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How To Strengthen Your Online Presence

By on March 29, 2017
How To Strengthen Your Online Presence - Writer's Life.org

Nowadays it seems as though being a good writer simply isn’t enough. Not only is the competition to get your book published fiercer than ever, but there are also thousands of authors now going down the self-publishing route which means it’s tough to make yours stand out.

Having a great online presence is crucial for modern authors and this can be done in many ways. However, all of them involve consistently providing well-written, interesting and engaging content that appeals to their target audience and keeps them not only coming back for more but sharing that content, and therefore, in some ways, doing your marketing for you!

Building a great online presence rarely happens overnight. For most authors, it is a slow and sometimes tedious process and the growth happens slowly but surely. Spending time on this, however, can make all the difference when it comes to helping see your book's sales soar.

So how do you strengthen your online presence? Here are some rules to follow:

Be selfless

Obviously, the whole point of dedicating time and effort to engaging with people online is so that you can build a following and tell them about all the cool, exciting, writing-related stuff you’re doing. The problem is, for the most part, they don’t care.

You need to consistently give them useful, interesting, entertaining content that has nothing to do with your book. Once they trust you to continue to provide this for them and have become unwavering followers of what you do online, only then should you talk about your work - and even then this should be infrequent and genuine.

Think of yourself as a shop assistant, if you push too hard your customer will just leave. If, however, you let them browse, and only approach them when you think you can genuinely help them (then back off if they refuse that help), they are far more likely to stay and buy something.

Get known for one particular thing

Think about your work, your genre and your talents. How can you bring all of these together to reach out to your target audience? Your ‘thing’ could be something really specific about fly fishing, or it could just be being sarcastic and funny. Think about what you can bring to the table that no on else is doing, do it with integrity and passion, and you’ll soon find more and more people spreading the word about you.

Have confidence

When you write, do so with authority, even if you don’t really believe you have any. If you come across as self-assured and knowledgeable you’ll attract a wider audience. Readers want to read content that is written with conviction - it’s not about people pleasing, it’s about presenting thoughts and ideas which make people sit up and take notice.

Be consistent

There is no point in writing one great piece, posting it online, working really hard to get as many people to see it as possible, and then going quiet for a few weeks. If you really want to strengthen your online presence you have to keep putting content out there, there is no respite - hard work is key.

Understand SEO

Learn how SEO works from a technical point of view. Get link backs from reputable and high authority websites, learn how to rank for certain keywords, write content that’s attention grabbing and shareable. If you can improve your SEO more people will be able to find you - and learn about your book.

Improving your online presence, just like many aspects of writing, takes time and persistence. But doing so really can help you to increase your readership and sell more books. So follow the tips above, keep working at it, and it could make all the difference!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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