have written that many articles if I hadn’t faced a deadline every Monday.

2. Flow. Since there are 52 weeks in a year, you have no doubt figured out that some weeks I wrote 2 or more articles. I think the act of starting to write one article leads you to write another article. I n other words, the creative juices start to flow.

3. Reprints and Reach. Nearly every week, something happened because I sent out the newsletter. Ariel Ford took two of my articles and reworked them for printing in the Huffington Post. Other readers reprinted my articles on their websites with links back to my site. All that link juice adds up in better search engine rankings. And the reprints expose my name to more potential clients.

4. Sales. Some small percentage of readers paid me to coach them or they bought additional services, like my Guaranteed Press Release service.

5. Returning Clients. Some larger number of former PR LEADS subscribers signed up again. It just shows that you have to be in front of people so when they are ready to buy, they think of you. We’ve faced some competition in the last year or two, so it is important for former clients to realize we are still in business and stronger than ever. So when they get disillusioned with other services, they come back and are grateful we still maintained our high standards.

6. Relationships. Several readers began corresponding with me on a regular basis. It’s always nice to build relationships. You know who you are, Marcie, Roberta and Jeff!

7. Get More Leverage from Content. I posted the newsletter articles on my blog and on eZineArticles.com so I got more mileage out of each message. If I had it to do over again, I’m not too sure I’d post to eZineArticles since it seems that Google ranks their links to the articles higher than my links (or not at all if they consider it to be duplicate content.) I am asking myself if it is worth the tradeoff: Exposing my articles to a new audience through EZA, or getting more links on Google. I think the latter might work best for me. What do yo u think?

8. Speaking Opportunities. I’m still waiting for a speaking opportunity to come in through this method. Any ideas?

9. Publishing Opportunities. I’m still waiting for a publisher to call me. Actually, no, I’m not. I just wanted to show you that while good things happen with an ezine, you can’t always get what you want. You have to keep plugging away.

10. Branding. Each week, more than 10,000 people see my name on the email that contains the newsletter. Some people open it (about 12.5 percent) and the others don’t. But they see my name and branding each week. As master marker and speaker Patricia Fripp told me, “It is not your client’s responsibility to remember you are still in business.” This newsletter lets people know I’m here when they need me.

What’s ahead of the next year?

1. Consistency. Keeping up with writing an article a week.
2. Keywords. Focusing on using more keywords so more people find articles on Google.
3. Videos. Putting more content in video format since it helps with search engines and it helps people who have a visual and auditory learning style.

If you need coaching, publicity tools (media lists, press release writing, press release distribution) or publicity consulting, call me. For a free 15-minute evaluation to see if we’d be a good fit, send an email to me at dan@prleads.com. Unlike other gurus, my rates are actually reasonable!

Dan Janal helps small businesses get publicity so they can sell more products. My clients get terrific results from my coaching, consulting, done-for-you services and do-it-yourself tools. For info, go to www.prleadsplus.com or call me at 952-380-1554.

2. Offer basic and deluxe options to your offers. While this may or may not increase your conversion, it will increase your income per visitor. Some will choose the basic. The ones who choose the deluxe boost your profits.

3. Use bullets whenever possible to describe your offer benefits. Very few people “read” online sales letters. They skim them so use bullets, sub-heads, graphics, etc. to keep pulling them back in.

4. Test deleting your first few paragraphs or even your first few pages of copy. Even experienced copywriters sometimes do a little warming up. Get the point as quickly as possible.

5. Make the checkout process simple with as few clicks as possible. The more pages you add in between the sales page and checkout, the more dangerous your sales process becomes.

6. Give proof for anything you say. Your visitors don’t believe you. Give them facts, samples, videos, and demos. Show checks, charts, endorsements, etc. If you can’t back it up, they don’t believe it.

7. Check your page load speed. On long sales copy sites, you may want to break up your tables with one table up top with a page or so of your text, and the rest in a second table. The top table will load up first.

8. Collect opt-in email leads and follow-up. This one should be no surprise to you if you regularly read this blog, but it’s vital to increasing your conversion rates. At least get their email address. Get their physical address and phone number for even higher response.

9. Keep the navigation very simple on your page. The more options or confusing your page is, the worse your conversion rate will be. That’s why you see many sales pages with almost no navigation at all.

10. Restate the offer and guarantee on the order forms. Shopping cart abandonment is always an issue. Do your best to curb this by making the offer again on the order form.

11. Have a potential customer go through the site for you. Is there any parts you’ve missed? How can you better explain it? Is there anything they don’t understand?

12. Have a second opinion from another copywriter. It’s very easy to miss something on your own sites. That’s why you should always have another copywriter take a look.

13. Offer outstanding guarantees. Many companies offer full money-back guarantees. You can offer double your money back guarantees, keep all the bonuses guarantees, etc. Offer a guarantee that’s unusual!

14. Add more testimonials. The closer those testimonials are to your target audience, the better they are. Your visitors want to see testimonial from people just like them.

15. Include phone number and address along with other company information. People buy from those they know, like and trust. Giving them this type of information increases the trust factor.

16. Test headlines, intro paragraphs, graphics, pricing, etc. Even top copywriters often have headlines produce two or three times the results of their original.

17. Make sure the unique selling position of your offer is easily noticed on your website. Why should someone buy from you instead of every other option out there?

18. Tell a story. Find a sales hook in a story about the business owner, product, or service you’re offering. The easiest way to grab and hold your visitor’s attention is through a true story.

19. Use teleconferences, webinars, direct mail, and the phone. Increase conversions using multiple contact methods instead of just website and email.

20. Offer different payment options such as three payments or even a try before you buy offer (have them pay shipping upfront and the rest in 30 days).

21. Display safe shopping logos such as Hackersafe and Better Business Bureau.

22. If your product is high ticket enough to pay for live support, run a live support button on the website…and have your operators actively contact the visitors.

23. Add audio to your website…an introduction, recorded teleconference call, or interview.

24. Use video to demonstrate use of your product. This has to be tested, but well done video demos of the product will often improve response.

25. Use multi-variant testing software such as Google Optimizer (built into Google Adwords).

Terry Dean helps business owners Earn More, Work Less, and Enjoy Life. Receive his Special report, “10 Key Strategies for Any Business Owner to Earn More, Work Less, and Enjoy Life” along with “Live the Internet Lifestyle…Retire Young and Wealthy” here: http://www.theterrydean.com

Plenty of Internet sites and programs are available to host your own podcast show. But first you may be wondering what a podcast is. Basically, a podcast is a recorded show put on the Internet so people can listen to it. It is simply a recording stored online. The advantage of podcasts is that listeners do not have to tune in when the show airs but can visit the website later to play the recording. Options exist today for both live radio shows and for recording shows and placing them online so people can listen to them at their convenience.

Having your own Internet radio show is fairly simple. Different programs and websites offer various options, but they all operate similarly. A conference bridge line allows the host and guest to phone into the show. The host is able to record the interview using Audio Acrobat or a similar program. After the show, the recording can be edited to delete background noise, awkward phrases, or anything the host feels might be better left out. While editing and posting the recording to the website can take a little work, neither is technically all that complicated and can easily be learned—even by non-technically savvy people.

Technology and technical skills aside, the key to creating an effective podcast to get people to listen is not really different than creating an effective talk radio or TV show. First, the host must create a platform for the show that will draw an audience. The host may have a title for the show, simply naming it for him or herself, such as “The John Smith Show” or something more specific relating to its topic like “Fiction Fan Radio.” If the latter, then I would assume the host will look for fiction authors or talk about fiction books each week and the audience will be people who like to read fiction. The host then finds guests who fit that category—perhaps a horror fiction author, then a science-fiction writer, and then maybe an editor of a fiction journal. It’s best to create a platform or purpose for the show that fills a need with audience members—a topic you feel many people will be interested in, something currently in the news, or something likely to create a large following. Authors of non-fiction books, especially on topics such as health care, religion, or politics, will be able to create an effective platform because their topic is something many people are interested in or concerned about.

Finding guests is really not difficult—you can simply look online for authors—they are easy to find on Facebook or any of the social networking sites where they are trying to promote their books. You can advertise on your website for author guests as well as send out emails to different online discussion groups you may have joined; then you should easily receive many requests to be on your show.

The important thing is to find good guests, which is a bit trickier. When you consider people for the show, request that the prospective guest provide you with a proposal for a show that will let you know whether the guest will be articulate and interesting. Ask for some key talking points or questions so you can find out what the guest might talk about and whether you would enjoy talking to him or her—it’s key that you feel you’ll be able to create a conversation with the person. Find out also how much the prospective guest really knows about his or her topic. If he wants to talk about writing fiction but has never published anything, pass him over for the author with six novels. If she wants to talk about creating graphic novels, find out what kind of background she has in graphic novels—has she written or illustrated one, or does she simply like reading them?

Once the show takes place, be relaxed and most importantly, help the guest to feel comfortable. The prepared talking points are great to fuel conversation and prepare you for the show, but do not simply read down the list of questions. Start with one or two but then let the conversation flow naturally as you ask questions based more specifically on what the guest says. At the same time, remain in control of the conversation. Let the guest talk, but only for a few minutes at maximum. A constant back and forth is necessary to keep the conversation interesting to the audience. Be positive and supportive by making transition statements such as, “That’s really interesting, Susan, but tell me more about how you found a publisher.” A good host will make the guest feel good about the show while maintaining a professional manner and asking what he or she knows his audience most wants from the guest.

Once the show is over, the work is not done. You may want to edit the recording to improve it. Then you need to post it online and you need to notify people it is there. Create a mailing list by asking people to subscribe when they visit your website. Send out notices whenever a new podcast is posted so people remember to listen and keep coming back for more. If the show is live, be sure to let people know ahead of time who will be on your show and when. Plan ahead and have a list of prospective guests for several weeks or months in advance.

Finally, enjoy the process. Enjoy talking to people and feel good knowing you are providing an interesting program for your audience.

If I’ve given you enough information to make you think having an Internet radio show just might be for you, then a great resource for more information can be found by listening to a recent podcast from the January 9, 2010 www.AuthorsAccess.com show “Podcasting for Authors.” On that show, my co-host Victor Volkman and I interviewed author Alan Smith about how to create an effective radio show. You will find links at the website and additional information on the podcast about everything from the technical aspects of recording and editing a show to being a good host.

Having your own radio show can be a fun and fulfilling experience that can also help to build exposure for your book. After a few shows, you’ll feel like a pro at it, and interviewing others will also help you to talk about your own book more effectively when you are interviewed yourself.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

That’s right, not your experiences, expertise, services, your reputation, brand, computer files, or anything else in your business, tangible or intangible.

I’m not saying, these aren’t important; they are. But please do this quick thought experiment with me:

Your office burns down and you lose everything. Nothing left, whatsoever. What would you do to rebuild? It would be an unimaginable amount of work, wouldn’t it?

But if you had a great e-list everything would be easier.

You’d get another computer, go to your e-list online, send out an email to all your subscribers, tell them what happened, make an offer for a new service and you’d be up and running again in days, not months.

Your list is your relationships, your network, your community, and if you haven’t built much of a list, you don’t have much of a business. In fact, if you don’t have a good list you have very little momentum in your business.

We’d all like a list. A good list. A big list.

But in working with thousands of clients, I’ve learned that most make so many mistakes in building their list that they don’t get very far with it.

Here are Seven Deadly Mistakes in Building Your List.

1. You don’t have an e-list manager

An e-list manager is a program like AWeber or Constant Contact. They manage your list online and enable you to send emails to your whole subscriber list without getting tagged as spam. Next to email and web hosting, this is the most important online service you’ll ever use.

Big mistake trying to build your list in Outlook and sending mass emails from your desktop. Remember that fire? No, you want to make it automatic, fast and secure. Sign up for an e-list service today and start building your list.

2. You don’t have a good home page

Almost nobody gets this. There is one, and only one, purpose for your web site for first time visitors. It isn’t to learn about you and your business, it isn’t to contact you (they won’t), it isn’t even to sell a product or service.

It’s to get their attention long enough for them to request some free information on your website and give you their name and email address. And if your home page is not designed to do this, it won’t happen.

By the way, you don’t want a sign-up form on your home page. You don’t want one of those awful “squeeze pages.” You don’t want anything sleazy and manipulative. You just want to tell the story of your business in such a way that visitors are immediately motivated to get some free information from you.

3. You have nothing of real value to give away

Just signing up for your eZine is not enough. It’s never been enough but it’s even worse now. If you say “sign up for my wonderful monthly eZine,” they’ll just ignore you. They get too many eZines already.

But if you say, “get my valuable free report” you have a fighting chance they’ll give you their name and email. Then the eZine they also get is the bonus, not the main offer.

But that report had better be great. Not a few tips tossed off casually that wouldn’t excite anyone. No, it has to be your very best stuff, ideas that will get them thinking, ideas that will get them worried about this mistakes they’re making, ideas that will have them eager to read your regular eZine.

4. You don’t have a good sign-up page

When your visitor clicks somewhere near the bottom of your home page to request your free report, you can’t just say: “to get your free report, please fill in the form and submit.” They won’t.

You need to sell the free report. That is, you need to build a solid case in just a few paragraphs proving this report is valuable, that it will help them, that it is exactly what they’ve been looking for.

Have some confidence in what you’re offering and be excited about it (not over-the-top hype, just excitement). Tell them exactly what they’ll learn and gain if they get your report and the bonus eZine. If you do, people will sign up in droves.

5. You don’t have a high quality eZine

Once a week for 13 or 14 years I’ve sent this eZine out to my subscribers. I make it a priority. I take a few hours to think about it, plan it, write it, format it and send it out. It’s my main marketing task every single Monday.

The point is that I understand this is the primary marketing communication to the thousands of people on my e-list. I know a lot of people look forward to it. I know people who built their whole business just from the ideas in this eZine.

And I also know it brings me almost all my clients and customers. Yes, it took me time, but now this list has become the most important resource in my business. But this will only happen if you commit to a high quality eZine that goes out like clockwork.

6. You don’t work actively at list-building

“If you build it, they will come” is not a good maxim for your eZine. You need to make some concerted efforts to build your list. But it’s more common to hear, “Well, I’ve sent out my eZine for a few months but my list isn’t growing; I guess this doesn’t work anymore.”

That’s a bit like saying, “I put the food in the oven but it’s not cooking.” Well, did you turn on the heat? Probably not! You need to apply some marketing heat, which means actively promoting your report. Yes, the report, not the eZine.

Offer your report though networking, talks, teleclasses (where you’re the guest presenter), though articles posted online, and through partners (more on this in #7). Anyone with a little intention could get 100 or more people to visit their web site each month to get their free report.

7. You don’t partner to build your list

I did all the above, and more over the years, to build my subscriber base, but I missed an important strategy that could be the most powerful one of all and that will add thousands of new subscribers to my e-list this coming year.

That strategy is called co-promoting with a partner. What you do is find a partner who also wants to build their e-list and who also has a high quality report. You send an email to your list offering their report and they send an email to their list offering your report. Easy to do and very effective.

It doesn’t get much simpler than that. At the beginning, when you don’t have a huge e-list, you’ll be partnering with those who also have smaller lists. But as time goes on and as your list grows, you’ll partner with people with larger lists.

The More Clients Bottom Line: Independent Professionals get great marketing results if they’ve built good e-lists and know how to leverage them to attract more clients. This should be on the top of your marketing to-do list. Every day you put it off, you’re losing business and making marketing harder than it should be. Get past these seven deadly mistakes and grow an e-list that takes your business to a whole new level.

By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert’s web site at www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses.