Tips for the Trade
New to online promotion? I don’t claim to be an expert, but I’m happy to share some of the idiosyncrasies I’ve picked up along the way that don’t seem to be intuitive.
When you want to steer people to your most frequent blog post, don’t just post the general url for your blog. Post the specific url for that post. You might think that it is better for someone to have to see all of your witty posts when they are looking for a specific one, but trust me when I say, it annoys! Recently, dealing with promotion of, The Weaver, I remembered an author had shared some wonderfully helpful advice on library promotion. I scrolled through my emails (I had to go back a few months) and found where she originally shared the link. But the link went to the most recent posts on her blog. I scrolled and scrolled searching for that post. Obviously, I started my search around the date of her email but couldn’t find it. I scrolled backward and forward until I got frustrated and gave up.
When you are posting a link from a website or blog to a different site, always specify that link to open in a new window. You can do it in the same pop up window you enter the url link in. Internet surfers have a strange form of A.D.D. and they are easily distracted. You don’t want to lose their interest by sending them to another site. You only want to provide them with more data, but keep them focused on you or your book or your blog.
Whenever possible, link to your website or blog, facebook or twitter. You don’t want to overrun people with promotion, "Buy my book! Buy my book! Buy my book," but you do want them to have easy access to your information. The worst thing is to get someone interested and then force them to ferret around for more information. Guess what? Usually, they don’t work too hard to find it.
Any tips you'd like to share that people tend to do or not do when their online?