Building a Author Platform

                                                     

         A publisher requires and every author if self-publishing  must have a platform and marketing/promotion plan before a book is published. But, how does one build a platform and what is a platform? A writer’s platform consists of several components, but an important part is an online presence, a presence created before publication, not after. A platform—also referred to as an author platform or a media platform—is an established media forum through which an author connects to his or her audience.

         Here are some steps to build your author platform, but they aren’t the only steps possible, just what I consider most important:

1. Know your target readers. If your books cover more than one genre, then you need to target readers for all the genres. Join groups that cater to people interested in those areas, for example, but not to promote your books, but to promote you.

2. Identify and define your brand. What is a brand? An author brand is an ongoing, continually evolving story that communicates what makes your work unique, and represents an implied promise to your readers of what they can expect you to consistently deliver.

3. Create a website – a MUST for all authors and should be up and running before your book or books are released.

4. Start blogging consistently. Blogging is one way to share your expertise and—at the same time—build an author platform. Don’t blog just about your writing, but find areas you know about or have researched, maybe for a book, and blog about them. Blogging to reach other writers doesn’t open avenues for books sales as blogging to reach your target readers will.

5. Build an email list. Create an email sign-up form on your website. What? You don’t have a website yet? Okay, the first step is to set up your new site.

While you’re at it, create a sign-up form that connects to an email management system; here are a few of our favorite email newsletter platforms to choose from. Put it on your homepage to capture email addresses — and take a deep breath.

      Your job is to collect emails, and to send out worthwhile content. It may take a long time to build up your email list, and to figure out exactly what your message is, but you need to practice having a following.

      Everyone you know is a contact. The more people you know, the more influence you have, especially if you know people in high places.

      So, what if those influencers are a couple degrees of separation from you? People are surprising in how they choose to support fledgling authors. I’ve witnessed seriously established authors supporting new writers just because it feels good and they remember what it’s like to be in your position.

      In addition to the list of people you’re connected to, create a list of people who might blurb you, from realistic to pie in the sky. Who would be your ideal reader? Who do you dream might one day recommend your book?

6. Write guest posts.

7. Connect offline. Attend writing conferences. Speak at writing groups, schools, or libraries.

8. Use social media wisely. Pick just two social channels. That’s right: only two. Set up a profile on each and post once a day. If once a day doesn’t work with your schedule, then set a schedule and keep it: once a week, three times a week, three times a month, etc.

      I use Facebook and MeWe, but if you’re into other channels or options, try them. If you’re writing something that lends itself to images, join Pinterest or Instagram. If your work lends itself to video, do YouTube. Experiment to find any social media channel that works for you and your writing without spreading yourself too thin.

      The key to social media is posting regularly and engaging people. You want shares because shares lead to more follows. Rather than spreading yourself thin across multiple platforms, focus consistently on the two platforms that provide the most value to you and your work.

      It takes forever (seriously) to build up a following on social media, so don’t be discouraged. Celebrate a few likes a week. Manage your expectations. Keep going.

       The best way to build an author platform is simple: start. Just like you don’t run a marathon without training for weeks or months, you don’t start your author platform completely at once. Building your platform takes discipline and hard work, but if it weren’t worth it, no one would be doing it. Building an author platform is a marathon, not a sprint.

5 Tips for Coordinating a Virtual Book Tour

Coordinating a virtual book tour can intimidate an author. It takes organization and time management skills to get the most out of your tour. You’re also looking to build relationships with bloggers and readers so they support you throughout your career. Let’s look at five tips for coordinating a virtual book tour.

Be Organized

I managed nearly 100 authors spanning over 125 books when I coordinated virtual book tours. Those years taught me the importance of organization.

• Have your marketing materials together before you solicit tour hosts.
• Use an Excel Spreadsheet or Google Sheets to maintain a database of all review, interview, and guest post requests. Create a column to show whether you mailed the printed copy out, so you can follow up with the blogger in a week to make sure it arrived.
• Pre-order thank you cards or create an electronic thank you message prior to the tour so you can thank your hosts once the tour ends.

Include a Note with Printed Books

Bloggers can receive dozens of books to review each month. Losing track of a book happens. Do yourself, and the reviewer, a favor by including a note and printed marketing material in the envelope. This will avoid confusion for the tour host as to where the book comes from and if the review is time sensitive.

When I mail out my books, I include a personal note to the blogger, mentioning the book tour and the date they agreed to host me. I also ask for a prompt email if they cannot keep the scheduled date.

Complete to-do Items Early

Tracking down missing to-do items creates frustration for a virtual book tour host. Don’t be that last-minute author.

Plan your schedule so you can complete and return to-do items a minimum of two weeks prior to your tour stop. This will give the blogger time to review your submission to be sure its complete and to ask for clarification when necessary. Not only will this give your host the chance to schedule it ahead of time, once your next book comes out they will be more willing to host you again.

Leave Comments at Your Blog Stops

We all lead busy lives, but if you want to show your tour hosts how much you appreciate what they do, take a few moments to leave a comment on the day your interview, guest post, or review appears on their blog. Interact with readers who leave comments. They are often bloggers, too, so nurturing those relationships is important.

No comments? Try not to get discouraged. That doesn’t mean lack of interest. Sometimes people just have nothing to say. However, always thank your host.

Promote Your Virtual Book Tour

Why go through all the effort to coordinate a virtual book tour if you will not promote it? Even those authors who pay a company to coordinate a virtual book tour should have a hand in promoting their tour stops because it expands your reach.

Blogger Jodi hosts Author Sam on her blog. Blogger Jodi promotes the tour stop to her social media accounts of 3,000 friends/followers. Author Sam promotes the tour stops to his social media accounts of 5,000 friends/followers. Now, Author Sam has reached 8,000 people instead of just 3,000; plus when their people share the post Author Sam’s reach increases again.

Virtual book tours are fun, but they require time and work to be successful. Following these tips will make it easier.

Cheryl C. Malandrinos is a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of four children’s books including, A Christmas Kindness, released by 4RV Publishing. A blogger and book reviewer, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters. She also has a son who is married. Visit Cheryl online at http://ccmalandrinos.com and her children’s book blog at https://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com

Online Marketing with Grassroots Visibility Part 2

This is Part 2 of Online Marketing with Grassroots Visibility. Part 1 covered taking the time to learn the basics and the beginning of creating visibility. To read Part 1, please visit:

2. Begin to create that visibility (continued). 

A. Create a website or at the very least a blog.

To read this, please see Part One.

B: Bring traffic to your site.

1. Write regularly to your blog and make sure the content is valuable to the reader.

2. Write articles for article directories such as Ezine Articles, Associated Content, or Helium. Go to the site, create an account and then submit an article. There are a number of article directories you can use, just do a Google search. Be sure to write something that will be useful to others – if your readers feel your content is valuable they'll take that extra step and click on the link in your resource box.

If you have no idea what to write or are intimidate about writing your own content, there are writing services that will write articles for you. These services might be listed as ghostwriting and/or blog and article content service.

Be sure to check out their qualification (their articles and blogs) before hiring them.

You can also take advantage of PLR - Private Label Rights. These can come in the form of ebooks which you can give away as your own. This is a great way to draw visitors and get them to sign up as subscribers. A word of caution here: be sure to read the ebook before you offer it as a freebie on your site; there may be errors in the content or outdated information that you will need to correct.

3. Once you have an article published on your website, share it to all your social networks, including: GooglePlus, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, SutmbleUpon, and so on.

4. Visit other bloggers' sites and leave comments. Be sure to actually read the article you're commenting about so you won't be tempted to leave a generic response. If your comment is interesting or informative, the author or other commenters may click on the link back to your site.

5. Join in on a virtual book tour. If you're not promoting your own book, offer your site for authors who are. To offer your site you can post a notice on Twitter, Facebook and other groups you belong to.

6. Ask writers you know to do guest articles for your site.

7. Be sure to join a couple of worthwhile forums and be an active member. This is a great source of networking.

8. Always include your URL as part of your signature.

3 You’re in it for the long-haul.

These are some simple ways to bring traffic to your site and gain visibility. To keep your readers coming back you'll need to continue providing useful content.

Don't feel overwhelmed; take one step at a time. Marketing is an on-going journey – just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

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Online Marketing with Grassroots Visibility (three fundamental elements)

By Karen Cioffi

This is Part 1 of a 2 part post.

I make it a habit to attend as many marketing webinars and teleseminars that I can. The last few I attended were about blogging. Listening to the other attendees I realized there are many people out there who need the basics in regard to internet marketing. These attendees were confused and overwhelmed.

Marketing is all around us - on a constant basis. While there are different strategies and tools, the purpose of marketing is to attract potential customers to your services or product. Then through purposeful and persuasive dialogue convince them that purchasing what you are offering is a wise decision.

At the root of any marketing strategy is visibility. Let's look at three ways to obtain that visibility:

1. LEARN! I consider this the foundation of any marketing strategy.

Imagine you're a kid in a toy store where everything is free. Every aisle, every shelf jammed packed with toys and all you have to do is take what you want.

Well, consider the internet your marketing toy store, just walk down the aisles and search the shelves for what you want or need.

We live in an unbelievably opportune time to learn about anything and everything without leaving our homes, and usually for free or at a nominal cost. There are so many resources online, such as: articles, blogs, webinars, videos, teleseminars, teleclasses, videos, eclasses, and ebooks. There are even FREE online conferences available.

Take advantage of as many of these resources that you can. Learn the skills and strategies you'll need to become a pro-marketer.

A fantastic free writers' conference is The Muse Online Writers Conference which is held in October. You should definitely take advantage of this valuable opportunity to learn and network. (http://themuseonlinewritersconference.com)

2. Begin to create that visibility.

A: Create a website or at the very least a blog

Okay, this is where you will need to roll up your sleeves and get a little dirty. If you are completely new to all this I recommend starting with a blog. One of the easiest to create and maintain is at Blogger.com. If you get stuck on something it may take a bit of reading and searching their help forum, but there hasn't been a question I had that I couldn't find the answer to. And, it's free!

Tip: Choose a domain name that will still be appropriate as you grow and/or branch out.

If you have the time and don't mind the effort, go for the website; it can grow with you. There are a number of hosting sites that are reasonably priced such as Blue Host (great customer service support – I highly recommend it) and Go Daddy.

WordPress.com is a free hosting site. It’s a ‘ready to play, out of the box’ system. Like Blogger, there are no downloads necessary and no hosting services required.

There are many other sites and building tools available, such as Weebly.com. Just do a Google search.

If you are completely at a loss here, there are services that can help. These services will create a website for you. Please remember though, you don't need flash to have an effective site, you need valuable content and an easy to navigate landing page.

When looking for a service to help, do a little research and watch prices. I have seen services that charge between $500 and $5000 for websites. They can be much more money also.

NOTE: While a free site may sound tempting, you won’t have control over it. Some limitations are:

•    You cannot change the code
•    You are limited to their themes – you cannot upload your own
•    Plugins are limiited
•    You may be limited to the number of pages you can create, depending on the service
•    You do not have the same support system as with a paid hosting service

There are other limitations – these are five of the basics.

Stay tuned next month for more on creating visibility and eight additional tips on bringing traffic to your websites.

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Commenting on Blogs Still Works

You may be an author or writer who takes the time to comment on other websites. This is an effective online marketing strategy. It builds bridges to other blogging neighborhoods, it forms connections, and it helps increase your visibility. These are three important factors in online content marketing.

But, after using this strategy for a short while, what if you don’t seem to see any difference in the traffic to your site or the comments on your posts?

Should you continue commenting on blogs?

YES, absolutely. Commenting on blogs is still an effective marketing strategy, in fact, even more so than before. Getting a ‘post conversation’ going and sharing content is high on Google’s list of what bloggers and marketers should be doing. Today, it’s all about creating optimized content that readers find valuable enough to share to their social networks.

Knowing the effectiveness of this marketing tool, I try to use it as often as I can.

Recently I left a blog post comment on a high-traffic, high-quality site. When I comment on a site, time allowing, I usually browse the other comments. Since the site I was on uses the CommentLuv plugin, all those who comment have their latest post titles visible and clickable.

One comment in particular seemed to be informative, so I clicked on the author’s latest post link. It brought me to a site with great content. This is the power of commenting, especially on sites that use the CommentLuv plugin.

Commenting on sites that offer the commenter’s last post link is an excellent way to broaden your reach and easily bring visitors back to your site. Just like I clicked on that commenter’s link, based on an effective post title, the same can happen to you.

CommentLuv is a commenting system plugin for WordPress. Simply click on ‘Plugins’ in your WordPress dashboard, go to ‘Add New,’ search for the plugin, install it, and activate it. That’s it.

Aside from sites that use CommentLuv, most sites allow you to put your name and website URL, which are clickable. While they may not afford your latest blog post link, if you make your comment informative enough a reader may very well click on your website link.

To make your comment effective, try to use a relevant keyword and add to the conversation. Doing this will ‘catch the search engine’s eye’ and may also motivate the reader to click on your link. In addition to this, make note of some aspect of the blog post within your comment. This lets the blog owner or content manager know you actually read the article.

Tip: Comment on blogs that are relevant to your niche, to your website’s subject matter.

In addition to the obvious benefits of commenting, such as broadening your marketing reach, making connections, further establishing your authority, bringing traffic to your website, and increasing your visibility, the activity you create online is picked up by search engines. This includes comments. These are all good things.

Make commenting on blogs an important element of your online marketing strategy.

Original article source: http://www.karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com/2012/11/commenting-on-blogs-still-works.html
 
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Image copyrighted 2012 Karen Cioffi
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4 Basic Website Questions Every Landing Page Must Answer and Answer Quickly

By Karen Cioffi

The internet is teeming with information on everything you can possibly think of. This includes information on your business platform. But, with all this information available, there are still many who aren’t aware of the basics, the dos and don’ts of an online platform.

I recently came across a website on ‘article submissions.’ Finding it on Twitter and being interested, I clicked on the link and it brought me to a site with articles on unrelated topics. There wasn’t an About page, or any information on what the site was about. And, there wasn’t a Contact or Services page. This marketer/business owner was leading people back to his site, apparently for the purpose of selling something, but the site was completely ineffective. It was one of the most puzzling sites I’ve ever seen.

So, the question to ask is: If someone lands on your website, by accident, through a search, or through a social link, is it effective? Is it ‘visitor optimized?’

To answer these questions, you first need to know the fundamentals of a business website. And, a business website could be an author’s site, a home business site, or a small business site. The basics are the same for all websites that are trying to sell something.

To guide you in the right direction to creating a ‘visitor optimized’ website, let’s go over the very basics.

Online marketing 101 is to create a website that works, a website that converts visitors into clients/customer or a subscriber. This is the foundation of your online empire. And, an effective website needs to answer these four basic questions:

1. Who are you?
2. What are you offering?
3. Why is what you’re offering worthy of the visitor’s time, money, or email address?
4. Is the path to what you’re offering, the path to the YES, simple? (The YES is the potential customer’s positive action, whether it’s opting into your mailing list or buying what you’re offering, or other call-to-action)

Here are the four elements:

1. Who You Are

Make sure your website has an About Me page. In addition, your landing page should make it clear who you are. Don’t let the visitor have to hunt you down – don’t let her have to search through your site, just to find some information on you.

Tip: Keep the About Me content conversational, like you’re talking to a friend.

2. What You Have to Offer

Your landing page needs to quickly convey what you have to offer. To do this, you can use an image with content or a video. Video is highly effective – it is proven to increase conversion.

Tip: Keep the ‘key’ information above the fold. This means it must be visible upon landing on the page. The visitor shouldn’t have to scroll down the page to find it.

3. Why What You’re Offering is Worthy of the Visitor’s Time/Money/Email

Let the visitor know the value of what you have to offer. And, if possible, make it seem exclusive. Figure out a way to make the visitor think he can’t get what you’re offering anywhere else.

Tip: The visitor must perceive the value of your offer as higher than its cost.

4. Is the Path to What You’re Offering (the Path to the YES) Simple?
Marketers use the acronym KISS (Keep it Simple Silly) to emphasis the importance of simplicity. Your website should be easy to navigate, focused and clear, have a simple design, and it should have an easy path to saying YES.

Tip: To keep it simple, have only one or two steps to opt-in or to take some other call-to-action.

To further cement the ‘tell it all and tell it quickly’ website strategy, MarketingExperiments.com explains that you have only seven seconds to do what’s needed. That’s the length of time you have to grab the visitor, let him know who you are and what you have to offer.

Ready, set, go!

Original article source: http://www.karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com/2013/06/4-basic-website-questions-every-landing.html 

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 Image copyright 2012 Karen Cioffi
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Online Membership Sites - Different Types You Can Create and the Benefits

By Karen Cioffi

In my March 2nd post, it discussed reasons you might want to join a membership site as a learning tool. This post delves into the different types of membership sites.

If you’re an expert, with lots of information and experience others can learn from . . . and want to learn about, a membership site is an online marketing tool you might be interested in.

A membership site is a site in which members pay for the benefit of learning from the owner of the site (the expert). The site owner on the other hand provides ongoing and valuable information based on his expertise.

This is usually a win-win situation. The members have ‘open’ access to the expert and his knowledge, and the expert has an in- place and often ready-to-act audience.

Membership sites come in a variety of sizes, formats, and prices. Pricing is usually based on the reputation of the expert and the problem being addressed.

Some experts offer the, what I call, ‘full service’ membership – its information packed and interactive.

The Full Service Membership Site

The full service site will take ongoing work and time. And, there is the other aspect of members who may want you to go above and beyond . . . of members who think you're their private coach.

While this type of membership site may seem like a bleak proposition, if it's well planned and well structured, and you have limits set in place, the venture can be a successful one.

The NO Interaction Membership Sites

There are also membership sites that have no interaction. The site has a number of tutorials or lessons that members simply have access to. As the site owner, you occasionally provide new content, maybe once a month. The members are usually kept happy through the new content and that’s about it.

The Bare-Bottom (Simple) Membership Sites

While this isn’t a proper name for it, this type of site offers a set number of tutorials or lessons. It’s kind of like an ecourse, but through a site where members can come back to read the material. The site doesn’t however provide any new content. Sites like this warrant a yearly membership fee.

Why a yearly membership fee?

If you have all your content on a membership site for members to partake of, what's to stop a new member from paying for one month (if it's a monthly fee site), downloading all the content, and leaving?

Unfortunately, if you're contemplating creating a membership site, you need to think of these things.

Benefits of Membership Sites

As with your mailing list, the focus of marketing is to make connections and bring visibility to your products and services. Membership sites are a vehicle to do just this.

The site creates an ongoing 'almost' one-on-one' atmosphere, which creates a closer and stronger member/expert relationship. It’s this ongoing contact and close relationship that affords you the opportunity to sell other products or services, while earning an income from the site.

Your members have already taken the plunge with their first YES to the offer of becoming a member. The first YES is usually the most difficult to get. This therefore, puts them in a 'more' YES mindset.

Keep in mind that there are many variations of membership sites and finding the format that works best for you will be a key element to its success.

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Need help with your online platform? Check out Create and Build Your Author/Writer Online Platform: Website Creation Through Beyond Book Sales.  It's a 6 week e-class through WOW! Women on Writing. For more details, CLICK HERE.

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Online Membership Sites to Improve Your Marketing Skills – Should You Join One?

By Karen Cioffi

For those of you who aren't sure what a membership site is, it's a website where members pay a monthly or yearly fee to join. And, if you’re looking to increase your knowledge in online marketing, it’s something you may want to consider.

What’s the Cost?

Depending on the depth of the topic (how specific and severe a problem the site is focusing on) the prices vary drastically. Some memberships are at $5 annually, some at $5 per month. Others are at $397 annually and some are thousands per month. As you can see, prices vary drastically.

Another factor in the pricing is the reputation and authority of the owner (expert). Then there is also the amount of information and the services offered.  This all plays a part in membership pricing.

A while ago, I subscribed to a site that offered WordPress training (just to see if I could pick up couple of tips), it was $10 a month or $24 per year. Being a former accountant, I did the cost efficient thing and opted for the $24.

The site consisted of around 20 videos, approximately 10 minutes each. They were on the very basics of WordPress – that was it.

Two Lessons Learned:

1. It might be a good idea to opt for the monthly fee, even if it's just for a month, so you can determine if the site has what you need. If it does, opt for the long-term, cheaper rate. If it doesn't, unsubscribe.

2. Don't underestimate your skills. There are a number of worthwhile programs, sites, and courses online that warrant the investment, but, before you jump in know exactly what you'll be getting. There will be those membership sites, programs, etc., that teach less than what you already know (sometimes much less).

Finding a ‘Good’ One

There are loads of experts out there vying for your ‘dollar.’ So, how do you pick a membership site that will provide you with what you need?

First thing is to determine if you need a membership site.

Can you get by with the information in an ebook, or maybe an ecourse? This is something you’ll need to figure out.

A lot of people like the connection and access to the expert/s, and want the ongoing and updated information. They also like the community of members who are like-minded and struggling to the same end. This allows for a much wider ‘help pool.’ Members often end up helping each other. There are also big organizational membership sites like the National Association of Professional Women – women join for the networking aspects.

Once you’ve decided you want to be part of a membership site, the first action step is to ask around for one that’s worth the cost. Try to get input from ‘heavy hitter’ sites relevant to the area you’re interested in.

Authority sites deal with a lot of professionals and will probably be able offer a recommendation.

You can also do an online search.

What to Look For

Once you find a membership site you’re interested in, check out what’s being offered:

•    Is it member interactive – is there a member forum?
•    Is the information updated regularly with new helpful content to keep you moving forward?
•    Is the ‘expert’ active on the site – will she respond to hot topics and questions?
•    Will there be bonus content, like screen-sharing webinars or videos?
•    Is there a detailed outline of what to expect?
•    What’s the cost and payment method?

Do your homework if you’re interested in a membership site to improve your online marketing skills. This will help you find one that’s right for you.

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CREATE AND BUILD YOUR AUTHOR ONLINE PLATFORM
Website Creation to Beyond Book Sales

No matter who you are (author, writer, business owner), your single most important online marketing tool is your website, then comes your online platform.

Need help getting your website and platform optimized? If the answer is YES then check out this 6 week e-class through WOW! Women on Writing, just CLICK HERE.

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Do You Have an Online Marketing Focus?

By Karen Cioffi

Online marketing can be overwhelming. It can be time consuming, at times expensive, and at times complicated. Or, it can be more work than we can comfortable handle. This is where online marketing focus comes in.

But, what has focus to do with your online marketing strategy?

Plenty.

You must be aware of all the marketing courses, programs, ebooks, and numerous other learning tools that the heavy hitter marketers sent to your email box on a daily basis. Buy this now to make thousands selling your books – invest in this new course to get the best marketing program to date – get this ebook today and learn everything you need to know about creating ebooks and making money. The promotional emails go on and on.

If you’re like me, you’ve bought into a number of the new ‘flavor or the week’ marketing promotions. The goal for this year is to STOP. Don’t buy another product or service until you actually take advantage of (use) the ones you’ve already purchased.

You might be thinking that you don’t have the time to invest in the products you already bought and 'that new one' being promoted looks simple . . . and it doesn’t cost that much. Again, STOP. This is most likely what you thought about the other marketing products you bought. Make this year a year of accountability. If you bought it or buy it, use it.

Analyze and Take Action


Okay, so you have your marketing direction. Go over the marketing strategies you bought into and determine which are doable for you. This step is essential. If you take on a marketing strategy that you don’t have the skills to succeed at or is too time consuming, you’ll become discouraged and possibly waiver in your online marketing strides.

The best idea is to choose one or two strategies that you feel comfortable with. Maybe it’ll be using social networks more, maybe it’ll be posting regularly to your blog, maybe it’ll be guest blogging. Whatever it is, start working at it today and be consistent.

A key element to this marketing focus is to stay with these specific one or two strategies. Work them until you feel very comfortable with them and you begin to see results. Don’t add any other strategies until the ones you’re currently working on are on autopilot, or close to it.

This is online marketing focus.

The main idea behind it is to keep from grasping at shiny objects and wasting money. The next reason to use this strategy is to be focused. Focusing on one or two online strategies will enable you to stick with it and it gives you a clearer picture of what’s working for you.

Along with your one or two marketing strategies, add reviewing and tweaking your website to the mix. This action step should be done on a regular basis, maybe once a month or every other month. Make sure your website is current, focused, and has the needed elements to make it effective. This will help bring focused and targeted traffic to your site.

Need Help?

If you need help optimizing your author-writer platform, check out Create and Build Your Author Online Platform, my 6-week e-class through WOW! Women on Writing. For details CLICK HERE.

Karen Cioffi

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Websites That Work - 7 Key Factors (Part 2)

Last week, in Part 1 of this article, we discussed the first three key factors to an effective website: (1) the name of your site, (2) the subheading, and (3) the opt-in box. In this part, we’re on to key factors numbers four through seven.

While the first three elements are the most important, the following elements help to make your website visitor friendly.

An Effective Website - Key Factors Four through Seven

4. The ‘About Me’ or ‘About Us’ Page

Let the visitors know who you are with an About Me Page. This is especially important on sites that do not use the site owner’s name as the title. There are so many sites where a visitor needs to search to see who the site belongs to – it can be a bit frustrating, as well as a waste of the visitor’s time. There are even some sites that do not offer this information.

Along with the names of the site’s contributors, you should let the visitors know what the site is about, what they can expect from the site, what information will provided.

The About Me Page should include a bio along with any pertinent schooling and/or training. Most visitors want to know who is posting the content and what qualifies them to offer that particular information.

Providing this information allows the reader to develop a relationship with you.

5. The Media Page

You do need to create a Media Page. This page will tell visitors what you’ve written and other qualifications that make you an expert in your field. You should also include your books, reviews of your work, brief synopses and possibly excerpts, links to the sales pages, testimonials and awards, links to interviews others have written on you, events/workshops you’ve presented, your appearances, and links to all your other sites.

6. The Contact Page
Your contact information needs to be available. This means having a Contact Page that offers a contact form, or your email address. A visitor may have a question, comment, or request for your services; you want that visitor to be able to know how to reach you.

7. The Resource Page

Probably the second most important factor that will make visitors find your site valuable is providing a Resource Page. This page should provide links to pertinent books, sites, and tools related to your niche. Visitor will appreciate the effort and information, thereby making your site of value to them. It will also prompt them to link to your site, and recommend it to others.

And remember, when creating a website, simple is usually best.

Want to create or optimize your author platform? Need to boost visibility and traffic to your site? Check out WOW! Women on Writing’s 6 week e-class: Create and Build Your Author Online Platform.

Websites That Work - 7 Key Factors (Part 1)

By Karen Cioffi

Whether you’re an author or a freelance writer, marketing is going to be an essential part of your process. And, marketing in an over-saturated market can be a very difficult journey. Whether you’re promoting a book, services, or other product, you will have tons of competition. And, if you don’t have a website, you won’t be able to get in the marketing game.

No matter what product or service you’re offering, having a website is an absolutely must.

While it’s not that difficult to create a website or blogsite using services, such as WordPress (http://wordpress.com) or Blogger (http://blogger.com), there are essential steps you will need to take in order to create an EFFECTIVE site.

Here is a list of 7 of the most essential and bare-bottom basics that are needed for an effective website (the first three are in this post):

1. The Name of Your Site

Create a site with your name as the domain name. Even if you already have one or more sites with different names, take the time to create one with your name. This can be your central site that leads to your other specific platforms. Think of it as the Sun to your other orbiting web planets.

If you have multiple sites, include them on your Media Page and on your About You page.

2. The Subheading

When including a site subheading, think of your platform. In your subheading add keywords you want associated with your site. These are words that should quickly inform the search engines what your site is about and allow them to use your site’s URL to meet a searcher’s query.

The subheading elaborates on your website title and further emphases your site’s focus.

3. The Opt-in Box

Provide a readily visible opt-in box. This is one of the only ways you will be able to create a mailing list. A useful way to entice visitors to sign up for your info emails or newsletter is to offer a free gift, also called and ‘ethical bribe.’ Usually an ebook related to your site’s focus is a practical gift.

The opt-in box should be placed in the top portion of your sidebar, and must be immediately visible upon landing on the page – this means it needs to be above the fold line.

Think copywriting when creating the text for your opt-in. Marketing studies have shown that words like “sign-up” and “join” may make the reader feel there is a commitment involved. The current, more appealing opt-in words include “access” and “find out more.” I’m thinking of testing “give it a try.”

Stop by November 17th for Part 2 of Online Marketing – 7 Key Factors to an Effective Website. It explains key factors numbers four through seven.

For more on writing and marketing, join Karen Cioffi and The Writing World for free weekly tips and guidance, plus updates on free instructional webinars. Get access today and you’ll receive “How to Create an Optimized Website – 3 Essential Author Website Elements and 9 Must-Have Pages:”
 

Book Marketing Using SEO Marketing

By Karen Cioffi

As an author and book marketer, you may be wondering what SEO is. Well, it’s simply an acronym that stands for ‘search engine optimization.’

According to TechTerm.com, “Just about every Webmaster wants his or her site to appear in the top listings of all the major search engines.” SEO is the means to accomplish this.

SEO marketing is the strategies or techniques used to create visibility and website ranking within the search engines, such as Google and Bing. And, even with Google’s latest update, the Penguin’s SHARING factor, these strategies are still effective, and needed.

Sidetracking just a moment, Google’s latest update takes the ‘social’ element of blog posting to the next level. Along with your SEO tweaks, your content must be SHAREABLE.

Content that others find valuable enough to share, whether informative or entertaining, is what will help get a higher ranking with the search engine.

Okay, back on track now.

Every online marketing strategy includes promotion, and SEO marketing is a promotional tool under the marketing umbrella. The marketing umbrella covers the creation or manufacturing of a product or service, research and development (R&D), distribution, and any other elements needed to get a product from creation to the consumer. Promotion creates visibility, which in turn leads website traffic and customers.

Utilizing online promotion means you will be using the internet and search engines. SEO marketing is the process of getting the search engines to find and rank your website and your content. You obviously want a high ranking so when a searcher (potential customer) types in a search term (keyword), your site may be one of those on that first search engine results page (SERP), or at least within the first few pages.

Another explanation of SEO marketing:

It is basically the steps you take to have Google, Bing, and other search engines find, index, and put your website on one of their first SERPs whenever people use ‘your keyword’ to search for something.

In essence, SEO marketing is kind of a popularity contest.
When you use effective keywords within your website (title and meta tags) and in informative posting content, Google and the other search engines will find, index, and rank you. This allows you to be picked up and shown on the search engines’ results pages for specific search terms. When a ‘searcher’ finds your link on the SERP and clicks on it, you get a link to your site. The more inbound links to your site – relevant to your keywords or not - the more Google and other search engines ‘like you’ and consider you an authority.

Going a bit further, getting links from other sites with the same keywords in their links that you have in yours, is much better. This is considered as a higher ‘ranking vote’ by Google and establishes your site as having more authority. The more ‘link votes’ you get, the more Google will perceive your site as valuable and give you a higher authoritative ranking.

To be found and ranked by Google, you need to add effective and relevant keywords to your site and content. To do this, you’ll need to do a bit of research. You can type a keyword in the Google search box or the Amazon search box and see what keywords they bring up. This will give you an idea if your keyword is effective.

Using relevant and effective keywords is essential in SEO marketing.

What strategies do you use to find effective keywords as part of your book marketing efforts?

Image copyright 2013 Karen Cioffi

Need help with your author online platform? Need to boost visibility and traffic to your site? Check out WOW! Women on Writing’s 6 week e-class:Create and Build Your Author Online Platform

And, for more writing and marketing tips visit http://karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com

Do You Really Need an Author Website?

By Karen Cioffi

There are hundreds of thousands of searches done every day and there are around 2,000 blog posts published every minute. In all that internet noise, how do you get noticed? How do you become someone's search results?

The idea of creating a website may seem overwhelming to many who are new to the writing arena. This may lead to a hesitation in regard to taking the website step.

But, don’t let fear or procrastination get in the way of your online presence. A website is a necessary online marketing element that is at the foundation of your author platform.

Here are a couple of statistics to demonstrate the need for a website if you have any intention of building an author platform:

According to PCMag.com, there are 694,445 Google search queries made and 1,500 blog posts published each minute.

The internet is the place for people to search globally for what they want or need. Having a website allows you to be in on that action.

If you want to create visibility for you and your book or product, a website is the initial spark that will ignite your internet presence. And, it will be the hub or central location where you will let people know who you are and what you have to offer.

To further cement the need for a website, it’s through your website that you will attract readers, get email subscribers, and sell your books and products.

There’s really no way around the fact that you need to create your author platform, and it should be before you are ready to submit your manuscript, according to Chuck Sambuchino, in his book “Create Your Writer Platform.” The reason for this is that now having an author online presence and platform is a factor in whether a publishing house will say YES to your manuscript. And, the first step in creating that author platform is to setup a website.

It’s easy to see that a website is positively, absolutely necessary, and it’s not as difficult as you may think to create one. The first step is planning.

Plan Your Way to a Website

As with any project you undertake, the first course of action should be to plan out your course of action. This is usually considered a business plan or writing plan.

Your website is your online calling card or business card. It needs to be as professional as you can get it and needs to have all the necessary elements of an effective site.

So, if you’re not familiar with websites, one of the first steps in your course of action should be to learn about all the elements needed to create an effective website.

As an example, one of the first elements that you’ll need to work on is the domain name. Choosing a domain name is serious business. It needs to be searchable, convey what the site is about, and relate to you. It should be part of your platform, your brand. And, if at all possible, it should have your keyword in it.

Other elements of an effective website include: optimization, specific pages, posting fresh content regularly, an opt-in, and a freebie.

While a website is an absolute necessity, it also needs to be effective. The saying, “if you build it they will come,” doesn’t cut it in the internet world. Your site needs to attract visitors, be engaging / informative, be reader friendly, and convert. It needs to be planned out and optimized.

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Need to build or increase your author platform. Need to boost visibility and traffic to your website? Check out Karen Cioffi's: Create and Build Your Author Online Platform

And, for more writing and marketing tips visit http://karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com

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6 Book Marketing Tips That Are Sure To Increase Your Online Platform Visibility

Having yearly, monthly, and weekly marketing goals are crucial to achieving success. With goals, you know where you’re heading and can work toward that end.

Marketing goals can be considered a marketing plan and it will have a number of steps or objectives that must be set in motion and accomplished.

Whether you’re book marketing or trying to sell another product or service, six of the bare basic online marketing strategies to increase you visibility are:

1. Create a presence and platform

Creating an online presence and platform is initiated by creating a website or blog. First though, you’ll need to be sure of your niche because the site name and content should reflect your area of expertise is.

Remember, plan first. Choose a site name that will grow with you. Using an author as an example, if you choose a site name, Picture Books with [Your Name], you’ve limited yourself. What if your next book is for young adults?

As part of your book marketing strategy, you need to create a ‘hub’ site that will act as the center to your offshoot sites, such as the individual sites for each of your books.

Leave room to grow; it’s always advisable to use your name as the site’s name or part of it.

In addition, with today’s gone-in-a-second attention span, it’s a good idea to keep your site simple. Marketing expert Mike Volpe of Hubspot.com points out that it’s more important to spend time, and money if necessary, on content rather than a flashy website design; simple works.

Google verifies this ‘simple is better’ strategy and notes that milliseconds count in regard to your page load time. In fact, Google gives a ‘poorer’ score to pages that are slow to load.

Sites that take a few seconds or more to load may also cause you to lose potential subscribers and buyers.

2. Increase visibility
Writing content for your readers/visitors is the way to increase visibility – content is definitely still King. Provide interesting, informative, and/or entertaining content that will prompt the reader to come back and, just as important, to share your post or article.

Also, be sure your content is pertinent to your site, and keep your site and content focused on your platform.

3. Draw traffic to your site
To draw traffic to your site, promote your posts by using social media. You should also do article marketing which will increase your visibility reach.

Another strategy is to offer your readers free gifts, such as an ebook relevant to your niche. This will help to increase your usefulness to the reader and help establish your authority.

This is considered organic marketing; it funnels traffic back to your site with valuable content and free offers.

4. Have effective call-to-actions

Your site must have call-to-action keywords that will motivate readers to visit and click on your links. Keywords to use include:

• Get your Free gift now for subscribing
• Subscribe to our Newsletter
• Free e-book to offer on your own site
• Buy Now
• Sign up or Join Now
• Don’t hesitate, take advantage of our expert services
• Be sure to Bookmark this site

You get the idea, motivate the reader to want what you’re offering and give him/her a CLEAR and VISIBLE call-to-action. Make it as simple as possible for the visitor to buy what you’re offering.

5. Develop a relationship with your readers
It’s been noted that only 1% of first time visitors will buy a product. Usually, only after developing a relationship through your newsletter, information, and offers will your potential customer or client click on the BUY NOW button or other call-to-action you have in place.

While it will take some time and effort to implement and maintain these strategies, it will be worth it in the long run. Think of it as a long-term investment.

6. Create an ebook for increased visibility and opt-in enticement

This is an effective marketing tool and ebooks can be offered for sale or given away as a gift or 'ethical bribe.' Whichever you will need it for, it's important to get on board the ebook band-wagon.

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Boost your writing and marketing efforts with Karen Cioffi and The Writing World. Get weekly tips and guidance, plus updates on free webinars. Join today and get “How to Create an Optimized Website – 3 Essential Author Website Elements and 9 Must-Have Pages:”  

How to Get Website Traffic Using Expert Information Content

You’ve got a book or two out, possibly more, and you’ve created an SEO friendly website to establish your author online platform. You have also taken the time to create a valuable ‘freebie’ to motivate visitors to subscribe to your mailing list.

Now, the question is:

How do You Get Website Traffic?

The answer: Create an information content funnel. This marketing practice helps establish you as an expert in your field and attracts traffic to your website.

As with the freebie, your content should be focused with your target market in mind and should be valuable. And, remember, any content you publish is a reflection of your writing ability, so it should always be quality writing.

Okay, now you know how to get website traffic: you have the site, the product or service to sell, the freebie, and the content, but where should you put your content to lure those potential customers back to your site?

Places to Publish Your Information Content

There are a number of places to post your content, including:

1. Your blog
2. Guest blogging on quality sites related to your niche and target market
3. Article directories
4. Newsletters
5. Joint ventures
6. Reprint strategy - allow others to reprint your content with your byline

Just keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities to share information content. Each new site that features your content has its own set of readers, kind of like another neighborhood or town; those readers may very well share your content, continuing to broaden your reach. And, in regard to reprint strategy, you have the capability of broadening your reach even more.

How to Get Website Traffic - Four Main Strategies
1. Use social networks.

Take advantage of sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and the new-kid-on-the-block GooglePlus. Promote your articles and other content on these sites. Your offer and opt-in should be readily visible on the page you’re linking to. You don’t want the visitor to have to scroll down to find your freebie offer.

2. Get involved in article marketing.
Write and submit quality articles to article directories. The content should impress the reader enough to look at your bio/byline. Be sure the link you include goes to the site or page that has your freebie offer and opt-in box.

With a number of article directories, the allowed word count for your bio will be a percentage of your article content, so write tight and choose your words carefully.

While there are hundreds, probably thousands of online article directories, here are five to start you off:

• EzineArticles.com
• Articlebase.com
• Buzzle.com
• iSnare.com
• GoArticles.com

The first four currently seem to have the largest reach, but remember, in the marketing world strategies, sites, and the top contenders can change overnight.

3. Take advantage of Joint Ventures.

According to Peggy McColl, bestselling author of Your Destiny Switch, this strategy is the single most effective way to get major traffic and sales in a short period of time, usually within a 24-48 hour window. Done properly, it has the potential to launch you into Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble bestseller status, and has even created NY Times bestsellers.

4. Use search engine optimization (SEO).
   
Making the search engines aware of your website and content is essential in online marketing. You also want to ensure the search engines categorize your content correctly through relevant keywords. This is accomplished through an SEO friendly website and using relevant keywords, especially your titles and subtitles.

There you have it - four basic tips to help you get started in the right direction.

Boost your writing and marketing efforts with Karen Cioffi and The Writing World. Get weekly tips and guidance, plus updates on free webinars. Join today and get “How to Create an Optimized Website – 3 Essential Author Website Elements and 9 Must-Have Pages.”  

Creating Images – Simple and Quick

By Karen Cioffi

Creating images on your own is easier than you might think.

Normally, for any of my image needs I would go to BigStock.com, choose the image I wanted. This could take quite a bit of time, since for most topics there are lots and lots of images to go over. But, hey, the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words," so spending the time to find the 'right' one was necessary.

While this is a good strategy, again, it takes time.

Suppose you just wrote an excellent blog post and want an 'on target' image to go with it. If you're like me, you'd have to search through the images you already bought, or you'd have to go into your image resource site to find and buy the image you want.

You could also check out MS Office ClipArt, which has some pretty good images. But, if you're looking for something 'on target' and you just can't find, you settle.

This goes with the blog posting territory.

Well, a few weeks ago I wrote an article, and just couldn't find an image that 'hit home.' And, I didn't want to waste too much time finding one, so I decided to throw something together myself. And, I did it with Microsoft Office 2010. It took around five to 10 minutes.

My article title was, "Using Video for Marketing," and I wanted an image that would quickly reflect the topic. So, this is what I did:

1. Opened a Word doc and typed "Play Video."
2. Used Text Effects in Home: Font.
3. Highlighted the text and chose an orange color from Home: Paragraph: Shading - there's actually I reason I chose that color, but that's another post. :)
4. I highlighted, copied, and pasted the pre-image into MS Paint, cropped it, and saved it as a jpg.
5. I inserted that jpg into the Word doc I had open.
6. I click on the jpg and went into Picture Tools Format.
7. I choose Picture Effects - Preset #11.
8. Then, I highlighted the image and chose the orange 'shading' again.
9. For this step I couldn't simply highlight and copy/paste into Paint because of the special effects, so I clicked on Print Screen (Prt Sc). Be careful when you use Prt Sc, because any thing on on your screen or in the image will appear.
10. I copied the newly revised image into Paint, cropped it, and saved it as a jpg.

That's it. I had a quick and easy 'on target' image for my post.



And, if I want, I can upload that image to image sites and sell it.

You can also, use an image you already have (one you bought) and tweak it. Just remember you can't sell that revised image, or claim it as your own design. Here's one I simply tweaked:



 I had the SUCCESS IMAGE and just added the text "GUEST BLOGGING" to it, using MS Word 2010. Then used the same process as above to create a new jpg.

Again, quick and easy. Why not give it a try.

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Need writing and online marketing help? Join The Writing World newsletter with Karen Cioffi and Writers on the Move. You’ll get advice, tips, and even free bi-monthly instructional webinars. CLICK HERE to learn more.

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Article Marketing Reprint Strategy – Pros and Cons

Article Marketing Reprint Strategy – Pros and Cons

By Karen Cioffi

Offering your articles/posts/e-books to be reprinted by others might be a valuable marketing practice.

While it seems most authors don’t allow their articles/posts to be reprinted by others as part of their article marketing practice, I have come across a couple of writers/marketers who generously do allow this practice. They allow their posts to be reprinted by other writers to be used on their blogs or in their FREE newsletter. Obviously, anything being offered to reprint should never be reprinted in something you are selling, such as an ebook or report.

I’m surprised that more writers don’t take advantage of this reprint strategy. The benefits seem obvious – let’s look at four of them.

Four Benefits of Allowing Reprints

1.    You have written something that someone else views as valuable.
2.    You increase your visibility.
3.    You increase traffic back to your site.
4.    You never know who will see that article/post or where it will end up.

What About Giving Your E-books Away?

I have also seen this reprint practice utilized with e-books, and it peaked my interest. These informational e-books plainly state in the beginning of the content that readers may freely pass it along. This technique generates additional visibility and is a great promotional tool and marketing opportunity.

In fact, I recently started taking advantage of this marketing practice with one of my e-books.

Article Marketing and Content Reprint Word of Caution Here
Please remember, it’s essential, when taking advantage of a writer’s reprint offer, to always keep the article or e-book intact. Be sure to use the author’s byline and/or any other text and links that they have as part of the bargain.

The reprint strategy is a win-win situation: the author increases his visibility and you get an article to use on your blog or in your newsletter, or you get a free e-book to offer on your site.

Reprint Strategy Drawbacks

Obviously, there are a couple of circumstances in which offering or using reprints isn’t advisable, such as: you wrote the article specifically for a magazine or ezine and publishing elsewhere is restricted, or you may not want to use an article with a byline that will send your reader to a site that offers the same services you do (a competitor’s site).

One other possible drawback to this particular article marketing practice is dilution. What this means is that if you have your article available on a number of sites, when someone does a search for the topic of your article, it may not be your site they end up going to.

In addition, search engines will usually only pick up and categorize the first print of an article, unless it’s revised to avoid this situation.

But, all-in-all, this is a practical online marketing plan.

Why not try this marketing practice. It will be a supplemental tool to be used along with your article directory postings. These two strategies combined will certainly generate and increase visibility and traffic back to your site.

Note: For any type of article marketing you do be sure to include at least one link in your bio/tag at the bottom of the article that leads back to your opt-in page.

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Need to build or increase visibility and traffic to your site? Check out:
Creating and Building Your Author Online Presence
http://www.karencioffi.com/author-online-presence-ecourse/

And, for more writing and marketing tips visit http://karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com

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The Power of Marketing with Video

The Power of Marketing with Video

By Karen Cioffi

From an online marketing viewpoint, video is hot. In fact, it’s red hot. What that means, is that video is one of the top conversion tools, if not the number one tool. People respond to videos. And, along with it being proven to increase conversion rates, it’s gold to your search engine optimization.

Why do videos take your search engine ranking up a notch?

Visit Length

Well, in addition to quality and ‘sharable’ content, search engines rank your site based on visit lengths. Yes, how long a visitor stays on your site matters and videos keep visitors on your site longer.

There’s more though. Video is a powerful selling tool.

Selling Through Showing

A while ago, I happened upon a YouTube video of an amazing little boy guitarist. While watching it, I noticed a music instructor promoted his business with a bit of content at the bottom of the video.

In marketing, one of the best ways to sell a product or service is to SHOW what it can do for the potential customer or client. This music instructor had the right idea in using one of his students (I'm assuming) to demonstrate how a child could learn to play the guitar.

Granted, not all children or adults have the same capabilities or talents, but this is an excellent marketing tool. And note that just listening to the audio wouldn't have the same affect. It's the video (the visual and audio) of this little boy with amazing talent that makes you want to run to the instructor's home and get lessons for you or your child.

So, without further ado, here is one outstanding little guitar player and an amazing marketing example:



Sungha plays 'C*ome Toge*ther' arranged by Michael Chapdelaine

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I love listening to the guitar, violin, and cello.

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Need to build or increase visibility and traffic to your site?
Check out: Creating and Building Your Author Online Presence
http://www.karencioffi.com/author-online-presence-ecourse/

And, find more writing and marketing tips at http://karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com

Five SEO Blog Tips to Help Increase Traffic to Your Site

If you’re new to the writing game, you may not be aware of some of the essential steps needed to actually get in the game - steps that will make your name and brand visible. And, visibility is a ‘biggie’ if you want to increase traffic to your site and move forward in your writing career.

One very interesting fact about having content online is you never know who will end up finding it. It could be an agent, a publisher, someone who wants to hire you for your writing style. You get the idea.

Why is it important to become familiar with SEO blog tips?

Simply put, the answer is to generate visibility.

Writing is no longer a solitary career. Now, if you want to create and build visibility, along with readers to your site (traffic), you need to build an online platform and promote it.

So, what are some tips to help you get started in the right direction?

Well, the very first and most obvious tip is to have a website or blogsite. Once you have one set up, it’s your job to post content to it on a regular basis, no less than once a week, two or three times a week is better though.

It’s that content that will establish you as an expert in your genre or area. This will help you down the road, after you’ve traditionally published or self-published one, five, ten, or more books and/or e-books, and you want to expand your writing career.

But, before we go over five of the basic SEO blog tips for new writers, let’s first go over what SEO actually stands for: Search Engine Optimization. This marketing strategy allows the search engines, such as Google, to find your site and content.

Being aware of SEO strategies is essential to having the search engines not only find your site, but to also index your content, and make it available to online searchers.

Five SEO Blog Tips:

1. Use a keyword in your article title. Try one of the free keyword search tools to find an effective keyword. I use http://googlekeywordtool.com/

A keyword, according to Compendium.com, is “any word or phrase a searcher might use to describe or identify a desired resource on the Internet.”

2. Use that keyword in your article’s subheadings, and be sure to bold or italicize your subheadings.

3. Use that keyword within the content – just don’t overdo it. You don’t want to stuff your article with as many ‘visibility generating’ keywords you can fit in, search engines frown upon this practice. Your article needs to be an informative, engaging, and understandable.

You primary focus should be to write for your reader. Today, for effective marketing your content needs to be shareable. This means your readers need to feel motivated to ‘share’ the post.

4. When searching for effective keywords, look for long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are words that will move you away from highly competitive keywords.

As an example, if you write business articles, a generic and highly competitive keyword might be ‘incentives.’ I did a Google keyword search and the keyword ‘incentives’ came in at: 1,500,000 global monthly searches, and 823,000 local monthly searches. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to use a keyword with that much competition.

That’s where the long-tail keyword comes in.

If you used the keyword ‘business incentive,’ you’d reduce your competition to 22,200 global monthly searches and 14,800 local monthly searches. That’s quite a difference, and it narrows your target. Remember, you want to hit as close to your target market bulls-eye as possible.

5. The final bit of advice is to let the social networking sites know you have new content. Post the content link to Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc. You should also inform your groups. Get the word out. And, be sure to have a SHARE button so visitors can share the post also.

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Boost your writing and marketing efforts with Karen Cioffi. Visit http://karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com and sign up for her FREE newsletter, The Writing World (top right sidebar).

Keep Your Website Focused

Keep Your Website Focused

By Karen Cioffi

When I first started out in the writing business, my first book was a self-published children’s picture book. And, it was co-authored.

Being a newbie and marketing illiterate, I created a website with both our names in the title . . . and in the URL.

This was my first mistake.

It’s important to create a central website or blog using your own name.

As I mentioned, I created my first site before learning the ropes. Jumping in feet first, without any thought of future endeavors, without focus.

So, you may be asking, what’s the problem with this move?

Well, nothing, if I were absolutely sure that all my future books, articles, and other writing endeavors would include that co-author.

But, as any writer can tell you, this is usually not the case. Co-authoring with a particular author, even if it’s an ongoing thing with books in a certain genre, doesn’t mean everything you write will include that author. So, having your own unique website is a must.

While I could have redirected my first site to another, it’s not the same. You end up possibly confusing readers or new visitors. And, if you don’t redirect to your new site, you’ll dilute your traffic.

The simplest fix to this problem is to avoid it.

The purpose of having your name as the site’s domain name is to create a specific brand/platform that is YOU. And, having your name as the site name will also make it easier for people searching with your name as a keyword to find you.

This is not to say that you can’t have separate sites specifically for each of your books, but it’s important to also have a site with your name as the core or hub to your operations. Remember, you are branding you as an author/writer and your branding efforts must be focused.

My second newbie mistake also had to do with branding.

If you are branding yourself as a children's writer, keep your site specific to writing for children and/or children’s books. This holds true for whatever your platform is – keep it focused.

While I really should have known better, it seems as we get caught up in our writing careers it becomes easy to forget to remain focused. And, it becomes more difficult to keep up with everything.

Remember, it's important to present a focused brand and that is especially true for your website.

So, what exactly was this branding mistake?

A lack of focus.

As I progressed in my writing, I ventured into a number of writing arenas including ghostwriting, freelance writing, and even copywriting. Instead of keeping those areas separate, I brought them into my children's writing site.

The reason this is a mistake is ‘dilution of expertise.’

In the subheading of my children’s writing site, I mentioned ghostwriting and freelance writing. Now, this may not be too far-fetched, because I do ghostwrite children's books, but my freelance business, which includes business and health writing, shouldn't detract from the focus of the children’s writing site. Business and health writing has nothing to do with children’s writing and my children’s books.

If you are branding yourself as a children's writer, the focus of your site should be children's writing and your children’s books, along with possible book marketing strategies. If you promote yourself as doing this, that, and the other thing, you'll become known as a jack of all trades and master of none, thus creating dilution of expertise.

This goes for any specific genre you’re writing in. If you intend to establish yourself as an expert in that field you need to keep your site focused. Establish your brand and promote it.

If you are involved in different writing arenas, such as business freelance writing and children's writing, create a separate site for promoting yourself as an expert in each of those areas. Each website should be focused, so you become known as a ‘master’ in that genre or field.

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Boost your writing and marketing efforts with Karen Cioffi. Visit http://thewritingworld.com and find out why you should sign up for her FREE newsletter, The Writing World.