Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Quick and Easy Tips for Online Book Promotion

A new author recently asked me for some tips on promoting books online, and since I've coauthored books about YouTube (How to Make Money with YouTube) and LinkedIn (How to Get a Job on LinkedIn and Other Social Networks) I had some ideas to share.

But first...There's no sure-fire way to guarantee sales through online promotion. Internet marketing, however, helps a good book get noticed, reviewed, and bought.

Here are some strategies:

--Write articles for online publications such as American Chronicle. Article marketing works...these articles really get read and each one can include your bio.

--Encourage people who like your book to write reviews on Amazon and B+N.com, but don't "push."

--Create an Author's blog on Amazon.

--Tweet about the subject of your book, but don't be overly promotional and be sure you are giving your followers something of value for their time.

--Create a blog, tweet about new entries. Umm, that's what I'm about to do.

--Use your LinkedIn profile to promote your book and yourself as an author, but again don't let it read like a pure commercial.

Other strategies include creating a YouTube video. See the above referenced book. :)

For more strategies, try following other authors on Twitter who are social marketing gurus. You'll need to use tools that let you search Twitter to find such authors. Try Twellow.

Good luck!