Social Media Marketing: Your Online Path to a Best Seller

Dave Eaton is a business owner with more than 30 years experience and has been instrumental in building several multi-million dollar companies. Dave is a Local Marketing Consultant for small business and his recent ventures include Online Marketing and Social Media Marketing.

Dave spoke at American Night Writers Association 20^th Annual Writers Conference held at the Hilton Mesa Hotel on February 23-25, 2012.  His class focused on how to create a bestseller before a single page is in print using blogging, facebook, twitter and other online platforms to zero in on target audiences. Here are some of the many fascinating points he made:

Traditionally, in order to have a best seller, authors had to first write a novel then follow these steps: hire a publicist, write query letters to agents and publishers, attend writing conferences to meet agents and publishers, get their manuscript out to everybody, often settle with small publishing houses, go on the road to market their books, sell thousands of books then eventually stop selling and repeat the entire process with a new book. 


Eaton stresses that in today’s new social media frenzy, the traditional way is obsolete. You do NOT have to hire a publicist. You do NOT have to write query letters to agents and publishers. You do NOT have to attend writing conferences to meet agents and publishers. You do NOT have to get your manuscript out to everybody. You do NOT have to settle with small publishing houses. You do NOT have to go on the road to market your books, or even worry about the traditional book life ending after a period of time, especially with the exciting advent of eBooks.

Eaton says the first thing you have to do is brand yourself as an author using your name or pen name. You might also brand your book title too. He explains that SEO (search engine optimization) is how you will be “found” among the 50 billion pages that make up the World Wide Web. He says that Google has about 50 billion web pages – and everyone googles. If you type in a phrase like, “bestselling author” the results are ranked in order of your keyword(s). There are certain factors on how the sites are ranked for optimizing, but while today google might use 200 factors, chances are tomorrow they will be different as google changes their ranking algorithm 500 times a year.

There are two ranking factor categories:

1.     Online optimization, which receives 20% of ranking

2.     Off page optimization, which receives 80% of ranking. Eaton explains that back-links which come from an offsite source, link back to the site—the same way to get to your site from somewhere else and that back-links are like votes for a webpage.

Eaton states that understanding how the internet works is as important as writing your novel. It’s important to know how to find readers, find fans, find partners, promote your brand, have your voice heard by millions, and to know who your completion is. He gives us some Action Plans:

I.                   Action Step #1: Buy your own domain and host it

If you don’t, all of your credits or hits are supporting whoever owns your internet pages—you’re catching yourself in someone else’s plan. Your own domain should reflect your “brand” which is your name or pen name, so it should be wwwDOTyournameDOTcom, if not .com then it’s best to use .org, or .net. If none of those are available then add “im” or “iam” in front of your name or “yournameblog.com”. Eaton says that domains cost about $10.00 a year and hosting costs are about $50.00 a year.

II.                 Action Step #2: Install Wordpress on your Domain

You can google “wordpress installation videos” for help with that. He says that wordpress.com is NOT for your domain and you must use wordpress.org as you will then own all of your files, etc. Eaton says to then link any of your former internet pages (which still hold a lot of value—so keep them!) like blogspot, facebook, linkedin, twitter, etc. to your new domain.

III.              Action Step #3: Setup Social Media Accounts

If you haven’t already, setup a facebook fanpage (which requires a facebook profile initially), setup twitter, google+, and linkedin as well and any blogger accounts you now maintain then link all of your accounts back to your worpress.org blog under your new domain. All these links give your website authority and get it noticed.  Eaton says that the posts you create give you availability to give updated posts or CONTENT on your blog.

IV.              Action Step #4: Demographics

Eaton says you need to describe your reader in detail. How else will you be able to provide them meaningful content worthy of their time to revisit your site? He says that it’s important to have an understanding of your competition—what other authors are reaching your readers? And how big is your audience—the only way to truly know that is to interact with them.

V.                Action Step #5: Find the Conversation

Where do your readers hangout? You can check out “blogsearch.google.com” to search for blogs writing about interesting topics (content) and to look for writer’s forums google forum + google. He says to start blogging about something your readers can benefit from, make comments everywhere, write articles, tweet, retweet. Be sure to add value to the conversations, or your hard work will backfire on you—remember, you are a public figure now and you are building a reputation as part of your brand.

VI.              Action Step #6: Publish Something!

Just publish! He says self-publish in Kindle, get your name in article directories—just get your brand out there and watch it spread throughout the internet!

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by Melissa Sugar-Gold!


1.     Name one thing you consider your biggest regret in your life so far.

I guess if I had to pick one, I'd still marry my husband exactly when I did, but I'd insist that we live in my home state instead of his. My mother passed away a little over a year after we married and we lived out-of-state. My father has since then passed away too.

2.     If you could go back in time and do things differently, what is something you would change?

Oh, that’s easy—I would’ve continued to get my degree earlier than I did and substitute taught in my children’s schools while they were growing up. I waited until my youngest was in first grade before I taught school.

3.     If you could travel to another time period, but you must agree to remain there for a full six months would you go? If yes what time period & where would you time-travel to the future or past?

Oh yes! I would definitely do that! I would time travel to when my mother was a teenager and hang with her just to get to know her.

4.     Would you rather be on the best seller list once (only once) or win the single ticket mega multi- state lotto?

I’d actually opt out of both, but if I had to choose between the two, I’d choose the bestseller list only once, even though I’d be sad to be just a one-hit wonder, I’d rather have earned it through my efforts than won it in a lottery.

5.     When you write in the privacy of your own home, what do you wear?

I wear just regular clothing—jeans t-shirt, sometimes my jammies.

6.     What was the happiest day or time of your life?

The happiest day of my life was the spiritual moment when I realized who I was, where I came from, and where I am going—no kidding, I spent most of my youth searching for that answer.

7.     Would you rather have loved deeply and been hurt deeply or have never felt true love before or the hurt that can go with it?

Interesting question—I have true love right now, and he’s never hurt me, nor will he. If his love held deep hurt from wrong doing, I’d choose never to experience it, but if the deep hurt were of a different kind, say the kind that would come from watching him suffer from illness or even premature death—I’d so take his love and the hurt too, and I’d continue to have hope for a future together past this life.

8.     If you current novel is made into a Major Motion Film; who would play your protagonist?

My current novel is called No Angel and it’s about an angel with an attitude. I patterned the main character after Sheldon Cooper on the Big Bang Theory so I’d have to say the actor that plays him—Jim Parsons. 

My current WIP is a wizard/fairy fantasy and the protagonist is a 15 yr. old boy, so any unknown, really cute actor would be perfect.

9.     If a movie was made about your life, who would you want to play you?

That’s too funny! I would definitely want someone who closely matched my personality, more than my looks—and someone completely unknown.

10.  Name one thing about you that you seldom share with others ~ or something that we in the blogosphere do not know about you.

Hmmm, let me think back in time—how about this—I don’t think that even my bff knows this! I had lots of friends in high school, but my best friends eventually became two boys my age—David and Bruce. We hung out all the time. They were a blast to be with because they were so smart and actually got my jokes! 

11.  You are a character and are being interviewed: What is your greatest strength? 

Worst flaw?

As a character my greatest strength is loyalty—no matter what my friend or family member had down, I’d stick by them. My worst flaw would be that it’d take me a while to remember my greatest strength—I’d struggle to “act” what I “believe,” but eventually, I’d be on it. 

Thanks Melissa!

And here the eleven campaigners I tagged and their questions! 
1. Lena Corazon
2. J
3. Scott Bury
4. Alexander Shostak
5. Nick Hight
6. Shan Jeniah Burton
7. Lara Schiffbauer
8. The Capillary
9. Jamie McHenry
10. Sarah F.
11. Bess Weatherby

1. You're on a deserted island for six months with one person ~ who would it be and why?

2. You were caught in a meteor shower which left you with strange abilities. Now every time you eat chocolate, you can ... what?

3. A friend takes you to an abandoned castle that has been hidden for centuries. She heard a rumor that great treasure was hidden in the sixth tower. Would you venture inside or turn it over to the authorities to investigate? What would you find?

4. You can only drink one type of beverage for the next year - what would it be and why?

5. Have you ever had to face a fear of yours? What was it and how did you overcome it, if you did?

6. Have you enjoyed certain ages in your life more than others? What is your ideal age and why?

7. Has anyone totally amazed you in life? Who and why?

8. Have you ever written in a character in a story patterned after a real person ~ out of spite, because that person ticked you off?

9. Do any of your characters make you totally crazy because they have a mind of their own and take you places you hadn't planned on?

10. What is your most favorite phrase/paragraph that you have written? Can you share it?

11. If you could sit down and talk shop with any writer from any time period - who would it be and why?

Master at Book Marketing

I've been neck deep in studying everything I can find to become a master at marketing. I say that with a smile, because it sounds quite ominous and time consuming as anything with master in front of it would, but I am determined to do just that ~ become a master marketer. For the past few weeks, I have immersed myself in possibilities ... I've decided that my first big jump in the marketing world will be to become an effective podcaster ~ note the emphasis on effective. I've engaged the expertise of fellow author and friend, Betsy Love, http://betsyloveldsauthor.blogspot.com in creating the beginnings of what I believe will become an extremely effective marketing tool. The name of our new and exciting podcast and accompanying blog is Sweet Peas in a Writer Podcast. We will be interviewing aspiring and published authors and allowing them airtime on our podcast to talk about their books, their writing experiences, and anything else that "pops" up. We will also be answering your writing/publishing questions, so make sure you visit http://sweetpeasinawirterpodcast.blogspot.com and leave your suggestions/questions. This is going to be an awesome venue for us all!

Effective Book Marketing

I'm learning all I can about the bare-bones truth behind effective book marketing. What I've learned so far is that, as in everything in life ~ large numbers of followers on your blogs or on facebook don't mean a thing, unless they are interacting with you. In order to have that interaction - you must give them a reason to want to read your blog. I heard in a seminar a few days ago that "banner advertising" on a social site is NOT social advertising. Personal blogs are going down, but "interest" blogs are on the rise. Why? Because we don't have time to invest in reading everyone's blog, as much as we want to - there's not enough time in the day. So, instinctively, we search out blogs that are a benefit to us for what ever product, information, or concept we are seeking. That's why banner ads are so ineffective - CONTENT blogs are what most people google-search for.
The secret to marketing success does not lie in merely purchasing names to follow you (I've heard that a high number of them are bogus names and therefore no good to you anyhow), but the secret lies in becoming an influential blogger - one who blogs about interesting and compelling content.
In the light of that, I have been searching the web diligently looking for great content that is not only beneficial to me, but hopefully to you as well.
This is something that I just recently discovered ~ yesterday ~ and I'm excited to become a part of it! It's a campaign that has been successfully run by a lady in Australia named Rachael Harrie. (click on Effective Book Marketing to go to her website)
I stumbled upon her web page through Robin Weeks who has a blurb about Rachael's campaign and how it was set up as a way for writers to network together and support each other. It's a fantastic idea and I can't wait to learn all I can to build a stronger platform for myself and my books. But the fabulous thing about this campaign is that it is designed to reach out and help fellow campaigners build their platforms too. I love that idea!
So, I will be blogging weekly about my efforts in this campaign and letting you know how this venture works! My goal is to become a nonstopable force in the book marketing industry and to help others realize that dream too.