blogs – Nigeria Lockley

Let’s break it down a bit for those who don’t know about Virtual Book Tours. A virtual book tour is when an author visits blogs, radio shows, writes guest post, etc. to share their latest work with readers during a specific period of time. The length is up to you–one week, two weeks, a month.

This your can take place before the release of your book, when the book is released, or after the release of your book.

Options

You have two options–hire someone to organize your tour for you or organize it yourself. Every virtual book tour I’ve been on I organized myself because at the time I didn’t have the budget.

DYI Tips
Organize, organize, organize. If you’re not well connected in the publishing world or know a bunch of bloggers and radio show host then you’re going to have get organized, well in advance. Most bloggers schedule posts in advance and they are not going to break their timeline for you.You need to start arranging the tour six months in advance. If you don’t know many bloggers or want to step outside of your comfort zone visit Book Blogger Directory to find bloggers in your genre.

Also, be prepared to be rejected. Some bloggers will not want you, your content, or book. If you’re not going to be spending money on this tour you better be prepared to spend time putting this tour together.

Beware of sites in which you have to pay to be featured on their website. Yes, this a promo tour and sometimes you have to pay for promotion, but paying to be featured on a blog is a little sketchy unless that blogger has a huge audience with some guaranteed results.
Some radio shows charge for guests. Don’t be afraid to ask for stats and demographics. If they can’t prove they have a diverse listening audience that includes you ideal reader. Keep your coins and move on to the next one.
Create graphics for free using Canva, Pic Monkey, Be Funky, or Ribbet
Select several different excerpts so that your fans, followers, and friends can have a rich experience while following the tour.
Try to do guest post with content connected to the book and of interest to the blog audience. Those posts usually generate lots of hits.

Know your purpose. A blog tour is to create awareness and announce your presence. Don’t go crazy if after you’ve organized this phenomenal tour the only person who buys a copy of your book is your grandmother in Toledo. People cannot purchase something that they don’t know about. A Virtual Book Tour is your introduction to them.

Have you organized your own virtual book tour before? Share your experiences in the comments. If you haven’t tried one yet make sure you come back and let me know how it goes.

Have you been wondering how to make your blog work for you instead of you working for your blog? Have you racked your brain trying to figure out why your readers barely engage with the content you post? Well, today on #WriterWednesday the 2014 winner of the Very Inspiring Blogger Award, Faith Simone of All Things Written to Inspire and Encourage is stopping by The Neophyte Author to steer us all in the write direction.

5 Simple Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic by Faith Simone

Blogging is not for the faint of heart, but it doesn’t have to be super difficult either. At its root, blogging is intended for two things: sharing a person’s personal thoughts on a variety of subjects and connecting with others. That’s it in a nut shell. But we all know that many folks use their blogs as a way to sell products, make a living by working with sponsors and/or building a platform for future endeavors. So whether your goal is to make connections, money or both, you need a steady flow of traffic from online visitors. Here are a few ways to help make that happen.

BE CONSISTENT-Nothing alienates a following more than posting inconsistently. Whether you post daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly do it regularly. The best practice is to clearly state your posting habits on your blog near your subscribe button. But keep in mind that you should under promise and over deliver.

PRODUCE GREAT CONTENT– They say knowledge is power, and blogging about subjects you’re an expert in is a great way to build, and keep, a solid audience. Invest time in researching and sharing relevant content on a regular basis. You should also focus on being entertaining. Plenty of blogs generate a lot of traffic simply because the blogger shares their personal life on a regular basis. If you have an engaging personality and you’re able to translate that with pictures and writing, you have all you need to keep people coming back for more!

TAG YOUR POSTS CORRECTLY– Neglecting to take advantage of search engine optimization (SEO) is something many bloggers overlook. Tagging your posts with key words consistently is a great way to put you at the top of Google and other search engines. For example, if you blog about easy quick food recipes, it’s probably a good idea to tag all your posts with the words ‘food’ and ‘recipes’. Then add specifics like ‘easy’, ‘enchiladas’, ‘30 minute meals’, etc. Do this often enough and your blog will be one of the first to populate in specific searches. When I first started blogging I Googled my name and I wasn’t even on the top few pages of the results. Then I started tagging every single post with ‘Faith Simone’. Now, my blog posts span the first couple of pages for that search. It works, try it!

COMMENTS– One sure way to increase traffic and comments is to comment on other blogs. Especially blogs that cover similar information to yours. Bloggers love comments like a mother loves her kids. I’m serious. Bloggers spend time and effort producing content for their blogs and usually don’t get a whole lot of feedback for it. A thoughtful comment makes a blogger’s heart sing. It means that not only is someone actually reading their content, but they took time to respond intelligently to it. Do this often enough and you’re on your way to building a sincere relationship with the blogger whose posts you comment on and with their loyal followers. Keep in mind that comments like ‘Great post!’ won’t fly. Be sincere and only comment when you have something meaningful to contribute.

SHARING– I was late to the party on this one, but I’m so glad that I recently came to understand the gift of sharing content. Taking just a minute to share a great post by a fellow blogger on Twitter or Facebook is an awesome way to build a relationship with fellow bloggers. Plus, it gives your social media followers access to more great content. It’s also reciprocal. Once you share a blogger’s content they’re more likely to share yours. You’re both helping each other reach new audiences. Sharing is indeed caring.

So that’s it folks: consistence, good content, effective tagging, sincere comments and social media sharing. Put those elements into practice and watch your visitor stats grow!

About the Author

Faith Simone is a poet, playwright and novelist. She is also an active blogger, sharing her personal thoughts, book reviews and tips for writers on her website FaithSimone.com. Simone is passionate about using her gift of writing as a tool to help promote humanity, understanding and compassion.