How to hit #1 on Amazon... Showing 451-500 of 2,339

[Dee]

<--tried to blog but felt guilty...because I could have spent that time writing :(

[Todd Fonseca]

All,
I'm thinking about expanding my blog into other marketing tips (capture all the great stuff that comes up here) as well as start a list of book review websites that we can all rate (quality of review, turnaround time, etc.). I get this question a lot and just send one off emails when I get them.
What are everyone's thoughts on this? Also, thinking about having guest bloggers submit articles.
Looking for feedback!
Todd

[Dee]

Guest bloggers would give YOU more time to write Todd.

It is a crime that you are not working on another novel :]

[Carole]

Dee wrote: "<--tried to blog but felt guilty...because I could have spent that time writing :("

Oh, how well I understand this. My first crime novel Ferryman is now published, and many thanks to all those who tagged it. while trying to promote Ferryman, I'm putting the finishing touches to my second novel, which is almost ready for submission. My third is waiting for me to pick it up again and do yet another edit, and a fourth is half way through it first draft. So any writing outside these parameters is heavily guilt-ridden. But I do admire those who can blog on a regular basis.

[Dee]

Oh My Carole...I am so impressed and PROUD!

Waaaaaaaaay 2 go!

Ferryman is sitting on my nightstand, waiting in line to be read :)

[Gina]

12 blogs! I have my hands full with three. Ok, I'm thinking of starting a fourth... but 12! I've made some great contacts by blogging though. I'm going to be collaborating with a chap on an article due to him finding my Utamaro blog, so that's nice.

By the way, what do you all make of Amazon Author Stores? Do you suppose we'll all get one eventually?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html...

[Gina]

Todd, great ideas about expanding your blog. I don't know how you manage all that work though. You must be eating your spinach!

[Shirley]

Hello every one. I will be having back surgery Tue the 21. So I won't be tagging for a few days. I don't think you would want me to during that time, lol. So if I haven't tagged you, I am not snubbing you. Shirley

[K.G.]

Todd, you should be nominated for sainthood for the work you put into helping all get ahead in this business. I don't blog much, but at the advice of an online marketing guru, I'm enrolled, or get enrollled in each site I find. His comment to me was, if I didn't have my pen name reserved there, there was nothing stopping anyone from opening up an account using it. They could blog about anything. Think about what havoc that could create if you are brave enough!
Smiles, Kathy

[Dee]

Wishing you well Shirley, come back to us soon :)

[Todd Fonseca]

Shirley,
We'll be thinking of you - good luck!
Todd

[Todd Fonseca]

Kathy,
Thank you for your kind words. We all help each other - I'm just part of the team!
Todd

[Dee]

<--Hey Todd,

Just finished Time Cavern...loved it :]

*looking at you with grumpy face*

So, where is the next book in the series? :}

[Dee]

When I was reading your novel, all I could think of was..."Todd's kids must be so proud of their dad"

[Todd Fonseca]

Dee,
How nice of you to say such kind words, it means a lot.
I did start the next book (about 20% into it) but I haven't worked on it for some time. Have the plot all worked out (a lot more action in this one), but I guess I wanted to see how folks liked the first...
Todd

[Dee]

What I really liked about the book was that he had little bits of wonderful trivia laced within the storyline. Plus wonderful bits of adult to child wisdom. I eagerly await the next book in the series.

Get Busy Writing! Forming a Todd Nag Team :]

[Todd Fonseca]

"Dear Todd and anyone else, I have a question. I just went over to check the tags on YOUR ROOTS ARE SHOWING, and it's been tagged 30 times for chick lit. And yet when I search for 'chick lit' (in the top search box under 'all departments') it isn't there! It's only there when I click on 'chick lit' next to the tags box. So does this mean we should also be requesting search terms for each other? In other words, when would a person stumble on YOUR ROOTS ARE SHOWING if they were simply browsing chick lit?"

Elise (I copied your post from the other discussion), I've been looking into this (someone else pointing this out).

Still investigating but it looks like the tags are specific only to the customer communities as you mention while if one is looking to have, as you mention, books come up for "chick lit" in general search one needs to use a slightly different approach below the tag boxes ("help other customers find").

Let me experiment with a few things and do some more research. I just came across another way to use tags to highlight books (full pictures and all) on some of the bestseller pages which I'm also experimenting with.

In fact, you all can help me with this last experiment. On Amazon, type in "the time paradox" in the search at the top. A page listing Eoin Colfers' bestseller should be at the top. Click on that book (which should bring it's page). Page down to see if my book comes up in the "other customer's suggested" section.

Thanks!
Todd

[Gina]

Your book does come up Todd. I noticed the same thing with my book about Utamaro... it shows up on pages for other books about Japanese prints.

[Thersa]

Just stopping in to say hello. Good luck Shirley! Now I'm off to try Todd's experiment.

This is oh-so techie, makes me feel smart (ahem).

terrie

[Thersa]

Yes, your book came up, Todd.

t

[Elise]

Best wishes, Shirley!
Todd, thanks for looking into the whole search term thing. I did suggest 'chick lit' as a search term for Your Roots Are Showing, but it hasn't been 'approved' yet. Suggesting a search term is more time consuming because you have to write a few words to support the suggestion. I think this may be the real key to getting the book noticed, though....

[Todd Fonseca]

Elise,
I agree, I ran a similar experiment. My book comes up #26 when typing "time travel" in the search.

Also, seems to take a while for it to be "approved". Multiple terms or phrases have to be submitted separately. I've got my thinking cap on to figure out a way to speed this up and leverage our little tag team.

Great suggestion Elise!
T

[Todd Fonseca]

Elise,
Hmmm, even more interesting, my book is now #8 when searching on "time travel" and then clicking on books.
Now to figure out an easier way to do this.

Stay tuned all!
T

[Carole]

Todd,
I ran through your experiment -- the time Paradox -- found Eoin Colfer best seller, clicked on the top one, Artemis Fowl Book 6 -- I worked my way slowly down his page and checked all the available titles under the 'Customers who bought this item etc.'but did not find yours anywhere. I tried the next Eoin Colfer book, 'Artemis Fowl the time paradox signed E' and still did not find yours mentioned.

Am I looking in the wrong place? I could not find the exact wording you mentioned: 'other customer's suggested' -- so wonder if that is the problem.

[Elise]

We'll crack the code somehow!

[Sandy]

From an earlier discussion on this thread: Johanna wrote: "blogertize.com will tell you everything about blogging if you can understand it."

Todd wrote: "Johanna, Interesting blog on blogging. But wow, 12 blogs +, that is a lot to maintain. I'll have to give that some thought. Anyone else blogging that much?!"

From Sandy Nathan: I expect anyone on this thread will be able to figure bloggertize.com if they decide to sit down and do it, but the issue of how to best spend my precious time is really weighing on me.

Before I get to that: blogs, internet presence, etc.: We put up our first web site in 1998, long ago in web time. It was for our horse ranch. (Surprisingly, the net has been incredibly effective for selling horses.)

I added on Spurs Magazine as a self expression tool. http://www.ranchovilasa-spurs.com Once I learned how to write Dreamweaver, I was off. I've got about 50 URLs out there, with various magazines embedded in the ranch side and freestanding. This was all WWI, is that what they call it? The olden days.

I use powerhoster.com for buying URLs. They're cheap and I know their system. I host them with dreamhost.com. A spectacular company. They also sell URLs, but not so cheaply as Powerhoster. Dreamhost gives you TONS of stuff when you host with them, like a free Wordpress blog. For $20 a month, which was a sale they ran a while back, I can host an in INFINITE number of websites, blogs, whatever, all fully supported.

Anyway, all was going wonderfully until about two years ago. I hit 200,000 requests for pages that year and anticipated a steady increase forever.

Along came WWII, which threw a total monkey wrench into how things happened on the net. My requests for pages fell off like crazy (except for one page on Little India in Artesia). Whoa. I was also advised by a book pro that I needed a fancy, very professional author web site. And I started a blog. Now I have four.

So how does it all shake out? My old ranchovilasa-spurs.com ranch site continues to get steady hits, 10 to 12,000 a month, but way below its peak of 16,000. My sandranathan.net blog has gotten 8 to 9,000 requests for pages a month. If I write about something people are interested in, it goes crazy, AND feeds both to my author site and the ranch site, and Amazon. (My earlier post was about how to hit MySpace, FaceBook and all the rest with one post. I'm pooped, copying things.)

I just started three new blogs, one for each of my book series and the other http://yourshelflife.com. The first two are basically doing nothing because I'm doing nothing with them. My Shelf Life, which is a special purpose blog for authors and writers, looks like it's going to be popular.

Several issues pop out of this: First is the conversion rate: Do requests for pages turn into sales. Are you just getting loyal readers or are they buying something? This is a problem.

Clearly from my statistics (which I get free from Dreamhost every day), my established blog is doing its work. The others, we'll see.

My daughter said to me recently, "Why don't you take all the cute little dog stories and put them into a blog?" Yes, and I could take them and the fan sites I've got for a few musicians I love, and dismantle the small 'zines in the ranch sites into blogs-–and have 12 easily.

BUT I'M GOING NUTS AS IT IS. It's too much to keep up with. I took the day off today to work on a new book that just came back my editor. I ended up getting hooked and making a horrible customized page from some .ning site I can't even remember.

I'm thinking about on-line addiction (as applies to me, certainly) and the value of this social networking thing. It's enjoyable; connecting with people can be rewarding and you get lots of tips, but what does it really do for our careers and our spirits? Sitting in front of a computer writing all day is bad enough, but . . .

Big red flags are going up with me.

When I'm done writing about my Amazon Bestseller Day, I'm going to tackle on-line addiction and WWII. (Or are we on III?)

I hope that provides some data, Todd, about what it's like running a big web presence.

[Chariss]

Sandy wrote: "I'm staggering … but I will stumble upon anyone who would like me to. I'll also be friends. Most of the time I'm sandynathan on the various social media. The rest of the time, I forget who I am. No..."

Hi Sandy, I belong to IBPA, and Stumble, and a lot of networking sites. Send me an email if you have other questions.

I have been tagging away and I can see that some of the books are up in the 70's plus. I don't know the order of how the books get tagged by the members here, but I think it is great if everyone tags. I am in the 20's the last time I checked so I can see it is climbing a little. Regardless, it has put me on the first page or couple of pages under that particular tag -- so thanks to everyone who did tag my books. I am thrilled and I have completed/tagged all the books on the "Tag, You're It" post. Todd, a great idea!
If anyone knows of a publicist that is reasonable and available, I would love to get a referral for one. Thanks, and I really do love this site.
Blessings, Chariss

[Dee]

I am feeling very "blond" today... I just don't get it, sigh.

I know that I put Merlin into the Amazon.com search engine and my book didn't even come up :[

[Todd Fonseca]

Sandy,
Wow, great post. Thanks for all of the info. You are wealth of knowledge.
Todd

[Todd Fonseca]

Dee,
Seems like adding the search terms may take a while. The ones I added still show up in Amazon as "pending review". This is not as quick or easy as tagging (at least not yet).

Stay tuned all!
T

[Dee]

Sits in front of the telly, staying tuned :]

[Dave]

I've now tagged all those people added after Jessie's book.

Great work Todd.

Still in awe,

Dave

[Todd Fonseca]

Dave,
Thanks for supporting the site. I really appreciate it!
T

[Todd Fonseca]

All,
In my next newsletter I'll invite folks to try an experiment with this whole "amazon search" thing. If it seems to work, I'll see how to expand further.
T

[Dave]

Thanks Todd. Just thought I'd also let folks know that Freeviral is a non-starter unless you can attract serious webmasters with lots of traffic from the beginning. Two weeks in, only three visitors. Advice: give this a wide birth.

Best

Dave

[Todd Fonseca]

Dave,
Thanks for "taking point" on freeviral and letting us know the outcome!
T

[Elise]

Todd, I'm excited about the "amazon search" experiment! Maybe they would respond to requests more quickly if more people made them?
Elise

[Todd Fonseca]

Elise,
I am too! I'm using your book as the example for the instructions to be posted on the blog!
Todd

[Elise]

Oh wow! Thanks for that. We'll see if it makes any difference... I'm off to tag folks on Todd's site.
Elise

[Dee]

Hey Todd,

How many books are on the Tag list now?

[Todd Fonseca]

Dee,
I'm not sure - I'd have to count. It's got to be close to 200 I think...
T

[Todd Fonseca]

All,
I started a new discussion to try Elise's "Amazon Search" experiment. Check it out!
T

[Anthony]

Hey Todd,

Great work with the entire process. I'm still busy "Tagging" books but I have to say that many of these books look really interesting. This process truly provides us with additional exposure to finding readers as I am already marking some for my future purchases. Thanks everyone!

[Todd Fonseca]

Hey Anthony - thanks for the support!

[Shirley]

Hey every one I am out from under for right now. Still in hosp because dr won't discharge me until we have electric after this big ice storm. So I may get to tag between pain pills! lol Surgery was a success really no back pain as of yet!

[Leslie Ann]

Hey everyone,

I'm thrilled to see that my first novel Griffin's Daughter is now coming up #1 on the Romantic Fantasy community book list! Thank you, thank you fellow taggers, for all your support!

[Thersa]

Dangit, my goal for today is to catch up on tagging. I promise!

t

[Rai]

I just caught up on all of the tagging, it was my goal today as well :)

Rai

[Todd Fonseca]

Leslie,
Woohoo - congratulations!
Todd

[Todd Fonseca]

Theresa and Rai,
Thanks for the support!
T