Marketing Tips Around The Net: September 12th

Welcome to this Saturday edition of Marketing Tips For Authors trip around the net as we look at some great links for writers who want to learn more about how to market their book. Here in Forney, Texas, it's raining which means I get a reprieve from mowing and I get to spend some time with my coffee at Starbucks, working on my upcoming video/e-book release of Creating Effective Twitter Contests.

Before we get to the stops on our tour today, I invite you to listen to a podcast interview that I conducted with Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn, where you can hear about my path to publishing and how I have taken my skills as a Sales and Marketing Director for a company and applied them to my book. We were able to pack a lot into this interview and I hope you can walk away with some tips and inspiration for your own book marketing activities.

Now, on to our tour...

1. Piracy vs Obscurity: Which Is Worse For Authors?- Leading us off today is Joanna Penn's podcast with Kirk Biglione who discusses the good and the bad about someone stealing your online work.

2. Quick Tip on Amazon Connect- Carolyn Howard-Johnson gives a must-read tip for authors in order to take advantage of their presence on Amazon.com.

3. The 7 essentials of online success for authors, Part 1: Control- Roger C. Parker shares some spot-on advice to keep you out of trouble when it comes to creating and managing your web presence.

4. URL Shorteners on the Rise: 9 New Short URL Services- URL shortening services are important for many reason. Charnita Fance shares with us 9 that we might want to keep in mind.

5. Less is more often proves true for Web site content and design- Phyllis Zimbler Miller touches on a topic that authors, whose universe centers around words, need to keep in mind when designing their website.

6. Forums - How to Expand Your Blog #1- Darren Rowse of Pro Blogger fame shares his tips on incorporating forums into your blog as a way to help grow your blog.

7. Why Write an eBook?- Here is one of the best articles I have read on how important e-books can be as a marketing tool, as well as a stand alone product. Dana Lynn Smith hosts Judy Cullins to share her tips on using e-books in your marketing plan.

8. Reader's Digest Stays Upbeat Despite Trouble Signs- In an attempt to help keep us up on the big news in the publishing industry, here is a NY Times article discussing the bankruptcy and falling circulation of this nation's behemoth magazine.

9. Are you taking your community for granted?- Angela Connor pulls no punches as she talks about the importance of keeping ourselves in perspective.

10. The Power of Free- Cathy Stucker tweeted this Entrepreneur.com article by Carol Tice on how proving free content can lead to big sales.

That's it for this week. As always, I look forward to starting fresh on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend!