Online Marketing - Grassroots Visibility by Karen Cioffi

Today's guest post is by Karen Cioffi, co-author of the children's book, Day's End Lullaby. She and her co-author also have a blog called Karen and Robyn - Writing for Children, which shares "writing tips, helpful links, marketing tips, book reviews and other useful information" for authors wanting to write children's books. They also are part of the DKV Writing 4 U team that offers professional writing services on a variety of topics. Today, Karen will be sharing some fundamental marketing tips that she has picked up through her own marketing studies and activities.

Before we jump into her article, I wanted to remind you that chapter 7 of the serial release of The Samson Effect has been released. Guys, this is where the stories gets even better. If you have followed chapter 1 on through this release, then you know why NY Times best selling author Clive Cussler calls The Samson Effect a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." If you have not read it yet, you are in for a heart-pounding ride.

Now, on to Karen's article.


Online Marketing - Grassroots Visibility
By Karen Cioffi
June 16, 2009

I make it a habit to attend as many marketing 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 a couple of 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, teleseminars, teleclasses, videos, and ebooks. There are even FREE online conferences available. Take advantage of as many of these resources that you can. A teleclass I listen to regularly is Build Your Business Write. And, 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.

2. Begin to create that visibility. I'll break this down into two subcategories:

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 service support) and Go Daddy.

Wordpress is a free hosting site and site builder, but if you're unfamiliar with it be prepared to do a lot of reading. Also, if you run into problems, there is NO service support, but they do have a forum to post questions.

There are many other sites and building tools available, just do a Goolge search.

If you are completely at a loss here, there are services that can help. Please remember, you don't need a lot of flash to have an effective site, you need valuable content. When looking for a service to help, do a little research and watch prices. I have seen services that charge between $500 and $1250 for websites. A simple Blogger site should be much less.

B: Bring traffic to your site.

1. 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, there are writing services that offer articles. These services might be listed as ghostwriting and/or blog and article content service. Check out their articles and blogs before hiring them.

Sites such as Twitter and JacketFlap.com offer tools that allow you to have your article titles and descriptions automatically upload into your account linking back to the articles. More visibility with no effort!

2. Post useful articles to your site. Then make sure you ping the posts and promote them on Twitter, Facebook, and any other groups you belong to.

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. 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 you're comment is interesting or informative, the author or other commenters may click on the link back to your site.

4. Join in on a virtual book tour. If you're not promoting a 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.

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

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

7. Always include your url as part of your signature.

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. Be sure to have an opt-in box or contact form so your visitors can subscribe to your newsletter or informational emails. Don't feel overwhelmed; take one step at a time. Marketing is simply an on-going journey – just keep putting one foot in front of the other. If you can't afford to take advantage of the online services I mentioned, do take advantage of the free resources right there at your finger tips.