Internet Marketing for Authors This booklet is a best of

Internet Marketing for Authors This booklet is a best-of selection of Internet marketing pointers for authors, compiled from a list of books and websites that have proven useful to many a newbie Internet marketer. To go into more depth on any subject, check out some of the following titles: The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Business Online Web Design for Teens Podcasting and Blogging with GarageBand and iWeb Web Design for Dummies The Non-Designer’s Web Book Naked Conversations: How blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers Jump Start Your Book Sales The Savvy Author’s Guide to Book Publicity Jason R. Rich Maneesh Sethi Robin Williams and John Tollett Lisa Lopuck Robin Williams and John Tollett Robert Scoble and Shel Israel Marilyn and Tom Ross Lissa Warren Table of Contents A short list of online promotional opportunties Why should an author have a website? What to consider before creating a website? Choosing the right content The Author’s website Home page Title Cover art Author name Summary Order now button Links to other pages on your site Excerpts/additional material Author bio page Testimonials Upcoming books/projects Other services Press room/online media kit Value-added content for your website Excerpts from your book(s) Book club information Worksheets and content for teachers and students 2 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 1 8 Teaching classes and workshops Public speaking appearances: Refer the audience 8 to your website 8 Podcasts 8 Vlogs 9 eBooks 9 Key eBook websites 9 Writing for the web What to consider before selecting an ISP/web10 hosting service 10 Web-hosting services 10 A typical web-hosting offer 11 How to register a website 11 Spreading the word about your website Submitting your website to search engines 11 and directories 12 Registering your site with search engines Search-engine submission and optimization 12 services 12 Specialized search tools 13 Traffic 14 Meta tags 14 Description meta tag 14 Keyword meta tag 15 Linking 16 Find out who is linked to your site 16 Signature files in email 16 What to include in a signature file 17 Blogging 17 Definition of a blog 18 Blogging’s six pillars 18 Blogging and Google—guidelines 18 Remarkable vs. invisible blog 18 Five blog success tips 19 Doing it wrong 19 Doing it right 22 Blog indices 22 E-newsletters 23 Content 24 Format 24 Subject lines 24 Creating name visibility online Promoting your book in online groups and 25 opt-in mailing lists 25 Examples 25 Newsgroups Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 2 26 27 27 27 28 28 28 28 28 29 30 Newsgroup tips Opt-in mailing lists News release distribution Compiling your customized media list Online chats Website awards Your online media kit What you need to create an online media kit What is an online media kit? Content ideas for your online media kit Web marketers • • • • • • • • • • A Short List of Online Promotional Opportunities Search-engine optimization for your web site Search marketing/keyword advertising Internet newsgroups Internet mailing lists Blogging Electronic press-release distribution Sponsoring and participating in online chats, message boards or online communities Publishing an online newsletter (e-newsletter) Sending bulk email to an opt-in list (which is different from sending spam) Creating a Flash animated cartoon that conveys your book marketing message. If done correctly, the cartoon will be sent from person-to-person via email. This is called viral marketing and it can work extremely well. Example: www.jijab.com. • • • • • • • • • • • Why Should an Author Have a Website? To expand your reader base and reach a global market. To build a sense of relationship with your readers. To give your readers, the media and others a way to contact you. To provide an on-line media kit (bio, bibliography, high-res downloadable photos) for reporters. To make it easier for readers to get information on current and upcoming projects, readings, workshops, etc. To broaden awareness of you as an author and create an identity. To legitimize yourself as a writer. A website has become an expected part of doing business. A website is your online “business card.” To provide materials, articles and web links to supplement your book. To sell books (if you have a PayPal account set up, or a link to Amazon). To gather useful market research data (website traffic reports) from your customers and potential customers to help you offer better content and services. Other? Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 3 • • • • • • • • What to Consider Before Creating a Website What is the purpose of your website? What messages or information do you want to convey? What do I want visitors to be able to see and do when visiting your site? What features are important for your site to offer? How will your site be laid out and what will be contained within each of the pages? What printed material (such as opening chapters of books) would you like to provide on your site? What photos, cover art and graphics would you like to include? Who is your target audience? o Gender o Age o Married/Single o Income o Values o Hobbies o People in specific career field/industry o Education level o Geographic location o Or any other type of group you can define and reach through targeted marketing • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Choosing the Right Content Home page Your latest book Bibliography of works Upcoming projects Classes/workshops offered Schedule of upcoming readings/appearances Blog or link to blog (if have one) Page to encourage visitors to sign up for your e-newsletter or for occasional updates Author bio Media page News Answers to common questions, FAQ Link to Amazon or other online bookseller, or PayPal icon Contact info Other? The Author’s Website You should have a website that includes information about how to order your book but also includes information that is interesting to visitors—no one wants to visit a static page that is basically an advertisement. A novelist's website could contain a writing journal you kept while working on your novel, excerpts, additional scenes that you loved but had to cut from the main Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 4 narrative, character sketches. Non-fiction writers can provide timely updates on the information in their book, updated appendices, breaking news in their field, workbook exercises, special reports. Both could include reader surveys, a reader feedback form (you can easily sign up for a free guest book service), fun quizzes, contests and more. Online, readers have become accustomed to be being able to do more than just look at a page. They want to click on interesting links, sample the product before they buy, find out what other people are saying about the book. This is why your author’s website should have a few distinct pages. Home Page The first thing to note about your home page is that it should really reside at YourName.com and/or YourBookName.com (both domains can point to the same website). Having your book and author names registered lends an air of professionalism to your site and your project. Your home page should not contain acres of text. It should contain the essential information and enticing links to other pages. Allowing your readers to click through satisfies their need for interactivity. Title The title of your book should be prominent, large and in an easy-to read font. This is more important than replicating the font and text effects on your cover. Keeping a consistent look is nice, but not if it makes your title hard to read on the screen. Cover art Your book’s cover should be displayed prominently. To avoid long download times, make sure you resize the image. Amazon.com’s images are around 90 x 140 pixels. This is probably a little small for your main page but may be a good size for a ‘thumbnail’ on the subsequent pages. Remember that most computer monitors are set at a resolution of only 800 x 600 pixels. This means you can resize your cover to be 200 pixels wide and still fill a quarter of most people’s screens. The fewer pixels you include, the faster the image will download. Don’t worry if all the text is not legible at these small sizes. You will be reproducing the text in your Title and Author Name sections. Author name This one is kind of obvious, but it’s worth a mention. Don’t skimp on the font-size when displaying your name. Even if you are not a well-known author, you want your site visitor to remember your name. So make it at least as big and bold as the title. Summary A short summary of the book should go in here. Most casual browsers will not stop to read more than about three lines of text, so be brief. Try summing up the themes of your book in one sentence. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 5 Order Now button Have a button or link on every page that allows a browser to buy the book on impulse. Make sure they can complete the transaction right there and then. Links to other pages on your site Down one side of your page or, if you prefer at the top and bottom of your page, provide links to the other pages in your site. Don’t worry about making pretty graphics for these links. Text works just fine and loads quickly even on the oldest browser. Excerpts/Additional Material Readers like to take a look at the text before buying a book. In bookstores they thumb through books; online they read excerpts. Most readers don’t read more than a few paragraphs online, but you should give them a lot to choose from. Giving the introduction and first chapter is a good place to start. Then cut to a scene further on in the book, perhaps one with a lot of suspense, or one that typifies your character’s dilemma, or that illustrates the most interesting thesis of your book. Some publishers put the whole text of the book online for readers to browse. They gamble that few people are willing to read the whole book online, even if it is free, but that being allowed to browse any part of the book will allow them to become intrigued. Author Bio Page This page allows you to tell the reader something about you, the author. As with the cover bio, this should be written in the third person, although you can add a chatty, first-person “author’s note” if you like. If you have written other books, include a bibliography on this page (with links to somewhere they can buy any of the titles that are still in print). Testimonials This is where you get to overwhelm the reader with quotes about how great your book is. You should be collecting comments from anyone willing to say a word or two about your book. Even if none of your reviewers is well-known, the sheer volume of positive quotes can convince a reader there must be something in this book. Upcoming Books/Projects If you have another book coming up, devote a page to building buzz about it now. If not another book, perhaps you have an upcoming project, event or author signing that would interest your readers. Keep the content on this page changing, to encourage people to come back. Create an online journal that you update regularly to let people know how you're getting on with your new project. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 6 Other Services If you offer other services, why not tell people about it? Are you available to talk at meetings? Do you write columns and articles? Give workshops? Do freelance editing? Provide contact information, examples and an invitation to contact you. Press Room/Online Media Kit This is an area for members of the media who might like to write about your book. If they cannot catch you on the phone, and are working on deadline, journalists may turn to your website to find the information they need. Make it easy for them. Include your standard press release and author bio, along with links to high-resolution pictures of your cover, and yourself. Displaying a high-resolution picture on the front page would be wasteful, but journalists may need high-res pictures in order to print. Don’t make them wait until they can get a hold of you to ask for a ‘glossy’. The Press Room should also contain contact information for the author or author's PR agent, along with links to the pages containing testimonials and excerpts. Value-Added Content for Your Website Excerpts from Your Book(s) Excerpts for promotional purposes only. That is, not the full book. Rather something that will intrigue readers and make them want to buy the book. For a simple electronic edition that looks like the pages of your book, you can use Adobe's Acrobat software to create a PDF file. (See Adobe's site.) Minnesota author Alan DeNiro did this with his collection Swimming in the Lake of the Dead. He collected several of his stories in a PDF that was downloadable for free from his publisher’s and personal websites. To include more dynamic content, you can create an HTML edition of the above. This is a format that can be read on almost any modern computer, and is familiar to most people. The disadvantages are that you cannot lock the text to prevent a reader copying it or altering it. Also, it is hard to control exactly how things will appear on your reader's screen, since it will change depending on their monitor, resolution and font choices. Book Club Information You can devote a section of your website to book clubs, providing discussion questions, character sketches and suggestions for further reading. You can also provide a links page. Don’t forget Podcasts (maybe some of your actor friends have dramatized a scene from your book?) and visuals (illustrations, maps, graphs) to support your book. Worksheets and Content for Teachers and Students Maybe your book is ideal for classroom discussion—teacher’s will teach it on their own, or maybe they’ve contacted you for a week-long, in-class residency. Devote a page of your site to supplementary worksheets, school project ideas, interesting historical themes, fun quizzes and links pages that your students can access in advance, during or after the class. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 7 Teaching Classes and Workshops Do you teach? Maybe you’re not even teaching a novel writing workshop. But you can still refer your students to your website to download worksheets for your class, or access additional information or articles you’ve written. While they’re there, they may decide to check out the rest of your site. Public Speaking Appearances: Refer Your Audience to Your Site Use your public speaking engagements to direct people to your site. Perhaps you’ve written a novel, and you’re giving a reading at a library. You might mention your writing process during the reading, and then mention that you’ve uploaded your “writer’s diary” (the diary you kept while writing the novel) to your website. Before the reading, a week or two before, you might ask the librarians if you could put up a display in the library, including desk copies of your book (for people to leaf through); a trifold display with cover art, blurbs or quotes from critics and authors about your book, photos of you, a quiz, a blown-up section of the first chapter, or some engaging paragraph from your book; and a take-away sheet that gives the time and date of your reading along with a suggestion to check out your website and download a free PDF of your first three chapters, along with special content (background research, links to other sites, book discussion questions, Podcasts, etc.). Podcasts Podcasting has become almost as popular as blogging when it comes to broadcasting information. Podcasting involves recording an audio program, like a full-length radio show, and making it available for download in a special file format that can easily be transferred to an Apple iPod MP3 player (or compatible MP3 player). A basic Podcast can be created on your computer by hooking up a microphone and utilizing special software. To learn about Podcasting as a marketing tool and listen to thousands of different sample Podcasts, point your web browser to any of these sites: • www.podcast.net • www.podcastalley.com • www.ipodder.org • www.odeo.com • www.podshow.com To discover how to actually create a Podcast, the following websites will be helpful: • www.gopodder.com • www.castblaster.com • www.easypodcast.com • www.libsyn.com Vlogs Video logs. You can include video clips of interviews with interview subjects or people willing to review your book on camera (but get permission from your subjects). You can include videos of your appearances and workshops. Consider including a video demonstration if your book is about cooking, magic, crafts or other activities. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 8 eBooks You can create a book specifically for the web. Are there any success stories in eBooks? Sure. Leta Nolan Childers' The Best Laid Plans, a Romance novel, sold more than 16,000 copies within a matter of months. However, Childers is a well-known syndicated writer with a large readership. Most everyone has heard about Stephen King's The Plant. He sold more than 500,000 copies of the first part of this online novel in six installments. The publishing community became divided over whether the book was a success after King announced a two-year hiatus on the project. His earlier eText release "Riding the Bullet" was offered both for free and for pay; it made a couple hundred thousand dollars. Another major author to step into the waters of eBook sales is Suspense/Mystery author Frederick Forsyth. By contrast, Scott Adams claimed to have the top-selling eBook for 2001 with God's Debris, which sold over 4500 copies. However, Adams also stated that "it's rare for any eBook to crack a thousand (sales)". Some eBook publishers claim an average of about 1,000 copies per year of annual ePublications. And in the middle of 2002, eTextbooks started earning mention in the news media. Key eBook Websites • www.payloadz.com • www.ebook-hub.com • www.adobe.com/epaper/ebooks/ebookmall/main.html Writing for the Web Remember to keep your site design professional. Don't include automatically playing music, dancing/wiggling/blinking/cutesy graphics, flash movies (or any kind of plug-in-related content). Don't force the visitor to wait while your super-cool gizmo loads. Don't waste your index page on a big "WELCOME TO MY WEB SITE!" Just get to the point. Also, be sure that it's easy for people to find their way around your site. Every page should link back to the main page (preferably through a TEXT LINK, not a graphic). Avoid Javascript menus. Avoid flash menus. You need concise, compelling website content. Why? First, assuming you manage to get someone to visit your site, you want them to hang around for a while and enjoy the experience. If the text is long, it should be broken up over multiple web pages, each linking to the others (or chaining links with previous and next references). You should not put more than 1,000 words of text on a page unless you need to include a lot of text in your whole site. You should not put fewer than 500 words of text on a page, either. The other reason you need content is so that search engines will grab your pages, index the text you wrote and help make your site visible to their surfers. The more text you have on your site, Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 9 the more pages you have on your site, the more frequently your site will be found by people searching for interesting content. What to Consider Before Selecting an Internet Service Provider/Web-Hosting Service • Rates: set up fees, monthly rates, extra charges • Amount of storage space offered (usu. 20-30 megabytes) • Domain name registration services: Does the ISP offer this? • Email: Does an ISP’s web-hosting services include personalized email accounts so that you can easily accept email messages from visitors? How many email boxes will you receive? • Tracking: Does the ISP offer traffic reports or other information you can use to keep track of who is visiting your site, when they’re visiting, which site they linked from, which pages of your site they visited and so forth? Is there an additional cost for this? • Data transfer: How much data transfer/traffic comes with the account, and what are the charges for additional data transfer? Web-Hosting Services America Online Comcast EarthLink Galaxy Internet Services Juno Microsoft Network (MSN) Netscape Internet Service NetZero Platinum Verizon Online Yahoo! www.aol.com www.comcast.net www.earthlink.net www.gis.net www.juno.com www.msn.com www.getnetscape.com www.netzero.net http://dslstart.verizon.net http://site.yahoo.com A Typical Website Hosting Offer Example, Galaxy Internet Service (www.gis.net), $19.95/month plus a one-time $50 set-up fee. • 50MB space • 10 mailboxes • 2 GB of transfer (The amount of data your website sends to your visitors’ browser. If you’ll be streaming audio or video, your needs will be intensified.) • An online-based control panel to manage your website • A real-time traffic statistic report • The ability to update your site Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 10 How to register a website Registering a name is no longer expensive (between $10 and $35 for a two-year term) and you can find any number of hosting companies vying to host your website for very little money. There are even some free services you can take advantage of, although it may undermine the sense of professionalism, if your readers notice that you are hosted on a free service. Good web hosting packages are available for a few dollars a month and allow you to have your own site and your own email address (you@yourname.com). • • • • • • Spreading the Word about Your Website Add the URL (website address) to every piece of printed sales and marketing material. Add the URL to your letterhead, envelopes, business cards, invoices, press releases and media kit folders. Hyperlink readers of your e-newsletter back to your website for more information. Send an email to your existing mailing list to announce your website’s launch. Promote it offline when you’re giving readings and classes. Promote through online ads (http://cob.jmu.edu/wrightnd/buyingsellingadsmay98.htm, a website that discusses the buying and selling of website ads). Submitting Your Website to Search Engines and Directories Using any search engine, if you use the keyword or search phrase “search engine,” you’ll see listings for hundreds of web directories. However, more than 90 percent of the web-surfing public uses only the top 10 search engines, which include Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista, AOL Search, HotBot and WebCrawler. Definitely register your website with these: Yahoo! Google HotBot AltaVista About AOL Search Ask Jeeves Lycos MSN Search www.yahoo.com www.google.com www.hotbot.com www.altavista.com www.about.com www.aol.com www.ask.com www.lycos.com www.msn.com Knowing that a search engine, web directory or information portal is the first place web surfers go to find what they’re looking for, your first step as an online author should be to ensure your site is prominently listed with all of the popular services. No matter what type of book you’ve written, focusing on website optimization and achieving good placement on services such as Yahoo! and Google will drive more traffic to your website on an ongoing basis, especially if your search-engine optimization is done correctly. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 11 Registering Your Site with Search Engines In order for search engines to list your website, you must first register your site with each individually. When visiting any search engine, look for a link that says “Suggest a URL,” “Add a URL” or “How to Suggest a Site.” You’ll then be provided with details on how to proceed with listing your website for free. Each search engine follows a slightly different process for site submissions. Search-Engine Submission and Optimization Services The process of obtaining a prominent listing placement is called search-engine optimization. There are many third-party services you can hire to assist you in listing your website with the search engines and help you achieve prominent placement. You’ll pay a fee to use a service, but you’ll save a lot of time. Keep in mind, once you register your website with a search engine, unless it’s a paid placement, it could take several weeks for you basic (free) listing to appear. The cost of hiring a company to register for you can be anywhere from a flat, one-time fee of under $50 to several hundred dollars per month. The least-expensive service offers searchengine submission only, whereas the more expensive service, search-engine optimization, actually takes steps to ensure that your site will receive prominent placement with each popular search engine. Beware of services that promise to enter you in 400 search engines. How many search tools do you use? You’re better off getting well placed in the top ten search services, plus in any specialty ones that are right for your site. 1-Hit Build Traffic Engine Seeker eSiteBlast Monster Web Promotion Submission Pro Submit Express Traffic Blazer from GoDaddy.com WPromote Yahoo! Search Marketing AddMe SubmitExpress www.1-hit.com www.buildtraffic.com www.engineseeker.com www.esiteblast.com www.monsterwebpromotion.com www.submission-pro.com www.submitexpress.com www.godaddy.com www.wpromote.com http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com www.AddMme.com www.SubmitExpress.com Specialized Search Tools There are many search tools that are very specialized. There are directories and engines that search only subject-specific sites, such as those that focus on travel, women, ancient history, orchids, dogs, humor, business listings, law enforcement, airports, etc. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 12 There are several places on the web to find lists of directories: Yahoo! Google Beaucoup! Search.com Search the Yahoo directory for “search engines” Search the Google directory for “search engines” www.Beaucoup.com www.Search.com; searches a collection of search tools Traffic You need to get traffic to your site. Traffic simply means how many visitors you have. Usually, the first step is to submit your site to search engines. But once you’ve done this, you need to start recording traffic to your site. If your website host doesn’t offer traffic analysis, there’s a free service called StatCounter (http://statcounter.com) that records how much traffic your site is getting. This is invaluable when you want to know how well your marketing is working. You’ll need to sign up for an account. Go to the Register section at the top of the main page. After you finish registering, you can log in to your account. StatCounter will ask you to add a new project. StatCounter gives a long explanation about how their stats work, and you should read it. The most important thing is that StatCounter requires you to add some HTML code to each of your web pages. This code is then loaded every time someone visits your site, and your stats are updated accordingly. Also, you’ll want to type in your own IP address (it’s displayed for you) in the IP blocking section. Otherwise, you’ll get counted for visiting your own page. That leads to faulty stats (you are counted as one of the people visiting your website). When you’re ready to install your code, click on the Install Code button. It’s incredibly important you follow these instructions. Otherwise, the stats won’t work, and in some cases your page won’t look right. As you scroll down, you see a text box that gives you the code you need to insert into all of your pages. If you don’t know how to do this, find someone who knows a little about HTML code to do it for you. The trick is to put the code within the tag, so it’s somewhere in the main code section of your HTML document. You will need to open up all the web pages you’ve created for your site to add the code to them. After you do this, you’ll need to upload each page of your website to your web host again through FTP. To check your stats with StatCounter.com, log in and click on the My Stats button for your project. You’ll get a graph that shows daily activity to your site. If you scroll down, the data is listed for you. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 13 The best parts of StatCounter are the links to the left of the graph. You have items ranging from entry pages to keyword analysis. The following is a list of everything you can access: Popular pages Entry pages Exit pages Came from Keyword analysis Visitor paths Visit lengths Returning visits Recent pageload activity Recent visitor activity Country/State/City/ISP Browser System stats The bottom of the page shows you how many people have spent specific amounts of time on your site. Next to each measure of time is an arrow. Click on the arrow to get a list of information on individual visitors. The arrow does not give actual names of visitors, but it gives their IP address, their location and some information about their system. Meta Tags One of the most useful little pieces of HTML code you can enter on each page of your site is a meta tag. This is really easy code to write. There are several kinds of meta tags, but the most useful ones for you are the description and keyword tags—use both. Not all search engines take advantage of meta tags, but in the results of the ones that do you will see the description you write about your site instead of the 250 characters that appear on the webpage. And you can make sure people find your site when they type in keywords related to your information, even if that word does not actually appear on the webpage. Most web authoring programs include tools for creating these tags—read your manual. *Write down a list of 25 to 50 keywords that can be used to classify or describe your site and what it offers. This information will prove crucial when registering your site with the various search engines, as well as formatting your meta tags. Description Meta Tag Go to the code for your page and type this at the top, after the first tag (it doesn’t matter if it’s caps or lowercase): It might look something like this: Keyword Meta Tag Go into the code of your web page and type this at the top, after the tag: It might look something like this: Now, when someone uses a search engine and enters a search phrase or keyword that’s relevant to your website, a link to your sit will appear. Example of how a meta tag appears in the results of a search engine: The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum site offers highlights from the museum’s collection, a museum store where you may…217 Johnson Street, Santa Fe, NM 505-946-1000. www.okeeffemusuem.org/ - 13k – Cached – Similar pages Linking Chances are if you have written a book with some sort of special interest, you’ve found lists of similarly focused websites. If you would like them to link to you and you are willing to link to them, email and ask them. Chances are, they’ll be more than willing. In fact, one of the ways that some search engines determine if your site is valuable enough to be listed in their database is by how “popular” you are; that is, by how many other sites are linked to yours. So the more links to your site that you help generate, the more likely it is that people looking for you will find you. Fiction writers do a lot of linking back and forth between websites. If you are a member of a writer's organization like Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, etc., you might want to try to collect the web site URLs and email addresses from group members. If it's convenient, get a list of their books, but otherwise just get the title of their most recent book. Add a special links page to your web site. This page will provide links to these authors’ websites. It’s a good idea to get permission from the authors first. They may decided to return the compliment and link back to you. For each entry on your author links page, you may want to include: • Author name • Author web site (if the site has a special name, use that) • A one-sentence description of what kinds of books/articles the author publishes (or intends to publish) • A one-sentence listing of the author's most recent books and/or articles (you do not have to be exhaustive) When you have posted your links page, send an email to each author and tell him/her where to find the page. Send a polite message to each person, one at a time (even if it's fifty of them). Just say, "Hi! I wanted you to know I've posted a link to your web site on my special local Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 15 writers page. You can find the link at http://webpage.com. I hope it brings you some new visitors." You might also think about adding an author interview section to your site. This interviews section gives you an opportunity to chat up other members of your group. Ask interview subjects about their most recent or upcoming book/article/short story, themselves (2-3 questions), experiences (conferences, recent tremendous signings) and anything that comes to come. Get anecdotes. Get positive statements. At the end of each interview, provide a link to the author's site (if they have one) and a brief list of their publishing credits (or, for unpublished authors, what story/book they are working on). Once you have posted the interviews, be sure to send a message to each interviewee so they can see their interviews. Find Out Who Is Linked to Your Site Go to AltaVista at www.AltaVista.com In the Search edit box, enter: link:yourdomain.com You can enter a longer address, as well, such as: yourdomain.com/willacather/antonia.html Signature Files in Email Include a signature file on every email and every newsgroup post. A signature file is a short text message that follows the body of your message—in email or in posts to message boards, newsgroups and email lists. It is frowned upon to advertise a product or service in these forums. If you have a book that might interest the other members of the community, the accepted way to tell them about it is to put some information in a signature file. The each line of text in your signature file should not exceed 50 characters (including spaces). Some email programs, but not all, break lines at around 50 characters. The best way for you to determine the look of your signature file is to introduce your own line-breaks at fewer than 50 characters. Ideally, a signature should not be longer than 4-6 lines in total, including dividers and blank lines. Any longer and it takes up too much space. Any longer and no one will read it. For similar reasons you should only pitch one thing in each signature file. If you have three books on similar topics, okay. Otherwise, create different signature files for different audiences. If you try to advertise everything you do, readers may blip over your signature file without taking anything in. What to include in a signature file: • Title • Tagline Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 16 • • o One sentence tagline: this is similar to a sub-title. It should briefly tell the reader about your book. What is it? Why should anyone care about it? o Good examples of taglines include: Ray Bradbury’s Zen and the Art of Writing, which is subtitled ‘Releasing the creative genius in you.’ This clarifies the somewhat obscure title. Roger C Palms’ Effective Magazine Writing is subtitled ‘Let your writing reach the world.’ This implies that the book is going to help you not only write efficiently but sell articles widely. Martin Fletcher’s book Almost Heaven is subtitled ‘Travels through the backwoods of America.’ Encapsulates the theme of the book. Author name ISBN and availability or ordering information (either a direct link to Amazon or the tollfree number of your distributor). Blogging Neil Gaiman, an author who isn’t exactly short of readers, has hooked many, many more by posting a regular blog about his life as a writer. It is well-written and offers a fascinating glimpse into his life for fans of his books and other aspiring writers. The Gaiman blog doesn't relate to his books at all (except to update readers on how the latest project is going, or where he'll be signing books this week), but it is so entertaining that it is a must-read for thousands of people. A blog is simply an online-based digital diary or forum where anyone can write anything and make it available for the web-surfing public in minutes. It’s a great way to communicate directly, yet informally, with readers and potential readers online. By creating a blog, you can create an ongoing digital diary that gets updated daily, weekly or monthly to keep readers up-todate on everything that’s happening in your writing life. Furthermore, if you allow comments, blogs open two-way communication between author and reader, individual readers and the general readership. This form of communication can strengthen relationships between authors and their public. Most of the popular blog hosting/publishing services are free to use and require absolutely no programming: • http://blogger.com • www.wordpress.org • www.moveabletype.org • www.squarespace.com • www.typepad.com • www.blogomonster.com • http://nebogroup.com Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 17 [The following is adapted from Naked Conversations: How blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. (http://nakedconversations.com)] Definition of a blog “[A blog is] nothing more than a personal web site with content displayed in reversechronological order. New posts are placed at the top of the page instead of the bottom, making it easy to see what has changed. In most cases, site visitors can identify the author and can leave comments for others to see. Blogs are loosely joined to each other through hyperlinks. Find one blog and you can probably spend hours clicking links from blog to blog to blog—many of which talk about ideas and theories and rants on other blogs. This linking means that any blogger who has something to say is part of a global network called the blogosphere. Whether you have three regular visitors and only one link on your blog or 10,000 daily visitors and thousands of links, each posting from every blogger had a potentially huge circulation of 20 million in July 2005, a reach of almost 12 times the circulation in the millions.” Blogging’s Six Pillars • Publishable (Anyone can publish a blog.) • Findable (You can locate it through a search engine.) • Social (The blogosphere is one big conversation.) • Viral (Info often spreads faster through a blog than through traditional news services.) • Syndicatable (By clicking an icon, you can get free home delivery of RSS-enabled blogs. RSS lets you know when a blog you subscribe to is updated, saving you search time.) • Linkable (Because each blog can link to all others, every blogger has access to millions of other bloggers.) Blogging and Google—Guidelines Blog often: “Every time you post, Google notices and that boosts your ratings. Google also pays attention to links—other sites that connect to you. Bloggers who find what you write interesting will post on their own sites and link back to you. Those links also boost your ‘Google Juice’—in fact, nothing will boost your search engine standing better. Neither a press release nor a full-page ad in the New York Times.” Remarkable vs. Invisible Blog • Readers have a choice, they can ignore you. Make a blog worth talking about. • Reader evangelism—enthusiastic word of mouth builds credible enthusiasm, and more readers of your blog/books. • Creating reader evangelists: Continuously gather reader feedback; make it a point to share knowledge freely; expertly build word-of-mouth networks; encourage communities of readers to meet and share; focus on making the world, or your writing, better. • Blogging’s key advantages: Find and join the conversation; feed the network. (You can feed the “news” network at a far lower cost than traditional advertising, etc.) Five Blog Success Tips Talk, don’t sell: People visit blogs to see what others care about and know. Over time, they will either come to trust you or they won’t. If you talk to them, they get to know you. If you sell to them, they’ll just leave. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 18 Post often and be interesting: Posting often helps you with search engine ratings, and being interesting is what motivates others to link to you. Write on issues you know and care about: It cannot be said enough—a good blog is passionate and shows authority. People will take an interest in you because what you write is useful and interesting to them and they trust you. Blogging saves money but costs time: You need to join the conversation by reading other blogs, linking to them and putting comments on them. You need to research what you write about, and check and recheck your facts. You get smarter by listening to what people tell you. Doing It Wrong To do blogging right, be real. Don’t become a marketer on a weblog. The blogosphere will witch hunt you out. Bloggers consistently assault blogs that smack of marketing contrivance. Authenticity is the core value that makes blogging such a new and different way for businesses to communicate. Get a feel for the conversation. Come in listening and watching. Understand the lay of the land before you try to change it. Watch closely those who are being rebuked and why. Silent Damage: As poorly received as contrived blogs may be, staying out of the conversation entirely is worse. Get involved. The Mediocre Way is being boring in your blog—being bland will hurt you and the art you represent. A good blog cannot just remain neutral, cautious or tepid. Doing It Right—Best Practices • Tip 1: What’s in a name? Search engine results. o A more specific title would make your blog easier to find by people who care about your subject. Your blog’s name can help you own your book market niche. o Before you enter your title, it’s a good idea to spend some time, perhaps an hour, doing some search variations to find out what words bring up results similar to what your blog will contain. o Search words, example: author, writer, fiction, young adult, YA, Minnesota. You would want these words in your title tagline to optimize search results. You should also include your name, because blogs should be both personal and unique: Joe Smith’s Blog of Minnesota YA Authors. (You can certainly generate a snappier title.) Go to a blog search service like Feedster, enter your search terms and see what comes back. Notice that the blog title is underneath each post. Tip Two: Read a bunch of blogs before you start. o RSS—Really Simple Syndication o Blog search engines, or RSS search engines, are the best tool for finding blogs that interest you. PubSub provides the best results via RSS subscription. Bloglines Citations is very easy to use and understand, so it’s a good choice for a beginner, as are Feedster and IceRocket. Technorati is valuable because it tells you who’s linking to whom. That’s very important to know. It’s a good vehicle • Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 19 • • • • • • • • • to see how each blog ranks. Technorati has also become a central conduit for “tagging,” a new system for searching and finding photo and text blogs that interest you. You can also search with Google using the word “blog.” Google Blog Search. o To subscribe to RSS-enabled sites, you need a plug-in aggregator such as NewsGator or Feed Burner. However the three most popular browsers Firefox, Apple Safari and Internet Explorer have aggregators built in. Google Sidebar contains an aggregator called Web Clips. o Reading other blogs should help inspire you to write your own—and should give you some ideas of what is already being said and what you might contribute. Tip 3: Keep it simple. Keep it focused. o It’s best to have each post contain just one idea or one set of links. So, if you’ve got several points that day, make them each separate. Tip 4: Demonstrate passion o How do you show passion? Post often. The most popular bloggers post more often than once a day. Tip 5: Show your authority o Blog what you know. Tip 6: Add comments. o A good blog is a conversation, not a one-way PR channel. Allow comments on your blog. Tip 7: Be accessible. o Make it easy for people to contact you through your blog. It’s surprising how many people start conversations with blogs but choose to make themselves unreachable through email or phone. Some bloggers publish their cell phone numbers and email address on their blogs. Tip 8: Tell a story o Think about the elements of a good story: conflict is a powerful tool to use. Love and romance. Name dropping. Case studies also work well. Facts, objectively presented, are strong in certain blogs. Tip 9: Be linky o Link to everyone’s sites. You become the authority by telling readers what’s good anywhere. A good blog will link to everyone, not just those who are friendly to your book/career/industry/theme. Link to your friends and your “competitors.” Be the absolute best resource you can be for your readers, and they will reward your with lots of inbound links. Tip 10: Get out into the real world o If the only way people know you is through your blog, you become onedimensional. There’s a reason why conferences, workshops, retreats, Book Expo America and meet-ups of all sorts are still well attended. Nothing beats face-toface meetings. If you become a popular blogger, go out and speak when you can. Get yourself on panels. Attend meet-up events anywhere that people can see that you are a real person. Tip 11: Use your referrer log o The referrer log is the technology that keeps track of who’s linking to your site and how much traffic those sites are sending you. Read your referrer logs often to Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 20 • • • • • • • • see if someone new has linked to you. One trick is to read the log from the bottom up. Radio UserLand shows who has linked to you from the highest traffic sites to the lowest. TypePad shows you the referrers from most recent to oldest— not as useful perhaps, but TypePad has Trackback, which shows who is linking to each post. o Most referrer logs let you click on the web address of the site that is linking to yours. That way, you can read what people are saying about you. o Even better is the Bloglines Citation feature. It is a referrer’s log, but it also lets you look at who is linking to any site on the web. Just put in an URL, and you’ll get a list of people who are linking to it. Tip 12: Tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth: if someone has a great book or done some spectacular research in your field, link to it. o Link to comparable authors and say nice things about them. Remember you’re part of an industry (publishing). Be better than your competitors—people remember. o Be nice to everyone. Tip 13: Post fast on both good news and bad. o If a critic says something bad about your book, link to it—before the second or third site does—and answer its claims as best you can. It’s all about building long-term trust. o Have a thick skin. Answer questions quickly and nicely. o If you screw up (inaccurate information, etc.), acknowledge it. Give your readers a plan for how you’ll unscrew the situation. o If you don’t have the answers, say so. o Never lie. Never hide information. Tip 14: Use a human voice. Don’t worry about having a messy blog from time to time. Tip 15: Talk to the grassroots first. o Why? Because the mainstream press cruises the weblogs looking for stories and looking for people to quote. People trust stories that have quotes from multiple stories. Tip 16: Under-promise. Over-deliver. Tip 17: Know your influencers. Know the mavens, salesmen and connectors of in your small corner of the publishing universe. Connect with them. Tip 18: Never change your weblog’s URL. You may lose your readership when they can’t find you easily. Tip 19: Tagging o Tagging is one of those simple little innovations that has begun to make big improvements in blog searching. It works like putting a label on a file folder. o At the bottom of the post you simply write the words “Technorati Tag” and then keywords covering the subject you wrote about, such as romance writers, haiku or Minnesota authors. o Over at the Technorati Tag Page, where over 3 million tags were being tracked as of Aug 05, you can usually find a string of code or the word you are tracking and make the link. But just typing the word will let Technorati find you and make you more discoverable. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 21 Blog Indices Due to the relatively juvenile age of blogs, and the dramatically varied content, some blog directories have become known more for a place to list "personal" blogs; ie—Suzy has a blog in which she discusses her cats, the lint on her sweater and how annoyed she is at her boyfriend. Suzy's blog may be listed on several directories, such as Blogspot.com, Blogger.com, etc., but you may choose not to list your blog on the same ones, because you’d rather not be lumped into the same search group as Suzy. And some of these directories also require you to build your blog on their platform in order to be listed—not an option for some, as you may have your own platform and hosting. A big blog index is called Technorati.com. This is a directory that is fairly large, but has been recommended by several serious and established bloggers, e-marketers and business sources. Blogcatalog.com is another. Listing a blog on a directory is a balance between finding individual directories, and applying the rest of your search engine optimization process, to create opportunities to be added to big and selective directories such as Google and Yahoo. Google and Yahoo are big ones to be listed on; however, they are not open listings. They decide which blogs are listed on their search directories, and that depends on the content, the traffic, links, the credibility of your blog and a bunch of other algorithmic hocus pocus. It usually helps if your blog is associated with a legitimate website. You may want to use a Search Engine Optimization submission service called www.submitfire.com ($79.00/year). This service submits your URL to all search engines across the internet on a regular basis and also on demand. It also provides ranking metrics and comparisons, key word ranking and suggestions for improving ranking on the big search engines like Google. The hope is that by using a combination of the above, you can optimize the ranking of your website, and also get your linked blog listed on the big directories. All of this sounds fairly simple, but with the vast content on the internet nowadays, the grinding competition between search engines and directories, as well as the light-speed evolution of technology, it really is more of an art rather than a science. E-Newsletters A newsletter is a great way for you to keep in touch with your readers on a regular basis. This is especially valuable if you have subsequent books, workshops, signings and events for them to know about, or if you want to build up an online reputation. The e-newsletter can be accessed free of charge through your website and/or sent to individuals on your opt-in mailing list. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 22 Some authors send weekly newsletters. But monthly or quarterly newsletters are read more often, in many cases, because they’re received less often. The readership does not become jaded with too much information. Make sure you offer information your readers perceive to be useful, entertaining and valuable. The content should not simply be advertising for what you’re promoting. Consider offering how-to articles, advice, insider news, interviews with experts or other authors. If you decide to offer a free newsletter, create an icon or menu option on your website that prominently promotes the publication and encourages visitors to subscribe to it or access it directly from the site. Content • You can’t offer fluff with an e-newsletter. An e-newsletter is where you introduce your creative work, news and upcoming events, and/or provide informative content that establishes you as an authority or go-to person in your field. • Keep in mind your message can’t seem like an ad. It has to read like interesting news from a friend. In other words, pretend you are writing to one person. Say what you need to say, in a way that would interest that person, and no more. • Be specific. Use rich and concrete language. Make your email something they want to open. • Be relevant. • Your message should be short, direct and appealing. If you have more to say, you can add hypertext links to content on your website. Think of how you communicate with a friend or colleague when you discover a new book or movie that you like. You don’t call your friends and “sell” them on it. You simply talk to them about the experience and invite them to try the book or the movie for themselves. • Tell people just enough to make them want more, and end by asking them to access your site, email or drop by your next online chat or offline author reading. • A good e-newsletter starts with good journalism. Good journalism means including the five W’s and the H: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. • Stuck on what information to include beyond the 5 W’s and one H? Take a piece of paper and jot down the points you want to make in your article. For each one, list three supporting statements. You’ve just created an outline. Now explain each point and supporting statement as you write. • Learn how to write the inverted paragraph. Always assume a reader may never get beyond the first paragraph. It is useful to write all the truly essential information in the first 40 to 50 words. That way, if someone reads only the first paragraph or two, you at least have communicated your essential message. Get to the point fast. • Begin with a headline that is a digest of what the story is all about. If the headline is filled with puff adjectives, it’s going to turn people off. • Always give a date for when you published the e-newsletter and a contact name, email and number. • Always give a source. If a reader needs to verify a fact or wants more information, he or she needs to know whom to contact. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 23 • • • • • Articles should deliver news. Find what is new with your creative work or service and focus on that. Give quotes when necessary. Make paragraphs short. News stories are typically broken up into one- and two-line paragraphs. Use simple words. Don’t double-space; it’s hard to read on the screen. But a space between paragraphs makes the text more readable. Format • Have a meaningful headline/title. (You want to entice people to keep reading.) • Write a short, catchy first paragraph. • Spell out the essence of the story in the next paragraph. • Keep graphics and photos to a minimum. It’s better to use no photos at all if the photos are poorly taken. But a good photo is worth a thousand words. • Keep a lot of white space. Don’t clutter the newsletter with text, photos and graphics. • If it fits, tell a story to illustrate your art, your process, something that’s been going on in your creative life. People love stories. • Use language that is concrete not abstract. Create pictures in their minds with your descriptions. • Offer them something for free. Free remains one of the most powerful or persuasive words in our language. (A free consultation for your editing services.) • Don’t forget contact information. You may want to put it at the top AND bottom of your message. You could also add a short bio if appropriate. Subject Lines: Sending Your E-newsletter by Email • The subject line is the first thing an email account holder sees when she opens her inbox. Email subscribers read the subject lines to decide whether they want to read the emailed e-newsletter or not. So, make sure your subject line becomes an enticing headline. • Think of what would interest your readers. If you come across as too sales-oriented you’ll be ignored. Creating Name Visibility Online Building name visibility on the Internet is not easy. You have to really work at it, and it may require more time and effort (though less money) than building name visibility through the traditional means available to authors. You can begin by participating in news groups, mailing lists and Web-based forums. Name visibility also comes from providing content to web sites. Not your W]web site, but other people's sites. Professional authors balk at the idea of providing free content. They have attacked the idea in more than one forum. But if you're serious about building name visibility on the internet, you have to accept that most commercial web sites are not making money. They cannot afford to pay people to write for them, beyond their own staffs. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 24 And yet, a desire to build name visibility doesn't mean you should answer the call for free fiction every time someone announces a new site. Free content doesn't have to consist of stories or long how-to articles. Consider writing letters to editors of popular web sites, where mentioning your book is relevant to the topic. Consider writing book reviews for popular online stores. Think about contributing lists and tidbits to newsletters or other services. Anything where you can add the plug, "Jennifer Jones is the author of Visualizing Your Better Future" or “Jennifer Jones: www.VisualizeBetterFuture.com" is helpful. People will notice. Write guest editorials, even if they are for free. Name visibility can be achieved by helping to edit a section of a popular web site. You may get nothing but a lot of compliments in way of payment, but you are putting yourself out there where people will see your name. Promoting Your Book in Online Groups and Opt-In Mailing Lists Examples: • Email a e-newsletter to your mailing list • Send announcements (publication dates, awards, appearances) to opt-in mailing list • Distribute news releases to media contacts • Build a mailing list of visitors to your site and email them special news and offers • Provide additional information about your books (research, a look inside your writer’s journal, articles you’ve written) to your readers via email • Join a subject-specific newsgroup Newsgroups A newsgroup is a collection of messages posted by individuals to a news server. News servers are computers maintained by companies, groups and individuals, and can host thousands of newsgroups. You can find newsgroups on practically any subject. Although some newsgroups are monitored, most are not, and messages can be ‘posted’ and read by anyone who has access to that group. There are no newsgroup membership lists or joining fees. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) must have a link to a news server for you to set up an account with that news server. After you set up an account, you can read and post messages on any of the newsgroups on that news server. When you find a newsgroup you like, you can subscribe to it. Promoting your book online is possibly the most cost-effective way to spread the word, but how do you actually do it? The first questions to ask yourself are: 1. Who would be interested in my book? 2. Where do I find them? Newsgroups, message boards, email lists—all are great places to promote your book. Each of these lists, boards or groups, is targeted at people who have identified themselves as being interested in a particular topic—a marketer’s dream come true. All you have to do is figure out Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 25 what topics, literary genres, geographic areas, etc., are epitomized by your book, and then go looking for simpatico online communities. You can search through indices of newsgroups or email lists for groups that target your subject matter. This is as true for fiction as non-fiction—with a little creative thinking. You can find newsgroups through your ISP, or through online news group archives like Google Groups. You can find email lists at sites in your subject area or through list hosts like Yahoo Groups, Topica and others. These groups are great ways to become part of an online community. And that is the key to promoting online: become part of an online community. This is also the area most fraught with peril for a newcomer. Newbies are likely to make the mistake of advertising directly to these groups, not understanding that they are places for people to gather, not be bombarded with commercials. In online groups, the modus operandi is to become part of the community; use your expertise to answer questions; develop friendships and build a reputation as someone with useful information to impart. Once you have established yourself people may be moved to buy the book you mention in the signature file of every message (Remember to have a signature file mentioning your book on every email/post.) Newsgroup Tips Many groups have policies posted online. Read and obey. When posting or replying to a post, ensure that the subject line is relevant and not something like Re: Email List Digest Jan 25. Having a proper subject line makes it easier for other people on the list to scan and read the messages they are interested in. If your subject line is blank or irrelevant, people may dismiss your post without reading it. It is acceptable to include the text of the message you are replying to, so that people can follow the thread of the discussion. If you do this, however, cut out everything except the relevant parts of the original post. Cut the ‘hi there’ and the signature files and only leave enough to clue in a reader who didn’t see the original post. If you do not do this, each post becomes increasingly long and complex and difficult to follow. Have a signature file that advertises your book, and that goes under every message you send. Try to keep it to 4-6 lines. Include your name, the title, the ISBN or ‘available from’ information; and, if you have space, a ten-word description of the book. Do not otherwise promote your book unless it is extremely relevant to someone’s question. Don’t let all these rules and regulations scare you. Join a group, lurk for a while reading other people’s posts and gauging the tenor of the group and then plunge in. This is a great way to build a reputation and spread the word about your book. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 26 Opt-In Mailing Lists If you’re interested in establishing an internet mailing list to communicate with readers, there are several free or inexpensive services to help you do it: • Yahoo! Groups (http://groups.yahoo.com) • Microsoft offers a List Builder service (www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/online/emailmarketing/list-builder/detail.mspx). Using this service, you can establish and manage an opt-in Internet mailing list. An opt-in email list is very different from sending spam, because the people on your list have requested to be on it. Make sure your website allows visitors to sign up for (subscribe to) a free newsletter or to receive messages via email. News Release Distribution A news/press release is a document between 500 and 1,000 words about you and your book that’s designed to make a newsworthy announcement to the media. It is written in third-person. A news release has a highly defined style and format, and asks the basic questions on the minds of reporters: who, what, where, when, why and how. (Tips on writing a news release: www.gebbieinc.com/howto.htm) There are online-based news release distribution services that will distribute your release to the media for a fee: www.pressflash.com. You can also hire a freelance PR consultant online at www.elance.com. You might also decide to write and distribute the news releases yourself. You can do this by sending the news release from your email account, or by using an online press-releasedistribution service like PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com). You supply the news release, pay the fee and PR Newswire will send your release to media representatives that you designate based on area of interest, field or specific topic. Once you have a news release about your new book, recent award or special event, your goal is to get it into the hands of targeted editors and reporters (those you feel would be interested in some aspect of your story). Compiling Your Customized Media List Check out these helpful sites to compile your media list: Editor & Publisher Broadcast Interview Source National Press Club Gebbie Press’s All-In-One Directory Bacon’s Media Directories Burrelle’s Media Directories PR Place’s Free Media Guide www.editorandpublisher.com www.expertclick.com http://npc.press.org www.gebbieinc.com www.bacons.com www.burrellesluce.com www.prplace.com/mds_guide/index.html Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 27 Besides traditional media, consider sending your news release to online editors at websites associated with newspapers, magazines, radio stations and TV stations or news programs. Sometimes the online edition of a news outlet offers different coverage than its traditional media counterpart. Also send to online publications (including popular blogs), the webmasters at sites that cater to your target markets or area of interest, special interest groups or clubs. Rather than write a news release, you may decide to pitch a feature story idea to an editor or reporter that would feature you as a subject-matter expert. For example, if you’ve written a book about credit repair scams, you can pitch a feature about a victim of credit repair fraud, with you giving background as an expert. Online Chats Hosting an online chat either through your own website or through a major online service is one way to communicate in real time to an audience. Although it’s inexpensive to host an online chat, if you want readers and potential readers to attend the chat, it’s important you offer them information of value and not just an advertising message (“Buy my new book!”). You may want to invite a special guest—another mystery writer, another authority on your nonfiction subject—who will also answer questions from chat participants. You can share the podium with the expert or function as a chat moderator. You could do a whole series of chats this way. For a monthly fee, many companies host chat services for existing websites, including the following: Live2Support Everywhere Chat Bold Chat Plus Free Java Chat Hotscripts www.live2support.com www.everywherechat.com/addchat.htm www.boldchatplus.com/features.jsp www.freejavachat.com www.Hotscripts.com Website Awards There are thousands of sites that give out awards for well-designed websites. Being listed on one of the more important award sites can do great things for you and your website. Go to the sites that generate the awards and submit your pages. To find a list, go to the Yahoo! or Google directory and search for web design awards. Your Online Media Kit (part of your website) What You Need to Create an Online Media Kit You will need to know how to format a Word document with graphics. You will need to know how to convert a word document into a PDF. What is an Online Media Kit? An online media kit is similar to a traditional media kit and has many of the same pages contained inside. However, an online media kit is one document that is in a PDF format. It is Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 28 attached to an email to be used when a producer or journalist asks for more information about you. You can also format it as a Word document. These documents should be available from the Media/Press page of your website. If you don’t have a website, at least you have your media kit in digital form for email submission. The benefit of having an online media kit ready to go is that it saves time in the booking process. Rather than waiting for a traditional media kit to be mailed to the media and delivered to the correct person you, your media contact can open your PDF immediately. Make sure to have a consistent design on each page of your online media kit. Each page should have a header containing the following info: • Your name • The title of your book • Your contact info (direct or through a publicist) The point of any media kit is to showcase your talent and get the booking or the speaking event. Create a compelling media kit. What is a compelling media kit? Your media kit is designed to set you apart from the others and showcase your professionalism, credentials and areas of expertise. It should be designed to make you the best choice for the media opportunity under consideration. Your online media kit should give the media an idea of your vast knowledge and create certainty. What is certainty? The knowledge that a producer has when he or she knows that you will be an excellent expert—you know what you are talking about and you proved it in the pages of your media kit. So imagine this: Another author’s proposal arrives in the media’s email with just a “regular email.” And you arrive completely packaged with everything the media knows to book you. Plus you can tailor your media kit to fit the needs of the media you are promoting to. You can guide your media contact through your kits and point out certain areas that you especially want them to notice. Many times you can close the deal right on the phone—with the help of your online media kit, of course. Content ideas for your online media kit: 1. High-resolution cover picture of your book 2. High-resolution color picture of yourself 3. Author bio written especially for the media 4. Interview topic ideas—fully developed with talking and message point along with pertinent questions 5. Suggested interview questions that are relevant to the topic 6. Facts that support your segment (example: a recent AARP study stated that a many as 44 million Americans provide elder care) 7. Sample quiz—if your material can be made into a quiz format then prepare a fun quiz. Some print media likes this format—a quiz about love, relationships, losing weight and workplace issues presented in a light-hearted way. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 29 8. Testimonials from any other media producers who said you were a great guest. (This means collecting testimonials from these people.) 9. Media Page: Showcase the media you have done, listing the most important first (TV, radio, print interviews, AOL-sponsored chats, etc.). 10. Link back to your site if you have a demo or audio demo on your site. 11. Blurbs from other writers, the media and readers praising your work. If a quote is from an expert in your field, a best-selling author or a celebrity, great. If you have none of these, pick a quote from a reader that sounds the best, the one that captures the essence of your book or shows that the reader got it. Hints: Go for a look of crisp and clean with your online media kit. Use color where you can. If the media print your PDF, some of the pages can get separated. So be sure have your contact info in the footer or header of each page. Web Marketers Web campaigns are a way to bring attention to your art, and it’s possible to hire someone to do it for you. These well-connected web marketers usually cost around $3,000. • Web marketers approach a variety of sites on a very grassroots level. For example, if your writing has strong links to Leonardo Da Vinci and Renaissance Italy, they might approach Da Vinci sites, fan newsgroups, etc., or sites devoted to the art, history and times of Renaissance Italy. • If your writing is about praying or meditative scripture, they might go for various church sites and sites like beliefnet.com. • What if your writing is regional? What if you’ve gone around the country writing about National Parks? A web marketer might contact these specific sites with news releases and targeted email mentioning the specific piece(s) dealing with that park, trying to spark interest. • Web marketers usually don’t build a website for you, but they can make referrals to people who do. Internet marketing for Authors (2007) 30