If you have a few free moments and would like to utilize a simple step to help promote your book, consider updating your online profiles!
Online profiles contain information about you and are available on websites where you are a member. For example, if you have a Yahoo or AOL email account, you have a free online profile where you can share your bio and contact information. Other places to update online profiles include:
- Trade associations where you are a member
- Social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Twitter
- Author communities like Authors Den and Good Reads
- Your Amazon author page
- Online groups and forums (especially those related to the subject matter in your books)
Online profiles allow you to showcase your work by including a bio, link to your website, and other contact information. Not only can this bring you extra exposure to potential readers, but many sites include a link back to your website—and that can benefit your search engine ranking with Google, thus bringing more traffic back to your site!
To simplify this process, I recommend keeping a document on your desktop with short, medium, and long versions of your bio so that you can easily copy and paste information. When your bio changes (for example, when you release a new book), you will want to update all of your profiles again. Ideally, you should keep a spreadsheet or list of all the online profiles that you have so that you can easily locate and update them.
Though this effort may be minor in the grand scheme of author marketing, it can pay off in increased traffic and better visibility for you and your books!
