How to use this Page

My next online marketing e-class for WOW! Women on Writing is scheduled for March 4, 2013.

CREATING AND BUILDING YOUR AUTHOR ONLINE PRESENCE:
Website Creation to Beyond Book Sales by Karen Cioffi

START DATE:  Monday, March 4, 2013
DURATION:  6 weeks

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

As an author or writer, it’s a certain bet that you have something to sell; it may be your book, your skills, or your experience and knowledge. In order to sell what you’re offering, you need to create and build your online presence.

Why is this absolutely necessary?

Well, imagine being a spec in the sky . . . so tiny and far away that you’re invisible to the human eye. That’s you in the Internet universe. So, how do you get a flickering light going and build it into a steady strong beam?

By creating and building your author online presence.

If you’re a first time author, the process should begin before your book will be available for sale. This course will take you from square one right on through to beyond book sales.

If you have one or more books under your belt and already have a website up and running, but want to extend your marketing reach and draw more traffic to your site, or you want to branch out with additional writing related products or services, weeks two through six of this class will help you achieve just that.

The class will also provide two live or replay screen-sharing webinars to further aide in understanding. Screen-sharing allows the presenter to share her screen, so students can see how each step is done.

Here’s an outline of the six lessons:

1. The Bare-Bottom Platform Basics: The Foundation and Creating an Author Website

2. Blogging for Success: Creating Effective Content

3. Article Marketing: 10 Steps to Writing for Article Directories with Properly Formatted and Optimized Content

4. How to Create Ebooks for Freebies and for Sale, Including Creating a Cover with Microsoft Office 2010

5. How to Create PayPal ‘Buy Now’ Buttons for Your Site/s

6. How to Create a Product Line and Attracting Customers Through Information Marketing

And, there are two bonus lessons!

For full details, with a breakdown of each lesson and testimonials, go to:
http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html#KarenCioffi_AuthorOnlinePresence1

Here are a few Testimonials (there are more on the WOW! page):

The last three weeks have been invaluable and this course has helped in so many amazing ways. Thanks for all the wisdom. I am learning a ton and feel so much more equipped to build my platform. Thank you so much.

~ Amy Crawford, PhD, LMFT
Psychotherapist & Writer Specializing in Military PTSD
www.amyleecrawford.com

~~~~~

Three months after starting my freelance editing business, I knew I needed a website and blog but was too overwhelmed to set them up. Karen Cioffi’s class, “Creating and Building Your Author Online Presence: Website Creation to Beyond Book Sales,” looked like the perfect nudge I needed. And was it ever! Karen provides even more information than I’d hoped for. She is approachable, helpful, and knowledgeable, and not only did I learn what I knew I needed to learn, I also came away with new marketing strategies I hadn’t even thought about—and that’s saying something, considering my background in publishing. If you’re even just thinking about writing a book someday, take this course now and start building your author platform!

~ Candace Johnson, Change It Up Editing and Writing Services

~~~~~

Karen Cioffi knows her stuff! I sat in on her class and was extremely impressed by her course materials, website evaluations, and personal coaching with students. She knows a lot about making your website stand out from the pack—even an old pro like me learned a thing or two! She provided students with unique solutions personally tailored to their own websites that I would never have thought of. I highly recommend this course for those who are looking to build their online platform. Karen goes above and beyond for her students and is a fantastic mentor.

~ Angela Mackintosh, editor and publisher of WOW! Women On Writing

~~~~~

Karen Cioffi is the go-to person for online marketing. She knows her stuff and does what she does with heart.

~ Carolyn Howard-Johnson, multi award-winning poet, writer of fiction, speaker and teacher

~~~~~

Let me help you get your online light going - sign up today!

Add a Comment

CREATING AND BUILDING YOUR AUTHOR ONLINE PRESENCE:
Website Creation to Beyond Book Sales

I'm conducting another online class through WOW! Women on Writing that will definitely benefit you if, you want to:

• Create or increase your author online presence
• Build or tweak your website
• Learn to blog for success
• Learn how to do effective article marketing
• Learn how to create an ebook and cover
• Learn how to use PayPal buy buttons
• Learn how to create your own product line

CHECK OUT THE LESSON TITLES

1. The Bare-Bottom Platform Basics: The Foundation and Creating an Author Website

2. Blogging for Success: Creating Effective Content

3. Article Marketing: 10 Steps to Writing for Article Directories with Properly Formatted and Optimized Content

4. How to Create eBooks for Freebies and for Sale, Including Creating a Cover with Microsoft Office 2010

5. How to Create PayPal ‘Buy Now’ Buttons for Your Site/s

6. How to Create a Product Line and Attracting Customers Through Information Marketing

This class is for authors and those who are trying to get a foot in the online visibility door, and those who want to become more effective marketers, so be sure to check out the WOW page for the details. You'll find out exactly what each Lesson includes. And, there are two bonus lessons and at least one screen-sharing webinar!

The class size is limited, so SIGN UP FOR CREATE YOUR AUTHOR ONLINE PRESENCE TODAY!

~~~~~

Add a Comment

Book Publishing - How to Construct Your First Book for Long Term Royalties

Guest Post by By Neil Harland

First you'll have to make a list of all the topics that are of interest to you, or have expert knowledge of. There's no point in planning on a book that you are not going to be able to write about, as you'll simply lose interest and not be able to focus on getting the project complete.

Now don't go thinking you'll make a load of money from fiction books. Yes the author's of fifty shades of grey and Harry Potter may have made millions from it, but much harder for the small fry startup to achieve.

So from your list of interests, pick out the one you love the most, and if it's something you do regularly in your job, etc, then even better. Now before you can begin writing, you'll need to do loads of reading up and revision on the subject, so over to Google or get down to the local library and get stuck in. This gets the brain loaded up with all the ammunition you'll need to conquer the task of writing the book.

Even if you're outsourcing the writing part, you still need some background knowledge of the subject so the instructions you give your ghostwriter must be clear cut and thinks must be accurate if your book is to become a big hit.

So when reading up on the subject and getting ideas for your book, jot down loads of notes as you go along. And brainstorm your own ideas and ways you can make it as original as possible, as if you don't your cover will be blown and people will know it's just a re-hash of someone elses work.

Next step is to decide on chapter names. Then look over your notes and estimate how many pages you are going to have in the book. I would aim for a minimum of five to ten pages per chapter.

So in your favourite word processor, start out with your list of chapter names all in order, with bold typeface. Then you can get stuck into the writing part. And if you have a passion for the subject that won't be much of a problem, unless you're not a fast typer. In that case you should hire someone from a freelance site, just do a Google search for 'freelance ghostwriters' or 'content' or 'article' writers. You'll find some quite talented people for great price too.

Then once your chapter text has been written up, time to do the Contents table. Most word processors these days have an automated feature that will generate the list. However for ebooks, it's a good idea to link each item in the contents list with the corresponding Chapter title. This is fairly easy to do, you just use the same method as for linking to a web page, but instead link to an 'anchor' or 'section' marker point within the document.

Finally, you'll want to proof read your new masterpiece. Look out for typos, bad grammar, and of course double check any facts you've used. It would also be a good idea to have someone else read it before publishing, and get a bit of feedback too.

So at this stage you have all the text ready and checked. The cover is next, and most importantly, the book title. If your graphic design skills are good, go ahead and design your own front cover. For an ebook you can get one done quite cheaply on a freelancers hiring site. The main thing here is the title - it must read like a headline of a sales letter and attract the perosn into buying your book.

Then onto ebook formats. When they first came about, many software programs popped up that would generate an executable file as the ebook. However some devious people were implanting malicious code into them, and virus scan software would then detect the ebook as a bad file, resulting in people not opening the ebook at all. So the format I suggest for your final ebook is the cross platform PDF file format. It works on Apple Macs, iPads as well as Windows systems. You can even set opening and editing passwords to protect from fraudulent copying of your ebook.

Now for the big question. How do you set this up for ongoing royalty payments? Well, as most will know it is very hard to get your book into stores like Easons or Barnes & Noble and the like. Well the answer is Amazon. They will even print it and market it on their site for you, although they do take a fair percentage, but you don't have to lift a finger once you get up and running.

Thenk the Kindle publishing platform is even better again. You simply upload your ebook file, write a description, set your price and that's it. But you'll get paid less per sale, although chances are more units will sell than the hard copy versions.

Enjoy this article? Want more detail on each step discussed here then get over to this page on the fiverr site. You'll find out ten more ways you can profit from self publishing books, plus lots of tips for marketing your masterpiece. Click Here for Books Blueprint.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7388133

~~~~~
RECOMMENDED TOOL:

Want to create an effective money-making ebook in 7 days? If you said yes, then you’ll want to know about How to Write Your Own Ebook in 7 Days by Jim Edwards.

Over the last 14 years, Jim has written, created, and sold ‘millions of dollars’ in ebooks and info-products online. And, he has helped thousands of authors.

Get your copy of How to Write Your Own Ebook in 7 Days and get started today!



~~~~~
MORE ON WRITING

Ebooks are a Must
Writing an Ebook – What’s Stopping You? Part 1 of 4 Part Series
Building an Writer’s Portfolio

~~~~~
To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).
Karen Cioffi
Multi-award Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter, Editor, Online Marketer, Affiliate Marketer
Writer’s Digest Website of the Week, June 25, 2012

Karen Cioffi Professional Writing Services
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/karen-cioffi-writing-services/

Author Online Presence and Book Marketing Ecourse:
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/book-marketing-ecourses/

~~~~~

Add a Comment

CREATING AND BUILDING YOUR AUTHOR ONLINE PRESENCE - Website Creation to Beyond Book Sales

I'm instructing a six-week online workshop through WOW! Women on Writing.

It'll be six-weeks of learning how to create and build your author online presence, from creating a website right on through beyond book sales.

The course will be information packed and will have at least two live screen-sharing webinars to help with understanding. Because it's so comprehensive, students are limited to 10, so if after reading what the course will cover, and you'd like to be on board to learn effective book marketing strategies, click on the link.
http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html#KarenCioffi_AuthorOnlinePresence

HERE'S A BREAKDOWN OF EACH LESSON:

Week One: The Bare-Bottom Platform Basics: Creating an Author Website and Blog Content

Lesson One is divided into two sections:

14 Steps to Creating an Effective Website, which includes:

•    Choosing a domain name
•    About the site’s subtitle
•    Basic differences between Blogger and WordPress
•    The various website pages you’ll need and what should be on them
•    The basics of website optimization

Effective Blog Posting, which includes:

•    The importance of posting regularly
•    Keyword basics
•    Anchor text basics
•    Tags basics
•    Using images and video in your posts

If you don’t yet have a website or blog, this is the time to create one. The information provided in Lesson One will give you the tools needed to create a website that’s reader friendly and SEO ready.

Since Lessons One, Two, and Six refer to search engine optimization (SEO), information on SEO, SEO marketing basics, and Google’s latest update will be included in week one.

Note: Each lesson has an assignment.

Week Two: Article Marketing: 10 Steps to Writing for Article Directories with Properly Formatted and Optimized Content
`
Week two is an A – Z lesson on article marketing. It explains what article marketing is and its importance. This lesson discusses:

•    How to find article ideas
•    How to create an effective title
•    Types of articles you can write
•    The parts of an article and word counts
•    Using outlines or templates
•    Summaries needed for article directories
•    The resource box
•    Where to submit your articles

To take it further, we’ll discuss how to properly format and optimize your content, so search engines will easily find and index it and readers will value and share it.

Week Three: How to Create eBooks for Freebies and for Sale, including creating a cover with Microsoft Office 2010

This week offers a step-by-step lesson showing how to create your own ebook and cover. The lesson is divided into two sections:

Creating an ebook:

•    Creating an eBook: 5 Simple Steps
•    Offering an eBook for Free
•    Offering an eBook for Sale
•    About the ISBN, Copyright, and Creative Common License

Creating an ebook cover:

•    Basic Instructions for Microsoft Office Features
•    Design Your Own eBook Cover in 10 Easy Steps Using Microsoft Office 2010
•    Additional Tips for Designing Your Own eBook Covers
•    Things to Watch For
•    Sample Example One with Step-by-Step Instructions
•    Sample Example Two with Step-by-Step Instructions

In this lesson you will actually create an ebook and a cover to go with it. We’ll also discuss the benefits of creating an ebook to offer as a freebie on your site.

Included in Lesson Three is a live 30-45 minute screen-sharing webinar that will demonstrate how to use Microsoft Office to create a cover.

Week Four: How to Create PayPal ‘Buy Now’ Buttons for Your Site/s

Lesson Four provides step-by-step instructions on how to create a PayPal Buy Button and how to upload the code onto your site.

Week four covers:

•    The need for ‘Buy Now’ buttons
•    Creating a PayPal account
•    The steps required to add an ebook to PayPal Merchant Services
•    The pros and cons of having the ebook sent automatically to the purchaser or sending it personally
•    Uploading the HTML code onto your website or blogsite

The lesson also goes over the eight elements needed to create an effective landing page for your ebook, if you choose to sell it.

Week Five: How to Create a Product Line and Attracting Customers Through Information Marketing

Through lessons Two and Three you will have the foundation for creating a number of products within your market. Lesson Five is divided into two sections and discusses what products you can create and how to get visitors (potential customers) to your site. It includes:

How to Create and Sell Information Products:

•    What is an information product and product line?
•    What’s the benefit of creating information products?
•    Types of information products you can create
•    Types of content you can provide
•    What topic should you focus your product on?

Attracting Customers (Generating Visibility) Through Information Marketing

The importance and primary purpose of attracting visitors to your site
Effective strategies to generate visibility and attract visitors
The mailing list
The most effective strategy to use to increase your subscriber list

Week Six: How to Create Your Own PowerPoint Webinars

Presenting webinars is one of the top marketing tools. The final lesson will have you creating your own webinar. This lesson explains:

•    What a webinar is
•    Six reasons why you should offer webinars
•    What exactly is a PowerPoint webinar
•    What webinar service you should use
•    Some technical elements of webinars
•    How to prepare for a PowerPoint presentation
•    How to present a PowerPoint webinar
•    A bit about enhancing your conversion rate

Lesson six will also has a 30-45 minute live screen-sharing webinar to help demonstrate the basics of creating a PowerPoint document.

Note: A replay of the webinars will be available.

AND, THERE'S A BONUS LESSON THAT GOES OVER EVEN MORE MARKETING INFORMATION.

I'll be answering questions and checking the assignments, so if you're interested please sign up today:
http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/WOWclasses.html#KarenCioffi_AuthorOnlinePresence.

~~~~~~~~~~

To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars - signup for The Writing World newsletter on the right top sidebar!

Karen Cioffi
Multi-award Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter, Editor, Marketer
Writer’s Digest Website of the Week, June 25, 2012
“This site from Karen Cioffi should stand as a model for other freelance writers.”
~ Brian A. Klems, Online Editor for Writer’s Digest

Karen Cioffi Professional Writing Services
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/karen-cioffi-writing-services/

Add a Comment

The foundation of marketing includes having yearly, monthly, and weekly marketing goals - this is crucial to achieving success. With goals, you know where you’re heading and can work toward that end.

Marketing goals can be considered a marketing plan, and it will have a number of steps or objectives that must be set in motion and accomplished.

Whether you’re trying to sell a product or services, five of the basic marketing tips are:

1. Create a presence and platform

Creating an online presence and platform can be initiated by creating a website or blog. First though, you’ll need to be sure of your niche because the site name and content should reflect your area of expertise is.

Remember, plan first. Choose a site name that will grow with you. Using an author as an example, if you choose a site name, Picture Books with [Your Name], you’ve limited yourself. What if your next book is for young adults?

Some authors create sites with the name of their book. This is a good strategy for pure focus on that one book, but again, what happens when more books become available. Will you create a site for each of your books?

While you can do this, you will be stretching yourself thin and diluting your main focus: you as the author of multiple books.

Leave room to grow; it’s always advisable to use your name as the site’s name.

In addition, with today’s gone-in-a-second attention span, it’s a good idea to keep your site simple. Sites that take a few seconds or more to load may cause you to lose potential buyers.

2. Increase visibility

Writing content for your readers/visitors is the way to increase visibility. The word is: Content is King. Provide interesting, informative, and/or entertaining content that will prompt the reader to come back.

Also, be sure your content is pertinent to your site, and keep your site and content focused on your platform.

3 Draw traffic to your site

To draw traffic to your site, promote your posts by using social media. You can also do article marketing which will increase your visibility reach.

Another strategy is to offer your readers free gifts, such as an e-book relevant to your niche. This will help to increase your usefulness to the reader.

This is considered organic marketing; it funnels traffic back to your site with valuable content and free offers.

4 Have effective call-to-actions

Your site must have call-to-action keywords that will motivate readers to visit and click on your links. Keywords to use include:

•    Get your Free gift now for subscribing
•    Subscribe to our Newsletter
•    Free e-book to offer on your own site
•    Buy Now
•    Sign up
•    Don’t hesitate, take advantage of our expert services
•    Be sure to Bookmark this site

You get the idea, motivate the reader to want what you’re offering and give him/her a CLEAR and VISIBLE call-to-action. Make it as simple as possible for the visitor to buy what you’re offering.

5. Develop a relationship with your readers

It’s been noted that only 1% of first time visitors will buy a product. Usually, only after developing a relationship through your newsletter, information, and offer strategies will your potential customer or client click on the BUY NOW button.

While i

Add a Comment

LOL, I just made up a new word, "aftertalk." Okay, moving forward, I presented the How to Create an Ebook and What Your Can Do With It last night, and if I say so myself, it offered a great deal of information. But, since we went past the hour and I still didn't get everything in, I'm writing this post.

First I want to thank Elysabeth Eldering for moderating and copying the workshop chat for me. And, I'd like to thank all the attendees who took the time to join in.

For those who registered to attend, whether in attendance or not,  if you'd like the transcript of the workshop please email me at: karencioffi(AT)ymail - (DOT) - com and put "Workshop transcript" in the subject box.

After Workshop Package

Also, as soon as I can prepare it, there will be a "After Workshop Package" for anyone who is interested in purchasing it. The package will include the ebook How to Create an Ebook and What You Can Do With It, the transcript of the workshop which has A LOT MORE information not included in the ebook, and if I get around to it, a podcast of information from the ebook and the transcript.


Now on to some of the information in the workshop and additional information on publishing your own ebook.

What is the purpose of creating an ebook?

•    To provide a solution to a person’s problem, need, or want.
•    To create a free gift, ethical bribe, to entice readers to subscribe to your newsletter.
•    To offer for free and allow reprinting (passed on), letting it go viral. This increases your visibility and expert status.
•    To offer for sale on your site or through sites such as Kindle and Smashwords, and/or to sell through services like Amazon’s CreateSpace as a physical book.

What Qualifies You to Write an Ebook? Are You an Expert?

•    Have you studied a particular subject for 10,000 hours? This is the generally accepted criteria for a ‘real’ certified expert.
•    But in the online world, if you’ve read 5 books on a particular topic, you are considered an authority and know more about that topic than at least 90% of other people; this gives you expert status.
•    While there may be those who know much more about your topic than you, you are the authority to the majority of people who know less than you!
•    Having knowledge in a specific area and being able to teach it to others gives you authority.

Is it worth it to create ebooks?

•    Amazon now sells more ebooks than physical books!
•    You should be taking advantage of this opportunity to create visibility and money

Places to publish and/or promote your ebooks (most for free)

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=printpublisher&continue=https://books.google.com/partner/gaiaauth&hl=en_US&ltmpl=books
(Promote your books on Google for FREE)
Kindle: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin
http://smashwords.com
http://lulu.com

Display Comments Add a Comment

You know . . . an easy way to turn your knowledge into possible income is to create a booklet or e-book. And, with an e-book, if you use sources such as Lulu.com and Smashwords.com, it won’t cost a penny. It’s as easy as putting the pieces of a puzzle together.

But, on the flip side, if you’re thinking of doing B2B (business to business) work, businesses would prefer a booklet to hand out to prospects, clients, or employees.

While booklets have their place, today, I’m going to address e-books because they're such an amazing product and they can be absolutely FREE to create! What else can you create for FREE and SELL for whatever you think it is worth? The only cost is your time and some effort.

All you need to do is open a Word document and start typing away. Get all that expert knowledge you’ve accumulated over the year/s and create your content. Just be sure that your content will actually be of value to your readers and reliable.

Pretty easy so far, right?

Now that your content is set, you can add pictures. If you can believe it, this is free also! Just use clip art or visit sites such as Freepixels.com, or MorgueFile.com. Another easy way to do this is to take your own pictures. Download them onto your computer and then upload them into your e-book. If you have a program such as Photoshop Elements you can create all types of variations of one simple photo.

That’s it! Now, it’s time to take your Word doc and upload it to Lulu.com, or other source. You can also use a pdf creator and change your word doc into a pdf file—you have an e-book!
Is that cool!

So, what can you do with that e-book you created . . . well, just about anything!
You can sell it on your site through Paypal or Google checkout, or use a shopping cart service; you can sell it through Lulu or Smashwords; you can offer it as a free gift to entice visitors to sign up for your newsletter. If you’re giving it away as a free gift to subscribers to your site, you can get even more bang for your effort by making it reprint allowable. This is a great way to increase your visibility, create backlinks, and bring traffic back to your site. You can also offer it as a combo with other works you have for sale. And, you will be establishing and promoting your expertise . . . you get the idea.

What? You’re not sure if you can do it on your own? That’s okay, don’t fret.
If you’re a little hesitant about undertaking this task, there is help available at here at DVK Writing 4 U. Whether you’re an author looking for exposure and promotion, or you want to offer a free gift on your site, or want to earn some money with it . . . if you’re a business looking to increase traffic and visibility and sales . . . contact us today.

In fact, through May 31st, 2010, DKV Writing 4 U is having a SPECIAL:
5 page e-book, on a topic you choose, for $25.00
10 page e-book, on a topic you choose, for $50.00

Go to DKV Writing 4 U to check out the details.

Related Articles:

7 Mistakes eBook Authors Make


Beyond Book Sales: Marketing and Diversification

Until next time,

Karen Cioffi
Display Comments Add a Comment