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Future Self-Published blog entries will be available on my website charmbaker.com

Monday, March 21, 2016

eBook Marketing: Don't Let Setbacks in Your Routine Get You Down

Marketing activities can benefit you in more than one way.

https://youtu.be/IfLMn42LlZo



Day 4 of the eBook Marketing Strategies video series got off to a good start in the earlier part of the day, but unfortunately, after a full am writing session, I experienced a minor setback.  But as you’ll see from the following information, all was not lost and I ended up finding an awesome writing resource.  Check it out in today’s transcript.

TRANSCRIPT:


Greetings YouTube viewers,

It’s Charm Baker, and today is DAY 4 of the eBook Marketing Strategies video series.  Today I jumped right into my regular daily activities, so I want to touch on what those are.  First, I took a peek at my Hub article that I posted yesterday, just in case there were any comments to respond to.  In the past, I would wait too long to return and do this, and find that several people had left comments and questions, but by then, it was too late to respond.  So I made a note to check my hub comments, and later on, I’ll even post a few myself.

Of course another one of the first activities I decided to do in the morning is to check my email religiously.  I did that today, in hopes of some responses to my discount coupon offers.  So far, nothing yet, so I guess I need to start pushing the coupon offer more. 

Anyway, after I didn’t receive any related mail, I clicked over and signed into my Google Analytics account.  I’m not really all that savvy when it comes to reading the reports, but I AM able to tell if I’m getting any kind of traffic at all to my website, and sort of determine where the traffic is coming from.  My website was only launched this year and I thus far, I haven’t really developed any kind of consistency to adding content, so my visitors are scarce.  But according to the analytics, at least I am getting a few daily visitors, so I need to do something to bump that up.

I do know that one good way to bump up your website traffic is through regular posting on your blog.  In the past, that has been one of my main obstacles to blogging – I just can’t seem to stay consistent.  If you’re like me, and you have that problem also, maybe you can use this video series to help you work on it. 

Since I’m posting the transcripts from the video to my blog, that means that I’ve committed to posting consistently for the next two months.  So maybe you might want to do the same thing, by following the video series daily, and posting any new information you might pick up along the way.  Of course, while you’re at it, I’d love a plug about my new ebook:  Shut Up and Write! as well as any of my other publications available at Smashwords.com.

While we’re on the subject of Smashwords, I want to mention another thing that I added to my “To Do” list for later in the week.  Since I opted out of having Smashwords distribute my new ebook to Amazon, that means I have to publish it on Amazon Kindle separately.  But here’s the thing you future authors need to keep in mind when you have a full length novel or non-fiction book that is eligible for print format.  It’s best to set up the print version first to make sure that your book cover will be the same as your Kindle cover.  On my novel:  “Experimenting with Murder,”I made the mistake of trying to format a cover at Createspace for the print version, after I had already published the ebook with a great looking cover.  It turned out to be a nightmare, and I finally had to enlist the help of my know-it-all son.

Createspace is one of the more popular free publishing formats for your self-published print books.  The upload process for your digital covers at Smashwords is much easier than creating one or uploading a book cover file to Createspace. Since Amazon and Createspace are joined, if you do your print book first, they will actually generate an ebook version and send it to Amazon for distribution. 

Okay, so I posted a note to myself to be sure and upload a file for a print version and I think I’ll let the book release date stay the same for Amazon and Createspace.  Amazon has a different policy when it comes to pre-releases, so I didn’t bother with it, but maybe I’ll try it for my next project. 

Several days ago, I came across some information about creating an author guest post about yourself and your ebook.  Somehow, I seemed to have save everything but the link to where to submit the post.  I can’t even remember for sure if it was on the Writer’s Digest website or Goodreads.  That same day I saw the information, I had been browsing both sites, one of which I was already signed up for.  Well today, after I spent the majority of the day writing the guest post according to the questions they supplied, I ended up not even being able to submit it.

Now if you’re anything like me, this is the kind of thing that could potentially make me have a setback.  After I spent about twenty minutes bouncing between the two sites looking for the link, I finally gave up.  So I currently have this awesome guest post with nowhere to post it.  I was really ticked off at myself and about to give up in defeat and stop working for the day.  But then I decided to view at least one writing related video before shutting down.  I came across one called:  “How I Wrote My First Book Self-Publishing Tips” I was curious about what the author had to say, so I checked it out.  As a result, I discovered an awesome website for authors called Scrawl.  You can visit my blog for a transcript of today’s video and you’ll see the link included.

I think that the Scrawl website might be just the thing that I need to try and get some feedback on my writing – not just “Shut Up and Write”, but for my novel:  “Experimenting With Murder.”  I’ve already did a little browsing to see what they have to offer, but tomorrow I’ll actually sign up and upload an excerpt from one or more books. 

That pretty much wraps up what activities I’ve been up to today, aside from the fact that I tried to check my mailbox at Fiverr.com to see if the provider completed my gig.  I selected someone who’s supposed to help get one of my promotional links out on social media.  Even if the $5 gig purchase helps drive just a little traffic, I think it’s worth it.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to log into Fiverr today due to yet another glitch.  I honestly don’t know what’s going on with Fiverr.com the past week or so.  Yesterday I solved the problem I was having with purchasing gigs with my debit card by simply funding my PayPal account and using it instead.  The payment went through fine, and I sent the requested details to the gig provider.  Now, today, I can’t even log in to check the results. 

As you can see, I’ve had a few minor setbacks today.  Even my blog page views went from 89 views yesterday to just 8 views today.  At least sharing my results in this video somehow, it makes it all not seem so bad. 

Okay, as always, I invite you to check out my website and feel free to click the Join List link if you’d like a discount ebook or any of my free promotions.

All you need to provide on the simple little form is your email address and choose one of the promotions I’m offering.  Then I’ll send you the coupon code and you can redeem it at Smashwords where my books are published.  Since my novel is currently exclusive to Amazon/Kindle, “Experimenting With Murder” is not part of the promotion.  Of course, if anyone is interested in a copy, just drop me an email and I’ll work something out for you.

Don’t forget, you can always follow me on social media so be sure to drop me a comment when you see the name Charm Baker.  If you want to specifically tweet a comment on this video series or my new ebook, just hashtag #shutupandwrite and I’ll be very appreciative.

Okay, that’s it folks.  Once again, thanks for listening everyone.  This is Charm Baker on the Just Charm YouTube channel.  Thanks for joining this eBook Marketing Strategies video series.

Talk to you tomorrow.


Scrawl website Link:

“How I Wrote My First Book Self-Publishing Tips” Video Link:


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