As a published author, your web site should become the clearinghouse of your marketing efforts. Every ad you place online, every article you publish in electronic publications, and even every e-mail you send should link back to your web site, where a visitor can read about your book-possibly even a sample of your book-read about you, find additional information, and buy your book. And every print ad or article that mentions you, should mention your web site, as well.
Your web site can be as simple as a blog, which is an often free, easy way to get online. If you already have a business web site, just add book sales pages and information about your book to what you already have - if your current web site gets traffic, you have a readily available pool of potential book buyers. Or you can build a web site specifically to market your book.
Realize that building a web site can be a big project, and not only does it possibly require help from an expert, but it also requires plenty of writing. When it comes to the writing, the following strategies will help.
How is writing for the web different?
When writing for the web, many of the same effective writing strategies you used in your book hold true. You should know the goal of your web copy, and use active, engaging language to keep your readers interested. You want your web content to be clear and error free. And it must appeal to the audience you're trying to target. But online, something called keyword density also plays a role in search engine relevance and driving traffic to your site.
What are keywords?
Keywords are phrases and terms that people enter into search engines to find what they need, so you need to think like your audience. For example, if your book is about how to reenter the dating field after a divorce, you must think of what your target Internet user might search to find the information you have to offer.
Knowing your audience has a lot to do with this-you have to know what search terms they'll use as they browse the web. So you might choose "dating after divorce," "divorcee dating," "dating help," and any variation of those phrases as your keywords. For more keyword ideas, try playing around with the Google Adwords keyword selection tool.
How can you write keyword-dense copy?
Once you determine a list of keywords, you must write keyword-dense web copy to boost your site's relevancy on the search results. This is a little trickier than it sounds because search engines are designed to flag sites as spam when they don't use keywords effectively. The key to writing successful keyword-dense copy is to find a middle ground between making it appealing to search engine robots and to actual human visitors. In other words, you don't want to overload your web copy with keywords and risk readability or clarity.
One effective way to achieve this is to create resourceful web copy that gives users information and use keywords as often as possible within the content you write. Write a first draft with your keyword list handy. Then when you go back and edit, make sure you look for places where additional keywords make sense. Again, resist the temptation to go overboard-the search engines don't like keyword-overloaded copy.
How can you keep your web copy fresh?
Frequent updates to your site encourage your audience to come back, and new material makes search engine robots crawl your site more often too. So every press release and article you write, post them on your web site. You can also create a blog and write tips and other industry news as often as you have time for. Frequent updates to your site can boost search engine rankings. So keep writing to keep your content fresh and appealing to your target audience.
Taking Your Book Sales Online
Marketing your book online is a multifaceted endeavor-and you'll have to keep yourself up-to-date on internet marketing strategies. You can't expect people to find your web site because it can easily become buried in the enormous amount of content on the web. It takes work to get to the front page of search engine listings.
With your online efforts, as well as any marketing efforts, you'll have to stick with it. And writing plays a big role in your success. Because as soon as you stop posting to your blog, and as soon as you stop driving traffic to your web site, potential readers will stop coming and your book will stop selling. Using these web writing tips will help you get started marketing and driving traffic to your web site, and boost your book sales and generate interest as a result.
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