Writing E-books: The Hottest Marketing Tool on the Web

With so many e-books available on the Web, the need for a dynamic marketing tool to make your e-book offering standout from the rest of the crowd is a must. However, selecting the appropriate marketing tool for your e-book is not easy given the array of competing marketing tools available to you on the Web. In this article we look at one of the most versatile and cost effective marketing tools available to e-book authors and publishers.

Of all the online marketing tools available on the Web, online video represents the most versatile, most cost effective and most value added asset you can choose. If you are not using online video to promote your e-book, then you could very well be missing out on a lot of potential sales.With so many e-books available on the Web, the need for a dynamic marketing tool to make your e-book offering standout from the rest of the crowd is a must. However, selecting the appropriate marketing tool for your e-book is not easy given the array of competing marketing tools available to you on the Web. Your choice of marketing tools range from pay for click advertising, blogging, article marketing, forums, social networks and online video, to name but a few.

 

 

Here are six reasons why you should be using online video to promote your e-book:

·         Online video has the power to engage your audience faster than any other medium

·         More and more people are tuning into online video: In the UK alone, the number of people watching online video went from 6 million in 2006 to over 17 million in 2010

·         There are over 50 free to upload video sharing sites on the Web

·         Youtube, alone, has more than 490 million unique visitors every month

·         Youtube and Google Video are not just video sharing sites – they are search engines

·         Youtube is the second largest social networking site after Facebook, with over 15% of the social networking market

Creating online video need not be difficult, as most PC’s and laptops come bundled with video making software. Software such as Movie Maker or I-Movie is not difficult to use and you can create a short video clip within the space of a few hours. You don’t even need a video camera as you can use screen cast technology to capture images from your computer screen. For those of us bereft of video editing skills, I’ve discovered that a Power Point presentation set to music is an effective way of creating online video.

The point is: you don’t need to be a Spielberg to create online video, nor do you need to create an Oscar winning blockbuster. All you need is a short video clip, of no more than 1 minute, to announce the publication of your new e-book.

Online video, if entertaining and informative, has the potential to go viral. For example, Pepsi Cola created a comic video clip that attracted over 26 million viewers over a very short time span. The clip lasted no more than a few minutes. Now that is what I call viral marketing at its best.

Creating an online video and uploading it to any one of the free video sharing sites will increase your e-book’s exposure to a wider audience.

Online video will also help you to create a brand image for your e-publishing business, a must if you want to become a bestselling e-book author. But, more importantly, online video will empower you towards a better rapport with your readers.  Furthermore, the growing popularity of online video amongst Internet users translates into a better opportunity to build a more dynamic online presence for your e-book, which in turn equates to more sales.

Why not give your e-book the online video promotion treatment? The results might just surprise you.

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