Online Marketing

Blogging is tremendous fun, and pretty engaging even if you don’t love your topic. Well, this is true most of the time... Here's how to generating new blog ideas when you're stumped.

A recent article on Hypebot does a good job explaining why content creators (especially authors!) need to be using Google’s social platform. Here's the quick summary...

3 reasons why authors need Google+

1. YouTube comments may soon require Google+ accounts Not only will you need a Google+ account to leave comments on YouTube videos (and respond to comments on your own videos), but comments made about videos shared on Google+ will be displayed on YouTube too. 2. Google Authorship requires Google+ Ya know when you search for something in Google and a blog author’s avatar shows up beside one of the search results?

Best-practices to smarten-up your online book marketing

Every week on The HostBaby Blog, we post new web and social media tips for artists. You’ll learn how to grow your email list, how to get readers to interact with your online content, how to draft newsletters that convert to sales, how to optimize your site for search, and more. For those of you who haven’t been keeping tabs on the HostBaby Blog…

Here are the most recent HostBaby Blog articles:

1. Are your Facebook posts irrelevant? 2. Your headlines are annoying. Here’s how to make them better.

If you want to build a large online readership and effectively promote your book through social media, there are three very important things to remember, no matter which social networks you’re using.

1. It’s all about connection

Don’t be one of those annoying social media spammers, constantly boasting or asking followers to “buy, buy, buy” (or both).  Instead, provide value, either through writing and sharing useful information, or by being simply entertaining (which could mean funny, biting, sympathetic, etc.) Once you’ve made a real connection, your followers will be more receptive to buying your book. Soft sell!

2. Be a shinier, more compact you

Here’s the thing: you can’t communicate all of your beauty, depth, and complexity via social media. We can’t even...

Facebook dominates the social networking world. But how can authors use the Facebook platform to promote their books and find new readers? Naturally, you should be talking about your writing on your personal profile just as you talk about other aspects of your life, but there are some good reasons why you should make the leap and take the focused promotion efforts off of your personal Facebook profile and create a Facebook page dedicated to your literary pursuits.

Winning and losing at the Facebook promotion game. The secret to Facebook success is simple: follow the Rule of 4 C's—consistently create compelling content! If you're an author who's been watching a slow decline in your fans' Facebook engagement then you probably already know some of the secrets to Facebook failure, but we'll review them below. It's never too late to change course!

It’s difficult to post fresh content on your blog every single week. Even the most inspired writers hit a wall once in a while. But don't get too frustrated. Not every blog post needs to be a brilliant essay. It's possible to be an effective blogger and spend less than 15 minutes writing each post! How? By varying the kinds of posts you publish, you’ll keep readers more engaged and make it easier for you to generate compelling content on-time—all the time.