Online Book Marketing:
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Online Book Marketing: Action Steps
Note: This page is meant for authors who have posted their self publishing experience to the site. However, if you don't have a site, you might still benefit from reading this in advance of building yours.
One purpose of this site is to help you improve your online book marketing. Why not start by following these Action Steps...
- Check your link "popularity"
- Consider a premium listing
- Consider whether your website is built for traffic!
1. Online Book Marketing: Check your "LinkPop"
Links to your site can bring direct traffic from other sites. But did you know...
That is NOT the big benefit of an inbound link. This is:
Links from other sites to your site are probably THE major "currency" of web search. When lots of sites link to your site, that indicates to the search engines that they should rank your site highly in their search rankings.
(Think of inbound links as "votes" for the importance of your site.)
Let's check your link popularity. First, open Yahoo in a separate window. Now, let's give you a standard to compare your link popularity to. Copy this:
Now paste it into Yahoo and click Web Search.
What you're looking at is the inbound link popularity of my other site, Best Children's Books - Find, Read or Write. As I write this (March, 2008), the site has been in existence 2 years and has a LinkPop of 1600.
Yahoo knows of 1600 web pages that link to my site.
Now let's check your link LinkPop.
In the two places where it says best-childrens-books.com in the search box, replace my domain name with your domain name (no http://www and no / at the end). Now click...
What's your number? How does your online book marketing compare to mine?
Back to Action Steps, or continue to Step 2.
Congratulations. In posting to this site, you'll receive another link to your site. You should get:
- Direct traffic from this site
- Higher rankings from the search engines because of the perceived value of a link from this site
That's the dual power of inbound links! You have already improved your online book marketing!
But did you know that not all inbound links are created equal? Search engines also consider:
- the relevance of the site linking to you
- the clickability of the particular webpage on that site that links to you
Relevance is easy to understand. If you've self published a book about Buddhism, links from Buddhist sites and self publishing sites are valuable. A link from a vacuum cleaner site? Not so much.
Here's what clickability means. An effective website generally has a tiered structure. Tier 1 is the home page. Tier 2 pages are pages that the home page links to. Tier 3 pages are pages that can be gotten to from tier 2 pages. And so on.
Obviously, the home page is a website's most valuable real estate. A link from there is huge...and rare.
A link from a tier 2 is pretty darn good, while a link from a tier 3 is way better than nothing.
Links from tier 4's and 5's start to be a little meaningless. And yet that's what a lot of the paid web directories offer. Consider:
- Yahoo - $299/yr!!!
- Best of the Web - $239.95 one time or $79.95 annual
- JoeAnt - $39.99
That's what those outfits charge for a link! On the other hand...
Once your self publishing story has been posted, you'll have a fresh tier 3 link from this site. Would you like to add a tier 2 link as well? How does $3.00 for your first year sound, with no automatic resubscription?
Sounds interesting; tell me more.
Return to the Action Steps, or continue to Step 3.
3. Start thinking about whether you need a new website
The quote is from the movie, Field of Dreams. Unfortunately, it doesn't apply to the internet.
Lots of authors build websites. Very few attract the traffic they'd hoped for.
These people don't do the math!
I just typed poetry book into Google. I got 9.9 million results back. (Your results may vary!)
So let's say I self publish a book of poetry and have a web designer build me a gorgeous website to promote my book.
What on earth makes me think my website will show up near the top of the rankings and then be clicked on and that the person who clicked will then buy my book?!?!
If you didn't do the math before, do it now. What are the chances that a web surfer is going to search their way to your site?
Almost nil?
Let me show you a "magic" trick. Open up (in a separate window) a major search engine starting with G.
Copy, paste and search these terms, one at a time.
- bibliotherapy
- discount children's books
- cheap children's books
Look for my other site, best-childrens-books.com in the results. When I do it today, here's what I get:
- bibliotherapy #2, behind only Wikipedia
- discount children's books #1
- cheap children's books#1 AND #2
How's that for magic!
Is it dumb luck that I come out on top of those (and a lot of other) rankings?
No. It's about abandoning "If I build it, they will come" thinking and replacing it with a clear understanding of how the web works and how to write an online book marketing website that puts that knowledge to use.
It's about building a bigger website, about a subject somewhat broader than just your book(s). Want to learn more? Two choices...
- Learn about SiteBuildIt, the all-in-one, build-your-own-well-trafficked-website service that I use to build my sites.
- Ask me to take a look at your site and give you some ideas for improving your online book marketing effort.
It's easy
Fill out the form below, answering all the questions. Then I'll take a look at your site and give you a little feedback on where I think it might be coming up short. There's no charge, except that our back and forth will be posted to this site for the world to see!
Does Your Website Need Help?
Tell me about your book website. I'll take a look at it and tell you what I think. Can it be saved? Can it be improved? I'll tell you what I would do.
Our online book marketing discussion will be posted directly to this site so others can learn from it.
Website Reviews
These authors submitted their sites for review. Read what we found!
Meditation Website and Book
Site : www.monkeywisdom.net/oceanicmind
How much traffic do you get? Not much. The contents are published throughout the internet. The contents ...
Jamieson's Poetry
Site: Jamieson Poetry
How much traffic do you get? About 20 hits a day.
How much comes from the search engines? 78-83%. The lower figure ...
Website as Newspaper?
Read All About It!
Redneck Newspaper Website?
Site: Requiem for a Redneck
Steve, I have been following your site and receiving your newsletter ...
mikemonahanbooks.com
Site: Mike Monahan Books
How much money and time have you put into the site? Its a free site
Mike's page on this site
Mike, I'm gonna ...
Livermore The Online Novel
Site: (This site appears to have shut down)
How much traffic do you get? about 50 to 100 hits a day
How much comes from the search engines? very ...
A Dialogue about Authors' Websites in General and This Author's Website in Particular
Author's site: Belize Survivor
This dialogue continues from the Comment section of a self publisher post elsewhere on the site .
STEVE: So let'...
Love To Read
Site: Love to Read
My page on this site
How much traffic do you get? very little
How much comes from the search engines? not much
How ...
www.thechocolatequeen.net
Site: Lee Brooks' The Chocolate Queen
Lee's page on this site .
How much traffic do you get? Not much
How much comes from the search engines?...
lorrondon.com
Site: The Lorrondon's Homepage
Margaret's page on this site .
How much traffic do you get? Don't know. Not a lot, I'm guessing.
How much ...
Karina Kantas Author of In Times of Violence
url of your site: http://www.freewebs.com/froget
My page on this site
How much traffic do you get? 1328 StatCounter
How much comes from ...
Eagles Wings Publications
url of your site: Eagles Wings Publications
blog: Angels and Quilt Pieces
My page on this site
How much traffic do you get?
in ...
Shelagh Watkins - Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine
url of your site:
shelaghwatkins.co.uk
If you know, how much traffic do you get?
statcounter: 21,014 visits; 6,908 first-time visitors.
If ...
Only you can be the best publicity agent for your work
Publicity
So, you have written that great American Novel, um Canadian novel, um, well you write, and want to be seen, who doesn’t. The publicity problems ...
Christian Fantasy Author
Not rated yet
Site: williamwoodall.org
How much traffic do you get? Somewhere between 5 and 10 hits per day, usually.
How much comes from the search engines?...
Clive's Website & Blog
Not rated yet
Site: www.clive.uk.com
How much traffic do you get? Average about 7 hits a day
How much comes from the search engines? 27%
How much money ...
Building a Picture Books Site
Not rated yet
Site at time of review: www.imaajinn.com
Current version of site: www.robleyblake.com
How much traffic do you get? Not sure
How much ...
Help Book Benefit from TV Buzz
Not rated yet
I'm wondering if you have any tips for me. This is a "make hay while the sun shines" kind of question. My books were optioned by Bill Rotko who happens ...
margaretspoetrykorner.com
Not rated yet
Author's website: Margaret's Poetry Korner
Margaret, I'm very intrigued by your site, as well as by your notion of selling personalized poetry. I ...
wicklowphotographs
Not rated yet
Site: Wicklow Photographs
How much traffic do you get? Very little
How much comes from the search engines? 20%
How much money and time ...
publishingmadeeasy.org
Not rated yet
Author's website: publishingmadeeasy.org
How much traffic do you get? 4-5 per day
How much comes from the search engines? not sure
How ...
standthebook
Not rated yet
Site: Souper Publishing
How much traffic do you get? very little
How much comes from the search engines? none
How much money and time ...
jeanette mccarthy
Not rated yet
url of your site:
www.jeanettemccarthy.co.uk
If you know, how much traffic do you get?
this month none at all!
If you know, how much ...
Website Attacks Eyes!
Not rated yet
Author Lloyd Lofthouse wrote me back in response to my comments on his post, in which I offered some constructive criticisms of his website. I thought ...
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