It’s no secret that the Web is a great place to market yourself, especially if you are a budding author. In the online world, however, many cookbook authors are not taking full advantage of their resources. To market themselves, web-savvy authors typically rely on the most popular social media sites, self-publishing sites, their own blogs and maybe some online PR sites. Non-web-savvy authors rely on their publicists, which ultimately may result in promoting through those same online channels.
Image courtesy of Google
Few cookbook authors, however, align themselves with online companies that have targeted audiences. Doing so eliminates a lot of the organic traffic-generation grunt work because such companies already have “captive audiences” (people who are already interested in topics about which the author writes). This is precisely how the web is evolving: identify YOUR ecosystem and make friends with everyone in it. The more specific you can be when defining your ecosystem, the better, because you will reach a more targeted audience that is more likely to buy what you are selling. Build a portfolio of targeted companies with which to align.
The downside is that the right company, with the right captive audience, may be tough to find. However, when you have the mindset that targeted, relevant online companies can help you, a little research will open new doors. When you do find them, be proactive in showing how your product /service fits with their audience. There are many forms a partnership or alignment can take; targeted, relevant ad exchanges (which leads to higher conversions rates), content exchanges or licensing, expertise and knowledge exchanges, introductions to relevant friends in your network (it pays to be nice on the Internet!), or simply utilization of that company’s platform as a targeted promotional forum (believe it or not, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are not the only “social” sites out there!).
As an example, eatricious has built a promotional platform for cookbook authors directly into its site. Cookbook authors with quality, healthy recipes can manage them in their eatricious account and publish them on eatricious.com for healthy-lifestyle seekers to browse. Authors can choose which recipes to publish on the site and which to keep for their cookbooks. In their profiles, authors can promote their website for free, a great proposition since a steady flow of healthy-lifestyle seekers will have direct exposure them. In fact, the more recipes an author publishes the more promotion the she gets because each recipe page has a direct link to the author’s profile.
In addition, each recipe has a rating based on convenience, health, nutrition and other factors. If an author’s recipe is very highly rated she has a better chance of being “found”, or even featured, on the site because the best recipes show up first. This feature is available to anyone who wants to publish healthy recipes, not just authors, but the rating algorithm ensures that the authors with the highest quality recipes shine.
So, as a supplement to existing promotional methods, swim out of the vast ocean that is Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for a while and reach for companies that are more targeted to the audience you want to reach. Be proactive. Be a friend. Have fun! To get started, sign up on eatricious.com.
Good info, thanks for sharing.
-Scott
You guys make a great point. We do the social media stuff and the PR stuff, but really getting hooked up with these niche sites should be just as important. I am always searching for “captive” people on the Internet so thanks for the encourgemnt.
you guys should allow us to connect with other people through this site. i know you are in beta but it would be good to meet other people with same interests (other than on facebook and twitter). good idea though – keep it up!