September 10: the tenth day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to review your blog. Do you have a clear purpose for your blog page and every individual post? What do you write posts about? How often do you post? How can you best use blogging as a marketing tool? We'll explore those questions today.

Do you have a clear purpose for your blog page and every individual post?
In my pre-challenge post I advised you to make sure your blog, if you have one, is on your website, so it can attract people to your website. (If you missed that post, read it here.)

Once they come, however, your blog page, like every page of your website, should have a goal for them. A call-to-action, on every page. What, exactly, do you want each page of your website to encourage visitors to do? To contact you, so you can start building a relationship with them? Then have a Contact Me button where they can't help but see it. To sign up for your newsletter? Have a Sign Up button. (More about that in a future challenge). To buy your books? Feature your books in the heading or sidebar of every page.

Yes, you want your blog posts to interest and entertain your site visitors, but you also want them to motivate anyone who reads them to ---  (write your goal here)

Now check your blog page and your posts. Have you motivated your reader to do that? Have you made it easy for him/her to do it right now after reading the post, or does he/she have to hunt through your site to do so?

What do you write posts about?
Are you writing posts that attract readers? Posts on writing, even if you have a lot to say about the subject, attract writers, not readers. ( This is an I'm-not-following-my-own-advice-grin ;-) )

So what can you post about that will attract readers?

Here are a list of things to try:

• stories of your own life, lessons you've learned,
• excerpts from your books,
• stories about your characters that aren't in your book,
• updates on your WIP,
• book and movie reviews.
• Get out that list you made on day one, of your target market's interests and hobbies. (Find the challenge that discusses that here.) Write about those.

How often do you post?
This is up to you; my only advice is to go for quality over quantity. Every autumn I have a challenge of some sort, and I post daily that month. The rest of the year, I post on average once a month. (More about that tomorrow.)

How can you best use blogging as a marketing tool?

1. Make sure every post is so good readers want to come back for the next one, and
2. Make sure every post motivates your reader to respond to your call-to-action

Here are two excellent posts I have found on how to improve your posts:

8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content: http://www.copyblogger.com/scannable-content/

How to make your blogs go viral: http://www.authormedia.com/viral-blog-recipe/?utm_source=Author+Media&utm_campaign=18c482d996-Weekly_Newsletter_April_3rd4_2_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6b5a675fcf-18c482d996-410992093

How can you improve your blog posts?

(Don't forget to check out my birthday FB message: https://www.facebook.com/janeann.mclachlan

September 9: the nineth day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to transform special days into a marketing tool.

Throughout the year, we all celebrate special days. How can you tap into the shared sentiment of those days to promote your book? Let me give you a few examples.

• Thanksgiving - can you tweet a quote from one of your books about gratitude or feeling thankful? Can you turn that quote into a picture and put it on FB? Can you write a post on the theme of gratitude, and somehow bring in the example from your book?

• Christmas - the theme of gifts from the heart, family getting together, faith. How can you relate those to your book?
• Valentine's Day - love and relationships. My science fiction book is about gender and relationships - albeit among aliens - but I'm sure I can find a quote in it that I can use in a post on Valentine's Day.
• Your birthday - what happens online on your birthday? Social media sites like FB and LI let everyone know it's your birthday, that's what! So what if you have news about your next book up on your FB page on the morning of your birthday, when they all come to wish you a happy one? Check out my FaceBook page tomorrow morning, September 10th, to see what I've been planning. https://www.facebook.com/janeann.mclachlan

List the special days coming up, and ways you can tap into the emotional triggers those holidays evoke in your readers and link them to your books. Can you plan a book launch, blog book hop, book sale, giveaway or contest, etc. for your upcoming birthday?

September  7: the seventh  day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to begin making your face and name - or pen name - into a brand, in three ways.

Unless you intend to be a one-book writer - and some people do, nothing wrong with that - you should be marketing yourself, as an author, not your individual books. Think about it - you put months, or years, into marketing the title of your book, you name your website, FB page, twitter handle, etc. all after your book - and let's say it's effective, your book is selling well. Then you write another book, with a different title, and you have to start all over again at ground zero.

YOU are your brand. You, as an author, are what you are marketing. There are a number of ways you do this:

1. Use your name, or your pen name, on everything - your website, FB page, twitter handle, Google+...
2. Get a good, professional-quality photo taken, one that represents the kind of writing you do, and use it as your avatar on social media, use it on your website, on Goodreads, on Author Central and other author's sites, put it on your business cards, posters announcing your speaking event, your book covers: the same photo, on every thing. You want to be recognized and easily found.

Now, spread that brand around as much as you can. Leave it everywhere you go. Envision yourself on the internet as entering a huge party. Your goal is to make friends, get known, be noticed and remembered in a positive way. To do that, you can't linger on the edge of conversations, listening in; and you can't barge in, interrupting a conversation to demand, "buy my book". To make friends and influence people online, you have to join the conversations going on online.

     3.   Contribute a comment every time you join a group or read a blog. What kind of comment? You can add something that hasn't been mentioned ("Another way I've found to do that is...") or ask a question ("How would you apply that to fiction authors?"). You can agree with something that's been said ("You made a good point about...") or disagree nicely ("I understand why you say that, but in my experience..."). You can just be appreciative ("Thanks for setting up this group discussion/sharing your thoughts/etc").

This doesn't sound like marketing your books or e-books, does it? But it is, because you're getting known. Most people who read a blog post or join a discussion group read the comments as well. Often they comment on a comment (that's why a question put to the group is good, and so is answering the question someone asks). Every time you read a post or check out a discussion group and DON'T add a comment, you are wasting an opportunity.

September 5th: Day Five of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to add keywords to your website.

Keywords are so essential to online marketing we're going to discuss them over several challenges. Picture Hansel and Gretel, leaving a trail of bread crumbs through the woods. Keywords are the bread crumbs you scatter online to lead readers to your books & ebooks.

But which keywords will lead your readers to you? There are two kinds of readers - those who have heard of you or heard about one of your books and are looking for you (or it) specifically, and those who are looking for a book to read in the genre or on the topic you write about.

Your important keywords are, therefore, your name and the titles of your books. For fiction writers, the genre(s) of your books and words like fiction, novel, ebook, online books, books for-- (children, women, teens, etc) For non-fiction authors, the topics you write about and words associated with them. You can use Google Adwords to do a search for keywords, but essentially you're looking for the words you might type into google if you were searching for that kind of book.

Now, where do you put these keywords? Since the main function of an author's website is to help visitors find you and encourage them to buy your books and ebooks by getting to know you and your writing style, lets start there. Here are the places on your website keywords should be in order to be found by search engines:

• Your site's headers (Tom Smith, fantasy author)
• Titles and sub-titles wherever appropriate
• Spread throughout your site in the content (use those words as often as possible in context. When it makes sense to do so, bold or underline them)

• Your photos (every picture on your site, including your book covers, will allow you to type in "alt text"- words that describe the picture. Type in the book's title, author name, and genre - eg, Fairy Wings by Tom Smith, fantasy ebook novel. Or if it's a picture of you: Tom Smith, fantasy fiction author.)
  
• Add them to the tags section of each post on your blog (as long as they're relevant to the post topic.)
  

Also use your keywords whenever possible in your tweets, Facebook posts, and other social media.
Bread crumbs, bread crumbs everywhere!

(Don't forget to tweet or like this post if it was helpful to you.)

September 4th: Day 4 of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to review a book on Amazon.

Wait a minute: Reviewing someone else's book is a marketing tool??
Sure it is. A book review is helpful to the book's author, but it also makes good content for you. I write reviews on Goodreads because it's a good thing to do for other authors - and since my FB page and twitter is linked to my Goodreads page, my reviews are automatically posted on my FB and Twitter. I've been surprised how often my reviews are "liked" and commented on, my tweets retweeted or favorited. That helps my SEO rating.

Book reviews are great content for your blog post, too. And who reads book reviews? READERS. Just the people you want to attract to your website, where they can see your books. (Because your blog is on your website, right? Read my pre-challenge post  here.)

Reviews are a more effective way to attract people to your website than shout-outs that say, "Come see (news) about my book!" Remember, we're using the YOU approach. Do strangers really care that you've published a book? No, that's what you care about; a Buy-My-Book campaign screams "this is all about me".

But if you're meeting their needs to find good new authors to read by offering interesting, honest reviews, and they like the books you recommend, they might check out your books. And if they like the first one, they may buy all your books, because they trust you now. You have their interests at heart, not just your own.  All this from reviewing someone else's book.

Review books in your genre, books that are in direct competition with you. What? Throw your potential readers to someone else? Yup. Don't worry. People read faster than authors can write. Ever heard of a reader who just reads one author? Review books in your genre to attract readers in your genre - to get known in that genre. And that author just might review your books. Pay it forward. Not as a trade, and never as you-owe-me, just as a gift. Make friends, build relationships. You'll be rewarded in ways you never expected.

What do I say about the book?  Many people think they have to sound brilliant or witty or erudite in a book review. Remember the "You" approach. What does the author need? An honest, fair review that will help readers decide to buy his/her book. What do readers need? An honest, fair review that will tell them whether this book is worth their time and money. Trying to sound brilliant is about you, not them. Just be sincere; say  what you liked or didn't like about the book, and why.

Negative reviews. That's up to you, but what is the point of them? Never give a good review if it hasn't been earned - readers will stop trusting your reviews if they buy something on your recommendation and it's terrible. But why slam another author? It hurts them and doesn't make you look particularly good, either. If I can't give a book 3 stars honestly, I don't review it at all. And never review a book you didn't finish. That's not fair to the author or your readers.

Time Issues: Make every review work overtime for you. Copy and paste your Goodreads review onto Amazon and vice versa. FB & tweet them. All reviews don't have to be long. Two sentences will do it. If a book really grabs you and you want to write a more in-depth review, post those on your blog or submit them to a site that accepts reviews. You're getting your name around, and you can link back to your website.

Think of your book reviews as little good-will ambassadors you send out into the world.

Post a book review on Amazon. You can write a new review, or copy and paste the one you wrote on Goodreads.

September 3: The third day of InSeMaMo.

I've taught business writing to marketing and business college students for over a decade, and the most important lesson I teach, is to put yourself inside your readers' point of view. When you ask something of someone else, start by asking yourself, what's in this for them? Because that is the way you will sell your request.

 Tim Grahl at Out:think calls this being "relentlessly helpful" (He's a good resource, by the way - link here)
For example, yesterday, I had you write book reviews. This helps other authors, but it also helps you. Readers like to read book reviews, so they'll see your name and get to know you a bit when they're reading your review. By linking your Goodreads account to your Facebook page and your Twitter, your Goodreads reviews will automatically be posted on your FB page and your tweets. Easy content that attracts followers. And the followers attracted will be readers who like the kind of books you read - which is likely the kind of books you write, too.

Today's challenge is to meet a need. Yesterday's challenge, you'll remember, was more geared to fiction writers than non-fiction. So I promised that today's would be more geared to non-fiction writers.

First, I want you to write down all your skills and expertise. Don't be intimidated by this. "Expertise" is just a fancy way of saying "experience". What do you have experience in that someone else might benefit from? Are you a gardener, a parent? Have you studied or written about a particular subject? Lived through a unique experience? You are all writers, but for this exercise, think of that as the medium. What message do you have to share? Make a list. (Keep the list with your other two lists from day 1. We'll use it again.)

Now, link that expertize to your book(s). If you write non-fiction, there's a direct and obvious link. But if you write fiction, there's still a link. Is there a character in your book who's a gardener, like you? The parent of a difficult or challenged child? Do you write historical fiction about a particular time, and have researched that time period for your book?

How can you use this expertise to meet someone else's needs, and at the same time indirectly market yourself and/or your book? 

Go to HARO - Help A Reporter Out, at: http://www.helpareporter.com/sign-up This is a site you can register at for free. Reporters go here to find someone to quote when they're doing a story. Every non-fiction author should be registered there, and check out the requests that come in. Many, if not most, fiction writers also have some expertise they could contribute to a reporter's story.

If this is really something you don't want to do, look for an online site where you could be interviewed, that's related to one of the skills on your list. In particular, look at the list you made of your target market's interests and hobbies. Are any of the items on your list of skills and expertise the same as their interests? Since you like the same kind of books they do, probably yes. Find a site that's all about that hobby/interest by googling key words. The owner of that site needs content that will interest his/her readers. Read past posts on that site to see what they do, and to make sure you're not offering something they've already done, then email them, introduce yourself, explain why their readers would find what you have to say interesting and different from other posts on the site, and offer them an interview or a short post.

Add a comment below to tell us what you did for this challenge.

September 1: the first day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is defining your target market.

I've seen a lot of hit-and-miss marketing and yes, sometimes if you try enough things, luck kicks in - but not often. So let's use a planned approach, which begins with knowing your audience. When you know who is already looking for a book like yours, you can narrow down which of the thousands of marketing methods will be most worth your time and effort, and focus on those. Not only will you know which to use, you'll know how to use them to attract YOUR readers.

Categories like 'science fiction', 'mystery' or 'romance are too broad. Narrow it down. There's steamy romance and YA romance and historical fiction romance - and the readers for each of these are very different. Be as specific as you can be about the type of book you write.

What is it in your books that makes people get excited about them? These are called "emotional triggers". Look at your themes, type of conflicts, characters, values, emotional/intellectual tone. What kind of readers would get interested in these? In other words, what emotional needs in your readers do your books meet? Now, build a picture of the type of readers who would enjoy a book with the emotional triggers you write about.

• How old are they?
• What gender are they? What do they look like?
• Do they like sentiment or intellectual puzzles?
• What are their interests?
• What level of education are they likely to have?
• What are their other hobbies(besides reading)?
• Are they popular, social, or loners?
• What are their values? What matters to them?

Take time to think about this, and write down as much as you can about the kind of emotional triggers you write into your books, and what kind of readers would find those appealing. Once you know your potential  readers, you will know where to find them. Just follow their hobbies, interests and values. We'll discuss this part more in future challenges.

Example: Catherine Cookson's readers are mostly female, middle-aged or older, sentimental rather than intellectual, and social. They value family and relationships and probably have homey interests and hobbies, like knitting, gardening, cooking, crafts.

Where will you find them? In churches and library reading groups, through magazines, clubs and websites about knitting, crafts, cooking and gardening, and in stores that sell knitting, quilting and gardening supplies. Probably not on newer social media, though they likely have email and may be on facebook.

Now you have the outline for a marketing strategy.

The September Marketing Challenge begins in seven days! I hope you're as excited about it as I am. But if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, you should go to my previous post where I describe it, HERE.

In this post I'm going to discuss your website. Because every author needs a website - it's the central axis of your entire marketing campaign - I'm going to assume when we begin on September 1st that you have one. So I thought I should give you some warning.  :-)

The most important thing I learned about websites  from marketing guru Thomas Umstattd is that your blog must be on your website. If your blog is at a separate URL - or through a different provider - every time you write a new post and send people to it, you're sending them AWAY from your website, AWAY from the place where they can see your books and click to buy them.

Why have a blog at all? Why not just a website? A blog does two things. It creates interest and it makes your website interactive - and both of these draw people.

Imagine you owned a store, and very rarely got in any new merchandise. People would stop coming, right? Well, it takes months, if not years, to write a book, but it takes hours to write a post. You're providing new things to look at, and people will come in to see them.

The second advantage of a blog is, it gives visitors to your site a place where they can talk to you, by leaving comments and seeing your responses. Imagine you invited someone to your home, but refused to let them talk to you. They'd leave, and might not come back.

Some of September's challenges will involve your website and your blog, which is why I'm making this suggestion before we begin.

There is a wonderful variety of authors taking this challenge, and we can all learn a lot from each other.
If you already have a website, please share it with us. Leave a short comment introducing yourself and add your website URL. Then, over this next week, drop back here, read through the comments and check out each others' sites. If there's a place on their site to leave a comment, say hello, tell them you're taking this challenge too, and comment on their site.

Congratulations! You've written a book! 
Now you have to market it. What? You're not a marketer, you're a writer! Why waste your time marketing when you could be writing your next piece?
My mother had a saying for a time like this:

Marketing has become a lot more complicated since my mother first heard that little jingle. Nevertheless, it still comes down to the simple fact that if people don't know about your books, or your poetry, or your articles, they can't read them. And writing is meant to be read.

So during the month of September, I'm challenging you to develop your marketing skills. Every day there will be a new challenge for you to master. And every daily challenge will be something you can do, WITHOUT PAYING ANY MONEY, to make your book more visible to readers. Some will be easy, others more difficult; some quick, others more time-consuming; some you'll already have done, some will be things you've been meaning to 'get around to', and some will be new ideas for you. And we'll all be on this journey together, so if you get tired, or discouraged, we'll be there for you.

Who will benefit from taking this challenge? Well, common thinking is that you should start marketing your book at least a year before it's published, so this is not only for those who already have a published book (traditionally or self-published) but also for anyone who is about to publish. And although I say 'book', what you are really marketing is yourself as an author, so this challenge should also be useful to those who write blogs, short stories, poems or articles for magazines and anthologies.  

I'm designing this challenge to be accessible to those who are just beginning to market their work, and yet challenging enough to be useful to those who have been marketing their work for a while.

I want it to be interactive and communal. You don't have to, but you'll gain more if you participate in the comments after each day's challenge. Did you complete it? Where can we view it? Ask questions, answer other participants' questions, let me know how useful each challenge was for you, or suggest alternatives if one doesn't work for you.

I'm excited about this! I know we're going to learn a lot, and push ourselves to improve our marketing skills, and have fun doing it!
I hope you'll join me this September. Meanwhile, please help spread the word about this challenge.