How To Promote What You Do Every Day

You have to promote what you do because there are no shortcuts to success in any business, including selling books. Promoting online publishing always needs work.

You need to have an excellent product and a plan for how you will tell people about it. Always tell them why they should consider it, use it, rent it, buy it, or get it for free.

If you are a small business owner, you always need to promote your products.

There are so many business models online. You need to be clear about your business model and how you expect to make money from it.

Promoting online publishing

The online publishing business is very diverse now

There are now so many different ways to earn an income.

It can no longer be simply defined as writers and authors publishing Kindle ebooks or print-on-demand paperback publishing.

Nor can blogging be set into one business category.

There is money to be made from free ebooks, free articles, and free membership.

You might start to ask and come to understand that an online business today is very different from what business was in the past.

No matter what form your online small business takes, you must find great ways to promote what you do.

You have to connect with customers to stand a chance of success.

It could be a Tweet, a Facebook post, a content marketing article, video marketing, or a press release.

You have to keep finding ways to promote, connect, and build relationships with potential customers.

Promoting ebooks and books

I received a message a little while ago from a new author.

I’ll paraphrase it.

My book has been on sale for a couple of months, but I haven’t sold a copy. What’s wrong with people?

Well, I had to ask if the author had bought a copy. At least to start things moving. No.

Ask good friends and family to buy a copy.

No.

Advertising or promotion?

No. Except for a few Facebook posts just after the book was published. Free book campaign. No.

Nothing will ever sell itself.

The above example is extreme, but at the same time, it is not that uncommon.

The ebook and book market is very competitive.

It goes without saying that you need to work to get your book in front of people’s noses to stand a chance of getting sales.

I have probably written more words on this blog about this subject than any other topic.

But I will refer you to one outlining the four steps to promote a book to save repeating myself.

A blog needs a lot of promoting

It’s hard work getting regular organic traffic without promoting your online publishing.

Blogging is easy if you are not concerned about getting lots of readers and making money. All you need is a free blogging platform, and that’s it.

But if you are serious about making blogging, or online publishing your business, you will have to work hard and publicize it day in and day out to connect with groups of people interested in your topic.

Many would instantly think here of social media, backlinks, and email marketing as the best ways to develop a blog.

While these are useful and essential, they are not always the most effective.

The most effective way to gain traffic to a blog is still by using SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

For those unfamiliar with SEO, it is all about getting the highest possible listing on Google, Bing, and Yahoo to attract new visitors.

The higher position you can reach, the more traffic you get.

Like anything else online, it is highly competitive, and it takes a lot of work every day to keep one step ahead of the competition.

For new bloggers, there are plenty of free SEO tools available online to help out.

But bloggers who are serious about earning an income and attracting potential customers will eventually decide to start using a professional suite of SEO tools such as those offered by Semrush, Ahrefs, or Majestic.

With the right tools, making decisions about effective keywords and monitoring, competitor analysis, and ROI on Adwords advertising is much easier.

You need to be noticed

A great example of how online marketing has now become a part of our daily online existence is Instagram.

So many young people, in particular, go to great lengths to gain followers on their Instagram accounts by merely using social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and Tumblr as staging points.

These accounts usually contain clear links directly back to their Instagram page.

Recognition is almost as powerful as money as a motivator.

On Instagram, recognition and being noticed are huge factors for some users to publicize themselves. And by doing so, unwittingly also help boost Instagram, which is a win-win of sorts.

If you have a Facebook page, you will know very well that Facebook peppers you with ‘Pay To Promote This Post’ pop-ups.

It is playing on your perceived need for recognition and gaining Likes. But it’s advertising, so there’s the possibility of making money.

When you do a simple Google search, you know but are probably blind to the first few paid advertisement entries.

You are reading this article for free. But this blog makes money from advertising and affiliate marketing.

Marketing and advertising campaigns are everywhere.

What do you want to sell?

I noted earlier about the author who sold no books. What’s wrong with the world?

There’s nothing wrong with the world, but the world is not psychic.

You have to promote what you do and tell the world what you have to offer, what you want to sell, why your product or service is the best, and what you want them to do.

If you have an advertising-supported blog, you need lots of site visitors to make money.

The best promotion tools you have are to blog regularly and promote your business with SEO and leverage social media, which is the new equivalent of word-of-mouth advertising, to the maximum.

If you are an author and have books to sell, you will only do so by getting the word out as far and as wide as possible.

If your social media accounts have only a few hundred followers or friends, you need to go much, much wider.

You could consider using a reliable book promotion service to gain extra traction.

You could write guest posts on top-ranking book blogs and comment on high-traffic blogs or local newspapers.

Use Amazon’s marketing tools, especially your Amazon Author page, to your best advantage.

Let a lot of people know about your free ebook days, and do not just hope that it will all work by itself.

Remember that people still talk to each other, albeit by messaging, posts, and sharing on social media.

But this is how the modern-day equivalent of person-to-person social proof validation works. Give them something to share and let them talk about it.

If no one knows you, no one buys

You always have to advertise and promote to get your business in front of the buyer’s eyes.

You also need to know your customer base so you can target your promotion.

But it can take a very simple form.

There are three butcher shops on the high street in my town.

Yes, all have a selection of cuts in the window, but you only notice if you walk by and happen to look in the window.

But one butcher’s shop is getting more business and is the most popular. Why?

Because there is a big, and I mean a massive cow outside his shop, you can see it from all the way down the high street.

It is an excellent example of what promoting your business is all about. To get noticed, you have to promote what you do and do it every day.

Related Reading: Sell Books On Amazon Without A Website Or Social Media