Promoting my Book
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
United States
April 6, 2016 10:49am CST
As I am almost finished writing my book explaining how high school students can obtain a great deal of money to pay for college, I am starting to think about what I will need to do to promote it. I know I need a website and plan to create one in the form of a blog. This way, I can continue to inform the public of issues pertaining to public schools and colleges, while promoting my book.
I think that the wider my blog, everything from elementary education through college, the easier it will be to find interesting and useful information for the site. I don’t want to make this a tedious job for myself, so I don’t want to keep it on the single issue of college costs and how to cover them.
I envision having tabs where specific topics can be expanded and links to helpful sites listed. I can also provide the most current information about the subject of each chapter of my book, as time passes. I’ll point readers of my book to my site, so that they will always have the most up to date hints and tools.
What do you think? Should I make this blog an umbrella where people interested in education will be pointed to my book, or should I just focus on the book itself on the site? If I do the second, how would I keep coming up with something to write?
22 people like this
19 responses
@nanette64 (20363)
• Fairfield, Texas
6 Apr 16
I think the first option is the best @ElizabethWallace because you can cover many topics but still people will have access to the purchase of your book.
5 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
7 Apr 16
That is what I was thinking, until a friend said I should put the name of my book in the web address. That would be really hard to keep relevant.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
7 Apr 16
Okay. Now I'm thinking about the name. I think it should be more general than just the name of the book, or it will become pretty boring. Do you agree?
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
7 Apr 16
@miniam Okay. Thanks for the input. I'm pretty sure I will.
1 person likes this
@dodo19 (48166)
• Beaconsfield, Quebec
6 Apr 16
Honestly I think that it's a really great idea. I think that it can beneficial to have this kind of information on how to pay for school. Education is such an important thing, and knowing how to pay for it can be a very good tool to have.
3 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
7 Apr 16
Scholarships and grants sure beat taking out student loans and being in debt for decades.
2 people like this
@dodo19 (48166)
• Beaconsfield, Quebec
7 Apr 16
@ElizabethWallace that is very true. It's worth knowing about.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
8 Apr 16
@dodo19 I became aware of how much debt people carry when watching the Suze Orman Show a few years ago. There were many people in their forties or fifties still paying of student loan debt. I was horrified.
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
7 Apr 16
There are a ton of different school districts in each state. I might be easier to go through the PTA.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (56322)
• Canada
7 Apr 16
@ElizabethWallace If they will allow you to promote thru them, that would be a better approach. I read this today in our local newspaper, and thought of you. I hope that the link will show up.
We are a minority as our son has 3 degrees.
Far fewer people in Chatham-Kent are pursuing post-secondary education than the provincial average, often due to high costs and relatively low rewards.
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
8 Apr 16
@Juliaacv That is an interesting plan. Thanks for the information. How much does college cost now in Canada?
1 person likes this
@KristenH (33591)
• Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
7 Apr 16
@ElizabethWallace 
I'm with you. It can take you a few years to pay off your student loans.
I'm with you. It can take you a few years to pay off your student loans.1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
8 Apr 16
@KristenH I graduated with none. I paid as I went, but college costs were reasonable when I went. They are not now.
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
7 Apr 16
I am so anti-debt. I think college should be free, but that is a hard sell.
1 person likes this
@MarymargII (12422)
• Toronto, Ontario
8 Apr 16
So so great for you- and hope you have a hit on your hands. Great idea.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
8 Apr 16
Me too. It was a great deal of work, and will help those who apply the techniques I discovered.
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
9 Apr 16
@MarymargII Me too, which is why I'm going to do it. Soon.
1 person likes this
@MarymargII (12422)
• Toronto, Ontario
8 Apr 16
@ElizabethWallace I'm sure the blog will help in promotional ways!
2 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
6 Apr 16
I find the concept of using tabs to move from one area of interest to another to be rather unusual. In fact, I cannot ever remember encountering such a site before, although they may be in use. The usual approach would be hyperlink the sections.
Will this be a physical book or an e-book?
2 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
7 Apr 16
@ElizabethWallace I should have expected that because it is the logical approach.
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
8 Apr 16
@Asylum People are able to publish their own books now through CreateSpace. They even provide a template to make formatting easier.
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
7 Apr 16
It will actually be both. Most people actually prefer physical book, but authors net more money on ebooks.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
8 Apr 16
That was my fear. Also, it would be boring for me as a writer, just to stick to a narrow focus. It was fine for writing the book, but ongoing? Not so much.
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
6 Apr 16
I wonder how transferable the methods you reveal for obtaining a great deal of money to pay for college/university are to the UK...? There is a disparity in fees in the UK, depending on which of the 4 nations you hail from and which of the 4 you choose to study in... And those planning to study at tertiary level have no idea of budgeting to get the best education for their hard-working pound...
Sorry, blog or tabs, not really sure how to go about the publicity - firing snippets into Twitter or Facebook seems to garner most interest these days. Don't ask me how to set that up in an automated fashion...
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
7 Apr 16
I'll be doing Twitter and Facebook too. I think the people who make decisions upon who gets how much money are the same everywhere. So I think the book will help in other nations too, at least Western ones. I have no clue about Asian schools.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
6 Apr 16
That last sentence stumps me a bit since you would need to work fairly hard at it. If you still keep up with educational trends and problems, adding a short piece periodically would not be to hard, but how often would you need to?
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
7 Apr 16
Once each week is best. I can come up with information about schools and education in general, but coming up with something about college scholarships each week would be really tough.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
7 Apr 16
Thanks. I know it will be helpful, as long as I can get it in front of them. I will be speaking to local school groups (parents and teens), so that should help some.
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
8 Apr 16
@JudyEv No, that isn't a law here at all.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382312)
• Rockingham, Australia
8 Apr 16
@ElizabethWallace That's a good idea. Do you have to supply one to the local library? I think that is a requirement here with every new book - or maybe it is just the state library.
1 person likes this
@miniam (9151)
• Bern, Switzerland
6 Apr 16
To promote your book the right way, you will need a blog just as you say.You will need targeted traffic to your site if you are going to make sales.Online is filled with competition
With targeted traffic,people looking for home-schooling will not be interested in public schools.You will need to write content with highly searched keywords but with less competition.
From Experience you should try to keep your niche narrow and believe me you can not be too narrow, only with a narrow niche can you get targeted traffic.when online you are like a small fish in a large sharks pond.
I believe it will be good if you write your book review and have it as a pillar post/page,then as you write posts in the future you can interlink to your pillar post which will have your review.
I hope this helps
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
7 Apr 16
I'm saving this comment and asking my more computer literate friends to explain how to do that last part. It sounds important.
@miniam (9151)
• Bern, Switzerland
7 Apr 16
@ElizabethWallace
Interlinking should not be hard and it will also help increase the ranking of your pillar article.
1 person likes this
@suziecat7 (3349)
• Asheville, North Carolina
11 Apr 16
I think you should do both - have a landing page for just the book and a blog to keep people interested. The blog, of course, would link to your book page. Great idea - best of luck to you with it.
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
11 Apr 16
I would concentrate on the themes of the book itself with a link to your pages on thoughts on related matters - good luck and well done in getting the book done
@DeborahDiane (40848)
• Laguna Woods, California
9 Apr 16
Make it a general blog, because people will then find it when they search for a wide variety of topics. As you write your blog, you can attract people to it with a Facebook Author page, Twitter, and other forms of Social Media. I'll help you.
@CRK109 (14556)
• United States
8 Apr 16
I think the key here would be to promote your book in as many places online as you can. A website or blog is wonderful! A facebook page would also work. Twitter would work, too. All places where you can get a wide audience and a different audience so that you're not promoting to the same people over and over again. And I wish you all the best with it! :)
