Using your blog to sell books 102 by Chris Keys
Author of Reprisal! The Eagle Rises!
Well, I was overwhelmed by the response to the last training piece, thanks sis for reading it, so I’m writing another one. Now, I want to assure each one of you, that this piece was as thoroughly researched and investigated, as the last of the cuff remarks, I passed off as being somewhat authoritative and backed by years of on going and thorough investigation.
Having completed the exhaustive mental exercise of contemplating for several seconds and a moment in time, I’m ready to pass along my exalted and exhausted wisdom from nearly ninety days of doing it myself, with over twenty five years of real world business networking. It’s the same, only different!
In Blogging 101, you learned to keep the name of your book like mine, since I don’t know yours, Reprisal! The Eagle Rises! Right out front where everyone can see it and make sure, you spell it right when you post.
In Blogging 102, I’m going to explain the value of having an actual picture of yourself attached to any internet site you’re involved in, plus the value of providing your readers with inspirational and motivational pros that will keep them coming back for more.
Then we’ll go into partial detail about how your page should be set up and the deep pyshologocial under pinning’s of the reasons why. Or at least I’ll mention that it should be set a certain way because we read from left to right.
Then we’ll go into color as an attractant or repellant. And why having deep dark colors, like deep brown or black and maybe even deep blue are colors you may want to avoid on your site and how having a similar site compared to others is also a completely bad idea.
Ok, why do you need a picture? Well think about for a minute I’ve got time… Ok that’s enough you’re a writer and thinking to much about non-writing issues is beneath you.
SO, a picture makes you look professional. Take my picture. Would you trust that guy with watching your family for the weekend? I doubt it. That guy you’d be hard press to trust him to wash your car, but it is the effect I was looking for, relaxed and in control. He is own man, the kind of guy doesn’t need the establishment. A rebel filled with angst and maybe a bit bored. Either that or he’s inebriated. I don’t remember much about that day, other than it was festival of some sort.
Anyway, enough about the author of “Reprisal! The Eagle Rises!” We’re here to talk about you. Unless you specifically want to risk, that no one takes you serious and thus may not read your writings, try to have professional picture to post of yourself. You can use it for your book cover as well, so it’s worth it. It shows the prospective agents and publishers that you take your writing career seriously and that they are investing in someone who is going pay off. It also tells the reader your not some crazy serial killer with access to a computer. You look normal, which mean your writing will be pretty much what they expect for your genre. I write action adventure so I look like I’m ready to hangout where the adventure is or at least fake it well (If you buy this have I got some Florida waterfront for you. It was the only picture I could get out of my computer. I’ll be changing it as quickly as I can.) So remember, you need a serious and professional type picture. It’s an image thing!
I read a blog the other day that explained that we read from the left to the right and so we should put the important part of our blog on the left and make the field the biggest field on then page. The reader’s eye is drawn to that spot the moment they look to check out your site and you hardly want to have them see another guy’s book cover because of a link you’ve created and have the reader jump to their site. You want them to stay on your page until they buy, hopefully. To that end, you need to make sure your name and the name of your book, like mine for example, “Reprisal! The Eagle Rises!” Are at the top of the page, starting on the left hand side; then you want your book info, title again, excerpt(s) and an ever changing running commentary about something interesting, then, you want your reviews underneath on the middle left hand side and your ordering info under that. On the left side is where you show case your writing style with innovative pieces that give the reader pause, not the “What am I doing here?” type but the, “Oh that’s cool or that’s a good point.” All this stuff, I’m telling you, will be wasted if you post nothing but blogs about your cats or dogs or your kids or celebrity rehashes; without making some kind of point, the reader can relate too. Ok you’ve got the left side handed so, shove all of your links to the far right under your picture and small blurb about you.
If you have some ads you’re running from Google push down your picture and place the ads there, right under the banner because that is where they will get seen the most, other than the left hand side, which translates into more advertising income. Another blog, another time, just remember, they can make you money so they go above, the friends links and a picture of you. That’s a professionally done photograph of course, making you look, marvelous! I know, some prefab sites won’t let you move them around much, but do what you can with what you have. “Successful people are the ones that make the best of what they have.” Good quote!
If you go to, Tony Eldridge/The Sampson Effect click on his advertising link and you can read more blogs about page setup. The one other thing I see people doing that can cause you lost sales is that they fail to include excerpts. An excerpt is designed to catch the reader’s attention and entice them to want to read the rest of the book. Stop by my page and read the excerpts I have there. Then honestly tell me, you’re not curious about what happening next in the book. I pass them out to anyone who’ll take them, book clubs, bank tellers, tax preparers, nurses, doctors, friends of friends, store clerks I know and I even give them away at church. But that’s not blogging so we’ll save for a blog about gorilla marketing. When you set up your site, why not play the odds, instead of bucking them.
You have website or a webpage and its bright yellow and orange; which is really bright and cheery and hard on people’s eyes. When I ran for office, yes I am a reformed politician, I learned from a professor at the University of Detroit, just how important the colors that we choose, can make or break an advertising campaign. Your website or page or blog are advertising campaigns, in case you didn’t realize it. Treat it differently at your own peril.
Some colors like greens, blues, white and soft pinks, make people feel comfortable, relaxed, and safe. Reds, yellows oranges, bright pink make them feel on edge; black, browns, dark reds, dark blue, dark green (not forest green, darker) cause people to feel apprehensive. Beige, gray, blue grey, taupe makes people feel melancholy. Purple, deep blue, magenta, burgundy make people feel inferior. They are the royal colors. That’s about all I remember from my quick course on using colors to make a statement in your advertising. I took that class, actually it was lunch at a trendy downtown Detroit eatery and it was worth every penny.
I chose the colors white and blue and promptly had my flyers, campaign signs handouts, bumper stickers and door hangers all with a blue background and white lettering. My main competitor chose red and yellow with bold, black lettering. When you looked at his sign for a couple of seconds you started to feel aggressive. I over heard him, talking at some township meeting, saying that he chose those colors because people could see the signs from a long way off. The guy was an athletic coach and football referee when he wasn’t working at trying to get elected or working as the parks and recreation, supervisor. He really liked bright colors. He was college educated, with a master’s degree in recreational science. Apparently, you need to be a scientist to enjoy recreation today. You may have noticed that there aren’t too many really bright colored uniforms in any pro sports, why? Because you don’t want your uniform making the other guy anymore aggressive. You don’t want him feeling than he already is, so they chose more subdued colors. Look the number of winning franchises there are who have bold bright colors. I think you got it!
The third person in the race used purple, white and I believe burgundy. He was the former village manager who had several degrees in city management. He also had been caught having an affair with his secretary, while in the office in front of a little old lady who needed 911 afterwards. He’d said things like he deserved the job because he was so educated and he was smarter than, me or the Parks and Rec Director. The colors matched his attitude. They arrogant and standoffish, and so was he. The colors sealed his fate.
Oh, you’re wondering what degree I have? Well, I have a degree in hard knocks from Rock and Hard Place University. College for me was supposed to be football practice all week and a game in Saturday, with educational game films on Sundays at the local bar. After my football career was canceled, college proved to be the hardest and longest two hours of my life. At the time getting an education, was just something I had to do, if I wanted to play football. High school had been the same way. I guess you could, say I was the typical joke or I mean “Jock”. And like Mark Twain said, “I have never let my schooling, stand in the way of my education!” Yeah, that pretty much sums up my academic life.
Anyway back to our discussion. I had some other advantages over the other two candidates but this isn’t the place to discuss them, but I did win the election. Did the colors make a big difference, I’m not to sure; I didn’t keep any tracking numbers on them. The scandals, the other two were involved in probably went a long way to helping me win, but people did say publicly how tacky the purple signs were and how the yellow looked ugly. I won with sixty-three percent of the vote. The thirty seven percent left was split between the other two candidates, but was a landside as they say. The uneducated, right, and the less than qualified, probably right, and the guy that made everyone feel alright, definitely right, won in a landslide.
The professor claimed the credit for having taught me well. I think he gave good advice. So no dark colors unless you write horror and then be sure you using white lettering. No purple colors unless you write only about nobility or romance novels maybe. And No super bright colors unless you’re writing persona is that of a clown and you write children’s books. Pick colors that are easy on the eyes, not too vivid and give the reader, some back of the mind comfort, subliminal comfort.
If they leave your site feeling comfortable and safe, they’ll view your book, like mine “Reprisal! The Eagle Rises!” as a comfortable and safe reading choice. I need to take my own advice here and change my page colors as well. Their gray, white and red I think.
Ok well, I think I‘ve done enough damage here today, and when you least expect it I’ll pop off another totally worthless bit of writing fluff that may or may not be very effectual in your life. Just remember that you want a professional quality photo, no weird pictures, no art work, no kids, no wife’s or husband’s, no pets and no pictures of celebrities. Put your picture up there and make it a good one.
Organize your webpage, so it directs the customer to everything about you, first, then, the ads and links. The biggest section to the far left for your writing examples; links and ads to the far right and in a space half the size or less than your space. They, the experts, seem to recommend 2/3 to the left and 1/3 to the right. Be sure to mention your own website if you have one and be sure to ask the reader to “BUY” your book and give clear and easy instructions to do it. Then pick your site colors to fit in. use highlights to set you apart from the other people. You don’t want people finding it hard to read your page because of color bleeds or colors over powering other colors or the light reflecting too much off them. People are just going to move on if they’re uncomfortable in anyway and then you’ve lost a sale. Bad author, bad business person! Yes being an author, is being in business. It can make you rich and if you’re going to make living do it, then get serious and treat it like a business. That is another blog for another day.
My last thought about the blogging is simple one. Don’t spend so much time blogging that you neglect to write the important stuff, like that new book or series of poems or whatever. Blogging, unless your trying to make living doing so, is strictly for marketing and you need to focus on the dream and not the minutiae. Blogging can help but it cannot sell a book not written or a book written poorly.
Chris Keys “Write what you know, write it with passion-set the world on fire with your dreams!2010@ author of Reprisal! The Eagle Rises! Catch him on blogspot at writerchriskeys@ Blogspot.com
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