A 6-part series of articles on developing an Internet presence

[Marta Stephens]

I've developed this series of articles based on things I learned during my first year as a published author and have posted the first two on my website. You'll find them here: http://www.martastephens-author.com/Author%20to%20Author.htm.

The articles will outline what an author should consider in order to gain an Internet presence.

I have a background in public relations and several years experience in project management and promotions in higher education. My experience has been in the area of campaign development, press releases, advertisement, graphic design, and event planning.

Marketing my book took me into unknown territory, but being one who loves a challenge and is something of a risk taker, I embraced the opportunity. But even I had to admit that as my debut novel SILENCED CRY was about to be released in April 2007, I was a bit apprehensive. My hope is that in sharing my experiences with you, you’ll find some useful solutions to your marketing questions. I look forward to your comments!

Best,
Marta

[Maureen Fisher]

Hi Marta,

Excellent articles, very informative. Thank you for sharing. I am looking forward to the next four on the Internet topic.

Maureen Fisher

[Marta Stephens]

Hey Maureen!! Thanks for taking time to read them. I'm glad you found them useful. :)

[Eliz Joyner]

Hi Marta-
I also enjoyed your articles. I am struggling with getting folks to hit the buy button. I agree people are usually at a site less than a minute. Any advice about my site would be appreciated. www.loverenewed.net. I use statcounter and it gives me similar stats, which I find very helpful. I look forward to your series of articles. Thanks for sharing.

P.S. One tip for others who want to make contact with people all across the world (social networking), I've made some interestng contacts at xing.com.

Eliz

[Marta Stephens]

Hi Eliz,

I just looked at your website. Nice! It's clean and easy to navigate with well-defined links. I don't have an answer on how to get people to hit the buy button. Based on how I react to websites, I think it all depends on if the visitor has predetermined they want the product, in this case our books, and read something on the website that convinces them they must have it right now. Someone on another site suggested that I had left out information in my article to indicate how many sales my website had generated. Unfortunately, unless we sell our books exclusively from our sites, there's no way to determine that.

At this point my hope is that visitors will walk away from my site knowing a little bit more about me and my writing. Hopefully, something there will compel them to buy. :)

[Eliz Joyner]

Hi Marta-
I know you are a busy lady, so thank you taking the time to look at the site. I am a first time publisher/author and any feedback on the marketing or internet are very welcome. I am still learning--which I love. It is very exciting to try to reach people across the world. I appreciate you willing to share your advice with us.

Have a great day.

Eliz

[Marta Stephens]

A friend of mine just sent this to me and fits in with our discussion about websites. I hope the link works from here.

HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam. Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands. HEMA also has stores in Belgium, Luxemburg, and Germany. In June of this year, HEMA was sold to British investment company Lion Capital.

Take a look at HEMA's product page. http://producten.hema.nl You can't order anything and it's in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.

This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer.

[Eliz Joyner]

I laughed. Very ingenius! Thanks for sending. If anyone knows of a computer programmer that can do those stunts, let me know.

Eliz

[Peter N. Jones]

If you sign up for Amazon Associates you can track how many sales go through your website. Just build an Amazon Associate link and use it for your buy button. Each time a person buys via this link, it will show up on your Amazon Reports page.

___________________________________________
Director and Editor: Bauu Institute and Press
Editor: Indigenous Peoples' Issues Today
Publisher: New Great Books

[Marta Stephens]

Yes, Peter, I mentioned the Amazon Associates in my article--I have one on my site. Still, not all sales go through Amazon so an accurate sales number remains an impossible thing to calculate.

[Maria]

Hi I am having trouble using the above link. Can you help please. Thank you.

[Marta Stephens]

Try this link: Author to Author
I'm going to post the 4th article today.