Five Places to Self Promote

Without Being Annoying

When we think of advertising we often think of banners and fliers and postcards but in the age of the internet, personal advertising or self-promotion has grown into many mediums. Here are a five socially acceptable ways that are taken for granted or often over looked when it comes to leaving a lasting impression.

1. The email signature line. It appears at the end of every message you send in an email. All email programs have a section set aside specifically for signature line but they are often ignored or people just do not know they are there. Setting up your email program to include your signature line is a simple form of advertising that only takes a few minutes and you never have to worry about repeatedly signing your emails with a new tagline or bio line again. This is especially important if you have a few email accounts as you can have a different signature line for each. Explore this further by looking under tools and account settings in your email programs. Important tip: keep it brief — your name, a tag line, and a URL.

2. Write an article or guest blog and include a bio at the end. Do not write an article in which all you talk about or describe is yourself and your new book. It annoys people. Offer real information to earn respect their respect and then they will follow through in learning more about you and what you do. Readers want to learn who you are from your bio so always include a line or two about yourself (third person) and a link to your website, blog, or publisher. Keep it to one link, preferably a central one that will lead to all the projects you are working on.

3. Post in forums where people in the age group of your book hang out. Do not post things like “read my book” or “read my short story!” Participate in real back and forth conversations. Forums like emails always have a section for signature lines. Some allow links and some only allow text. If people like you they will search for what you have written. Use a witty quote, mention the title of your book, put in your website URL, i.e. “Find me at www.book-in-a-week.com”. You really don’t have to devote a lot of time to this. Find a place you like and post once or twice a day. It adds up over the long run and open forums are always getting traffic, even on old topics.

4. Do not hang out with only other writers, hang out with readers too. Goodreads.com would be a good example. For Artists — deviantart.com. On Twitter.com you can find all kinds of people with a world of interests and you get to set up a nice landing page that links back to your website.

5. Create a blog and post in it every day even if it is just to say, “I’m up and I’m alive”. Do not set up a blog if you are not going to post for weeks on end. You are just clogging up the internet. Think of it as a writing exercise and post a minimum of three times a week, say Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Have Monday’s post be about something writing related. Wednesday’s post be about something reading related and Friday’s post be about something personal (just in time for the weekend). This adds variety to your blog and will attract a variety of readers. Be sure to add the URL to your signature lines! Do not get frustrated by the lack of comments — comments does not mean your blog is not getting interested visitors. Even the blogs out there with lots of comments get way more visitors than those that comment. Set up a Feedburner account and add an RSS subscription and email subscription to your blog page. This allows visitors to subscribe and receive updates every time you post. You can also access the Feedburner website to see the traffic your posts are producing and from where. If the blogging does not work out for you — delete the blog. If someone does a search for your name you do not want them finding a blog that you do not update.

Do not expect overnight results with these free advertising methods. When people begin advertising in these ways on the internet they often expect an immediate rush of people. That almost never happens on the internet. What is important is staying true and on course. You may notice results a few months down the road but most likely it will take at least a year. But in the end it will be worth it.

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Topic Links
* Basic Web Speak – Short forms for social networking