Welcome to the 3rd Issue:
Do You Have A GENEROUS Website?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1) What's New At The Shared Self Publishing Experience

Traffic up, links up, pages up. Watch how a website can grow.


2) SiteBuildIt Special - Now's The Time To Get In!

If you've read the newsletter or poked around the site much, you know I get pretty excited about the company that gave me the tools to build this. And now, for a few more days, they're offering a special, which means you could get started on building a well-trafficked site...cheap!


3) FEATURE ARTICLE: Giving to Get: Why, on the Web, 'Tis Better (for You) to Give Than too Receive

People come to the web for free information. If all you're offering is a book for purchase, it's no wonder you're not getting much traffic...or many sales!


4) The Varying Value of Backlinks

Last month we discussed the importance of other sites linking to yours. This month we discuss why all links are not created equal!


5) New Pages on the Site

When you signed up for the newsletter, you were promised an update on new pages to the site. Here they are.

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Functionality Alerts!
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If any links in this newsletter don't work, it's probably because your email software cuts off the link text at a line break, then prints the rest of the link as plain text. To use one of these links, try copying the WHOLE link then pasting it into your browser.

This email was designed to be read in an email reader that reads html. If you don't have one or yours is turned off, this letter might not look great but I'm guessing you're still smart enough to make sense of what I'm saying!
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1) WHAT'S NEW AT THE SHARED SELF PUBLISHING EXPERIENCE

Welcome. The site has been "live" for three months, and this is my third newsletter. There have been 49 new contributions to the site, resulting in almost 100 new pages. The site now has about 280 pages.

Since this newsletter is about internet marketing and building search engine traffic, I provide regular "traffic updates," so you can see how a site that's built for traffic grows.

Last month 117 searchers found the site via Google. This month: 223.
Last month 56 searchers found the site via Live.com. This month: 72.
Last month Yahoo sent nothing! This month: 12 visitors.
Last month Ask sent nothing: This month: 6 visitors.

Stunning backlink report! Last month Yahoo was aware of 10 web pages that link to The Shared Self Publishing Experience. This month: 573!

We discussed the importance of backlinks (links from other sites to your site) last month, and we'll be discussing it a little more this month.

The direct effect of these links: more than 200 visits to the site. The indirect effect: the search engines are quickly learning that other sites think this site is important! Build a useful site and other sites will link to you!


2) THE SITE-BUILD-IT SUMMER SPECIAL

I own 2 SiteBuildIt (SBI) sites; my wife owns 1. (So far!) They are THE way (as far as I'm concerned) to build a successful internet site, the kind that can sell your books...and more. SBI is so much more than a web host; it includes an all-in-one set of tools for researching a market niche and attracting a shocking flow of search engine traffic.

(My 2 year old children's books site already gets over 40,000 page views a month.)

SBI's usual price is comparable to a decent webhost ($US299/yr, equivalent to $25/mo). So for the price of a host, you get a suite of free tools for proper sitebuilding that would cost you thousands if you subscribed to each of them separately. In addition, you get an active community of fellow sitebuilders with whom to interface and learn from. (Learn more at the SBI section of my other site.)

Now, a few times a year SBI runs specials for new sitebuilders. One of those times is now. The deal ends on July 6th, 2008.

It's a "Get An Extra Site for Just $100 For The First Year" deal. In other words, if you know of someone else interested in building a site, you can buy in together for $US399 and both save a hundred bucks. Or if you have 2 notions and you'd like to buy both sites for yourself, you can do that too. (SBI will let you stop the clock from ticking on the 2nd site for up to 8 months.)

Also...

There's a 30 day money back guarantee. So if SBI turns out not to be for you, you get your bucks back.

One other possibility...

You only want one site, and you don't have any friends and family who are interested. I can't make any guarantees, but if you write me immediately and someone else writes me immediately, I'll put you in touch with each other to see if you can work something out.

The SBI Summer Special ends July 6th. I wouldn't recommend SBI if I weren't experiencing tremendous success with it myself!


3) FEATURE ARTICLE
Giving to Get: Why, on the Web, 'Tis Better (for You) to Give Than to Receive!

Imagine it's "Free Day" at the grocery store. Everything in 15 of the 16 aisles is free today. Only Frozen Foods cost money.

Which aisle do you think has no customers?

On the internet, every day is Free Day. 99% of the time we surf we seek free information. If, as a website owner, all you're trying to do is sell your book...well, you're at a pretty major disadvantage. Here's what you're hoping will happen:

a) a search engine will send you a visitor, even though that visitor wasn't searching for your book.
b) that visitor will decide to buy your book - sight unseen - rather than continue surfing for the free information they had been searching for.

Think about that. You're expecting someone to choose

PAID over FREE
READABLE over UNKNOWABLE
DELAYED over IMMEDIATE

Good luck!

Convincing strangers you have something worth paying for in a market where most everything else is free isn't easy, but it can be done. Here's how:

FIRST, you have to offer something else for free. That's what people are searching for, and that's what search engines direct those people to. (Most people don't search for cars on the internet, they search for free information on cars.)

SECOND, once they've gotten what you've given free, a small percentage of them will be grateful and open to hearing what you've got that isn't free.

So what do you offer for free? Most successful websites offer needed information. What needed information should you offer???

Something related to the subject matter of your book.

Don't give me free information on washing machines and then expect me to buy your book on butterflies. Well, very clean butterflies maybe. ;-)

Take my site. I've tried to make sure The Shared Self Publishing Experience is all about giving.

1) I give free links to self published authors who post, and
2) Those posts provide valuable information for other authors

The giving feels good! And of all the people who visit to partake of all the freebies, a few take actions that result in me making a little money and selling a few books.

I recently bought a book from one of the authors on this website

I've never done it before, and I might not do it again. But I was so overwhelmed by the giving I encountered on her website that all I could think was, "How can I help?"

The author is Stephanie Ehmen, and here's her post. It's not the best post on the site, but please follow the link at the bottom to Stephanie's site. See if Stephanie's giving nature doesn't leave you breathless! See if you aren't tempted to buy the book or make a donation!

(In a related vein, there was another generous post this month you should check out. Visit Jan Crossen.)

Now, it's hard to duplicate what Stephanie and Jan have done, because their sites are more about their personal generosity than their generosity with information. So consider two independent publishers who practically pour good information onto the net.

Jim Munroe's No Media Kings is a huge and hugely successful site for artists of all types. It's inspirational as well as informational. Jim's work is available throughout, but for those with no eye to purchase, you could still spend a week surfing and learning. (Read his post to The Shared Self Publishing Experience.)

Floyd Orr's POD Book Reviews & More is his gift to POD authors. I count 54 book reviews, 10 author interviews, a ton of invaluable links for independent authors, a team of 5 reviewers in addition to Floyd himself, and much more. Receiving periodic mention: Floyd's 4 books.

Take note of that "giving ratio" please.

Four books of Floyd's
fifty-four books by others.

Are you starting to understand what kind of giving goes into a successful site?

Consider, in fact, the most successful site on the net: Google. Have you ever paid Google for a search? All they do is give. Yet the company is worth over $US100 billion as I write this.

Stop thinking the web is going to let you take without giving.

Ask yourself

i. what information you're uniquely qualified to offer, or
ii. what information you could offer in a uniquely helpful way

This information should relate in some way to your book(s). You could

*create a directory of other helpful sites on a subject
*create a question and answer section on a subject you know well
*create a discussion forum
*write a "how to"
*collect famous quotes on a subject
*break a subject down into smaller subjects and write a web page on each of them

But first, decide whether your best approach is to build a new site on the subject or retrofit your existing one.

*Retrofitting is easier...at least in the short run
*Starting from scratch works better

Here are 4 letters you've probably never seen together before:

C - T - P - M

They refer to the most effective approach to website building that I know of.

C stands for Content. Content is the free information I've been talking about.

T stands for Traffic. Traffic results from Content that is well-written and intelligently structured.

P stands for PREselling. Preselling is what occurs when your website delivers more than your visitor expected, when your visitors are taken aback that you've offered and arranged so much good information for free.

Selling, on the other hand, is asking for the sale. It's awkward, and it tends not to work. PREselling is putting a visitor in a mindset to buy.

M stands for Monetization. Monetization results when the other elements are in place. And something else: monetization might not be only the selling of your book! A well-built site tends to have multiple monetization options...options that can help support your writing habit!

Learn more about C - T - P - M.

It is just plain silly to put yourself in a marketplace where everyone successful offers something for free and you're offering nothing but paid goods. If you want to sell you better learn to give!


4) The Varying Value of Backlinks

Last month we discussed the importance of other sites linking to your site. I promised that this month we'd discuss how and why all these backlinks are NOT created equal.

Let's do it!

Among the things we discussed last month were the direct and indirect effect of backlinks.

The direct effect is the traffic that comes directly from the other sites. The indirect (and potentially much more powerful) effect is in what those inbound links tell the search engines about you: that your site is worthwhile!

(If you haven't read last month's Feature Article, go do it!)

Now, to simplify, the more worthwhile your backlinks are, the more worthwhile the search engines will think your site is. Here are the kinds of links that will best serve you:

a) Links from sites (and pages) with subject matter that relates to your own
b) Links from pages with high PageRank
c) Links from pages that are close to the other site's home page
d) Links containing hypertext that relates to your subject matter
e) Links from library, government and public educational sites

a) Links from sites (and pages) with subject matter that relates to your own

Simple concept. If you have a site about writing comedy, then a link from a comedian's site has more value than a link from a realtor's site.

b) Links from pages with higher PageRank

PageRank (PR) is a Google measure of a particular webpage's relative worth. PR can go from 0 to 10 (though some web pages aren't even indexed; they're sub-zero).

Very few web pages are ranked above 4 or 5.

If you have the Google Toolbar, you'll be able to view any web page's PR. All things being equal, your best links will come from the pages with the highest PR, or from pages on new sites (like this one) destined to have much higher PR.

PR tends to grow as Google realizes that a website is here to stay.

c) Links from pages that are close to the other site's home page

A well-structured site has a branch like structure. The home page is the trunk. Pages that are linked to from the home page are the biggest branches. We call these "Tier 2s." A page that can only be reached from a Tier 2 is a Tier 3. And so on.

The home page is valuable territory! The closer the page with your link is to the home page, the better the link.

If you have a page on this site, your link is a Tier 3 (which will be archived to a Tier 4 once the site gets too big).

(That's why I offer a special service where you can purchase a Tier 2 link for just $3.00 for 1 year.)

d) Links containing hypertext that relates to your subject matter

As discussed last month, Google pays a lot of attention to links. They also pay a lot of attention to link text. Ideal link text says something about the page being linked to. If the blue link text to your book site reads, "check out this great self published book" or "read this book on how to be a magician," you're better off than if the link text reads, "click here."

e) Links from library, government and public educational sites

Not all links are created equal because not all sites are created equal.

The search engines do a pretty good job of figuring out what sites are authoritative and/or non-commercial. For that reason, links from libraries, governmental entitities and universities carry a LOT of heft. I would happily take one such link over 10 run-of-the-mill links.

When traffic plateaued on my children's books site, I decided it was time to take action. I resolved to create a resource that would give public libraries a reason to link to my site.

Librarians are hard to impress. I created this Tier 2 page on my site:

http://www.best-childrens-books.com/bibliotherapy.html

Then I created the Tier 3s you see listed on the Tier 2 page.

Creating this resource took a lot of thought, time and effort. It had to. I needed to convince librarians that this was a valuable source of information available nowhere else.

It had to be done in a spirit of giving. (See this month's Feature Article.)

Once I'd finished creating the resource, I began emailing hundreds of librarians to make them aware of it.

Only about 15 libraries responded to my efforts and created a link to my site. (More have done some since, without my prompting.) But even these few libraries were enough to increase my credibility with the search engines and double my traffic within a couple of months.

Now my site comes up #2 (behind Wikipedia) when you Google Bibliotherapy!

Action Steps You Can Take

i. Seek Out Links/Join Value Exchange
ii. Create a Resource
iii. Take Control of the Links You Control

i. Seek Out Links/Join Value Exchange

When you try to get other sites to link to you, focus on sites that relate to your subject matter! And remember: trading links is a valid way to increase your link popularity.

Value Exchange is a FREE SiteBuildIt link trading service. Register for keywords that relate to your book and your site's subject matter. You'll be informed about sites in your market niche with an interest in trading links.

Visit those sites. See where a link to you might be appropriate. Then think of your site and whether a link to the other site might fit in somewhere. If you think your sites could be a good fit, use Value Exchange to contact the other site!

ii. Create a Resource

Accumulating backlinks is a chore when your site has nothing to offer! (Besides the availability of your book.) On the other hand, links to your site tend to just happen when you create a valuable information resource.

The Shared Self Publishing Experience is nothing if not a resource, and in less than 3 short months has accumulated nearly 600 backlinks, according to Yahoo. And if, in a few months, I don't notice libraries linking to me, I'll get out there and approach them myself!

Can you make your existing site an information resource! Or would you be better off starting a new site in your field from scratch?

iii. Take Control of the Links You Control

Maybe you have a blog and a regular site. Maybe you have an internet empire! Or maybe you just have your lonely one book website.

Regardless, when you link from one of your webpages to another, remember the importance of link text. Take an hour now to change every "click here" to something more descriptive!


5) NEW PAGES ON THE SITE

When you signed up for this newsletter you were promised updates on new self publishing stories posted to the site. There have been 49 posts in the last month, too many for me to describe, so I'm just going to list them by url.

First, this month's feature site. There were a ton of great posts this month, but I found this one the most thought-provoking. Visit Great Expectations. Don't forget to comment!

Moving on...Each url below reflects the title given by the author to their self publishing experience (minus the punctuation). To visit a page, paste into your browser's address bar the characters

then paste in the characters for the particular page that catches your eye. There were 45 regular posts, 2 site reviews, and 1 illustrator post.

tired-of-traditional-publishing-dead-ends.html

faith-in-the-future.html

marketing-is-the-toughest-part.html

how-i-became-an-awardwinning-pod-author.html

know-your-market.html

required-determination-and-persistence.html

from-a-novelist-who-left-harpercollins.html

rebirth-of-the-dogwood.html

bringing-the-orphan-train-experience-out-of-the-shadows.html

tv-guy-writes-book.html

learning-curve-for-concubine.html

website-attacks-eyes.html

separating-good-writing-from-the-bad.html

14-years-raising-a-helicopter.html

write-from-what-you-know.html

publishing-an-ebook.html

finding-investors-for-your-book.html

professional-results-with-asjaiuniverse.html

lessons-learned-from-a-self-published-author.html

climbing-mount-everest-marketing-on-a-budget.html

selfpublished-authors-stop-doing-this.html

iuniverse-and-me.html

publishing-cursed-blood-my-first-book.html

the-write-to-flight.html

predicting-the-future-is-one-thing-spreading-the-word-is-another.html

the-road-to-self-publishing.html

my-experience-of-books.html

vocal-training-books.html

my-explosion-from-a-chapter-to-a-trilogy.html

just-wanted-the-books-in-print.html

self-publishing-for-children-on-a-shoestring.html

crawling-on-a-creative-mountain.html

a-published-author-learns-when-and-how-to-use-printondemand-publishing.html

now-help-is-on-its-way.html

only-when-i-talk.html

published-at-17-years-old.html

self-publishing-is-it-worth-it.html

dont-expect-selfpublishing-to-be-easy.html

how-a-published-author-expanded-sales-through-printondemand-publishing.html

the-making-of-a-still-motion-picture.html

there-is-no-shame-in-selfpublishing.html

why-you-should-selfpublish-your-photo-book.html

independent-author-publisher-bookseller.html

worth-the-effort.html

stranger-dangers.html

Site Reviews

jeanette-mccarthy.html

shelagh-watkins-mr-planemakers-flying-machine.html

Illustrators

tolga.html


WRAPPING UP

Please remember that this newsletter is perfectly suitable for forwarding to your self published friends and acquaintances! You can also recommend to them that they sign up for the newsletter on The Shared Self Publishing Experience home page. Also remember to tell those folks they can post to the site in return for a link to their site!


THANK YOU