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I have asked several good book marketing friends to help our authors in their book promotional efforts. Their advice is so good that it should be of benefit to all! Nikki Leigh has become a leading expert in Web 2.0 and offers these insights. readers are strongly advised to follow the links for more great information and book marketing tips.

Web 2.0 – What is It and Should You Care?

By Nikki Leigh

Learn to Sell More Books

An Online Home for Authors Who Want to

Learn to Promote Their Books More Effectively

http://www.learntosellmorebooks.com/

Web 2.0– it isn’t as complicated as it sounds and it is very beneficial foryou to learn more about it. Let me start by saying that you areprobably already using Web 2.0, but you don’t know it. Web 2.0 is aterm that is being heard more often each day. These are great newoptions that we have on the internet and they can be very beneficial to you and your promotion.

What is Web 2.0

Thesimplest definition of Web 2.0 is “any option that gives you theopportunity and ability to interact with others”. Interacting withpotential customers is something that should be important to any author or business person that wants to get information out about their product or service.

Inthe past, we were limited by how much and how easily we couldcommunicate on the internet. Think back a few years ago when onlypeople who knew HTML code could post information online. However, withthe arrival of Web 2.0, almost anyone can post content online to share with other people.

This is the biggest difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 -

• Web 1.0 – Webmasters could post content and basically had control of what was available

• Web 2.0 – The general public can post content and has control of what is available

Below are questions to give you examples of Web 2.0 options on the internet.

• Have you posted a video on YouTube?

• Have you watched a video on YouTube?

• Have you read or posted information on a blog?

• Have you listened to or recorded a podcast?

• Do you have a profile page on MySpace, Facebook, Linked or other social networking sites?

• Have you posted pictures on any picture sharing sites on the internet?

All of these are examples of Web 2.0 and many people are already using Web 2.0 technology without knowing it. But, why is this important to your promotion?

Why You Care

Authors,artists, and other business people benefit when they get their messagein front of their target audience and when they can interact withpotential customers. Web 2.0 gives you many ways todo that. One advantage is that you can reach a worldwide audience ifyou want. A second advantage is that you can do targeted marketingto reach only the people you choose. This targeted marketing gives youthe best chance of making a sale because it gets your message in frontof the people who want or need the product or service you want to sell.

Below are some social media and Web 2.0 examples and the benefits from each. The ideas I share here are just some of the ways to use these websites to promoteyour work. The options are only limited by your creativity. One of thethings I love about my work is customizing a promotional campaign forbusiness people and their products or services. There are unlimitedways to do this with Web 2.0.

Facebook– Facebook gives you the opportunity to network with new people. Youcan search to locate your target audience and then present your productor service through your profilepage, various applications, groups and fan pages you can easily createto promote your work. Facebook also offers targeted advertising ontheir site.

My Space – This site offers the chance to meet newpeople and network with them. Searches for your target audience arepossible on MySpace. Your profile page, bulletins, blogposts, comments, videos, pictures and discussion groups provideopportunities to present your information and to communicate with otherpeople.

YouTube – YouTube is a great place to post videos orpromotional trailers about you and the products or services you offer.This is a great opportunity to literally speak to your target audience.There are also tools to get your videos in front of more people. Youcan comment on videos that attract your target audience to get yourname in front of them.

Amazon– People with items on Amazon have many ways to build up a presence onthe Amazon website, their sales pages, through a blog on Amazon,submitting ratings and comments – to name a few. I’m working on ane-book to help people increase the effectiveness of their Amazonpresence.

Linked In – This website is a great place for businesspeople to network. It is different from MySpace and Facebook, but itprovides extensive business information and background for members. Youcan connect with others, write testimonials, share details about yourprofessional background and much more. An interesting area of Linked Inis the “answers” section. It’s a great way to boost your onlinecredibility.

Online Credibility

We’ve all seen and heard about scams on the internet. It’s a great place for people to establish and promotea business, but that also attracts people who want to make a fast buckand who cheat people. That is one reason why it is important to buildonline credibility. Through the internet, you can network and dobusiness with people around the world, if you want. That distance makesit important to prove your expertise and help potential clients see youhave something of value to offer. You can do this through theinformation you share, answers and comments you post, examples of yourwork, testimonials and references from past clients and much more.

Use Blogs to Promote

Anyonewho wants to promote on the internet needs to have a blog. Having aneffective and active blog is no longer an option. A blog gives you thechance to get yourself in front of people who need your product orservice, share useful information, stay in touch with potentialclients, and more. However, once you start a blog, it is critical tokeep it active. Search engines love blogs. This meansthat you and your information will be in search engines almostovernight. When people are searching for something – the vast majoritystart with a search engine. They need to be able to find you there.

Virtual blog tours are a great way to utilize Web 2.0 options. In the tours I coordinate, I use blogs,podcasts, radio shows, and any other avenues that I can find to get theword out about a client’s product or service. Your information getsinto the search engines right away and is archived so people can findyour details long after they are posted.

The internet is a gift for people who want to promote their business, products or services to a small or large audience. There are many free promotional options on the internet that we can utilize. Who you target is up to you, but either way, the internet is a gift that you need to unwrap and dig deeper into the opportunities that it offers.

Nikki Leigh is an award winning and best selling fiction and non-fiction author. She has over sixfteen years of promotional experience. This background has been helpful with her book promotionand her new promotional venture, Promo 101 Promotional Services whichoffers many online promotional options. Her promotional books - BookPromo 101 and Book Promo 201 lets her share many of the things she'slearned. For details about Nikki Leigh, visit http://www.nikkileigh.com. For detailed promotional and virtual blog tour information, visit - http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/. She also has a blog where she posts a wide variety of promotional articles - http://promo101tips.wordpress.com/ - check the category list for any specific topics that are of interest to you.

You can see her book on Amazon athttp://www.amazon.com/Book-Promo-201-Internet-Marketing/dp/159431716X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249135511&sr=1-1