Tag: visibility

The Indie Quest: Visibility through eBook Distributors

Author Bruce FottlerGuest Post
by Bruce Fottler

There’s a proverbial sea of books for sale that usually leaves the average indie author drowning in obscurity. Gaining meaningful visibility has always been a daunting challenge, and it’s getting harder with each passing year.

Many indie authors have several published titles under their belts, having spent a lot of effort refining blurbs, covers, and developing marketing and distribution strategies. But despite these efforts, I often hear a familiar lament: Achieving visibility is difficult, maintaining it is even harder. And scaling it up? Ouch. Let’s not go there.

While there’s a multitude of marketing strategies and advertising options that various blogs have explored over the years, I’d like to focus on retail channel performance. Are retailers offering promotional opportunities, and have they helped to increase visibility for the average indie author?

Continue reading “The Indie Quest: Visibility through eBook Distributors”

What? Facebook Changes That Might Help?

Facebook makes changes for the positiveIs Facebook making changes for the better?

This past week, Facebook altered a few items that might actually help users rather than the attract the almighty dollar.

Let’s start with ads. Did you know that you could hide certain ads? If you keep seeing ads that annoy you or don’t apply to you, you can tell Facebook that it’s inappropriate. When you hover over the ad you’ll see a small “x” in the upper right-hand. Click the “x” and you’ll view a general list of reasons you might not like the ad. Select whichever applies and Facebook will display another list to choose a more specific explanation of why you do not like the ad. Presto, no more ads from that brand. Continue reading “What? Facebook Changes That Might Help?”

Get More Eyes On Your Tweets

5 Ways to get more Twitter InteractionsLast week we wrote about the Twitter Twelve—minimizing the time it takes to effectively use Twitter. This week we’ll focus on getting your Tweets noticed. Here are some simple steps you can take to get more visibility on Twitter and grow your platform.

1. Be Yourself – As with any platform, keep it real. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. You see all kinds of Tweets out there. You don’t have to mimic others. The social media world will recognize a fake faster than the lifespan of a single Tweet (which isn’t very long.)

2. Get Personal with Retweets – When we share, we tend to click the Twitter share button and hit “Tweet.” This is a time effective way to engage, however, take a moment and add a question like, “Does this happen to you?” or “What do you think?” People are more apt to engage when asked a question. Or, you can add a comment like, “Must read for writers.” Continue reading “Get More Eyes On Your Tweets”

How to Increase Facebook Visibility

file3371281797656Those of you who have Facebook pages or read Jim Devitt’s posts probably know that the social media giant is showing a ridiculously small percentage of your fan page posts to your readers, and that this percentage has been dropping lately. Right now, going by an average of my last few posts, I’m reaching about 4% of my fans. Which is pretty sucky. Continue reading “How to Increase Facebook Visibility”