Internet Marketing Tips from Denise Wakeman

Publishers Marketing University

For the next 3 days Patsi and I will be hanging out in downtown Los Angeles at the Publishers Marketing Association University.  This is our third year presenting to authors and publishers about how blogs and books are a match made in heaven.

2008 PMA Publishers Marketing University, Los Angeles

The Blog Squad presents:

*  May 28, 2008, 2:00 p.m.: Optimize Your Web Site to Convert Visitors to Customers (with Jeniffer Thompson of Monkey C Media - we're talking about optimizing your blog)

*  May 29, 2008, 8:30 a.m.: Blogging Basics for Authors and Publishers

PMAU is a purely educational conference and is packed with content from some of the major players in publishing and marketing.  It's always a fantastic event and precedes the biggest book expo in the U.S....Book Expo America which opens on May 29 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Since we started blogging in 2004, we've advocated using a blog to both write and market a book.  We created the Blog to Book Project and have a free 7-step mini-course on how to use a blog to write your book.

Business Book Reviews on BizBook Nuggets

Recently, Patsi has resurrected her blog, BizBook Nuggets. This is the space where she is posting reviews of the many, many books she reads and reviews for colleagues and clients.

We also get contacted at least once a week to participate in Amazon book launch campaigns. Our policy now for these campaigns is that if the book is relevant to our audience, we will post a review on BizBook Nuggets, but we will not send a notice out to our list.  We need to protect our list and use it to keep our audience informed about our own programs, news and products.

List burnout is a real problem and with the number of requests we get, we've had to change our policy to "just say no". It's usually no reflection on the quality or relevance of the product or book.  Just got to draw the line somewhere.

We always want to support our colleagues in any way we can so our compromise is posting on BizBook Nuggets.  What does that mean for you? If you want to know about the latest and greatest books being published, all you have to do is subscribe to BizBook Nuggets blog and you'll get a notice when we have a new review.  They don't happen too frequently so you won't be bombarded with updates.

If you are getting requests to participate in Amazon book launches, what's your policy for accepting?  How do you say "no"? And, what are your current thoughts about the effectiveness of these campaigns?

Business Blogging: New Free Report Just Released

At long last, Patsi and I have released our brand new free report: Better Business Blogging: 4 New Concepts for Getting Spectacular Results.

An effective business blog has balance in these four areas: Content, Outreach, Design, and Action. You can't get spectacular results unless you pay attention to all four elements.

The CODA System consists of:

1. Content: writing quality posts that educate, engage, and enrich the lives of readers
2. Outreach: building relationships with other bloggers to become part of a larger community
3. Design: the little things in a blog design that contribute towards creating trust and connection with readers
4. Action: getting readers to respond through persuasive writing, encouraging a conversation, and converting readers to loyal fans and clients

Better Business Blogging: 4 New Concepts for Getting Spectacular Results, is available for free at www.betterbizblogging.com.

Big Juicy Twitter Guide

To follow up my last post about Twitter, via a post on Facebook, I learned about The Big Juicy Twitter Guide on Caroline Middlebrook's blog.

Maria Reyes-McDavis has also posted a long list of Twitter resources on her blog.

A couple of days ago I installed Twirl which is a desktop application that allows you to post and follow tweets on your desktop instead of logging in to your Twitter account online. I keep forgetting I have it and continue to go online.

Frankly I don't know how some people get anything done based on how much time I see them tweeting back and forth.  I tend to post once or twice a day and I have my blog posts set up to automatically get posted.  Occasionally I will spend 5-10 minutes to see who is tweeting and will respond to conversations and of course, try to add value, when possible.

Follow me on Twitter.

Twitter is gaining massive momentum

A month or so ago I mentioned that I finally started using Twitter and that it was sucking me in. I'm not as addicted as I was at that moment but I do realize it's a valuable tool and connect at least once a day if not more.

What makes Twitter valuable you ask?

1. Push out your blog posts to all your followers with twitterfeed.com
2. Let your followers know what you're doing/working on by updating your status. Use ping.fm to update the status on all your social networking sites
3. Build relationships with influencers in your niche by following them and responding to their tweets
4. Maintain your visibility with your customers and clients by inviting them to follow you
5. Send links to press releases, important blog posts, videos, etc.
6. It's a quick, efficient way to connect
7. Get rapid feedback on surveys or a problem you need solved

There's a lot more. This is just the tip of the iceberg. And there are a ton of new applications being developed for Twitter. Here are a few links among thousands that can help you get started and gain an understanding of why you may want to jump on this microblogging trend.

Jeremiah Owyang's Essential Twitter Tools:

Lynn Terry: 5 Ways To Build Your Following @Twitter.com

From Marketing Sherpa:
Get Famous Using Twitter to Market Your Company & Yourself

Related posts:

SOBCon08 provided great insights to social networking

Ping.fm manages status updates

http://www.biztipsblog.com/2008/04/twitter-there-i.html
http://www.biztipsblog.com/2008/04/twitter-is-suck.html