Customizing Your Blogger and WordPress Blog Favicon

I have an exciting tip to share with you that takes you back to an earlier post and video tip that I published regarding branding your site with Favicons. And in a first, I am posting a video on this public blog that was created for my newsletter subscribers. Just scroll to the bottom of the post to watch the video. You can join my free newsletter and receive free weekly video tips for authors by signing up today. You can even see another sample video before you sign up. Here's the sign up link:

http://marketingtipsforauthors.com/videotips.html

Back on March 6th, I posted an article entitled, Branding Tips: Creating Favicons and Custom Error Pages. It discussed how you could create that small, 16X16 pixel icon the shows up next to a URL address form on browsers. If you are reading this on my blog, you can see the red box with the white letters TIPS. That is my custom favicon I added to my website and my blog. (You may also have noticed that I finally got around to pointing my Blogger blog to my own domain. No more yada-yada-yada.blogspot.com :)

When I originally posted the article on creating custom favicons, I did not know that you could replace that orange box with the white B that Blogger puts on all blogs. Chances are, if you have a Blogger blog, you have the orange and white B as your favicon. After reading this, you can have your own favicon on your blog, just as I do now. And for those WordPress bloggers, I have a link for you as well at the end of this post.

Here's what you do. It involves messing with your template's HTML, so as always, be careful. You may even want to paste your template's HTML code on a notepad before you make the change just in case the unthinkable happens and you mess up. It's an easy modification, so I don't want to scare you unduly, but you always need to be careful when modifying your template's HTML. That said, here are your steps:

1. First, you will need to create a favicon. Read my previous post about generating a favicon or visit Dynamic Drive's page for a simple tool on how to do this. They even give easy to follow instructions on uploading your new favicon that they generate for you to your web site (Sadly, they give no instructions for uploading your new favicon to your Blogger blog. But, happily, I do!)

2. Next, you need to upload your new favicon.ico file to a web server since blogger won't let you put this in the root directory, where a favicon really needs to be in order to work. If you have a favicon on your personal web page that you want to also use on your blogger blog, like I do, then you can skip this step. If you don't have a website to upload a favicon to, then you need to search the net to find a free site that you can open an account to upload files to. A better option would be to ask a friend if they would mind if you could upload a very tiny file to their web server that you will be using for your favicon.

3. Once your favicon is loaded on a web page, copy it's link. For example, the link to my favicon is:

http://www.MarketingTipsForAuthors.com/favicon.ico

4. Sign into your Blogger dashboard, click on the Layout Tab, then click on Edit HTML. Don't be intimidated by the code that comes up (but here is a good time to copy the whole code and place it on a note pad if you are nervous. If you accidentally delete something and save over it, I don't have the tech knowledge to help you. I will probably say, "Paste the code that you copied to your notepad back into the HTML form on the Blogger dashboard.")

OK, once you are ready, you will find the following line somewhere toward the top of the page (NOTE: if you are looking at this article on a syndicated feed, you may have to visit my original blog post to see these HTML codes)

a. Find this code in the template:
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

b. Update the template. Paste this code below the code you just located. You will want to replace YOUR FAVICON'S URL with the URL of your Favicon. Make sure you do not delete the two single quote marks on eather side of YOUR FAVICON'S URL:
<link href='YOUR FAVICON'S URL' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

Here is what mine looks like:
<link href='http://www.MarketingTipsForAuthors.com/favicon.ico' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

5. Save the template and refresh the page. You should see your favicon on your Blogger blog now.

Pretty cool, isn't it?


A note to WordPress users. I have found how you can change the WordPress W favicon to your personal favicon if you have the version of WordPress that you upload to your server. If you have the version of WordPress.com that's hosted on WP's servers, I think you are out of luck-- at least for now. If someone knows a way to modify WordPress.com's favicon, please let me know. If you do all the blog maintenance for your blog and you don't know what version you are using, you are probably using the one you cannot update. Sorry.

However, if you have the WordPress software on your server, here is a link to an article that shows you how to do it. Since I do not have the software on my server, I can not test the method as I have for the Blogger modification, so you are on your own. Take a look at the comments, however. Looks like it's a good place to get instructions:

http://www.computer-realm.net/how-to-change-your-wordpress-favicon/


Again, here is the link to my earlier article on favicons:

Branding Tips: Creating Favicons and Custom Error Pages.

And for the first time, I am posting one of my video tips that subscribers receive e-mailed to them each week, on my blog. No surprise, it's the one on Favicons. It won't help you with today's tip, but it will walk you through the simple way to create a favicon and walk you through the process of uploading it to your site.

FYI.. This video was created with an open source video screen capture program called CamStudio. While it is free, it has no editing capabilities. I have since moved to Camtasia to produce all my video tips. Also, my mic was picking up clicking sounds that I did not pick up until after the video was produced. Other than that, you should have no problems with the video. A special thanks to all my video subscribers who have taken this journey with me as I create better and better quality videos the more I learn the new software.


Branding: Adding A Favicon To Your Website




I hope you enjoyed this article on customizing favicons on your blogger account. If you liked this video tip, why not sign up for my Video Marketing Tips For Authors newsletter? You get video tips e-mailed to you each week, and best of all they're free! Follow the link below to sign up and to even watch another sample video:

http://marketingtipsforauthors.com/videotips.html


Tony Eldridge

Tips For Using Twitter: Penny Sansevieri

I am thrill to introduce you to this week's guest writer, Penny Sansevieri, CEO of Author Marketing Expert. Penny is one of the top marketing experts for authors in the US. She has a wealth of advice for authors on the web and is the author of Red Hot Internet Publicity, a book that shows you how to maximize your Internet promotional efforts. I have attended many of her live podcast and have found them invaluable. I want to take this time to thank Penny for joining us on Marketing Tips for Authors and speaking to us on Tips for Using Twitter.

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If you've pondered using Twitter but aren't sure how to use it effectively or if you've been on Twitter for a while and aren't sure if you're maximizing it as you should be, here are some quick tips to give you some great twittering-ideas:

• Teach stuff - teach a little mini-lesson on Twitter. Delve into your area of expertise or just talk about book publishing and how to get published.
• Share sites or blogs that your followers would be interested in. Be their "filter" to new and exciting information.
• Use Tweetlater.com to post tweets to your account for later posting so you don't have to be sitting on top of Twitter every minute of the day.
• Use Twitter as a news source: you can easily announce news both from your world (as long as it relates to your topic) and from the world of your expertise. So for example I've done tweets on book industry stuff, breaking news, etc.
• Widen your network - follow other Twitter folk, this will not only give you some ideas for your own "tweets" but it's a great way to network with other writers or professionals.
• Offer advice: use Tweetdeck.com or Twitter Search (search.twitter.com) to see who's asking for info on your area of expertise and then offer them some help/insight. This is a great way to build relationships.


• It's ok to market yourself but be careful about pimping your stuff too much.
• Be Original, useful and helpful.
• If you're on tour with your book or doing an event, tweet on that and invite your local followers to attend.
• Tweet any good reviews your book gets, it' always fun to share the good stuff!
• Every Tweet counts (don't tell people you're washing your cat) don't just tweet on useless stuff or you'll lose followers
• It's not all about you (again, back to the cat) people want to know useful stuff, I know, it's getting repetitive but there's a reason: it's important
• Promote your Twitter account in your email signature line and on your blog
• Network: don't expect your followers to grow if you're not following other people. Network, search for others in your area and follow them.
• Personal is ok. Even though I said not to post useless information it's still not a bad idea to (from time to time) post a personal Tweet or two. Provide value and twitter-followers will beat a path to your door.


• Follow everyone who follows you. You can use sites like Socialtoo.com and Tweetlater.com to autofollow everyone who follows you. These services can also send a nice welcome message to your new followers.
• There is a lot of noise on Twitter, the sooner you get comfortable with that the better. It's like being at one massive cocktail party, you have to find ways to filter out the noise. Sites like Tweetlater can help you do that.
• Imbed a link or some other sign up in your welcome message, this is another great way to capture emails for your newsletter (assuming you have one).
• Use sites like Tweetlater or Twitter Search to see who's talking about you and then follow them too or comment on their tweet.
• It's ok to repeat your tweets. With the volume of messages people get your followers will often miss some of your posts.
• Feed your blog through Twitter using Twitterfeed.com.
• Join Help a Reporter out @skydiver for tweets on media leads (it's a great service!).
• Don't feel like you have to respond to every tweet but I generally try to respond to all tweets that are replies to mine (you can find these under @replies on your Twitter home page).


• Want to stay on top of your market and find stuff to Tweet about? Then go to Alltop.com and search for your category. There are thousands of them up there. Here are a few to consider: socialmedia.alltop.com, twitter.alltop.com and publishing.alltop.com.
• Review a product or book on Twitter
• Follow big names in your market on Twitter: this will often bring in their followers too and you want to see what the "big guys" are up to.
• Get a good picture: don't leave your avatar blank. Personalize your page if you can but a good Twitter picture is a must.
• Tweetbeep.com is a lot like Google alerts. You can plug in your keywords and you're pinged each time they are used.
• Are you ready to add pictures to your Tweets? Then head on over to Twitpic.com, this site will let you upload pictures and tweet to them.
• Videos can also be shared on Twitter and 12seconds.tv is a great way to record a video (12 seconds long, hence the name) and share it with your followers.
• Music on Twitter is also possible thanks to TwittyTunes (http://www.foxytunes.com/twittytunes/) this site is great for sharing music and it has a simple Firefox add-in that lets you Twitter on music you're currently listening to!
• Keep Twittering, followers will come if you keep updating your Twitter account


More on Twitter
Twitter, the little micro-blogging site that could has seen an enormous growth lately. Traffic to the site has nearly doubled in the last two months, seeing 1.2 million unique visitors per month. If you're not on Twitter you might want to consider it. Twittering or micro-blogging (as it's commonly referred to) is getting bigger each day as applications for this form of promotion continue to grow. Don't believe me?
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/05/16/traffic-to-twitter-nearly-doubles-in-two-months


Fun Twitter Stuff
If you’re still confused about what Twitter is, check out this easy-to-understand YouTube video:

Twitter in Plain English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Ready for more fun Twitter applications?

TwitterMail: http://twittermail.com/ - supplies you with a personal email address. If you send an email to that address it will be posted to Twitter.

Is Twitter a popularity contest? Yes, without a doubt. Find out how you rank in the grand scheme of Twitter fame: Twitter Quotient http://web.forret.com/tools/twitter-tq.asp Find out if you're a Twitter hero or BIG zero

Addicted to Twitter? You're not the only one. Check out the most popular micro-blogs on Twitter: http://www.twitterholic.com/

Ready to update Twitter from your phone? Check out Twitter Fone: http://www.twitterfone.com/

Ready to follow some other Twitters but not sure who you should be following? Head on over to Who Should I Follow (http://www.whoshouldifollow.com/), plug in your Twitter user name and it'll pop up results appropriate to your Tweets.

And if that's now enough, try following @mrtweet, when you do this service will send you back a list of people who are top in your category that you should follow. Tres cool!

Ready to make some quick cash? Twitter me this (http://www.twittermethis.com/) is a site that will ask a random question, if you're the first one to answer you win $5. Just enough for a latte. Not bad. I haven't won anything yet but I'm still hopeful.

If the Twitter-language has you confused check this out, it's every possible Twitter-term you'd ever want to know (and maybe a few you don't):
http://www.sitemasher.com/smblog2/2008/10/my-twittonary-every-twitter-term-and.html


Compliments of Author Marketing Experts, Inc.
http://amarketingexpert.com/
info@amarketingexpert.com
(858) 560-0121

Book Review: Red Hot Internet Publicity

To prepare for tomorrow's guest writer, Penny Sansevieri-- CEO of Author Marketing Expert, I am reviewing her book, Red Hot Internet Publicity.

With all the advice available on marketing, and specifically Internet marketing for authors, Red Hot Internet Publicity slides across the plate as a jewel for authors new to the whole marketing arena. Penny takes what can be a very technical subject and presents it as a friend would present it sitting with you over coffee. For example, she doesn't use marketing jargon that can leave the author in a confusing cloud of dust. Instead, she tells you what you need to be doing to find readers, gives you the steps and resources to accomplish that, and does it in an entertaining, informative yet simple way to understand.

Her easy to understand presentation is a testament to her years of experience as an author marketing coach and book publicist. Many of the tips she reveals in Red Hot Internet Publicity comes from marketing activities she herself has pioneered. And she does a good job at covering the major marketing needs authors have and the targeted solutions to meet those needs. She discusses the importance of establishing an Internet presence, blogging, e-mail marketing, virtual touring, creating newsletters, the importance of optimizing your site for search engines, and much more.

No matter what your experience level is with marketing yourself as an author, there is something in this book that you will be able to incorporate into your marketing plan. As a new author who may be afraid of marketing or one who has no idea where to begin, this one of the books you will want to have in your arsenal to help you get off to a bang.

Make sure you visit Marketing Tips For Authors tomorrow to hear what Penny has to say to our readers as our guest contributor this week.


New Video Tips Out

For my Weekly Video Newsletter subscribers, the new videos are out and you should have received an e-mail with this week's description and link. I had a major spike in new subscribers, and I would like to welcome all of you to the newsletter.

This week's video will walk you through some Twitter tools and show you how to use Twitter to stay in touch with your readers through automatic messages. You will learn how to automatically tweet your followers every time you have a new blog post, you will learn how to update your blog with your Twitter messages, and you will learn how to share cool pages you find on the Internet with your Twitter followers with a click of a button.

If you have not signed up for my free weekly Video Marketing Tips For Authors newsletter, you can do so by visiting http://www.marketingtipsforauthors.com/videotips.html You can even view a sample video there before signing up for the free newsletter.



Tony Eldridge

Marketing Tips Around The Net: Blogging Advice

I get excited about Fridays because I get to share with you some great sites I run across that may not fit into a blog post that I publish earlier in the week. It's your chance to eat at the marketing buffet prepared by master chefs around the net. I hope you enjoy this week's picks.

Before we get to them, I have a couple of housekeeping items I want to mention:

1. I will be conducting a workshop tomorrow (Saturday, March 28th) from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm on Marketing Tips For Authors. It's at the Richardson Public Library and it is sponsored by The Writer's Guild of Texas. Admission is free and all attendees will be offered a complementary copy of my upcoming Video E-Book on Marketing Tips For Authors when it's launched. For more information, visit the Writer's Guild of Texas Workshop Page.

2. I want to thank Michael Balkind for being a guest author this week by submitting his article on marketing your book through contests. Next Tuesday, Penny Sansevieri, CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., will be our guest blogger. My guess is that most of you have heard of Penny before. If not, you will quickly become a follower of hers when you read some of the many marketing tips and advice pieces she has published for authors. In fact, she wrote the book on Red Hot Internet Publicity!

Now, on to our tour of the net for this week's marketing tips picks. This week's theme is blogging:

1. 5 Prerequisites For Blogging Success- Just about anything published on ProBlogger is worth it's weight in gold. This submission by Tony Hung is no different.

2. Why No One Links to Your Best Posts (And What to Do About It)- Jonathan Morrow shoots straight with you in this "must read" article for anyone wanting to become a successful blogger.

3. 41 Blog Success Tips from 10 Years of Blogging You Can Learn Today- Chris Garrett gives a very comprehensive list for successful blogging that's also very easy to understand. Pour yourself a cup of mocha and dig in.

4. Business Blog Success: 10 Tips for a Profitable Blog- Rich Brooks gives 10 great blog tips, especially if you are looking to use your blog to earn an income.

5. Blogging Success Factors- Denis de Bernardy discusses the 4 key success factors in blogging that separate the experts from the non-experts.

6. Top 10 Blogging Success Factors- Larry Brauner really digs into some great stuff to help you succeed at blogging, especially if you get into the testing aspects of Internet marketing, as I admittedly do :)

7. 13 Tips on Asking other Bloggers for Links- We are back to ProBlogger, this time from the guru himself, Darren Rowse, who gives some advice on the subject that every blogger should be beating down the door to hear.

8. How to Make Your Blog Standout in a Crowd- Mark gives some great tips, 25 in all, on how to make your blog stand out. A lot of it is technical in nature, but very easy to understand and what he says can definitely make an impact on your blogging success.

9. Secrets to Blogging Success Revealed- Zeke Camusio gives spot-on advice that any new blogger needs to hear.

10. The Blog Factor- Penny Sansevieri, our guest contributor next Tuesday, speaks to authors in this article and gives you everything you need to know to start blogging today.


Well, that's it for this week's trip around the net. I'm sure you have a lot of new ideas to put into practice, so good luck. And if you haven't seen my video tips this week, you still have time before they are replaced with next week's tips in the wee hours of Monday morning. If you are not a member of my free Weekly Videos Marketing Tips For Authors Newsletter, you can sign up now for immediate access to the current video tips.

Tony Eldridge

Don't Feed Your Subscribers A SPAM Sandwich

Goofy title? Maybe. But if you are tempted to SPAM your subscribers, you will always lose in the end. Think about the spam you get every day and what you do when you run across it. The last thing you want is for your subscribers to think of your e-mail or newsletter in the same way.

Now, before we go on, let me clear up a technicality. When you use the term "SPAM", you are generally talking about the unsolicited e-mails that a company sends out in bulk in the hopes that enough people will bite on their message to make them a tidy little profit. SPAM works because the cost of harvesting e-mail addresses and sending them out is relatively small and it takes a very small number of conversions to make the campaign profitable.

But the term SPAM has a socially accepted connotation of being any e-mail that is unwanted, even e-mail sent out by a company with the receiver's permission. Arguing over the technicalities of the definition is a moot point; if the receiver thinks it's SPAM, then it might as well be in your eyes too. The results are the same. You drive away subscribers who at one point gave you permission to contact them. Being right "legally" is of little consequence when you lose a subscriber because of your SPAMMY messages.

Okay, so what is it that can cause someone on your mailing list to think of your messages as SPAM? (For ideas on building a mailing list, see an earlier article I posted entitled, "Golden Nugget: Collect E-Mail Addresses"). Here are a few tips to watch out for as you contact your subscribers:

1. Contact often, just not always- It's true that staying in touch with your subscribers is a vital element in keeping your list strong and healthy. But there is a line that you can cross by sending out too many e-mails and becoming more of a nuisance rather than a resource. How many is too many? There is no hard fast rule, I hate to say. It depends on:

* The nature of your business. Some industries send newsletters more frequently than others. If you know what businesses like yours send, then you should shoot to keep the frequency of your e-mail messages in the same range.

* The message you are sending. If there is a special event, such as a sale that is about to end or the launch of your new book, then you can get by with a greater frequency of e-mail messages for this temporary situation.

* The expectations you gave. When a subscriber signed up for your list, did you tell them you would contact them weekly? If so, contacting them twice a week is not a good move.

2. Sell your book, but not all the time- Hey, people know that you have something to sell and they will expect to hear you promote it when you send a newsletter. In fact, even in light of the bold heading in point two, I'd say that every newsletter or e-mail needs to mention your book with a link to purchase it. What you don't want is message after message after message being about buying your book. If buying your book is the only message you send to your subscribers, then you will come across very salesman like and you run the risk of making your subscriber flee. Feed your subscribers a healthy dose of messages that they crave and you won't leave the taste of SPAM in their mouth.

3. Know the language of SPAM and don't use it- This is advice to help you actually stay out of your subscriber's SPAM folder. There are words that often trigger the SPAM guard software that your subscribers uses to send suspect e-mails to the SPAM folder. You want your message to stay out of that folder. Check with your Email Service Provider to see if they have a Spam Checker that you can run your message through. If not, check out these free alternatives that will give you insight in how SPAMMY your message just may be:

* SpamCheck (WARNING-- Annoying video ahead. Skip this one if you don't want to hear their sales pitch)
* Content Checker
* Swiftpage Spam Check
* SPAM Filter Triggers (Here is a page that will actually give you examples of words that can trigger a filter to file your message as SPAM.


Concluding Thoughts

With a little planning and checking, you can create quality e-mails and newsletters that SPAM filters will happily let pass and better, ones that your subscribers will look forward to receiving each time you send them out.

Tony Eldridge

Split Test Your Opt In Page For More Subscribers

On Monday, we talked about a subject that I would classify as a beginning level marketing skill: Using your Internet search engine skills to uncover marketing opportunities. Today, we swing to the other end of the pendulum with a more advanced marketing skill. We want to talk about the importance of optimizing your Opt In page by testing which elements give you the highest conversion rate.

Testing your pages for optimum conversions will either stoke your passion for testing or it will be one of the most boring things you do. If the latter is the case, then you may be tempted to skip it and keep doing what you're doing. From a marketing standpoint, that would be a huge mistake. If you develop a plan to optimize your opt in page, and stick with it, I promise you will be glad you did. The results can be phenomenal when you measure the increase in conversions of people signing up for your mailing list. For those who may not be ready for this, read the article anyway. It will put a bug in your ear that will pay huge dividends later.


What Are We Talking About

Opt In: This is the form that a visitor will fill out to join your mailing list. Your goal is to get the greatest percentage of visitors to give you their contact information. While free gifts can be big elements in conversion, they are not, by far, the only elements for success.

Split Testing (A/B Test): Split testing is one test you can run to determine which elements have the greatest impact on conversion. When you run a split test, you send half of your traffic to one Opt In page and half of your traffic to another version of your Opt In page. You then measure the percentage of conversions (people who signed up as compared to the total traffic number) and you have a mathematical answer to which version of the page has a higher conversion rate.

Variables: Variables are the specific elements you are measuring. To run the best, most accurate split tests, you need to isolate one variable at a time and split test it. If you have multiple variables in a split test, then you can not be certain which one was responsible for the best conversions. For example, if you have two Opt In pages that are identical except for the heading, you want to make sure you isolate one aspect of the heading to test. If one says, "Free E-Book Library For The Next 250 Subscribers" and the other says, "Sign Up Now For Your Free Report On Selling Your Book To Nursing Homes", then everything else must be the same. If one headline is in a different location on the page, different font, or different size, then you will never know what variable had the biggest affect on your split test results.


Implementing The Split Test

Here are the steps for implementing your split test:

1. Decide what service you will use to conduct the split test- This step may or may not cost money. There are a number of ad hoc services you can hire to allow you to perform the split test. You will want to search for AB Split Test (use AB, A/B, and A-B in your search terms). You can also use Google's Free Website Optimizer Tool to conduct A/B Split Testing. If you have an auto responder or a shopping cart, then you will want to check with them to see if they offer split testing capabilities. I have used 1Shopping Cart in the past and they have a powerful and easy to use split testing tool. If you have a Google AdWords account, you can use their built in split tester to run your test if you are testing ad variations.

2. Decide what to test- Once you have a way to conduct your split test, you need to decide what variables you want to test. In most cases, you will want to create two pages on you web site, identical in every instant except with the variable you are testing.

3. Create your split test link- This is the link that you use in the tool from point number 1 above. You will tell your tool what the URL is to the two pages you want to test. It will then create a URL for you to use when sending visitors to your page. For example, if you are testing your Opt In page, you will have one link posted for visitors to click. The link will then automatically alternate sending visitors to Page A and Page B (A/B Split test). It will keep track of the traffic going to the pages.

4. Study the Results- Most split test tools allow you to view results in real time. The secret for accurate split test results is to run as many occurrences through the test as possible. The more data you have, the more mathematically accurate your test results will be. With my former company, I would run hundreds or even thousands of clicks trough our split tests before making a decision as to the "Winner". A winner is defined, in the case of an Opt In split test, as the test page that has the highest conversion (percentage of people visiting who opt in to your list).

5. Implement the results- Once you determine a winner, implement that result into your Opt In page, or whatever it is you are testing. Then, isolate another variable and run the test again. Sometimes you will see amazing truths revealed that can increase your conversions by 30%, 50%, or even 60%+. However, even if you are increasing your conversions by 5% to 10% at every test, they add up quickly as you consistently run tests. There will come a point when you deem your Opt In page as optimized. You can then let it run for a while before coming back and doing it all over again.


Here are some suggested variables on your Opt In page to test

1. Your Offer
2. Your Headline (Color, or Text Size, or Position, etc...)
3. Your Ad Copy Length (Do you have a lot of words or a short paragraph)
4. Flash vs HTML Opt In Page
5. Font Used
6. Your URL (Yes, it can make a difference)


Concluding Thoughts

There are other types of tests out there besides Split Tests. There are multivariate tests that allow you to test more than one variable in a single test and there is the Taguchi test (named after the man who created the formula), which allows you to rapidly get results using a specific mathematical formula. There are also a number of other type of test should you really get into testing your site. Just do a search to find options for you.

For most people starting out who want to do something to increase their conversions without getting too complicated, split testing is a great place to start. For more information regarding split testing, check out these articles:

A/B Split Testing Experiment
How To Split Test
How To Set Up A Split Test With Google Website Optimizer
Split A/B Testing

If you decide to split test your Opt In page, you will be in for a real treat. You will have the ability to increase your conversions after each and every test. The great thing about split testing is that your eyes may be opened as to what works and what does not work on your site. To really take advantage of this technique, you can't be married to your current page. If something on your page needs to change to increase conversions, then you need to be ready to pull the trigger, even if it means removing that darling element you added to your page.

Good luck and much success with your testing!

Tony Eldridge

Marketing Your Novel Via Contests: Michael Balkind

I am thrilled to have Michael Balkind as our guest blogger today. Michael is the author of the Deadly Sports Mysteries series. Sudden Death, the first book in the series was endorsed by James Patterson & Clive Cussler. Dead Ball, the next book in the series will be released in July. The Fix, a college football gambling novel that Mr. Balkind co-wrote with ESPN Anchor, Ryan Burr, is currently in rewrite mode. Stealing Gold, an Olympic ski mystery is also in the works. Michael will share one of the Marketing techniques that he uses effectively to find new visitors to his site and new readers to his books.

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Marketing your novel via contests

Marketing a novel (especially on a tight budget) is an endless task. There are so many things to do in order to successfully market a novel that it's sometimes easy to get caught up in the world of marketing and difficult to maintain that other essential part of a writer's work, you know, the writing part.

One of the things that I have found very successful in the endless list of book marketing ideas is to hold contests. People love to get free stuff.

Of course you can't just put up a sign to say, "Enter my contest!" No, that would be too easy. Below is a simple (oh sure!) list of steps to successfully run a marketing contest.

Steps

1. If you don't have one already, you will need to build your website. Create a form on it where people can enter your contests.

2. Decide what to give away. (Signed books, Amazon Gift Certificates, other gift certificates, anything relevant to your book.)

3. Promote your contest well – Social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, twitter are all great places to promote. Find other sites related to your topic in your books and your contests and promote on them. (Such as Facebook groups.)

4. Create business cards, book marks, brochures or flyers – Show your book on one side and your contest and website on the other. Place these everywhere you can (stores, restaurants, libraries, schools, anywhere relevant to your book or your giveaway.) Hand one to everyone you come in contact with. Marketing to a large degree requires stepping out of your comfort zone.

5. Promote your contest at every book signing you do and always have a sign in book available for email addresses.

6. Use the viral marketing concept. "Every additional email you send me will get you an additional chance to Win."

7. Send out a newsletter periodically to let contestants know who won and what your next contest prize will be. There are a few email newsletter sites such as Constant Contact or Vertical Response.

8. Make sure you answer every email that comes in responding to your contest. Wish them luck and always ask them to buy your book. Then thank them for supporting you.

9. Add their email address to your newsletter email database or your new fan database.

The contest process, like every other low budget means of marketing, creates a lot of work for you. But if you work it right, it can pay off in book sales. Good luck running your contest and please let me know if it works for you. Contact me through my website.


Visit Michael's website: www.balkindbooks.com to order his books or enter his contests. While you're visiting, maybe you'll read the first chapter of Sudden Death. The Deadly Sports Mysteries series was optioned for TV by Marc Entertainment of L.A.

Win an ESPN Banner signed by all the anchors & analysts. Or be Named in Balkind's next Deadly Sports Mystery. Registering is Free & easy at www.balkindbooks.com.

Search Strategies In Your Marketing Plan

Today, we are going to look at using our Internet search skills to unlock hidden marketing opportunities. One of the toughest aspects of this blog is writing to a diverse readership who are at varying competencies with technology. If I submit too much beginner level info, the more advance readers will not gain much from me. If I spend too much time on more advanced techniques, then the author who is totally new to marketing gets lost. Today's tip is one that falls well into the beginner level, but it may have some nuggets that even a seasoned "netter" can pick up and use.

This week's video tips also looks at using Internet search skills to find marketing opportunities. In the video, we assume we have written a book on bottle cap collecting and then go out and try to unlock marketing opportunities by using our search skills. Part 1 examines using Google, Yahoo, and a metasearch engine called Dogpile. Part 2 examines using DMOZ, Wikipedia, Social Networking sites (using Facebook as our example), and Amazon.com. If you have not signed up for my free weekly Video Marketing Tips For Authors newsletter, you can do so by visiting http://www.marketingtipsforauthors.com/videotips.html You can even view a sample video there before signing up for the free newsletter.

When you are looking for marketing opportunities for your book, the Internet can be a place to help you uncover:

1. International Opportunities
2. Low Cost/No Cost Opportunities
3. Gems that often get overlooked by others

In essence, you can tailor your search activities to help you create a powerful Word Of Mouth marketing plan. Once you get the buzz going and people chattering about your book, then you will have publicity worth hundreds of times that of paid advertisement. The downside of this kind of marketing is that it takes perseverance, patience, and elbow grease. Ads, on the other hand, give you immediate exposure, cost money, and usually have someone else doing the work of getting your message in front of others.

When I start a search campaign, I usually do it with the goal of uncovering the contact information of someone who can influence others (ie, a blogger, author, business owner, etc). While I do work directly with reporters and editors, I try to find the people who have influence that others may overlook. For example, in the video tips where we published a fictitious bottle cap collection book, we found an international bottle cap collection society (honest, there is one), a small online wine and beer company that also sells books and bottle caps on the net, and many local bottle cap collector groups. Each of these, to varying degrees, will have people we can contact who can influence others about our book.

Once I have the contact information, I then contact the person and introduce myself. After a dialog is started, I let them know I would be thrilled to contribute an article or other resources to their members/customers. At this point, my main goal is to become a valuable resource to the person and hopefully get my name in front of their members/customers. If I do establish a relationship with the person, I treat their customers/members with velvet gloves. The highest honor someone can pay you is to introduce and recommended you to their followers. If you ever take advantage of that gift, you can do great harm to your reputation and image.

Here are some places I search, and how I use the results in my marketing efforts:

1. Search Engines- Everyone has their favorites. I generally use two to three to make sure I give myself the best possible results. You will always find some results that show up high in one search engine and not in the other. The three I use are Google, Yahoo, and Dogpile. Dogpile is interesting in that it's a metasearch engine. That means instead of searching the web for results, it searches other search engines. Dogpile, for example, returns search results from Google, Yahoo, Ask, and Live Search. Metasearch engines won't always return a deep selection of results, but they can give you a wonderful overview of the links out there for you to look at.

2. Directories- Directories are collection of links sorted by subject matter. They usually have a search feature to find and narrow the results your are looking for. In my opinion, the best directories are the Human Edited Directories. That means that when people submit links to be included in the directory, a human views the submission and approves or denies the request. This is a great way to keep spam out of the directory. Some of the best directories, in my opinion, are Yahoo's Directory and DMOZ (Google's directory is a re-branding of DMOZ.org).

3. Wikipedia- Wikipedia is an internet encyclopedia written by--you. Well, by anyone who wants to submit articles to it. There is a review of submitted articles before they go live, but none-the-less, anyone can sign up to be an editor for Wikipedia. It has a strong reputation, though you need to be aware that the information is as only good as the quality of the person submitting it. That said, you can find great marketing opportunities in Wikipedia by searching your topic and visiting the further reading, see also, and external links section at the bottom of each article.

4. Social Networking Sites- These include sites like Facebook, MySpace, Shelfari, GoodReads, etc... While you need to be careful on how you conduct marketing activities on these sites, there are some simple searches you can do to open some opportunities to you. Here is just one idea for you. Search the groups. Most of these sites have groups. When you find the ones that deal with your subject, introduce yourself to the group's creator. Let them know who you are and what expertise you have and then volunteer yourself as a resource to the group. This can be writing articles for the group or engaging in Q&A with the members. You can also post tools and resources to the membership, once you join the group. The secret here is really putting yourself out as a resource to the group and not as a salesperson trying to sell something to the members. By approaching social networking groups in the right way, you can have a powerful word of mouth campaign started for you.

5. Amazon.com- Here's one that authors often miss as a marketing opportunity. By searching Amazon.com, you can find authors who may be willing to co market their book with you. You may also find people selling non-book items. In many cases, these people have online businesses. By visiting their site, you can quickly see if they have a newsletter (marketing opportunity) or if they sell books on their site. You may be surprised at how many marketing opportunities open up to you by spending just a little time on Amazon.com and finding some non-traditional search results.


Parting Words

Well, this just scratches the surface on what you can do to use your Internet search skills to find some little marketing gems. Once you start thinking outside the box with your marketing activities, you will never lack ideas to pursue.

**NOTE** Tomorrow, we have a guest writer sharing his marketing ideas. Michael Balkind is the author of Sudden Death and will talk to us about his successful experience at using contests as a marketing activity. You won't want to miss what he has to say.

Tony Eldridge

Marketing Tips Around The Net: March 20th

TGIF! That means we take a whirl around the net to see what other marketing ideas and tips experts are giving for authors. Before we do, let me remind you about a couple of other new marketing resources for you:

1. Free Weekly Video Marketing Tips For Authors: Here is a chance for you to sign up for my free weekly video tips, e-mailed to you every Monday. When you click on the link, you will be able to view a sample video before signing up for the free newsletter.

2. New Marketing Tips Directory: This is a new tool I started in an attempt to gather marketing tips from around the Internet into one location. As you run across great tips, you can submit them to the directory. If you are an author, you can even submit articles on Marketing Tips directly to the directory. Pop on over and take a look. I bet you find some more great tips in the directory this weekend.

Now, on to this weeks tour of the blogoshere!

1. Simple Ways to Promote Yourself Online: More great stuff from author marketing expert, Penny Sansevieri. This gem of an article will give you tips to walk away and use immediately as you develop the marketing plan for your book.

2. Plan a Great Book Launch Party: What a cool way to tell the world about your book! Read Philip Martin's post to have him walk you through the steps to make sure your launch makes a splash.

3. Questions About Book Marketing And Promotion That Authors Should Answer As Soon As Possible: Roger Parker gives you the questions you need to be asking yourself as you think about your developing marketing plan. Your answers will help you design and create a powerful marketing plan.

4. The Most Delicious Articles About Blogging, Marketing & Writing: Laura Christianson shares her bookmarked articles that will give you great material to digest when you think of ways to market your books.

5. Super Savvy Internet Promotion: Penny Sansevieri is back with some practical advice that you can start using today when it comes to marketing your book. You won't want to miss this article packed with marketing goodies.

6. Advice For Part Time Bloggers Juggling Blogging with Work, Family and Other Commitments: Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the work that goes into marketing your book? Darren Rowse touches on some solid principles regarding blogging that can help you manage your time and your work more efficiently.

7. Top 13 Tips To Creating A Professional Looking Newsletter: Do you have a newsletter? If not, you need to think about starting one as a bedrock of your marketing plan. Michael Wong give you some solid advice that you may not consider when creating your newsletter.

8. 10 Tips to Be Effective at Marketing on Twitter: Salwa M gives some great tips on Twitter marketing. If you don't know about Twitter, you need to take a look at this post and then sign up for a Twitter account.

9. 10 Killer Facebook Marketing Tips: Lennie Appelquist gives some quick marketing tips if you are on Facebook, or if you are thinking about creating a Facebook account.

10. 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog: Lee Odden wrote this classic article a couple of years ago and has updated it with new tips to keep up with the changing times.

Well, that's it for our trip around the blogosphere and for this week's Marketing Tips For Authors. For those in the Dallas, Texas area, I will be conducting a free Marketing Tips For Authors workshop sponsored by the Writer's Guild of Texas on Saturday, March 28th. You can read more about this free event, including the time, location and a detailed description at the WGT Workshops & Conventions page. I hope to see you all there.

Speak At Any Venue By Repackaging Your Book

I almost started to write today about tips on finding venues as an author/speaker. It's a valuable topic for authors to think about because every opportunity we have to speak is an opportunity to enhance our communication skills, introduce ourselves to more potential readers, fortify our claim as an expert, and pick up co-marketing opportunities with the organization bringing us in to speak.

I will touch on finding venues to speak in another post soon. But as I started writing, I thought back to the various venues in which I have spoken. Then I started thinking about the clincher for a lot of the opportunities and it was not always the thing I would have pitched if it were up to me to secure the opportunity. But good listening skills and an open mind led to some speaking opportunities I may never had otherwise.

When I first published my novel, The Samson Effect, I made the same mistake many new authors make. I assumed that people and organizations would line up to hear me talk about the fascinating tale I created. Maybe I would throw in some deep "ah-ha" moments when a monumental truth was revealed to me in the writing process. I could talk about securing Clive Cussler's cover quote or the major Hollywood producer who contacted me with interest in the story. I mean, I had some good stuff that would keep people riveted to their seats.

Or so I thought. What was fascinating, amazing, and unbelievable to me amounted to not much more than a thirty to sixty minute infomercial to the event coordinators I was talking with. I picked up a few speaking engagements that way, but that was about it.

Then I had coffee with a colleague who knew I had written the book and had always been supportive of me. Over coffee, he was telling me that one of the local groups he was a member of was discouraged because they were struggling to keep up with the community work that they had a strong history of providing. The path that the conversation took led me to sigh and say something like, "I hear you. Writing this book was one of the hardest things I ever completed. There were times I believed I bit off more than I could chew. You guys need to just keep pressing forward, doing the best you can."

By the time our third coffee was drained, I think I actually succeeded in cheering him up. Later that week, he called me and wanted to see if I could speak to his club and tell them the story of how I was discouraged at times when writing my book and what I did to move past it.

That moment, the clouds rolled back and the angels sang, "Hallelujah!" Not really, but it was an epiphany for me. I had been going about this speaking thing all wrong. I had a novel, not a work of nonfiction that often lends itself to a speaking platform for authors. However, I had a lot of experiences related to my novel that people would want to hear. So I set out on the task of finding out what groups wanted to hear and then see what I could do to meet their needs. Here is a list of some of the subjects that I used The Samson Effect as a prop for another speech:

* Overcoming Distractions and Roadblocks
* Setting Massive Goals And Taking The Baby Steps To Accomplish Them
* Marketing Your Book On A Shoestring budget (What, you thought this blog came to me out of thin air?)
* Setting Up A Website
* Fitting 28 Hours Into A 24 Hour Day
* Understanding US-Arab Relations (This was a fun one. It was to a small group of retired women who knew that the subject matter in my book dealt with American/Israeli/Palestinian relationships. They wanted another take on world events happening during that time)

And the list really does go on. I realized that there were a lot of things that I had the authority to speak on, BECAUSE of my book, even if the speech was not ABOUT my book. Soon, I was visiting clubs and I even started to get calls from organizations wanting me to speak to them.

As you start to think about your potential speaking opportunities, spend some time thinking about what you can speak on that may not have to do with the subject of your book. You have the authority, because of what you went through to be a published author, to speak on project management skills, goal setting, leadership, vendor management skills, work/life balance, and much more.

By listening to the needs of different organizations and adapting your presentation to meet those needs, you will be a much more prolific speaker and find many more opportunities to speak. And the great thing about approaching your speaking opportunities this way is that you can weave your book into the presentation and have them on hand to sell when the presentation is over. I hope this helps to open your eyes to the many opportunities you have to find those speaking opportunities and to weave your book into a presentation that may not have anything to do with your book's subject. It's a great guerrilla tactic to use to actually promote your book to more people.

Tony Eldridge

Think Small! Niche Yourself To Success

When you talk about getting your message out to others, there are many obstacles you will encounter that you will have to effectively navigate around, especially if you have a new presence online. In fact, this principle is true in offline marketing as well. One thing you need to consider is who you are going to focus your message, or your expertise, to reach. By narrowing the target of your audience, you can can effectively increase your chances of being found by people. When you target your message, or product (or book), to a subsection of the market, and not to the mainstream market, you are engaging in what is called "niche marketing."

Though it may sound counter intuitive on the surface, niche marketing is actually a powerful strategy for you to adopt. In fact, in my opinion, it is one one of the fastest ways to success. Here is an example of how it works. I have professional marketing experience and recently decided to share that experience with people online and offline. My experience is from marketing educational video products for a company. When I wrote my book, The Samson Effect, I applied my marketing experience to help me get the the message of my book out.

When I decided to share my marketing expertise with others, I needed to determine what target of the market I wanted to focus on. I chose the niche market of authors. Now, I could have decided to jump into the mainstream market and promote my marketing advice to everyone. After all, the audience size for that message is huge. But as a new presence in the market with a micro budget, I would have been swallowed up by the vast number of powerhouse players that are already there. I would have been the proverbial little fish in a big pond. More like a single krill in a massive ocean.

But by focusing on a niche, I have already seen success at reaching people with my message. I chose to limit my target audience specifically to authors who are trying to find readers for their books. I know, as an author myself, that there are certain particularities with book marketing that don't exists in the mainstream marketing audience (ie, book signings, public readings, etc...). Not I am a bigger fish in a substantially smaller pond. People are finding my message though I have only been online for a relatively short time with it. This is the power of niche marketing.

As you consider your marketing plan, think about your niche. What subsection of the market can you stake out and claim as your own? By embracing a niche marketing strategy, you may see your success grow substantially. It works for the auto industry when they market their hybrid cars to the environmentally friendly consumers; it works for magazine publishers who create new magazines for a micro audience, and it can work for you.

Here are some tips to think about as your find your niche:

1. Make sure it is truly a niche- Using my marketing example, I could have fooled myself into thinking I was in a niche market by saying, "I will target my audience to only the segment of the market with business owners." Nice try, but that is nothing more than a renaming of the general market. Make sure that your niche is truly a subsection of the overall market.

2. Apply the "Goldie Locks" test- You want to make sure that your niche isn't too big or too small, but just right. If you chose a niche that is too big, then you will still be competing with the dominate established players in the market and you will struggle to have your message heard. If you choose a niche that's too small, then you may dominate the market, but you may not have enough readers to sell your books to. I could have chosen authors living in Hawaii who write Alaskan cookbooks as my niche. Chances are, I would dominate that niche, but my overall business success would be limited to the point that it would not be a viable niche to be in.

3. Research your niche and become an expert in it- When you enter a niche, you want to quickly establish yourself as one of its experts. Chances are, if you have done a good job at choosing your niche, there may be other experts already there. This is a great opportunity to reach out a hand and network with other colleagues. By establishing yourself as an expert and finding your place within the niche, you can become a name people begin to associate with your expertise.

4. Communicate with your niche- If you go through all the effort to locate your niche, make sure you spend time in front of them. This is really what Marketing Tips For Authors is all about; not just finding readers for your books, but learning how to stay in front of them. By keeping a steady stream of communication with your niche, you will continually enhance your visibly as a niche expert.

5. Always be on the lookout for other niche markets to slip into- Once you find yourself securely snug in your niche, look for other niches to cross market to. The Chicken Soup For The Soul series has done a masterful job at this. You can now find your serving of Chicken Soup created just for you, no matter who you are. As a dad of twin boys, this one looks interesting to me: "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Twins and More."

Spend some time thinking about who you want to market yourself to and then go after that market. By slipping into a niche, you will find it much easier to be heard and to find people who not only listen to your message, but ultimately take action. By "thinking smaller" via niche marketing, you will be poised to make a big splash.

***On a personal note, I want to wish a happy anniversary to my lovely wife Emily.***

Tony Eldridge

Two Items Needed In Every Author's Book Promotion Tool-Box

Today, we are fortunate to have Karen Harrington, author of the legal thriller Janeology with us today. Karen is a prolific blogger and has experience as an editor and speechwriter. Her fiction has been recognized by the Hemingway Short Story Competition and the Texas Film Institute. Karen and I met through MySpace as authors who had books debuting about the same time and then we found out that we both lived in the Dallas, TX area. She has been a wealth of book marketing experience for me and I know she she can be for you too. It's my pleasure to welcome her to Marketing Tips For Authors as today's guest contributor.

***

Thanks to Tony Eldridge for inviting me to his blog to talk book promotion today. I've written a solid article called Tips For Debut Authors, which is relevant to this topic. But today, I want to share two things I think every emerging author should possess in his/her book promotion tool-box.


THING ONE – A Realistic Attitude

If I've told you this story before, stop me. Actually, don't stop me. It bears repeating. Once upon a time, my college writing professor told his students that "Many people have the talent to be good writers, but few have the temperament to make a career of it."

When I first heard this statement, I admit it rankled me. CAREER? We are artists. We are inspired. We don't think of careers, we think of making the world a more beautiful, well-understood place through our art. When the muse comes, we chase it and lovely things happen. Career, you say? Careers are for accountants. I am an arteest!

If you have that attitude, you are already on your way to one-book-wonderdum.

Writing is a discipline, a skill that must be honed and worked at every day like any other. The idea that you actually have to have a work-ethic to both write AND promote a book is lost on many people. In fact, I know writers who think that since their novel is now bound between two covers, people will beat a path to their door to read it. But as someone once said, "How can they beat a path to your door if they cannot find your door?" Especially when there are thousands of books vying for readers' attention.

Which brings me to my next point.


THING TWO – A Blog

Blog. Yes, I said it. Some emerging authors think this is a waste of time. I am not one of them. But I had to become a blog convert, too. At first, I couldn't see the return on investment. And the truth is, there's no real way to gauge book sales to blog posts. But let's go back to THING ONE. You are in this for the long haul and want to make a career of it, right? You know Book One is not going to make you a household name. So you continue to work on future novels while at the same time, creating a platform. So you write a few blog posts a week. Not too difficult. You keep going. You join others who like to do "memes" which are weekly round-robin blog events about certain topics – books, writing, motherhood, etc. There are hundreds. You meet other blog friends. They link to you. Your blog grows. Maybe you ask your readers to help you workshop a fictional idea. Fun! Maybe you have a contest where someone will win your book. More fun!

So what do you have – a platform. On your blog, you connect all the other social networking like MySpace, FaceBook, FaceSpace, In Your Face…oh, who can remember them all, but you get the idea. You link them to your blog and you include your website right on page one (you DO have a website, don’t you?) And voila, your blog platform is THE door through which readers can find you. It is this essential door, my friend, that all publishers are looking for in this tight market. They want to know if you have an ability to share the good news of your future books with other friends. Well, if you have a blog, you do.

I've managed to create a blog that (I think) is a balance of valuable information on writing, journal entries from the life of me, and discussions about books I love. I occasionally do book promotion, but I don't like to whack-a-mole readers with it. I think the fact that I continue to get thousands of hits each month who are viewing a blog that has my book cover, excerpt and info right up front, is an effective marketing tool. I've seen other, over-the-top book promotion blogs that are the on-line equivalent of the department store perfume sales-lady chasing you with cologne. Note to you: Don't be this lady. My particular blog recipe has worked well and reflects the topics I'd talk to you about if we met for lunch today, which is where I'd recommend you begin. Think about talking to your BFF about books, dialogue you overheard, how spring inspired a new writing goal. Find a blog platform that reflects your personality and interests and you will have fun with it. And remember, it is not enough to write posts. You need to go comment on other people's posts for your blog to grow. That's how it's done. A blog's growth is dependent upon participation with other bloggers. Plus, you will soon have that weird pseudo-social experience where you actually believe you KNOW other bloggers and they think they know you, too. Well, in this busy word, there are worse things than being e-connected to strangers in India.

Now here's some fine print that will showcase the other book promotion abilities I possess. Turn back now if you don't like the obnoxious, direct marketing, perfume-lady approach. Are you ready? Okay.

Thanks for inviting me here today, Tony.

Karen Harrington
Author, Janeology
www.karenharringtonbooks.com – Click over here to read an excerpt and watch my haunting book trailer.
www.scobberlotch.blogspot.com – Come over here and follow me or subscribe. It's legal stalking! Plus, I'm having a book promotion marathon throughout the month of April to celebrate the one year anniversary of my debut and hey, you might even win a free book or get a few more bloggy ideas.
www.kunati.com – Pop over here to check out my terrific publisher, who is still accepting submissions from talented authors like YOU.

New Marketing Tips For Authors Directory

I am excited to announce a new tool for authors who are looking for good, expert information on marketing their books and for marketing experts looking to find people needing their advice. It called the Marketing Tips For Authors Directory. It currently has over sixty categories to link authors to exactly the help they are looking for.

Experts:

You can visit the site and submit a link to a tips page, white paper, article, or blog entry that you have created which gives authors advice on how to market their books. For example, if you have written a blog post on 7 Ways To Market Your Book Through Amazon.com, you can submit the link to your blog post under the Amazon.com Marketing Strategies category. When authors are looking through that category or when they search the directory for help on using amazon.com, your link will return in the results.

What happens then? If the author decides, after reading your summary about the link that he or she wants to see your page, they click on your link and are taken to your page. Many directories charge to have your links listed in them. Not the Marketing Tips For Authors Directory. I created this tool specifically as an aid to help authors and book marketing experts meet.

Experts can also, if they choose, submit full text articles to the directory. In this case, when the author clicks the link to the article, the text of the article is delivered within the directory. In order to use this feature, an expert must register as an author for the directory.

Authors:

This is an a wonderful 1 stop place to search for a collection of marketing tips around the net. Already, there are good tips in the directory with new ones being added each day. The more people add quality links to the directory, the more powerful tool this will be for you over time.

Important Points About The Marketing Tips For Authors Directory

1. This is a Human Edited Directory. This means that people submit links and articles to it and humans approve the links. While the process of growing the directory can be slower than growing a directory which pulls in links automatically, it does allow us to make sure quality links populate the directory. This means we can drastically reduce spam entries and entries on subjects other than book marketing help.

2. This directory is a focused, or nitch directory. That means it will contain only links having to do with book marketing, or link closely relating to book marketing. While an article on Creating Compelling Characters is a valuable subjects for authors, it is not within the scope of this directory. The administrators of this directory will be looking for quality submissions which fall within the scope of the directory. What this means for you is collection of laser targeted tips on exactly the subject you are looking for when you visit the Marketing Tips For Authors Directory.

3. Anyone can submit links; only article authors can submit articles. If you come across a great page with marketing tips for authors, you can submit a link to the page in the directory. You do not have to be the owner of the page the web site is on. You just need to make sure the content is freely available for everyone on the web. What will the page owner think about having their link included in the directory? Well, they should welcome any attempt to have more pages pointing to their website. However, if the directory is contacted by any web page owner about removing content linking to their page, the directory will absolutely comply with their wishes, no questioned asked.

Submitting articles to the directory is a different matter. When you submit an article, you are submitting the full text of the article to be stored and viewed on the directory. Only the author of the article who has retained the rights to it may submit their articles to the directory. Period. As authors, you know the importance of this, and you should know the possible legal ramifications of posting copyrighted information that you do not have the right to republish. Nothing will get you banned from the directory quicker than knowingly submitting a full text article that you do not have the right to submit. This is a pet peeve of mine that I take very seriously. Any author who sees their work submitted to the directory by anyone else may contact the directory for its removal. And just to belabor this point--you may not submit another author's article, even if you attribute the article to the rightful author.

Okay, 'nuff said.

Concluding thoughts:

I hope this directory continues to grow into a centralized resource for authors looking for book marketing ideas. I also hope that it introduces authors to the many outstanding experts who are out there, waiting to lend their experience and expertise in helping you find the widest possible readership for your book. I humbly submit the Marketing Tips For Authors Directory to you as a tool that I truly hope will be embraced and utilized by our special community.


In Other News...

Every Tuesday we have a guest contributor sharing their marketing tips with you. Tomorrow, Karen Harrington, author of the fascinating legal thriller, Janeology will be here to share some of her marketing experiences with us as our guest writer this week.

Also, for my Weekly Video Marketing Tips For Authors newsletter subscribers, this week's new tip is out, so check your e-mails for the link. The subject: Adding Social Bookmarking Buttons To Your Blog And Web Pages.


Tony Eldridge

This Week's Book Marketing Tips Found Around The Net

Well, it's Friday and that means it's time for me to share with you some great resources that other people have contributed to the book marketing body of knowledge. Sit back and click away. You are bound to pick up a few take-aways from today's post.


1. The Top 150 Twitter Tools, Twitter Resources, and Twitter Services: John Kremer lists more tips and resources on using Twitter than you ever thought existed.

2. Promote Your Author Blog with RSS Feeds: Dana Lynn Smith educates you on RSS feeds and how you can use them to promote your blog.

3. Online Marketing 03: Know Your Brand: In part three of a series, Angela Wilson discusses Branding expert Rob Frankel and his advice on the importance of building the right brand as an author.

4. What Publishers Do for Publicity: An Interview with Woodley Auguste of Strang Communications by Angela Wilson: In another great article this week, Angela Wilson chats with a publisher about the marketing activities they engage in for their authors. This is great insight for authors planning their own marketing plans.

5. The Day 250,000 People Showed Up At My Blog: Case Study: This is what it's about, right? Read about one man's journey to the holy grail of vital marketing.

6. The Essential Guide to Growing Your Blog on Minimal Time: Time is a limited resource for us all. Leo Babauta shares his tips on where to spend your time blogging and where not to spend it.

7. 20 Simple Ways to get Massive Traffic to your Web Site: Author Marketing Expert Penny Sansevieri shares her experience on boosting the traffic to your web site.

8. Seven Powerful Ways To Find New Readers For Your Blog: Penny Sansevieri has another solid piece with practical advice for increasing your readership.

9. Business Card Printing Design Tips: We all have them. Here is one person's tips on what you need to think about when designing your business cards.

10. 5 Ways to Sabotage Your Email Marketing Campaign: Your e-mail marketing campaign can turn into the cornerstone of your marketing efforts. Terry Philpott gives sound advice on what NOT to do with your E-mail marketing campaign.

That's it for this week. I appreciate the time you spent with me. I am looking forward to another profitable week for us both next week. Special thanks to Kat Smith for her guest appearance with her article, Vulnerable Writer Seeks Successful Promotions. I am excited to announce that next Tuesday we have Karen Harrington, author of the fascinating legal thriller, Janeology to share some of her marketing experiences with us. Mark your calender; you won't want to miss what she has to say. Even this old marketing dog learned a few new tricks from her.

Tony Eldridge

Increase Your Traffic Through Original Content

At its most basic level, marketing deals with ways of finding customers for your product. If you are an author, then your book is your product. Of course, you may have other "products" you are trying to gain customers for. You may have a newsletter you are looking find subscribers for; you may have a consulting business you are looking to find clients for; you may have a social site you are looking to find "friends" or "connections" for. So marketing does not always deal with selling a product for money. It is simply trying to find the people who are interested in whatever it is you are offering.

The dilemma, thus the need for marketing, is how do we find the potential clients in the universe of potential clients out there. Today's tip gives you a way for you to do this that can be one of the most effective for you over time. It will not drive tens of thousands of visitors to your site overnight, but it will start you off in creating a strong roadway of multiple paths that will lead visitors to your doorsteps. It involves elbow grease and the willing to commit to it as a marketing technique if you really want it to pay off for you.


Increase Your Traffic Through Original Content

This is one of the best uses of your time and one of the best means to build a growing and vibrant referral method back to you. Create original content on a regular basis and release it to the internet. This article will touch the basics of what you need to do. By following these tips, you will be on your way to creating increased traffic to you and your book.

1. Make the content useful. When you decide to put out content, whether it be articles, tips, reviews, or whatever, you will want to make sure you are putting out information of value. This will cause people to come back to your content and to want to find more of what you have written.

2. Contribute often. Do not underestimate the value of regular submissions to your blog, to other people's blog, to your website or by submitting articles on the web. It's in the regular submissions that you build a dynamic, rich library of content that will pay dividends down the road. Think about the people you go to when you want to find the answer to your questions. Chances are, your favorite experts are prolific writers, which is one of the reasons you count them as an expert. You feel adequately certain that you can go to them to find the answers to your questions. This is what frequent regular contributions can do for you too.

3. Link back to your ground zero. If it's true that all roads lead to Rome, then it should be true that all of your pathways, submissions, and content lead back to your main website that you are trying to gain recognition for. People will only put in so much effort in tracking you down before they move on to someone else. Make it easy for them by linking directly back to your page or your book's page. I cringe when I read a solid research piece on the web with no contact or reference information on it. I then move on to the next piece I am researching. If you put in the time to create a superhighway leading to your Internet ground zero, don't sabotage it by placing roadblocks along its path.

4. Pepper the language of your content with relevant keywords. If you want people to find you, then you will need to lay down the proverbial bread crumbs leading to your front door. This is done by making sure your content contains the same words that a reasonable person will use in a search engine to find your content. You will also want to include your name and your website in the article, even if it is a small one line bio credit at the end of the article.

5. Share your content link with others. Once you have submitted your content, let the world know about it. Send the link out to your newsletter subscribers, to your colleagues, to the members in your groups and your social networks. If you Tweet (I am new to Twitter and loving it!) then send out a tweet to let people know about it.

You may not get a book sell immediately because of creating new content, but you are building awareness of yourself and your book. A rule of thumb in marketing is that you have to get in front of someone at lease seven times before they take action. Of course, this number is affected by many things, but by creating timely, useful content with your contact information included, you are slowly dripping on people and making the journey from the back of their mind to the front. Making that journey successfully is when all the content you have been creating starts to explode with more and more traffic to your site.

Tony Eldridge

Dedicated To Our Defenders

I wanted to share a site that I joined last year. Sure, it's marketing, but it really does have a more altruistic motive. The site is Dedicated To Our Defenders. DtoD (as they refer to their organization) is a non profit group that provides books to our soldiers serving overseas.

To be a member, all you have to do is fill out a contact form and donate a couple of books. They have three types of memberships:

1. Authors
2. Publishers
3. Everyone Else

According to their website, the mission of DtoD "is to enrich the lives of the men and women fighting for freedom abroad by providing books to help them pass their downtime."

Lynn Hardy, founder of Dedicated To Our Defenders, explains on her site how the idea for DtoD came about. As an author, she had a practice of buying drinks for soldiers during layovers while traveling for her book signings. As she listened to their stories, she picked up on a theme. It seemed that their "downtime" was one of the toughest things for them to handle. There was little to do and few books to pass the time away with. What books were available were passed around until everyone had read it.

The seed was planted. Lynn created DtoD as a way to get these soldiers copies of books to read during their downtime. The idea picked up traction in the media and soon authors were signing up to send in their books. I joined last year by sending in a couple of my books, The Samson Effect. Other authors, with more name recognition than I have, also joined. Among them were R.A. Salvatore, Margaret Weis, Terry Goodkind and Eldon Thompson.

From a marketing standpoint, joining an organization like Dedicated To Our Defenders is a great way to get your book out to hungry readers while contributing to a noble cause. It gets your name and your website on the organizations web page as well. And you can read a previous blog entry of mine, Have Readers Loan Your Book Out For More Sales, to see how the power of a loaned book can actually increase your book sales.

Take a look at their website and if it looks like something you can get involved with, pay your dues of two books (or more) and help out soldiers by giving them some great books to read. (And if you are not an author, that's ok. You can send them a couple of copies of The Samson Effect as your dues payment).

Seriously, check them out and read their story. And keep your eyes open for other charitable ways you can use your book to help others. And here's another free tip: write up a short story about Dedicated To Our Defenders and contact your local media about them. You never know... it just may help you get your name into print.

Tony Eldridge

Vulnerable Writer Seeks Successful Promotions

Our guest writer today is Kat Smith, author of I'm Tall You're Not – So That Makes us Even and The Naked Author. She is a former model and host of a nationally syndicated radio morning show with ABC Radio Networks, Inc. She is currently a conference speaker and seminar leader. Kat is also a media consultant for authors. It is my pleasure today to invite her to be the inaugural guest writer for Marketing Tips for Authors.

***

New authors are very vulnerable. This industry is challenging and most of us find ourselves going in circles to find what works best in book marketing and promoting. I learned so much from publishing my first book and I am still learning with my fifth. With today's technology changes, naturally the publishing industry has changed too. The hard part of being an author is just beginning, but with the right match, it can be a loving experience.

Where to begin?

First, secure a few basics; Website or web presence of some kind (i.e. blog, page or social networking site, etc.), marketing materials (business cards, book marks, flyer, mail piece), patience, sticktoitiveness and an eye for marketing opportunities. Think out of the box.

There are many routes you can take to begin promoting and marketing yourself as a new author. You are expected to be an expert on your topic. After all, you are the authority on what you have written about. Whether you like it or not.

Carry your book with you everywhere you go. It is a great conversation piece and you may end up selling a few a day or referring sales to online sales sites or a bookstore near you. Offer a personalized autograph. The conversation may lead to referral sales and a loyal reader. Talk to people about your product. This is business. If you want to be successful with this new venture, you can't be shy about it.

Do more than a book event or signing. Develop yourself as a public speaker. Bring your book to life by adapting interesting speeches that inspire your audience and encourage sales. At first, you may not have the name recognition to charge fees, but you can sure build up to a sizeable side business speaking to groups who find you and/or your topic interesting. This is also a great venue to sell books. As an independent publisher or an author represented by a publishing house, you can negotiate book sales prior to or after your event. The only difference is if they buy them directly from you or your distributor or retailer. Quantify your time and expertise with the number of books you would like to sell. Discuss this with the group's representative and ask for their support. When you are a paid speaker, this may become routine negotiating.

Write an e-book and give it away. Internet marketing consists of three basic steps; 1) Build a list 2) Build a relationship with that list and 3) Market to that list. With value added information, an e-book is a great way to build an Internet marketing database. Create a seamless transition with either your topic or expertise to assist in developing your brand. Create a lead capture page that collects each prospects' contact information and an Opt In (agreement) to receive messages from you. Once you have their information, they will be allowed to download the e-book for free. Promote your freebie with groups, associations and organizations, friends, family and your social networking groups and watch your contacts grow.

Set aside some time to market and promote yourself and your product. Dedication can equal dollars if you invest some time.


Kat Smith is formerly morning show host for a syndicated radio show with ABC Radio Networks, Inc. and the author of The Naked Author – Exposing the Myths of Publishing (Also available at Amazon.com)

Branding Tips: Creating Favicons and Custom Error Pages

Today, we will talk about how to add favicons and custom error pages to your website. Both are popular branding techniques used by most businesses on the web and techniques you can use as a branding tool for you and your book. You can spend hundreds of dollars hiring someone to do these things for you, or you can do them yourself for free by reading and learning from this post. This week's free video marketing tip (the week of March 9th, 2009) also walks you through how to create favicons for your site. If you have not signed up for my free weekly video tips newsletter, you can do so here:

http://marketingtipsforauthors.com/videotips.html


Quick Definitions

Branding involves developing an identifiable element that people associate to you or your product. A logo (I.E., McDonald's Golden Arches) is probably the most common branding element. But a brand can be a voice (no one speaks like Barry White), a jingle (Subway's "Five Dollar Foot Long" song; K9 Advantix "Ain’t No Bugs on Me" song), a slogan ("Where's the beef?" "Flick my Bic", "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there")

But a brand can be you; your appearance, your clothing, your public persona, and even your book cover. To effectively use branding as a tool to help others identify with you, you want to think about everything you put out to the public. If you do not portray a consistent brand, then you are missing the power of this marketing tool. How valuable is it? Well, you can spend thousands on image consultants, logo designers, and media coaches. But a marketing expert can help coordinate all of these areas so that you portray an integrated, identifiable image that the public will grow to recognize as your or your book.

While you may not have thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousand to fully create and roll out a brand, you may be surprised at what you can do, even on a shoestring budget. What elements do you want people to associate with you every time they see anything about you? Perhaps your photo, book cover, color scheme, or a custom signature? Take your time thinking about it and once you decide, look for ways to include it in all of your on and offline communications. You want to use your brand to create an instant and automatic link to you or your book when someone experiences your brand.

A favicon (favorite icon) is one small branding tool that you can start using now. A favicon is that little 16 by 16 pixel picture that you see next to your URL on your browser. If you are reading this post on my Blogger page, you will see the famous Blogger "B" on the orange background next to the URL. AT&Ts home page has their blue and white ball. My new web site, Marketing Tips For Authors, has the white word "Tips" on a red background. Some even have a pic of a person, as does book marketing guru John Kremer's site, BookMarket.com. Incidentally, John will be a guest blogger on Marketing Tips For Authors in early April.

There are a number of ways to create and load these favicons onto your site. Here is a link that generated my favicon and gave me step by step instructions on how to upload my new favicon myself for free: Dynamic Drive.

A custom error page is another way to brand yourself on the net. You have seen them before. The dreaded 404 error page when you click on a broken link or mistype a URL into the browser. Again, most companies have their own custom error pages that keep the look and feel of their site. These error pages are also a great tool at keeping people on your site by offering navigation within your site and suggestions on how they can find the page they were initially searching for. To view my custom error page, click on this non-existent URL:

http://marketingtipsforauthors.com/beidwiedwoihdwc

You must have access to your website's server in order to create and upload the page. There are many different ways you can do this. I read the instructions on my Internet Service Provider's page to create my page. You will need to check with your service provider to see if you can create custom error pages for your site. Here are also a few articles that may help you.

1and1.com (My hosting company and the method I used): How to create custom Error Pages (They also have a cool favicon!)

Custom error pages using .htaccess

Creating Custom Error Pages

Favicons and custom error pages are just two of the many ways you can brand your image on the internet. With a little elbow grease, you can create both your favicon and your custom error pages yourself. And if you sign up for my free weekly Video Tips For Authors newsletter this week, you can watch the current video tip where I walk you through the process of adding a favicon today.

Tony Eldridge