Category: Tips and Topics
Using an eBook to build site traffic
Anyone who practices good SEO (search engine optimization) techniques will tell you that the surest way to secure favoritism from the search engines is to offer highly relevant content. After all, the web visitor is looking for content that informs, entertains, or educates them on their topic of choice. The more satisfactory the search results, the more popular the search engine. This makes good business sense.
What role does an eBook play in these efforts? It is the chest that holds the purest gold, the richest jewels of relevant content and the most targeted keywords. By nature, books are dedicated to singular topics, no matter how wide their coverage. Their focus is the match the web visitor is looking for.
Many people do not realize that a .pdf eBook can be read by search engine spiders. This is true as long as the eBook was created from textual content; words as opposed to scanned images which have no verbal value. When preparing graphics for your eBook, take care to use file names that are descriptive; i.e. if the eBook is about poker and you have a picture of players seated at a poker table, name the file something relevant such as “poker-game.” If you use InDesign or a similar program which allows you to attach keywords in the meta data, again use words which are book descriptive. This meta data can be added in Acrobat Professional once the .pdf has been created.
The attraction of an eBook does not end there. When distributed off-site through bookselling channels you are employing their long tendons of reading consumers. Publishing a book, even in electronic format, gives legitimacy to your knowledge and establishes you as an expert.
You might choose to give away your eBook as an incentive to drive traffic to your site for purchasing other products or services. Mention your give-away in social networking sites such as Twitter. Post the details on other people’s relevant blogs. Provide the eBook as a “door prize” for other sites who are doing self-promotion.
Website visitors come and go, often only absorbing fewer than 100 words on your website. You can build return traffic by allowing them to take your calling card, the eBook, with them. Most people collect eBooks and will store them in a dedicated directory where they can refer back to them at leisure. Does your eBook bring them back to your site? If you publish an mBook™ you can actually stream advertising about your site into their resident copy, updating the ad as you please.
Don’t just hand out your business card. Why not give them your eBook on a mini-disc? Hand these out at church, when you attend that Rotary luncheon and leave it with your tip at the restaurant. This sort of imaginative promotion makes people curious and they will read the contents to see what all the fuss is about. In the meantime, you’re building your brand and spreading the word.
What can an eBook do for you? Let me show you!
iPad vs. Kindle – You Can Have them Both!
eReaders galore!
It is the year eReaders make their mark and the chain of christenings may confuse even the most techie of we ebook nerds.
Do we buy a Kindle for its library, a Nook for its color navigation or an eCooler for its low price? Now, here’s Apple, the company of storied elegance, if not impudent superiority. Will I become an iPad-ee from day one? Perhaps I shall avoid eReaders all together?
There is no one answer, but that doesn’t mean we are short of options. It’s more a question of what else do you want your eReader to do? Email? Games? Surfing the Net? Do we want different devices or do we sacrifice some of the hype glamour and stick with the all-purpose laptop and one of the many software readers coming available? If the number of question marks in this reading are any indication, one of the manufacturers had better spend some time teaching eReaders 101. In fact, that may be just the key to domination.
Apple is significantly secretive for a company that has made its billions enabling customers to communicate. Their iPad unveiling last month did little to answer all the questions customers are asking, one of which is how can an author get their book onto their device? The independent publishing community is waiting, Mr. Jobs. You announced iBooks would be open to small and independent publishers, but here we are, just a month from release and we still have no information. We would love to take advantage of the beautiful interface you displayed, but so far, you’ve kept us in a monochrome mystery.
But all is not lost, not so fast. We have the Kindle! Well, to be more precise, the Kindle app! We can re-format our dreary Kindle files to include luscious color and while Kindle owners may be in their own monochrome world, our books will read on the iPad using 256 rainbow hues…we think…eventually someone at Apple will answer an email or return a phone call and let someone know…won’t you?
Buy the Package at a Steal!
eBook Covers!
Publish in Paper!
