No matter what your trade is, the Internet is almost always essential to your success. Online marketing is effective and drives business – there’s no doubt about it. For writers, there are many ways to promote their content online and earn readers. If you’re a writer, here are four online marketing tactics that you need to be using.

Guest Posts

Guest posting on blogs is an excellent way to gain exposure and significantly increase the number of people you reach. When you find a blog with a healthy readership that’s relevant to your niche, ask to write a guest post for it. The end of your post should include a byline with a little information about you and your work, and a link to your website or book. Your post should show off your writing style and knowledge in order to impress readers and give them a reason to find out more about you or what you have to say. Guest posts really have great potential to help you in your success.

Twitter

Social media in general is something all writers should be involved in. While there are a lot of options, Twitter is one of the best social forums for writers. Many writers tweet, so you’ll find lots of opportunities to interact and network with other writers. Sharing interesting information on Twitter will help you show your expertise and get people interested in you. Getting another popular writer or influential person to follow you can do a lot to enhance your credibility and expand your reach. While Facebook and Google+ are also great, Twitter in particular is perfect for writers.

Videos

The idea to create videos in order to promote their work doesn’t always cross the mind of a writer. You dabble in words – how would a video be relevant or helpful at all? Video is a very popular medium, and it’s one of the most likely types of content to go viral or be shared widely. Video allows you to show your potential readers another side of you, and it gives you a way to interest them in your writing through compelling visuals and audio. Simply talking about yourself and your work on a video could be enough to make people want to hear what else you have to say and check out your writing.

Giveaways

It’s no secret – people love free stuff. A giveaway, when properly promoted, has the potential to get a writer a lot of attention. If you’re a book author, the most obvious thing to giveaway is a copy of your book to a certain number of people. You could hold a random drawing or just give out your book on a first come, first serve basis. You could offer free copies of your book in ebook format to more people, too. In addition to readers, consider giving away a copy of your book to various bloggers and news writers in your niche to encourage them to write about your work on their websites.  

Author Byline: Ellen Valentine is a writer and college student who loves to blog about anything from forming literary critiques to the benefits of using a grammar checker.

* Learn How to Guest Post at DangerousLee.Biz.

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