We are moving to a new home and we would love for you to visit us there. All of the tour posts and promotional articles have been moved and we are able to offer some new perks for our blog readers. It should also be easier to find what you need on the blog. It is very easy to subscribe - email or RSS feed - and we have a new search option.
Customers in these tough economic times are looking for the best ways to spend their time and money. Business people who have a strong social media presence have the opportunity to communicate directly with their potential clients.
Which of these benefits appeal to you?
·Generating global sales
·Building relationships is an important part of the social media puzzle
·Generate a buzz about your business and products
·Reach your target audience
·Get information about you and your business to many people
·Create links back to your site, blog etc – we bookmark your website pages & articles
·Let customers & potential customers to learn more about you, your business & products
·Help online visitors get to know the person behind the business or other product
·Search engines love blogs & social sites. Your information gets to search engines quick
·Give people the opportunity to communicate with you through the various sites
·Comments can give you the chance to see what your social sites are thinking
·Build credibility and increase visibility
Many people have expressed the thought that social media marketing is a waste of time. However, when you know how to use the various social media options and tools, it can be a very powerful promotional tool. We’ll share many tips in the coming weeks to help you understand why social media marketing can be a great tool to propel your business to the next level, even in a down economy.
Today is the first day of a four day event with Joyce Anthony. Joyce Anthony features information about Susan Wingate and Bobby’s - http://joyceanthony.tripod.com/blog/
Nikki Leigh and Michelle Price share Week Two of a four week teleseminar series about Using Web 2.0 to Sell More Books - www.blogtalkradio.com/nikkileigh - Call-in Number: (347) 215-8201 - 5 pm EST
Winton Churchill will be featured in the Self Growth Self Improvement newsletter this week – visit www.selfgrowth.com to subscribe to the newsletter.
Even in this technological age, we can promote books face to face with potential readers. I don’t know about you, but I love to see a reader’s face light up when they talk about my books or my characters. That light in their eyes can be hard to convey in an e-mail or on a message board.
Book stores and other retail outlets can be good places to promote your books. Libraries in some areas may purchase your books to place on their shelves. Other libraries offer classes or chances for authors to speak and the public is invited. Libraries are a natural place to attract readers and to promote your books. I walked into my local library earlier this spring and the librarian recognized my name. She said, “You are a new published author.” The people standing close by turned to look at me. It was like being a kid in a candy store.
Bookstores and libraries are not the only place to promote your books and we’ll discuss other alternatives. They won’t all work for you, but consider who you know, where you shop and the clientele each business attracts. Are they individuals who would like to read your book? It is very possible.
Writer’s conferences are a great way to meet readers and other authors. I recently met one of my favorite authors and discovered a couple of new favorites. These events usually need volunteers, program moderators and authors to give speeches, to participate on panels among other things. These opportunities provide free promotion for your books.
Craft shows are another way to get the word out and to meet new potential readers. I will share a couple of wonderful resources to help you find craft shows and similar events in your area. Once you find a craft show, there are ways to make the most of the event. We’ll discuss ways to get the most out of the shows.
There are almost an unlimited number of ways to promote your books and we’ll discuss many of them. If you have any specific questions, feel free to visit the promotional forum and post your thoughts or questions. I look forward to seeing you there.
Utilize Internet Promotion for Your BooksThe internet offers incredible ways to promote your books. Millions of people log onto the internet each day and many of those people like to read. One wonderful aspect of the internet, is that many of the promotional opportunities are free or inexpensive. Also, the internet allows you to interact with potential readers all over the world.
The world wide web is a godsend for shy authors who promote their books. It is possible to share information about yourself and your books without having to see the person. You can post messages on message boards, forums or blogs and it offers the chance to hold discussions with readers. Online message boards, forums and chats are a very effective way to help new people learn about your books.
I feel that every author should have a website. However, it needs to be a well designed and effective website. When people visit your site, what will they see? Is it easy to navigate? What does that mean and how do you make it easier for people to learn about you? All these questions and many more will be answered for you.
There are author’s coalitions, writer’s groups and promotional groups on the internet. These are great ways to get the word out about your books. We’ll discuss what types of promotional groups are available and how to find the one that is right for you. I will provide information on this site to help you promote your books on your own.
Websites, blogs, forums, message boards, e-zines, newsletter, e-mail, affiliate programs and many other promotional opportunities are waiting for you to discover them. We’ll discuss ways to utilize these avenues to promote your books.
You can drop by the promotional forum if you have any specific questions. You are welcome to post your questions or thoughts. I’ll look forward to seeing you there.
Are you to sort of person who can promote your books and yourself? It’s fine if not, because I plan to share information that will help you learn how to promote. It is best if we start with the basics.
In the beginning, I’ll explain the promotional mindset – how to develop it and how to use it. Every great promotional campaign begins with a well constructed and thorough marketing plan. I’ll take you through each step of building a marketing plan to help you promote your books.
One of the things I love about promoting my books is that it gives me a chance to talk about my writing. How many writers do you know that can keep their mouth shut when someone asks about their books? Most of my friends who are authors love to talk about their books. So, we need to find people who want to ask questions and then listen to the answers.
These are the building blocks that we’ll use to help you promote your books. You don’t need a fancy education to promote your work. I won’t lie and tell you that it is easy from the beginning, but it is easier when you practice the things we will discuss.
As you read the book promotion articles, keep in mind that not every technique will be right for you. But, I’ll give you plenty of suggestions so there will be plenty of ways to promote. Then you can pick and choose the methods that you feel right. As your promotional experience grows, it is good to expand the methods you use and step outside your comfort zone. Remember, the best promoters all started somewhere. Now, its time for you to get started learning more.
It can be very beneficial to tie your book subject with current events. This is especially effective with press releases, blogs and online articles. These examples will show how this promotion works. Do you have an example of an article or press release which ties your book to a current event? If so, feel free to contact Nikki at nikki_leigh22939@yahoo.com for more information.
Current Events and Book Promotion has been moved to
I always recommend including educational and helpful information on your promotional website. Do you offer information to help your visitors? Even if they don’t buy your books the first time they visit, do they leave with some information or a sample story? These things will bring them back and can convince them to buy one of your books instead of someone else’s.
Coordinate Author Website and Book Content
This is an effective promotional strategy when your articles or content are tied to your books. I have information on my site which explains e-books for people who don’t know what they are or how to read them. It is amazing to me that many e-published authors do not understand e-books. Two of my books are available in e-book form and I help people understand how they work, how they can be read and the advantages of e-books. The e-book pages get a lot of traffic each month, so there are people who appreciate the information.
Specialize Content To Create An Effective Author Website
If your books are about independent women, include articles about the lives, successes and challenges for independent women. Show how these facets of life affect your characters and how they shape your stories. If you read a helpful article, share the link or write an original article and post it on your site. This works with all types of readers. What about: single mothers, women executives, single dads, foster children or hundreds of other topics? It is effective to focus on situations and issues that your characters deal with in your books. Find these situations and issues in your work and share more detail about these things with your readers and website visitors.
Draw Readers Into Your Books
I enjoy sharing information about the settings of my books. For people who have never been to Cape Ann , Massachusetts or the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I included background and pictures to give them insights into my settings. These pages get good feedback from Massachusetts and North Carolina natives. I take that as a good sign that the pages give a good representation of the area. There is also a narrative written from my contemporary heroine’s point of view. She gives the reader a tour through the town and shares some local history. These are simple ways to share useful information with visitors and to draw them into my stories. What sort of things can you include on your site to bring visitors into your stories?
This is easier when you determine your target market and find things that would be useful for them. These details give readers and visitors an added bonus and these are great promotional tools when your articles coordinate with the subject matter of your books. This gives you the chance to find ways to show the benefit of your books and how it can make the reader’s life better. You can post a few articles and ask your visitor’s input. You may be surprised how much this can help your sales.
These interviews center around promotional questions, suggestions and ideas. What can you learn from these authors to help you promote your books in better or different ways? These interviews are being done in conjunction with Nikki Leigh, author of Book Promo 101 - Basics of Book Promotion. f you would like a chance to participate in these interviews, contact Nikki at nikki_leigh22939@yahoo.com for more information.
Blogs have popped up all over the internet and writers are getting in on the growing trend. The original idea behind blogs was to have a personal journaling space online. There were many sites online for people to post random thoughts about anything and everything. But, blogging has taken on a different tone.
There are still many people who post journals on these sites: http://www.diaryland.com/ and http://www.livejournal.com/. These are ones that I used several years ago. I used them to store chapters in my latest books, but most people used them for diary posting that they could share with others. Writers and other business people have discovered new uses for blogging and journaling space.
Pick a Name for Your Writer's Blog
Writers need to pick an appropriate and useful name and address for their blogs. Most blog programs allow you to choose your URL (address). This is like your website URL. Think carefully and pick a URL that will attract search engines and that’s easy to remember. Don’t worry about being cute, pick something that will attract visitors and reflect the content of your blog. Your author name, book title, setting or something related to the theme or content of your books would be good choices for the blog address and name.
Communicate With Readers on Your Blog
We now see many blogs for authors. Many business people have discovered that blogs are a good way to communicate with their customers. They can promote the services and products. It is also a good way to share business information with people who are interested in the company. An effective blog can work the same way for authors. This is a great way to establish the business as an expert in their field. Being considered to be an expert can be a huge boost for the company. Can writers use this to their advantage? In many sections of this book we will discuss the importance of building your credibility and making yourself an expert. Blogging is a great way to do this and it’s inexpensive. It can work for businesses and it can work for you.
Blog vs Website Content - A Difference
A reason why many people prefer a blog instead of regular website content is because it’s more casual and personal. Website content can be very impersonal and this is especially true for businesses. Blogs are a casual way to actually communicate with potential customers. A writer’s blog and website should be informational, but never boring or tedious.
A benefit of using a blog to post is that many people don’t update or change their website content on a regular basis. A effective and interesting blog should have new entries on a regular basis. Your posts should be done daily or several times a week. Whatever timeframe you chose, stick to it and people will return to see what you have to say - if your posts are interesting and useful for them.
• When you decide to establish a blog, determine your objectives. • What do you want to accomplish? • Is it only to communicate with customers? • Do you want to educate your visitors? • Do you want to generate website visits and sales?
When you determine your objectives, you will know how to approach the promotion of your blog.
We can all learn from other authors. This section contains a wide variety of interviews with authors. They focus on writing, characters, cover art, opening chapters, bad guys, villains, heroes, heroines, and much more. What can you learn from these authors?
First, I should mention, there is no fee to be a sponsor. The sponsor position is a bartered opportunity and anyone with a blog, a website, a newsletter etc can be a sponsor. The blog, website, and the newsletter doesn't need to be for authors, anyone can contact me about being a sponsor. If you have a business that would appeal to readers, we can talk about being a sponsor.
Sponsor Benefits
All site sponsors have a special page to promote their books or their business within the sponsor pages. This can draw additional attention to the information that you want to promote.
Sponsor Requirements
So, what do sponsors need to do? Each week, I need our sponsors to post a promotional message for this website on their blog, website or newsletter. I'll compile the promotional message and send it to all sponsors. You can post the message on any day that suits you and its better if they are posted on different days of the week. It's something new and unique for your visitors and can help to drive new people to this site. In turn, visitors to the site are able to view additional information about you and the services or products that you offer.
All potential sponsors should contact me at nikki_leigh22939@yahoo.com and put "Sponsor" in the subject line of your email.
Sponsor Pages
We want to thank each of our sponsors for their support and... we would like to extend an invitation to you, to become a sponsor.
We ask that our sponsors post weekly promotional statements on their blog, newsletter, website, social site or other location for us. This will help us get the word "around the world" about our site. It helps to get additional exposure for our touring authors and any traffic to the site has the potential to help each of us.
Each week, I'll post a list of the featured authors for the week and we ask that each sponsor posts that information during the week. What do you get in return for posting this promotional piece? You get priority placement on our sponsor pages. We encourage all members to visit our sponsors and to see what they offer.
Do you need to be an author to be a sponsor? Anyone with a blog or website can be a sponsor. Do you want to get information about your blog or your website in front of a lot of people? This could be the opportunity you're looking for...
Which type of sponsors would be of interest to you? Click the category below to learn more about our sponsors. I plan to add more sponsors on a regular basis, so please check back for more information.
Is there another category that you think should be added? Could I add a category that would be good for you? Just let me know. nikki_leigh22939@yahoo.com
1. One of the key things people want to do with a blog tour is to generate sales
2. Generate an online buzz about your book
3. Reach your target audience
4. Get information about you and your books to many people in a short period of time
5. Create additional links to your site
6. Let readers and potential readers to learn more about you and your books
7. Help blog readers get to know the person behind the book or other product
8. Search engines love blogs
9. Your information gets to search engines immediately
10 Give people the opportunity to communicate with you
11. Comments can give you the chance to see what your blog readers are thinking
12. Build credibility and increase visibility
NEW TOUR OPTIONS TO GIVE YOU A LARGER NUMBER OF POSSIBILITIES
Attention Published Authors - There is a new virtual book tour option and there are plenty of opportunities for you. All tours are customizable. If you see something of interest, but would like to discuss some other options, please let me know. I love getting creative and there are all sorts of possibilities. I can be reached at nikki at nikkileigh.com (replace "at" with "@"). If you see something of interest - contact me and we can talk. With the amount of customizing that we can do - the prices vary, so I need to talk with you to find out what would be the best for you.
These are the main tour options that I offer. Which is better for you? Or, we can definitely talk about other possibilities. I’m open to suggestions and love to brainstorm campaigns. I'd love to hear from you and discuss some options. There are always plenty of options. The "Grab the Platinum Ring" tour is the best deal especially for business and non fiction books and an all around promotional campaign that we highly recommend.
NOTE - All these tour packages and prices include the author doing their own written or live interviews, writing or contributing articles for tour spots, pulling excerpts from their book and other work that is needed for the individual sites during the tour. If you do not want to do that work - the price will be more and we would talk about the book and the additional work that we would need to do.
Bargain Tour – 2 Weeks or 4 Weeks - $400*
Author visits up to 10 blogs
Tour is 2 weeks or 4 weeks
Author receives "Insiders' Guide to Virtual Blog Tours"
Each blog visit is promoted on various blogs and social sites
Each tour stop is archived and you are given to link to share after the tour
The authors supply information about themselves, their books, guest posts and interviews for each blog visit. Your information will be posted by me on the tour site, sent to the blog owners that host you and promotions for your tour will be posted on a number of high traffic blogs and on social sites.
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5 Day Blog Blitz - Starting at $600*
Author visits up to 15 blogs (more blogs can be added for an additional cost)
Tour is 5 days (the time may be expanded in some cases)
Customized download pages are created for your tour
Each blog visit is promoted on various blogs and social sites
Author receives "Insiders' Guide to Virtual Blog Tours"
Press release will be written to promote the tour and distributed
Each tour stop is archived and you are given to link to share after the tour
This is an intense campaign and can include up to 15 blogs. For this campaign, I need a wide variety of information supplied by the author and the author needs to be available to work with me and to visit these blogs during that week. This can be especially useful with a timely topic or if you want to coordinate the tour with other promotional events. We can also discuss this tour option with more tour stops. (For details about blitz tours for Amazon Best Seller Campaigns - http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2009/02/amazon-best-seller-virtual-blog-tour.html)
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“Golden Ticket” Tour - Starting at $600*
Author visits 15-20 blogs
Tour is 4 weeks
Author receives "Insiders' Guide to Virtual Blog Tours"
Each blog visit is promoted on various blogs and through extensive social media marketing
Press release will be written to promote the tour and distributed
Each tour stop is archived and you are given to link to share after the tour
The authors supply information about themselves, their books, complete guest posts and interviews for each blog visit. Your information will be posted by me on the tour blog, sent to the blog owners that host you and promotions for your tour will be posted on a number of high traffic blogs and on social sites.
*** This tour can also be done with all radio interviews - starting at $600*.
*** This tour can be expanded to 2 months (30-40 blogs) starting at $1100*
This is an all around campaign which provides a virtual tour, some promotional training, a promotional e-book and banner to use in your promotional long after the tour is over, we can also help you build some promotional relationships, for non fiction authors, there are many ways to help increase your credibility and to establish you as an expert in your field. The podcast recording from my radio show can also be used to promote your book, in addition I post the podcast on a variety of sites to gain extra exposure for you.
4 week tour where the author visits 15-20 sites, blogs, radio shows, etc that target your target audience or 5-7 day tour where the author visits 15-20 sites, blogs, radio shows etc that target your target audience usually used to promote a special event, class, teleseminar etc
Author receives "Insiders' Guide to Virtual Blog Tours"
Each blog visit is promoted on various blogs and through extensive social media marketing
Press release written and distributed to promote the tour
10-20 page promotional e-book in PDF form to use to promote your book
One month of promotional posts created for the author to post on their blog, social networks, www.booktour.com and recommendations for other online places to post
One hour personalized radio show interview with Nikki Leigh to promote your book
Press release written and distributed for radio show appearance
Recommendations throughout the month to help you make the most of your tour
Review by Nikki Leigh, posted on her review site, on Amazon and on EvanCarmichael.com (high traffic business site) if the book is business oriented
Complete archive of your tour is created and posted on a website which is easily accessible and which you can direct people to after the tour is over. This allows you to "recycle" the articles and interviews that were compiled for the tour.
The authors supply information about themselves, their books, guest posts and interviews for each blog visit or radio show that you visit. Your information will be posted by me on the tour site, sent to the blog owners that host you and promotions for your tour will be posted on a number of high traffic blogs and on social sites.
Press release is written to promote the tour and distributed
Each tour stop is archived and you are given to link to share after the tour
The authors supply information about themselves, their books, guest posts and interviews for each blog visit. Your information will be posted by me on the archive site, sent to the blog owners that host you and promotions for your tour will be posted on a number of high traffic blogs and on social sites.
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Around the Cyber World Book Tour - 6 Month Tour - Starting at $3200*
Author visits 80-100 sites
Tour is 6 months
Author receives "Insiders' Guide to Virtual Blog Tours"
Each blog visit is promoted on various blogs and through extensive social media marketing
Press release is written to promote the tour and distributed
Each tour stop is archived and you are given to link to share after the tour
The authors supply information about themselves, their books, guest posts and interviews for each blog visit. Your information will be posted by me on the tour site, sent to the blog owners that host you and promotions for your tour will be posted on a number of high traffic blogs and on social sites.
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Customized Tour Options - If you would like a customized tour, we can discuss the options that are best for you. My goal is to be flexible and to make a virtual blog the most effective fo YOU and YOUR BOOK.
For a list of more promotional services that I offer, visit www.nikkileigh.com/promo.htm. I'm happy to speak with you about ways to customize various services for you. Some authors want to discuss blog set up and consulting or learning about social networking and other topics. Feel free to review the services listed on www.nikkileigh.com/promo.htm and see if there is anything else that you would like to discuss.
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If you prefer to tour longer or to visit more blogs, contact me and we’ll talk about a timeframe and prices. Also remember that the tour site will archive all of your tour sites and these posts will continue to show up on search engines and people can visit the site to learn more about you at any time during or after your tour. One of the things I really like about the virtual tour site is that all of your tour interviews and guest posts are in one central location for people to learn so much about you in one place. This is beneficial for you during your tour and after the tour is over.
I look forward to the chance to talk with you about the possibilities. For much more information, to discuss options and prices, contact Nikki Leigh at: nikki@nikkileigh.com
* Please Note Our Cancellation Policy --
There are very rare occasions where we spend many hours searching and contacting potential sites and cannot find anyone who is appropriate for the tour and who is willing or qualified to participate. This has only happened with very narrow niche target audiences. It is very unusual but it is possible. Also, there has been a case where a client waited until all of our preparation work was completed and then decided that she didn't want to go through with the tour. These things do not happen often – but because of these situations, we have a company policy that once coordinating work begins, the most that can be returned to a client is 50% and the closer we get to the beginning of the tour, that percentage is reduced.
