How To Market Your Book Online Step 2: Setting Up A Blog for Your Book

Last time we covered the first step in creating an online marketing campaign for your book--setting up a website for your book with a way to capture email addresses.

Today we'll move to the 2nd step: 

Set up a blog to be associated with your book.

If you already have one, you’re ahead of the game! If you don't have one, that's okay--set one up. There are lots of easy-to-use blog platforms, like TypePad and WordPress.com. 

If you have the technical abilities or if you are outsourcing the work of setting up your blog to a technical person, it's best to put your blog on your own server (for SEO reasons), rather than to use shared hosting. You can use WordPress.org if you're installing your blog on your own server (WordPress.org is different from WordPress.com).

If you can't set the blog up on your own server, then use TypePad or WordPress.com

It’s important to be posting content on a regular basis, say twice a week or so. The content should be at least 600 words long (but no need to be much longer than that) and on the same general topic as your book. 

An easy way to come up with content would be to re-purpose some of the content from your book, if the book is non-fiction. It may not work as well on a fiction book.

The content that you post on your blog would ideally be educational, non-fiction content that teaches your readers how to do something or provides helpful information. The posts from the blog can then be recycled (and re-written) as articles.

Also, be sure to encourage interaction with your readers via the comments, as these readers are potential customers for your book.

The blog should also regularly link to the website for your book. 

Your Homework:

1. Set up a blog to be associated with your book if you don't have one already.
2. Start repurposing some of the content from your book as blog posts.
3. Encourage comments from readers. 

In case you missed it, here was Part 1 of this series:

How To Market Your Book Online

Comments

[Arlene]

Really like the blog, appreciate the share!

[Openwateronline.com]

It makes perfect sense to setup a blog for a book that you are promoting. I believe the keywords from the blog posts are going to direct people to the blog site and to your book. If people see what they want in the blog, you get a higher chance that they will purchase your book.