Continuing the series of blog posts about book blogging, today is about sharing quick tips about blogging.
I LOVE blogging! It's not always easy though. A lot of work goes into creating, maintaining, and marketing a blog. There are a few things you can do to make it easier though.
1) Become part of the community. There are some seriously awesome book loving people out there, and a lot of them are book bloggers. Reach out and get to know them. Show them support. They will most likely show it back. Whether you're discussing books, or throwing around ideas for new content, these people are a treasure trove and part of what makes being a book blogger so much fun.
2) Always answer when someone leaves a comment. When readers see that you listen to them, they are more likely to join in the conversation... which helps build a stronger readership. You might find you make some awesome new friends this way (I know I have).
3) Create a swipe file. This is basically a brain dump of blog post ideas. Trust me, you'll be glad to have this when you need to pull a post out of nowhere. It's particularly useful when you need to come up with a guest post topic.
4) Guest post. I lead you right into that one didn't I? ;) One of the best ways to drive more traffic to your own blog is by doing a guest post on someone else's blog. You'll get an awesome backlink to your site, and get to connect with a whole new audience.
I could write a book about this... actually I am (watch this space ;)), but for now I'll pass you over to some of my book blogging friends who are here to share with you some of their own tips and tricks:
"Quick tips about blogging, I actually wrote a blog on this!
- Connect with other book bloggers
- Treat all parties involved with respect
- Review the book- Make your policies and stand by them"
"It takes up time, more than you think. So make sure to take time for yourself if it becomes too much. I promise all of your loyal followers will still be here for you when you come back. Make blogger friends, trust me they're life savers. Create drafts for your posts. Seriously this one I cannot recommend enough. I have a draft feature for myself on my site, so when an idea strikes I immediately type it out an save it. This way I always have some post in the works if I'm out of material or ideas. And you can add to it easily as ideas come to you. Also don't be afraid to post things that aren't book reviews. Tag posts, favorite lists, discussion posts. That way if you're in a reading slump you still have material."
Caseo has an article about blogging that you might find useful too (check it out at https://caseo.ca/how-to-blog/). They include some great apps in the article under the section "content creation tools" that I personally use regularly.
As I mentioned last week, I'm working on the new series of Quick Tips at the moment, and will be launching it soon. Last week I shared the complete collection of videos from the first series. Today I'm sharing a recap of the complete collection of videos from series 2.
Add subscribe options to your blog
Add a call to action in your book
Create a contest
Keep your website up to date
Reuse content to make G+ hangouts
Add a video to your Amazon author page
Register your hashtag
Add a testimonial page to your website
Add a call to action to your FB cover banner
Add a category to your Pinterest boards
Which of these tips did you find most useful?
As I'm busy working on the new series of Quick Tips (coming soon), I thought it would be a good idea to do a recap of the published videos to date.
In todays post we'll take a look at where it all began... series 1. Below are all the videos from the first series of Quick Tips videos.
Storify
Canva
Click to Tweet
Pinterest Book Boards
Schedule posts in advance
Social Share Buttons
Use Lists on Social Media
I know some of my Quick Tips videos have been embedded in blog posts in the past, and love that people find them useful. If you'd like to embed them into your own blog posts please do. I just have a small request; let me know the link to the post so I can promote it too ;)
Which of the above tips did you find most useful?
Quick Tips: Bringing you tips, tricks, and strategies in bite-sized format to help you build your author brand, and market your books.
This weeks "Quick Tip" is to add a photo to your business card.
Think about it, you give out your business card during events. Hopefully you'll have had the chance to exchange a few words with the person you're giving it to. This has probably happened to them a hundred times over throughout the event with others giving them their business cards too.
Now fast forward to day, week, or month, later. What are the chances of them remembering your name? Chances are slim. They go through the pile of business cards they collected and find yours. They remember you because your photo is on the card. That's right, they remember your face. Much more likely than just your name. Do you have your photo on your business card? For more Quick Tips, and other video content subscribe to my channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/jolinsdell
Quick Tips: Bringing you tips, tricks, and strategies in bite-sized format to help you build your author brand, and market your books.
This weeks "Quick Tip" is to take part in a challenge.
Challenges are great for motivation, but have other benefits too. They can be a great way to build our network and make new connections, and can lead you to new opportunities too. e.g. being interviewed, featured on a website, or invited to take part in an event.
Are you doing a challenge this month?
Quick Tips For Authors
Quick Tips: Bringing you tips, tricks, and strategies in bite-sized format to help you build your author brand, and market your books.
This week's quick tip
This weeks "Quick Tip" is to send review copies to Bloggers. Bloggers work on building communities and s such tend to have a good reach. This makes them the perfect people to help spread the word about your book(s). Find Bloggers that fit the right niche for your book and ask them if they would be interested in/ send them a free review copy.
Bloggers that then post a good review to their blog are also likely to post the review to other sites too e.g. Amazon, Goodreads, etc...
Are you a blogger? Want to feature one of my books on your blog? Drop me an email and I'll be happy to organise an e-copy for review. I also have media kits for all of my books that can be used for book spotlights and features should you not have time for a review.
You can find a full list of all my published titles on the My Books page.
Today I need your help. I need your feedback on the cover art for Quick Tips for Authors. That's right, this time I'm letting you, the readers, pick the cover art.
To cast your vote just post a comment below with either "A" or "B".
The cover with the most votes will be used as the cover for the book.
Quick Tips: Bringing you tips, tricks, and strategies in bite-sized format to help you build your author brand, and market your books.
This weeks "Quick Tip" is to create a newsletter with exclusive content. Newsletters should contain content that can't be found any where else. Readers are giving up their email address, and so you should be giving them exclusive content. If your content can be found on social media, your blog, etc... why would they bother signing up to have it sent to their email inbox?
For the same reason, you should never social share your newsletter. Keep it exclusive.
Do you have a newsletter? What kind of content do you include?
Don't forget to sign up for my monthly newsletter. It's full of exclusive tips and strategies, with behind the scenes info about what I've been doing, what works and what doesn't, and all the latest details about new releases and works in progress.
Become part of the exclusive tribe and sign up now!
Quick Tips is back! Bringing you tips, tricks, and strategies in bite-sized format to help you build your author brand, and market your books, every Tuesday.
This weeks "Quick Tip" is to add special content to pull traffic to your website. Everyone loves a good freebie. Use that as a way to entice new readers to your website. Offer free downloads, or an excerpt, etc... to get them to your site. Hopefully they'll like your freebie and stick around to check out the other content you have on site.
Here on the blog I often give away freebies, so make sure you check out the free resources page.
Make sure you're the first to watch new episodes of the Quick Tips series, by subscribing now to my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/jolinsdell
This weeks "Quick Tip" is to make promotional materials for your book. A great way to spread the word without having to do a sales pitch. It's a good idea to put your website url on them so that people know where to go for more information.
There are loads of companies that offer services where you can upload your own images to be printed to order on t-shirts, caps, cups, and more. I personally like http://www.vistaprint.com but you can easily find alternatives by doing a quick search on Google.
This weeks "Quick Tip" is to identify your target audience. Not only will knowing who your book is for help when you have to market it, in some cases it can also help when you're writing it. You'll also need to know your target audience if you plan on approaching agents and/or publishers as they are sure to ask you.
This weeks "Quick Tip" is to create a media kit for your book.
A media kit is a great resource to have. One of the most useful files you'll create related to your book. It contains all the information that you, or anyone else, could want about your book.
- Your book blurb
- cover image
- author bio
- weblinks
- reviews received
- press release
- a sample interview
- links to places the book has been featured
.... the list goes on.
Basically anything anyone could possibly want or need to know about your book.
Do you have a media kit for your book? What did you include?
This weeks "Quick Tip" is to start your marketing campaign as early as possible. If you want to do a success book launch, you need to start promoting your book as far in advance of the release date as possible. You can even start to build interest BEFORE you've finished writing the book!
How far in advance do you start promoting your book?
This weeks "Quick Tip" is to use your email signature. Think about it. How many emails do you get? How many emails do you send? Adding an email signature with your call to action to automatically show at the end of all the emails you send out is a great way to spread the word without being too salesy.
You can keep it plain text with a link or add a graphic for extra impact. Gmail, Yahoo, etc... all give you the option of programming a signature to be shown on all emails sent.
Alternatively you can use a free add-on like http://www.wisestamp.com (one of the examples mentioned in the video).
Quick Tips is back for another series! Bringing you tips, tricks, and strategies in bite-sized format to help you build your author brand, and market your books.
This weeks "Quick Tip" is to download Amazon's free reading apps so you can read kindle books for free. They offer several options, so whether you prefer to read on your smartphone, tablet, or PC, you're covered ;)
No need to own a Kindle. You can still read kindle books, even without an actual Kindle, with these free reading apps from Amazon. Not only will you then be able to download Kindle books to read, but you can also send files to your Kindle. e.g. Send a pdf file to your kindle. This can come in handy for reading of copies of books, but also for editing and revising your own works in progress. Reading your work on a different device can help you notice errors that you may not have seen looking at it on your usual computer screen.
This weeks Quick Tip is to organise a release party for your book. Everyone loves a good party and what better reason to celebrate than the release of your book! Whether you party in-person or do it online, having a release party can be a great way to create a buzz for your book and engage with your readers.
This weeks Quick Tip is to ask fans to share a photo of them with your book. It gives you some awesome marketing material but also gives you a way of connecting with your fans.
This weeks quick tip is to reply to comments left on your blog. In today's busy world, taking the time to leave a comment on someones blog is a big deal. Make sure you reply to all comments on yours. The post is just a launch point for engaging with your readers.
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