bookWebsites and Newsletters

http://freereads.topcities.com/websitenewsletter.html

If you're selling anything, you should have a website. If you're selling ebooks, you should consider it mandatory. How many people do you know who read ebooks but don't access the Internet? None come to my mind.

The best thing about having a website is that you can quite probably do it free. Later, once you know what you're doing, you can buy a domain name and pay a hosting service if you want.

You can pay someone to design a gorgeous site for you, loaded with graphics, complete with a secure server and the option to buy right there, but I didn't. My publisher does the selling. Writing a site yourself, loaded with information and a place to click to send someone to your publisher, is simple.

The next article will tell you about the actual mechanics of web site construction, but first let's talk strategy.

Planning should take longer than actual execution. A bit like writing a novel.

"Hi, I'm Michael LaRocca and these are my books." This approach will guarantee that anyone looking for Michael LaRocca will find my site. But when we consider that no one's heard of Michael LaRocca, how many people will seek out my site?

promote your writing without spam

See the graphic? It means that unsolicited "Buy my book!" messages don't work. They just piss people off. Plus, they're rude.

Spam doesn't sell books. Trustworthy recommendations do. As the author, talking to a total stranger who didn't ask you to start a conversation, you can't make trustworthy recommendations. So don't even try.

Here's a possible solution.

Let's say you've written a book where most of the action happens on a snowmobile. Put together the best damn snowmobile website in history. Everything that anyone wants to know about snowmobiles should be on your site. Make it the kind of resource that any snowmobiler will go visit again and again.

Then slip a little note in there mentioning your fiction book. People will find your site, and during one of those repeat visits they'll buy that book.

Basically, fill a need. Give folks a reason to keep coming back even if they think they'll never buy your book. And please, try to put more on there than just your book. In my case, I kept a high-traffic site running for almost a year without a single product to sell.

"Without a single product to sell."

That could be why I have so many users.

You're not some hawker on the street corner yelling at passersby. You're not a pop-up ad. You're not peddling spy-cams.

(If you are peddling spy-cams, stop reading, forget everything I've told you, and give me your address so I can come kick your butt.)

My site is a reference source for readers and writers. Probably more writers than readers, but writers read too. It's not the most original approach, but I write in so many genres that I haven't come up with anything better yet. I might later on. A different site for each book?

Being helpful is my "sales gimmick," but I just so happen to enjoy it. People don't log onto the Internet with the purpose of spending money. They log on for information or entertainment. Give them that and they'll keep coming back.

If you throw in just a little soft sell, and do it right, they'll eventually make that impulse buy as a favor to you. Hopefully after they read one of your books, you'll hook them and they'll come back specifically to buy the rest.

As an example, why did you pick up this free ebook from this writer's website? To buy a book? No. To read my free advice. My site is genuinely useful. You want to bookmark it and come back. I know you do.

At some point, you're supposed to think "What a nice man. Let me plop down a mere $5 and buy one of his novels."

Maybe you won't do that. Maybe if I were you, I wouldn't do it either. But, I'd probably read the free samples.

But I'll bet you that I can sell more novels this way than by screaming "Buy me!" at the top of my lungs.

I'm not your friend because you don't know me. However, I hope you think of me as a "trusted advisor," which is the next best thing.

bookSearch Engines

The single most important and effective way to bring traffic to your website is to place it in the search engines, in the appropriate categories and with the appropriate keywords. You want to place it in the top ten or twenty slots.

When you run a search, how many hits do you look at before you give up and change your search terms or your search engine?

That's why you want to be in the top ten or twenty slots.

Search engines aren't a magic bullet. But they're free and they dang sure help. A lot.

The best way to learn how to place high on those engines is to send a blank email to mailto:tamswriteangles@sitesell.net. You will receive a free five-day course by email, over 200 pages long in all, that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know.

Also, visit Search Engine Watch at http://www.searchenginewatch.com and subscribe to the free newsletter. Useful, timely advice on a monthly basis.

Nope, neither of those places told me to endorse them or even knows that I do. I just happen to find them useful.

bookNewsletter

Why do I have a newsletter? To tell you when my books are for sale, of course. To announce each new book as it becomes available. It also comes in handy whenever I change the address of my website, as a way to tell folks I've moved.

But of course, almost nobody will subscribe to a newsletter for that info alone. Just groupies. I've got over 600 subscribers, and certainly they're not all groupies. Nope, I'm actually providing useful info and filling a need again. And slipping in occassional the "read my book" message while I'm at it.

Have you done that yet? Read my book, I mean. :-)

If you don't feel you can write a newsletter, you can use the "free content" sites to get someone else to do the writing. I've listed some below.

Instead of paying contributors, you simply allow them to include their URL. They'll appreciate the free advertising, and you won't have to write for your newsletter unless you feel like it.

Write a little "From The Editor" thing for the personal touch. No problem for a writer like yourself. But you don't have to write all the articles as well unless you feel like it.

Incidentally, send a blank email to michaellarocca@sendfree.com and you'll get a list of all my articles. Steal one, steal all, I don't care. Writing, website marketing, newsletter marketing, and humor. (Humor's always good.) Just to get your newsletter started...

But really, why have a newsletter? There are ways to promote web sites (search engines) and there are ways to promote newsletters (announcement lists). Each generates a different type of traffic.

Your newsletter can mention your website, your website can mention your newsletter, and you will gain more users in both areas.

Your goal is to see that your "sales message" gets to those who are interested in it. That way, it's not spam. They asked for it. Meaning, they're more receptive to it.

Anyone who signs up for your newsletter, voluntarily, surely fits the bill. Why do you think I've got a signup box on every page of my site? :-)

bookFree Content

Another great way to drum up some business is to write your own articles, and upload them to the free content sites. Give these articles away, and make it obvious right there that anyone who wants to reprint them is free to do so.

Why? Because at the bottom you can include a free "resource box" which directs people to your site or newsletter. Anyone who likes your writing will reprint it, including that resource box, meaning that the article will be out doing promo work for you without your help.

Remember michaellarocca@sendfree.com? Write to any of the addresses on the list you receive and you'll see my resource box at the bottom.

E-zine Articles - http://ezinearticles.com
Hits N Clicks - http://www.hitsnclicks.com
Idea Marketers - http://www.ideamarketers.com
List Resources - http://list-resources.com
Media Peak - http://www.mediapeak.com
Nerdworld - http://www.nerdworld.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articles_announce
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articles_archives
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PublishInYours
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_archives

bookNewsletter Promotion

One quick and easy trick for promoting your newsletter or discussion group is to take advantage of the free announcement lists. It'll take you about two minutes a week.

What is an announcement list? Put simply, the Internet has users who enjoy receiving newsletters, and receiving regular announcements of what newsletters are out there. These are people with some time on their hands, probably the same people who will be the most receptive to buying your books.

The way I've set things up on my computer is, I've written an ad for my newsletter. I send the same ad to the announcement lists as often as they'll allow it. I change it from time to time.

In the same file with my announcement, I have a "monthly list" and a "weekly list" of email addresses that I send this ad to. Also in the file, I record when I last sent my announcement to them.

Once a week, with a two-minute copy-and-paste job, I'm advertising. Every time I do this, more subscribers arrive. Apparently different people are always joining these announcement lists, and some of them are joining my newsletter subscriber list.

You have to join any announcement list before you can announce on it, but you don't have to receive the announcements yourself. All the major newsletter/discussion group hosts will allow you to set your options to "No Mail/Read On The Website."

Start by visiting Mad About Books and picking up a copy of the file I use. It's called NewsletterAd.rtf. All typed in and ready to go, except for the "signing up" bit. Just change the ads from mine to yours.

To join the SmartGroups lists, log onto http://www.smartgroups.com
Each group address is http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/{listname}

To join the Topica lists, log onto http://www.topica.com
Each group address is http://www.topica.com/lists/{listname}

To join the YahooGroups lists, log onto http://groups.yahoo.com
Each group address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/{listname}

{listname} refers to the part of the email address before the @
 

bookNewsletter Unveiling

I recently visited all the sites below and watched my subscriber base grow by about 200 in a month. I don't know which of the below sites are responsible, but it took me about two hours to visit them all.

Most of them allow you to list your newsletter for a month. I should visit them again when my month is up, but they take a lot longer than the two-minute job listed above.
These sites are designed specifically for listing your ezine. I've made a sincere effort to eliminate all FFA sites.

Oh, before the list, let me tell you what an FFA site is. It means Free-For-All. Everyone on the list gets your email, but you get one from each of them. In short, live burial in a pile of email.

I've got a special mailbox just for the replies, which I delete unread. I suspect that's what happens to most of them. But it's free, so I'm trying it just in case.

If you want to use FFA sites and see what happens, JimTools is the king of the heap.

Listing Sites (Not FFA)

Cumuli Network - http://www.cumuli.com
DIY Search - http://www.diysearch.com
Electronic Journal Access - http://www.coalliance.org/ejournal/
EzineCenter.com - http://www.ezinecenter.com
EZine Directory - http://www.e-zinedirectory.com/
EZinesPlus - http://www.ezinesplus.com/
EZineSearch - http://www.ezinesearch.com/search-it/ezine/
Flying Inkpot's Zine Scene - http://www.inkpot.com/zines
Free Ezine Ads - http://www.freeezineads.com
Free Ezine Directory - http://www.freezinesite.com/ezdir/index.html
Lifestyles Publishing - http://www.lifestylespub.com/cgi-bin/publishers.cgi?$id
List Resources - http://www.list-resources.com/
Low Bandwidth - http://www.disobey.com/low/
New Journal Digest - http://gort.ucsd.edu/newjour/
Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists - http://www.paml.net
Vector Central - http://www.vectorcentral.com/advertisefree.htm
Yahoo! Magazines - http://www.yahoo.com/News/Magazines/
ZineWorld - http://void.oblivion.net/zineworld/

Free Classified Ad Sites
With a bit of creativity, you can list your ezine and your website here.
http://www.5starads.com/
http://www.freeclassifieds.com/
http://gold-coin.com/freeads/category.mv
http://www.americanet.com/Classified/
http://www.freecoolcash.com/classifieds/
http://classifieds.bmi.net/default.asp
http://www.rlaj.com/classifieds/

Announcement Lists
New List - http://listserv.classroom.com/archives
NewJour List - http://gort.ucsd.edu/newjour/subscribe.html
New-List.com - http://New-List.com/

E-zine Awards
E-ZineZ Excellence Award - http://www.e-zinez.com/eaward.htm
 

Looking for more advice? As I've said several times, I'm giving away some free ebooks that will bury you in this stuff. They're at Mad About Books. (See how I hype that place so much but make it look necessary and useful?)

The free ebooks will lead you to more free ebooks and resources, which will lead you to more free ebooks and resources, etc. You could makea full-time job out of this! But my resource list, IMHO, is where you should begin.
 

Feel free to drop me a line at laroccamichael@hotmail.com.

e-mail to laroccamichael@hotmail.com

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