Source: http://blog.marketingtipsforauthors.com/2010/08/clone-yourself-marketing-tips-that-help.html

By Tony Eldridge, creator of Marketing Tips For Authors

Do you ever wish you had 26 hours in a day or that you could be in two places at once? One way to handle this conundrum is to hire people to do some of the things you just don’t have time to do. But in some cases, the answer to your time-crunch dilemma may be a simple, free solution that you can set up today. I’m talking about automated services that help you get your marketing messages out for you so you can focus on other marketing activities.

In the near past, I would have provided a list of services that you can use to accomplish this. While I will mention a few services that I use, this post will focus simply on educating you on the types of activities that you have available. Why? Because these time-saving services are so widespread and similar in features that a simple Google search will return a virtual smorgasbord of results for you to feast on.

1. Automatically Announce Your New Blog Posts- You could spend an hour each day manually adding your new post to your social sites or you could hire someone to do this for you. But in today’s world, you can set up a service to automatically detect and post the title and link to your social sites. Most of these services will even shorten your URL for micro sites like Twitter.

Before you get all excited and start to sign up for these services, I have a some advice.

• Check out the free services before you pay for this. You may eventually decide to pay for services that offer unique benefits you find desirable, but you may also find that the free services do exactly what you need.
• Be careful not to sign up for multiple services that do the same thing. You may find two cool services that offer unique benefits but they both also post your new blog title to your accounts. You don’t want to flood your social followers with the same announcements over and over.
• Remember that you can set these services up coming or going. What I mean by that is that you can have sites like Twitter pull in your new blog posts or you can even have your blog send out your new posts to sites like Twitter. And there are a host of third party applications that will act as the go-between between services like your blog and Twitter.
• Many applications will post to multiple spots like Twitter and Facebook at the same time, so you may want to look at managing one application rather than managing multiple applications that all do the same thing.

2. Automatically Schedule Your Messages- I love services like Social Oomph. Their free version will allow you to create a tweet that you might want to send out multiple times, save it, and schedule it to run whenever you wish with a few clicks of your mouse. I have hundreds of blog titles going back a couple of years that are still relevant today as they were when I first posted them. Now, once a week or once every two weeks, I can schedule old posts to tweet out to new followers. This can keep great content out of the morgue and help them continue to give benefits to your followers.

3. Have Your Mail Client Sort Your Incoming Mail- Rather than spend your day prioritizing your e-mail or hiring an assistant to do it for you, you can set up folders for incoming e-mails and then set up rules to have incoming mail automatically move messages to these folders. Then, all you have to do is glance through your folders to visually see priority messages.

For example, I never want to miss an e-mail from my wife, Emily. I have a folder in Outlook called, creatively enough, “Emily.” Anytime she sends me an e-mail, it goes straight to that folder and the folder turns bold to let me know an unread message is there. I have folders set up for blogs I follow, incoming bills, Twitter alerts and about 25 other folders. TechTrax has a great written tutorial on setting up rules or for those who learn better by watching, VideoTrainingPro has a video tutorial that will help you set up rules.

4. Make It Easy For Your Followers To Share Through Automation- You love it when people tweet about your post or share it with their Facebook friends, right? Well, people are more likely to do just that if you make it quick and easy for them. Early on, I actually changed the HTML template of this blog to add the TweetMeMe button on all my posts. Now, Blogger has a tool that will add it for you with a click or two of the mouse. Regardless of what tool you use, or where you get it, if you give your readers a simple button to click in order to share your posts, it will increase the chances that they will follow through.

I hope these ideas help you find ways you can automate your daily tasks and free up time to do the other marketing tasks that need to be done. If so, you will be surprised at how productive you will become.

About the Author

Tony Eldridge is the author of the award winning action/adventure novel, The Samson Effect, which Clive Cussler calls a “first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure.” He is also the creator of Marketing Tips for Authors, a site that publishes free tips and videos to help authors learn marketing techniques for their books. You can read the serial release of The Samson Effect at http://samsoneffect.marketingtipsforauthors.com/

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source: http://www.millermosaicllc.com/book-author-profile-pages/

If you find this article informative, check out WeTeachWebMarketing.com.

If you are a book author who wants potential readers to find you on the internet, you want to be as visible as possible in places that those readers might be.

And in almost every social media place that you sign up for – such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – you are given the opportunity to write a profile about yourself.

What should these profiles say to effectively attract potential readers?

Twitter Has Only 160 Characters for Your Bio Info

Let’s start with Twitter with 160 characters max for your bio. Obviously you are going to put that you are a book author (perhaps fiction or nonfiction) and presumably you will have a book website URL for the “more info URL” field in your profile. What else are you going to say in those 160 characters? That depends.

Do you have a business besides being a book author? If so, you may want to put info about that business in your bio. Or is there a particular hook about your book that you want to get across in your bio? Perhaps your book is a novel based on a true story.

Your goal in the brief Twitter bio is to make yourself interesting enough (although all true) that people can find “connections” to you and want to follow you.

This means that you must not leave this bio blank. If you want people to follow you on Twitter, you have to be willing to share about yourself.

And remember that you can change this info easily. For example, if your book wins an award, you should consider changing your Twitter bio to reflect that award. Revisit your bio every couple of months to ensure that it presents the most up-to-date version of yourself.

Facebook Has Much More Space for Bio Info

Now let’s move on to Facebook, which has a longer bio section under info on your profile page with the ability to include as many of your own website URLs as you want.

Now here’s the often-overlooked extra of Facebook:

You can have a very brief bio section under your photo that people can see when visiting your wall page as well as your info page. This is a golden opportunity to get the most important points across in a very short space. Because, honestly, how many people are going to read all those long entries on your info page? (And for the long entries, do use lists instead of long, dense paragraphs.)

Take advantage of this brief, easy-to-read bio with the info you most want to share with your Facebook friends. Note that this may not necessarily be the same as the info you choose to share with your Twitter followers, even though in both cases you want to emphasize that you are a book author. And, again, update this brief Facebook bio every couple of months.

LinkedIn Has Its Own Peculiarities

Now for the third social networking site – LinkedIn. This site gives you a very brief space to put a few words under your photo along with the opportunity to provide a brief summary of your business. Book authors should take advantage of both places to convey their most important information. Then the rest of the profile info on LinkedIn is more job and career-oriented.

There is one important “trick”:

LinkedIn only allows three website links. But don’t click on “My Company” or “My Website” or “My Blog” before putting in the links. Click on “Other” in each case. Then to the right of “Other” put descriptive words such as “Book Blog” or “Book Site.” You want potential readers to know they can find out about your book(s) at your sites.

As with your other social media profiles, revisit your LinkedIn profile info every so often to ensure that the info is up to date.

In conclusion, don’t make the mistake of thinking that these profiles are unimportant and thus you dash off writing the info. These profiles provide the information that helps make you interesting to potential readers.

Spend as much time writing and revising these social media profiles as you would spend writing and revising any paragraph or page in your novel or nonfiction book. – P.Z.M.

___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is a National Internet Business Examiner at http://www.InternetBizBlogger.com as well as a book author, and her power marketing company http://www.MillerMosaicLLC.com combines traditional marketing principles and Internet marketing strategies to put power in your hands.

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source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/book-marketing-tips-6-golden-tactics-you-cant-ignore-2891271.html

(ArticlesBase SC #2891271)

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by: Tony Eldridge

source: http://blog.marketingtipsforauthors.com/2010/07/importance-of-social-networking-to.html

With a title like The Importance Of Social Networking To Authors And Professionals, you could expect to have a book, or volumes written to cover all the ways social media has become an indispensable tool for marketing your business. Well, I am not going to write a book here, but I am going to share one unexpected benefit of having a presence on social media sites that I learned over the last few weeks.

As many of you know, this is the first post for me in a few weeks. I had a string of illnesses hit the family and the death of my uncle in Indiana. Every now and then, circumstances arise that cause you to put all nonessential activities on hold so you can devote full attention to those circumstances.

That’s what I did for the last few weeks. Yet because I had a presence grounded in social networking, I was able to take care of some important personal needs without falling off the face of the earth. I received warm wishes on a number of sites and followers were able to know I would be away from blogging for a while.

While I was “away”, things happened that I expected. My traffic slowed down considerably. When you pause your posts, then this is a logical expectation. In fact, one thing you can do to grow your traffic and presence over the long haul is to continue to give good content.

But some unexpected things happened as well:

1. I continued to get followers on Facebook, Twitter, and on my blog which are the three main areas of internet presence that I personally focus on. These followers came at a steady clip. I believe that if the time I was away continued, the frequency of new followers would go down. But still, I was surprised at the robust activity of followers for me being away as long as I was away.
2. Not only that, comments on past blog posts continued to come. With hundreds of posts that give advice to people about marketing their book, my blog is starting to become a searchable resource that has rich relevant content for people. The search engines are also constantly delivering results with my past blog posts for people looking for the content I have.
3. My mailing lists continue to grow. People are still signing up for my free mailing lists, even though I have not sent out an update in a few weeks. Because I have built in some automated interaction, my absence has not hurt me for the few weeks I have been away. In my free Conducting Twitter Contest mailing lists, I have set it up to deliver a series of 10 lessons to people who want to learn how to conduct a twitter contest. In my free Video Tips Newsletter, I instantly give away 7 free video tips when people sign up for the list. This means that they have content to go through for a while as a reward for signing up even before the next video gets to them.

In the last few weeks, I learned the importance of cultivating a great social networking presence while I was able. I also realized the value in consistently creating good content over time. In doing so, it has rewarded me when I needed to step away and focus on personal issues. And the great thing about it is that it was all waiting for me when I was ready to return.

If you are just starting to build your social networking presence, take heart. What you are doing now is investing for the long term. That’s something that buying an ad can never do for you. If you are not seeing the results that you want immediately, don’t worry, they’ll be there soon. You just need to be committed to building your presence for the long haul.

—-

I have one request of you. I have entered a video contest that honors our men and women in the military. Regardless of how you feel about our wars, I know that most of you separate that issue with the people who serve. Take a look at my video entitled, “Compassionate Strength.” It’s a video that shows our soldiers interacting with Iraqi children.

The videos do not have a link directly to them, so you may have to do a little searching to find mine. Also, you will quickly see that someone has gone to great lengths to try to rate all videos as a 1 star. Please don’t let that throw you. My guess is that it’s someone who has entered the contest and thinks that this will help his/her video. It seems that if someone starts to get some good ratings, it’s not long before a bunch of 1 stars lowers the rating on the video.

C’est la vie

Tony Eldridge

Forney, TX, United States

Tony Eldridge author of the action/adventure book, The Samson Effect, that Clive Cussler calls a “first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure.” He also share his book marketing tips with fellow authors through his blog and through his free weekly video marketing tips for authors. You can follow him on Twitter @TonyEldridge

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by: Tony Eldridge
source: http://blog.marketingtipsforauthors.com/2009/12/4-tips-on-making-your-book-available-to.html

Book clubs are wonderful reader organizations that get together, usually once a month, to discuss a book that every member has read. The discussion is usually deeper than the kind you would find two friends having over a latte.

For fiction, members may discuss what role setting plays in the story, themes that run through the book, how characters evolve through the story or maybe what societal challenges presented themselves in the story.

For nonfiction, the members may discuss questions about how the information was presented: was is biased or fair, did the author adequately present the information in the book or were there unanswered questions, did the book change the readers opinion on the book’s subject.

As an author, there are few opportunities better than getting your book before a book club. Not only will members of the club read the book, but they are usually great “word-of-mouth” marketers for books they enjoy. Here are some tips at making your book “club friendly.”

• Prepare a list of discussion questions- By preparing a list of discussion questions and posting them on your website, you can help spark interest in your book while providing a resource specifically tailored to clubs.
• Offer to hold a Q&A for the club- What a wonderful time to be an author! You can literally visit book clubs around the world from the comfort of your home. Teleconferences and webinars are commonplace technologies that require almost no tech skills to use. It’s a real treat for book clubs to be able to speak to the actual author of the book they are reading.
• Get your publisher involved- Many publishers will set up a resource page for book clubs on their site that includes anything from PDF discussion questions to special discounts for club members. If your publisher does not currently offer that resource, bring it up to them. If they believe it will help sell books, you may be surprised what they will do for you.
• Contact book clubs directly- Prepare an e-mail to the club contact introducing yourself, including a link to your book club resource page, and your willingness to make yourself available to address the club or to hold a Q&A session. Start with Google to find a list of clubs or go to MeetUp.com for local groups. It returned over 10,000 results for the term Book Club.

Once you get in the book club scene, you can have a blast. It can be one of the most enjoyable ways to market your book. Be sure to check out Book-Clubs-Resource.com for more resources on book clubs. This site will help you prepare by learning how most clubs are organized.

Also, as you are checking things out, remember that “reading groups” are often used interchangeably for “book clubs”, but “book clubs” can also refer to the buyers clubs that people join where they purchase 6 books over 3 years (ie, Oprah’s Book Club, Double Day Book Club, etc…)

Tony Eldridge

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Social networking sites have drastically changed the face of advertisers and marketers in the past decade. The social media has directly affected consumer behavior. More and more people are exerting efforts to stay connected — whenever, wherever. This is a basic implication that a huge chunk of prospective consumers can be efficiently targeted through social media. It’s every marketer’s hot spot.

Here are 4 ways on how a book marketing campaign can get expansive benefits through participating on social networking sites:

Build strong and extensive connections. Participating on social networking sites involve putting up a personal profile and sharing information. The profile becomes accessible to the public. Thus, it is necessary to fill-in basic and interesting details that can attract prospective readers. By putting up a profile viewable to the public, it widens reader fan base.

Building strong connections means establishing author-reader relationship. Share information through links, photos, videos, or anything that you know can trigger interest and attention. Let your readers feel that you are a real person. Connections make good sources for reader referrals.

Effectively raise brand awareness. The primary goal of a book marketing campaigns is to let the target market know about your book. You can easily increase brand awareness through status updates or news feeds. Write new information or interesting updates about your book. Remember that every time you mention the book’s name you’re increasing your target’s awareness of it.

It’s a venue to offer free information. Social networking sites offer a lot of useful features to share information at no cost at all. People are easily attracted to information, especially when it’s free. By offering free information, you become an asset to your connections, and at the same time, you increase interactions between you and them.

Here’s are quick ways to share information with your connections: (1) Write brief book reviews, (2) Write movie reviews to films that were based on a book, (3) Write informative articles, post them on online article directories, and add the URL to your social networking site, (4) Initiate book discussions on forums and groups that are relevant to your book, (5) Utilize your site’s blog page by writing interesting articles or an inspiring journal entry, (6) Leave fair yet thoughtful comments on other people’s blog posts. (8) Feature a sample chapter on your blog page, (9) Suggest questions for book group discussion, (10) Share links to breaking news and advocacy related tidbits.

Generate free reviews. By giving the public a preview of your book, it allows prospective readers to comment and evaluate your book based on the sample chapters that you’ve posted. Moreover, it also creates a channel to read comments and feedbacks about your book, giving your career rooms for encouragement and growth.

Every self-published author knows that the success of a book involves a thoughtfully planned and carefully executed marketing strategy. But more than having a well-strategized book marketing campaign, sustainable reinforcement is an absolute necessity. Apart from author websites, email advertisements, online listings, and publicity for a book marketing campaign to virally work, it needs extended multiple channels. And this can be best achieved through the use of social media.

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