Market Your Writing

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   Alexis Kenyattaposted 5 years ago

   How do you market your writing online to get more sales because I have two self-published books, but no sales?

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      Abheek Jamwalposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Market them On HubPages by writing a brief about them and maybe submit to a HubPage Network site

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         theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Self-promotion isn't permitted here.
         
         You need a blog of your own. Join some relevant Facebook groups and maintain an Instagram account. Get your book onto Kindle and give it away free for a few days. There are lots of resources out there to help you.
         
         Good luck with your books.

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            Abheek Jamwalposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            I really didn't mean self-promotion. I mean that one can always write on HubPages about the topic you love. So what if that topic is somewhat related to your own book. You can add an Amazon capsule below regarding the topic if your book is itself listed on Amazon.

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               theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               There have been several other hubbers who have tried it and had any links or Amazon capsules removed. It is still self-promotion.

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                  Abheek Jamwalposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  Well, I didn't know about it? Mam, Without Amazon capsules, will it still be considered as self-promotion?

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                     theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     http://hubpages.com/faq/#overly_promotional

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                        Abheek Jamwalposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                        Thank You It was really informative.

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                     Natalie Frankposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes.

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                  promisemposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  I'm curious why a link to a relevant site of any kind is bad. I've never received a rational explanation for it.
                  
                  The FAQ doesn't say you can't have a relevant link, even if it goes to something else you have written. But the links get removed anyway.

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                     Natalie Frankposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     It depends on what you are linking to, the type of article and content and the purpose of the link.  If you are writing a review of your own book then linking to a sales page, amazon or other, it is considered self promotion.  If it is an article on a topic you have written about before and you link to that one, then it is okay providing you are not linking from a niche site back to an article on Hubpages.

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                        Abheek Jamwalposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                        From what you are saying Mam is that we can promote our own article in a way?----" If it is an article on a topic you have written about before and you link to that one, then it is okay providing you are not linking from a niche site back to an article on Hubpages".
                        Will this be alright if I write about horoscope about one sign and give a reference to my another zodiac sign?

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                           theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                           Yes that's fine, although you couldn't link to 11 of them. However, if one was moved to Exemplore you'd need to remove any links back to articles still on HubPages.com. It's to do with Google not being too keen on HubPages, and why the network sites were created.

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                        promisemposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                        I get the part about HP not liking self promotion. But why is it bad? How does it hurt HubPages?
                        
                        In other words, if I link to a relevant external article written by someone else, it's a good thing. If I link to the same relevant article written by me, it's a bad thing. Why?

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                           theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                           https://moz.com/blog/linking-internally … ard-friday

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                              promisemposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                              "So good external pointing links can give a boost to your site's relevance, to how search engines consider you, and even to your rankings. Linking out is a positive thing."

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                           lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                           Scott, it is not a bad thing. Linking to your work on other websites is allowed and I have live links. The link needs to provide actual value to the reader and your article on HP should be complete as a stand-alone article too. Also, I would think that the website you link to on a whole should be decent and not a spammy website.
                           
                           Linking to a product though is not allowed if I recall right. I didn't check out the learning center for this recently as it doesn't apply to me.

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                              promisemposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                              Lobobrandon, it seems to be a bad thing depending on what editor reviews the article. Some of them remove all external links even if they are relevant.
                              
                              I was given a vague answer a long time ago by an editor. No external linking to anything I write even if it's relevant.
                              
                              I'll make the same point about a product. If I write an article about "online marketing" and link to an Amazon book about the same subject written by me, how does that harm HP if the link is relevant?

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                                 lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                 It does not harm HP. The editor, in that case, needs a little more training on what goes and what does not.

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                                    psycheskinnerposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                    It is a bad thing because if self-promotion is allowed the platform gets swamped with people purely here for that purpose which sucks up staff time and adds little of value.  Some self-promotion is not spam, but most is--which makes it better to have a black and white rule than argue with the spammers about exactly where they crossed the line.  The same rules apply to the forums for the same reasons.

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                                       promisemposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                       I understand and agree with your point about the risks of too much self promotion. That said, the FAQ has clear guidelines about what is acceptable self promotion. Removing all links doesn't fit the FAQ.

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                                          Natalie Frankposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                          This is correct and I'll echo the other comment - clearly an editor that just removes any and all links including those that go to relevant related articles that add value needs further training as they are not following HP policy.  There are inconsistencies in what the editors do between editors and this is clearly one of them.

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                                       lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                       Of course, that's what self-promotion is, but right now good stuff can be marked as self promotion too. Linking to your own work no matter how good it is, falls currently falls under the self-promotion umbrella according to the other hubbers here and this is just crazy.

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                                          Natalie Frankposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                          I don't think so.  I do this with several articles that relate to others I have written - the only ones I've had removed are when I forgot not to link niche site articles back to HP articles.  I know I have read a number of other hubbers articles where they do the same thing both to other articles here as well as external sites where they have written other articles.  It seems there are two things being discussed here - linking one article written here to another one written by the same author - according to my experience if done properly this is fine - and writing articles that are self promotional and link to products to sell based on the self promotional article which is not fine.

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                                             lobobrandonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                             Yes there are two things being discussed. I have done this too and have had no problems. I linked to my other articles on other websites. I cannot link back to HP though, that's it.

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                                 Natalie Frankposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                 It's fine if you follow the rules for linking to a product - it is directly related to the title and content, the article isn't solely written to sell a product, it is not merely self promotional, and you have direct personal experience with the product etc.  So you can write an article about a topic, provide an in text link to a product to sell that is directly related to the content that you personally have used and reap the rewards.  You can't write a book, review that book, link to the amazon page or website where you sell the book and reap the rewards.  That is self promotional.

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                                    promisemposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                                    I think we're close but not quite there. I see you are a psychologist. Imagine writing a book about cognitive therapy that is being sold on Amazon. Then imagine writing an article about cognitive therapy on HP.
                                    
                                    You put a link in your article to your book, which is relevant to your article.
                                    
                                    The link is self promotional, but it is relevant and adds value to the HP article by providing a source of more information.
                                    
                                    How does that harm HP?

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                           Natalie Frankposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                           As I said before, this is actually fine as long as it is a relevant related article, is not an attempt at selling anything and is not linking a niche site article back to a hubpages article.

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                     fcmosherposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     It has everything to do with Google's perception of HubPages (and the vertical sites). Google is already suspicious of content sites, and HP is very careful not to give them any reason to increase filters that keep HP sites from SERPs. So the rules about including links to sell things, or links to spammy sites, are very very strict. Really it's for our own good.

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                        promisemposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                        Thanks. If that's the case, I suggest HP change the FAQ and apply the rules consistently.

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               Natalie Frankposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               This is still self-promotion and not allowed on HP.  You can always create your own website and market it there or on other types of social media platforms and channels, just not on HP.

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                  EricFarmer8xposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  It would be a lot easier to promote your work on your own blog. You control everything and write whatever you want.
                  
                  You can go nuts as you want with ads, links, affiliate, and everything. Careful not to make Google think your blog is bad though.
                  
                  I pretty much accepted early on to write on HubPages you need to write content they accept and approve of.

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      SmartAndFunposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Check out Heidi Thorne: https://hubpages.com/@heidithorne
      
      I have never published a book (self published or otherwise), but a long time ago I followed Heidi, and to this day I consistently get HP notifications that she has published new articles. She has written more than 300 articles, most of them about writing and publishing, and how to market one's writing. It might take a bit of time to skim through her articles to find exactly what you're looking for, but you will learn a lot, even from the articles you might have thought you didn't need to read. Checking out her articles will be worth your time if you are a writer or a self publisher.

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   psycheskinnerposted 5 years ago

   From what I have seen the first important step is to ensure that the book's blurb, cover, and excerpt are polished and appealing.  The KDP forum can help with that.
   
   Next think about who would buy the book if the knew about it, and how to reach them--be targeted.

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