Tuesday, March 22, 2011

COLUMN: Are You On The Net?


Online Promotion Plan Part II

Last month, I asked had you started your online promotion plan. I know you’ve sat down and answered all the questions and now you’re ready to start setting up your plan.

Let’s get to the fun part, making sense of all the questions you answered.

1. Is your book release or information about your book included in your email signature?

Why is this important? Your email is something you use on a daily basis. This is the best form of free promotion you can have. You can be creative with it and you can change it up daily or weekly.

I will admit I’ve met many authors because of their email signatures. They announced their new book and that was all I needed to introduce myself to them.

The next step you want to take is to create a signature line for when you send out emails. You want the reader to take notice and hopefully click on the link and find out more about you.

What is a signature?

A signature is a mini bio. I've seen some introduce the author, some introduce a book, and some introduce a site. Only you can determine what you want on your signature.

Here's mine for SORMAG

LaShaunda C. Hoffman
Shades Of Romance Magazine Publisher
http://www.sormag.blogspot.com/

Sample Writer's signature

Shelia M Goss
http://www.sheliagoss.com/

Delilah & Savannah's Curse - IN STORES NOW

“Savannah’s Curse is an action- packed mystery with unexpected culprits. Sheila M. Goss brings readers a new side of her talent by entering a different genre. It is suspenseful with twists and turns that will keep readers turning pages. I recommend this book to others.” ~ Teresa Beasley, APOOO Book Club

There are a few rules when it comes to signatures, where you send them. If you're sending out an email to someone and not a list or forum, you're free to have as long of a signature as you like.

If you're sending a message to a list or forum, you have to make sure you know what their policy is on signatures. Some lists don't like a lot of promotion and will block your message or delete it if they think you're doing too much promotion.

I recommend keeping your signature to four lines. This gives you enough space to play with and most links and forums will give you that many lines.

For your signature you'll want:

Name
Title of Book
Date of release
Website link (or 25 word or less blurb)

If you can html your signature, add a little color and hyper link your site, so the reader can click on and see your book or site.

Most email systems let you add signatures to your out going mail. Check out the options for your email.


See that wasn’t so hard. Your first question answered and you ready to start promoting.

Show us your email signature, leave your signature in our comment section.


Next month we will break down more of these questions to get you started on creating your plan.

Can’t wait to next month, contact me –sormag@yahoo.com.  I’m available for private online promotion coaching.

Until then,

I’ll see you on the net.

LaShaunda C. Hoffman

LaShaunda is the creator of SORMAG – Shades Of Romance Magazine. She has 11 years of experience on online promotion, most she learned from trial and error. She has taught workshops on online promotion and is available for private online promotion coaching.


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this valuable information. I will pass it on to others.

Linda!
www.lindabeed.com

Welcome To SORMAG's Blog

About Me

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I believe in promoting authors and their books. Let me introduce you and your books to online readers.

I'm also a happily married mother of three who's trying to break into the Christian writing field. The writing road can be rocky.

I’m available for:

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Contact me at:lchwriter@gmail.com

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