Old School Book Marketing, 10-month Progress Report

As harsh as the New England winter has been, the reality of book marketing has been even harsher. I’ve spent almost a year following the advice of book marketing experts – agents, bloggers, authors – and I’m coming to the realization that online marketing may not be the most efficient use of my time. My traffic and blog subscribers – my metrics for success -- have increased steadily, but will probably never yield the numbers I’d need to make a living or sell a lot of books.

As previously noted, my novel is not finished. If I were to get an agent and a publisher this might all change. "Might" being the operative word. If I were to self publish, I would likely not make a whole lot of money due to my current Web traffic numbers. However, I have not spent any time learning the ins and out of Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other book-selling sites, which would surely help sales, but I'm not clear by how much.

My Numbers

1) Web Traffic 

Page views (visits)

- Nov 2012.: 3,000  (2,000)

- Dec. 2012: 2,900  (1,860)

- Jan. 2013: 3,340  (2,140) My most current numbers.

Revenue from Google Ads posted on this blog:

- about $10 a month for the last two months, my highest ever, enough for two beers. (However, Google will not send me a check until my total ad revenue reaches $100. I'm currently at $55.)

- Each time you click an ad, I get some money.

Subscribers to Blog

- Nov.: 142

- Dec.: 150

- Jan.: 180

Notes:

- January was my best month ever for traffic, but this is still not enough to impress an agent. 

- The traffic numbers have been rounded off and include traffic to this blog, my resume site, and my travel site, which I no longer update. 

- Subscribers, one of my metrics for success, continues to increase slowly but steadily. These are people who like my stuff enough to sign up, which means they would be more likely to purchase something from me. 

- Free e-book offering: 38 downloads since September. I offer this free to people who sign up. The ebook includes sample scenes from my novel in progress. In theory, having your writing circulating around the Web increases your chances of a serendipitous event -- an agent, editor, publisher, or published writer sees my stuff and thinks, "This guy is a genius, we have to sign him." I'm not holding my breath on this one.

 

2) Social Media

Twitter: 1,337, up about 500 from 840 in November (I'm, skipping December due to holidays.)

- I found a painless way to run up my numbers with people who are likely worthwhile. (see Tips below.)

Facebook fan page: 2.047 Likes, up 4 from 2,043 Likes in November.

- For a typical post, I reach about 150 of Likes/Fans, down from 250 in September and 400 last April. This is because Facebook is now charging to reach all your Fans, which we all know is a rip-off.

- On Jan. 6, I had one post that reached 750 people because New York Times tech columnist David Pogue commented on it, which brought some traffic from his followers. This was a fluke and not something I can reproduce at will. Actually, this is the first time this happened.

Linked In: 1,227 followers, up 60 from 1,167 in November.

- This is still where I get about 75% of my traffic, but the traffic is from other writers reading my book blog. Will other writers buy a novel? Unclear.

3) Old School Book Marketing: Readings, Lectures, Publications, and Press

- I added an events page list my appearances for the last three years and upcoming events.

- I pitched myself as a author/entertainer to a chain of sex-toy shops. We talked on the phone, but nothing has come of it yet. (I've written some humorous erotica, some of this has been published.)

- I pitched a book marketing class called "Build your platform before you finish your book" to a local writing school, an MFA program, and a local adult education center. Results: I've been selected to appear on two panels and give a lecture as part of a self-publishing class.

- I pitched a one-man show based on my novel to three fringe/theater festivals. I'll hear back at the end of the month.

- I've submitted some of my book-marketing blogs and had them published on a self-publishing tips site. (If you've got writing/marketing tips, it's easy to submit to this site. Is this a good use of your time, if your book is fiction? Probably not.)

My plan of action for 2013

Manage my online time better:

- Spend even less time on Social Media: It's just not a good use of my time and, except for Linked In, these sites do not generate much traffic.

- Spend more time finishing my novel and on old school networking activities that will get me in front of people who might help me find an agent. (Supposedly, the best way to get an agent is by having a published writer recommend you to their agent. Hence, my appearances on book-marketing panels.)

- Stop submitting my work to small literary journals that are not widely read. I've had several pieces published in little journals, so I guess I can say I'm a published fiction writer. But now it's time to try for bigger journals, mainstream newspapers and magazines -- places where I may get some real exposure. (I've been submitting to the New Yorker, New York Times "Modern Love" column, and Harper's with no luck. McSweeney's, well-respected humor site, sent me one personalized rejection -- That and $5.00 will get me a beer and not much else.)

 

- I had a free meeting with a small business consultant from the local office of the Small Business Administration. He specializes in artists and their money woes. (As a writer, we're all basically small businesses.) My question for him: Can I make a living writing humor and fiction? I will discuss his comments and recommendations later this month in a blog called “If you write what you love will the money follow?"

Tips

1) Twitter: 

 - Quick and easy way add Followers: 

Follow people who your followers are following. If you’re following the right people, chances are they’re following related people as well. I’ve been clicking on five to ten people a day, which takes about five seconds. (see #2) below

- Once I’m following 300 hundred more followers than I have, I use Tweepi.com's flush tool to dump people who are not following me. You don’t want to be following too many more people than follow you or you’ll look like a loser. Also, if you follow too many more, Twitter will not be happy with you. (see #1 below)

 2) Rumors of Feedburner Disappearing (For geeks only)

- Feedburner allows blog visitors to subscribe to your blog. In October, Google killed off some features that have yet to affect me -- all I care about is providing an easy way for people to subscribe to my blog. (my sign up box below uses Feedburner). Feedburner still appears to be working.

- If you're worried about this, you can switch to another sign-up tool using advice offered here and here. (Note: I have not tried out any of these alternatives to Feedburner.)

- This whole topic makes my brain swell, so I've done the bare minimum: I've been backing up my subscriber list periodically. If I need to, I can upload the names to an e-mail management tool, such as Mailchimp, and send folks my blog that way. (I'd lose the 30 or so people who signed up via RSS.)
- Google seems to be noticeably absent from the online discussions regarding the fate of Feedburner.

- Note: if you're receiving this blog via RSS feed, you may want to sign up below using your e-mail address to assure continued delivery in the event that Google unceremoniously kills Feedburner.

More Book Marketing

- More Old School Tips

 

- Three Ways to Boost Blog Traffic

For Valentine's Day

- Bitter Single's Guide to Valentine's Day

 

- Are Men Doomed?

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Attribution for Boston Blizzard photo: Boston By Beau Wade from New York, USA [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Quick, Dirty Book Marketing: Stuff that's Worked for Me

Here's a quick overview of book marketing strategy based on things that have worked for me during the last six months. This article also suggests easy-to-use Web-based tools and a warning for users of Google's Feedburner blog subscription tool.

A key goal of book marketing is to drive people to your blog or Web site, and then get them to leave an e-mail address. Here's why: Remember all those Facebook friends and likes, Twitter followers, and Linked In connections you've spent hours collecting? They're not your friends, they are Facebook's friends.

If a social media platform -- for example Facebook -- changes its rules and want to charge you to reach your hard-earned connections, you're screwed. If the social media company closes it's doors, you're screwed. More on why Facebook sucks.

I) Blogging

1) Choosing a platform

For most people the choice boils down to WordPress or Blogger.

- Blogger is simpler

- WordPress is more powerful, meaning there are more cool things you can do with it.

Both platforms will allow you to create a blog that looks, feels, and behaves like a Web site. This blog was created with Blogger.

2) Content, Frequency, Length

a) Content: 

- For Non-fiction writers this is easier: Focus on current events, offer tips, respond to reader comments. 

- For Fiction writers: Pick some themes and topics mentioned in your book and treat them the same way a non-fiction writer does. So, If your book involves an exotic location, write about that location. If your characters are single, write about single life. 

- Should writers blog about writing? There's a lot of conflicting opinions. Some experts claim you'll be diluting your audience and that writers don't buy books. Other experts, say that's hogwash. Try it and see if you get any clicks.

*Include a piece of art at the top of your blog! Posts will look more professional and be more attractive when you promote you links on Facebook, Linked In, and other sites. A good place to find free art: Creative Commons. A word on attribution: you want to give credit to artists. I've been grabbing the attributions and posting them at the end of my blogs.

*Be sure the first paragraph or your blog summarizes the content: When you post links to your blog, some social media sites will include the first graph. If that graph is cutesy, clever, and confusing, you'll lose readership.

b) Frequency

I was blogging weekly and it was too much work. Now, I'm blogging three times a month, which feels about right -- and my traffic has remained about the same.

c) Length

Some experts recommend no more than 250 words. I've been doing up to 750. Length doesn't seem to affect my traffic.

3) Capturing E-Mails 

 

You want people who like your blog to sign up or subscribe. Suggestions for increasing sign ups:

a) Use a tool such as Feedburner, which does the following:
- Creates a sign-up box that lets readers add their e-mail or subscribe via RSS feed.
- Many people hate Feedburner because it doesn't offer any tech support -- like many free tools from Google, including Blogger, you're on your own. (For tech support, I always search on the problem I'm having and often other people have had similar problems and come up with answers. For example, I recently searched on: "Why does my Feedburner count fluctuate?" and found reams of answers.

b) Post a sign-up box at the end of each blog post. (See end of this post for how I do it.)

*NOTE: There are rumors that Google may shut down Feedburner. Here's what you can do to move your subscribers to alternatives to FeedBurner.

4) Include Google Ads?

If you are getting some traffic, say more than 3,000 page views a month, consider using Google ads. I just starting posting Google ads on this  blog. The ads are in the upper right-hand corner and at the bottom of the page. The ads have not hurt my traffic and I earned $10 last month. I suspect that earnings will go up as Google starts posting more relevant ads.

More on blogging.

II) SEO

SEO involves several steps:
- Determining the best Google-friendly keyword phrases that will make your blog posts easy to find.
- Inserting them into your headlines and first paragraph of your posts.
- Including those keywords in your blog description. (Blogger provides a Search Description box that you can fill out for each post.)

Humorous, useful pieces on Keyword phrases and SEO

More than you need to know about SEO

III) Driving Traffic by Posting Links

This is a key reason you are bothering with social media: To post links that drive people to your blog.
Facebook and Linked In have groups of people with similar interests. Linked In and Facebook allow you to search for groups by topic and will tell you how many members are in each group.
*Before signing up for a group: consider the number of members, then visit the group to how active those members are: If there are only a few posts from the same person or the posts are two weeks old, skip it.
*Linked In limits the number of groups you can join to 50. Posting links to 50 groups takes me about a 1.5 hours, but it generates 75% of my traffic.

IV) Managing E-mails

You have a lists of people in your personal and business e-mail. Any of them interested in your writing? If you have more than 50, you won't be able to e-mail them all at once from a typical e-mail program, like say, Yahoo! Mail.

For managing large groups of e-mails and for creating periodic e-mail blasts and e-mail newsletters use an e-mail management service. I've been using Mailchimp and, so far, have no complaints.

More on managing e-mail addresses and newsletters.

V) Offline Book Marketing

1) Public Readings

You don't have to be a big name author -- or even have a book -- to do public readings. I've been reading from my as-yet unfinished book at poetry slams (my book isn't poetry), story slams (I won one), a smut slam (don't ask), and public libraries (libraries in Boston pay readers.)

The key to giving public readings: Make sure you collect e-mail addresses from people at the reading. Add these people manually to Mailchimp or your e-mail management program.

Note: I'm an idiot, I've given more than 50 readings and didn't bother collecting e-mails until last month. Don't make the same mistake!

Tips on reading your work in public.

 

2) More on Public Readings 

 

I once gave a reading at a store that sells travel gear (My novel includes a lot of travel scenes.) I am going to approach other stores related to other themes in my book:

- Humorous erotica: I'm going to pitch readings to lingerie shops, wine stores, stores that sell sex toys, sex conferences.

- More travel: I am gong to create a (PG-rated) presentation about my trip around the world and weave in readings from my book. I'll pitch hostels, hotels, and more stores that sell travel gear.

- Dating and single life: I have a lot of dating scenes in my book, I just need to find stores that cater to singles. This could also include wine stores, fancy restaurants, and singles clubs.

 

3) A-B-C: Always Be Closing

 

If someone asks you what you do, mention your book. If they seem interested ask if they want to be on your mailing list. If they had you a business card, be sure to ask them: "Is this the best e-mail for personal e-mail or information on my book?"

Had Enough Book Marketing?

- Vicodin, Klonopin, or Heineken: What do unemployed writers have for breakfast?

 

- Humorous Erotica: The Online Date that Went a Little too Well *

*Content Warning: This piece contains adult language, adult situations, and more adult language.

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Attribution for Book image at top of post: "This file is from the Open Clip Art Library, which released it explicitly into the public domain, using the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication."

Time for Old School Book Marketing? My 9-Month Progress Report

I just finished a book called "Social Media is Bullshit," which confirms what a lot of writers have been suspecting: The Web is stacked against little guys like us. So, I'm going to try old school marketing tactics that involve: the telephone, in-person readings, collecting e-mail addresses, and attempting to get coverage in mainstream broadcast and press.

Executive Summary: Nine Months of Book Marketing Hell

My monthly Web traffic remains stable (about 3,000 page views and 2,000 visits) and I'm adding blog subscribers slowly, but steadily (now have 142 subscribers). But I doubt I'll ever hit numbers big enough to impress an agent or publisher. (Interesting article on how big your platform should be to impress an agent.)

My Numbers

1) Web Traffic

- Page views in July: 2,428       (1,779 unique visits)
- Page views August: 2,977      (2,139)
- Page views Sept.: 2,774        (2,017)
- Page views in Oct.: 2,783      (1,996)
- Page Views in Nov.:  2,956    (2,037)


- Blog subscribers at end July: 48
- Blog subscribers at end of August: 71
- Blog subscribers at end of September: 95
- Blog subscribers at end of October: 114
- Blog subscribers at end of November: 142** 

What an agent wants to see: At least 20,000 page views/month. (For that many page views, I'd need about 14,000 visits.)

*includes this blog and about 150 page views for my resume and rarely-updated travel Web sites.
**includes 16 people who did not confirm their subscriptions. After subscribers sign up for my blog, they receive an e-mail asking them to confirm their subscription. For some reason, these folks never confirmed, so I put their e-mails into a Yahoo e-mail list and manually forward each blog post to them.

 2) Social Media and E-Mail Addresses

Twitter: 840, up 35 from 805 last month.

 - Posting links to my blog in Twitter generated 21 blog page views last month, an average month for me.
- What agents want to see: At least 5,000 Twitter followers.
- Note: This is easy to do by signing on to a Twitter follow group, where you agree to follow people who agree to follow you. The net result: you get a lot of people who have no interest in your work and will likely not buy your book.

Facebook: 2,043 Fans/Likes, up 7 from last month.
- I spent $20 to promote one of my Facebook posts to my Fans and 8,000 of their friends -- and added about 10 Likes, three of whom subsequently un-Liked me. My paid Facebook promotion was a waste of money.)

- Posting links on my Fan page generates very few visitors (33 last month). Posting links to appropriate Facebook groups is more productive and produced visitors (125).
- Worth noting: The "what agents want article" offered no stats for numbers of Facebook Fans and Link In connections. Hmmm.

Linked In: 1,167 connections, up 19 from last month

- Posting links to Linked In groups generated 457 visits, more than any other social media source.
- Note: In early fall, after I attempted to connect with a lot of people who declined my heartfelt requests, Linked In stopped allowing me to contact to people for whom I didn't have an e-mail address.
- As of this week, Linked In has restored my ability to contact people without having their e-mail addresses. However, Linked In wrote that it would revoke my account if I started spamming again.

E-mail Addresses: 439*
- Blog subscribers: (as note above) 142
- Newsletter subscribers: 7 (I just started this newsletter for Boston folks I meet at parties or readings. I added two more people last month!)
- Personal/professional e-mail addresses of people who might care about what I'm doing: 290
*What agents want to see: more than 5,000 addresses.

Banging Our Heads Against the Web-Marketing Wall?

For the next month, I'm going to focus my energy on old-school promotion and marketing.

Here's why:

- After reading "Social Media is Bullshit" I'm willing to believe that the days are gone when an average person can launch a blog and generate huge traffic. The book also says that most large blogs and Web sites are owned by large companies with large staffs and deep pockets that I don't have. Also, the odds of me producing a blog or other content that goes viral are non-existent.

- I worked as an SEO consultant for three years. The company I worked for spent $10,000 a month on a platoon of specialists (including me) who worked to drive traffic to the company's site.

- Social media is not designed to help the average small business person. Witness recent changes to Facebook Fan pages. Also, Linked In groups are increasingly filled with useless spam. Either people will stop participating in these groups or Linked In will come down on people like me who post links to multiple groups. Finally, have I mentioned enough times that I think Twitter is a torrent of crap?

- I am again considering some advice I got from a marketing consultant friend: "Find something you like doing and become good at it."

Old School Book Marketing

At it's most basic, marketing has two steps: Define your audience and reach them. Since I don't have a book to sell yet, I want to get people's e-mail addresses for the future. I can also sell them my chapbook of writing samples.


My Thought Process

1) Who is my audience?
Based on my Facebook Fan page stats, anecdotal evidence from folks who attend my readings, and the age and interests of the characters in my novel, my readers are mostly: aged 35 to 55, educated, urban professionals (modern yuppies.) Their interests include: travel, romantic relationships and sex, dining out, edgy humor, art and culture. (pretty broad, but enough to get me started.)

2) How to reach them
My favorite marketing technique is public readings and lectures. If I want to read to modern yuppies, where will I find them? Swank hotels, trendy restaurants, fund-raisers, corporate functions, adult education programs, retail stores that cater to them (furniture stores, erotic toy stores, wine stores, outdoor gear stores, sporting goods stores, and other stores with products related to themes in my novel.)

To reach a lot of potential readers, I need coverage in the mainstream media: radio, TV, and print. In the past my readings -- even at small venues -- have gotten some coverage in local papers. I've also gotten coverage on local cable TV stations.

3) What I plan to do this month:
- Send pitches for classes I could teach to local adult education centers. (I took a trip around the world and have lectured about that in the past. I could also lecture about the basics of book marketing.)
- Send pitches for my readings to colleges catering to older students. (I have organized my readings into what can be loosely describe as a one-man show.)
- Contact some event planners to see if they would consider me as "literary" entertainment at special events. (I would offer an alternative option to comedians, musicians, and Tarot card readers.)
- I posted audios clips of me reading to a site called PRX.com, which sells content to public radio stations. (It costs $50/year. I have gotten a few nibbles but no takers. However, a friend has sold a number of pieces through this service.)
*Note: I am well aware that some of these are real long-shots, but the odds can't be any longer than Web marketing. I am also aware that some of this is a little haphazard. But another piece of business advice that I like: Sometimes it is better to just jump and make your mistakes than to spend all your time researching.

Note: Another book marketing book for old schoolers: "Talk Up Your Book," by Patricia Fry. If you've done some public speaking and readings, skip the first nine chapters -- they're repetitive and rudimentary.

Can't Get Enough Book Marketing? 

 

- Is online book marketing a waste of time? (readers weigh in)


- Do You Rate? Measuring Book Promotion Success

-Tips for Reading Your Writing in Public

Had Enough Book Marketing?

 

 - One Day at Big Sky Ski Area: Encounter with a Snowboarder
"You're a grown man, you should know better than that," said the 20-something snowboarder as I lay face-down in the snow.

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*Attribution for "old school" image at top of page: PbakerODU at en.wikibooks [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Book Marketing: More on Facebook Ads and Promotions

Last week, I paid Facebook $20 for a promotion that turned out to be a waste of money. Many authors who read about my experience concurred that Facebook ads and promotions are useless for selling books or driving traffic to a Web site. Should you bail on Facebook? (Not yet.)

What I Got for $20

In my experiment, I wrote a post on my Fan Page that was designed to drive traffic to this blog. As I was finishing the post, I noticed Facebook's Promote option, which promised to reach 10,000 people. Certainly, reaching 10,000 people would result in more Likes for my Fan Page, as well as traffic and new subscribers to my blog. A link in the Promote dialog box led to a confusing section in the Facebook Help Center. Busy writer that I am, I ignored the Help Center page, and spent the money.

Click the Promote button to increase the reach of one of your posts.

Here's what I got for my $20:

4 comments on my Facebook post

8 new Fans
8 clicks to my blog and no new subscribers.

According to Facebook, the post did reach 10,000 people, but a third of them didn't speak English and lived in India, Turkey, and the Philippines.

In addition, my subsequent posts to my Facebook Fan page, reached 50 percent more people than normal. (I typically reach about 200 people, which increased to about 300 probably because so many people saw the promoted post.)

Worth the money? No.

How to Improve Your Performance, How I Goofed (and My Excuses)

I didn't target my promotion. Period. To target your posts to say, English speakers in the U.S., is a multi-step process that wasn't obvious to me. Here's how to fix the problem, so you (hopefully) don't waste as much of your money as I did.

I still don't understand why my post went to so many non-English speakers -- virtually all of my fans are English speakers, most of whom live in San Francisco, Boston, and New York. Most of the people who saw my post, however, were from Manila, Amman, and Istanbul. Upshot: A third of the people I paid to reach were non-English speakers.

More Confusion: Promoted Post (what I did) vs. Sponsored Story (an ad)

A promoted post lets you pay to have a post reach more of your Fans, and in some cases their friends. Typically, one of my posts only reaches about 10 percent of my Fans. I paid $20 to reach all 2,000 Fans, plus another 8,000 or so of their friends. Note: You have to have at least 400 Fans to promote a post. More on promoted posts.

A Sponsored story is an ad that lets you reach people who are not your Fans. A sponsored story appears in the right hand column of the page, along with all the other ads. This is more expensive than a promoted post. More on ads.

Which is Better: A Promotion or an Ad?

In an informal test by a geeky Web site, the Promoted post was cheaper and generated more clicks. But the ad reached a lot more people. Which will sell more books? At least one of my readers, said that the ads were selling some books. Is your head spinning, yet? No? Then read this for more details:

Why it’s Worth Having a Fan Page (and a Personal Profile Page)

- SEO: You can include links from Facebook back to your blog and Web site, which may make you more visible to people searching for topics related to you in Google. 

- Facebook Groups: A personal page allows you to post links in various Facebook groups, which for me have generated a lot more traffic than a promoted post.

Advice and Comments from Readers of Last Week's Blog

 

- One reader suggested promoting your Facebook page for free on sites other than Facebook. (I include a Facebook Fan Page link on all my Yahoo e-mails and on my blog page. Unclear if I'm adding any Fans this way, but the price is right -- free.)
- One author said that Facebook Ads had been useful for selling books.
- One reader paid for an ad on Goodreads that wasn't successful, but found that a free give-away of five books was worth the effort
- Two readers called me a racist.

More on Facebook Fan and Personal Pages

- You're reaching fewer of your hard-earned Fans and why you shouldn't care.
- Facebook is charging to promote posts on your Personal page.

Had Enough Book Marketing?

-  "The Online Date that Went a Little too Well"
(video of me reading original erotic humor at a local library.)
Content warnings for foul language, vibrating ovals, and cruelty to beagles.

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Special thanks to the following readers:

Jerry:
Marquita:
Kevin:
Joshua:
Sharon:

Attribution for Thumbs Down image: Circle-Thumb.png: user:acadac derived from user:Pratheepps, user:Erin Silversmithderivative work: Provoost (Circle-Thumb.png) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Book Marketing: My Eight Month Progress Report

After several months of small, but steady increases, my stats for Web traffic, blog subscribers, and social media contacts have all leveled off. How to explain this lack of progress?
- Conservative viewpoint: This is the value the market places on my time and skills.
- Liberal viewpoint: I am not a big business with a staff nor am I celebrity with a drug problem (yet).

But the good news is that maybe we don't need millions of fans to make a living as writers. We only need 1,000 who really like our stuff. (Actually, 500 would do.)

Book Marketing Progress Report

I) Blog 

 

Results*

- Page views in July: 2,428      (1,779 visitors)
- Page views August: 2,977     (2,139)
- Page views Sept.: 2,774       (2,017)
- Page views in Oct.: 2,783     (1,996)


- Blog subscribers at end July: 48
- Blog subscribers at end of August: 71
- Blog subscribers at end of September: 95
- Blog subscribers at end of October: 114

*includes a small number of  visitors -- 100 to 180 each month -- that go to my resume and rarely-updated travel Web sites.

 

Latest Tactics

 

- Cut back to three blog posts per month instead of weekly

I'll use use the extra time to submit to contests, apply for grants, and pitch readings and performances to organizations, such as libraries, colleges, etc. As long as I'm getting 1,500 or so visitors a month, I'll be happy -- adding another 200 or even 500 is probably not going to make much difference.

- Added a table of contents to one of my most popular pages.
The page is called "Prostitution for Dummies," a tongue-in-cheek piece I wrote five years ago that continues to get steady traffic from guys traveling around Southeast Asia looking for naughtiness.The page now directs readers to some of my humorous erotica and to sites that offer what they're really looking for. Warning: the page has some racy, politically-incorrect content -- do not visit, if you find that kind of thing offensive.

- Created a list in Yahoo mail of people who subscribed to my blog but didn't confirm/verify their subscription. (When someone subscribes, my blog sends them a confirmation e-mail; for some reason about a dozen people didn't confirm. So, I manually forward each blog to them using a Yahoo mail group. These people are not listed in my Subscriber stats above.)

- Targeting different types of readers
In addition to book marketing, my blog covers four other topics -- erotic humor, weird travel, naughty travel for men, and life as a chronically single person. So, I am trying to target readers of these four other topics by offering monthly newsletters for each group. To get subscribers, I added sign-up boxes to blog posts frequented by these people. I created the sign up boxes using Mailchimp. If I get any subscribers for these four newsletters, I'll write them. Sign up so far: Zilch. (the new newsletters are the top four listed in the screen shot below. Two newsletters show one subscriber -- me.)

With a little fiddling, you can create e-mail sign-up forms for newsletters targeting different audiences.

II) Social Media

 

I just picked up a book called "Social Media is Bullshit." I will write a short review later this month. So far, the book is pretty disturbing but somehow reassuring for all of us who feel like we've been banging our heads against the wall with online marketing.

1) Twitter

Results: 805 followers, increase of 59 over last month.


Tactics probably worth considering:
- An interesting suggestion from a Linked In connection, Erik Deckers: retweet more of influential people's stuff.
"... find some major influencers and occasionally ask them to retweet your posts to their own followers. Make sure you do that for the influencers as well, about 5 - 8 times more than they do yours. They'll be more inclined to just do it for you out of the blue." 

- Separate crap from cream in my Twitter feed. I'm considering making a list of the top 10 folks I want to follow, using Hootsuite to monitor their tweets, and focusing on commenting and retweeting their tsuff.

- I considered and then abandoned the idea of starting a new Twitter account or cutting useless folks from my existing account. I'm too insecure to cut my number of followers -- as small as it is -- because I want to be able to demonstrate to agents, publishers, and potential employers that I'm somewhat active on Twitter.

2) Linked In

Results: 1,148 connections, increase of 21 from last month.  

- This is still the major source for my blog traffic. I belong to a slew of groups and manually post links to my blog to each group.
- Disturbing trend: I have started receiving spam from people selling book-marketing services. I'm giving them one warning to knock it off, then I will report them as spammers. A cynical part of me thinks that Linked In may not care, particularly if these spammers are folks who are paying for the Linked In premium service -- Is spamming connections included in the price?

3) Facebook

Results:

- Fans: 2,036, down one from last month.
- Reach (the number of Fans who actually see my posts) 200 to 250, about the same as last month.

I am expending less effort posting to Facebook.

4) Klout Score

Now 47, down from 48 from last month. Does anyone care?

III) Networking

 

- Personal e-mail lists: I went through my contacts in my personal Yahoo e-mail account and sorted out those who might care about my progress as a writer and who might buy a book. Then I uploaded the list --about 290 people -- to Mailchimp. I will send them a quarterly progress report.

- I continue to meet smart, nice people online. Erik Deckers (referred to one of my blogs in one of his blogs and offers good advice in Linked In forums.), Jen Zeman who retweets some of my tweets, Tzigane and Martha Moravec, two writers who comment on my posts.

IV) Minor Successes

 

- Interviewed on cable access TV show.
I did a one-hour interview for a travel show. Since it's cable access, there may be all of three viewers, but it was good practice, fun, and required minimal preparation. (I discussed a four-month solo trip around the world I took in 2007. The trip cost a lot of money and basically sucked, and I spent most of the interview kvetching and moaning about unfriendly locals, wine I drank made from pickled cobras, and Melbourne's fly problem.) Note: It wasn't hard to get on the show. If you contact your local cable access station, there's probably a show about local artists, writers, or other topics for which you might qualify as an interview subject.

- My previously published story, "Domination for Dummies," was accepted for an e-book erotica anthology (a small, independent press.) Due out later this year.

- A humor piece called "Productivity Secrets of a Successful Novelist" accepted by Calliope magazine for print and online (A small print and Web journal.)

- "Domination for Dummies" was also accepted by Bizzarocast, a podcast that I'm guessing reaches a younger audience. (I should have asked about the audience. Regardless, I need all the publishing credits I can get). Supposed to appear Valentine's Day. I'll get paid $5.


Attribution for image at top of blog: By aTarom [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Book Marketing: E-mail Lists and Newsletters

Why Bother?

- You collect the names and e-mails addresses -- and you own them (not Facebook, Linked In, or Twitter).
- You can contact people directly via e-mail instead of waiting for them to view your posts.
- Historically, e-mail is supposed to elicit a higher response rate. (I.e. more people will buy your book or click your links.)
- You can collect names at parties, readings, and other face-to-face venues -- and add them manually. With a blog, you can add someone's e-mail address, but they have to verify that they want your blog or content, which, for many people, is an added hassle.
- Once your lists are set up, they're relatively easy to use.
- You don't have to post hourly, daily, or even monthly to stay in contact with people.
- Your hard-earned list is not subject to the vagaries and pricing schemes of social media sites.

 

Special Uses

- Create different e-mail lists for different types of subscribers. My blog covers a variety of topics ranging from humorous erotica to dating humor to travel to book marketing. Some experts say I should have a separate blog for each topic. Sorry. But by adding a sign-up box for different e-mail lists at the end of different types of articles, I can address different audiences. (For example, by posting a sign-up box, I can also see if anyone is interested in a particular topic. For example, if no one signs up for my "Humorous Erotica" newsletter, I won't write one.)
- On my blog, every month I have one or two people who sign up and for some reason don't verify their accounts, so they don't receive my blog. I've tried emailing, but some still have problems. I can just add them to an email list and forward by weekly blog feed to them.

How to Get Started 

 

1) Create a List for Each Group of Contacts

- For small lists (less than 50 names), such as those who signed up for my blog but haven't been able to verify their accounts, I added their names to a "Lonely Planet" list I created in my Web e-mail service, which is Yahoo. Yahoo and most other Web-based e-mail services limit the number of people you can e-mail at one time.

- For larger lists, such as my list of former co-workers and other acquaintances who may be interested in periodic (quarterly) updates on my book's progress, I use a free e-mail service, called MailChimp. The free version of the service, allows you contact up to 2,000 people six times a month. If I ever have more than 2,000 people, I will gladly pay a monthly fee.

- Cleaning up and uploading e-mails lists is a time-consuming process that can involve saving your e-mail contacts to another program and then uploading them to your e-mail service. I use Yahoo! Mail and went to my Contacts page and exported my contacts using the CSV option. (CSV is a format that you can edit in Excel and eliminate worthless contacts and stray information. I kept only First Name and Last Name (if I had them), and the E-mail address. Then I resaved the file as an CSV and upload it to Mail Chimp.)

I downloaded my contacts using the Yahoo! CSV option, which allowed me to edit the file in Excel.

2) Create Content for Each Group

- The shorter the e-mail the better (My note to former co-workers and acquaintances will include a few highlights with links to a blog, a youtube video, and some publications.)
- I started a real e-mail newsletter for people who attend my readings. (Even though my book isn't finished, I've reading scenes from it for years.) This newsletter includes three sections: Local reading events that may interest readers, some links to recent blog posts, and links to a few weird Web links.

3) How Often to Publish?

- I assemble and the newsletter mentioned above once a month. (I collect tidbits throughout the month and save them to a folder. Assembling the newsletter itself takes about two hours.)
- For the note to colleagues, I'll send a plain e-mail quarterly or when I have big news.
- For the other topics (Humorous Erotica, Travel, etc), I'll publish monthly -- provided I get some people to sign up.

 General Tips

- E-mail Services like Mail Chimp can track whether anyone actually opens your e-mail. If only a few people open it, you may want to resend it to people who didn't open it.
- Experts say the best time to send out an e-mail is Tuesday through Thursdays between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Experts say a lot of stuff. You might want to experiment with different times to determine your best response rate.
- Did I mention to keep the newsletter short, include lots of white space, and links? E-mail services have basic templates you can use for a semi-professional look without a lot of grief.
- Offer a freebie for people who sign up. (A free story, a free e-book of writing samples.)
- To collect e-mails on your Web site or blog, you'll use a service like Mail Chimp to create a sign in box that allows people to add their e-mails. If possible don't use the word subscribe in the sign-in box -- people will assume they have to pay for something.

The  sign-up box on my travel site does not include the word "subscribe," a word that implies you have to pay.

For more information on e-mail and newsletters, here's a cheat sheet from E-Mail Marketing for Dummies.


*E-mail slingshot image at top of this blog by PCL-BO [CC-BY-SA-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

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