The written word remains one of the powerful forms of media until now. Even with the existence of photos, audio, and videos, nothing sends a message across more efficiently than words. This is why the world constantly needs authors of different kinds—authors of books, poems, articles, prose, among many others.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com |
The author's dilemma
Many authors face the same dilemma—they have the desire to
launch themselves as self-published writers, but they don't have the foundations
to begin with. They don't know how to promote themselves, or find an audience
that would appreciate their work. In this scenario, it is important for any
author not just to master their craft. It is also essential for them to
understand the basics of digital marketing to succeed in getting recognized.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing, explained simply, is a set of techniques that authors can use to promote
themselves online. Now that information is best accessed on the internet,
businesses and professionals use the power of internet promotion to get more
clients, bring in a larger audience, and to rake in more customers.
As an author, you can also utilize digital marketing to find
more readers for your work. We will be discussing the two main techniques for
digital marketing.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Image courtesy of Freepik.com |
SEO is comprised of these processes:
●
Content creation:
This is the process of building content for your website. In order for
potential readers to find you, you need to create content that matches the
keywords that they might be looking for. An example would be making a blog post
about "romance novels" or "children's book about being
thankful". It is important to use these keywords as you create your
content. As you do this, there is a higher chance that you will get ranked at
search engines.
●
Link building:
This next process is creating links within your website, and creating
content that links back to your author website. Link building is important
because it helps search engines crawl through your website to understand it
better. The better your website is understood, the more chances it will also be
ranked in the search engines. To perform link building, you need to link to
other articles or content within your website as you make blog posts. You can
also ask to guest post in other people's websites and asked to be linked back
to your website. This strategy also helps in your ranking.
The continuous process of content creation and link building
is essential if you want to promote yourself as a budding author.
Social media marketing
Image courtesy of Green Tornado |
Similar to SEO, you can also post useful content in your
social media accounts to attract an audience. You can also post links that lead
to your website through these social media accounts. When you have a large
following in your social media accounts, the likelihood of your audience
clicking through your links will be higher. Alternatively, you can also pay for
sponsored posts where your ad will appear for with targeted interests in your
niche as an author.
Tips for Digital Marketing as an Author
Do proper keyword research.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com |
writing blog posts. It may be best to use popular but low competition keywords to use. There are apps that can help you understand what people are searching for, such as Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush. Finding the
Post consistently and regularly.
It is also important to have a posting schedule both in your
website and social media. Letting your audience know that they can expect you
to always be around also keeps them hanging around for more. Search engines can
also detect websites that regularly post content. When crawlers notice that you
put fresh content consistently, they will rank your websites better.
Be engaging with your audience.
Sure, you may have caught you audience's attention, but it
is also essential to keep them interested. As an author, it is important to
always engage your audience with interesting content,
respond to questions, and to understand what they want. Interacting with your
audience gives you a better feel of what direction you should go as an author.
It is possible to succeed
The questions most authors ask when overwhelmed with SEO and
social media strategies is "Will I succeed?" The simple answer is
"Yes!" as long as authors are always willing to adopt to changing
technologies and techniques that affect their profession.
About the Author
Nicole is a freelance writer and educator based in Michigan, and
believes that her writing is an extension of her career as a tutor, since they both encourage learning and discussing new things. When she
isn’t writing, you might find Nicole running, hiking, or swimming. She has participated in several 10K races and hopes to compete in a marathon
one day.
Disclosure: The author has links to specific organizations/companies in the article ,which are in no way affiliated with this website or its owner.
Disclosure: The author has links to specific organizations/companies in the article ,which are in no way affiliated with this website or its owner.