1) Helpful Votes ~ “Helpful votes” pertains to star reviews written. Helpful voting is essential as it informs Amazon about which books need to be paid special attention to. Say your book had 2 reviews, each with 2 or 3 helpful votes. This is definitely better than zero helpful votes.
Now imagine if everyone that read this article voted on your reviews. All of a sudden these two votes could grow to 50 or 100 helpful votes. This would grab Amazon’s attention and could give your book the credit it deserves.
2) Tagging ~ Tagging is similar to voting but slightly different.
Amazon will allow users to select fifteen key words they feel should be associated with a book. The user can post those to that product on its Amazon page. For example, if a customer enjoyed a Children’s Book, he or she could tag that book with keywords like: bedtime story, great read, book recommendation, fairy tales, kids age 5-10, or any similar keywords that describe the book. Here is what tags look like on an Amazon page:
When a user enters these “tags” or agrees with “existing tags” a number in parenthesis is displayed. This number indicates how many times Amazon users have used this keyword to describe a product. Each keyword/tag (if you click on it) will take you directly to a community. In this community the books with the most tags are displayed in order of popularity.
If you go, for example, to the Amazon page for “Precious Gifts of Love:”
http://www.amazon.com/Precious-Gifts-Love-C-J-Good/dp/1453720502
You will see this book currently has 15 tags. That is a good number to have as each Amazon user can only vote up to 15 keyword/tags per book. You will also see the number of times people agreed with these keyword/tags.
For instance let’s take the tag “inspirational” ~ this tag has 6 agreeing votes.
Click on the link inspirational and you will be taken to that community. Here is the link:
http://www.amazon.com/tag/inspirational?ref_=tag_dpp_cust_itdp_t&store=1
When you browse around you can see which books are being featured as the top books for this community.
“Outlive Your Life” is number 1 with 289 votes, “Revelations” is ranked number 7 with 97 votes. If "Revelations" got more than 98 votes for the key word "inspiration," it would be one of the best ranked books in that community.
Here is how tagging can benefit you directly. When you tag a large amount of products on Amazon, you become a contributor on the community page. If you tag 20-30 items, your picture profile could be displayed there.
Amazon is all about interconnectivity. Thus everyone who comes to this community will see your picture feature for having tagged numerous products with that keyword.
Amazon is a new channel for distribution and is still a little baffling. Authors will serve themselves well to use these methods for promoting and ranking their books. It is entirely possible for a writer to increase sales and visibility if he or she is willing to spend a few minutes everyday.
In this environment, authors are becoming self-promoters and marketers. They should construct an intelligent marketing plan that contains 3-4 marketing strategies.
For the next twelve months ~ put your energy and effort into marketing your book every day. Give this process everything you have got before you make a judgment as to whether things are working or not. Patience is essential.
Tagging and voting is part of having an Amazon optimization program. Because Amazon is so new and such a leader in this type of arena, authors should pursue it with enthusiasm. Words cannot express how important participating on Amazon is. Never before has there been such an outlet where an author can make a substantial difference in propelling sales of his or her own work. It is up to you how successful you want to be, your actions will make it happen.
This blog has initiated a free program to help fellow authors called: Reciprocal Tagging. The way it works is: We will tag your book with 15 keywords, if you will please Tag ours.
Would you like to submit your book to be tagged?
1) Provide a list of 15 keywords separated by commas so we can copy and paste it.
2) Provide the Amazon link (URL) to your book.
3) Provide your name, website and email address in case we have questions.
(15 tags maximum allowed)
4) To tag our books, please click the links below:
BOOK #1: http://www.amazon.com/Little-Gifts-Sustainable-Contentment-1/dp/145284416X
BOOK #2: http://www.amazon.com/Precious-Gifts-Love-C-J-Good/dp/1453720502
KINDLE #1: http://www.amazon.com/Precious-Gifts-of-Love-ebook/dp/B0046RELMG
KINDLE #2: http://www.amazon.com/Little-Gifts-Sustainable-Contentment-ebook/dp/B003V8BKAW/
5) Copy our tag list and paste it in the TT area (light gray print ~ "Tag this product window") underneath the "add tags" box on the book page. Don't use the "add tags" box as it tends to cut off the keywords. Click enter.
6) Also click the "like" logo next to book titles.
7) Click: "agree with these tags?"
8) Note: Kindles and Paperbacks must be tagged individually. (Here is our tag list)
gift ideas,sustainable gifts,special gifts,christmas,NY Times Bestseller list,bestsellers,self-help,love,relationships,inspirational,spirituality,travel deals,airlines,romance,kindle
For reciprocity, please provide your details in the same format:
Send via email:
goodconnie@sustainablecontentment.com
www.sustainablecontentment.com
Or post on this blog in comments for other authors to see.
CJ--
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Let me say it again. Great post!
Tagging has always been mysterious to me. People going on about it, but no one seems to be able (or willing) to explain it. Until now. You've made it very simple. Thanks. Your post is much appreciated.
I'm emailing you now with a list of my keywords, then I'm going to your book pages and do the tag/like thing.
Great Post! I posted a link on my blog "Simple Self Publishing " and "Piney D Press"
ReplyDeletehttp://simpleselfpub.blogspot.com