Book Marketing Blogs
by Penny SansevieriMay 24, 2013
Okay, let’s start with my confession first. I discovered Fan Fiction years ago when I was in the midst of the X-Files mania (yes, I’m a fan). In fact I’m pretty sure that X-Filers had some of the most popular Fan Fiction out there. Fans, tired of waiting for Chris Carter to push his characters Mulder and Scully to “get it on” would subscribe to various Fan Fiction sites and live out their wildest X-Files fantasies there. They were fun reads and one thing I quickly discovered was that some of the writing was really, really good. I mean surprisingly so. I wondered at the time why none of these writers were trying to get published, or maybe they were, but Fan Fiction wasn’t really okay in terms of copyright though most shows sort of let the fans write their stories and left them alone. My research took me further into Fan Fiction (even to the point of Fan Fiction show mashups); it showed that most of them just enjoyed writing their stories about these characters they’d come to love so much. Don’t like the way a plot line is being handled? Write your own version of it, put it on a Fan Fiction site and let the readers decide.
Cycle forward to present day and (you know I had to mention it) the success of 50 Shades of Grey – which also started as Fan Fiction. It would make sense then for Amazon to publish Fan Fiction, especially after an Amazon insider told me that they are eager to sign more of this type of content (are you paying attention Fan Fiction writers?). So, the marriage is perfect. Amazon now gives these authors a legitimate way to publish their stuff. Prior to this most were underground, writing these often amazing stories and burying them on someone’s unknown website, blog, or Fan Fiction forum. Personally I think it’s brilliant. Can you imagine all of the great and fun content we’ll discover this way? I can’t wait. It’s a really exciting time. One of my readers over at my Huffington Post blog said, “That Amazon. Always thinking.” Yes, they are. Thinking of the future, thinking of content, and giving readers another way to access great stories.
Here’s the story on Mashable
May 24, 2013
Take some time to catch up on marketing and social media news in this roundup of tweets from the past week, courtesy of bloggers, marketers, authors and others. The topics include why you should be using Google+, ways to bond with your blog readers, how to analyze your website’s traffic, and more. Happy marketing!
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* 5 Key Book Publishing Paths
This valuable infographic breaks down the major publishing options, along with the pros and cons of each approach:
http://janefriedman.com/2013/05/20/infographic-5-key-book-publishing-paths/
* How to Analyze Your Website Traffic
It’s not as difficult as it might seem to understand your website traffic stats. Learn what you should do so your site is effective:
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/how-to-analyze-your-website-traffic-2/
* The 4 Social Media Marketing Secrets Of A New York Times Best Seller
Have a clear message, do a lot of outreach, and be willing to give away content, for starters:
* 5 Ways to Bond with Your Blog’s Audience
If your blog seems quiet lately, these ideas should give you and your readers a boost:
http://www.copyblogger.com/bond-with-your-audience/
* Why You Must Get on Google+ Now
Did you know that Google+ has the second highest membership of any social media platform (behind Facebook)? See why G+ is so important:
http://www.blogaid.net/you-must-get-on-g-plus-now
May 22, 2013
For many of us, traffic and website analytics are very foreign ideas. But understanding traffic and reading website analytics reports doesn’t have to be a complicated endeavor. First up, let’s break down the terminology:
Page views: Each time someone lands on your site (when they load one of your pages) it generates a page view. Keep in mind that this tallies regardless of who visits or how many times they’ve been to the site. To some degree it is a bad measurement of traffic. We all love returning visitors, but most of us really care about those valuable first time folks.
Visits: This measure shares how many users have spent time on your website, regardless of the number of pages each user views.
Unique visitors: This is an important stat and as the name implies, this metric counts only the unique users who visit the site. If a particular visitor comes to the site every day, it still only counts as one visit.
Pages/visit: This metric shows you how many pages a visitor perused during each session. The higher this number, the better.
Average visit duration: How much time do users spend on the site during each visit? While you want someone to spend a long time on a site, the average time spent is generally 3-5 min and sometimes less. Obviously longer is better, but currently the only site that gets massive visit duration is Facebook, with an average of twenty minutes per visit.
Bounce rate: This number indicates people who “bounce” off of the page. So, someone visits and then decide they are either in the wrong place or you’ve sent them into “surf shock” and they leave. Generally the lower the number the better, but the average bounce rate is around 50-59%.
% new visits: This measure is the percentage of your traffic from first-time users who have never been to the site before. If you’re eager to get repeat people to your site (and this will often depend on the nature of your business) you’ll want this number lower than your repeating visitor number.
Understanding Google Analytics
These days, most websites use Google Analytics to measure traffic. It’s considered by most web designers to be the gold standard of measurement, and best of all, it’s free.
Getting Google Analytics is easy. You simply register on the site and it will give you a snippet of code that will go on each page of your website. Your web person can add this if it wasn’t installed when your site was built. Most hosting companies come with a C-panel backend that measures traffic. Even so, I highly recommend getting Google Analytics for accuracy and some other reasons you’ll see in a minute.
Once you set up Google Analytics, give it a few days to gather data. Once you do, you’ll start to see numbers appear on your dashboard. Google Analytics continues to update their system and recently launched a beta version of real time traffic, available. I tend to watch these real-time traffic numbers pretty closely. It’s a great tool if you’re on top of a promotion, letting you see what kind of traffic you’re driving to your website in real time.
Getting to Know Your Data
When you first start looking through the numbers, you’ll want to get a sense of the things we described above: Page Views, Bounce Rate, etc. If you’re worried that your bounce rate is too high, consult your web person to see if there’s anything you can do to lower it. One of the areas I spend a lot of time on is the Traffic from All Sources page, so I can gauge what hits are coming from where. Not only will this help me create referring traffic from various channels, but it also helps me know what’s working and what isn’t.
Measuring Social Media
One of the most exciting additions to Google Analytics has been their tracking of social media. This is a fantastic tool that lets you see how much of your traffic is coming from social media. So, what’s a good mix? I think half of your traffic should come from social media; the rest should come organically from Google.
Measuring AdWords
Google Analytics can also connect to your AdWords campaign, allowing you to measure how your online ads are performing. If you run ads on your site, click Content > AdSense > Overview to see which pages are earning the most revenue (and how much). You’ll need to link them together in the AdSense tool first.
How much traffic you get and how well it’s converting will depend on your reach and your website, but knowing these numbers is important. Remember that the significance of each category will depend largely on the industry you’re in. If you want lots of returning visitors, then the percent of new visits number will need to be lower. If you’re looking for lots of new traffic then unique visitors is what you need to pay attention to.
Getting to know your traffic is not only important, but mandatory if you’re going to know how effective your online marketing is. Also, knowing your Google Analytics numbers will show you if there’s a problem on your site, like low conversion, which could be because of a broken page or broken link.
Excerpt from Red Hot Internet Publicity: An Insider’s Guide to Marketing Online by Penny Sansevieri, available now on Amazon.com:http://www.amazon.com/Red-Hot-Internet-Publicity-Marketing/dp/1480224952/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367371151&sr=1-1&keywords=Red+Hot+Internet+Publicity
May 20, 2013
Welcome to the May 20, 2013 edition of tips and tricks for writers and authors. We’ve got some great tips on writing and book marketing in this edition. Thank you to the contributors!
Book Marketing
Jo Linsdell presents PROMO DAY: The Benefits of Attending Promo Day posted at PROMO DAY, saying, “Promo Day is a free online event for people in the writing industry dedicated to promoting, networking, and learning. This year’s event takes place on Saturday 25th May at www.PromoDay.info”
Writing
Chrys Fey presents Writing About: Holidays posted at Write With Fey, saying, “In our lives, we treat Thanksgiving (the day for giving thanks) and Christmas (a time for love and peace) with special importance. Then why can’t we give these holidays equal importance in the stories we write? We can!”
Bryan Chau presents Keeping Poetry In Motion – The Breakdown posted at Success Pen Pal, saying, “poetry, writing, success, breakdown analysis, etc.”
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of tips and tricks for writers and authors using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
May 17, 2013
Get some marketing ideas with these top tweets from the past week, courtesy of bloggers, marketers, authors and others. The topics include using Pinterest analytics, supporting your favorite author, optimizing your website, and more. Happy marketing!
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* Myth-busting: Self-Publishing to Pick up a Publisher. What You Should Know
Should you self-publish with the idea that you’ll be able to use that book as leverage for a traditional publishing contract? One author weighs in:
http://www.rebekkahniles.com/2013/05/myth-busting-self-publishing-to-pick-up.html
* Check Your Website: What’s Located in One of the Most Important Sections?
Your website might as well be a billboard people glance at while speeding down the interstate. You have only a snippet of time to prove your site is worthy of a visit:
http://janefriedman.com/2013/05/15/3-ways-to-improve-your-website-design/
think of your website as a billboard
* Readers: How You Can Help Your Favorite Authors
Here are a few things you can do to help support your favorite author – and for authors, don’t hesitate to post this list somewhere on your website. If you need help (and who doesn’t) you need to ask for it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/readers-how-you-can-help_b_3268018.html
* Managing Your Personal Brand with Facebook Lists – A Great Tool!
Lists allow Facebook users the ability to either grant or deny profile access to Facebook friends depending on the relationship you have with them:
* How to Use Pinterest Analytics: 6 Metrics Worth Measuring
It’s important to know if your social media efforts are working:
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/pinterest-analytics/
May 16, 2013
It’s no secret that Guy Kawasaki loves Google+, here are some quick tips for maximizing your G+ profile! This was filmed at a session Guy taught at AuthorU in Denver.
May 15, 2013
Why are you writing your book? Guy Kawasaki breaks down the real reasons you should write a book (hint: it’s not for the money). This is from a presentation Guy did at AuthorU in Denver!
May 14, 2013
Guy Kawasaki spoke at AuthorU in Denver, here he speaks about pricing ideas and pricing models he uses very successfully! You can get more information on Guy’s book at www.apethebook.com
May 13, 2013
If you’re ready for some success with your eBook listen to Guy’s presentation on some really fun and innovative ways to market your eBook. Guy Kawasaki spoke at AuthorU in Denver.
May 13, 2013
Welcome to the May 13, 2013 edition of tips and tricks for writers and authors. We’ve got some great tips on book marketing, self-publishing, and writing. Thank you to the contributors!
Nina Amir presents What’s A Market and Why Do You Need One? posted at Write Nonfiction NOW!, saying, “If you want to publish a successful book, you must have a market that produces enough book sales to reach your sales goals or those of a publisher. Many aspiring authors write their books without first evaluating markets to determine if enough interest exists to support sales of their books and, thereby, publication. Or they propose books to publishers without doing so only to be rejected because no market exists for their books. In this post you learn what a target market is for a book and why you need one.”
Book Marketing
Kimberley Grabas presents How to Market a Book and Strengthen Your Author Platform with Goodreads posted at Your Writer Platform, saying, “Imagine a magical place that gathers together 17 million of the most passionate readers who want to talk about, review and buy your book. A place that not only allows, but encourages, both new and established authors to promote their books. A place that provides FREE opportunities to – get your book in front of thousands of buyers, – conduct informal research (polls), – participate in a highly viral environment, – join or create groups with like-minded people on every literary topic imaginable, – create an author presence, connecting your book, your blog and your social media platforms. Now imagine if Amazon purchased this magical realm of high quality, book-buying, book-loving influencers in the spring of 2013, likely leading to big opportunities to align your Amazon marketing to this Utopia. If such a paradise existed, would you want to be a part of it?”
Self-Publishing
Sarah Bolme presents Smart Books posted at Marketing Christian Books.
Social Media
John Schmoll presents Taking the Plunge: Marketing Your Small Business posted at Frugal Rules, saying, “Running a small business can be cost limiting on a number of levels. However, with a little creative thought you can often find very effective ways through social media to market your small business and gain more clients.”
Writing
Chrys Fey presents Writing About: A Kidnapping posted at Write With Fey, saying, “I wrote a kidnapping in my book and figured that other aspiring writers may need to, too. This post has tips on how to write about a kidnapping effectively.”
David Leonhardt presents You might be a writer posted at A Ghost Writers Blog, saying, “If you ask your child whether the new kid in school is the protagonist or the antagonist, you might be a writer … and dozens more clues that might implicate you in this writing conspiracy.”
UB Hawthorn presents ADVICE FOR WRITERS: Q&A with Story Circle Network’s Mary Jo Doig | The Mindful Word posted at The Mindful Word.
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of tips and tricks for writers and authors using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
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