Tonight I’m teaching a 3-hour workshop at the Learning Exchange in Sacramento on Online Marketing for Authors. I thought it might be helpful to share the outline here for readers who are working on the same goal:
1. Target Audience
Ø Community and building your audience
2. Great Website
Ø Professional design with content management system
Ø Pages: Home, About the Author, Book Details, Media, Contact, Services, Speaker, Blog, Resources/Articles/Reports
Ø Optimize for search engines
Ø Content, resources, community
3. Blog
Ø Benefits
Ø How to maintain: frequency, amount of content, type of content
Ø Promotion: social media, blog directories, commitment
4. E-mail Marketing
Ø Capture information to engage with your audience
Ø Provide incentive
Ø Always building your list
Ø Tools: ConstantContact.com, EasyContact.com, iContact.com
5. Article Marketing
Ø Content sites: IdeaMarketers.com, EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com
Ø Industry-specific sites
Ø Print publications
6. Internet Radio/Podcasts
Ø Why internet radio rules
Ø How to pitch
Ø Sources: BlogTalkRadio.com, AllTalkRadio.net, wsradio.com, womensradio.com
7. Bloggers and Online Alliances
Ø Influence
Ø Opportunities: book reviews, guest blog posts, interviews, cross-promote
8. Social Media
Ø The Big 3: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
Ø Where to spend your time
Ø Getting started
Ø What to post: blog links, articles, resources, facts, humorous quips (always remember target audience)
Ø Tools: Tweetdeck.com, Hootsuite.com
9. Online Groups
Ø Find your audience—or build it!
Ø LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo Groups
10. Virtual Book Tours
Ø Choose your dates
Ø Combination of activities: internet radio/podcasts, guest blog posts, blog interviews, cross-promote on your site
Ø You are always on tour
11. Amazon Promotion Strategies
Ø Author Central
Ø Tags
Ø Book Reviews
Ø Search Inside the Book
12. It’s All About Community – Plant Your Garden!
Ø Find your audience or build it
Ø Plant three seeds each day
If you’re not part of this workshop, I cover all of this and more in the 8-week Accelerated Author Marketing Audio Course, which is now available for just $29.99!
The outline itself makes a darn good checklist.
I’d love to buy transcripts of the audio – or an ebook, if one exists.
Thanks!
Jennifer Blair
Hi Jennifer,
Some of this checklist is information that can be found in my books:
– The Author’s Guide to Building an Online Platform: Leveraging the Internet to Sell More Books
– Booked Up! How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book to Grow Your Business
I’m also working on a marketing plan product that will likely be out later this year! Also check out http://nonfictionwritersconference.com for resources and another event coming this year. THANKS!
Great article! Thank you so much for these marketing tools and advice. I have a website, (currently under an “extreme makeover” right now) however,I would like to know more about the virtual tours and websites that offer such options. Do you have any direct sites I can visit to get connected? #AlwaysOnTour 🙂
Thanks so much!
In Christ,
Hannah
Hi Hannah,
You might start by using Google and searching for “Virtual book tour.” Find out where others have set up their tours. Also, find a virtual assistant who has experience working with authors. Here’s a group of virtual author’s assistant who can help: http://www.theauthorsassistants.com/
Good luck!