Increase sales on Amazon by ‘liking’ and ‘tagging’

Right
now, there is an epidemic of tagging and liking. It comes from friends and fans
ganging up to deliver a record number of likes and tags in a day or two… and
then nothing. Amazon rankings plummet back to where they were. Why did they
increase at all, with no sales, only visits? Because every visit to that book’s
page registers and tells Amazon to move you higher. Once the visits stop, the
rank drops. But you need those likes and tags, right?



Yes.
Here’s what they do for you - bring readers. Not so much the likes -they’re
eye-candy that helps convert a look into a download. Here’s last week’s
article-building the perfect sales page- it doesn’t cover likes because this is
such a touchy topic right now that I wanted to be able to spend a minute on it.
We’ll start with tags. These are not the exact search terms you put on your
book when you uploaded it, but they work the same way. Use your secondary
keywords-the ones you didn’t have room for after picking your main ten
words…you don’t have Google researched keywords to use for tags? Sighing… maybe
you should start at the beginning of this series. This
link will take you my post on finding the perfect keywords.





Now
where was I?... oh yes, tags. Use the keywords you didn’t have room for and
then like with the Google search tool, use Amazon’s own directory to ad more.
When you begin to type in a tag, suggestions appear. Pick the ones that have
the least amount of uses. Least? Am I kidding? No. You can’t compete with
500,897 other books using that tag. Low competition is key when picking tags.



So
how do you get more without being guilty of the two-day tagging binge? It’s all
about the fans, of course. While you’re asking them to review the book they’ve
just left a note about, ask them to hit the buttons and even look at the first
few reviews and see if they find them helpful. Never ask them to vote one way
or the other, though. It’s very bad and will lose you readers.





Now
- liking. This button is often overlooked. You can ask fans and reviewers to do
it, but chances are, when they get to the bottom to the place where their
review goes, they’ll have already forgotten about that button. So, what do you
do?



First,
let me ask you a question. At the end of your books, do you include a personal
note or thought direct to the reader? I won’t ask why not on that one. Some
people don’t think of it and others just think it’s a bad idea. I do and I use
that space to encourage the readers to not only contact me through my website’s
contact form, I… here we go again. No website form, click here.- Take a fast look and
come back.





Anyway,
I ask for things in that 1-2 page space. Carefully. I also give them things,
like links to my blog and website so they can leave those comments. Release
news for the next book is also great here, as they’ve just finished. Remember
that feeling? The storyline is filling your mind and you want more! Give it to
them.



Another
choice for Likes- put a notice on your FB wall, in your information so it never
gets shuffled by Timeline. Tell them it would be very helpful if they could
stop by and like it or vote on a review. It’s okay by Amazon’s TOS to suggest
they do so, as long as you don’t try to influence their choices. And really,
you don’t need to. If they followed the link in your book to your wall, they
already ‘like’ it….you don’t know how to put live links in your epubs?





I
understand. That’s a pain in my ass that I’ve only managed to do on a laptop or
pc, never a Mac. I assume it’s my program and skills, as I know others who’ve
done it with great success. I’ll be covering a PC method in one of these posts,
probably after I come back from summer break. If you need it now, it’s all
about making the link in the word copy before you import it into the file…don’t
know how to import? Many people don’t. I think we’ll have an epub month this year,
like this Amazon set.








Next
Week: The 7 steps to complete Amazon success.






"Seven very gifted survivors are destined to rebuild their country after a nuclear apocalypse...If they can stay alive long enough to find each other.”

The Survivors: Book One

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