For more on self publishing visit www.unibook.com.

While having your own Web site is beneficial, it will serve no purpose sitting idly in cyber space. The goal with your Web site is to increase its presence in search engine results, which are operated off of keywords. Keywords are common terms typed by Internet users into the search engine, inevitably drawing results in the form of various Web sites. The use of basic Search Engine Optimizaiton (SEO) will help your site to rank well for your top tier keywords.  The goal of SEO is to make your site the most relevant on the entire Web for your keywords.
Techniques like:

• Optimize the Title tag on all pages of your site. Be sure to try to use the same keywords in the Title tag that are used on that page
• Optimize Content. Be sure to use your most relevant keywords throughout the body of each page. Try sticking with 2 or 3 keywords per page so as not to dilute the effectiveness of each.
• Create links back to your site from other relevant sites
• Create a targeted call to action in your meta description. This text is what will be displayed in the search engine results.

Services are available to increase your site’s presence on the World Wide Web, but most require money or other resources in order to participate.

“You can put your entire manuscript on Google Books,” Coers said. “You upload it to be put into the search results. Whenever people click on your title, it shows an excerpt of the book and a link to where you can buy it. The only issue with Google Books is that you must have
an ISBN number to use it.”

Instead, Coers suggests probing your site in as many ways possible. Services such as Google Books are extremely useful, but nothing works as well as the good, old-fashioned self-promotion discussed earlier in this blog. The key is to utilize as many avenues as possible in order
to get your name out there.

“By creating the blogs and other tools we discussed, your website is going to get scanned anyways,” he said. “Getting as many sites to link to yours is the best way to expose yourself.”

Visit wwaow.com for more information about self publishing books.

Having your own presence on the web is almost required nowadays.  Let’s just say, for example, that you self publish your  book and it becomes a best seller, or at least hits high circulation in your region. Rest assured your name will be “Googled” from time to time. And if an author search on you reaps little to no results, your credibility could very well be shot.

The good news is that hosting your own website is easier and cheaper than you may think! Run an online search for ”free web hosting”, and you will find a variety of services that will enable you to create your own Web site (with
limited perks, of course). Most free services, however, will not offer you your own URL (Uniform Resource Locator), which is more commonly known as the Internet address inserted into a Web browser in the format “http://www.wwaow.com.”  But for a small monthly fee (usually no
more than $15), you can have www.yourname.com in no time!

You also have the option of getting a Web site professionally designed, but be prepared to pay substantially more. Exactly how much you would pay would depend of a variety of factors, including the number of Web pages
on your site (pages which link to different content within your site), if you wish to sell products directly from your site, and the extent of the graphics your site includes.  If you plan on reserving your own URL, that also will add to the cost. Shop around if you want to go the professional route, and find the price that suits your needs best. Websites are useful for many reasons. As mentioned above, your name’s ability to pop up in search results means you’re “somebody” in this electronic day-and-age. In addition, your site also serves as sort of a common ground between you and your audience, especially when you’re an independent publisher doing your own marketing. You can include links to purchase your self published book, an author bio, contact information for yourself, and even a guestbook where visitors to your site can leave comments.

You can learn more about self publishing books at www.wwaow.com.

You might have thought of press releases as a tool used solely by marketing and public relations firms, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Anyone with news to tell and the money to tell it with can write a press release and submit
it to the media. According to Matt Coers, composing and sending a press release is a must-do for any published author, famous or not.

“In my opinion, whenever anyone publishes a book, they need to issue a press release, and it’s easier than it sounds,” he said.

In short, a press release is a written piece directed to the media announcing news. As a writer, you may feel tempted to embellish your press release with long, drawn-out details, but avoid the temptation to do so. A good press release contains the basics about your news, as well as contact information for any media interested in more information (or even an interview!) Overly-embellished press releases are often viewed as time consuming to read by the media, and tend to end up in the garbage can. When putting your together, think “straight and to the-point.”

After your release is finished, the next step is to submit it to the masses. This can be done directly by you or through a wire. We will cover the latter soon, but for now, let’s focus on how you can be proactive in submitting a release. Believe it or not, the most valuable outlet for your news can be right in your own backyard.

As a newly-self published author, local media may take a particular interest in your achievement, so take it upon yourself to personally submit your press release to them. Weekly, monthly, or even bi-monthly publications lack the constant deadline pressure of a daily newspaper, so the news of a published author “from their hometown” could very well qualify for a human interest or feature story. Prior to sending anything out, telephone the receiving publications and ask which format they prefer their press releases in (email or regular mail), as well as the name and title of who you should address them to. It may also be a nice gesture to include a complimentary copy of your book for the reviewer to keep. Research the Internet for media outlets in your city and state and send away!

When saturating the news media is your objective, you may have to go a step further than the do-it-yourself route. If this is the case, then another option for submitting your press release is to send it out via a wire. A variety of services are available that will do this for you, however be prepared to pay anywhere from $200 to $600. No matter the cost, their reach is vast, and according to Coers, if you can afford a wire service, it is well worth the money.

“There are services that will submit your release to the wire for a fee,” he said. “PR Newswire.com and BusinessWire. com are the most journalist-friendly services, while PRWeb.com is more for the online crowd – the bloggers.”

You can learn more about self publishing books at www.wwaow.com.

Message boards, also referred to as internet forums, are online discussions among users of similar interests. There are thousands of message boards all over the Internet, but each board typically focuses on a similar theme (reading, cooking, sports, etc.).  For this reason, they make for an excellent tool in promoting your self published book to potential buyers.

Forum users “discuss” a subject area by creating topics, which in turn are responded to by other members of the forum. Message boards also are useful for advertising, in that they typically show the number of registered users. When self publishing and marketing your self published book, the greater the forum’s exposure to the public, the greater your chance is of getting the word out. To make the most out of message boards, Wwaow recommends posting an introduction topic. Being new to the forum, it would be appropriate to make yourself known, and posting an introduction also would provide an opportunity to explain your goals, your book, what it’s about, etc. Prior to doing so, however, Coers recommends reviewing the message board’s rules and regulations, as some sites strictly prohibit self promotion.

“Be sensitive to each individual board’s rules on self promotion,” said Coers. “Some boards are dedicated to short stories or other forms of literature, so it probably wouldn’t be a problem to mention your book. But if the board isn’t accepting of self-promotion, why waste your time anyways?”

Whatever message boards you sign up on, make sure to include a signature line to your account. A signature line (commonly known as a sig file) is a message that is automatically included at the bottom of every post you make on a message board. Utilize your signature line to expose your book’s title, and especially a link to where the public can read and purchase it.

After reviewing the board’s rules, creating your account, and writing your signature line, get the ball rolling by introducing yourself in your first post. It might not be a bad idea to include an excerpt from your self published book and ask for people’s opinions on it (it’s just human nature to want to be asked for our opinion). And don’t forget to include a link to your book’s Wwaow site!

“In any case, it’s always best to engage with people on the message boards on a one-on-one basis,” Coers said. “Developing relationships is what it’s all about.”

You can learn more about self publishing books at www.wwaow.com.

Rules:

• Upload as many unpublished stories and poems as you like
• All Entries must be between 1,500 and 6,000 words (or about 5-20 pages)
• Keep it CLEAN – Nothing obscene will be considered
• The top winner will receive a grand prize of $250. The top stories and poems (by vote count) will be included in a compilation book that will be published on WWAOW.com. Top 5 winners will receive a complimentary copy of the compilation book.
• All submissions must adhere to the Official Rules.

Submitting is easy. Just create a FREE ACCOUNT HERE, then follow the step by step instructions to upload your work.

You can learn more about self publishing books at www.wwaow.com.

Also known as e-mail marketing, e-mail campaigns are a mass mailing of electronic messages to viewers who may be interested in a product you are selling. It is useful for many reasons including the following:

• It provides instantaneous exposure of your message to your audience.
• It is less expensive than other forms of mass-mailing.
• It enables you to keep a list of your target audience, allowing you to send follow-ups in the future.
• It is proactive, as opposed to a reactive webssite, which may or may not get hits.
• Almost everyone has an email account, and checks it regularly.
• It’s environmentally-friendly.

As a Wwaow author, you are supplied with complimentary marketing e-mails to initiate the promotion of your self published book. Start simply by forwarding your congratulatory email from Wwaow to family, friends, colleagues, and anyone else you feel may be supportive of your efforts, but don’t stop there. E-mail campaigns have a viral-marketing nature to them, in that any e-mail recipient in your address book could potentially spread your message to people in their address book. Maintain the momentum of your e-mail campaign by asking them to share the message with their social network.

After incorporating family, friends, and colleagues into your e-mail campaign, try taking advantage of opt-in e-mail advertising. Simply put, this technique is the sending of mass messages with the permission of the recipients. Friends, mailing lists, newsletters and the networks they provide are ideal for making this form of electronic advertising a success.

“Go online and look for e-mail newsletters that target your market,” Coers said. “If you find one, contact the newsletter’s editors and ask if they’d be interested in reviewing your book. You may even offer to buy some advertising from them to sweeten the pot.”

With opt-in advertising, the recipient is generally looking for your message, and since the message is anticipated (as opposed to unappreciated spam mail), it is more likely to get passed around in a form of viral marketing.

You can learn more about self publishing books at www.wwaow.com.

As an author, you’re probably familiar with the term blog. Put plainly, a blog is somewhat of an online diary, where entries are added continuously and in chronological order.

“Blogs are a way to keep people in your circle involved with you, while also inviting others in,” Coers said. There are several Web sites that offer free blog hosting, such as Blogger.com, BlogSpot.com or even MySpace.com. According to Coers, the service that offers the most to users is WordPress.com. While the previously mentioned blog sites remain useful, he said WordPress is the most user-friendly, especially to anyone seeking self promotion.

“It’s a very sophisticated engine that allows you to make a website without knowing a lick of (HTML) code,” he said. “It also gives you site stats, such as the number of people who looked at your page, and the keywords used to find your page. You can also interlink your blog with similar blogs.”

Typically, the blog’s content is centered on a particular subject, and it is not uncommon for the blogs themselves to evolve into a manuscript. And if the content is interesting enough, what started as simply a means of self expression can easily become the next big novel. But as with any project, it requires some level of dedication. “Before you start up a blog, you need to be sure you can write at least three entries per week, preferably five,” Coers said. “They don’t have to be long entries, but people want to be engaged. If your blog is kept up-to-date, that keeps people coming back.”

You can use a blog to promote your new self published book in various ways. For starters, it’s easier than you think to build up a fan base by posting regularly to your blog. Readers can comment on your posts, offer up suggestions, and even resort to some form of viral marketing by recommending your blog to others.

“Besides creating your own blog, it’s good to contact other bloggers too,” said Coers. “Some have existing networks with thousands of readers, who also might find your stuff interesting.”

When the time comes, use the incredible networking power of blogs to announce your manuscript to your audience! Who better to promote your material than people who already enjoy your work?

You can learn more about self publishing books at www.wwaow.com.

Now is the time to get the word out to your potential buyers.  Self publishing requires the author to do most of the footwork in terms of promoting their books.

Fortunately for you, Wwaow has given you a head start by providing you with an online bookstore to sell your work.  We will also send you a set of 25 postcards with your book cover on the front to help you begin your marketing campaign.  

But have no fear. The power of the Internet is a valuable tool for anyone serious about promoting and selling their work to the masses. Blogs, E-mail campaigns and Web hosting are just a few of the tools that can take your manuscript from the eyes of the few to the many. We will post over the next several days tips for how you can use the Internet to your advantage, as well as other mass-marketing techniques you probably thought you could never do. 

Viral Marketing

“If you do anything, always concentrate on your strong points,” said Matt Coers, Internet Marketing Specialist based out of Denver, Colorado. “One strength that most people have is their immediate social network.”

 The concept of utilizing one’s relationships to gain exposure is termed viral marketing. This technique is the same as the popular “word of mouth” approach to gaining public acknowledgement about a product, service and the like. It makes use of pre-existing networks on the premise that, eventually, awareness of your message will spread like a “virus” to the masses.

It is a general business concept that a satisfied customer will tell an average of five people, whereas an unsatisfied customer will tell nearly double that amount. The methods of viral marketing are many, including e-mail, text messages, image files, and the ever-reliable “hot gossip.” The theory behind this method of advertisement is that it is our nature to talk, and it has proven to be successful as a grassroots approach to marketing.

“The Internet has a number of ways to utilize your social network,” Coers said. “Blogs and e-mail are easy to use to get the word out about your self publishedbook. There are also social-networking sites that enable you to create groups through networking.”

 One social-networking website Coers said every self promoter should utilize is FaceBook.com. With more than 175 million active users and growing, the site enables users to share messages among a variety of user networks, create groups designed for a specific cause or interest, and continuously add users (also known as “friends”) to their immediate circle on FaceBook. The capability of viral marketing with this  website is invaluable to anyone trying to promote themselves, Coers said. “The site is not anonymous at all,” he said. “With FaceBook, you create groups, and anyone who’s your ‘friend’ can be invited to join. The neat part is that as soon as they accept your invitation, everyone on their list of contacts is alerted to the group they joined, and are prompted to join as well.”

 The key to making viral marketing work for you is to target the social networks that would most appreciate your material. Writing groups, clubs, and message boards pertaining to literature would provide the best audience for your message, but anyone else who cares about your success (such as friends) also would prove helpful. The point is simply to make yourself known to as many potential buyers as possible.