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Future Self-Published blog entries will be available on my website charmbaker.com
Showing posts with label charm baker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charm baker. Show all posts

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Blog Posting: An Effective eBook Marketing Strategy

Blog posting can be a great way to tell the online community about your new ebook.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/283034


Blog posting should not be ruled out if you're looking for an effective way to help market your new ebook.  Only recently, I have learned first-hand how to gain more traffic and views to my newly published ebook:  "Shut Up and Write!".  While I was so busy trying to drive traffic from a series of YouTube videos, I almost didn't realize how my blog stats were suddenly increasing.  I can't give the credit to the videos themselves, because the video views amounted to almost none.  However,I was actually posting the transcripts from the videos in my blog every day, so in a way, the credit really does belong to the video series.

As a result of the added exposure, I've seen some actual pre-orders on my Smashwords book page for "Shut Up and Write".  Although the book won't officially be available to read until April 9, 2016, readers can purchase the book right now on Smashwords and also on Amazon.  

This is only my first time taking advantage of setting up pre-orders, unlike previous times in the past, when I created my other ebooks.  I decided that since the videos take up quite a bit of time to record and provide visual graphics, the time I spend on them could be better served.  For that reason, my former video series will kind of pick up right here.  My blog is as good a place as any, to tell people about my ebooks, both the new and the old ones.  With that in mind, notice what I've done recently with two of my former titles.

TOXIC FRIENDS - eBook

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/301710


My former relationship book:  "Toxic Friends and Other Friendships" now has a new subtitle.  Instead of calling it a Family & Relationship Guide, I'm calling it:  "A Candid Relationship Guide".  I decided that the second subtitle is more fitting, since the book revolves around friendships (both of the toxic and the genuine kind).  This thought provoking book about the true nature of friends is available at Smashwords and Amazon for only .99 cents.  Get this quick and easy read, and discover if you have toxic or genuine friends.

FRUITS AND VEGGIES - eBook

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/283034
Another one of my former ebooks was re-released recently with a different cover, and some additional content was added.  This simple little self-help guide offers lots of useful advice on the proper care of fruits and vegetables.  The book was one that I created early in my self-publishing career, after I realized the importance of writing article series.  While it is not one that I market very much, I notice that I still manage to get sales for the book because it deals with such a practical topic.  Since I've upgraded my account status to "Publisher" at Smashwords, I decided to attribute some of my non-writing related non-fiction titles to simply "Just Charm Publishing".  

This year's revision of Quick and Easy Ways to Protect Your Fruits and Veggies includes a little something extra.  At the back of the book, I've added 10 Fruit and Vegetable Smoothie Recipes.  Hopefully, this will give the book even more appeal, and cause readers to want to buy it.  Make sure you're doing the right thing to protect your fruits and veggies.

Please take some time to visit any of my author pages and find a good ebook to purchase.  Thanks in advance for your support.


Friday, March 25, 2016

eBook Sales: If Your Sales Are Low, Discover Some Reasons Why

New eBook Authors must be proactive when it comes to marketing strategies.



Are you a struggling new ebook author that is having little to no success with book sales?  If you are, you may need to take some more serious and drastic steps regarding your ebook marketing strategies.  I felt the same way recently, and that is why I started my 60 Day eBook Marketing Strategies Video Series.

Every day, I rush and worry about recording and posting another video to make available like I promised.  But while I work hard to keep my word and not look like a flake, I'm realizing more and more that this video series really and truly is just for me.  I mean, other ebook authors can listen and hopefully benefit from it too, but I'm recording it for me.  I'm basically conducting an experiment that can potentially help me improve and master my ebook publishing and marketing skills.  The more I involve myself in what I'm doing, the more I want to do, but the best part of it all is the fact that it's actually working!

I started out looking for ways to expose, advertise and promote my new ebook "Shut Up and Write!"  Now I'm finding myself taking concrete steps to help not only my newest publication, but all my previously published ebooks.  So if your sales are low and you're a frustrated ebook author, why not start following my video series and see if it can help.  You may actually discover some reasons why your own ebooks aren't selling and even develop some successful marketing strategies.

For now, feel free to enjoy the following transcript from today's entry to my video series.

 https://youtu.be/V1y92T_rt_A



VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Hello everyone,

This is Charm Baker and this video is for DAY 6 of my video series.  In fact, it’s actually day 8 and I’m a little behind in posting, but I promised to record 60 videos, in this series, plus the introduction, and darn it, that’s what I’m going to do.

So right now, I’ll fill you in on what I actually did on Day 6 so you’ll see why I’ve been too busy to post.  Then, I hurry and record the other two videos so I can be caught up tomorrow.  So without further ado, let me get into it.

Well, if you viewed DAY 5, you noticed that I was kind of bummed out by the events of the day, and even though I ended it by saying that I realized I still had a productive day, I still felt disappointed.  As a result, I wasn’t as focused on Shut Up and Write as I needed to be.  In fact, I was thinking more about my novel. 

Like I’ve already explained in previous videos, Shut Up and Write is my way of summing up the majority of my early years of online writing.  It’s packed with tons and tons of useful information to new online writers.  This is the kind of writing that I love because it’s what I know. 

But it was different with “Experimenting with Murder.  Writing my novel took me out of my comfort zone, and that’s why that’s the work that I’m most proud of, if for no other reason but that.  Since that’s the case, there’s no way that I can allow all the time, effort and hard work I put into writing it to go to waste.    So on Day 6, I spent the day taking a good hard, long look at the book.  In a moment, you can look at the screen and notice what all I did to the book, right after I tell you a little about this novel.

A brief discussion followed, directing viewers to the website where more book details can be found.

http://charmbaker.com/novelinspiration.htm


 Take a moment if you want to read about the characters from Experimenting With Murder

http://charmbaker.com/novelvisual.htm


 You can also click the image and get details on the beautiful island setting of Experimenting With Murder


http://charmbaker.com/novelvisual2.htm


The following show the activities performed on DAY 6, in behalf of the novel:  Experimenting With Murder (Available now – exclusively at Amazon)







If you've been experiencing problems with marketing and selling your ebooks, perhaps some of the same issues could be the reason for low sales.  The only way you'll know is if you go and check it out.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

eBook Marketing: Promoting One eBook Effectively Can Benefit Your Other eBook Titles

eBook marketing and publishing issues are all connected, just like the related activities.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2dwPle5YQSg

The number of marketing activities for Day 5 of the this series turned out to be far less than I originally planned, but the day still turned out to be productive.

This was the day that I came to realize how very important this video series is to me, and not in just one specific way.  So far, since starting this series, I've begun to take a  nice hard look at all of my current self-published titles.  After being far removed from the writing of those books for several years, it is much easier to be more objective about things.  While I don't believe there are flaws in the actual writing, I'm wondering if maybe my novel may need to be reassembled.  I've had an idea in mind for a while, and this video series has got me thinking seriously about following through on it.

I'll definitely keep the blog up-to-date with this particular idea, as well as any other thoughts related to the previously published ebooks.  I'm hoping to make some modifications that will prove to be effective, and I don't think it will take that long.  Until then, here is a brief rundown on my Day 5 ebook marketing activities. 

eBook Marketing Strategies 
video series. TRANSCRIPT Summary

Greetings YouTube followers and viewers.  This is Day 5 of the eBook Marketing Strategies video series.

Even though this is Day 5, I’m actually posting the video a day late.  I got behind yesterday because I was busy creating another video about problems with self-publishing your ebooks

The video took all day to script and record – the wifi was in and out, and I checked the stats on my blog, videos and website but there were no significant changes.  At first I felt disgusted because I had planned a full day of marketing activities and all I did was create an off topic video that I didn’t even get a chance to post.  Then later that night, as I gave it a lot of thought, I realized that the video about ebook publishing problems is just as important as the ebook marketing series.  Not only are they inter-related, but if it weren’t for the video marketing series, I would not have realized what the flaws were with my ebooks.

I told myself to stop worrying about posting my video on schedule for my “imagined” video viewers.  This series is for me to have a check and balance system in place and so I can improve my ebook marketing skills – for all my books!

Now, my main objective is to actually perform some type of marketing activities every day, and not worry so much about giving a blow by blow in the video.  The important thing is that I keep up with what I’m doing and why.  Sharing the details is just an insignificant part of the process.

I have tons of marketing activities scheduled for the week, including popping over to the Scrawl website and taking the required action so I can submit a book excerpt.

At the end of the day, the most important thing that I can do in this video series is to report not just my activities, but how I feel about what I’m doing.  This kind of constructive venting will help me to stay committed to posting on a regular basis. 

As always – you can find a summary, if not the full transcript of today’s video on my blog.  Feel free to visit the website and join my email if you want to get in on any of the ebook specials I’m currently running.

Be sure to visit me on SOCIAL MEDIA and wherever you see the name Charm Baker or Shut Up and Write!

Until tomorrow
Thanks for listening