Promoting Your Writing on the Web

by Moira Allen

Since launching Writing-World.com, we've collected a number of articles and tips for promoting your writing on the Internet. As time has passed and the Web has evolved (and writers have become more Web-savvy), many of those articles have become out-of-date. So in this "round-up" of web tips, I've tried to sort out the best and most useful ideas from those that are either old hat or no longer applicable. (You may find some of these "old hat" anyway, but bear with us, as new writers join the Web ranks every day!)

1. E-mail Signatures. This is one of the simplest promotion tools available. Simply add a brief promotional message to your e-mail signature block. For example, if you've just published a new book, you might want to announce: "Just released: (Your title)" or "Coming to bookstores in July". You can also use a signature block to promote your website (I have different blocks for each of my websites, including Writing-World.com, The Pet Loss Support Page, and TimeTravel-Britain.com. E-mail signatures are a quiet, unobtrusive way to keep your message in front of everyone you correspond with, and they are especially useful when you are a member of a newsgroup or discussion group, where blatant self-promotion (i.e., e-mails to the group announcing your new book) may be discouraged. Be sure to always include your URL. Most writers advise against including a real-world address or phone number, as you have no idea where your e-mails may ultimately end up!

2. Multiple E-mail Accounts. If you are promoting more than one product, or are corresponding with different audiences, consider setting up separate e-mail addresses for each market segment. For example, I have one e-mail address for my Writing-World.com correspondence, another for the Pet Loss Support Page, and a third for TimeTravel-Britain.com correspondence. This helps avoid confusion among my correspondents; a person inquiring about my pet loss book, for instance, won't have to wonder why they are receiving an e-mail from an address relating to Britain, and vice versa. This also makes it easier to attach a customized e-mail signature to the appropriate address.

3. Your Own Domain. In the early days of the Internet, writers tended to sign up for free hosting on such sites as Geocities (now Yahoo!), Homestead, and other ISPs that often provided long and cumbersome URLs. Many of our articles offered advice on how to get a shorter, "forwarding" URL that pointed to one of these long addresses. Today, however, there's simply no excuse not to sign up for your own, personalized domain name. Registering a domain name costs about $20 per year or less (depending on how many years you sign up for). You may be able to host your domain on a free ISP (check our Website Resource Links for sites that will help you locate free or inexpensive ISPs), or you can find an ISP that charges as little as $10 per month for hosting. Many writers like to use their own name as their domain (e.g., "DeborahSmith.com"), while others craft a descriptive keyword or phrase (e.g., "DeborahWritesPoetry.com" or "BusyWriter.com"). If your name is already taken, look for variations. For example, if you can't acquire a ".com," look for a ".net" or ".bus". If you still can't acquire the name you want, look for a different way to spell it, such as "Deborah-Smith" or "Deborah_Smith". One important tip: Be sure to renew your domain in a timely fashion; it's embarassing to go to your own website and find that it is "down" because you forgot to renew your domain. (Yes, this has happened to me.)

4. Join a Community. No matter what subject you write about, you can find discussion lists relating to that subject. These are a good place to promote yourself and your work, as long as you follow one simple rule: No promotion! That may sound like a contradiction, but it isn't. Most discussion lists have firm rules about blatant self-promotion -- i.e., sending announcements or "press releases" to the list. The key to successful promotion is to make yourself known on the list as a helpful, interesting person. Ask questions, and answer them. Join into conversations. Let people get to know (and like) you. The better people know you, the more likely they are to pay attention to the promotional information you've discreetly tucked into your signature block -- and the more likely they are to refer you to others.

5. Get Interviewed. Many sites, ezines and newsletters are on the lookout for authors to interview. Most of these interviews are handled by e-mail, so you can answer questions on your own time and check your responses before they "go to press." Look for sites that review books on your general subject area (or just books in general), writing newsletters and e-zines, and sites that provide information on your topic. Send an e-mail to the site editor to let him or her know about your area of expertise. Refer the editor to your website, and if necessary, provide a review copy of your book. When completing your interview, provide useful information; don't just tell readers that they can learn more by buying your book!

6. Swap Links. Reciprocal linking is still one of the best ways to get your name out there on the Web, but it needs to be approached with care. I am bombarded with link requests from sites that have no relevance to our content, or that play the "I'll link to you if you'll link to me" game. This is not the way to generate positive attention! If you would like other sites to link to you, the first step is to spend some time hunting up sites that are genuinely relevant to your own, and that you have a valid reason to link to. One good way to do this is to do a link search on a site similar to your own, and find out who links to them. You can do this on Google by going into the Advanced Search menu and selecting the "link search" option. For example, if you want to find out who links to Writing-World.com, you can go into Google and enter "www.writing-world.com" in the appropriate search box. Once you've found sites that you feel are appropriate to add to your links section, send the site owner or webmaster a polite e-mail indicating that you have just added their link, and invite them to visit your site and consider linking back to you if they wish. Issuing the threat that you'll remove their link if they don't link back smacks of blackmail and is not appreciated.

7. Swap Web Ads. Many sites are interested in swapping advertising rather than links. You place their button or banner ad on your website, and they place your advertisement on theirs. Of course, before you can get into ad swaps, you must first design an ad! If you are a whiz at graphic design, by all means do this yourself, but if you aren't, it's well worth paying a professional to do it for you. (The fee generally runs from $75 to $150 for a button or small banner ad.) When ad-swapping, do check to see where your ad will appear on the other site's page (you may find that it's buried at the bottom of some hard-to-find "other resources" page, or that it appears on only one page of the site).

8. Purchase Advertising Space. Many sites, like Writing-World.com, sell advertising space. The key is to find a site that attracts the type of readers who are most likely to buy your book. If you have a book on writing, consider advertising on a writing-related website. If you have a book on gardening, look for gardening websites. If you are selling a service rather than a product, again, look for the appropriate type of site. If you wish to place web advertising, you'll need a button or banner ad, depending on the site's requirements. You can also advertise in e-mail newsletters, generally for a lower cost. One key to web advertising is to calculate how many copies of your book you'll need to sell (or how many customers you'll need to gain for your service) to make the cost of the ad worthwhile. Be sure to find out how many visitors the website has, or how many readers subscribe to a newsletter. (Some newsletters also track the "open rate," which is the number of readers who actually open an e-mail newsletter rather than those who simply receive it.)

9. Join the Amazon.com Affiliate Program. If you are promoting a book through your website, the best way to encourage sales is to direct customers straight to Amazon.com. Most readers prefer to buy books either from a bookstore or from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble; they are far less likely to visit your publisher's website. By joining Amazon.com's affiliate program, you can not only direct readers straight to your book page, you can also earn an extra fee (on top of your royalties) whenever a visitor actually buys your book. Amazon.com would like you to use their custom-designed affiliate links, but I recommend against this, for one very good reason: these links are set up to advertise the least expensive buying option for the book, which is generally a used copy, for which you would receive no royalties and practically no affiliate revenue. I recommend setting up a direct link to your book page, like this: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/XXXXXXX/youraffiliatename. The "XXXXXXX" is your book's ISBN, and the last part of the link will be the affiliate nickname that you choose when signing up. Once you have an affiliate link on your website, you will receive revenue for any book or product that a visitor to your site purchases on Amazon after accessing the site through your page. Of course, you can also set up a bookstore that links to books other than your own!

Subscribe to our Free Monthly Newsletter!