Creating a Blog or Website for
Successful Book Marketing

Considering creating a blog for successful book marketing? Learn which blogging host is best, 50 ways to increase traffic to your blog, 50 things to blog about and much more! You don't want to waste your time blogging just to blog. You want sales for your book. And I want to help you achieve successful book marketing.

Creating a Blog or Website for Book Sales

Let me tell you my story. Personally, I didn't go with the majority in creating a blog. Instead, in the fall of 2007 I started an information website. You may not realize it, but a website is much different than a blog, and I believe much more effective.

Back to my story. My website was developed for teen girls and the struggles they deal with like body image, self esteem, fashion, dating, etc. And I wrote it primarily for the small niche of Christian teen girls. The website has gradually grown over the years and in 2010 had over 1.1 million page views. I now have an automatic platform to sell my books to a very small and targeted market. That's what I call successful book marketing!

And I am selling books. Because it's such a small niche, I'm not getting rich. However, as my traffic increases, so do my book sales. Plus, when I publish new books for this same market of Christian teen girls, they are interested. I have built their trust through the free articles on my website and my first book.

Through my web hosting company, SBI, I have the tools necessary to rise to the top of the search engines. Over 75% of my traffic comes to me for free...through the search engines! Pretty nice, huh?

What's the Difference Between Creating a Blog and a Website?

SBI has a great article on this topic that really explains it in detail called, " Blog or Website? With SBI You Actually Do Both..." I highly recommend that you take a few minutes and read it.

SBI poses an interesting question to consider. "When you 'Google' for information, do you find theme-based content sites or blogs? Although there are way more blogs than Theme-Based Content Sites, you may have noticed a curious matter. When you Google for information, you rarely find a blog. You almost always find a Web site."

"And, according to Google, blogs deliver a poor quality visitor. The following is a direct quote from Google Analytics 101, written by Google in April 2008... 'Blogs usually have high bounce rates no matter what since normal visitor behavior is to read the newest post and then leave.'"

So Which Will You Choose?

Do you want to simply blog or build a business? Don't get me wrong, there are many authors that have successful book marketing by creating a blog. And you'll read their stories. It really is a great marketing technique. That's why I'm writing about it here :) However, it's a lot of work because you always have to keep it updated.

Due to life circumstances, I have went for months without investing time and energy into my website and yet it continues to increase in traffic and continues to bring in book sales. Once you get your website to a certain number of pages, it can go into maintenance mode. However, a blog always, continuously needs your time and attention in order to succeed.

Free Tutorials for Creating a Blog or a Website that Attracts Book Sales

Whether you choose to launch out into creating a blog or you decide to take the route I took and create a theme-based content website, we have some great tools for you to help you get started. The best part? They're free!

1. How to Blog - 50 Topics to Blog About

2. The Best Blog Software? Check Out Our Side-by-Side Comparison of 5 Companies and Decide for Yourself!

3. 50 Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic - You'll Definitely Want to Print Off This List

4. Using Google Feedburner - A Tutorial to Get You Started

5. The History of Blogs - Blogging Explained

6. 11 Reasons to Consider a Virtual Book Tour

7. Plan Your Own Virtual Tour - A Step-by-Step Guide to Guest Blogging