Digital marketing

Web, mobile, social and beyond—here’s how to connect with your audience in the digital age.

28

Feb'18

Create a Successful Author Blog

I’ve made some spectacular blunders in my blogging career. But since we learn from our mistakes, I’ve got a boatload of information now.

As Ruth and I say: “We made the mistakes so you don’t have to.”

The worst decision I made was trying to turn this blog into a monetized business blog. That lasted about six months—until my doctor said I was going to have to choose between blogging and living to see my next birthday.

This is the second anniversary of the beginning of that failed experiment, and I’ve been thinking over what I’ve learned.

My biggest mistake was that I didn’t see that an author blog has a different purpose and goal from a business blog. Author blogs aren’t about making money directly with ads or sales.

Instead, they provide a platform for your writing and a way to communicate with readers and fellow writers. An excellent one. In fact, a blog is still the best platform-building tool for authors, according to agent Laurie McLean of Fuse Literary.

The money comes later when we sell our books. The mechanics of those sales are best left to retailers like Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, etc. unless you have a huge franchise with twenty or more titles to sell, as well as mugs, t-shirts, etc.

Does that mean we’re giving away our work for free when we write for a non-monetized blog?

Yes.

But. ...

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27

Dec'17

Get More From Social Media

It’s the end of the year, so why not take a little downtime (haha, what’s that) and clean up your author bios and social media accounts? Is it worth the time? Well, let me put it this way: don’t you want to connect with readers, aka people who will buy your book? Additionally, clean up time is a great way to update old links, outdated graphics, and any other information you need to be on top of for ultimate SEO and exposure.

As we’ve discussed in the past, many writers follow only other writers and then complain at the amount of “Buy my book!” spam they receive. To stop that from happening, unfollow all but the writers you interact with regularly.

What about Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram and LinkedIn? Your Amazon Author Central Page and Website About Page? We’ll cover those, too. Let’s get started. ...

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13

Dec'17

Get Blog Post Clicks [Infographic}

Blogging is a great way to build a readership and to connect with other writers and readers. But sometimes blogging feels like speaking into the void. If there are cobwebs on the comments section of your blog, check out these great templates from Raelyn Tan so you can start writing catchy, clickable blog headlines. ...

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11

Jan'17

Writing the Perfect Headline [infographic]

Whether your writing a blog post, an email subject, or a freelance piece, your headline is your first point of contact with readers. The headline is your chance to say, “Hey, this is interesting. This has merit. And this is something you need to read!”

That’s a lot of pressure on a few simple words. Thankfully, Squirrly created this infographic to simplify things and help you write attention-grabbing headlines. ...

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18

Sep'15

Now You Can Hide that Little Blue SumoMe Button on Your Website—for Free

Rejoice, SumoMe users; you asked for it, and it’s finally here! That dingleberry dangling from the edge of every page …

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26

Mar'15

Want to increase your online conversions? There’s a formula for that!

Do you want to move more books, increase your website traffic, gain more email subscribers, generate more leads, or sell …

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