Blog Posting: An Effective eBook Marketing Strategy

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

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

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

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.

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.

 

eBook Marketing Strategies DAY 6

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.

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

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

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.

eBook Marketing Strategies: Video Series Finally Publishes Day 1

eBook marketing strategies can be tedious to keep performing, but the key is to do them consistently

Now that the eBook Marketing Strategies Introduction video has been published, I decided to go ahead and post both the Day 1 and Day 2 videos also.  Although I got behind on posting the information within the first week of the video series, I was still conducting various marketing activities.

As you'll see from the next two videos, I've been dealing with the challenge of setting up the series in a way that it won't interfere with the actual focus of the video, which is marketing.  After you read or listen all the way up to Day 2, you'll comprehend exactly what the time frame is all about and where I am on it.

This particular video discusses setting up the series and outlining a few marketing resources I plan to try, in addition to a brief summary of other activities performed.  Enjoy this next installment of my eBook Marketing Strategies video series.

eBook Marketing Strategies:  A 60 Day Progress and 

Troubleshooting Journal (Video Series - DAY 1)

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey everybody,

This is Charm Baker again.  I’m ready to start talking about the various e-book marketing strategies and activities that I’m involved in.  As you know by now, I recently published one of the best writing resources that new writers can find online.  The title is:  Shut Up and Write!  (Step-by-Step Guide How to Get Paid to Write Within a Week). 

I’m not going to go into a long drawn out thing in this particular video about who I am or why I started this marketing series.  If you want to get all those details, just stop this video and check out my “Introductory” video for eBook Marketing Strategies. 

A NEW APPROACH

For those of you who have already viewed the introduction.  Stay put so you can see just what I’ve been doing to market my e-book so far.

First of all, I decided to take a different approach to e-book marketing this time around.  As they say, this is not my first rodeo when it comes to self-publishing.  I published several non-fiction books in the past, plus a full length novel in 2014.  But even though I picked up some valuable strategies along the way, I’m still missing some important elements that have to do with your e-book success. 

So this time, before my newest title is even released, I’ve already started marketing and promoting it.  The actual book release date for “Shut Up and Write!” is not until April 9, 2016.  I did this because of the information I read on Smashwords’ about setting up “pre-orders” at least a month in advance. 

BENEFITS OF PRE-ORDERS

Smashwords.com is where I set up and publish all my e-books.  I go there because I really like their user-friendly platform, plus I’m used to navigating the website by now.

So I read all the details about pre-orders, even before I completed writing my book.  The good thing about the way they do pre-orders at Smashwords is the fact that you don’t have to upload the manuscript when you first submit the title.  You don’t even have to have the book’s cover yet.  All you need to provide is the title and description of the book, and a tentative word length and release date.  That way they can still list the title and necessary metadata in their marketplace.

You also have to agree in advance to submit the book file no later than 10 days prior to the book’s release.  If you end up having to push the initial date back for some reason, you can always go in and change the release date before the 10 day deadline.

PAST ACTIVITIES

So the first week in March, I submitted the book title and cover to Smashwords, then I was provided with a book link to the pre-order page.  Since then, I’ve been doing some promoting and early marketing, trying to announce the books April release date.

The first thing I did was write a blog post announcing the book on my Just Charm blog.  Then I wrote and published a Press Release on Prlog.com doing the same thing, only in a more business and news-like manner.  I’ve been taking advantage of using press releases as a free marketing tool for a long time.  This is also one of the effective article marketing resources that I talk about using in Shut Up and Write.  In the e-book, I list a bunch of other free press release distribution sites that I think I’ll start using this week.

Anyway, after I took a little time to create a detailed introduction video to the book, I provided the video link in several social media posts.  I posted to Google+, Twitter and Tumblr.  I even posted the links on the RedGage bookmarking website.  This is another good place to help start driving traffic, simply for the bookmarking opportunities. 

For those of you who may be wondering, NO – I did not directly post anything to my Facebook page, but I rarely, if ever, use this resource.  I know I’m probably missing out on a lot of benefits because of this, but I honestly find Facebook to be too busy and distracting from whatever I’m trying to do.  I can barely navigate the site comfortably so for now, I just shy away from it. 

Just recently, I learned how to set things up so my Facebook page can automatically get regular updates when I make a blog post, a tweet, or a Tumblr post.  Before to today, I never really cared about doing bothering to do it, but now, I definitely recognize the benefits.  That is one of the first things on my agenda for tomorrow so I’ll tell you about it then. 

FIRST MARKETING ACTIVITIES

Today, after I spent time putting together the introduction to this video marketing series, I went over to Fiverr.com and combed through their marketplace.  I decided on several social media marketing gigs to order.  

NOTE:  I actually had some kind of glitch with the shopping cart, so I got frustrated and put that task on hold for the time being.

OTHER MARKETING ACTIVITIES

The other marketing related activities that I performed today are directly connected to this video series.  Since this is the beginning of this 60 day marketing series, I wanted to create a uniform structure of how my video diary will be set up.

Each video will pick up where the last one left off, and jump right into discussing the latest marketing activities.  That means that very little (if any) re-capping will be done of the previous videos.  Most of the videos will contain at least a few note cards with bulleted details.

This is so that anyone watching can start compiling all the necessary marketing information they need, in order to improve and increase their sales.  So if you have a great book to suggest on the subject, even if it happens to be your own, feel free to let me know about it in the comments, or even in an email.  

CONCLUSION

Once again, I invite you to continue following this video series so you can discover how to increase your new e-book sales, or figure out what you’ve been doing wrong.  As always, if you miss anything or you would rather be able to READ the information contained in the video, simply pop over to my blog and read the latest post for the day. 

One other thing I want to mention before I go is a reminder about “Shut Up and Write!”  Even though this book was created for new online writers, don’t think that you can’t benefit from it because you’re a published author.  If you still rely on article writing or other writing related income, you’ll be surprised at some of the profitable resources you find in the book.

So take a few minutes to pop over to my Charm Baker Smashwords Profile page and peek at the contents of this book.  I know for a fact that you’ll find the $4.99 price tag worth every penny.

 

THANKS FOR LISTENING.