Marketing Your Book with a Blog: 10 Tips to Attract more Buyers (You do have a blog, right?!)

Patsi Krakoff | Published 09/19/2007 | Marketing , Blogging , Internet Marketing | Unrated

Marketing Your Book with a Blog: 10 Tips to Attract more Buyers (You do have a blog, right?!)

Books and blogs seem to go together like butter and toast. It doesn't matter whether you use your blog to develop content for your book, or you create the blog for marketing the already finished book. Some people have started calling this powerful combination "blooks," books that are derived from blogs.

But they only work well together when you implement these important tactics.

1. Use a domain name for your blog that relates to your book title so becomes known and "findable." If your ideal domain is already taken, use a version of it such as "YourBookBlog.com," or "YourBookOnline.com." Forward that domain name to your blog so when people type in "YourBook.com" it goes to your blog site.

2. Continue the branding process for your book by creating a customized logo for the book and putting it in the header of your blog. The use of your customized branded header will mean your book gets instant recognition, and your blog will stand out from all the cookie-cutter look-alike blogs.

3. Participate in the blogosphere: Read and comment on other blogs in your field. This is a prime way to build readership of your blog. It is also a way of getting fresh content for both your blog and for your book Check out other blogs in your niche: use blogsearch.google.com, technorati.com or google.com.

4. Submit your blog to the 200+ blog directories. You can do this manually (10-12 hours of time), or there is a service that will do it for you for $125: snipurl.com/Blog_Directory

5. Use your blog to collect names and email addresses of potential customers and clients. Make sure you have a subscription form on the upper corner of your blog, from a service like FeedBlitz.com. This service sends automatic email updates of your new blog posts to interested potential readers/customers.

6. Podcasting � create audio files easily by scheduling teleclasses and recording them. Some people like to get their information auditorily and at their convenience by downloading mp3 files to their iPods. Use a free teleconferencing bridge line like freeconference.com to host a call. Record your call, upload the audio file and then post to your blog or podcast using a service like audioblog.com. (As an added benefit, you can get these calls transcribed; then convert the word doc to a PDF file which you can either give away, or sell, in exchange for people's email address.) CastingWords.com is a fast, affordable transcription service.

7. Use a newsletter to email to your list, and give readers regular updates about your book, your teleclasses, and your blog posts. You have to encourage them to visit your blog or they will forget you. You also have to educate them about your blog, and teach them to comment on it. A newsletter is an additional way to do this and complements your blog.

8. Sponsor a virtual blook tour, and participate in your own, by getting into a network of bloggers who will support you and your book. Bloggers are known for their link love, and their propensity for sharing other people's information. When you do this for others, they reciprocate.

9. Run a contest from your blog, giving away something fun and coveted, like an iPod. While this may seem expensive, it is actually low-cost marketing, considering the number of new email addresses you will collect into your database.

10. This 10th tip isn't about blogs, it's about the best automated way to manage your database, your digital downloads, your newsletter broadcasting, your affiliate program, and your ad tracking, as well as sales. Get a Kick Start Cart system, which will manage all this for you. There is a learning curve involved in setting it up, but worth it as you will be able to control your marketing efforts with one system. snipurl.com/KickStartCart

For more leading edge Internet Marketing tips subscribe to The Blog Squad's ezine Savvy eBiz Tips at http://www.savvyebiztips.com To learn about using social media tools like blogs, go to http://www.buildabetterblog.com Denise Wakeman & Patsi Krakoff are The Blog Squad and can be found online at http://www.blogsquad.biz

Starting A Home Based Business With Little Capital?

by Alan Lim

Commuting to and from work everyday can take its toll on every person who may have spent five or ten years of his life waking up every morning and dreading the traffic, the pollution and the now-familiar faces of his officemates. Because of this, working at home has always been an attracted option for almost everyone.

Not everyone can start a home based business from scratch. A home based business to make money from home, no matter how simple, will require capital and resources. But the twenty four dollar question being asked by most people is "would it be possible to start a home based business with minimal capital?"

A home based business to make money from home is generally cheaper to establish compared to a regular business primarily because the former will require minimal overhead. A big part of capitalization needed for a regular business will go to the initial and monthly rent expenses but this is not necessary for a home based business.

Household facilities like telephones and refrigerators, computers and other office equipment can also be used for the home based business so there is no need to put up additional capital for these. The only capital you have to put up is for marketing although you can be creative and still use existing materials for this.

There are plenty of home based business to make money from home ideas to choose from depending on your hobbies, interests and experiences. If you are good in cooking and budgeting you can start with a catering business. You do not need to buy anything else except your raw ingredients and perhaps some basic professional dishes for catering. You can start with the business using the ordinary kitchen utensils you have and you can invest on more professional equipment as you earn from the business.

If you own a computer and a printer you can already start a printing and computer home based business even with minimum capital. Among those you need to buy includes extra ink for your printer, and perhaps bond and specialty papers. This home based business to make money from home will require your creativity and computer experience so no need to invest more than what is necessary if you are still starting the business.

Another cheap home based business is photography and photo editing. If you have a digital camera and a computer plus you have the basic knowledge in photography and digital photo editing and storing then you can already start the business. You can start a home based photography shop, taking advantage of the fact that most people are too busy to go to malls or photo shops to have their pictures taken. Most clients would need photos for job and passport applications.

You can also offer photo restoration or transfer of their existing photos to CD.

There are other home based businesses to make money from that requires little o no capital at all depending on the resources you already have. It is a matter f researching and taking stock of what you know, what you have and what you intent to put up as a business venture.

Can I Increase Traffic To My Website With RSS?

by Franck Silvestre

If you have a website and you are currently selling a product on the Internet, you need to know that rss can increase traffic to your website dramatically.

Since there are million of websites on the Internet today, and you have a lot of competitors, you need to use every technology available to get higher search engine rankings.

Surfers behavior has evolved other the years, and today, email marketing is not the sole holy gray of your Internet business.

He has no fear of being subject to spam, and therefore, the visitor is happy to add your site to his reader. He thinks that he is in control and he can choose to click and visit your website when he wants.

People are usually in hurry and don't want to waste their time, and prefer scanning instead of reading.

Furthermore, surfers want up to date information, and with the thousands of websites in any given subject, it is really hard for a busy man (or women) to find what he is searching for.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (or Rich Site Summary). RSS will help you to increase traffic to your website because...

You will get better search engine position.

I use an blog with RSS feed enabled to get my sites in the top ten rankings in Google, MSN and Yahoo.

Tip: use wordpress for even better rankings (specially in Google). I don't really know why, but Google love wordpress more than other blogging platforms like type pad and bloggers itself!

You need to use a blog for this technique to be even more effective. It is common to get first position in the search engines for low competition keywords just because you switched to a blog, or you added RSS to your website.

Another reason to use RSS to increase website traffic is that surfers are fed up with "useless" e-zines.

Today, every person who spend more than one year surfing the Internet knows that most of the email newsletters are in fact... a big sales pitch.

For this reason, they don't give you their email easily.

Seth Godin said it best: now it's the area of "permission marketing", you need to gain the respect and admiration of your visitor.

When he appreciate your work, and see that you are a real expert on the subject, he will be the first in line to buy your products or affiliate product recommendation.

When you are involved in any online business, your content becomes really important. I'm sure you already heard the famous "content is king".

Without good content (and good products), you readers will only be one time readers, and it is the exact opposite as what you want for the success of your online business.

Now, it's up to you to add wonderful content, and choose great headlines that will appeal to your niche market.

RSS is a technology that you need to add to your arsenal. Whether you add RSS to your site, or you decide to blog, you will increase your traffic almost overnight.

FREE Google AdWords

by Dean Carlson

A new breakthrough secret is all you now need in order to get your Google AdWords pay-per-clicks FREE!

A gentleman from New York discovered what he calls an "oversight" on the part of 99.9% of all marketers that allows him to get otherwise paid-for advertising at Google as well as all other search engines that allow sponsored ads.

And no, nothing about his "secret" is illegal - nor does it require that you know someone on the "inside" at Google, Yahoo, MSN, Overture and others.

Instead, the New Yorker boasts proudly "...this is something that I caught onto just before 2000 when there was so much search engine craze running around, and started doing small just to test things at first ... but which I later expanded on after getting the hang of it."

This same fellow went on to start and operate sixteen separate online companies selling everything from pet food, DVDs, children's toys & games, books, software, and sold not only his own manufactured products but became an affiliate for other web businesses - all the while applying his mastermind secret.

Over the course of nearly eight years the New Englander confesses "I've actually gotten over $87 million in advertising that using my secret I never had to pay for ... and the largest share of which was more recently in Google pay-per-clicks as well as other forms of pad advertising at search engines ... all of which I got for free ..."

So powerful is his secret that he's able to monopolize any niche online, and can always secure the top premium spots just above the usual organic results featured at most search engines.

He still has to set up an account with the search engines - but after applying his secret he is removed from having to pay for all the costs otherwise involved. Again, nothing about his secret is either illegal or robs from the search engines. One spokesperson from one of the most popular search engines said chuckling after being made privy to this amazing secret "Wow! Ha! This is really unique ... and in my expert opinion it would only serve to enhance and bring more business to us at [name of search engine withheld for legal & confidentiality reasons] and not cause us to lose business in the slightest. Amazing!"

The northerner revealed that in this nearly eight years' period of time since applying his secret he's done well over $300 million in sales revenue with a most diverse line of products, and most recently in the last two years netted nearly $166 million after really "buckling down and pressing my secret to its fullest potential."

Now to everyone else's fortune, the city slicker is releasing his secret for getting an unlimited amount of pay-per-click ads to the general public. But he's not promising any of us for how long.

A bit of an eccentric, the gentleman says "We'll see just how long I can make it available before it saturates things."

One famous public web guru pointed out that although this man may gain economically more so as a result of the publication of his secret "he's already so amazingly rich that whether he continues or discontinues its sale will neither make nor break the man, but not grabbing it for yourself while it's still available could prove disastrous for you as you may only have one chance, and a very limited one at that, to get this."

It is currently available at:

http://goldenopp1.freegoogle.hop.clickbank.net

...so you may want to head on over there now and get it.

It's in a very easily readable format and is quickly and readily understood and mastered by anyone with even a 4th grade reading level.

While you're there, why not scroll down and review for yourself the huge successes others are now having with this incredible breakthrough in targeted advertising now made freely available to the rest of us?

To your success,

-Dean