While there are so many ways to pump up your book or author blog, what I'd like to talk about today is content and how you can get more visitors to your book or author blog by paying close attention to what you post there.It's a known fact--in fact, I've mentioned it before--your blog is the most search engine-friendly vehicle you have at your disposal and for 99% of us, it's free. So, let's take advantage of that fact and use it to its full potential to sell our books. It's book promotion at its best.
For starters, I want everyone to go to www.google.com and put in their key search word or phrase that you believe people would put in the search engines to find you. If you're having trouble narrowing it down, I'll use one of my writing group's free ebooks as an example.
Love is in the Air was sent out into the world last Valentine's Day. It was a free ebook that my writing group and I wrote for the sole purpose of using it for promotional purposes. But, more than that, I wanted to see if a particular formula that I had discovered to get it in the top position of the search engines would work.
Indeed, it did. It took one day for it to become the number one free ebook in google and yahoo, using OUR certain set of search words. Did you read that? ONE DAY.
Now, if I wanted to make sure our free ebook stayed in that #1 position, all I would have to do is continually blog about it, but as it served its purpose--to give readers a taste of how we write and, perhaps, check out our other books (and to see if we could do it, lol)--we went on to other things. However, if this was a paying ebook, we would, of course, still be promoting it.
For our certain set of key search words, I chose "free Valentine's Day ebook." Here are how those set of search words stand in the search engines this morning, almost two weeks after we started promoting it:
Yahoo (#1 out of 690 listings)
Google (#1 out of 256 listings)
MSN (#1 out of 454 listings)
Ask.com (#1 out of 13 listings)
The point I'm trying to make is that when your book is released, or even when it is about to be released (never too early to start promoting!), you have to come up with a certain set of search words that describes your book. It's all part of good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) planning because in the online world, the search engines are going to become your new best friend.
Okay, so do you have your set of search words that people would use to find your book and have you put them in Google to see what comes up?
Good, now we're ready to begin.
Click on the first listing and check it out. Do you see where they have used these search words to get into the number one listing? Of course, they have used other ways to get there including getting their link on every possible website they could, and other methods, but they wouldn't have gotten there if not for the fact that they were wise enough to know to use these search words so that the search engines' spiders could find them.
One mistake that most people make when they put up a new website or blog is list it with the search engines. Big mistake and a waste of time. I've done it so take it from me it doesn't work quick enough, and could take months.
The great thing about blogs is that it that it's an almost immediate reaction from the search engines. However, if those key words or phrases that people would use to find your book are not used continuously in your blog posts, it won't work.
This brings me to another important point. For it to work effectively and quicker, use those key search words in as many titles of blog posts as you can. This is another secret that I've used to get an immediate first place listing in the search engines. Try it and see for yourself.
All week long, I'll be talking about the using these key search words or phrases to pump up your online book promotion, but what I would like to do is if anyone needs help determining what their key search words or phrase might be for people to find your book, leave your comment and url in the comment box. I will be checking my email box frequently (I've fixed it up with blogger to have any comments come to my email box) and we'll determine which set of search words or phrases would work best for your book.
Happy promoting to you!
Dorothy Thompson
Pump UP Your Book Promotion eMarketing Expert
Tags: Free Book Promotion Workshop, How to Pump UP Your Blog to Sell More Books, Book Promotion, Love is in the Air, free+ebook, search engine optimization, online book promotion
8 comments:
Hi Dorothy,
My first time here and i already loved the tips you gave. I am a writer about to turn to author. I currently maintain an active blog and just launch a new personal website. When i type of keywords (unsure if thats the one), i definitely didnt see my blog on the first page. And i would like to learn how to achieve that. Thanks!
Hi Sis, what's your blog link? I'll go over and check it out for you and give my analysis in tomorrow's blog. ;o)
Hi Dorothy,
Here is the url:
http://wisdomthruwords.blogspot.com
Keywords used are:
motivational stories, inspiring stories, motivation, story, inspirational quotes.
Thanks. I cant wait till tomorrow!
:))
Another great post! Thank you.
I tried "romantic comedy books" and found a site absolutely sprinkled with those words. Fascinating. I never knew.
But is that too vague?
If I used "gypsy romantic comedy" I don't think anyone else would search for it...
I really appreciate your help. I'm so new at all this...
--Diana Holquist
http://www.dianaholquist.com
Make Me a Match, in stores now
Sexiest Man Alive, coming Oct 07
http://www.gypsypsychic.com
Thanks, Diana!
I think the best way to go about doing this is think in the mindset of the one doing the search. I don't think they are exactly putting "romantic comedy books" in search unless it's for research. They are putting other things in there that lead to your book which is a romantic comedy book. What you need to do is zero in on what you think someone would be searching for, and who would end up landing on your blog. That's where creative blogging is going to work for you. What kind of people are reading romantic comedies? Are they women? Okay, now you've just zeroed in on one thing. They are mostly women. What kind of women are looking for your book and what are they putting in searches? Well, that could be a million things, but using creative blogging, you'll be able to tap onto something that these people would be using in the search engines. Everyone reads books, or some do anyway, but what can you put on the blog that will bring in those women readers? More creativity and imagination will be involved here. Tell you what, let me think on this some more and I'll give you some pointers in the morning. Interesting, huh?
Okay, I just checked. There are only 48 people a month putting "romantic comedy books" in yahoo search. Not enough.
Hi Dorothy,
This post is incredibly informative. It made me recheck my blog. You see, I've started a blog recently to expand my readership. But I'm not sure what keywords I can use for my blog. I tried Latinos and writers, but that seems too general. Please help. The blog is Chica Latina, and you can find it at http://chica-latina.blogspot.com
Thanks!
Wonderful, Cynthia. I'll have an analysis ready for you in a few hours...stay tuned! ;o)
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