Even though blogging represents a promotional activity, this module primarily focuses on promotional activities necessary to help your blogged book succeed. Additionally, this module discusses different blog elements you need to help readers navigate your blogged book and later purchase it.
A blogged book promotion plan doesn’t differ that much from a printed book’s promotion plan. You already have a blog in place, which serves as the hub of all your promotional efforts, but you need to tie it in to social networks. Additionally, it becomes important for a variety of reasons to connect with other bloggers.
As you prepare your site, it’s essential to plan to collect email addresses of those who might later want to purchase your printed book or ebook. Therefore, this module discusses email lists. It also includes information on how to sell your book via a sales page on your blog site.
To house a blogged book, your blog needs some special features. These include an “About the Book” and “About the Author” page, a table of contents, and a way to turn pages. The pitch and book summary you prepared in module one can be placed on your “About this Book” page now to help entice visitors to read your book—or to compel an agent or acquisitions editor to offer you a contract.
Last, but not least, with the knowledge of what you need to do to promote your book and finish setting up your blog, you can determine the final expenses you will incur while blogging your book, including book production. This is important information for your business plan if you want to know how to price your book or how to budget for completion of your work in progress.
Module Three Video
Module Three Audio
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Module Three Video PDF
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Module Three Video: How to Promote Your Blog Posts
Module Three Video: How to Promote Your Blog Posts PDF
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Module Three Video: How to Promote Your Blog Posts PDF
Exercises
Create a Promotion Plan
- Create this as part of your overall business plan.
- Set up your social networking accounts
- Place social share buttons on your blog (plugin)
- Connect with other bloggers (online and offline)
- Create a mailing list
What Else Can You Do?
- Create a list of promotional activities.
Prepare Your Blog for a Book
- Create the following on your blog:
- A table of contents page
- A way to “turn pages”
- “About the author” and “about this book” pages
- A sales page for published book
- Categories
Create a budget
- Research all your costs and make a list of them.
- Create a budget or a profit and loss statement for your book. (This also will help you later determine the cost of your book and how many books you need to sell before you start making money.)
Resources
Mailing List
Social Share Plugins (for WordPress.org)
- Share Buttons by AddToAny
- Social Media Widget
(Or research “social share” by “add new” on plugins)
Page Turning Plugins (for Wordpress.org)
- Single Post Navigation
- WP Post Navigation
- Any other you find
