Tag: keywords

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Guest Posts

How to Build Blog Traffic the Smart Way – Part 1

When you start up a blog or already have one created, the number one thing you’ll want to know is how to get traffic to your blog. After all, you don’t want your blog posts to get lost in a giant Internet void, and you’re not writing blog posts for an invisible audience, either. So, what can you do to increase the chances of your blog posts getting read and discovered? I’m glad you asked!

1. Original, Valuable Content

First and foremost, you need content on your blog that’ll get people wanting to come to your blog to read the posts. How do you do that? Simply put, you have to write posts that offer readers something they need. That, however, is the hardest part.

What constitutes as valuable depends on who you want to attract. If you want writer visitors, share tips about writing, editing, publishing, or marketing that has a different spin on it. If you want home cooks, unique recipes are the ticket. If you want crafters, provide clever DIY projects for kids and all seasons/holidays. If you want readers, discuss things that are in your books (places, myths, your characters’ hobbies, anything that has to do with your genre or the theme behind your books). Create a list of ideas and have fun.

2. Catchy Titles

In order to get someone to click on links to your blog, you not only need to offer something people would want, but you also need to use titles that will stand out among other articles and blog posts about the same topics and catch their attention. Play with the words. Get creative. State what’s in your post in a fun way. I have a post titled Write with Gaga that’s about writing style.

If your post is a how-to article, include the words “how to” with a unique description of what you are instructing readers to do, such as How to Build Blog Traffic the Smart Way.

If you’re offering a number of tips/advice (a list of some sort) in your blog post, add that number to your title, such as: 5 Ways to Spice Up Your Amazon Book Pages.

Adding keywords to the titles of your blog posts will also provide specificity, attract readers, and help with getting your posts noticed by search engines such as Google. “Amazon Book Pages” and “Build Blog Traffic” are great keyword phrases that tell readers exactly what you post is about and likely are entered into searches by people look for that information. Why not make your posts discoverable by adding keywords to your titles?

3. Keywords/Phrases

Keywords and keyword phrases aren’t just important in titles but throughout your post, too, which will increase its likelihood of being visible, and higher up, in search results. Figure out keywords and phrases that describe your blog post’s topic and use a few of these keywords/phrases within the first few paragraphs and in subheadings.

In Blogger, when you are creating your post, there is a box in the right sidebar labeled “Search Description.” Click on it and add a sentence or two describing your blog post using keywords/phrases. This acts as a summary that shows up beneath your post’s title when it shows up in search results and can increase the odds of people clicking on your post instead of, or with, other websites.  

Also include them in the labels/categories/tags box when you’re setting up your post so they can be used to organize your posts. If you have a search gadget/widget to your blog, whatever tags you create will help your posts appear when a visitors searches for a specific topic on your blog.

These smart techniques are ones that you can do while setting up your posts, but there are more techniques you can do after you publish a post to increase traffic to your blog.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of How to Build Blog Traffic the Smart Way.

Chrys Fey is the author of Write with Fey: 10 Sparks to Guide You from Idea to Publication. Fey is an editor for Dancing Lemur Press and runs the Insecure Writer’s Support Group’s Goodreads book club. She is also the author of the Disaster Crimes series. Visit her blog, www.WritewithFey.com, for more tips.

Categories
Platform and Branding

Amazon Advertising: Introduction

In October, we discussed keywords. There are two main goals when selecting your seven keywords: 1) to find words that are actually being searched for in high quantities and 2) words that aren’t so competitive that you can’t show up high in searches for.

When you only have seven keywords to choose from, you have to hit both of those metrics to remain relevant. But what if you could choose 1000?

With Amazon Advertising you can.

Essentially, Amazon Advertising works the same way as your keywords: you selected words or phrases that are related to your book, and when someone searches for them, they’ll see your book. What makes Amazon ads different is that you can select up to 1000 keywords (per campaign, and you can run as many campaigns as you like!).

Not only that, but you can target comparable authors and book titles in your genre. If you write Christian Living, how would you like to rank next to Max Lucado? Joyce Meyer? What about being the first result for “bible study” or “Christian living for women” in an Amazon search? You absolutely can with Amazon Advertising.

The only difference between Amazon ads and your seven keywords (despite the vastly greater number and the kinds of targeting you’re allowed to use) is the fact that you pay per click. You never pay when the ad is shown, but you’ll pay a marginal fee when a reader clicks on the advertisement and is directed straight to your book page.

The typical cost per click is around 10 – 20 cents, so depending on the price of your eBook/book, you can make a great return. If you make $2.00 per eBook, and your average cost per click is 20 cents, you can have ten clicks and only one sale to break even. If you covert more than that, the cup runneth over. Obviously the paperback or higher priced eBooks will give an even better return on investment.

But the real benefit of Amazon ads isn’t just making your money back. It’s about visibility. That’s the most difficult part about book sales right? We work our tails off planning for a book, writing it, editing, and then shell out money and time to get it prepared. And for what? Most of the time we launch our books not to applause but to crickets. Why? Because most people don’t know it exists.

Amazon advertisements solve that problem.

Whether you are a New York Times Best Seller or a first-time author with zero sales and zero reviews, you can be the first result in an Amazon search and appear on the book pages of your favorite authors and books. That’s how you get discovered: being visible to the right readers.

If you’re already sold on using Amazon Advertisements, feel free to follow this link and take a look at my comprehensive online course on Amazon ads: AMS (Amazon Marketing Services) Zero to Hero. As a special offer, use the code A3AMS for 50% off!

If not, stick around for next month, where we’ll dig into Amazon ads a little further, and gain a better understanding of not only why they work, but why they are crucial in the modern publishing environment.

Vincent B. Davis II is an author, entrepreneur, speaker, and soldier. His first novel “The Man with Two Names” was published in July 2017, and has since become an Amazon International Best Seller. He is passionate about helping authors improve their brand and platform. He works with publishing companies and individual clients to help them sell more books in the modern publishing environment. Vincent created Warrior Book Marketing Group in 2018 and he and his team would love to help improve your digital sales. Email him at vincent@warriorbookmarketing.com with any questions.

Categories
Platform and Branding

Nailing Your Metadata: Keywords

Last month we talked about categories. Now we’re going to dig into the other side of the metadata equation: keywords.

Nailing your Keywords

Your keywords are the 7 (on Amazon) particular words/phrases that you’d like your book to come up under if someone searches for them. Most authors make the mistake of picking a few descriptive terms like “bible study” or “romantic comedy”. Unless you’re a NYT Bestseller, it’s unlikely that you’ll rank first on this page of results.

Alternatively, some people pick keywords that no one is interested in or actually typing in. If you are trying to rank in ultra-competitive keywords, you’re in shark-invested waters without a float. If no one is searching for the keywords you’re using, you’re in the desert.  So what’s the key? Picking keywords that are being searched for often, but don’t have much competition. There is a fine line, and it’s a tightrope to balance.

 There’s a statistic that says if your book ranks first overall for a search term, there is a 27% chance a shopper will click on your book. If your book is the second result, that number drops to 12%. The odds of someone clicking on your book if it ranks on the second page are only 7% (for all 10-15 results on the page).

So, you want to be on that first page, and you want to be that first result if possible. But you also want to make sure there are people actually interested in that keyword.

Your job is to research various terms related to your book and analyze the market for it. You need to break down the monthly traffic volume for each possible term, and then look at how fierce the competition is based on the highest-ranking titles’ sales rank. With these numbers in mind, you can choose the 7 most effective keywords to keep your book visible to the right audience.

Pro Tip: How do you analyze the traffic of each term? Well that’s a good question. I use a tool called KDP Rocket to analyze traffic data for all of my clients. It digs into the Amazon numbers to tell you just how often (per month) a term is being searched for, and how competitive that term is. You might be surprised by the results. This is the best tool I’ve found to help with keyword research.

Putting It All Together

Optimizing your metadata might not become a bestseller overnight. It doesn’t have the kind of immediate effect that ad campaigns or discount promotions have. But what it does give you is a competitive advantage and the ability to maintain long-term success from the short-term sales strategies. By updating your categories and keywords, you instantly become more discoverable to target readers, and that is always a good thing.

Vincent B. Davis II is an author, entrepreneur, speaker, and soldier. His first novel The Man with Two Names was published in July 2017 and has since become an Amazon International Best Seller. He is passionate about helping authors improve their brand and platform. He works with publishing companies and individual clients to help them sell more books in the modern publishing environment. Vincent is also the Senior Editor for blueridgeconference.com. If you are interested in contributing a blog for the site, or have any other queries, you can reach him at Vincent@thirteenthpress.com

Categories
Publishing Perspectives

The BISAC Subject Heading List

Publishing Perspectives column

Have you ever looked at the category words on the back of a book, above (or below) the bar code? Have you ever contemplated the Browse category tree at an online bookseller? Do you remember learning about the Dewey Decimal system in school? These are all ways we categorize a book by topic.

Part of your job as an author is to give the publisher information about what category or genre your book probably belongs in. Subject or genre information helps the publisher with marketing because it tells retailers what store section will best fit the book (thus, where it may sell best and where it will be most discoverable by the target audience). This information is also used to assist with search terms in an online store. With so many new cross-over subcategories arising today, your publisher will make the ultimate decision, but you can point them in a possible direction.

This column will look at the BISAC Subject Heading List. BISAC is an acronym for Book Industry Standards and Communications, and you can learn more about it here: https://www.bisg.org/bisac/tutorial-and-faq

The subject heading list is an industry-approved list of subject descriptors, with more than 50 major sections, that was developed to aid in electronic transfer of information about books. The subject headings have at least one level of sub-headings below them. For example, RELIGION / Christianity / General is one descriptor (with two sub-headings) you could use for non-fiction books about the Christian religion.

Christian fiction for juveniles (ages 0-11; preschool-grade 6) belongs under the subject descriptor JUVENILE FICTION / Religious / Christian. The sub-headings available are: General; Action & Adventure; Animals; Bedtime & Dreams; Comics & Graphic Novels; Early Readers; Emotions & Feelings; Family; Fantasy; Friendship; Historical; Holidays & Celebrations; Humorous; Learning Concepts; Mysteries & Detective Stories; People & Places; Relationships; Science Fiction; Social Issues; Sports & Recreation; and Values & Virtues.

Christian fiction for young adults (ages 12-18; grades 7-12) belongs under YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Religious / Christian. These are the sub-headings available: General; Action & Adventure; Comics & Graphic Novels; Fantasy; Historical; Mysteries & Detective Stories; Relationships; Science Fiction; and Social Issues.

Christian fiction for adults belongs under the FICTION / Christian category. But the list of genres under that is not very extensive. All you have available to choose from is: General; Classic & Allegory; Collections & Anthologies; Fantasy; Futuristic; Historical; Romance; Suspense; and Western. So, where would you put contemporary women’s fiction? For romantic suspense, you have to decide which is primary (the romance or the suspense) and use the other as a second subject heading.

Dewey Decimal

Isn’t it interesting that there are fewer BISAC subject headings available as the target age for the fiction gets older? However, note that you can also use these heading lists as inspiration for keywords. So go ahead and label your contemporary women’s fiction with FICTION / Christian / General. Then use your back cover copy to include other appropriate headings as keywords. Maybe “Friendship” or “Humorous” would apply to your work? Use your creative energy to include these keywords in natural sentences in your book descriptions, advertisements, and anywhere else that you promote your book.

The BISAC committee recommends that a book have no more than three subject headings assigned to it. CreateSpace only lets you assign one. Amazon Advantage lets you pick up to two. Amazon KDP lets you pick up to two. Subject headings added in addition to the primary heading should be logical and not conflicting. So you’ll have to decide which subject heading is the most relevant.

Leave a comment: What BISAC code would your current WIP fall under?