Online Book Marketing - The 5 Things Authors Get Wrong

July 3rd, 2009

How to Market a Book on the Internet

The more I work with authors to help them understand the ins and outs of online book marketing, the more I realize that there are 5 basic and fundamental mistakes that 9 out of 10 authors consistently make.

Just by avoiding these five mistakes, you’ll be ahead of the game…far ahead. So, here are five things to avoid when marketing your books online:

1. Flawed Keyword Research

This is the #1 big kahuna and the place where 99% of authors quite simply stuff it up.

The vast majority of the authors I’ve worked with haven’t succeeded in using the Internet to effectively market themselves simply because they don’t approach the whole process the way an Internet marketer would approach it — in other words, there’s no real plan to dominate a set of keywords related to your book or your expertise.

Success online ultimately depends on your ability to determine which keywords are worth targeting, which aren’t, and how much traffic you can expect from what you are going to go after.

Thankfully there are tools out there that do all three. There are links down at the end of this articles where you can find them. Be sure to to take a look.

2. Too Little Content

Surprisingly, even prolific writers with dozens of books under their belt — gifted authors who can write volumes on their subject — somehow think that they can skate by online with just a few pages (or even paragraphs!) of content.

Simply not true.

Here’s the truth — every search engine, Google included, loves to see lots, and lots, and lots of content.

This is why behemoths like Wikipedia get so much traffic. There are millions of their pages in Google’s index.

How many pages would you say are in Google’s index from your site? My guess is it’s probably between two and five.

You’ll never rank well for anything other than your name with that kind of site. Bottom line: if you shortchange people online, you’ll destroy your reputation in a heartbeat.

If you want your site found, and you want potential readers to care about your book, demonstrate why they should by providing great free content upfront.

3. Ignoring Social Marketing and Web 2.0

If you haven’t noticed, the Internet is changing. In just these past few years, sites like Digg, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Squidoo.com, as well as services like Twitter, have revolutionized how we interact online.

The top-down style of the old media is quickly disappearing, if it hasn’t disappeared already. It’s being replaced by a system where actual people, not jaded editors, decide what’s worthy of our attention.

You’re missing out on some of the great opportunities for promoting yourself and your books online if you aren’t using the sites mentioned above (along with dozens of others I haven’t even mentioned yet).

(Just check out the links I’ve given you below for the resources that will make it easy to find tons of sites that can help you sell more books.)

4. Failing to Build a Loyal Following

It’s amazing how many authors don’t jump on the most useful online marketing tool there is — the ability to build a base of support and loyal fans through things like mailing lists, or “followers” on Twitter, or subscribers to an RSS feed, or any number of other methods that traditional Internet marketers use everyday.

Why is this important? Because it’s always true that people who already know your work and like it will be much easier to sell more “stuff” to.

If someone buys one of your books, they’re an ideal customer for your second, third, and fourth books.

But when you don’t have a system in place to reach those people who bought your first book, you’ll be going through the entire process of attracting and acquiring new readers over and over and over again.

Wouldn’t it be easier to write a couple emails and send them to your fans?

Or just to put up a new blog post to announce your latest book?

This is exactly the way an author can build an empire.

5. Focusing on the Sale

Huh? This is a mistake? But now that’s the point of all this, right?

Yes and no.

So here’s what I’m arguing: If you focus just on “moving product” (i.e. on selling books now) and ignore the other stuff you should be doing (see #4 above), you’re not going to be putting enough effort into building a real presence, and a loyal following, online. But it’s that very loyal following that can be counted on to buy many thousands of books time and time again.

What’s better, selling one or two books a day now, or selling thousands of books a day a year from now?

You shouldn’t be struggling.

Start to build your own information empire the same way many Internet marketers do. I’d suggest not trying to just sell a book here and a book there. Begin to concentrate on developing terrific content that will reach the people who desperately need your book.

Sales (at a level you would have never imagined before!) will no doubt follow.

If you aren’t generating a full-time income by marketing your infomation on the Internet, then you aren’t doing it right.

There’s no doubt in my mind that at least 9 out of 10 authors make vital — but ultimately avoidable — errors when attempting to market books online.

Want to find out if you’re one of them? Visit my free online book marketing blog and find out what the “Ten-Percenters” know that you don’t.

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Why Everyone I Know is Learning Chinese

July 2nd, 2009

The other evening,i was at a birthday party and i was talking to a lady whose name is Sue at my table. I noticed that with vibrant conversational skills she was very intelligent. How fun a person to talk to.

Sue asked me, “Are you studying Chinese?” I answered, “No, I am not studying it, why do you ask so?” She said, “Everyone I know is learning Chinese.” She then asked me what courses in Chinese we had. Botn Pimsleur Chinese Mandarin Courses and Pimsleur Cantonese Courses I told her that we sold. She wanted to know which was more popular Cantonese or Mandarin.

I said to her, “Why are all of your friends learning Chinese?” She had several friends going to Beijing on a trip, another going to Shanghai to see friends, and another one going to Hong Kong and then to Guizhou. In order to talk to people in China ,all of these friends were trying to study some Chinese. This was impressive to think about all of these, probably older, people learning it.

I was in China a year ago and found it to be a fascinating place. I went through a candy factory that was just immaculate. I watched the workers decorate candy eggs, rabbits, and just about any kind of candy you can think of. The people that worked at the facility lived in apartments owned and supplied by the owners of the company. They signed contracts each year and were given their jobs, food and living quarters.

They made all sorts of candy with intricate details. From my hotel room I could see large cranes as far as the eye could see all putting up tall buildings. I found that the majority of cranes leased in the world was made in China. As I think about it and the experiences I had in China I can see why so many people are learning Chinese.

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Why Your Writing or Speaking Goals Need Clarity

July 2nd, 2009

Anytime you’re writing or speaking, take some time to establish a clear, strategic vision. Have a clear idea in your head of where you’re going, and why. With that, here are some ideas to help you get to that clear vision:

To get this kind of strategic clarity, we first need to step back and ask some important questions. What do we want for the time, money, and perhaps other resources we’re committing? In other words, what is the objective? Now, go one step further and articulate that objective in terms of reader or audience response. Write down what they will do if you successfully use your communication skills on them.

Next, write down why they would do what you’re asking of them. It’s one thing to have objectives, and it’s quite another to serve readers’ objectives as well as your own. You need to make your audience or readers aware of WIIFT – What’s In It For Them.

All of this takes work, and it will vary according to the importance of your project. But no matter its size, you know how little value you’ll realize if you jump in and write or speak without forethought.

Consider the case of the publisher who published two newsletters. The first went ahead quickly, with little strategic planning. Instead, the publisher was concerned with matters like color, typefaces, and so on. That was a mistake; the newsletter died after perhaps six or eight issues, and accomplished little.

Before starting the second newsletter, the publisher carefully worked through all the strategic issues. In fact, he started on the newsletter project in May and didn’t publish the first issue until September. He didn’t work full time at it, but still a lot of hours went into clarifying the strategy.

And, it worked. More than five years later, he was still publishing it every week, and it did the job it was developed to do.

In summary, your communication project has a greater chance of success if you take time up front to identify and articulate your objectives, as well as the desired reader response.

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Preparing your Opening Comments for your Best Man Speech

July 1st, 2009

One of the things that may get you to draw a blank is the first few sentences of your speech. Coming up with your opening remarks is one of the trickiest parts of writing a best man wedding speech.

Your opening statement is a critical piece of your speech because this is where you set the tone of your speech. A lot of people would create a great excitement over their opening comments and start off with an outrageous joke, or a sharp comment or anything that can get the attention of the guests. You may want to save those for another time. Pleasant opening remarks should be simple, sincere and suitable. Keep in mind that it’s not your day, so you might want to get the attention off you a little bit and focus on the newly wed couples instead.

You can start your opening statements with a respectful tone and slowly insert in some funny quotes or stories that you might want to share. Be sure to keep your jokes safe and clean as not to offend the couple or any of the guests that are present. Naturally, if you start off your best man speech with a sincere tone, then you should end it with the same effect. You will probably want to end your speech with polite comments and congratulatory words. This is often called the ’sandwich technique’ where you can stuff funny antics inside the speech itself and begin and end with a sincere tone.

There are a number of things that you can position in your opening comments. Firstly, you need to tell a little bit about yourself so that the entire audience would get to know you. This way, whatever you have to say, they can appreciate. Next, you may say your congratulations and well wishes to the happy newly wed couple. You can also thank them for having the opportunity to get up in front of such a great crowd and give a toast as the best man of the event. 

In giving your best man speech, it is essential that you stand secure. You can only do so if you are prepared for your little speech. This is exactly why you should develop a rough draft of your speech and practice delivering it days before the wedding. Give extra thought to your opening comments. Reherse delivering it to a mirror so you are aware if you get the tone that you want or not.

Lastly, if you still have a hard time coming up with the first few sentences of your opening comments, you can go online and search for best man speeches ideas. This would give you an example on things to put in your own speech. There are also some best man toast quotes that you can find online that can greatly help you in coming up with your own best man speech. Use these tools as guidelines and you can be off to a wonderful start in creating a great best man speech!

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Learning More About Italian Literature

July 1st, 2009

Italians have made their mark in the world. They are quite known and are leading in different fields like fashion, interior design, culinary arts and visual arts. Italians are very much proud of their origin and their heritage. Therefore, entering and learning more about Italian literature plays a significant role in understanding Italian history and culture.

The first Italian vernacular literature began in the 13th century. Sonnets were said to have been written first by Sicilians. Sonnets became widely used as a form of poetry in Italy and later spread throughout Europe. The Sicilian style was dominant in the north until 1260 when Guido Guinizelli, a Bolognese poet and jurist moved from courtly love into a more mystical and philosophical topics.

Then 13th century also produced folk poetry, doctrinal poetry, imitations of the chansons de geste in various dialects, and a magnificent flowering of religious poetry. Prose works included translations from Latin and French as well as collections of tales, anecdotes and sayings.

Dante Alighieri is one of the most prominent Italian writers. Dante’s work, the Divine Comedy, was considered one of the masterpieces in literature. Dante invented the iambic tercets for his epic journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.

Dante was among those talented people who can never be silent during political turmoil. During the political factions of Florence in 1295, he became heavily involved in diplomacy on behalf of Florence’s White Faction. When the Black seized the city, Dante was sentenced to two years of exile. He failed to pay the fine and was sentenced to die in 1392. But he continued to lived for the next 19 years although he was never to return to his city.

During his years in exile, Dante started working on the Convivio which is intended to be a feast of philosophical knowledge in fifteen books. He was also set unto working on De vulgaria elequentia about the proper literary use of Italian. But these projects remained unfinished. In 1307 he started working on the Commedia.

Another known Italian writer is Petrarch. Petrarch gave hints of his love to Laura in his collection of 366 poems called Rime. Scholars have tried to identify the Laura, matching different Lauras of his time based on his poems. Other scholars said that Laura is a poetic fiction, made so that Petrarch can talk about the demand of human love, love of God, experience and purity.

Another yet important figure not only in Italian literature but also in world literature would be Boccaccio. Boccaccio is among the devoted admirers of Petrarch. His greatest work would be the Decameron. Il Filostrato is a more significant work in Boccaccio’s development. It is a poem on the love of Troilo and Criseida, it carried much more ambitious lengths than the Decameron.

The early Italian writers paved the way for the development of literary works in Italian literature. It cannot be denied that these classical works provided inspiration and encouragement to more Italians to venture into literature.

Contemporary Italian writers would include prose writers include Luigi Pirandello, who explored the shifting nature of reality in his prose fiction and such plays as Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore (Six Characters in Search of an Author, 1921) ; novelists Giovanni Verga (an exponent of verismo or Naturalism) and Cesare Pavese.

Contemporary poets would include Filippo Marinetti, Salvatore Quasimodo, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale (winner of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature). Other novelists include Alberto Moravia and Umberto Eco became internationally successful with his novel Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose, 1980).

You are never too young or too old to learn Italian literature. If you want to challenge yourself, go ahead then and learn Italian. It is something worth learning given that this language is spoken by immigrants from Italy and used in various European countries which you will find useful should plan to go there on vacation.

 

Please visit: http://1st-LearningItalian.com where you can get your FREE Report on “Beginner’s Guide to Learning Italian”, Beginners Italian Videos, Study Italian Resources, and discover more on Italian to English Translation. Good Luck!

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How to Make Money at Home Even If You Have No Experience

July 1st, 2009

Legitimate Ways to Make Money From Home - Are There Any?

There are many who have found success in Internet marketing, but there are even more who are totally new to this concept.  This industry is fairly young and still has much to be explored. You can learn how to make money on Internet  and be a step ahead of many, which is great during these financial times. You know, it hasn’t been that long that we had our own computers. We are in a time now where almost every family has a computer, and not just one, but several.

Families are shopping, homework, and making friends, all on the computer. This is why Internet marketing has become so lucrative.  Is it too late for you to learn how to make money on the Internet? Not at all!  It is definitely time to hop on this booming industry.  There are so many opportunities for anyone who is ready to get on train and stay on. If you start and follow through with a good business model, then you will make money.  Now, the key here is the “good” business model, and it helps for you to know what is available.

Taking surveys - Companies want to know customer feedback on their products and services and hence they put out surveys. They use the feedback in the survey to improvise their business. Since such feedback is so vital to them, they are ready to pay money for the same. You can find sites giving you opportunities for doing paid surveys. You can make as small as $1 to a high amount as $50 for a paid survey. If you choose the paid site carefully, you can be sure of getting good cash by taking surveys.

Reading Emails - This is the easiest legitimate ways to make money online. Just fill in your application to read emails and you get them in your mailbox. Click the link in the mail to indicate you have read the email and you get money sent to your account for this action.

Conversion tracking is essential in this process. Cost effective advertising is of special importance online. I’ve been given a lot of Google Adwords tips over the years, but by far the best one I’ve implemented in my online business is learning to use their free conversion tracking system. Google gives you a snippet of code that you can easily integrate onto your website and it does all the rest. If you are an affiliate you may not be able to access the product websites you’re working with. But there aren’t many publishers who won’t be willing to put some code on their sites to help you if you are making them sales!.

Conversion tracking software is another way to keep on top of your advertising dollars. This is especially useful when you are using free advertising methods online. Using good software means you can keep track of where your traffic is coming from and what promotions are earning you the most money. Clickbank conversion tracking also exists to help you. Simply adding a few numbers or letters to your affiliate links will boost your internet marketing efforts a lot and help you make money online more consistently - and by that I mean turn a profit.

Resource Author Francisco Rodriguez Higueras online juegos Trabajo Empleo

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Learn Chinese: Learn Chinese Free

June 28th, 2009

That’s right! I want learning Chinese. Nowadays Chinese is the new language of world. I smell about and I can see where all this is going. Our world is growing at such a alarming rate and the world economy is merging at an unforgiving speed, I think we will all be speaking Chinese and Spanish right along with English.

In addition, you will see the Chinese language offered as a course if you check out the curriculum being offered in primary and secondary schools. In the futher,it seems that a command of the Chinese language will be ahead of the demand for Spanish. Half of Asia already speaks some form of Chinese, or incorporates styles of Chinese into their native language.

For many, learning Chinese is not an option but a necessary means to higher objective. And as the same,for many there is limited budget available in which to acquire the skill of Chinese. Thank god for the online resources abundant and available in which to learning Chinese online free.

One can easily access the classes online or download software to begin the learning experience with a little effort. Shareware exists at little or no cost.

Learning Chinese can be seen as a difficult task to embark upon. Many people have quit before they even began due to the overwhelming complexities distinctive and unique to Chinese. Online sites have supplied variations on tools to learn Chinese follow the demand grows for the language. To keep it light and fun, many programs let you play games for free or indulge in interactive animation to keep your attention and desire strong. Some programs offer flash cards and teach you how to make your own flash cards.

Why learn Chinese? Because you really wish to. You need to know your own goals,then you can integrate the cultural. May be for a forthcoming trip to China, or a hobby, or maybe just for simple understanding of a new friend, whatever the reason behind the spark, know it will benefit for you to acquire this knowledge and skill. And exhilarating to learn.

I could actively volunteer in Asian countries and become an important liaison between the eastern and western worlds if I learn Chinese. I would do great works in missionary arenas where so little help exists now. I know I could change the world better.

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How to Choose the Best Beginner Language Course Pack

June 28th, 2009

So, you have decided to learn to speak Chinese to advance your career or to get more from your travels. Am I right to assume that you discover that learning a second language a bit daunting? If you are like me, you may be the nightmare again and again,mind-numbing lists of vocabulary and grammar rules.

The solution lies in choosing a well-tested course for easy learning. You can’t expect to learning Chinese in 5 minutes, but learning a new language doesn’t have to take forever either.

Now, there are a little do’s and don’ts when it comes to choosing a top-rated, intensive, standard Chinese course pack. Let us take a look at what you should avoid and what you should pursue when going on this new, mind-expanding and enriching adventure.

What you don’t want to see in a Chinese course syllabus:

1) A ridiculous promise that you will learning Chinese in 5 minutes.

2) An emphasis on mindless repetition of long lists of grammar rules and vocabulary lists. Many language courses still focus on this with poor results.

3)Being avoided real conversations until you have mastered a large number of vocabulary.

What you do want to see in an intensive Chinese language pack:

1) An approach that will help you to learn to speak Chinese in an easy, fun and fast way. A course you need to focus on speaking confidence-building, while facilitating a natural accent.

2) Encouragement to take part in real conversations from the get go.

3)A learn-Chinese-for-beginners approach that will still offer you something when you are an advanced student. A language pack that is too basic will quickly become boring.

4) You can begin with saying hello and introducing yourself, ordering food and drink and giving or receiving compliments with ease and grace. Imagine how impressed business partners or traveling companions will be with your new skill!

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3 Tips Everyone Should Know About Article Marketing

June 27th, 2009

Maybe the best way to make some extra income from home is through the process of article marketing. Article marketing can bring more traffic to your site and offer the people who are already looking at your site something interesting to read. If you are trying to make money with article marketing then you need to write an article about some of the products you are trying to sell. This way you will make money online off the products you are selling and bringing more people to your site.

The only problem is you don’t know what the reader of your article wants to know about the product of service that you’re offering. You could guess but that’s not a good option if you are trying to make money. So what do you put into your articles? What things do you need to put into your article in order to keep the interest of the reader so they buy things from you and not somewhere else? Here are a few tips that can help you out when you are writing articles for you products that you have for sale on your site.

The title of the article is the first thing that your potential client is going to see so you want to make sure the title is a catchy one. The title of the article has to grab the attention of the reader right off the bat otherwise they are not going to read the article.

The next thing is the content of the article. You have to keep the interest of the reader. Keep the article easy to read and relevant to what you want to promote. You want to keep your article informational but not full of terminology that the readers is not going to understand. Remember you want the readers to reading so that they get interested to visit website and check out what you are offering.

The article you write about your product has to intrigue the person to click on the link to your site so that they can see the merchandise that you are presenting to the public.

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Great article writing and article writing skills to the SEO

June 27th, 2009

Website higher search engine results to get more traffic. Search engine optimization is the renovation of a website or addition of content to a website in order to make it more relevant to its market and therefore rank higher in a search engine, increasing its traffic.

Ultimately SEO is about increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to a website. There are two ways to do this. First of all, you can change the HTML script of the page in order to make more “search engine friendly”. Or, you can add articles and other content and advertising to expand the relevance of the keyword for website. Here are some simple tips for writing search engine optimization articles.

Search engine optimization as a result of the article was written like this, the key word-driven, it is to help take a look at an example to understand this project. For example, your website sales of baby clothes, you want to be relevant in a baby suit. First, write down all of the commonly used word, so do you think of baby clothes. Key words, such as “cute”, “baby”, “clothing”, “Baby,” “cheap”, etc. These types of words, most people use search engines.

Next, write an article pertaining to baby clothes. Like “what a full set, including” or “how many baby clothes do not really need”. Most SEO articles are somewhere between three hundred and five hundred words. In your basic articles, look at the logic here, you can replace with your keywords. Make sure you do not jeopardize the grammar or logical flow of your work. No one is going to read an article that doesn’t make sense.

Also, it is best if the article informs the reader of something of interest to them. Your potential customers useful information, in addition to advertising your product, you are so that they can better make a decision, and ultimately pleased with your retail business.

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