Welcome to the 4th Issue:
How Often Is Your Site Found By a Search Engine?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

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


2) New Kind of Ego-Surfing May Prove Useful

Have you ever Googled your name? I'll show you a new way to search yourself and learn something about online marketing in the process.


3) FEATURE ARTICLE: Turning the Spotlight on Other Authors' Websites

Of the authors who posted to The Shared Self Publishing Experience this month, a few had sites of their own that made me stand up and take notice. These folks know that web success requires more than a few pages and more than just you and your book!


4) Building Side by Site

There's a lot of website critique here at The Shared Self Publishing Experience. If some of it leaves you thinking you need to build a new site, great. That DOESN'T mean you should consign your existing site to the scrap heap.


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. Also, this month's feature post - an amazing How To on getting the most from Amazon.

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1) What's New at the Shared Self Publishing Experience?

Welcome. The site has been "live" for four months, and this is my fourth newsletter. There have been 44 new contributions to the site. Please note: postings and comments on those postings now appear on the same page. 161 authors have so far posted to the site.

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 223 searchers found the site via Google. This month: 383.
Last month 72 searchers found the site via Live.com. This month: 183.
Last month 12 searchers found the site via Yahoo. This month: 54.


2) How Often Are You Searched?

Is your site named after you? After your book? Your domain name tells the search engines the most important search you want to be found for. stevebarancik.com is the ideal domain name for me...if my main goal is to be found for searches on my name.

Try this tool. Go to

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Select "descriptive words or phrases." Type in your name (if it's not a common name), or type in your book(s)' title(s). Click "Get Keyword Ideas."

There are 91 searches on my name in an average month. Is that a lot? (Remember, it includes all the times you search yourself.) Even though I have three screenwriting credits, that's all I get.

I don't consider 91 a lot. I can't see building a website just to get SOME of that traffic and HOPE to sell something to a tiny percentage of it.

On the other hand, my first movie, The Last Seduction, averages 2900 searches a month. Maybe I should make a site about that.

Oops. Some scammer beat me to it.

http://thelastseduction.com/

Ask yourself this: how often are you searched? How often is your book?

If the tool shows numbers in the mid-hundreds or thousands, a site named after you or your book makes some sense. However, if your search number is coming back low, or "Insufficient data," your self-named site is "optimized" to receive a high percentage of traffic on a very UNtrafficked search term.

60's celebrity Dee Dee Phelps recently posted to the site.

http://www.shared-self-publishing.com/navigating-the-publishing-trail.html

Her singing duo, Dick and Dee Dee, gets 720 searches a month. dickanddeedee.com makes sense.

If curiosity about you or your book is less than feverish, and yet you still hope to lure significant traffic, you need a new strategy. A new site...with a new name...with a new aim.

I know of only one web host that walks you through the process of

a) selecting the perfect domain name and
b) structuring a site designed to attract search engine traffic...

...searchers with a specific interest in subjects relating to YOUR book.

The reason is that this web host is not just a web host.

Do read more.

http://webhosting.sitesell.com/writingsuccess.html


3) FEATURE ARTICLE
Authors Who "Get" the 'Net!

Kevin Joseph's website looks like your typical author website, maybe even smaller than most.

There's

• a home page
• a reviews page
• a Q&A page

And then there's a magic page.

Kevin wrote a novel on the subject of running. Not the first book on running. Won't be the last. But here's how Kevin stood his book out from the crowd.

The fourth page on Kevin's site is headed, "Running Novels." Perhaps counterintuitively, Kevin has taken it upon himself to list ALL the running novels he knows of.

Now keep in mind: The search engines know of no reason to list Kevin's running novel ahead of other running novels. The engines don't buy and review books!

But a LIST of running novels? That's an information resource and the engines' bread and butter. Naturally enough, that page is the one that brings Kevin his search engine traffic, 1-5 hits a day.

And those visitors get to hear - from Kevin - about Kevin's novel. It's the one in the list with the Amazon link!

Visit Kevin's site, and Kevin's page on this site, where he talks more about the strategy.

http://www.kevin-joseph.com/Novels.html
http://www.shared-self-publishing.com/how-i-connected-with-my-niche-audience.html

And see how highly Google ranks him for Running Novels!

Troy Carlyle has a book, a website, and HIV

He's also served his country honorably in the armed forces. In other words, he has an interesting story and he's gone and written about it in a book. He calls it, The Remainder of My Life: An Autobiography Written in Real Time.

Yet, if you visit Troy's website, you're apt to think the book an afterthought. That's because Troy has created a site that's a valuable information resource.

Troy provides a TON of valuable information to the GLBT community in Texas. Who needs this information? GLBT folk in Texas. Who's most likely to buy Troy's book?

GLBT folk. In Texas.

Troy makes sure that his site is about others, not about him and his book. But anyone who develops an interest in the generous fellow who went to the trouble of putting this resource together, well, there's his book if you want to learn more.

And there's his website t-shirt. And there's the advertising for people to click on and help Troy support his self publishing habit. And there's the writing contest with Troy's book as a prize.

Visit Troy's site, and Troy's page on this site.

http://www.tridd.com/
http://www.shared-self-publishing.com/remainder-of-my-life.html

Yasuyuki Kasai did his research

His book is historical fiction set during WWII. Not all his research made it into his book. But a heck of a lot of it made it onto his website.

Yasuyuki knows that, on the internet, no information is wasted. His website is filled with information that you might find in a book's Appendix.

Since all of the information relates to the world of his book, the people who search for this information - and find it on Yasuyuki's site - are prime prospects for buying his book.

This is a perfect example about creating a website on a subject that INCLUDES your book. Yasuyuki took information that helped him write his book, that enriches the world of his book, and posted it to the web.

Now, searchers looking for information on, say, The Battle of Guadalcanal from the Japanese point of view, find themselves pointed to Yasuyuki's site. Once there, it's quite easy to become intrigued by Yasuyuki's book.

Do you have any research that's going to waste in a box? Maybe the best place for it is on your site!

Visit Yasuyuki's site and Yasuyuki's page on this site.

http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/~yskasai/dom.html
http://www.shared-self-publishing.com/inspired-by-the-true-events-of-world-war-ii.html

I wrote a lot last month about the importance of building a site that has value to someone other than yourself.

These authors have put theory into practice and are reaping the benefit, traffic-wise. Reading last month's article might not be a bad idea!

http://www.shared-self-publishing.com/Advanced_Self_Publishing-building-a-valuable-website.html#Item%203


4) Building a New Site Side-by-Side with the Old

Visitors to this site are the experts on self publishing. I'm just the guy with some expertise in attracting web traffic.

I have frequent correspondence with authors who read what I have to say about their sites and are motivated to action. Some of them then see how their sites AREN'T built for traffic and resolve to build a new one that is.

I'm then asked this question: Should I get rid of my existing site?

Unless keeping the site up requires significant expenditures of time or money, or unless the site is an embarrasment, the answer is no.

Leave it up.

Any original content on the web is a good thing. In almost every case, the bigger your web presence, the better.

But even more importantly, your existing site can be a source of "backlinks" to your new site.

(Read much more about backlinks at http://www.shared-self-publishing.com/Advanced_Self_Publishing-backlinks.html)

Links to a site are seen as a form of currency by the major search engines. The more that other sites link to your site, the more valuable the engines see your site as being.

For that reason, you should link back and forth generously between any and all of your sites. You make them ALL richer by doing so.

Finally, linking from your existing site(s) to your new one is the perfect way to "introduce" your new site to the search engines. Links from an existing site are the best way to make sure a new site is promptly indexed.

It's an approach I call, "Side by Site." You spent all that time, effort and/or money building your existing site. No reason to let it go to waste!

One caveat: don't duplicate content between your sites. Having the same page in two places is something the search engines DON'T like.

Wondering what your new site would look like? How you would go about making sure it attracted a lot more traffic than your existing one?

I talk often on this site about the service I use to plot and write my sites. (That's right: I'm a writer and my sites are written. Not coded.)

The service is called Site Build It.

On my other site, Best Children's Books - Find, Read or Write, I did something I don't even know if I'm allowed to do.

I show how Site Build It works. I give you an extended peek at the ton of tools every Site Build It owner exploits to build sites that get the traffic.

It's a long page. But if you read through it, the notion of building your own site - no help from a "site designer" who isn't a writer and knows nothing about attracting visitors - won't seem so alien and undoable.

Wanna see the page? Go here:

http://www.best-childrens-books.com/site-build-it.html


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 44 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 so many excellent submissions last month that no one stood out...until the last day of the month.

I had asked Kevin Joseph (yes, the same Kevin Joseph previously mentioned) to write a piece about his approach to Amazon sales. Boy, did he come through.

Kevin is nothing less than an Amazonologist. If you're one of the overwhelming majority of self publishers who thinks a sale you make is more lucrative than a sale Amazon makes for you, Kevin is here to change your mind.

Done right, an Amazon sale can lead to MORE sales. Can you say that about the sales you make?

Kevin speaks with authority. He has an Amazon "Listmania" page that's been viewed over 8000 times, and his book page received 440 views just last month. Can you say that?

Read Kevin's "How To" and make Amazon work for you. So much great information I had to break it into two pages! Start at

http://www.shared-self-publishing.com/self-publisher-masters-amazon-bookselling-tactics.html

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. In addition to the regular posts, there are 2 site reviews, and 2 illustrator posts.

To honor all the terrific posts that came in last month, I've put the absolute best at the top and bolded them.

publishing-is-a-maze.html

the-city-zoopublished-by-a-duck.html

a-walk-on-the-wild-side.html

toronto-author-wins-us-awards-then-gets-agent-heres-what-happened.html

the-last-resort.html

therapy-book-author-follows-her-passion.html

growth-and-change-made-me-a-better-writer.html

how-i-connected-with-my-niche-audience.html

my-selfpublishing-odyssey.html

fear-and-loathing-in-the-land-of-selfpublishing.html

a-futuristic-journey.html

patience-is-key-when-dealing-with-publishers.html

a-c-ellis-science-fiction-and-mysterysuspense.html

journey-of-winters-rite.html

am-i-self-published.html

selfpublishing-not-easy.html

publishing-universal-office-diary.html

out-of-the-fire.html

a-walk-in-the-lonely-world-of-pod.html

marketing-appears-insurmountable-for-the-introvert.html

remainder-of-my-life.html

after-fifty-rejections-what-are-we-to-do-with-our-four-hundred-page-manuscript.html

how-can-a-blind-guy-write.html

how-i-found-the-lulu-experience.html

my-mommy-wears-army-boots-a-childrens-book.html

maintain-control-of-your-manuscript-by-publishing-it-yourself.html

dream-weaverfrom-dream-to-reality.html

never-give-in-never-give-up.html

navigating-the-publishing-trail.html

another-small-drop-in-the-ocean-of-selfpublishing.html

inspired-by-the-true-events-of-world-war-ii.html

choosing-selfpublishing.html

doing-better-the-second-time-around.html

reinventing-myself-preserving-and-sharing-some-chinese-american-history.html

deception-to-the-nth-degree.html

oprah-im-still-waiting-for-your-call.html

Site Reviews

eagles-wings-publications.html

karina-kantas-author-of-in-times-of-violence.html

Illustrators

hedley-griffin.html

tm-root.html


WRAPPING UP

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