Promote Your Book Online with a Short Article (updated)

Dissatisfied with your book sales? With book signings, press releases, back of the room sales?

So many authors spend a lot of time and money on promotion that doesn't work. It's time to do what authors do best--write a short article. People visit article direcories looking for great free content for their site and their eines. Some will be attracted to your topic. Follow these ten steps to write an article high-traffic  web sites will clamor for with a link back to where your book is sold.

1.Choose a topic that relates to your book. Make sure this how-to article has useful, needed information. One site who markets to professional speakers just published your coach's article "What Makes One Book Out Sell Another."

2.Know your article's thesis. The thesis is the number one solution your article offers to its reader. In the introduction above, the thesis is stated in the last line, "Use these 10 ways to write an article top web sites will clamor for with a link back to where your book is sold."

3.Know your preferred audience. Just as your book has a target audience, so should your article. One book, "How to Write Your E-Book or Other Book—Fast! is a short, easy-to-read, step-by-step guide to assist professionals and other businesses with writing, publishing and selling their book.

4.Write a sparkling opening. Like a headline in a press release or on your book's back cover, your first sentence should grab your readers by the collar so they will keep reading. The opening could use a shocking fact, a question, a benefit, or a compelling story right out of your book. Make the opening a short paragraph, even a single line. Readers want short, concise, digestible information, especially on the Internet.

5.Illustrate a need. Whatever your topic, show your readers why they need your information. If you have written a book on listening, in your short article discuss how much is at stake for not listening such as divorce or lost business. You may also share the benefits.

6.Give a brief background of the problem or situation you will solve. One client wrote a book, "The Cure for Multiple Sclerosis." She shares that over 2 million people worldwide with Multiple Sclerosis are diagnosed incurable, that doctors are pressured to use pharmaceuticals, and that the health industry is not about getting people well, but about making money.

7. Share the problems that result. In "The Cure for Multiple Sclerosis," the problem is that most people rely on western medicine which does not have the answers. Big money is not spent on alternative or complementary ways to prevent and cure chronic diseases, so people with problems get drugs that deplete the immune system.

8. Give the solution. Your book offers solutions to your reader's challenges or problems.So must your article. Show your readers how to get excellent health, how they can write a book, make more money, or have better relationships.

9.Show them where to get the solution and how. The article, "How to Listen at Work," needs to suggest where to go or what to do next. You may name a quality book to read. Mention a seminar or training, or recommend a coach. You may even mention a web site address or 800 number.

Place your article on as many high traffic internet sites and aritcle directories as you can. Just as feature articles in newspapers are seven times as powerful as advertising, so is your article seven times as powerful as other promotion. People are looking for free information online. That's the major reason they surf!

So, now that you know how to write a short article, put it to work for you and submit it to the 400,000 opt-in ezines and top web sites in your field to promote your book.