The internet has made self publishing and book selling a highly targeted and profitable business. Here are five steps to get started selling your book online.
Step One: Get a domain name.
Your domain name should represent your book's name or a keyword description of the type of information products you offer. For example, if your book is titled 30 Days to A Happy Healthy Heart. How to Eat and Live Well for Optimal Heart Health, your domain name could be happyhealthyheart.com or optimalhearthealth.biz or even 30dayhearthealth.tv the choices are abundant.
Step Two: Design your website.
Websites to sell books need a few things. They need a sales page. The number one thing that you need to sell your book on the internet is a website. It is the one single place where people will find your book, make decisions about you and your book or books, make a purchase, possibly sign up for more information or contact from you. You can find an abundance of website templates available online or through your hosting service.
Your website will need the following pages or elements:
A About us
B Contact us
C Privacy Policy
D Subscribe here
E Disclaimer
F Articles and/or free stuff
G Media information
H Sales copy
I Catalog or list of products if you offer more than your book (make sure each product has its own promotion or sales page)
J Purchase page
K Thank you page and/or download page
Step Three: Fulfillment and distribution.
You'll need to determine how and where customers are going to purchase your book online. Will you provide a shopping cart, via shopping cart software, on your website? Will you link to Paypal, Clickbank, Amazon? How will you distribute your book to your customers?
If you're selling eBooks then you can distribute them electronically via a number of automated tools available online or through your web hosting company. Take note that people that purchase eBooks expect to receive their download information immediately.
If you're selling printed books, then you'll need to gather shipping and payment information. Again there are a number of software programs that are designed specifically for this purpose.
Step Four: Bring Traffic to Your Website.
This can be done with a number of tools including search engine optimization of your website. This basically means that when people are searching for the type of information your book offers, your website comes up on the search engine results. You can hire an expert to optimize your website or you can do it yourself. There are a number of online tools and resources at your disposal.
Step Five. Online Book Promotion.
You can also drive traffic to your website, and sales, with a healthy dose of book promotion techniques. Online these techniques include writing articles for online publications including ezines, blogs, and free article sites. You can host your own blog, join an online forum or chat room for people interested in your book's topic. You can also participate in webinars, online seminars, for people interested in your book's subject matter.
The resources available to you as an online book marketer are practically endless. Take advantage of these resources and opportunities. Get thee a website and start marketing your book on the internet today!
