Education Allocation
Tag: author continuing education
LinkedIn Best Practices for Authors
September 24, 2021– I hope that you’ve been enjoying our theme this month, continuing education for authors! Today we’re talking about best practices for LinkedIn, let’s dig in.
LinkedIn helps people establish themselves as an expert in their field. They can interact with their community on branded pages and groups and can connect via LinkedIn messaging.
Quick tip: LinkedIn has a right way and a wrong way to use it. It’s not Facebook, yet most people treat it the same which has undesirable consequences such as loss of connections, ignoring messages because the person is seen as unprofessional, and unable to connect to their target audience.
Why you need to be on LinkedIn as an Author
Endorsements and Testimonials: Your peers can endorse your skills and write recommendations, and this goes a long way with people who are looking for an expert in the field that you’re in. If you can get a professional to endorse your series, you’ll have a ton of potential business based on just their recommendation.
Connections: You never know who will accept your invitation to connect so dream big. Get noticed by other authors, publishers, distributors, and professionals who can open new doors for you and your books.
Groups: There are thousands of online groups that you can connect with that are within your niche of writing. Join the ones that are right for you!
News: Your LinkedIn connections post news, tips, and updates and you can link your book to trends in the industry. E.g., Skyrocketing mental health concerns for students heading back to class after COVID.
Research: This is excellent for finding out who you can cross-promote with. Do your research on which people and businesses you’d like to partner with and connect with them.
Introductions: Your profile has spots for books, academic papers, links to your blog, website, and online content. This drives traffic and sales to your books!
Top Tip: Focus on your first-degree connections and building a strong relationship with them. They are the ones who are most likely do business with you and recommend/endorse your skills and products.
Remember to treat LinkedIn as the professional site that it is. Update your followers regularly and link your book to things happening in the industry. Here is my LinkedIn page if you want to connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lacey-l-bakker-743599120/
SEO (Search Engine Oddity)
September 13, 2021– We’re talking about continuing education for authors this month, and I hope you’re learning about the importance of brushing up on your skills and seeking continual improvement in your craft. Today I’m giving you some tips on social media marketing for authors that I’ve learned over the years from some of the many courses that I’ve taken. Let’s dig into Search Engine Optimization for authors:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) aims to draw your qualified target market to your website and turn them into customers. A strong foundation in your SEO helps direct traffic from your social media presence to your website/shopping page. Remember that you’re chasing profits, not popularity (which is social media’s main focus), or the number of fans, likes, or followers.
The number one thing to remember is that none of the SEO tactics will work if you don’t have excellent, engaging content that holds your audience’s attention.
Quick tip: Use standard search terms on social media profiles and use more rarely used terms on individual posts, photo captions, and updates.
SEO Terms
Organic search: The type of search results produced by a search engine’s own algorithm when indexing unpaid submissions.
Paid search: A submission fee has been paid to appear as sponsorships at the top of a search page (pay-per-click) ads in the right margin or the top of the list of search results.
Search engine marketing (SEM): Combines organic and paid search activities.
Search engine optimization (SEO): Is the process of tailoring websites, web pages, and social media pages to get higher up on the list in search engine results. Ideally, you want to be on the first page in the number 1 spot.
Social media optimization: Same as above, but on social media profiles and postings.
Spiders, crawlers, bots (robots): Automated programs used by search engines to visit websites and index their content.
Top Tip: Focus on the top search engines (there are only 2), Google and Bing. Ignore the ridiculous emails you get regarding submissions to 3,000 search engines; the top 2 are the only ones that matter, and when you submit to Bing, you’re also listed on Yahoo.
The Stats: 92.3% of all searches in June 2020 were on Google. Google executed 13 times as many searches as Bing (its closest competition). The remaining search engines combined accounted for 6.7% of searches. Primary search engines spider the web constantly.
- Google users are more likely to be male, while females use Bing more often.
- The search engines skew according to age. Users younger than 35 are more likely to use Google, while older ones are more likely to use Bing.
- Google users tend to search during work hours on weekdays, while Bing users search early mornings or weekends.
- Google users are night owls, most often searching from 8 pm to midnight, while Bing users are early birds with prime usage from 4 am to 7 am.
- Mobile searchers are more likely to use Google, while tablet searchers use Bing.
- Households with children and households with more than $75 thousand in household income are more likely to use Bing.
Don’t worry; we are all as surprised as you at the above information, and we fall into the group that is the exception to the rule. For the record, I’ve never used Bing a day in my life. Google for everything.
I quickly pulled our statistics for last week as a sample of how our customers found us:
50% of visitors to our site used Google
36% used Safari
26% used Safari in-app
15% used Yahoo
9% used Bing
Some interesting numbers for sure! And if you’re an author and not tracking this stuff, you should be! Data analysis is essential to your success because you can’t hit a target that you can’t see.
What Can You Learn?
September 10, 2021– As we chat about continuing education for authors this month, let’s take a glimpse into the world of knowledge and explore what you can learn as an author that will build up your bank account! We’re not talking about the typical manuscript improvement courses or how to write, but the topics aside from that and areas of learning that will help you sell your books and more!
- Accounting. This is essential if you’re a self-published author because you’ll need to keep track of your sales, taxes paid, royalty rates, and costs. What about foreign sales or the taxes you need to pay in a different country? Can you use some of your costs as a write-off if you’ve started a sole-proprietorship? Many questions need answers, and the best way to do this is to either hire an accountant or learn the ins and outs yourself!
- Sales. Selling is essential, and there is a wrong way and a right way to do it! The more you know about sales, the better because your livelihood depends on it! If you’re not into sales or don’t know how to sell, it’s time to brush up on your skills. So much has changed since the days of door-to-door high-pressure tactics; selling is now about connecting with your consumers and building relationships with them!
- Marketing. If cash is king, marketing is queen! Marketing is the blood of your business and books, and without it, no one will know what you do or where to buy it! Invest in marketing courses for your books and yourself; it’s an investment that will keep paying off. Marketing includes everything from packaging, how to reach your customers, who those customers are, social media, and more.
- Consumer Behaviour. The psychology of human behaviour is fascinating, and there are many continuing education classes available on this topic. Why people buy should be at the forefront of your mind when selling your book. What triggers them to make a purchase? Is there anything that you can do to influence their behaviour while still being ethical? Are there fonts/colours/shapes/designs that help people notice your work more? The questions are endless, and studying consumer behaviour is never a waste of time!
Check out our classes below; we’re adding more all the time!
Best-Seller Bootcamp – Pandamonium Publishing House
Children’s Book Writing Master Class – Pandamonium Publishing House
Transitioning from Writer to Author (An Introductory Course) – Pandamonium Publishing House
Novel Writing Course – Pandamonium Publishing House
Course: Get Your Book Noticed and Increase Your Sales – Pandamonium Publishing House