Blogging, Writing, and Publishing

Market Your Way-More and more publishing companies rely on the author to market books. Just look at the latest book covers and see which is larger the author's name or the book title? It's the author who sells books. As a niche professional, you have a built in market and your efforts can easily reach them. You know what works, so go to it. Many people are put off by marketing as I was when I first began. When a niche author serving in an industry with peer-customers, the last thing you want to do is bombard them with sales. Your role is the be the expert and provide answers. Cold calling is also not necessarily the answer in niche marketing. If you've developed a blog, newsletter or social media following, then you have your customer database. Your marketing efforts flow as you provide advice and answers to those following your posts, comments and articles. Many authors teach, speak, volunteer or are otherwise active in their professions. It's hard to remain o...

Writing a book isn’t easy and shouldn’t be something an author rushes through, no matter what pop publishing culture tells us. What goes on paper is a result of tireless effort. Depending on your motivation and personality, it may seem easier to put together a course or write an article or two for a newsletter, blog, or other publication. Here are four proven ways to help you write and publish in a specialized market and establish yourself as a niche expert. 1.  Writing takes time Writing a book-length manuscript is difficult, but we make it look easy. Despite advice given in self-publishing books, writing is a commitment. It takes time, devotion, and some solitude, much of which a full time professional does not have in abundance. This endeavor is not a sprint, but an endurance race. The difficulty of formatting a book may not be as tough as setting aside time and committing to writing words on paper. 1.  As an author/publisher, you have already identified niches that...

When websites, blogs and social media are set up correctly, niche authors can check marketing stats regularly and adjust techniques based on the data. That's because on line marketing venues provide traffic reports detailing the amount and type of visitors during a selected time frame. These statistics can help determine which articles or blog posts were more effective, where the visitors came from and how long they stayed. This information is very helpful to also determining the best keywords to use to drive traffic to your blogs. One way to get feed back on website and blog efforts is to track page visits with Google Analytics as outlined  in Chapter 7 of Get Rich in a Niche . Research results often and adjust your marketing efforts according to the best reports. Many social media, article and blog hosts including Facebook and ezinearticles.com  provide monthly reporting providing valuable information. Be sure to sign up for this service and check the facts often. ...

Writing a book isn’t easy and shouldn’t be something an author rushes through, no matter what pop publishing culture tells us. What goes on paper is a result of tireless effort. Depending on your motivation and personality, it may seem easier to put together a course or write an article or two for a newsletter, blog or other publication. Here are four proven ways to help you write and publish in a specialized market and establish yourself as a niche expert. 1.   Writing takes time Writing a book length manuscript is difficult; but we make it look easy. Despite advice given in self-publishing books, writing is a commitment. It takes time, devotion and some solitude; much of which a full time professional does not have a lot of to begin with. This endeavor is not a sprint, but an endurance race. The difficulty of formatting a book may not be as tough as setting aside time and committing to writing words on paper. As an author/publisher, you have already identified niches...

Which works better, paid advertising or free internet opportunities? I still think (and have the numbers to back it up) that informative and attractive blogs provide the best marketing for your book. After all, you are the expert on your book and who else better to talk about your book than you. I recently ran an experiment with LinkedIn and Facebook. If you’ve read Get Rich in a Niche , you might remember that I loathe advertising. Against my better judgment I reluctantly decided to once again pay to advertise my books and publishing company. Using Facebook, I created four ads; three for books and one for Red Bike Publishing. Each ad is a pay per click ad and I set my limit to $10.00 a day. I gave each ad a max of a $100 limit before pausing it. I also limited my ads’ exposure to demographics likely to buy my book. For example, for my security clearance books, I set the ads to be visible for 22-55 years old and/or small business owners and/or professionals with technical backg...

World class marketing can be easily executed by self publishers and authors. It is one thing to be good at writing, know the self publishing industry and capable of getting books to market. It’s quite another to become recognized as a leader in your niche industry, recruit assistance within industry and become recognized for the good work. In the second example, your efforts perpetuate themselves as you earn trust; others become force multipliers and quickly engage and support your vision. One way to ensure such success is to cross product market. One way to do that is through professional branding. Of itself branding is not the answer to instant success, but does complete the picture. For example, there are many authors who are very influential and well respected; their work stands alone. Cross product marketing for them would continue to demonstrate their dedication to their industry, technical competence and leadership. When you achieve a recognizable brand, such that your...

You can find suppliers on the internet to fit almost every need and Google is a great search resource. This will help you find a vendor who provides resources to a broad customer base. Once you find a capable vendor, you can design the product specifically for your niche base. Remember that you are creating a product to sell and not a publicity gimmick or marketing campaign. For example, I use a vendor to make magnets. Since the magnets are an industry "best practice item", I can address needs of a  built in niche market. I am not providing magnets for a campaign or featuring Red Bike Publishing’s logo for give away items or door prizes. Those ideas are expensive and are marketing efforts for those with big budgets. To find a supplier, search by key word. For example, to find someone to make magnets, I enter, “magnet, signs, two sided magnet”. After selecting search, you will find many of the available providers. Compare t...

Does your specialized market have written guidance or requirements such as state or federal regulations, policy or procedures or any other publication of rules? If so, you might be onto something. So, you've got backing at a certain level requiring an action by your audience. You can piggy back on these necessities to bring a compelling need for your market to "act now". 1. Research the most significant points of the regulations, policies or procedures. Write them in bullet form so you can easily put them to use. Don't try word for word, most regulatory language is just too lengthy to work with. You just want to skeleton to build your body around. For example, a regulation states that sensitive government information is to be stored in an approved save (this is a paraphrase). 2.Search for implied opportunities. Regulations spell out requirements, but there are also some soft guidance or other opportunities as well. In my experience, people seem to work under best ...

Blogs are another way to connect with your customer. However, they are harder to maintain because more regular input is required. Think of a blog as a diary or journal type of entry. More input and shorter articles are better so save the longer messages for newsletters and your book. For simplicity and efficiency, consider having multiple media social networks. For example use newsletters, blogs and books to feed similar content and material. You can get your own blog by setting up an account with www.blogspot.com, www.wordpress.com or any other provider that fits your needs. I run two blogs using wordpress. com and blogspot.com. I like the features of wordpress.com because you can make it look like a website and add as many pages as I need. I like BlogSpot because I can customize the blog to look more like my current website. Both are very popular with great looking pages. When you start your blog, be sure to include as much i...

While preparing to go on vacation I was concerned about how to handle my publishing and book selling business. Sure, I'm online and so are my book sales, but I will still have to advertise and fulfill sales while gone. I can't afford to hang a sign on my website saying, "Gone fishing, be back in two weeks". I don't think potential customers would understand. I don't think you can afford to do so either. So, what is a niche publisher to do? Use the tools available. Here are some tools that every niche publisher and author should have. They are affordable and will help returning customers build confidence in your products and services. First and foremost, make your primary point of sale at digital bookstores such as Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. That way when customers buy, you are not in the middle of the sale. I use LightningSource.com and Createspace.com to upload digital and hardcopy books to myriad online stores. Once I set up titles, I don't h...

There are already a few strikes against paying to advertise your book through an email campaign to libraries and bookstores. The first is that books are distributed through a process that self-published and print on demands are excluded from. Librarians and bookstores receive a book’s information from the Library of Congress and distributors. If your book is not in the CIP process as described in Get Rich in a Niche , chances are great that it will not be picked up by librarians and traditional books stores. Others take advantage of your hopes and dreams by claiming to have connections and inroads with major buyers. In fact, they collect your money, add your book information to a database with several hundred others and email it to their points of contact. The points of contact may not even be a result of a personal relationship, but simply a collection of email addresses. You then are tied to the hope that somehow the recipient of t...

Book sales happen when the book is a good product, you have a sound strategy, a detailed plan and a point of sale. You may even have developed successful spin-off products. So what else can you do to capitalize on this momentum? Why not another book and more spin off products? The opportunities for success may continue to manifest and you may find yourself ready to quit your day job. Some remarkable experiences may come up that provide new ideas for you to grow as a professional and offer additional messages to your customers and potential new customers. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to maintain newly created momentum from your writing and marketing? 1. Remain open to new ideas, but stay focused on reality. Several people have contacted me about other great opportunities. One offered a great salary to join his organization part time. I was flattered, but it required travel and would take me away from what I love doing. 2. Keep focused on your core competencies, abilities and go...

You may remember an earlier post describing why and how you might create a Facebook page for each of your books or products. Using my publishing company as an example,   I created a page for my company, each of my books and a group that hosts a professional certification. Did you know that you can log into your individual pages and use make comments and “like” other comments as that entity? Here’s an example: I have a Facebook Page called 80s Movie Reviews . To generate interest with other people who enjoy the 80’s genre, I searched Facebook with the keywords: “80’s, 80s, 80s music”, and etc.   Once I find those pages I make comments on their wall and “like” them using my 80’s Movie Reviews profile. Here’s how you do it. Select your page. On the right hand column toward the top is “Use Facebook as _”Your pages name”__ page”. Once you make the selection, any comments, shares, likes and etc will be attributed to your page and not your regular profile. Instead of people seeing “J...

Experience, commitment and practice are the best qualities to prepare the professional for the necessity of good old fashion networking. Networking is especially necessary in industries like publishing where customers, colleagues and co-workers value trust and quality. A career in writing and publishing and challenging enough, especially in a specialized area or niche. The work is important, and readers count on the niche publisher to provide needed books and training. The publishing and writing professional requires a high degree of interaction as paths cross in collaboration or through online sales. Online sales require time to develop trusting working relationships and getting to know important connections in a timely manner is important. So, how do we accelerate this networking curve? 1. Foster relationships online and in social networks. Get to know customers, fellow publishers and business unit managers related to your expertise. Develop trusting relationships that allo...