How to Drive Traffic to Your eBooks

 

Your eBook is finished and uploaded to the internet and now it’s time to consider a number of quick and easy ways to drive traffic to whatever form of website presence you have chosen for your single or multiple product packages: a blog, revenue sharing website, Amazon Kindle, or an individual website for each one of your creations.

 

Sometimes traffic will be provided by the website hosting your product, as happens on eBay, Amazon Kindle and Etsy, for example.  But numerous other techniques might be used to drive additional traffic to those websites and to your own online venues, such as a blogs, websites, landing pages, where there should also be a sign up box for people to join your mailing list and receive your regular promotional emails.

 

Important

 

It’s wise to have a separate online presence for each of your eBooks and other packages.  That is where you direct your traffic to and which then acts as a landing page for all your traffic generating activities for the relevant product.

 

A simple website is all it takes, such as a free site or blog provided by Wix.com.  I’ve chosen Wix because their interface is easy to use and they have a wide choice of website designs.  The only thing I don’t like about Wix is they do not accept PayPal from their own customers.

 

Begin by choosing a domain name for your site, preferably one describing the subject of your product or eBook.  Then on the home page, create a description for your product and end with an image of what you are selling and a link to its sales page on outside websites.  You can include a PayPal payment button on your own website and take orders and arrange to fulfil your product direct to buyers.

 

Add regular articles and posts to your website or blogs, all linking to your product’s description on the home page.  Use your product’s highest frequency search terms as website page and article titles.

 

Your website becomes the landing location for many of the traffic generation tasks that follow and helps supplement traffic from third-party websites, like Amazon and eBay, and others hosting your products.

 

Traffic Generating Tasks

 

*  An eBook that’s exclusive to Amazon Kindle and not available elsewhere online, as eBook or article or blog post, for example, can be offered to readers free of charge via Kindle Select and attract early readers and reviews for your product.  An eBook offered exclusively on Amazon Kindle can be offered this way on several occasions throughout the year and not only attract early downloads to help your eBook rank high in Amazon search returns, but also to resurrect a product for which sales have flagged.

 

*  After a few months, remove your product from Kindle Select and promote it on other appropriate websites.  Compare profits between the various marketing methods and determine whether to return to selling exclusively on Amazon Kindle or using a range of different options.

 

*   List all your available eBooks and products inside each book.  You can include links to your other Kindle eBooks inside each title, but you might not be allowed to link to sites away from the site hosting your product.  Check individual site rules before doing so.

 

*   Open an author account at Amazon Author Central where people can read about you and see all of your Kindle products.  Make yourself likeable and helpful and people will buy other of your titles and refer you to prospective new buyers.  Learn more at: https://authorcentral.amazon.com.

 

*   Link your blog to your Amazon Kindle account where your latest post gets prominent placement inside your Author account and shows top of your Kindle listings.  Learn more at: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help?topicID=200341590.

 

*  People hate to see outdated books offered for sale, especially with a past year featured prominently on the cover, such as 2010, 2014, that sort of thing.  But they do like to see a book that’s obviously up-to-date, purely because the cover reflects the current year or the previous one at most.  And that is why I always place the current year date on my eBook covers and amend them and edit their contents immediately a brand new year comes into being.

 

*  Every eBook needs a description, something telling the potential reader what it’s about and how they can benefit from buying the book and accessing its contents.  But a bland description, or a very short one, can be a major deterrent to potential buyers.  And that is the reason I always write my book descriptions before starting work on the book itself and I aim to include as many benefits as possible for readers.  Only when I run out of potential new benefits for my book will I start work on writing it.

 

My own descriptions resemble sales letters, with lots of bullet points and calls to action.  It’s done by locating bestselling books at various sites like Kindle and ClickBank and then you model your new titles on sample chapters and descriptions used in eBooks attracting sales for your competitors and likely to make money for you, too.  But only emulate ideas, not actual content.

 

*  Put your blog or website address right up front in your eBook.  Offer a free bonus item for people looking at the first few pages and not yet decided whether to buy.  If they don’t buy, many will still sign up to your email list and lead a contact address for you to promote other products in future.

 

*  Amazon Kindle is just one of many places to promote an eBook.  Some sites have their own audience, meaning, if you give your work titles matching common search terms at those sites, you won’t have to work too hard at promoting your eBooks.  That leaves time for you to research and create new eBooks to add to your publishing empire.  Here are other places to promote an eBook with website traffic likely to achieve sales for you, and in some cases attract regular buyers:

 

Fiver

http://www.fiverr.com

 

Etsy

http://www.etsy.com

 

eBay: http://www.ebay.com and other country sites.  But digital products can only be offered on CD or other memory device on eBay or via the classified ads. on most eBay country sites.

 

*  Join HARO - Help A Reporter Out - http://www.helpareporterout.com - and if writers need help for their news articles, they may ask you to contribute, in return for a mention of your eBook and other product in their finished news articles.  Some journalists have thousands of readers, others millions, and just one contribution can help boost your sales significantly.

 

*  Offer printed versions of all your successful eBooks.  Some people really dislike eBooks - yours truly, included - and much prefer paying a little extra for a print copy.  Amazon offers several options, one being available alongside your eBook listings at Kindle, the other at:

 

Create Space

http://www.createspace.com

 

*  Offer your new eBooks free of charge for a limited period on giveway sites aside from Amazon Kindle which remains the best place to offer free copies to generate traffic to your listings as well as help raise your eBook in search returns. 

 

As for free promotions at Amazon Kindle Select, this helps raise your eBook’s presence in search returns and helps you achieve favourable placement in most on-site and external search engine returns. 

 

Find a long list of giveaway sites at: https://www.tckpublishing.com/list-of-sites-to-promote-your-free-amazon-kindle-books/

 

*  Mention your product in the signature file accompanying all outgoing emails and in ‘out of office’ responses sent to people emailing you while you are holidaying or away from the office

 

Mention the landing page for people to sign up to your emailing list and another taking them direct to your product’s promotion page.

 

*  Turn your eBook into a course by breaking it into self-contained modules (separate chapters will usually suffice), then add a couple of videos and sell at course marketing sites such as:

 

Udemy

http://www.udemy.com

 

Find a list of other places to market your courses at:

https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/05/best-online-course-platforms.html

 

*  Put compliments slips featuring your website’s address into all outgoing letters and packages. 

 

*   Write articles and reviews for your eBooks and other products with links in your resource boxes and signature files leading to the sales page for your product or to your website or blog url or landing page for people to sign up to your mailing list.  Check the rules at major article directories because some do not allow links to websites or blogs with minimal content.

 

Find the top article directories at:

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/wilson-article-marketing-1

 

*  Place free and low cost classified advertisements for your sites, inviting people to visit for more information about your product or to buy it right away. There are many thousands of free advertising websites and you should target as many as possible.  Make a note to return often to update your best performing ads.

 

Key something like ‘free + advertising’ or ‘classified + advertising’ into Google’s search engine to find suitable opportunities.

 

*  Comment on current threads and open new ones on other people’s blogs, all with links leading back to your main marketing websites.  Every backlink has potential to drive traffic, so you should spend as much time as possible creating backlinks. 

 

*   Submit online and offline press releases about the subject of your website and expect some editors to pick up your story and print it in their publications and draw traffic to your website.  Access free press release sites at:

http://mikemunter.com/the-ultimate-list-of-free-press-release-sites/

 

*  Upload images of your products to Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com - with links back to your website or direct to your products’ sales pages.

 

*   HubPages - http://www.hubpages.com - now incorporating Squidoo, is a site where users can upload articles and product recommendations for their own products or others they are promoting as affiliates. 

 

Someone writing about this technique at Ezine Articles (ezinearticles.com) tells how on average each hub page he creates sells two or more ClickBank products within the first two days. 

 

*  Respond to questions asked at Yahoo and Quora:

 

http://www.answers.yahoo.com

 

http://www.quora.com

 

Choose questions matching the subject of your website.  Answers will link back to your own website and can result in some of the heaviest traffic possible. 

 

Reference the CEO of SaaStr who claims to have received millions of visitors from answering more than 2,000 questions at Quora.  Learn more at: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-crosses-10-millions-views-on-quora/

 

*  Create self-contained blog posts, including very short ones at some sites, at sites allowing you to link back to your own promotions.  Here are a few to start with but check the rules for each site before contributing:

 

BizSugar

http://www.bizsugar.com

 

Reddit

http://www.reddit.com

 

FlipBoard

https://flipboard.com/

 

Stumbleupon

http://www.stumbleupon.com

 

Scoop It

http://www.scoop.it

 

Tumblr

http://www.tumblr.com

 

AllTop

http://www.alltop.com

 

Medium

http://www.medium.com

 

*  Tweet each blog post.  Twitter - http://www.twitter.com - is believed to be the most effective social networking site for promoting blog posts. 

 

Submit your tweets to Just Retweet - http://www.justretweet.com - top internet marketers say this takes just seconds and can result in a flood of early traffic.

 

*  Share Your Posts on FaceBook - http://www.facebook.com.  Share your blog posts on your own FaceBook page and in groups related to your business.  Include images alongside your posts. 

 

*  Share Your Posts on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com.  Linkedin is a social networking site where members interact and pass on news about their own recent business experiences.  You can join established groups or start your own. 

 

*  Share Your Posts on Slideshare - http://www.slideshare.com.  A really quick and effective way to share every blog post is to turn it into a PowerPoint presentation or PDF file and upload it to Slideshare.  You can also upload articles containing links back to your website or blog or direct to your eBay shop or individual long term listings. 

 

Similar to Slideshare is:

 

Scribd

http://www.scribd.com

 

*  Look for domains about to expire and with traffic still visiting sites attached to those domains.  Consider buying any with heavy traffic and use the domain for your website.  Find expiring domains, with or without websites, at:

 

Go Daddy

http://www.godaddy.com

 

*   Upload images of your eBooks and other products to Instagram - http://www.instagram.com.

 

Images that stand out from the crowd can attract thousands of eyeballs and make the image go viral.  Once that happens a good many visitors will travel through to your product listing pages to learn more about the subject of your image on Instagram and some of them might become buyers.

 

*  Join Triberr - http://www.triberr.com.  Triberr is a social networking platform where bloggers share their thoughts and ideas with fellow bloggers targeting the same or similar subjects.  A group of bloggers working together is called a tribe and their purpose is to share another member’s content with one’s own following at social networking sites, especially Twitter. 

 

*  Contribute helpful comments and advice in forums.  I love this one and even though I no longer publish or promote goods online, other than on eBay and Etsy, I well remember times when a short comment on someone else’s forum has sent hundreds of visitors to my websites.  Forum posting and commenting is so easy and takes very little time to drive a swarm of traffic from forums matching the subject of your blogs and websites.  In most cases, all you have to do is comment on someone else’s forum post or begin a new thread - the name for posts following on from the first post in the string - and include the url for your own website or blog in your forum profile or after your comments.

 

Finally

 

That last entry, being my favourite traffic generating task of all time, brings us to the end of this report.

 

Thank you for reading and please contact me any time you need help.  You will find me at: avrilharper2@gmail.com