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Copyright © 2008 by Open Horizons and John Kremer
Last modified: 7/12/08
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Promoting Your Books
Marketing Your Books Online
Jokes for Word of Mouse Propagation
One of the best ways to get your message passed on is to
include a joke. While your entire message may not get passed on, the joke
will be. For example, here's a joke I just received from Ken Darby, who
sends out thePEBBLE Article for Print ezine, which always includes a
joke, a saying, and an article that are all available for reprint at any
time. He requires that if you reprint the article, you include his credits.
See his credits at the end of this joke.
You may not know that many non-living things have a gender. For example:
1) Ziploc Bags -- They are Male, because they hold everything in, but
you can see right through them.
2) Copiers -- They are Female, because once turned off, it takes a
while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the
right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
3) Tire -- Male, because it goes bald and it's often over-inflated.
4) Hot Air Balloon -- Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you
have to light a fire under it and, of course, there's the hot air component.
5) Sponges -- Female, because they're soft, squeezable and retain water.
6) Web Page -- Female, because it's always getting hit on.
7) Subway -- Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.
8) Hourglass -- Female, because over time, the weight can shift to the bottom.
9) Hammer -- Male, because it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000
years, but it's handy to have around.
10) Remote Control -- Female. Ha! You thought it'd be Male. But
consider this: it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while
he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying.
Ken Darby authors many articles found in newspapers and magazines throughout
North America. He is the author of The Saga Of Pinehill, The Adventure,
now available at your favorite bookstore. Web:
http://www.the-pebble.com. Email:
ken.darby@emailsystemscentral.com.
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John Kremer, Book Promotion Expert
John is the author of 1001 Ways to
Market Your Books and editor of the Book Marketing Update newsletter.
Amazon.com Secrets
The Inside Secret of Book Marketing
An Interview with John Kremer
Selling Novels
Q&A: Selling
Children's Books
My websites:
BookMarket.com
The Self-Publishing Hall of Fame
JohnKremer.com
JohnKremer.net
JohnKremer.org
CelebrateToday.com
Hot Times,
Cool Places
WayBackWords.com
My blogs:
Promoting Your Books
Hot Times,
Cool Places Blog
Open Horizons
P O Box 2887
Taos NM 87571
575-751-3398
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Internet Explorer Toolbar Builder
Internet Explorer Toolbar Builder http://www.iebar.com
One way to keep visitors coming back to your site is to integrate your site
directly into Internet Explorer by giving visitors a custom toolbar. The web
site above makes it quick and easy for you to generate a custom IE toolbar
with all the bells and whistles, including your branded images, multiple
search boxes, password boxes, drop down menus, and much more. The software
to design, license, upload, and track your custom toolbar downloads runs
$129.99. A no-cost trial is also available at the site.
If you've ever wanted to offer a custom IE toolbar, this web site seems to
offer exactly what you want -- at a low cost and fast (they say you can
create one in as little as 10 minutes).
I learned about this website in Larry Chase's Web
Digest for Marketers ezine. You can subscribe to this wonderful
ezine by going to http://www.wdfm.com.
Marketing Lessons from the Magic of Harry Potter
Warren Whitlock had an incredible idea. Why
not tie into the media and consumer interest in the new Harry Potter book,
which sold millions of copies. What did he do to piggy-back on this
publicity and interest? Very simple. He created a blog about the book's
marketing. Gosh, I wish I had thought to do that. He picked up hundreds of
links to his web site as a result of his simple (and time-limited) blog.
Not only does he get all these links, but he doesn't have to maintain this
blog for very long to get all the value that he has already gotten in less
than ten days.
Check out his Marketing Lessons from the Magic of Harry Potter blog at
http://pottermarketing.blogspot.com.
Just think: What upcoming event that will get a lot of interest can you blog
about? The new TV season? The hot new TV drama or comedy? The latest reality
TV show?
The NFL football season. The NHL getting back into play. The breakup of the
big AFL-CIO union as unions go off on their own (this is big news right now
in the labor and business markets).
Potter was really big. What's the next big thing? Think about it. Then blog
about it. It's so simple to do. When you blog, always include a press
release via the Internet as part of your blogging.
Again, check out Warren's blog to see what he did.
Web Trailers: Great Online Promotions for Books
Do you want to see an incredible introduction to a book? One that makes you
want to read the novel at the same time it entertains you? Then check out this
web trailer (it's for The Wheelwright's Son by Michael Alan):
http://www.minefallspress.com/wheelVid/wheelwright/play.asp. Also check out
this novel trailer (it's for Willforce by Michael Alan, again very
clever):
http://www.minefallspress.com/ wheelVid/willforce/play.asp.
If you'd like to know more about this web trailer technique (using Flash),
check out
http://www.minefallspress.com/trailermill.
You can also view other such trailers at http://www.vidlit.com.
These trailers could evolve into an incredible marketing tool and,
eventually, into an incredible new medium for publishing. This is your chance to
get in on the ground floor of a new book promotion and publishing format.
I can tell you this. The web trailers created for Alan's books made me want to read them.
How to Write a Good Book Sales Letter
In his latest Fred Gleeck Insights ezine (http://www.fredgleeck.com/ebooks),
my friend Fred Gleeck provided an outline for a good Internet one-page sales
letter that would work for books, reports, audiotapes, kits, home study
courses, DVDs, databases, software, etc. Here it is:
1. Prehead
2. Headline
3. Posthead
4. Opening Line/Paragraph
5. Build Rapport
6. Demonstrate Credibility
7. Develop Bullet Points
8. Testimonials
9. Offer
10. Pricing Discussion
11. Guarantee
12. Bonuses
13. Reason to Act Now
14. PS
Follow this outline and you'll create a great sales letter. Include a few
stories, some detailed testimonials, and a lot of soulful honesty and you'll
knock the socks off your readers and they'll want to buy.
Get More Links Links That Last
Since about 1999, I've been buying text ads in newsletters in just about
every niche vertical you can imagine. Not only have those ads generated much
needed awareness and traffic, those that are archived online still provide
excellent, mature link equity. Mike Grehan, author, Search Engine
Marketing
John's Comments: Would you like to get
more links to your web site so you could get more visitors? One thing you
might try is to buy text ads in ezines or newsletters. Why? Well, first, if
you target the right ezines, the ads should get people to visit your site and
maybe buy your books.
But, second and more important, most newsletters and ezines archive their
issues. Hence, any link in your ad will continue to exist for years
afterwards. Not only, then, do you get an on-going link to your web site, but
it will be a lasting link, something that counts for more than a simple
transitory link in most search engine ranking programs.
Creating a Blog: Some Considerations
Comment: That was fun, creating a free
web log. Thanks. Now all I have to do is learn how to import, scan, refine,
get sophisticated, and the rest of the Luddite curricula. My blog is
Anagnorisis, due to frustration at being denied all other titles. -- Mitch
MacKay
John's Comments: I hope you have fun with
your blog. But don't forget to focus on your book. Blogging should be a hobby,
a sideline, a marketing vehicle for your book, or a passion. Try to keep it
focused on one of those four actions.
What do you want to accomplish with your blog? Once you know that, you'll know
if it should be a hobby, a sideline, a marketing vehicle for your book, or a
passion. It can't be all four. It could encompass two of the actions, but
very, very rarely three. Never four.
Promoting Your Books with Blogs
Blogs have become ever more popular recently as a marketing tool. Why?
For one major reason. Search engines like Google and Yahoo spider the
blogs more often than other web sites (spidering means that they
visit them more often to see if there are any changes or new pages). Blogs
have two attributes that attract this increased spidering: 1. a continuous
stream of new content provided by the main blogger as well as by those who
comment on the blog, and 2. lots of links, both inbound and outbound,
suggesting a more popular web site.
Why should you blog? Here are three
major reasons:
1. A blog establishes your expertise much in the same way as
writing books, but in this case, a blog establishes your expertise on the
web.
2. A blog helps to get you more attention on the web, thus exposing
you, your ideas, and your book to more people.
3. Increase your web site rating. A popular blog with lots of links
to your web site (or as an integral part of your web site) helps to
increase the rating for your web site.
4 Great Self-Promoting Web Sites
Below are four web sites that are helping self-publishers in other
fields to sell their works:
Deviant Art This site is
helping little-known artists to promote their original art as well as sell
prints of many of the entries. A wonderful site for up-and-coming artists.
CdBaby Founded by a musician,
this site helps garage bands and other unknown musicians to sell their
self-produced music CDs. The site has sold more than a million CDs
already!
Pure Volume This site allows
you to sample the work of many new musicians and groups. You can even
download many songs for free. You also have the option to pay to download
some songs after you listen to them. It's another great web site for
singers and musicians who have produced their own music.
IndieDocs This more commercial
site features all sorts of movies including experimental,
self-distributed, IMAX, and more. Plus books about movies, producers,
directors, and reference.
If you know of other sites like these for self-promoters, please let me
know by emailing me at
JohnKremer@bookmarket.com. There should be sites, I think, also for
songwriters, poets, and others who are self-publishing or promoting their
works. I love that the web allows for this kind of exposure, thus enabling
people to get started without a lot of money but still get exposure to
millions of potential customers and fans.
Web Digest for Marketers: Top 10 Trends
The following is excerpted from my friend Larry Chase's Web Digest for
Marketers. Enjoy it with his compliments as part of his celebration of ten
years publishing the digest...
To herald this 10-year anniversary of publishing WDFM, I present to you my Top
10 Trends for the next 10 years for Internet marketing to help you see what's
really coming. Enjoy.
1. Pay Per Call Rings In: Any salesperson worth his or her salt knows
that a call is worth many times more than a click. Having 1-to-1 contact with
a prospect live on the phone is so much more likely to result in a sale. Some
say the likelihood is ten-fold. So it's no wonder this nascent industry has
many people watching closely. There will be issues with "fake" phone calls
that will be reminiscent of click fraud problems today. But look for the
pay-per-call industry to catch on fire within the next 1 1/2 years, despite
these concerns. I am devoting an entire issue of Web Digest For Marketers
to the subject of Pay Per Call later this year.
2. Feed Marketing Flourishes: You've got RSS (Real Simple Syndication).
You've got Podcasting (where you can download and time-shift audio content to
your iPod or MP3 player). Now you've even got Video Podcasting where you can
download MP4 videos into Sony's PlayStation Portable unit for viewing when
you're mobile. As the use of RSS grows quickly, and more consumers buy iPods
or MP3 players, these formats will grow in usage. And where there are ears and
especially eyeballs, marketers are never too far behind. The podcasts may
employ the sponsorship model, or subscription (further off), or simply be done
for the coolness factor, customer retention, or PR pop that you'll get if you
do it early enough. RSS ad units will settle into some format that offers a
decent ROI for the advertiser. There are already coupons being fed via RSS.
Expect to see more point-to-point syndication feed models as we move forward
in time.
3. Email Marketing Will Survive: Spam issues will recede dramatically,
because they have to. Too much is at stake. We may resort to the payment of
email postage for guaranteed delivery, or maybe not. But the email platform is
now like a fax machine. While there are fancier applications, email is easy,
cheap, effective and everywhere.
4. Agent, Personal Agent: Watch for the growth of agent software to
help you sift through the morass of online information. There's too much
relevant stuff for mere humans to sift through now. Agent software learns your
habits by following your moves online and on your computer as well as by
asking about your preferences. Some early forms of this exist now, but it will
become much more sophisticated. Your agent will bring you both B2B and B2C
offerings, whether the latest on-target ad deal or the best tennis racket at
the best price.
5. Reverb Marketing, In Stereo: eMarketer points out that many Internet
users already use multiple forms of media at once. Even as I write this I'm
listening to CNBC in the background. Smart marketers will synchronize their
messaging so the end user hears and sees complementary messages at or near the
same time. This will be the new definition of what media planners call Road
Blocking. Since the end user's attention is split between different media, it
will be essential that messages reinforce each other. HINT: Visual gags on TV
spots or simply showing the 800 number on screen won't be as effective,
because a significant segment of people won't be watching the screen. Even
today we're starting to use TV like radio.
6. Blogs Go Multimedia: Blogs are obviously here to stay. Some of the
cutting-edge blogs are starting to offer content in audio and even in video.
This will not only affect journalism, but it will impact the retail business
as well. Imagine a personality-driven QVC blog on your computer screen.
7. TVIP Adds Interactivity: Microsoft and others are currently
exploring TV over Internet protocol. But don't expect TV on the Net to look
and act like the TV you see on your television screen. After all, we already
have television, so who needs the redundancy? TVIP will take a different
twist. While Madison Avenue types will say, "At last, we can now feed TV
commercials over the Net!", consumers will not want to see those ads on their
computer screens. They already TIVO over on them on their TV screens, right?
TVIP will be much more interactive. In addition to an 800 number, with TVIP
you'll be able to click and buy right then and there. One form might be a
video catalog wherein you click on the product or infomercial of interest. To
really make this happen, compression schemes will need to get better in order
to prevent buffering at the consumer end.
8. Commercial Content, On Demand: Messages from marketers need to be so
appealing that the audience actually requests the message. This evolutionary
process is already underway as push marketing is giving way to pull marketing.
The costs of paper, postage, TV and print production are getting too expensive
and are not performing as well as they used to. Commercial content that the
end user wants isn't far-fetched. Look at Lucky magazine or niche catalogs
such as Outdoor Adventure Sports. B2B marketers have been using high-value ads
for years. The advertisers in Web Digest For Marketers generate sales leads by
offering high-value PDF downloads on subjects of particular interest to the
target audience they're trying to reach. The how-to workshops at Home Depot
are a prime example on the B2C side. It doesn't take a seer to see that the
days of "hot air advertising" are so over.
9. Publishing Faces Tectonic Shifts: Research is already showing that
many people in their 20s are not picking up the newspaper habit the way their
parents did. Add to this demographic shift the cost of newsprint, postage (for
magazines) and handling, and it's likely to cause tectonic shifts in the
publishing industry. Many people already read newspapers and magazines online.
My bet is that special issues will appear in print, and that many publishers
will ultimately have to figure out how to make a go of it with free content
online (i.e., advertiser-supported), perhaps by asking their readers for
demographic information that enables the publisher to sell targeted
advertisements at a premium, as you'll frequently find with trade
publications. At the same time, in select industries people will pay for
online subscriptions that deliver real value. This is already apparent (the
Wall Street Journal has 700,000 paid subscribers), but it's not for every
content provider out there. For a look at the next level, check out
www.cnbcdowjones.com, where you can get just the editorial clips of CNBC, sans
commercials, for $99(US) a year. You get 250 plays per month. I subscribe, and
find it to be a great time saver.
10. Direct Marketers Will Take Over the Internet: Oops, this has
already happened, but not the way I predicted 10 years ago. There are two
types of direct marketers on the Net. Those who started out as online
marketers have come across the language and practices of DM without realizing
it. They talk of response rates by way of clickthroughs, cost per lead, cost
per sale, and so on. This group would do well to study the DM masters who have
written extensively on the subject over the past 80 years. Then there are the
traditional direct marketers, some of whom get it, and some of whom are still
riveted on the shriveling response rates of print mailings and catalogs and on
ever-increasing postage costs. The irony here is that traditional direct
marketing folks are the ones who understand human nature best. Because of
their extensive experience, they can smell what will work and what won't. It's
baked into their genes now. This group would do well to look at the Net as the
incredible opportunity it is, rather than focusing on what was. What was is
not coming back. The good news for traditional DM'ers is that the Internet has
not repealed the laws of human nature. So while the tools of DM are changing,
the underlying principles that have driven DM since the time of Ben Franklin
are still exactly the same.
Bonus Tip
11. Internet-Free Zones Become the Hot New Trend: The Internet will
become as ubiquitous as cell phones are today. Some enterprising travel
package company will then begin offering Internet-free zones -- no cell
phones, no Internet, no fax machines, and you won't have to climb the
Himalayas to escape the media onslaught. This won't be an option for many
people. It seems already that people desperately need to stay connected to
others, lest they connect with themselves.
Larry Chase's Web Digest for Marketers (WDFM) is a free weekly email
newsletter featuring mercifully short reviews and links on marketing-oriented
websites.
If you received this issue from a colleague and you wish to have your own free
subscription, you can get that by visiting
http://www.wdfm.com and filling out the subscription form. It takes less
than a minute.
Promoting Your Books Online:
Do You Qualify for the Self-Publishing Hall of Fame?
Do you qualify for the Self-Publishing Hall of Fame? Not sure? Then check
out the criteria at the
Self-Publishing Hall of Fame.
More than 300 authors who self-published are already featured in this
incredible hall of fame, including Margaret Atwood, L. Frank Baum, William
Blake, Ken Blanchard, Robert Bly, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lord Byron,
Willa Cather, Pat Conroy, Stephen Crane, e.e. cummings, W.E.B. DuBois,
Alexander Dumas, T.S. Eliot, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Benjamin Franklin, Zane
Grey, Thomas Hardy, E. Lynn Harris, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway,
Robinson Jeffers, Spencer Johnson, Stephen King, Rudyard Kipling, Louis
L'Amour, D.H. Lawrence, Rod McKuen, Marlo Morgan, John Muir, Anais Nin, Thomas
Paine, Tom Peters, Edgar Allen Poe, Alexander Pope, Beatrix Potter, Ezra
Pound, Marcel Proust, Irma Rombauer, Carl Sandburg, Robert Service, George
Bernard Shaw, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Upton Sinclair, Gertrude Stein, William
Strunk, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoi, Mark Twain,
Walt Whitman, and Virginia Woolf.
You could stock a superb college library or an incredible bookstore just
from the books written by the authors who have chosen to self-publish. Why not
join them today?
Improve Your Online Testimonials
Would you like to increase the believability and effectiveness of your
online testimonials? Here are a few tips from Martin Boyd, editor of HBT
News, a biweekly newsletter about online home businesses.
1. Ask people who give you testimonials if they can send you a photo to
put up with their testimonial.
2. Feature a scan of their actual signature.
3. Record their testimonial and feature it in an online audio. You can
tape their testimonial by phone or in person.
4. If they send you a postcard or hand-written letter testimonial, scan
in the postcard or letter and post that on your web site.
5. Ask people who send you testimonials to send you a short profile as
well to give them a human face.
6. Videotape the testimonial if you meet them in person.
Promoting Your Book: Using Google News
The Google News page now
allows you to customize your page in many wonderful ways. Not only can you
rearrange whether news, sports, business, entertainment, technology, or
whatever comes first, but you can also create customized news sections.
To customize Google News for you, simply click on the Edit Customized Page
link in the gray box at the top right of the
Google News Page.
I currently have news sections tracking the following three news items:
Book marketing, self-publishing, and John Kremer. You'd be surprised how many
John Kremers there are in the world. I always thought I was the one and only,
but there's a German scientist, a teenage football star in Pennsylvania, a
vice president at a high-tech company, and more.
You can select any search terms you want and customize your news very
specifically, especially by using the Advanced Search options. Track to see
where the story of your book is hitting (you can search by book title), where
you might have been interviewed, etc. Also check out the competition. Or keep
on top of the news in your special area of interest.
I love seeing how I or one of my dopplegangers made the news each day.
Today, for example, my post at
BlogCritics.org was the top news story under self-publishing. That's cool.
Check it out. It can be a useful tool for planning your marketing
campaigns, especially as you track to see where your competition is making the
news. Two to three months from now that same media will be looking for your
story. Be sure you know about which media are covering what stories. Google
News can help you do that.
A Lesson in Copywriting
The following is taken from an email I received from
Joe Vitale earlier today. I thought it made a great point about the
importance of copywriting in making sales. Note how he quietly promotes his
own web site in the process of critiquing another. He advocates that you
read his web site to see how much better the copy is there. Well, if the
copy is as good as he says it is, you might well end up buying whatever he
sells on that site.
So his point is to show you how copy sells. But his hope, as well, is that
you will buy from his well-written copy? Do you dare read it? You might end
up buying or getting an automobile...
Does copy really make a difference on websites? Can't you just make sales
with a few words, a good headline, and an order form? Well, let's see....
Brad Yates pushed for the quick release of our audio teleseminar called
Money Beyond Belief. While I felt his quickly done site, well, sucked, I
agreed. Result? Few sales. Brad was disappointed.
I advised him to add some endorsements, pictures, and bonuses, and to clean
up the copy. He did. I then announced the site again. The result?
Eighty-five sales almost instantly. Keep in mind going from almost zero to
85 is good for anyone, whether you're BMW or Brad or me. It's *not* great,
but it's better than nothing.
The site still isn't the best, but now there's enough copy there to get the
job done. But how could Brad make the site even better? What could he do to
really bring in the sales? Here's where the real lesson begins.
I told Brad to compare his site to my site on how to attract a new car. I
told him to note the differences. The new car one rakes in the sales. Why?
It's loaded with strong copy, long copy, convincing endorsements, a slew of
bonuses, terrific pictures, powerful headlines, several PS's, a clear
guarantee, subtle convincers, price comparisons, bold headlines and hypnotic
sub-heads -- and much more.
The attract a new car site is probably 100 times better than the money
beyond belief site. See for yourself. Look at both of the sites:
money-beyond-belief.
attract-a-new-car.
In fact, print them both out. Study them. Put them side by side. Which do
you think is better -- and why?
This is a great education in marketing. And it's yours freeeee. Go for it.
Dr. Joe Vitale
I get no affiliate income if you buy from either site. I just think that
actually looking at both sites side by side will provide you with a superb
education on how long copy, well-written copy sells. That's something we all
need to learn more than once. Not just you but me as well.
