It's no secret that the ?Net keeps changing all the time; what is a secret to many is how to make the most of the ?Net and sell some books. When it comes down to it, that's the #1 focus of publishers and authors alike. The ?Net has become the place to go for book sales, but it's more than just having your book listed on http://Amazon.com or your own website, it's about getting people to know about it. With millions of websites coming online every month, that task is getting tougher and tougher each day.
It seems like only yesterday we were telling you that reciprocal linking was *the* way to go to get traffic. What is reciprocal linking? Well, it's where you give a link on your site to someone else and they give one to you. This tactic may have worked in 2006 but it's no longer a good idea. Why? Because search engines are now looking at high quality one-way (inbound) links. Says Susan Gilbert, AME's SEO expert: "Google has declared 2007 as the year of the incoming link ? high quality, one-way links. Now more than ever, it is important to create a long term site building presence that focuses on the community aspect of the World Wide Web."
A backlink is a link which directs others towards your site. They are sometimes referred to as inbound links. These are links that go from another website to your website. But it's more than just that, it's also about having backlinks that matter. If you haven't done a vanity search on yourself in a while try this: Google your name and see what sites come up (when you Google your name use the "+" sign between your first and last name for a more accurate search). Now take a quick peek at the list of sites and see how they rank according to Google, are they on the 20th page of a Google search or are they on the 1st or 2nd page? These are all indicators of high quality, high traffic sites. Now look at the sites that are in your topic/market. Ideally, you want every site linking to you to be your market. That's the definition of a high quality, high traffic site.
The number of backlinks that your site has is an indication of how popular or important it is according to the major search engines. Backlinks are important for SEO, because search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN, will give more credit to those sites with a good number of quality backlinks. They will then consider these sites more relevant than others in the results pages of a search query.
Most search engines will want websites to have a level playing field, and so will more often than not look for natural links that have been built slowly over time. Link farms or companies that promise hundreds of backlinks will do nothing but get your site delisted by the search engines. Once this happens, it could take months, and even years to get it back online. (Delisting means that the site no longer comes up in search engines).
Although it can be fairly easy to manipulate the links on a web page in order to achieve a higher ranking, it is a lot harder to influence a search engine with external backlinks from another site. This is why these feature so highly in a search engine's algorithm.
According to research we've done, there are a number of ways in which you can get additional backlinks to your website.
1. Reciprocal Linking.
This is where you link to another site that provides the same service or product as you and they in turn have a link to your site on theirs. While very popular in the past, this exchange of links is not as valuable as one-way links.
2. Site Submissions.
Submit links for your site to directories which allow free submissions, or if you can afford it, some paid directories. There are many sites which offer a service where you can submit your site details to numerous sites. Plus, if you want, you can always create your own directory of similar websites.
3. Blogging.
This has now become an integral part of the Internet, and is one of the most effective ways of linking.
You either have the choice of placing a few words of comments on to someone else's blog, or you may want to link to them from your own blog. However, with so many people creating blogs and wanting to link to each other's blogs, this can be extremely time-consuming.
4. Articles.
This is another way of getting great backlinks. It's vital that any articles you write are on the subject, informative and thorough in relation to your site.
Quality articles published on article sites are a great way of getting even more backlinks to your site.
Always include a resource box at the end, as this will include that all important backlink to your site. This resource box should also include a short biography regarding you and your site.
5. Social Bookmarking.
This is a way to record your favorite sites online at the various social bookmarking sites, and that way the search engine spiders pick up your bookmarks and follow these backlinks to your websites.
6. Creating Feeder Sites.
Adding a MySpace or Squidoo page with links back to your website is extremely beneficial and expands your online presence at the same time.
The above are just a few ways that you can get backlinks to your websites to help them rank more highly in the search engines and attract more traffic. Using these techniques you should see an increase in the volume of traffic arriving at your website.
The important thing is to take action today. Things are getting more and more competitive, with thousands of websites coming online every day. If you want to succeed online (and everyone needs to be online), you'll want to get started now.
Increasing ranking and traffic are going to be our continued focus in the months and weeks to come. As offline markets become more populated and less accessible, the Internet is the place to go to sell your book.
1. When you make your first sale, follow-up with the customer. You could follow-up with a "thank you" email. Customers remember good service and are more likely to buy from you in the future if your service is fast, friendly and courteous. Include some free surprises with your product and include an advertisement for any other products you sell. You can send follow-up every few months promoting your product. Don't send follow-up email too often, as people will start ignoring your emails.
2. You could up sell to your customers. When they're at your order page, tell them about a few extra-related products you have for sale. They could just add it to their original order.
3. Tell your customers if they refer five customers to your website who purchase the product they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price. This will turn one sale into four sales and is a cheap way to get traffic to your site. This can multiply sales, as customers who were referred by someone else will often then refer other customers themselves to get a rebate on the product. This scheme can be can be run as a compliment to an affiliate program. Many people who buy products on the Internet may not be interested in becoming an affiliate marketer. With this system they could refer family, friends, people they work with and save money for themselves and bring more customers to your website.
4. When you sell a product, give your customers the option of joining an affiliate program so they can make commissions selling your product. This will multiply the sale you just made. Having affiliates is like a business employing a salesperson on commission. They only get paid for any sales they make but the more sales they make the more money they make. Affiliates have a great incentive to sell your product because the harder they work the more money they make. If you are an affiliate look for programs with 2-tier payment levels. With 2- tier programs you will generally earn a percentage of any money affiliates you have recruited make. This is similar to the principle above with affiliates you recruit earning money for you.
5. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to your products. You could include an ad on or with the product for other products you sell. You can make money from the sale of the reproduction rights to your products. You can also include links in the in products you have allowed people to sell to your other products. This method can greatly increase sales of your products, as every copy they sell to someone else will have links to your other products.
6. You could cross promote your product with other businesses' products in a package deal. You can include an ad or flyer for other products you sell and have other businesses selling for you.
7. When you ship out or deliver your product, include a coupon for other related products you sell in the package. This will attract them to buy more products from you. You can also ship out a coupon that states they will get a discount on other products you have but put a time limit on the coupon. This will generally mean people will go visit your website faster as they see the time limit on the coupon.
8. Send your customers a catalog of add-on products for the original product they purchased. This could be upgrades, special services, attachments, etc. If they enjoy your product they will buy the extra add-ons.
9. Sell gift certificates for your products. You'll make sales from the purchase of the gift certificate, when the recipient cashes it in. They could also buy other items from your web site.
10. Send your customers free products with their product package. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball caps, t-shirts etc. This will allow other people to see your ad and order.
Both Penny Sansevieri & Gregory Marathonge are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Penny Sansevieri has sinced written about articles on various topics from Build Online Business, Politics and Writing. Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a book marketing and media relations expert whose company has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. Visit. Penny Sansevieri's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.
Gregory Marathonge has sinced written about articles on various topics from Forex Trading Forex, Computers and The Internet and Web Development. To learn how to get started in Internet marketing or increase your profits if already an Internet Marketer visit.. Gregory Marathonge's top article generates over 2900 views. to your Favourites.