Sign-up: getting your visitor to sign up for *something* is important. Why? Because studies have shown that surfers don’t often buy the first time they land on your site. Often they want to browse, shop, maybe bookmark you for later. If they bookmark you, you’ve lost a sale. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when someone bookmarks the Author Marketing Experts site but when they do, the likelihood of my being able to sell to them is minimal.

Instead, I get them into the AME funnel by encouraging prospective customers to sign up for something they want, i.e. our Book Marketing Expert Newsletter. And then to encourage them even further, we actually give them something for signing up: our tips, 52 Ways to Sell More Books. So if you’re not asking for a sign-up, you might want to reconsider this. Then, give them an ethical bribe in return: give them something they want. Don’t just throw a freebie at them and expect your visitor to jump for joy. Here’s a clue: if you wouldn’t want the freebie, it’s likely they won’t either.

Buy: most of us have been taught not to ask for what we want. I’m giving you permission to not only ask for it, but put it on your home page. So often I talk to authors who say their websites aren’t selling. They’re not selling because the author forgets to ask for the sale. The words “Buy” or “Buy Now” are a call to action that will greatly increase your chances of making a sale. If this isn’t on your home page, have your webmaster or web designer add it ASAP.

Free: I know, now I’m getting confusing, right? I just told you that you needed to ask for the sale and now I’m telling you that you need to give it away. Well, yes and no. Let me explain. First, while you want to have a strong call to action and a “funnel” to get folks into your marketing message, you also want to give something away (besides the newsletter freebie).

Consider this: people want information or they want to be entertained or they want to be educated. If you can do any of these things, go for it. A way you can do this might be through your blog, blogging is a fantastic way to disseminate information in a free format. The next might be through a game on your site, a resource or article page, or other information on your subject or area of expertise.

We had a client once who wrote a book about working with difficult people and she had a game on her site that would let visitors launch a gnarly co-worker out of a cannon (while I love everyone I work with, I used this for other, eh, outside AME people …). Things like that have a great pass-through factor, meaning that folks will pass along the site or link so others can share in the fun as well. People love freebies. Make ‘em laugh, educate them or give them something they can’t get anywhere else, and they’ll beat a path to your door.

The point being that even the best website copy has a few elements that shouldn’t be overlooked. By incorporating just a few simple steps, you can really begin to see your site go from a ho-hum author website to a rockin’ selling tool!

Here’s to your success both online and off!

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Publishing is still in some limbo – Ron Burkle and Len Riggio continue to fight over the future of Barnes and Noble. More and more e-readers are coming onto the market, and there is now an e-reader priced under $100. What will the holidays bring in terms of price wars? It’s bound to be good for consumers. Meanwhile, Borders has had some layoffs and has stopped speaking to the media, apparently. The future of this bookstore chain has also been subject to much speculation, and its foray into selling e-readers and partnership with Build-A-Bear will be interesting to watch to see if it can turn things around.

There’s more back and forth over whether e-readers are the death of publishing or its salvation. Our conventional wisdom is: neither; e-readers represent another way to sell books.

Image via Wikipedia

There’s also a brouhahaha over the New York Times and its supposed love of Jonathan Franzen and other white male authors at the expense of women authors, but it’s hard to put Franzen in the same boat as Jodi Picoult who writes more mainstream, less literary books (as much as we enjoy her work). But we’ll say that any debate involving books (over, say: reality TV “stars,” and the like) is a good thing to take up headlines. For fun, check out Chick Lit versus Dude Lit, http://bit.ly/ah7yDF.

Finally: Knowledge is power: Read a banned book today, in honor of Banned Books Week, September 25-October 2, 2010! http://bit.ly/9KKcsm.

So, let’s look at some highlights of the week that was:

* 12 favorite non-book literary oddities on e-Bay, http://bit.ly/aI3k3P.

* ‘Dora The Explorer Book: Over 50 Million Copies Sold As Series Turns 10,’ http://huff.to/blUSYr.

* PC World looks at the next wave of e-readers coming soon, http://bit.ly/duNKzU.

* ‘To Self-Publish or Not to Self-Publish’ – very useful breakdown of the pros and cons, http://huff.to/8YJbHf.

Image via Wikipedia

* ‘Ron Charles Takes 60 Seconds to Save Book Reviewing,’ by using video, http://bit.ly/b4qAAW.

* ‘Fall Books 2010 Highlights: Who Made The Cut?’ http://huff.to/bGukuy.

* ‘Next Generation of E-Readers Could Be Flexible,’ http://bit.ly/a2yswY.

* Try the weird words quiz – recognize any of these? http://bit.ly/byUpM7.

* Catchy concepts in kids’ books (love these covers!) http://bit.ly/bxd9n4.

* Staples will start selling Amazon’s Kindle, http://bit.ly/9EQRCy.

* ‘Borders Slashes E-Reader Prices to $99,’ http://bit.ly/acA0Rq.

* ‘10 Facts About Books You Won’t Read in a Book About Books’ – fun video, http://bit.ly/bpSAUC.

* Stephenson and Bear Release ‘social Book’ a digital novel titled The Mongoliad, http://bit.ly/dcbM2z.

Image via Wikipedia

* Does a book’s popularity guarantee its movie’s success? http://bit.ly/dwwUYN.

* ‘Cool fall books: Warm up with these reads,’ http://bit.ly/9G8hev.

* ‘The 11 Worst Memoir Covers Ever,’ Some of these are fun to look at! http://huff.to/9TdeBq.

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Here’s a real-time illustration: if you have a main website and five incoming links, you’ll get traffic to the main site from five places. Now this doesn’t mean you need five additional sites along with your main one, these five incoming links are from other websites that often won’t belong to you. Now if we’re talking numbers let me say this: five is paltry compared to where you need to be. When we work with clients we like to double, triple, or quadruple their incoming links.

What does this mean to sales? Well, let’s go back to our Starbucks example. Let’s say you’re scouring the ‘Net for a perfect cup of Joe. When someone Googles “perfect cup of Joe,” the mentions of your site come up in excess of 5,000 times. Your competitors come in somewhere at 1,000 or less. So it stands to reason that someone searching on this topic will go to your site before they hit your competitor, right?

Ok, so now that we have the incoming links thing down, how in the world do you go about getting all of these links? Well, sometimes the build is slow but that’s ok. What we’re looking for are high-quality, high-traffic incoming links to your site. Let’s break this down even further.

Going after incoming links can happen in a variety of ways. Not the least of which is a link you get from a site after your book is reviewed. That’s probably the most basic link you can get. Ideally you want links from sites that can drive readers (buyers) to your book. Links from other author sites might be a nice way to network, but they don’t often leverage anything in the way of ranking or sales potential.

Why? Well, readers shopping for similar titles often won’t migrate from one author site to another via a link, they’ll generally head over to Amazon and find a list of “similar titles” or the category: Readers who bought this also enjoyed this title. Which then refers you onto a list of their best-selling books in the same genre. Second, unless you’re getting a link from a celebrity author site, you’ll probably find that most author sites don’t have great ranking. Google looks at the ranking of the site that’s linked to you to determine how valuable this link is and in turn, how much it will matter to your overall site ranking.

The ideal incoming link is from a niche site, meaning that if you’re pushing a WWII novel or a book on dieting, the link is coming from an authority site, i.e. a site that specializes in that topic.

The next option for getting more real estate is to start your own social networking page. There are a variety of sites that can benefit you including: Linkedin, MySpace, Squidoo, and my personal favorite: Facebook. These sites can all offer you a way to connect not just with other people in these social networking circles but also gain a valuable incoming link to your site.

Article syndication is another fantastic way to get more links. Most of us know and understand the article syndication process. You write an article of 500-2,000 words and send it (called syndicating) to sites like: EzineArticles, ArticleCity and many others. Remember to include your byline in the article with a link back to your site.

Commenting on blog postings is another way to drive links back to your site. Head on over to Technorati and dig up at least twenty of the top blogs in your market. Then get in the habit of commenting on the various posts with a link back to your site. The more you comment, the more links you’ll get. The secondary benefit to this is virtual networking: getting to know bloggers in your market is never a bad thing.

Gaining valuable real estate and building your “stores” isn’t as difficult as you might think. It takes time, persistence, and some keen research skills to find the appropriate sites. In the end, the benefits far outweigh the amount of work you’ll do. Gaining exposure online will increase traffic, build platform, enhance exposure and grow your bottom line. So take a lesson from Starbucks and start building a store on every corner. You’ll be glad you did.

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Image by K. W. Sanders via Flickr

If you’re at a loss on what to blog on, you’ll love this blog worksheet with some great ideas for blogging in September

a-potpourri-of-blog-ideas-for-september

Last Saturday I was on my morning run through our neighborhood and I noticed a number of garage sale signs (that’s tag sale for those of you back east). One of the signs had a sign beneath it that read: We have free stuff! As I ran though the neighborhood I passed that house and noticed they put all their free stuff in the “Free zone” and already, even at that early hour, hoards of people were migrating there. I passed the other garage sales which were doing OK, but not great. Clearly the one with the free stuff pulled more people, but did it actually sell more paid merchandise? Yes. I checked in with the sale after my run to find most of the good stuff gone (note to self: shop first, exercise later). When I talked to the homeowner they said that the free stuff went fast, but as I noted each time I passed by, it wasn’t junk stuff, it was actually good enough to make the garage sale shopper feel like they got a real deal. If it’s junk and it’s free, it doesn’t really matter.

What’s the lesson here? Free stuff can help you sell more of the paid merchandise, but you have to be careful, because some people just want freebies and that’s fine. But they are not your customers. Here are some tips to help you maximize the use of free:

1. Why free? The first question you should ask yourself is why are you doing this?  If you aren’t sure, then free might not be right for you. Free content should be offered to help further your message, build a list, and get new people into your marketing funnel. If your model isn’t set up this way, maybe it should be. If you aren’t interested in this kind of a marketing model, then free probably isn’t your thing.

2. Define how free can help: Figure out why you want to give free stuff. As I mentioned above, getting clear about your model will help determine if a free product is even worth your time. If it is, then you need to figure out how it will help you. As an example, we have a lot of free stuff on the Author Marketing Experts, Inc. site (www.ameauthors.com) but the free for us is designed to build trust. Distrust is rampant online, and in particular, in the book promotion and publishing industry. There are a lot of scams out there and so trust is important. Our free stuff builds our mailing list, yes, but it also builds trust.

3. Make sure it’s really free: A lot of people have content that is purported to be free when it’s not really free. What I mean is that you get a sliver of it, not even a piece really worth mentioning, but the stuff you want is something you have to pay for. If you want to do free, make it free. Find something of value and give it to your customers.

4. Make it something your end user wants: As I’ve mentioned a few times, make sure the free is something people want. If it isn’t you a) won’t bring in the right crowd of people (you’ll end up just getting the freebie hunters, and b) you won’t build your mailing list as fast. So, for example, give your readers something really substantial like an e-book or tips, or a workbook. Virtually any electronic product is easy to create and deliver. When I changed our freebie on the Author Marketing Experts, Inc. website, we quadrupled our sign-ups. So, what was the freebie? 52 Ways to Sell More Books. Now, as an author, isn’t that appealing to you? Exactly my point.

5. So, what if you’ve written a fiction book? Well, consider this: 83% of Americans want to write a book, so what if you gave them a free how-to guide? You don’t even have to create this yourself, you could partner with someone who has already created this. If you don’t like that idea, consider (for those of you in the historical fiction market) doing a did-you-know piece on the history you’re referencing in your book. The idea here is to a) give value, and b) give your readers something they will care about. Also, whenever possible, give your readers something they need to keep so it will remind them of you and your book: tip sheets, workbooks, reference charts. All of these things are pieces that your consumer may keep, which can keep you top of mind.

6. Take names: You should never give free away without asking for an email address. I see people do this all the time; they have a ton of free stuff but never collect emails. If that’s the case, the freebies you are offering may be of great value to your end user but they won’t matter to your marketing. Get emails. It’s called an ethical bribe. You get something (their email) and give them something (the free stuff).

7. Make it easy to get: Don’t make free difficult. What I mean is make it easy to get your free stuff. If people have to jump through hoops, they won’t do it and the free stuff won’t matter. For example – put your free stuff on your home page, or at least have a link to it, though I recommend using free stuff as an ethical bribe (as a way to get sign-ups for your newsletter). When you ask for their email, make it easy. A simple click or two is all it should take. Then, don’t ask for too much information. If you ask me for my address, birthday, and whatnot I doubt I will want your free stuff that badly. Shorten the staircase. If you make it complicated, it’s not really free. Just bait. If you bait your consumer in this fashion. You’ll lose them.

8. Make the free stuff work for you: If you give away something, make sure that it works for you. What I mean is that when you get our free stuff, we always make sure and remind folks of who we are and what we do. For a while we had a free Twitter e-book that always went out with our product catalog imbedded in it.

9. Call to action: Make sure that your free stuff has a call to action. You are collecting names and email addresses and building your list, that’s great. But what do you really want people to do? Define what you want them to do, and then include your call to action in the free stuff. Let’s face it, it’s a good piece – designed to help your reader – but it must also help you. It’s ok to promote your book on the last page, or encourage folks to do a consult with you if that’s what you offer. You can also offer specials and change these periodically in the giveaway.

10. What will you give? People often ask me what you should give away, and I say, it depends: Who is your market and what do they want? Now, on our site you’ll see 52 Ways to Sell More Books, which is an e-book we offer when you sign up for our newsletter. Do our folks want that? You bet. Why? Because they are authors and authors want to sell more books. A special report or e-book always makes a great freebie, maybe you have a white paper that you did on the industry; if so, offer it as a freebie.

11. Follow up! The best kind of free stuff is, as I like to call it, the gift that keeps giving. Auto responders are a great system but often underutilized when it comes to marketing. If you are collecting names and then never contacting your prospects again, what’s the point? Our 52 Ways to Sell More Books is delivered over several weeks, and then when we’re done, we deliver more quality content. People need to be reminded, and reminded again. Now, you can also funnel folks into your newsletter as I mentioned earlier. I do both. We have the auto responder and the newsletter. Think it’s too much? Maybe, but our market wants information. Define what your market wants and then give it to them. If a newsletter and an auto responder is overkill, then scale it back. No one knows your market like you do.

The real key here is that free stuff can work well for you in so many ways, but free stuff without a goal is just free. Great to get free stuff, right? But then how is all of this hard work going to pay off for you?

If you still aren’t a believer of free, try it for 90 days and see if it doesn’t change your life. If you do it right, free will monetize your audience like nothing else will. The biggest reason is that in an age of pushing things on consumers, your audience really wants to sample what you have to offer before they buy. Free is a great way to do that. It’s also a great way to stay in front of your audience, build trust, and develop a loyal following.

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These days, you can’t go into a coffee shop, bookstore, or turn on your television without hearing about social networks like Facebook, and Squidoo. These sites have exploded in recent years with members and an influx of money that’s kept them growing.

The idea behind social networks isn’t a new thing, but the concept of socializing online developed and morphed as more and more people spent time in front of their computers. The idea being that you could socialize, network, gather, communicate and meet friends in an online venue, rather than, let’s say a coffee shop. Years ago, before social networks, we met people in clubs, organizations, bowling leagues. We may not have had “profiles” like we do on these social networking sites but the concept was still the same: like attracts like and similar interest-based people gathered in places that supported these common interests.

As we continue to delve into this Web 2.0 world, you’ll start to see more niche social networking sites like those built for wine-lovers, car lovers, and book lovers. The more focused a site can get, the more the network expands. And how many sites should you be on? As many as are appropriate to your message and you have time to manage. If you’ve got a book about cars then by all means, join the car lovers network. Got a book about travel? There’s a travel lovers social network as well.

Social networks, also referred to as social media, are places where people can join and become members of an online community. And why does this matter? Well, for a few reasons. First off, consider the Internet one big networking party. As such, you really want to participate, right? So you show up at the networking party (in this case Facebook or Squidoo) and you network. Meaning you connect with others who are interested in what you are doing. And much like a real-time networking event, you give first and ask for the sale later. In fact in most cases you don’t even ask for it. If you give enough, eventually you’ll make the sale.

People join social networks for a variety of reasons: to socialize, share and/or self-promote. The one caveat to this is that social networks are not receptive to marketing messages or sales hype, but those sitting on these sites are looking for answers and advice. In fact, your presence on a social networking site should be 80 percent education and 20 percent sales. Users on social networking sites want friends, mentors, experts and guidance. If you can offer this to a social networking site or sites, you can certainly grow your list.

The Right Way to Approach a Social Networking Site

There’s an old saying that goes: fake it till you make it. This is not true of social networking. You can’t fake anything. The best sites are those with an authentic voice. Social network members can sense an individual who is pretending to be just an “average joe”, but is really just looking for a quick sale. In fact the worst thing you can do is constantly promote your book.

Users join social media sites to socialize, learn and get to know what you’re offering. Be helpful or be gone. That’s the motto of the social networks. Remember that social media (much like anything on the Internet) is a trust-based model. You gain trust by helping, advising, educating, or enlightening your readers. Seth Godin, who started one of the best social networking sites out there today (Squidoo.com) is a great example of what to do when promoting yourself. He offers helpful advice, tips, insight but rarely promotes his book. Does he sell books? You bet he does but he’s helpful first, and a sales person second (sethgodin.typepad.com). The point is, gain someone’s trust and you’ll probably gain a sale too.

Tips for Social Networking Sites

The first piece of this is to figure out what your message will be online. If you’re going to expose details of your brand, book, business, or life, figure out what you want to expose or I should say, what’s necessary to expose in order to get your message across. This is important because once you start branding yourself on the ‘Net via social networks, you want to be consistent.

Next remember that the first word in social networks is “social,” that being said, these networks only work if you interact with them. Whenever appropriate (and this will vary from network to network), join groups, be sociable, be interactive. Participate. You can’t just show up at a party and sit in the corner. Well, you can, but you probably won’t get asked back.

If you can spend a half an hour to an hour or so a day on your networks, that’s great. Don’t overdo the time you spend on them or you’ll burn yourself out. If you can use the social network feeds to have them syndicate your blog to the site, the updating of your social networking page will be done for you. To a greater degree anyway. You’ll still want to get in there and tinker, update content, add friends, etc.

Fan Pages and Facebook

Since Facebook is the dominating force out there, let’s talk for a moment about Fan Pages. Why would you want one? Well first off, you’re in the business of marketing and as such, Fan Pages are business pages so you’ll really want to consider pulling your book-followers off of your profile and sending them to your Fan Page. Also, Fan Pages are indexed and searched by Google so you’ll get great ranking with a Fan Page, more so than you would with a Profile.

Fan Pages, once you know your focus and message, are easy to create and update. You just want to stay on message and know what your followers want.

Tips for Effective Social Networking

Leverage other social media: if you have a strong presence on another social networking site like Twitter or YouTube, then I recommend that you use that to promote your Facebook Fan Page. Let folks know where to find you and never, ever forget to add “Follow Me” buttons to your website pages and your blog.

Tagging: you can drive more interest to your page by tagging an author or a popular Facebook page to a status update, photo, or video. It’s easy to do this in Facebook, you can also tag an article that a high profile member ran on their page.

Step outside of your social circle: try getting away from your inner circle and migrate out to other people who might be good networking opportunities. While it’s fun to stay connected to all your college buddies, that’s not the main focus of your Facebook page.

Selling on Facebook: Facebook now has an application that can add a store page to your Facebook Fan Page. What this means is that you can start selling your books and products from your Fan Page.

Slow and steady wins the social media race: the best Facebook pages (and this is true for any social networking site) are built over time. Slow growth is best when it comes to social networking sites, so don’t force a sudden surge of growth. This will also keep you from getting booted off if you add friends too quickly. Facebook watches for people who are adding hundreds of friends at a time and will lock your page if they think you’re over-promoting yourself.

Don’t be shy: the purpose of Facebook is to connect and interact with other members, so don’t be shy! Interact with people on your friend list by commenting on their news, and pictures, and/or wishing them a happy birthday. Doing all these things will help others to get to know who you actually are instead of just knowing your name.

Content, content, content: remember that it’s important to add content. You can do this by uploading a video, adding the RSS feed from your blog, and a variety of other things.

Keep updating your Page or Profile: don’t let your profile get stale. Update your status, add photos, and answer wall messages and emails.

Add your Facebook page to your blog: make sure and add your Facebook page to your blog. You can have your web person take care of this for you; it’s a simple widget that gets added to let people know you have a Facebook profile.

Social media is a great way to market yourself and your book. When Facebook is integrated with other social networking platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Squidoo, it can be an enormous boon to your inbound marketing campaign. Just remember, your website needs to convert the folks you’re sending there.

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Round one goes to Random House, which “won” its battle with Wiley Agency’s Odyssey Books over digital rights. Wiley created Odyssey to publish e-books and signed an exclusive deal with Amazon to offer e-books of 20 classic titles, from the likes of Philip Roth, Martin Amis and John Updike, which Random House promptly protested. Since most of the Odyssey authors had print deals with Random House, the publisher claimed the digital rights as well; this week the matter was quietly settled between the two groups. Wiley has not released any statement about the resolution, but Random House announced that it will shortly sell 13 of those 20 Odyssey titles at various online sites (not just Amazon). For more, check out http://on.wsj.com/9DRGkA.

The battle for the future of Barnes & Noble gets ugly, with Len Riggio, chairman of the board, working hard to urge shareholders to reject any offers from Ron Burkle to purchase 30% of the company. Publishers Weekly breaks it down, http://bit.ly/b8tBqf.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention digital books and digital reading devices. Amazon.com was back in the news this week as its newest Kindle (called K3 by customers) started shipping. Reviews of the new device, which is lighter, slimmer, faster and offers better screen resolution, have been uniformly good and the first wave of K3 owners seem quite happy. Meanwhile, additional devices are entering the market at low prices, a color e-reader will be available soon, and everyone is waiting to see the price wars that will develop – especially around the holidays.

In other publishing news:

* The 10 highest-paid authors; James Patterson is at #1 with $70 million, http://bit.ly/cl7uNr.

* CVS will sell a $100 Sylvania netbook and a $179 e-reader this fall – Tylenol not included, http://bit.ly/dcUxDo.

* The words ‘Climate change’ and the ‘vuvuzela’ leave a mark on the Oxford Dictionary of English, http://bit.ly/9NELYm.

* ‘Get Ready for Ads in Books,’ (product placement in TV, movies paves the way), http://bit.ly/cQrQHm.

* ‘Breathtaking Adaptations: 13 Classic Books Transformed Into Graphic Novels,’ http://huff.to/bm7ubg.

* ‘Obama Gets Franzen Novel Early, and Publishing Panic Ensues,’ http://nyti.ms/9qBYTy.

* ‘Booksellers Brace for ‘Mockingjay’ Landing’ (and have high hopes for a bestseller), http://nyti.ms/b8ttOS.

* Check out the e-readers coming soon to Borders, including a tablet, http://bit.ly/92sZHb.

* ‘Medieval Copy Protection – the Book Curse to Keep Thieves at Bay,’ http://bit.ly/aok7PT.

* ‘Fusion: The Synergy of Images and Words,’ (great photos of readers with their books worldwide), http://bit.ly/9f0Xdw.

* ‘Aluratek’s E-reader Cracks the $100 Barrier,’ http://bit.ly/a9cFvX.

* Try the Ray Bradbury quiz in honor of his 90th birthday, http://bit.ly/byaLFQ.

* ‘Homer the Memoir Cat Gets a Comic Book,’ http://bit.ly/aH4Ad8.

* ‘Color Comes to an E-Reader, the Literati,’ http://nyti.ms/cFH36P.

* ’6 ‘Flashlight Worthy’ Children’s Books to Read After You Finish Mockingjay,’ http://huff.to/d9CIdy.

* ‘HarperCollins Releases Kids’ iPhone Apps,’ http://bit.ly/99rEUi.

* ‘The ABCs of E-Reading: People Are Reading More, Even While in a Kayak,’ http://bit.ly/bpJkcp.

* New Laura Lippman thriller sells more e-books than hardcovers, http://bit.ly/aYU5H1.

* ‘Empty Space: 40+ Stunning Minimalistic Book Covers,’ http://bit.ly/aIb4QM.

* ‘Cakes and Cupcakes Inspired by Books,’ (amazing and mouth watering!), http://bit.ly/cU751F.

* ‘Five Books to Read After Checking the Egg Recall List,’ http://bit.ly/bGAY53.

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There are many benefits to having a small blog, including feeling less pressure to achieve certain goals and the ability to do pretty much whatever you want – whenever you want. This session focused on discussing the issues small bloggers face and providing some tips for bloggers who might want to expand their reach.

There are many reasons bloggers blog:

* Practice writing

* Update family and friends

* Share interests

* Enjoy their art

* Build an audience

* Change the world

And the truth is, it’s a lot of work to grow your blog, get readers and comments. That first comment is addictive; many bloggers then think they should have more. That means time and work: Typically bloggers use a combination of Twitter, commenting on other blogs, guest posts and a variety of other tactics such as Facebook and other social media sites to increase their readership.

With the millions of blogs out there, it can be difficult to get that growth even if you do apply the recommended tactics… and is that what you really want or need in the first place? Blogging is supposed to be fun, but it’s less fun when bloggers fall into the mental trap of worrying about what they need to do to be bigger. All bloggers have to decide what their goals are and how much work they’re willing to put in to meet those goals.

Having a small circle of readers and commenters allows small bloggers to know their audience personally, and for many, that’s a big plus.

Additional advantages to having a small blog include:

* Blogging when you can or want to – take vacation, enjoy your family, just take time off, it’s OK

* Not following or reading blog stats – no stress from trying to keep up with anyone else

* Not caring about fame or money – no sponsors to pitch, no pitches to clog your email

* You can write for yourself – write what you want without worrying about offending sponsors or even readers

Bloggers should think about why they began their blogs in the first place, and if their blog is for them, and they’ve got some readers, then it’s meaningful. Consider the concept of “an audience of one,” and decide who it’s for.

In addition, smaller bloggers usually don’t deal with some of the problems that the larger blogs do, such as anonymous negative comments. However, each panelist talked about that one post that got a lot of traffic for them and included some negative comments – for Nora it was an open letter she wrote to The Gap about skinny jeans for toddlers that continues to receive negative comments today. It just goes to show that you can write something, post it, and it will take on a life of its own regardless of the size of your blog.

There’s no magic to growing your blog – the blogosphere does have millions of blogs so there’s a big crowd to compete with for attention – but essentially using social media such as Facebook and Twitter to share your blog posts, commenting on other blogs, holding contests and having guest bloggers can help make your blog stand apart. These activities do require a time commitment and to work, have to become a regular part of your blogging. It’s a personal choice for each blogger whether that time is worthwhile.

Still, small bloggers admit that all of them have faced the feeling that they should be doing more, writing posts that generate comments, checking their stats and so forth. At some point each blogger will have to figure out how to let those feelings go if they want to make peace with their small blog. Celeste probably summed it up best: “I ignore my stats for the same reason I don’t have a scale in my house. It is a drug.”

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First, Search Engine Marketing expert Susan Gilbert discussed a free new social site: BearHug, http://bearhugapp.com/welcome.

BearHug offers three main features:

* pulse for messages – you can send updates through the web, Twitter, email, RSS, SMS

* answers – your community can ask you questions, which you and other BearHug members can answer

* first rate ratings and reviews allows members to receive and share feedback, opinions and results

There are some great possibilities here, and Susan said she’d have an update once she had more time to see how all the features work. Check it out, it’s free!

For additional resources and tips, check Susan Gilbert’s website, www.susangilbert.com.

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About our guest: Jo-Anne Vandermeulen hosts a weekly live Blog Talk Radio show, “Authors Articulating,” http://www.blogtalkradio.com/prempromotions, where she shares marketing and promotional tips for writers. Learn about the importance of online marketing, as well as tips and insights into top social media networks such as Facebook, Amazon Connect, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads and more! A published author, Jo-Anne’s first book, a women’s fiction (suspense/romance) called Conquer All Obstacles was released in November 2009. Her latest book, a non-fiction resource titled Premium Promotional Tips for Writers, was released in December 2009. She recently created a new online business where she supports and markets her fellow writers: Premium Promotional Services, http://www.premiumpromotions.biz. She offers free marketing tips to authors at http://joconquerobstacles.com.

Jo-Anne knew she needed to build an author platform for herself, and was determined to learn how. She began to read and seek information on how to market herself and her book. She discovered a lot of great resources online and began to write about them on her own blog, figuring that she could help others as she was learning. Ultimately, Jo-Anne branched out from blogging about marketing tips to also offering marketing services for authors.

Helpful Shortcuts for Social Media

All authors have to market themselves, she says, but there are so many options available that it can be overwhelming to develop a strategy. And no one can be online 24/7. Fortunately, there are shortcuts available that can syndicate your content to various social media sites. That way, you only post material to one site, and that content will automatically post to the other sites. TweetDeck, http://www.tweetdeck.com/ for one, allows you to syndicate material to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn; click once and your content appears on all of those sites.

Jo-Anne notes that you want to make sure there isn’t too much repetition of your message online, because then you seem like a spammer. The goal is to be approachable and interactive with your audience. This applies particularly if you use more than one syndication site, like Ping http://ping.fm/ – you may want to send different messages through this site to set it apart from the messages you post to TweetDeck or another syndication site.

Twaitter, http://www.twaitter.com/, allows you to schedule tweets to run at given times; SocialOomph https://www.socialoomph.com/ is similar. This way you can schedule several day’s worth (or more) Tweets and free up your time for other things.

Getting Started on Platform-building

Jo-Anne recommends http://www.booktour.com/ to begin. The site is free, and once you register you can upload material. It’s like having a one-page resume for yourself, and everything is conveniently in one spot, no searching through computer files and folders.

Every social media profile should have a link back to your website – be proactive! Many authors forget simple steps like this, but it’s important to make it as easy as possible for people to find you – and contact you – online. Authors should also not be afraid to get online and try the sites, make mistakes and learn from them.

The top three social networking sites online are currently Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Before LinkedIn, YouTube held the #3 spot, it just goes to show that social media is constantly changing and evolving. Authors should have profiles on the major sites and use sites with syndication (such as TweetDeck, Ping and SocialOomph) to keep their material updated on those sites. Authors can’t put all their eggs in one basket – have accounts on various sites, and some help via syndication, to ensure that the sites are updated frequently.

Another important site for authors is Goodreads, http://www.goodreads.com/, which features a mix of authors and readers. Goodreads is simple to navigate and has an author program designed to help authors promote their books: http://www.goodreads.com/author/program.

Facebook is a must but tougher to navigate, Jo-Anne notes.

The Importance of Blogging

In addition, authors should create their own blogs. There are a number of free platforms, including WordPress http://wordpress.com/ and Blogger http://www.blogger.com/home. A website is mostly stationary, but a blog is a place where there’s interaction, and it’s a place where readers and fans can see you and your books in a more personal setting. Your readers are looking for a more intimate relationship with you, and you can build fans if you have your own site and contact place.

Susan Gilbert notes that WordPress is a platform and can be deployed on its own account with its own domain name to create a website (as Author Marketing Experts did with their revamped site, http://www.amarketingexpert.com/).

Susan adds that WordPress is search engine friendly so you can never go wrong developing a website using a WP platform – and you can import it when you have a custom site done.

Jo-Anne says authors should make sure their book/product is selling high up on their websites (appearing “above the fold,” so to speak) and to make their buy buttons very clear – it’s a call to action.

Authors should also include a photo of themselves on their site. Even if your book is not published, most readers will be interested in you before your book is out, you are important and need an author platform.

For blogging topics, think of an area of expertise, your niche – something that when you write about it you can’t stop because it comes naturally. Make sure you give valuable content to your readers, something they want. When targeting your audience, think about who will be purchasing your books, and figure out how to find them and attract them.

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Upcoming Episodes – Please join us Sept. 7 for Pursue Your Publishing Dreams with Marc Allen

Publisher Marc Allen believes in encouraging people to go for their dreams, and daring to do what they love — and then showing them how they can get wonderfully rewarded for it. Publishing for him has always been a vehicle to realize his greatest dreams. Books have completely changed his life, and can change the world. Join us to learn what Marc has to share! About our guest: Marc Allen is an internationally renowned author and president and publisher of New World Library, which he co-founded (with Shakti Gawain) in 1977. He has guided the company from a small start-up with no capital to its current position as one of the leading independent publishers in the country. His latest book is The Greatest Secret of All. It may be Marc’s most important book, because it gives us not only one of the clearest explanations of the “secret” of creating what you want in life, but also the far greater secrets of a life well-lived, a life of happiness, inner peace, ease, and fulfillment, where you contribute to making the world a better place for all. Learn more at http://www.newworldlibrary.com/ and http://www.marcallen.com/.

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How can a blogger measure his or her influence online? This session examined the importance of traffic, the value of high traffic and what bloggers can do to give their blogs an edge.

The focus for many years was on blog hits, and then turned to unique visitors (the number of individual people looking at a blog). Now, the focus is on how many human beings are reading your site, what they do when they are on your site and how much time they spend on your site – which shows how engaged they are. Bloggers should review their blog stats to see where people are coming from – a New York Times article, Google, another blog, etc. Examine the “bounce” rate, too. Do your visitors land on your site and leave right away or do they visit multiple pages on your site? The goal is to get visitors to stay on your site, by motivating them to a call to action – ask them to subscribe to your blog, retweet your blog post, sign-up for your newsletter, etc. You want to create a funnel to bring readers in and give them a goal or goals so you can track them on your site. You can learn all these things by using tools like Google Analytics.

Influence can be very nebulous but comes down to how you are affecting your readers. People mistake popularity for influence, but if a site has a high number of visitors who take little action, that blog has far less influence than one in which the users follow up in some way. Although it’s not easy to quantify loyalty and trust, it’s something most bloggers recognize when they do have it.

Measurement Tools

Google Analytics is one way to measure influence. Twitter Analyzer is another tool that can help – tag the links from your blog when you post them to Twitter, and Twitter Analyzer will help you measure who came to read them and whether those people who found you on Twitter clicked through to your site.

Look at referring sites, it’s a good indication of your influence; for instance, if you get a lot of links from high-ranking sites like the New York Times this will make your blog more influential. All links are important, but you really want the links from bigger sites. Google Analytics can provide a filtered keyword report and that way you can evaluate whether your SEO and keyword tactics are working. This program will also let you see where your “bouncers,” the ones who click onto your site but leave quickly, come from. Conversion University is the tutorial program for Google Analytics so you can learn to use it.

Google Page Rank gives sites a ranking from 0-10 to rate influence based on an algorithm; a 5 is good but a lower number doesn’t mean your blog isn’t doing well. If you’re part of a niche online it may be difficult to go higher than a 2 or 3. The Google Toolbar is free and includes the GPR measure. You can work to improve your GPR by getting more inbound links to your site from high-ranking sites. The easy way to build up your rank is by building activity, relationships with other bloggers (even smaller sites) because having a lot of those links is valuable. Be clear, sharp and concise in your blog writing so it’s easy for others to Tweet your posts. Use pithy headlines, using phrases such as “5 Ways to,” “Secrets of,” “How to.” Have your blog categories “above the fold” on your site so they’re easy to find and for visitors to click through. Images can also be an effective way to keep people on your blog.

The goal is to have a variety of links on your site: inbound links from other sites; internal links that lead visitors to other pages on your site; outbound links to other people’s blogs or websites – if you don’t link to others, they won’t link to you. However, if someone asks you to link to them, check out their stats first – if they don’t have a good ranking it’s not going to help you to link to them. In fact, it could decrease your GPR. The quality of the links matter because Google tries to define what you’re about, so links from “like-minded” sites count the most in building your online credibility and ranking. Practice “safe linking,” because when you link to another site you’re creating a partnership whether you like it or not.

Compete.com and Alexa.com also allow you to examine the traffic statistics of people who visit your site. These are all free tools and are not always accurate, but they can be used to establish a benchmark for your blog stats. Additional free tools include Wordtracker.com, Google Adwords and Postrank.com.

PR people do ask bloggers who do product reviews and giveaways for media kits, and they are looking for information including coverage (particularly from larger media), whether you’ve been featured in any local broadcasts and site statistics.

Building Engagement

Leaving comments on other blogs (not overly promotional comments, leave comments when you really have something to say) and inviting comments on your blog are great ways to build engagement and measure your influence. Don’t get tied up in the number of comments you get – it’s only one indication of your influence. Others include GPR, subscribers to your blog’s RSS and links. Google’s Feedburner.com can help you track your subscribers.

It can be a challenge for bloggers to break through, but you can own a specific niche and be influential. Protect your brand – don’t do every giveaway and product promotion out there, if you’re going to do promotion of any kind, reach out to brands you love and make it personal. Tell them why you would make a great fit. And when growing your presence and influence ask yourself: what do you want people to do when they go to your site? Then, develop a plan to make that happen.

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