Nothing that I am going to share with you today is rocket science. These will be simple actions that you can take today in order to perform better tomorrow. So let's dive right in with what I consider to be the first and most important step: Set up an Amazon Author's page. This is the first step any author publishing a book on Amazon should take. Most of the time, your author page will be your chance to make the first impression on your potential customers so it is one of the most important actions you need to take.
Authors Page:
- Use this area to show that you have personality, knowledge, and passion. Let the audience know who you really are (or desire to be).
- Be sure to use a proper photograph for your author image; does not have to be professional but it sure does help.
- Include any relevant work or job experience as well as any freelance writing you might have done.
- This is a great place to place keywords related to your book.
- Although, most people might not read your author's page, it is more important to have one than not because nobody wants to buy from an author that doesn't even have a bio on Amazon.
The next step is just as important as the first and can be done before you even launch your book. If you really want to succeed on Amazon as an author you really need to utilize social media platforms to your advantage. If anything you have to cover the Big 3 - Facebook, Twitter, Google+. Personally, I make pages for my pen names and individual books. Utilizing these to your fullest potential allows you to get a lot more visitors. For example, my Facebook page for one of my books is on page 1 of Google for the most popular keyword in that niche, my book itself is not. Moreover, once you set these profiles up, even if you do not use them, they can potentially benefit you. Recently, I logged into one of my old pen names on Google+ and found out it had 1,000 views in the last 30 days. And that is with no optimization or posting for the last year.
Social Media:
- Create a profile for your pen name as well as your book(s)
- Utilize the about page to write about yourself/book and insert links to your product's page
- Invite all your friends to like the page
- Link both accounts with your website/blog
- Create a profile for your pen name
- Follow a bunch of authors, journalists, and publishing websites
- Tweet links to your Amazon page
- Link Twitter account to your website/blog
- Follow back people that follow you
Google+
- Create a page for your pen name and book(s)
- Be sure to include link to your Amazon page
- I have gotten more pages on Google Page 1 from Google+ than any other social network, so I recommend to post often for your targeted keywords
- Join circles related to your niche; ask people to +1 your page.
- Link your Google+ pages with your website/blog
YouTube
- Create a channel for your pen name
- Great opportunity to talk about your book, introduce the plot/characters
- Incite interest by giving out parts of your book that you know will make the viewer read your book
- Include interesting snippets of your life. Be relatable
- Do not be afraid to ask people to subscribe to your channel
- Link YouTube account to your website/blog
This next step that I am about to introduce, I wanted to put as the first point in this guide. However, due its nature, I figured a lot of people would skip this step anyway. However, I encourage you to take the time and effort into building an attractive, authority website. This is one of the most effective ways to increase your web presence and reputation.
Website:
- Personally, I have found that it is best to build a simple WordPress site
- Include a page for each book, an author's bio, and a blog
- For the blog, try to post at least two 200-500 articles each week (most of the time I outsource this)
- This is a great place to show readers that you know what you are talking about; also people love authors who are "active"
- Insert Amazon banners for your books on the sidebars of all pages
- Connect your social media profiles
The last point that I want to talk to you about is creating quality articles for your author/books. These can be outsourced or written by you, just make sure you use your keywords effectively. The idea is to write great authority content and post these articles on high PR article submission sites in order to increase your authority. You can either link these articles to your author website or directly to your Amazon page (I prefer to link it to my website).
Article Submission:
- Post to sites like HubPages, Squidoo, EzineArticles, etc.
- Insert anchor links into your keywords
- Use a lot of images
- Insert links to your social media profiles at the end of these articles as well
- Share these articles via social media
I use all the above methods (and a lot more) every time I get ready to publish a book, and I recommend you do too. There is no better way to start building your author web reputation than utilizing this quick guide. And the best part about it is that you can start implementing all these methods right now.
Vladislav Vagner is an international writer and current owner of Article Blizzard. He has had publications in several online magazines including OJSA, NSICS, and Cracked. Currently, he spends most of his days experimenting with SEO strategies and helping his clients stay ahead of the curve. Be sure to get his new eBook "The Ultimate Guide to Customer Value Optimization" at his site for free.
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