Build Your Online Marketing Plan for Authors

This class is based on methods in Stephanie Chandler’s newest book: The Author’s Guide to Building an Online Platform: Leveraging the Internet to Sell More Books.  Stephanie is a great resource and always over delivers …. if you want to get a ton of info about getting started - or advancing - your online marketing skills for book promotion at a very reasonable price, check out this event:

http://author-teleclass.eventbrite.com/

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My experience with RITR was good - I ran an ad for three months and ended up having approx 12 radio interviews. I am considering running more but my issue is time more than anything. I am a VP of Marketing and Communications at a major east coast firm and it simply takes the bulk of my time. I recommend them highly but realize that a certain % of your interviews will be with small stations or “internet talk radio”, which have small audiences. The experience gained was worth it for me as I now feel much more comfortable with the entire process.

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Over all I thought it was a good investment - there are a lot of people out there wanting your money to promote your book and RTIR was one that I actually got a lot of publicity through. Not sure if it broke even on profits through book sales but certainly got me a lot of radio interviews and even a local TV

That said, I got a much better response to some adverts than others. So my one bit of advice to you is not to let them push you in to an angle that you just don’t like or don’t resonate with and if you get say, a 4 month package, ask to have a new advert put in each month rather than having them run the same one over and over.

Also you will probably end up being told that Steve Harrisons Publicity summit is a great idea too. I went on it (spent a bundle) and got absolutely nothing for it so my advice on that one is to steer clear. It’s just not worth the price they charge.

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The answer is not Yes or No…the answer is: “it depends”. As a marketing and PR consultant to publishers and authors I can say that it has definitely been worth it in the past when we have represented big names like Ripley’s Believe it or Not! We had a great response with those ads. With our current ad, I would say the results are very modest in comparison.

If you do go ahead, make sure to utilize the assistance of their writers (they incude that service for free when you book an ad to help with the wording) - they know what tends to get attention and even though at times I felt their approach was a bit too “cheesy” - they know what works and what doesn’t.

More responses soon - sorry I have been off this blog for awhile. Been busy getting my speaking program going. All for now.

Mark

I have seen this list (or variations of it) over the last few months.   It has some standard stuff but should be useful for other authors looking to promote and market their books through their websites

I have no idea who originated it or I would give them credit.  Que sera sera …

1. Write and submit articles to the article directories.

2. Leave comments on other people’s blogs with a backlink to your site.

3. Answer people’s questions on www.answers.yahoo.com.

4. Post in forums and have a link to your site in your signature.

5. Write a press release and submit it to www.PRWeb.com.

6. Advertise your website in the appropriate category on www.CraigsList.com.

7. Give an unbiased testimonial on a product/service that you have used in exchange for a backlink to your site.

8. Start a blog and submit it to the 100’s of free blog directories.

9. Manually submit your website to the major search engines.

10. Optimize each page of your website for a particular keyword or search phrase.

11. Add a link in your email signature to your website. It’s a free and easy way to get a little more traffic.

12. Make a custom 404 error page for your website redirecting people to your home page.

13. Use PPC search engine advertising.

14. Add a “bookmark this site” link to your webpages.

15. Have a tell-a-friend form on your site.

16. Send articles to ezine publishers that includes a link to your website.

17. Hold a crazy content and make it go viral.

18. Give away a freebie (ebook, report, e-course) to keep people coming back to your site.

19. Add an RSS feed to your blog.

20. Submit your site to any related niche directories on the net.

21. Participate in a banner or link exchange program.

22. Create a software program and give it away for free.

23. Purchase the misspellings or variations of your domain name, or those of your competitors.

24. Buy a domain name related to your niche that is already receiving traffic and forward it to your site.

25. Pass out business cards with your domain on them everywhere you go.

26. Start and affiliate program and let your affiliates send you visitors.

27. Start a page on social networking sites such as www.facebook.com.

28. Submit a viral video to www.YouTube.com

29. Conduct and publish surveys to your website.

30. Find joint venture partners that will send you traffic.

31. Start your own newsletter or ezine.

32. Use a autoresponder or email campaign to keep people coming back to your site.

33. Purchase ads on other sites.

34. Send a free copy of your product to other site owners in exchange for a product review.

35. Sell or place classified ads on www.eBay.com with a link to your site.

36. Post free classified ads on any of the sites that allow them with a link to your site.

37. Exchange reciprocal links with other related websites.

38. Network with other people at seminars or other live events.

39. Purchase advertising in popular newsletters or ezines.

40. Advertise on other product’s “thank you” pages.

41. Create a free ebook and list in on the “free ebook” sites.

42. Buy and use a memorable domain name.

43. Do something controversial.

44. Create an Amazon profile and submit reviews for books and other products that you have read.

45. Start a lens on www.Squidoo.com.

46. Use a traffic exchange (low quality traffic, but can sometimes be worthwhile).

47. Get referrals from similar but non-competing sites.

48. Create and sell a product with resell or giveaway rights and include a link to your site in it so others can pass it around for you.

49. Email your list. If you don’t have one, get one.  Soon.

50. Buy a pair of sandals; get your website engraved on the bottom and walk on the beach, stomp in the mud or play in the snow.

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This was my original email I sent out to approximately 45 individuals and/or their agents asking for feedback on their experience with RTIR as an effective medium for publicity and getting Radio and TV interviews for promoting your book:

Hi,

I saw your ad in a copy of Radio-TV Interview Report that I received as a part of their promo package to potential advertizers.

I just started the promotion campaign for my book (noted below) and am considering putting in an ad myself. I wanted to know if you were satified with the investment, results and the services you received with RTIR. Any kind of feedback would be useful in helping me with my decision. Yes/Good, No/Bad or any comments you would care to contribute would be appreciated.

Thanks and good luck with your own promotions,

–
Mark T. Rafter, Author
“The Wealth Manifesto:
Transforming Your Life from Survive to Thrive”

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These are the dozen or so brief responses that I got (some were very detailed and had great advice which I will start in with next time).

• YES!!!! RTIR Is great. Just make sure that you approve of your ad. I recommend it highly.
• I don’t know that I sold a lot of books as a result, but I did around 20-25 radio interviews as a result. I got on several national shows.
• It was absolutely worth it.
• It’s ok, not that great.
• Yes as far as radio goes it was quite effective
• I was generally satisfied, though it results in WAY more radio than TV bookings
• I personally did not think it was worth it.
• I ran ads for about 5 months. I had quite a few interviews that went well from one point of view but not ONE SALE of my book and just one inquiry re a speaking gig. Could have been me. For what it’s worth.
• I got a lot of radio interviews… And my film was not yet ready.. So hard to judge by sales… But by exposure, yes! Got a lot, and plan to advertise again when the companion book is ready…
• The first couple of months wasn’t that good. I had a total of 4-5 small station interviews. The last month we ended up doing about 15 radio interviews, although I sold very few books.
• The Investment at RTIR was great.I did 52 interviews from the 3 ads.
• It all depends on what you want to achieve with your ad. For me it was worth because of a few radio interviews I got. I didn’t get anything else than that.
• I think it is worth a shot or two so you can feel the waters
• You will get interviews. This effort alone will not give you success.
• RTIR was good for my project.

There you go … real results from real people. Alll for now.

Mark

PS - Hey, Steve Harrison … I’m giving YOU free publicity here for your magazine. How about you comp me a spot in RTIR for The Wealth Manifesto?

Does anyone recall what is going on in The War?  Or more accurately, The Wars, since there are two of them happening right now that involve the US of A.  Could be they are sharpening their smart bombs for Iran too but it does not count as a third war just yet.

It’s The Economy Stupid has taken over everyone’s consciousness and the coverage of what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan has taken a deep left field bleacher seat in terms of news coverage.  This is part of the danger … an ongoing cost that goes on indefinitely while we electronically print money, piling up debt that will be passed on to future generations.  This is not what got me ticked off enough to write this.

Does this sound familiar:

“We have adopted a plan which we have worked out in cooperation with the government of (the country we are occupying) for the complete withdrawal of all US ground combat forces.  As the forces of (the country we are occupying) become stronger, the rate of American withdrawal can become greater.  I have not and do not intend to announce a timetable to our program.”

Just pop the word “Iraq” in there for (the country we are occupying) and you have Curious George W Bush’s oft repeated milque-toasty platitude about troop withdrawals for most of 2007.

But guess what?  This is not a quote from Dubya.  Nope my friends, this is nobody other than our dearly departed and disgraced Chief Executive Richard M. Nixon speaking about Vietnam on November 3, 1969.

Anyone that totally dismisses the similarities between Vietnam and Iraq is doing too much meth.

And why are we in Iraq?  Just about anyone with a brain at this point figures it has something to do with oil, which is of course, one of the big issues with the economy.  So if we are concerning ourselves with the economy we are KINDA thinking about the war.

Or something like that.

These are scary times my friends.

Update to email campaign effort - This took a lot of time to get together and whereas it did produce some sales (20 books) and another 40+ signups to my newsletter, the results were not consistent with the level of effort. I did however learn a lot as I had to figure out how get a video on the offer page, do some copywriting and a few other things. These will all come in handy later so it forced me to learn some new skills.

Tip on Press Releases - As reported in the last blog, I uploaded press/news releases to a number of sites. I was rejected from 3 sites. One was because my entry was not ecommerce related. OK … fine. The other two were because I have too many line breaks. DO NOT put any line breaks in anywhere besides the end of the paragraph. Specifically:

This is an example of a first paragraph followed directly by another paragraph…the CORRECT WAY. The next paragraph follows immediately with no open space. Promoting your book is good for you. Eat your vegetables. Buy low. Sell high. Never sleep where you throw up.
This is an example of a first paragraph followed directly by another paragraph…the CORRECT WAY. The next paragraph follows immediately with no open space. Promoting your book is good for you. Eat your vegetables. Buy low. Sell high. Never sleep where you throw up.

This is an example of a first paragraph followed by another paragraph and an additional line break…this is the INCORRECT WAY. Promoting your book is good for you. Eat your vegetables. Buy low. Sell high. Never sleep where you throw up.

This is an example of a first paragraph followed by another paragraph and an additional line break…this is the INCORRECT WAY. Promoting your book is good for you. Eat your vegetables. Buy low. Sell high. Never sleep where you throw up.

Just thought I would let you in on that one as I had to do them over to get accepted. There are, by the way, plenty of reasons they may reject you. Dont take it personally, just figure out what you did wrong and fix it.

Think like an entrepreneur - failure is not the opposite of success, it is a part of success.

First off: PROMOTING YOUR BOOK IS A PAIN IN THE BUTT.

Seriously, this takes a lot of time. OK, rant is complete.

My latest thing was sending out press releases on the launch of The Wealth Manifesto. Couple of things on Press Releases (you can learn more about how to write them elsewhere):

1. Write them as if what you are putting in the PR is going to be used verbatim by someone else in talking about you or your book. This actually happens online of course where what you write is posted in it’s entirety. In more traditional media (i.e., print), your copy may be lifted exactly to fill out someone else’s review of your book. Which is great if you do a good job in the first place
2. Make it somewhat “newsworthy.” Just an announcement is OK; an announcement about a book that has to do with current events, controversy of some kind or other things that are more than you just promoting your book (which you are of course doing) is better

My press release can be seen on my main site here.

These are the Free online press release sites I have tried so far. It takes awhile to wade through as most of them you have to register to enter an item for broadcast. Save yourself some time and

a) make a list of the URLs and the username and password that you used to sign up

b) have a master file that has the i) title ii) summary (often limited to 200 characters or less) iii) body of the release and iv) contact/for further information summary.

you will have to cut and paste this same info over and over again so having it handy will make things go faster once you get moving.

1888PressRelease.com – requires registration

24-7 Press Release – requires registration

ClickPress.com – requires registration

eCommWire.com – requires registration; my press release was actually turned down from this site. This is what I got in the email: Denial Reason: Ecommwire is a press release service for ecommerce-related articles

Express-Press-Release.com – no reg

Free-News-Release.com – not working

Free-Press-Release.com – requires registration

Free-Press-Release-Center.info – have to register before you can even see where to submit. When I did a search on my press release/book title today, this was the first site (I had submitted to) that showed up.

More sites and results when I get around to the others on my list. I am going to spread them out a little bit to keep the “news” current.

I live in the boonies. A gated community in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains NE of Sacramento on the way to Lake Tahoe. Gorgeous out here. Also far from any major city.

This can, of course, be a good thing.

There are a couple of smaller local papers: I doubt the combined circulation is 6000. So I called the senior editor/general manager of both papers. They both answered their own phones.

Me: Hi <editor’s name>, my name is ~ and I saw on your website that if had anything I thought was newsworthy to give you a call…do you have a few minutes

Editor: Sure, what’s up?

Me: I am a local author and I have just written a book on generating lifestyle-based income…having your quality of life drive the type of job and income you want to create in your life and not the other way around. There is a lot in the book about how I believe that everyone should be a bit more entrepreneurial (I go on a bit more about troublesome economy, housing crisis, retiring baby boomers, lack of adequate funds for retirement, etc).

Editor: Sound interesting, I’ll have a reporter call you. Can you send (some info - blurb on the book, cover graphic, contact information, etc)?

Me: Sure … I’ll send it right over.

The two conversations were similar with a few variations but the results were the same: they liked what I had to say and agreed to follow up. So, some pointers:

1. Do your research. Start at the top if you think it will work. Know who covers the topic area where your book would fit (e.g., lifestyle or business would have been my choices).
2. Make it interesting to them: why do they care … or more importantly, why do their READERS care.
3. I can say that my topic is pretty compelling to start with but I also tied it into current events, and that makes it news.

Something, in theory, the newspapers are in business for reporting. My first interview is in two days.

I’ll get back to you then.

I promised I would start providing a summary of the blog at the top in case I get over infatuated with my ramblings and lose you. That way you will have got the important part.

What I have done … it seems like it took two weeks … is collect up every email address I have in many different email accounts to send a notice about my new book, The Wealth Manifesto. Each group of addresses typically comes from one thing or the other that I have been a part of over the last 5+ years or, in a few cases, a group of people that had their email addresses collected up for me.

I have an opt in list that I started not too long ago - 100 plus names. These others are lists of whatever emails I have from … whatever!

For example, I have lists for: my 30th year HS reunion, a reunion for another company I worked for 15 years ago, a list of all the people I have ever dealt with in the real estate world (I am a RE broker and investor), a list of the people on this huge program I worked for as a satellite systems consultant with Lockheed (I am an electrical engineer as well), etc.

I have composed a general email that I then tailor just a tiny bit to each group to reflect how I know them, how long its been, what’s up, etc.

The emails all link to the obligatory splash page I set up with the sales copy, headlines and subheadlines, offer, bonuses, testimonials, guarantees. If you create or buy any info products you will recognize the drill.

You can see my recent book promotion efforts on the special offer site here. Go ahead … buy a book (make my day!)

Technically, I dont think I am spamming all these people (even YOU may have received an email from me OH MY!). I am only going to send it once and I make this real clear in the email (”… not sure of some of addresses, please accept my apologies in advance, will never receive anything from me again, etc. etc.”).

I suppose that could be open to interpretation. I sent the emails out this morning and have sold a modest 5 books … probably only 150 addresses so far (have not done the two big ones with 1000+ each). I have also posted the note to several online groups although one moderator blocked it as ‘a commercial.’

Who asked him anyway? You may want to consider bribing a moderator with a free copy if you get stuck in this predicament. Dont be a pain it the butt; tell them what you got, what you are doing and let em tell you what they think.

Dont know if it will work but what the heck.

Yeah? So what? It’s my blog anyway. The new policy and approach part is true though. Sorry to disappoint you budding first time authors who belong to greenpeace. You were probably thinking you really found something.

Rule 1: Dont write stuff in your blog that you can find elsewhere on the Internet. A few posts ago, I went on and on about amazon.com bestseller campaigns. You can learn about that elsewhere. The WHOLE point of this blog is to let you in on what I am doing and the results a real live normal guy (OK .. that may be a push) is experiencing in book promotion. After all, most blogs are a bunch of mental masturbation anyway … all of us typing away for our own self aggrandizement.

NEver has so much been written by so many and read by so few …

Rule 2: At the beginning of the blog, I will put in the one or two sentence summary of just what exactly is useful about the blog you are about to read. That way, once I get all enamored with my own verbal blathering, you can bail out having got the important stuff right off the top.

Unless you are heading off to somewhere useless (the odds are good for that) and then you might as well read what I have to say. I’m not boring.

Sound good? OK … we’ll start with the next entry