Mercedes Tabano is a freelance writer, content creation specialist, ghostwriter, and author. She has written for magazines, businesses, blogs, SEO companies and more. She has several books on Amazon in both print and Kindle versions. Her blog, www.ProfitablePublishingPossibilities.com helps authors achieve profits in their publishing.
Are you familiar with the world of Internet marketers? An internet marketer is a person who makes most or all of their income marketing items online. Sometimes, they are marketing their own products, other people’s products, and some are even hired to market other people’s businesses. Whatever they’re marketing, they are masters at it. They know every trick in the marketing book. Fortunately, you can borrow some pages from their metaphorical book to promote your actual book.
Make A Facebook Fan Page Or Even Two…
Internet marketers, (often called Imers) speak often on creating community. With over 1.5 billion people, Facebook is currently their favorite stomping ground. They set up a Facebook page for every new product. They also set fan up a page for themselves. This helps build community and brands them as an expert. There are actually many kinds of pages you can make on Facebook to help you with your branding. An Imer would use all of them, and you should, too.
Fanpage
A Fanpage is the most common type of page. This is where the creator uploads various images, announcements and other content. You can have a Fanpage for your book or book series. Give people tantalizing tidbits from the book along with a place to express themselves. Upload relevant images and quotes. Soon you will have a happy, thriving community.
Public Figure Page
This is actually a special kind of Fanpage. Though you still have to create 90% of the content yourself, this Fanpage brands you as the author. Just as people like Amanda Hocking and Steven King are public figures, you can be one, too. No need to wait until you’re famous; a Public Figure Fanpage can help you brand yourself now. It’s also a great place to announce your new book.
Another way to use a public figure page is for your characters. While it’s true Facebook only lets you have one personal profile, you can have as many public figure pages as you want. Set up one for each of the main characters in your book, or maybe a minor one who saw it all. Speak in the voice of your character on these pages, even before your book comes out. Then, people will be eager to read your book because they feel like they already know the characters.
Group Page
A group is for user generated content. This kind of page actually works best if your book is a how-to book. Here, people get together, talk about what’s in your book and also offer their opinions for dealing with a problem. Groups not only foster a sense of community, they are also great places to build raving fans. Additionally, you can use a group to gather information about the type of how-to book they would like to see next.
Build Your List
Imers have a saying that the gold is in the list. When they say this, they are referring to a list of people that they can email an offer to. When people on this list take advantage of this offer, the Imer makes money. Everyone who does anything online needs a list. Here’s how to get and utilize one.
Set Up An Autoresponder
An Autoresponder service is a service that collects names and sends out emails on your behalf. They do this through the use of a webform. A webform is the box you see online that asks you for a name and email address in exchange for sending you something of value for free. Better autoresponders have newsletter templates you can use to keep in touch with your people. They also offer social media integration for popular sites like Twitter or Facebook. Once you have your webform, put it everywhere you can think of.
It All Starts With The Giveaway
Before you set up your webform, but after you choose your autoresponder, you need a giveaway. The giveaway is what people view as more valuable than their email address. Ideally, you should have several giveaways, one for each book. Because the autoresponder keeps track of who came in on which page, you will know exactly which book brought them to you.
The most common giveaways revolve around the book itself. If your book is a how-to book, offer them something like worksheets or a list of additional tips. If your book is a fiction book, write a short story about those same characters. Or, if that’s not possible, write the short story about some other characters who were present in the book but who were not the stars. For example, a brief retelling of a section of the book from the best friends’ or family members’ point of view always works well. No book should ever go to press without the giveaway firmly in place. To attract people to it, simply say something like:
“Want another story on the continuing adventures of (name) go to (webpage) to get a mini-story.”
Using Your List
Imers email their list daily, sometimes twice. However, that’s often too much for the average non-IM market. You don’t want to email your list so infrequently that they forget about you. Usually every 2-3 days is the right amount to email them. When you email them, you don’t want to make it all about you. Instead offer them useful or amusing tidbits. Share favorite, relevant websites or facts. Give them micro stories (of 300 words or less) in their emails.
In this way you are training them to open your emails. They know if they open them, they’ll get something good. When you entertain and enlighten them, they won’t’ mind occasionally being sold to. In fact, they’ll even look forward to hearing about your latest book, tour or other endeavor.
Reuse Your Content
Imers are masters at reusing content. For example, it’s common in the IM world to turn raw information into books, blogs, videos, audios, transcripts, infographics and more. However, outside the Im world reusing almost the same content is practically unheard of. Here’s how it can work for you.
Blog To Book
It’s time to get pad for all those articles you wrote just to build traffic and your fan base. Gather the best of them into a book. This book can then be sold as the best of your blog. While you might want to rewrite them a little so they remain relevant out of context this is a very easy way to create a product quickly. Additionally, pairing your content with images makes it even better. This book can then be sold in the outlet of your choice.
Make Use Of Your Quotes
Have you or your characters ever said anything memorable? Do you have any kind of catchphrase that caught on or an inside joke with your readers? If so, consider putting the phrase on items through the power of a print-on-demand company (POD). A POD company creates merchandise for you, but only after an order is placed. While you do have to split the money with them, you don’t owe a penny until something sells. Popular merchandise includes bags, apparel, mobile device covers and more. Again, when you pair these with the right images, and alert your list to their existence, they will usually sell like crazy.
Dominate Google For Your Book
Already have a book on Amazon? That’s great. But there are so many more places you could sell it. Imers talk continually about dominating the market. If someone types in the name of your book into Google, you want places to buy it to completely cover the first page. To accomplish that, sell it on other sites like Barnes and Nobel, CreateSpace, Smash Words, the IBook store, Lulu and more. You can even sell a DVD or printed physical version on sties such as EBay, Etsy and more.
Turn Your Book Into An Audio Book
Turning the written word into the spoken word is something that Imers have been doing almost since the beginning. Thanks to the internet, it’s now easier than ever to accomplish this. Free programs like Audacity will record as you read the book in your own voice. Another option available to you is to hire a voice actor. There are many sites online where you can find voice talent rather inexpensively. Depending on how ambitious you are, you might even want to use multiples voices and sound effects. you can then sell this recording on sites like Audible, Amazon again, eBay, the IPod store and more. As a bonus, this might even help you dominate the second page of Google for your book, too.
Imers have many tricks to help them succeed and make money. Though their tricks are not complicated, very few writers utilize them. Taking advantage of these tricks is what separates a successful author from an unsuccessful one in todays’ modern age.
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