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 Marketing Strategies - Getting the Video Series on Track

Daily marketing activities are easier to keep up with than to catch up to doing!

This is the third video transcript of my new video series, and although it is labeled as Day 2, it actually covers several days.  As the following information will bring out, I am finally getting this series on track.  It was a little shaky getting started.  But now that I'm caught up on posting the first few videos, along with the blog post transcripts, it should be a lot easier to keep up with things.  The last thing I want to do with this 60 day marketing experiment is to miss the whole point.  My focus needs to be on the actual marketing activities that I perform each day, NOT on spending time creating the videos.

For anyone who is just tuning in to this blog or the YouTube video series, please be sure to visit the following links and you can get up to speed.

VIDEO SERIES INTRODUCTION

eBook Marketing Strategies Introduction

VIDEO SERIES DAY 1

https://youtu.be/AaAHu1pqgH4

VIDEO SERIES DAY 2

https://youtu.be/Zny-37U9AYo

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

eBook Marketing Strategies (Video Series - DAY 2)

Since this is Day 2 of the 60 day video series, I assume everyone viewing has already listened to the Introduction video and also Day 1.  If not, I suggest you view both those videos if you plan to follow the series for the duration.  You should also check out the video Intro. to the ebook I’m trying to market so you’ll have a point of reference when I refer to something in it during this video series.  The ebook was created for new writers who need quick writing related income, but there  are some points that even new authors can benefit from.  Anyway, I’m not going to spend any more time on that, because those three videos say it all.

So let me jump right in to what I’ve been doing since the last video.

I want to explain something real quick about how the days are numbered.  I call this a 60 day series, because the series will consist of 60 different videos, summarizing my activities and results.  But so far, if you do the math, you’ll see that things are a bit off.  The book’s release date is April 9^th of this year.  I had planned to monitor the first 30 days before the release date, and the first 30 days after the release.  So my first day of this video series should have been on March 10th because March has 31 days in the month, and the last video should be on May 8^th instead of the 9^th.

Based on those figures, I should already be on Day 9 of the video series!  What happened was, I’ve been too busy getting caught up in how to format this series and make the content look interesting to view, as well as listen to.  The only problem is, it’s very time consuming trying to create nice visuals to read or look at, plus line them up with the audio.  I’d much rather be able to concentrate and focus on the main objective – discussing my ebook marketing activities.    

I decided that from this video onward, I plan to save all the commercials and anything else that I need to show you until the end.  Then, I’ll roll the credits and provide a quick text summary and all other information.   

So let me bring you up to speed on what I’ve actually been doing up until today, then I’ll still make the next video Day 3.  That will push the 60 day mark to May 17^th and no matter what, I plan to stay on track.  

*** The video concluded after a list of the following activities was briefly touched on ***

• Created a Smashwords 50% discount coupon for the "Shut Up and Write!" ebook and also coupons for free ebooks as a promotional lure. 

• Created a simple email signup form at Wufoo.com in order to capture emails of potential customers for future book sales.

• Created visual help aids and cheat sheets (such as keyword lists, names of resource websites, hashtag ideas for Twitter, etc...) and printed them out for posting around my work space.

• Set up social media accounts so automated shared posts will be generated after every tweet. Be sure to view the following video and read the related post about the IFTTT.com website 
  
  
  IFTTT Related Blog Post
  http://bit.ly/1VhH3pP
  
  
  IFTTT Related Video - PART 1
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZttSTpHRZ20)

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.