Category Archives: Internet Marketing 101

Author Tips: How to Get Your Marketing Book Reviewed

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Can I just say before I start writing this article how much I love Erin Blaskie? There is a whole back story here. Some years ago, I joined Erin’s team as her transcriptionist. What happened is I listened to all her teleseminars and webinars on Internet marketing as I typed out the pages. The knowledge stuck. I became quite Internet marketing-savvy myself and branched out into the niche of assisting authors with their online publicity efforts. Buh-bye transcription!

So let’s fast forward now into solid tips I can pass on to you to market the book you’ve written. But first, have you heard about self-published author Amanda Hocking? She was very recently in the news for transforming her substantial success into a multi-million dollar contract with a traditional publisher. Guess what? She credited some of her success to relationships with book bloggers. In fact, in her own blog she calls the book bloggers “her heroes.”

What can book bloggers do for you in terms of exposure? A lot. A review by a popular book blogger can be seen by many readers and the online word-of-mouth (WOM) is often just what the reader needs to make that purchase. Hearing something like this can cause an author to make a beeline for book blogs. Stop. Think. There is a simple tip that can save both the author and the blogger tons of time. And it’s this: When visiting a blog that you are considering contacting to request a book review, read their Review Policy. It’s quite simple – 90% of the time, it’s actually listed as “Review Policy” on the blog and when it’s not, it’s often found in the “About Me” section. The blogger will clearly state what genres he or she enjoys. If your genre is not listed, don’t query the blogger. Pitching book bloggers is not about browbeating, it’s not about twisting arms, and it’s not about arguing.

As a book blog tour coordinator, I recently surveyed 30 book bloggers to ask them what constituted a good – and bad – pitch. An example straight from a blogger of a pitch gone wrong was: “I know you say you don’t review self-published books, non-fiction, or Christian books, but I have a great Christian self-help book that I’ve published myself!” You see what I mean?

There are plenty of blogs out there, and I mean plenty. Pitch to the ones that enjoy your genre and that’s half the battle. Happy pitching!

We’re Going to Have a CONTEST!

Diane is going to give away one copy of her e-book, “Best Practices: Pitching Book Bloggers” to someone who comments on this blog post (we’re combining these entries and the entries at The VA Coach so you don’t have to enter twice)!

Just leave a comment about how the content of this book would help you in your business by Friday, May 21, 2011 and Diane will pick one random winner from that list! Not sure how it would help? Click on over to her e-book page (link above) and find out more!

Be sure to leave your e-mail address along with your comment so we have a way to get in touch with you!

About the Author

Diane Saarinen can be found at the Saima Agency (http://saimaagency.com) which specializes in author services such as book blog tours, virtual assistance, copywriting and book trailers. Their ebook, BEST PRACTICES: PITCHING BOOK BLOGGERS is available at http://bit.ly/et5fWu.

Blogging: Frequency, Length & Format

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I received a question on my Formspring account, which you can reach at www.formspring.me/erinblaskie, which asked, “How long should my blog posts be and how many posts per week should you be creating to drive the maximum number of visits to your site?”

Let me preface this conversation by saying that like all things that can be done for your business, the way that you blog is often defined by your preferences and the time you have available for this tactic. For every single entrepreneur, this is going to be different. However, there are a few things that we can discuss here that will help you formulate a plan around blogging.

The first thing that I always tell people when it comes to blogging is that consistency really is key. Your readers won’t care if you have one post a week or five posts a week so long as you are consistent with your material. Set a goal for the number of new blog posts you want to publish per week and stick to it.

The second thing is that there is no magic length for your blog posts. Everyone always asks me about the length of a blog post and the length is less important than the content inside of the blog post. If you are writing a blog for search engine optimization reasons, you want to ensure that your blogs are keyword rich and on target with your blog’s topic. If you are simply writing because that is what you do – share via a blog – the keywords and length are less important. The best piece of advice I have is to just write naturally and let the length naturally fall where it may.

The third thing has to do with the format of your blog posts. There is a common misperception that all blog posts must be text-based. That isn’t true. A good blog will have a combination of text, images, audio and video so that the readers of that blog can consume the information in a variety of formats. Not everyone is going to want to sit and read a blog post but they may very well tune into a podcast or watch a video. Share across all mediums for maximum exposure.

Finally, look at setting up an editorial calendar for yourself. Write your blog posts when you are inspired to do so and when you have a moment to yourself and pre-schedule those posts into the future based on your editorial calendar. The editorial calendar will also help you with consistency as you will be forced to have your blog posts spread out.

How to Use @Wetoku in Your Online Business

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I love online video.  In fact, I love any kind of video but when I get to see live, streaming video of my favorite Internet people, it just makes my heart feel good.  The unfortunate downside is that not everyone embraces video the way I (and others) do.  For the longest time, we had some really solid options for video.  For pre-recorded, uploaded video, you could use YouTube or Vimeo.  For live, streaming video, you could use Ustream or Justin.tv or Blog TV.  Now, we’ve got an awesome tool for co-hosted, live, streaming video… Wetoku.

I met one of the founders / creators / masterminds behind Wetoku at WordCamp Montreal.  After I was introduced to what they were doing, I was hooked.  I primarily used the service for my eThusiasm edited video podcasts but knew that eventually, I would have additional ways to tap into what they were doing.

Some of the things I mention below are things that not even I am doing yet but I figured it might be helpful for you to see what my plan is with Wetoku so that you can join in the fun!

  1. Produce a co-hosted live podcast with a colleague, a client or a friend. For this particular project, make it a regular occurrence.  Set a date and time every week, every two weeks or once a month and schedule it around certain topics.  Make it lively, interactive and fun!
  2. Invite guest speakers to come on to a timed segment that you can edit into a longer, more ‘produced’ video for your website. This could be something that is done off air without community involvement.  Interview people and edit those into longer videos that are all centered around a specific topic.
  3. Have your social media community interact with you and a colleague in a real-time conversation for fun – not recorded, just off the cuff sort of conversation. This will begin to create a voyeuristic look into your business, who you are and what you do.  Let people in, let them engage and interact.
  4. Host your own version of ‘Ask Erin Live’ but invite audience members to come live and ask you questions. This is a great idea as it moves you away from the “two experts on a panel” approach and into a very intimate setting where people get to have some face time with you.

As we begin to get more comfortable with video, people will be embracing this as a new way to connect and share information.  It will allow people to connect with you via an authentic experience rather than a static, written one and you won’t be doing the sharing alone.  There is a real collaborative spirit hitting up the business community and tapping into that early will definitely make you a trend setter.  Invite your colleagues and friends to join you in creating your next venture… It will be a lot more fun that way!

What are Group Coaching Programs?

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Group coaching programs are one of my favorite passive revenue models and they are the one method I’ve had the most personal success with. The main reason they work so well is because of the one-to-many approach.

Being able to offer any of your information one-to-many versus one-to-one instantly offers you leverage and a higher revenue model for the same time investment. For example, if I get an e-mail in my inbox that has a question that somebody is asking me to answer, I will reply to that person but I will also post that reply as a blog post. This way, my knowledge will help many people versus just that one person that e-mailed in the question.

Group coaching programs are great because you get to structure the timing of them, the material covered and you can turn it into a self-study product when you are done. It is very important to choose a topic here that lends itself over the course of a week or a couple of weeks. This way, the value of content is higher and you can charge more per person.

What I do with every single group coaching program I deliver is record everything, document everything and sell that as an info-product when I am finished. This way, I’ve been paid to create a product versus creating the product on my own.

For example, if I sell 10 seats into a group coaching program at $200 per seat, I am earning $2,000 for that group coaching program. If I record everything and convert it into a self-study program, I can continue to sell it for $200 a sale and earn revenue from it forever. To get paid $2,000 to create a product is much better than not getting paid at all.

Video on a Website – Must Have or Live Without?

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A few months ago, I received the following question on Facebook:

Here was my response to Sandra:

Video.  It’s one of my favorite online mediums for sharing and spreading a message but it’s also one of the most feared by entrepreneurs.  Video opens people up to a whole new level of transparency and sometimes, it can feel a bit uncomfortable.  How do I know this?  The topic comes up in 90% of my client calls.  The client will ask me, “So, this whole video thing… do I really need to do it?”  My response is generally the same.

When it comes to video, I think the impact it has on your prospects and website visitors is huge.  People love seeing the person behind the schtick and a video allows them to see you – the animated, talking, moving you.  Video creates an instant connection as it makes the person feel like they are really immersed in a conversation with you.  It also helps to build the know, like and trust factor up much more quickly than plain copy would.

However, that being said, if the person doing the video is uncomfortable, it will show and the video could be counter-productive.  You know those moments when you’re driving in your car and you come across a road accident and you want to look away but you can’t?  Even though you feel super uncomfortable, there’s almost an unseen force keeping your head pointed in the disaster’s direction.  That’s sort of what it’s like watching someone on video that clearly doesn’t want to be there.

So, I think adding video to your website is really important – if it’s done right.  If you’re the type who doesn’t mind being on camera, absolutely do it.  It will solidify your message, your brand, your authenticity and help to create bonds with your prospects.  If you’re not the type to be on video, consider having a video produced that doesn’t contain you in it.  It could be photos of work you’ve done, it could be text and music… whatever you can use to convey your message in a visual way will help your audience connect more with what you are doing.

Lastly, video doesn’t have to equate to big bucks.  You can easily shoot your own videos in your home or office by using a Flip camera and a tripod.  Set yourself up a nice background area and shoot a video!  You can even send that video to a virtual assistant to be edited with intro titles, music and more!

Hopefully this helps bridge the gap between doing video and not doing video.  If you have any questions, leave them as a comment!

Choosing the Best Social Media Sites

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I received a question on my Formspring.me account which asked, “How do I decide which are the best social media sites to take part in?”

Choosing the social media sites that you take part in is much like choosing your favorite haunts around your local town. You have to visit them, see who’s there, check out the conversation happening there and see where you get the most interaction. Social media is about engagement and having really valuable conversations so you want to look for the locations where you can do that.

Sometimes, people attempt to join every social networking site and maintain profiles at each site. I encourage you to choose 1-3 sites that you will be mostly active at and for the rest of the sites, setup your profile and auto-feed status updates to them. Don’t spend time building a community at those other sites if you don’t plan on using them frequently.

For me, Twitter is my favorite social media tool. Following Twitter would be Facebook and following Facebook would be LinkedIn. Now, that being said, I don’t maintain an active presence on LinkedIn and I rarely engage and interact via Facebook. Both sites are updated frequently but I am not there paying attention to the conversation.

For all other sites that I am a part of – FriendFeed, Technorati, Digg, Delicious, etc. – I have sites setup and links to those sites but I do not maintain active profiles there.

So to summarize, register your accounts everywhere (as it’s just good business practice) but then see where you have the most fun and the most success. Once you’ve done that, setup auto-feeding into the other sites and focus on your favorite.