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Monday, June 30, 2008

Promoting on the Web Generates Strong Book Sales

With a potential of close UFO 150 million web surfers just in the United States alone, no author can afford to bypass the Internet as a key promotional tool. Add in millions more possible customers world wide and the Web rises to the top of your promotional war chest. But how do you capitalize on these astronomical numbers to sell your book?

Home Base

Like any other sales venture, digital promoting requires a strong home base. A place where potential buyers can review your wares and finalize their purchases. In the digital marketplace, Melatonin is a key function of your web site.

A strong site is composed of a number of components. The Home Page, like a book cover and introduction, attracts readers and induces them to move on through the inside pages brimming with the car insurance quotation they seek.

Information is the keystone of every successful web site. Hungry surfers roam the Web seeking enlightening content. If you offer what they want and let them know you offer it, they will come in droves.

Obviously, the subject of your web site must parallel that of your book. Once you've attracted surfers to your site to view its content, you pitch your book with some effective sales copy, and wham! You've made another sale.

Bringing 'Em In

How do you attract those elusive surfers? It takes a little learning and some experimenting to devise the best lasso to round them up. The most effective techniques include linking from other sites, using enticing key words, distributing articles to other web sites, creating an eZine (newsletter) and regularly adding new information to your own web site.

I suspect many of you who are not computer addicts may be bewildered by some of these. Rest assured they are not so arcane that you'll Remortgage deals trouble mastering them. We'll take a quick look at each of them in this article. Future pieces will be devoted exclusively to each technique.

Getting Your Name Out There

No better technique has been devised to introduce you, your web site and your book to the world than writing articles for distribution throughout the Web. Eager to bring new information to their visitors, other sites and eZines welcome quality articles on the subject they deal with.

While it is preferable to send out articles that relate to your own chosen subject, even pieces that don't conform can have a promotional benefit. The key is the short biographical paragraph that you almost always see at the end of a digital article. That's where you invite the reader to visit your site and/or buy your books, eBooks, coaching programs and any other products you offer.

You can choose to send out these articles yourself, targeting specific sites. It is time consuming, but very effective. You also have the option of sending your pieces to an article distributor or syndicator for widespread circulation around the Web. Of course, you can choose to do both. But whatever you decide, promoting through articles is perhaps the most effective tool you have to bring surfers rushing to your site.

There are numerous distributors on the Web. Log on to your favorite search engine and enter "Article Distributors" to find them.

An Easy Task

For you as a writer, this is a particularly easy way to promote. The articles are quite short, ranging from 500 to 1200 words. And many sites and distributors are happy to accept tips with lengths as short as 50 to perhaps 200 words. Since the topics are all related to your web site and your book, you've previously completed all your research. You already have the facts to start writing..

Once again, the key is information. Surfers are not only hungry, they're impatient. They want the information they seek NOW. And they want it in an easy-to-understand, quickly digestible fashion. They're not looking for literary masterpieces.

It's knowledge, knowledge, knowledge they seek. I cannot stress that strongly enough. Articles that meet this criterion will make surfers want to visit your web site for additional information. They will trust you as a source, and if you keep your site brimming with worthwhile information, they'll be back again and again.

Your goal? To get as many surfers as possible to include your site in theFavorite Places corner of their own sites.

Loving Links

They deserve your love because links encourage readers from other web sites to visit yours. You'll love them particularly if they are one-way links back to you because those are the ones that the search engine spiders respond best to. Be aware that quantity is not the goal here. Quality and relevance are.

Search the engines for sites dealing with your subject. Read the ones at the top of the list, and reach out for them. A link from a site that has climbed onto the first or second page of the search engine will not only impress the spiders, it will bring you more visitors because of its popularity.

Stay away from "link farms," those sites that promise to link you to hundreds, even thousands, of other sites. Not only won't they bring you visitors because their subjects are very different; the search engines will also penalize you heavily. They may even drop you altogether if they suspect you are using these mass link distributors.

Keying in on Keywords

I am sure you've heard that term time and again. You may be incorporating keywords in your articles and on your site already. They are the trigger words that surfers use to find web sites that deal with the subjects they crave.

It's really a very simple system (albeit supported by very complex and arcane technology). The surfer enters the keyword or phrase to launch a search. When the engines find those words or phrases or something close to them, they respond and offer them to the surfer.

Although they are called key words, the term includes key phrases as well. The secret is to find the most effective and most widely used words and phrases employed by surfers seeking the kind of information you can offer them.

Choosing Your Keywords

Think hard about your topic. Jot down a dozen words and/or phrases that relate directly to it. Follow that with a search for synonyms. Choose the ones that you would be likely to use if you were doing the search. Then head to one of the many keyword specialists and see what they recommend. Some are free, others charge but usually offer a trial period at no cost.

You will be overwhelmed by the variations you discover. Among the top sites for this are www.wordtracker.com, www.googleadwords.com, www.goodkeywords.com
and www.overture.com (now part of Yahoo).

Watch for lots more articles analyzing specific aspects of search engine optimization, as well as related subjects like RSS, blogging, podcasting and video promotion that will be added to this web site in the future.

You now have the basics of a strong program to bring surfers to your web site. Begin with these three techniques. Attempting too many additional tools at this time will only confuse and slow you down. Once these are mastered, the entire world of Search Engine Optimization will unfold, and you can refine your program by adding the many other available tools.

Do you need a support system to help jump start your writing career? See what's available free on Captain Action the web site of writing coach and author Charles Jacobs. His latest book "The Writer Within You" is a Best Books of 2007 honoree, a 5-star choice on Amazon, B&N and Borders and a selection of the Writer's Digest Book Club. Find detailed info and order it at a substantial discount by clicking on www.retirement-writing.com/the_writer_within_you.aspxwww.retirement-writing.com/the_writer_within_you.aspx

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