Three tips for Book Marketing Success

By Wayne Perkins
Posted Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Have you ever heard the expression, " the quickest way to reach your goals is to help others reach their goals?"

I remember this expression and use it as my Internet book-marketing plan. It has paid off with 3 best selling books for me in the past year.

How does it work in Internet Bookselling? Let me explain.

Websites generally have three characteristics that help them consistently remain in the top search engine standings:

1. Websites must add and change their content often. (Once or twice a day is perfect)
2. Websites must offer an e-zine or newsletter. The top websites offer newsletters and e-zines that are delivered via e-mail every day. 3. Websites will usually have their own bookstore with an affiliation or association with Amazon.com to allow visitors a method of purchasing books that complement the information on the website.

Top websites spend a great deal of time and money to remain at the top of the heap. Everyone wants to be there, but only a few can hold down those top positions.

Understanding these three characteristics have enabled me to achieve my goals by helping websites achieve their goals.

Step One: Search for the Big Guys on the Internet

I have two areas of expertise. I am a hypnotist who writes books and e-books on how to achieve success through hypnosis. I am also an E- book Marketing Consultant and write books on how to write and sell e- books.

In order to find top websites that may be interested in hypnosis, I search on broader topics like "health" and "mental health." For my books on E-book marketing I search on topics like "Internet marketing" and "E-commerce."

Even though there are hundreds of search engines and thousands of directories, I begin with searching on Yahoo. Yahoo is a directory that is difficult to get into and even more difficult to maintain a high ranking.

>From my own experience once I made the top of the heap in Yahoo, under "hypnotism" my web traffic more than doubled and stayed that way over the past three years.

Therefore, I conclude that the websites that arise to the top of Yahoo will be much more highly visited than through other search engines and directories.

Step Two: Help the Webmaster Offer More Content

Once I search under the two major categories that fit my topic, I send e-mail to the webmasters at those sites sending along my article or sample chapter.

I tell the webmasters I would appreciate posting my article for their readers in return for a short bi-line or description on what I do and a link over to Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com or my own website in return for the favor.

Most webmasters jump at the opportunity at receiving free content that allows them to maintain the high rankings on their websites.

Step Three: Help the Website Newsletter Editor

The top ranking websites also sponsor their own newsletter or e-zine. After contacting the webmaster about content added directly to the website, I then contact the newsletter editor in regards to placing an article or sample chapter in the newsletter.

Sometimes at the bottom of a sample newsletter there will be specific instructions on how to submit articles. Many times there is even a section on the website where you can post your articles directly to the editor.

After following the directions in the newsletter, I submit my article or sample chapter to the website newsletter editor.

I have just added more content to their website, again helping the website increase traffic and at the same time direct interested visitors to my book offerings located in the author's bi-line.

Step Four: Help the Website Bookstore Make Money

Most of the time, you will find that the top websites also have their own bookstore. Usually the Website bookstore will be an "associate of Amazon.com."

For example: You search on the keyword "health" on Yahoo and are taken to the top five health sites. Let's call the top website "health.com."

After navigating around the website you find a Health.com bookstore that offers many titles on a particular aspect of health you are interested in. When you click on a book cover on that website, you are immediately sent over to a book description page on Amazon.com.

If you look at the complete link that shows up in your browser you will see an URL (the Internet address) which looks something like this:

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1929695217/healthcom/104- 2910323-8772701)

The two most important parts of the link are the ISBN number which is the number called "ASIN/" which is Amazon.com's identification number, and the words following the book's ISBN number which is "/healthcom."

"Healthcom" is the website's Amazon.com Associate identification number. This number allows the website to get paid for any sales that result by someone clicking on the link and then purchasing the featured book on Amazon.com.

The next thing you do is shave off the number off the end of the URL.

Now the URL will look like this:

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1929695217/healthcom)

If your own book title listed on Amazon.com has an ISBN number or ASIN number of 1585003557, what you do is insert that ISBN number in place of the website's featured book.

Now the URL will look like this:

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1585003557/healthcom)

That new URL is going to mean instant book sales for you.

Take your revised URL with your book ISBN and send a short message via e-mail again to the webmaster of the website.

Ask the webmaster to feature your book on the website. Mention that you are including the URL with the website's Amazon.com Associate identification number.

Within a few days you will begin to see a surge in your book sales as a result of this technique.

Summary:

By helping the webmaster add content, the newsletter editor offer new articles and the website bookstore earn more money from Amazon.com by adding your books, you are helping the website maintain a top ranking.

By helping the top websites achieve their goals you are driving qualified traffic to your own website or to Amazon.com to fulfill your goal of becoming a best selling author.

About the Author
Wayne Perkins is an E-book Marketing Consultant and author of the best selling e-book, A Cheap and Easy Guide to Self-publishing E- books.
(http://www.wayneperkins.net/order/BkTitles.html) Wayne offers free e-book marketing teleseminars at: (http://www.wayneperkins.net/ebooks/write.html) mailto:wayne@wayneperkins.net