Promoting and Marketing Your Book Online: 8 Things You Can Do Tomorrow

Marketing your book (or other product or service) is critical for success and Internet marketing is an area you’ll not want to ignore. Your own author Website is a great start to having an online presence, but actively developing a more diverse online presence through book marketing will produce greater results. To see results from your book marketing activities, you must set time aside each day (or other regular time period) to work on two to five marketing activities. To that end, take a moment right now to block out time for online marketing over the next six months.

Use the time you’ve set aside to execute Internet-based programs in your book marketing plan. No plan yet? No problem. You will of course want to finish your marketing plan so you can refine your activities, but begin tomorrow by starting on one or more of the following:

Volunteer for Online Interviews

We are all familiar with television and print interviews. What you may not realize is that podcasts, Webcasts, blogs, RSS feeds and newsletters (ezines) are all venues for online interviews or discussions. You'll want to approach publishers who conduct interviews with authors or guests your area of expertise, so finding opportunities will take some research. Do this by searching general search engines (such as google.com) or directories. Some directories to get you started: podcast.net (podcasts), ezinehub.com (ezines), syndic8.com (RSS feeds/blogs)

Identify 10 Bloggers Interested in Your Subject

Then send them your book as a gift. The idea is to expose your book to influencers in your category by giving them an opportunity to try it free. If they like it, they may give it a mention in their blogs. Note that this is a subtle online marketing technique. Unless the bloggers do book reviews, the idea is NOT to advertise to them, ask a favor of them or ask them to blog about the book. Choosing to mention (or not mention) it should be solely up to them.

You can find and read blogs by searching blogging directories such as technorati.com.

Seek Out Online Book Reviews

Some Website publishers and bloggers who publish reviews also write them.  Others seek out book reviews from independent reviewers. This means gaining online book reviews is a two-pronged approach: (1) Send review copies directly to online publications that accept them and (2) send review copies to independent online reviewers.

The better you target your review requests, the more likely reviewers (and their readers) will be interested in your book. When searching for reviewers, include your subject matter or category together with book reviews in your search terms. Examples: children’s book reviews, business book reviews, etc.

Rather than search in the big search engines, look in directories such as those mentioned above in “volunteer for online interviews.” Also, some article directories and many major directories have book review categories. For links to some of these, go to: http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/SLPA#Book Marketing - Reviews

Join an Online Network

Online social networks allow you to set up a profile page and interact with others who have your same professional or personal interests. Each caters to a different type of audience and there are do's and don'ts, so you'll want to read about a network before joining, read some of the profiles and learn a particular site's rules before plunging in. Some networks to explore: linkedin.com, ryze.com, myspace.com, orkut.com, friendster.com, tribe.net, tagworld.com 

Write an Article or Book Excerpt

There are many free content article directories on the Web that allow authors to post articles or book excerpts (Some have a book review section also). At the end of the article you are allowed a resource box where you can tell about yourself and your book. You will also want to link to your author Website or other online store where people can get more information or buy your book.

In return for being allowed to post your material, you must allow it be reprinted in publications at no charge. This can dramatically expand your online presence.

Go to http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/SLPA#Article Directories for links to article directories.

Create an Exclusive Offer On Your Website for a Specific Target Audience

Time-sensitive promotions give people a reason to act – a reason to buy your book NOW. Offering promotions exclusively to a group (a trade group, your newsletter subscribers, festival-goers who visit your booth, etc.) is even more compelling. It is relatively easy to set up a custom page online for each group.

Test Two or Three Versions of Your Book Sales Page

Unlike printed brochures, you can easily adjust any element of your sales page and test its effectiveness with page rotator software (or a script). If you set up your buy links (or other call-to-action) so that you know from which version an order or action originated, you will know which version is better at converting your visitors. Several page rotators are available online. Search on “Page rotator.”

Find Out Why Your Website Visitors Aren’t Acting

Visitor surveys can uncover issues or gaps in your Website, which lead to opportunities for improving your Website conversion rates. Attention spans are short on the Web, so keep it simple. For example, here is a quick 3-question survey that can result in much insight:

1.      "On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to ___________."
(Fill in the blank with your call-to-action – what you want visitors to do after they arrive on your Website).

2.      If you answered 6 or less to question 1, please tell me why.

3.      May I email you later with follow-up questions? If so, please fill in your email address (note, your email address is strictly for follow-up to you and will not be shared with others): ________________________

Over time, you will notice one or more issues arising in the responses to question 2. These are keys to improving your Website conversion rate (For an easy and free way to survey your Website customers, visit surveymonkey.com). There you have it - eight ideas for improving your online presence. Choose one and get started tomorrow!

How to Calculate where your Membership is Headed

Last month was really busy. I met with many organizations who are looking for help after a distressing 2009. And some of them do not realize just how much trouble they may be in going forward.

When I meet with groups, I use a simple method to calculate where their membership is headed given their current metrics. It is called a Steady State Analysis.

Using your current data, you can also do this analysis to see what the ultimate equilibrium of your association membership count will be. You can also use the analysis to model where it might be if you add more new members or have higher renewals.

To do the calculation, you only need two numbers; your renewal rate and your total new member input from the past year. Here is how it works. You take your new member input from the past year and divide it by your lapse rate presented as a decimal. So if your renewal rate is 80%, then your lapse rate is 20% or .20.

For example, 20,000 New Member Input / .25 Lapse Rate = 80,000 Steady State Total Membership.

Here is the formula: Annual New Member Input / Reciprocal of Renewal Rate (or Lapse Rate) Shown as a Decimal = Total Membership Steady State.

Here are three examples of how you can project your future membership.

• A 75% renewal rate and 8,000 new members per year will result in a steady state membership of 32,000 members
• An 85% renewal rate and 2,000 new members per year will result in a steady state membership of 13,333 members
• An 80% renewal rate with 5,000 new members per year will result in a steady state membership of 25,000 members

One other thought to consider. From my personal observation, the organizations that I am seeing in the most distress are those that pulled back from marketing this past year. Groups that continued to aggressively market membership actually came through the year in much better shape. This confirms some of the research that we shared at the start of this recession.

Insider's Plan to Make Money Online

The new year is creeping up on us. One year past, another fresh one in our midst. What will we do with this 12 month time period? Will we change our lives? Will we start making money from the comfort of our own home?

From personal experiences, I know making money online can be challenging. For a long time all it was for me was a dream. Deep down I knew it was something I wanted, but I would never commit to it fully.

What finally did it for me was my dislike for working the 9-5. Waking up each morning, driving to work, being told what to do, and having to request time off for important things like spending time with my family and friends. It never felt right to me, I needed a change.

This urge kept me motivated, and led me to success online. If you feel like I did, I am sure you understand.

Now we are nearing a new year. What better time to create a new direction? All it takes is motivation and a plan.

The motivation is the easy part – who doesn’t want to work from the comfort of their own home and make more money than they could ever make working for someone else. Who doesn’t want to take any day off whenever they desire and wake up when they want?

Now, the plan. Fortunately, this part isn’t that hard either. There are many simple ways to accomplish this goal, all you have to do is implement it.


Insider Plan #1 – Paid surveys online

Doing paid surveys online is a great place to start out if you are a beginner. You don’t need to know anything about selling or websites, all you have to do is sign up and start filling out surveys. You get paid for the surveys you complete, and you can fill them out at your own leisure. Check out http://SurveyFarm.com for more information.


Insider Plan #2 – Affiliate Marketing


Affiliate marketing is another great plan for those just starting out. All you have to do is find a product to promote online and create a personalized link for yourself. That link will track all the sales that are generated when people click on it and you get paid 50% or more of each sale.


Another great thing about affiliate marketing is that all the tools and instructions that you need to succeed are provided for you by the company that you are promoting for. Essentially, all you have to do is sign up and follow some simple steps. Check out http://FastCashFire.com/affiliates.html to learn more about this amazing opportunity.


With some basic motivation and a clear plan, success online will be yours. A new year is a great opportunity to bring new direction into your life, and making money online is a great place to make your dreams come true. I wish you success and a Happy New Year!

Direct Mail Advertising. Email Is Not Like Postal Mail.

One of the most popular and potentially effective advertising methods is direct email. If you deliver a well-written message and execute delivery properly you will be rewarded with new leads, sales, and traffic to your Website. If the message is poorly written or you commit a netiquette faux pas, however, your efforts could end in disaster. If you are new to Internet marketing, you might equate direct email to direct postal mail. The concepts are very similar; in both you broadcast a standard message to a large number of individuals in hopes of receiving positive responses. To the uninitiated, it is logical to assume you can approach the two in the same way. It seems like the only difference is the means of communication. If you are thinking this way, STOP! STOP! STOP!

Many people perceive unsolicited commercial message (UCE) - spam - differently than junk mail from the postal service. The sender pays for direct mail sent through the postal service. Not so for UCE. Spam on the Internet ties up the recipient's resources by using storage space, slowing down systems, and sometimes crashing equipment. For this reason and others, many abhor spam. Some assertively condemn spammers. If you spam you will undoubtedly be reported to your ISP and email provider. Depending on the circumstances, your accounts could be closed and your Website may be shut down. Need I say it? This is NOT the result you are looking for from your email marketing program.

Some email advertisers feel that as long as there are unsubscribe instructions in the email or they only send one message it is okay to send unsolicited email. A few use never-passed legislative proposals in their defense. In marketing, perception is far closer to reality than loophole rationalizations. Some recipients are offended whether the unsubscribe phrase is there or not and they are offended even when they receive only one message from you.

Different individuals define spam differently. Some consider all forms of UCE or unsolicited commercial postings spam. This means that if you send advertisements without prior permission from the individuals you will get complaints. In all likelihood you will be reported as a spammer. Because service providers generally have user agreements that are stricter than current U.S. state and federal laws, you are likely to be reprimanded, have your site shut down, and/or be put on a blacklist if you send out UCE.

What Can Designing Your Business Card Do For You.

If you want to make a good impression on colleagues, associates and friends, a well designed business card can make a huge impact on potential clients and on your business. It reflects on your professionalism and its design can tell volumes about the sort of businessperson you are.

A designer should take into account various factors while designing a card. A business card design requires creativity and imagination of a designer. You should create a card in such a way so that it appears professional and reflects the true value or vision of a company. One should keep a standard size of the card.

It might take some time to determine what the image of your business should be. In some instances, you might create several business cards that portray your business in slightly different terms. If your company works with a wide range of clients, this might be effective. Some businesses need to portray a certain image. Those involved in financial matters should have a professional business card design that will inspire trust. If your business specializes in artistic or creative pursuits, a business card should reflect this.

Many websites allow users to design business cards online with easy. Before starting the design online, you need to have a clear idea of the information elements of your business cards - the information about you and the information about your business. It’s very common and a great idea to print the URL of your website on the business card.

For example, a wedding planner or better yet, a cake decorator who uses a picture of a traditional wedding cake and traditional fonts on her business card is likely to attract a different clientele than one who uses a picture of a more unusual cake and modern fonts.

It may be tempting to use an unusual font for fun, but make sure your text is legible. If your card can't be read easily, there's little purpose in having one in the first place.

A business card can easily be created using Word, and you can personalize it with your choice of text style and graphics. Alternatively you may wish to design a card for a society or association with which you are involved. Think carefully about what information you want to include on your card, and double check that all your contact details are correct.

If you have experimented with spacing and formatting, but find you don't like the results, the quickest way to remove the changes is to click on the Undo button on the Word toolbar of your personal computer. Each click you make takes you back a stage in the development
of your document. If all fails, have the card printed at your local print shop, save the document onto your hard drive
then copy it onto a floppy disk.

The way we interact with business cards has changed however the importance of having a business card that represents your business has not. Meeting someone for the first time face to face is still brings out traditional tried and true business card. The lasting impression, the memory jogger that can set you apart from everyone in the room.