July 2018
Summer is a great time for reading, especially for kids out of school. Libraries usually have enticing programs for kids, with incentives for reading books. My siblings and I were in our local library’s program when we were young, and my son was in one as well. We also discovered that the local Commerce Bank, since bought by TD Bank, offered $10 to any kid who read 10 or more books over the summer, which earned my son $60 over the 6 years he participated.
Things seem more relaxed during the summer and spending an hour or two immersed in a good book is such an enjoyable pastime. In the last month, I’ve read The Wise Man’s Fear, the second book of The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss, an engaging series somewhat akin to the Harry Potter series; I was Anastasia, by Ariel Lawhon, about the life of Anastasia Romanov, daughter of the last Russian czar, Nicholas Romanov; When The Moon Is Low, by Nadia Hashimi, an interesting book about a family that escapes from Afghanistan after the Taliban takes over; and New York, by Edward Rutherfurd, about the history of New York from the 1600’s through 2012.
What are you reading? Anything you would highly recommend? I’m always looking for a good book.
1. In the News
Later this month, I will be a guest speaker on The Expert Channel, a radio show featuring industry experts. I will be sharing tips on getting a book done easily and quickly. When I receive the recording, I will post it on the SkillBites website under the Resources tab, Past Events.
2. The SkillBites Show
Each month, we bring you an expert to help you get your book done, leverage your book, grow your business or improve your life. The shows are recorded, so if you can’t listen to one live, you can listen to the recording by clicking here.
Our next SkillBites Show will be held on July 19 at 12:30 ET. Our guests will be Hilary Blair and Gabriella Cavallero, from ARTiculate: Real&Clear. Hilary co-founded the company, and is a highly regarded speaking, presentation, voice, and executive communications expert. Gabriella is a voice-over artist having narrated several Emmy-nominated documentaries for PBS and over 900 audio books. Hilary and Gabriella will be sharing tips on narrating you own audiobook.
To listen to the live presentation, you can call in at (641) 715-3660, Access Code: 467398.
Last month we heard from Eric Walton, President of Building Up Leaders LLC, who shared his wisdom on building leadership structures in the multi-level marketing world as well as in organizations. If you missed this presentation, you can listen to it by clicking here, or you can read some of the tips from this show on the SkillBites blog at http://resources.skillbites.net/blog/.
SAVE THE DATE: Next month, the SkillBites Show will be on August 15 at 1 pm ET. Our guest will be Ben Gioia, a 2X bestselling author and international speaker who has positioned million dollar thought leaders, created a mindfulness video game, and inspired leadership that serves humanity. Ben is President of InfluenceWithAHeart.com and his teachings are used by more than 20,000 people worldwide. Ben will talk about the key elements to enable one to gain the power of influence.
Do you have expertise that you believe would benefit the SkillBites community of entrepreneurs and authors? If you would like to be the guest on the monthly SkillBites Show, contact me at judy@skillbites.net or 610-783-4519.
3. Tip of the Month: List Building Strategy
Using your book to build a list of prospects is a powerful strategy. You can give your book away at trade shows for business cards or at conferences as a door prize in exchange for getting a list of attendees; or give it to those who opt in on your website in exchange for their contact information.
A new twist on this strategy has been to give your book away for free and charge a nominal fee for shipping and handling, such as $7. Although it is nice to cover the shipping cost, the real purpose of the charge is to provide you with prospects willing to pay something for the value you provide in your book, separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. It’s more important to get a few good prospects than lots of prospects who never buy anything.
You may have heard the terms ‘lead magnet’ and ‘funnel’ in connection with such lead generation strategies. Your book is the lead magnet that brings prospects into the funnel. The funnel consists of various emails, phone calls, gifts and other tactics to build a relationship that is designed to result in converting good prospects to customers.
The author typically sets up an email sequence announcing the book and the giveaway, possibly with a Facebook or Google ad campaign, with a link to a landing page where the prospect provides their contact information (name, email, phone and address for receiving the book) and then is taken to a shopping cart to pay the shipping and handling fee. Once someone pays the fee, another campaign kicks in to woo the prospect to become a customer.
For this to work, all of the pieces need to be developed, which takes copywriting skills, graphic design skills, ad campaign expertise, time and patience. If you want to run this type of campaign and would like assistance, email me at judy@skillbites.net. Or if you have run this type of campaign in the past and have some good lessons learned or best practices to share, please let me know those and I can share them on my blog.
4. Guidance for Getting Your Book Written
If you have been struggling to get your book written, or haven’t started to write yet because you aren’t sure how to start, we can help. We have book coaching services for one-on-one assistance and we have an online course that will provide you with a roadmap for getting your book done. For more information on the book coaching, send me an email at judy@skillbites.net. For more information on the online course, click here.
5. How are you promoting your book?
What have you been doing to promote your book? I’d love to hear what has been working for you, or if you’ve tried different marketing tactics that haven’t gotten you the results you desire. I’ve been developing a course on how to market and leverage your book, and your feedback as to what has worked or what hasn’t would be very helpful for me. You can email me at judy@skillbites.net, or call me at 610-783-4519. For those who share what they’ve been doing, I’ll return the favor with some additional ideas that they could try.
6. Earn Commissions For Referrals
Do you know anyone who has been wanting to write a book but has been stalling? Let them know that SkillBites offers a variety of services to make book writing and publishing easy, quick and convenient. When you sign up to be a SkillBites affiliate, you can get a commission for each person who signs up to purchase SkillBites services through your unique referral link. To obtain more information and to sign up for our referral program, click here.
Thanks for supporting SkillBites. If there is anything you think we ought to be doing better or anything we should be doing that we’re not, please let us know. We value your input.
Cordially,
