Dear Askingyou,
There are several methods that can ensure exposure to your prospective
audience. However, as you are probably aware of, poetry CD are not
exactly hot cakes when it comes to sales.
Spending money depends on how much you are willing to invest in
publicity, but if to be frank with you, I am not sure if the "free"
methods are not more effective.
First method is of course "word of the mouse" - the information about
your new CD should be part of your email signature, known to all of
the people in your address book, and for those of them who care enough
- also to all of the people in their address book and so on (this is
different than spamming, which I certainly advice to stay away from -
this is illegal, immoral and irritates more than brings costumers).
There's a book I recommend in cases like that. It is a bit simplistic
(like all advice books) but gives several helpful tips on online
marketing in free venues. You can get it at amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0935047298/ltc-political/002-8658478-2156038>
Let Your Fingers Do the Talking: Using Word of Mouth Advertising on
the Internet, by Tom Clarke-Hill, but also probably in some libraries.
A related method is discussion groups. Here you get to focus audience
- not to every surfer - but to poetry lovers. There are several in
Google Groups ("Usenet") and the participation is of course, free. As
long as you don't spam, you can participate and advertise your CD in
this Word of Mouse way. This is of course better than chat, because
your post would stay "forever" on the discussion group records, and
every poetry lover - also in the future - would be able to read it.
Here are several such groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=ucd.rec.poetry
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.poetry
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.writing
Poetry lovers are a bit obvious niche. I don't know what kind of
poetry you write, so my next recommendation is only if you see it fit.
You should also "advertise" yourself in places where people are
looking for presents, especially Romantic ones. People who don't know
"what to buy to someone" may buy your CD <see this, only as a small
intermediate joke: https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=57200,
Sergey Brin, if you don't know, is Google's co-founder and President
of technology). Examples of such groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.romance
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.wedding
(may I point here that Weddings is a huge market, and if you can sneak
there with some romantic love poem, you've made your day).
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=soc.couples
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.fashion
As I said, I don't know your poetry, so I can't tell if this niche
would fit you, or that you'd better publish it among Nick Cave fans
(http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.music.nick-cave)
and angry Goth chicks
(http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&group=alt.gothic)
(or none of the above. If you think you have any niche direction not
mentioned here, please tell me and I'll do my best to find groups that
are interested in this issue). It is common etiquette in these lists
to apologise if you make cross postings (the same message to several
different groups) and not to spam. The rest is usually subjected to
the character of the group - some can be unkind, wild and brutal. Some
can be academic, clean spoken, and moderated to control what you say.
Needless to say, that listing your site in a relevant Google directory
(for example http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Poetry/?tc=1
and its sub-directories) and having the right Meta tags that would
bring it in the attention of those seeking poetry related "thing"
(whether it is a book, a CD or just to read poetry online). There's a
whole theory on putting the right Meta tags (the keywords that would
help a search engine "find" you). Some claim that the best thing would
be to use the most commonly used keywords (in this category, in your
case, would probably be words like "gift" "present" "romantic" etc).
Examples of such words can be found here:
http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/searches.html
This would certainly help, but if people are looking for something
else, it is not that they'd buy your CD out of the blue only because
you managed to bring it to be one of their top results. Nevertheless,
it is important, especially if you’re not going to pay for
advertisement, that you'll have the right keywords (ranking in search
engine is not only determined by how good your keywords are. It is
also determined, for example, from the number of other esteemed sites
that link to you, in the case of Google. As I said, a whole theory).
In order to attract visitors to your site, you can use various
methods. You can use incentives that would make them want to visit
there and bring their friends along. One idea is to have a sweepstake
(get a CD for free) and advertise it among the many many freebies
sites <check out http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/WWW/Free_Stuff/
to understand how many are only in the directory and this more than
billion results search -
://www.google.com/search?q=freebies&cat=&hl=en> ; a mini-affiliate
program if you bring X buyers you get the disk for free; other
unrelated things could be other products (see
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/index.aspx to see what I mean)
You can also add content - besides the obvious information about the
disk. For example - analysis, list of favourite poems and their
history, etc. Content is important, because if someone is looking (for
example, if we get to my first niche) for presents for his girlfriend,
you can write an article about the importance/place of poetry as a
romantic gift, or something of the kind. He'll find it and the chances
are greater than before that he'll also buy. A site "about poetry" can
be more attractive than a site that "sells CD of..."
Publishing a newsletter about poetry could be also a good idea to
attract surfers.
Regarding links (which are important to get traffic) to your site, we
come back to http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Poetry/?tc=1
There is basically no different between poetry CD that is published
from your own house and a poetry book published by Random House. Oh
yes, a small one: Random House has a great PR department that makes
sure that everyone hears about the new book. You have yourself for a
PR agent. Letting the people behind every poetry site (at least the
important ones) know about your site and your CD is important. Don't
hesitate also to send your CD to every possible critic (as much as you
can afford) with an explaining letter. I bet poetry critics and
journalists get thousands of books every month, which means that your
chances are not particularly high. In this context, the usage of a
small PR trick could help. Basically, the CD is a trick in itself - it
is not yet another book. The trick can be related to the title-name of
your CD, to your own bio, to the fact that it is marketed via the
Internet (for example: send it wrapped in "electric" wires, the kind
you can buy cheaply in every DIY shop).
Another potential audience is Internet journalists. Unlike the former,
you shouldn't waste your money and send a CD. They are not interested
in your poetry; they are rather interested in the medium you chose to
market it.
A sample of promotional letters could be found here -
http://www.letterrep.com/promotional2.html
Addresses of journalists and critics could be achieved from the
different venues websites (Wired, etc.), but also from these places:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Writers_Resources/Non-Fiction/Journalists/?tc=1
http://directory.google.com/Top/News/Newspapers/Publishers/
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/
http://www.refdesk.com/paper.html
Last but not least, you can also advertise for cash. There are many
places online where you can advertise. You can choose to advertise in
a site that is dedicated to poetry, like the ones mentioned before in
the poetry directory. The following lists of top poetry sites are by
no means the fruit of market research, and could be completely
commercial:
http://www.your-poetry.com/topsites/topsites.html
http://members.sitegadgets.com/APJ/topsites.html (warning: ugly
pop-ups)
http://www.poetry.net/topsites/rankem.cgi?id=poetry1
You can also advertise to people looking for something, on the search
engine. This is the place to say that Google-Researchers like myself
are *not* employees of Google, and actually we have free speech
regarding our opinion about Google. Moreover, I wouldn’t get anything
from sending you to Google (regrettably...). Saying that, Google
(which is the most popular search engine) have an advertisement
program, where when user clicks on key words you chose (for example:
poetry), a link to your site appears next to or above the "regular"
results. This way, you are not submitted to the regular problems of
new site owners - linking, Meta words, etc. See the whole program here
- ://www.google.com/ads/
Finally, I leave you with a list of sites that offer more promotional
ideas. Most of them were mentioned here:
http://www.webworker.com/ww/ww.promo.html (the regular ugly pop-ups
warning).
http://www.rasenterprises.com/asimain.html
http://www.promomart.com/pmdocs/promoideas.htm
http://www.ideasiteforbusiness.com/
http://www.ideabook.com/default.htm
http://www.givetogetmarketing.com/
http://smallbusinesses.lifetips.com/OurGurus.asp
I'll also give you my search topics (although most of what I know
about promotions comes from experience, not websites):
"marketing ideas"
"promotional ideas"
"pr idea" (and ideas)
"pr ideas" book
"pr tricks"
poetry sales
"most popular" "poetry sites"
internet journalists
"how to" "Promotional letter"
most popular keywords
I think that answered your question. However, if you need
clarifications, please let me know. I'll be pleased to provide
clarifications on the subject before you rate the answer. Good luck
with your CD - let us all know when it comes out! |
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