BookWhirl's blog

4 Reasons to Include Live Chat in Your Marketing Strategy

Any sensible entrepreneur will agree that merely making sales is not the ultimate goal in setting up a business. To be able to sustain the success of business, owners also need to ensure customer satisfaction as much as they can. One effective way of covering this base is by establishing reliable channels for customer assistance. Customers appreciate it when they see that a brand exerts considerable effort in making sure that every transaction is a happy one, and that the owner isn’t in the business just to earn money.

Providing assistance through live chat is one of the budding methods businesses are starting to integrate in their websites. A system that allows you to be of service to your customers through instant messaging, it’s a viable alternative to long-established practices such as phone and email support. If you’re the kind of entrepreneur who looks after your customers’ welfare, here are four reasons why you should offer them the live chat option and how it will help you stabilize your business on firmer ground.

1. It enhances customer experience
When it comes to shopping, customers prefer it if every step of the process is a breeze. From the selection of the one item they want, having it tested until they’re convinced, finally paying for it, to reaching the customer service hotline when they need aftersales assistance—customer seeks convenience when doing all of these. The part where live chat comes in is providing superior customer service in the most convenient means possible. By installing a live chat widget on your website, you can make it easier for your customers to reach you, especially those who don’t have access to a phone or whose concerns are too urgent for an email. While it’s still important that you offer other channels of assistance, live chat ensures that conversations happen in real time and customers are attended to with a sense of urgency.

2. It is convenient for you
One of the good things about giving your customers the live chat option is that it minimizes the possibilities of your representatives being verbally harangued by customers. Attending to customers is stressful enough, but going as far as placating irritated ones can take a toll on your staff. Although live chat doesn’t necessarily eliminate this scenario, it’s easier to handle customers through chat than listen to them screaming at the other of the line. Live chat also allows your customers to type the information they need, which means your staff doesn’t have to do all the work of encoding while paying attention to the customer. Your reps can then concentrate on the customer better without having to divide their focus.

3.It increases conversions
The presence of live chat revolves toward effectively engaging your customers here there is engagement,there’s also the possibility of increased sales. Much like when shopping in an actual store, a lot of customers prefer if there are staff that are always ready to render assistance. Customers seek the same experience when shopping online and live chat is a great way for you to help them navigate your website and your product/service catalog. Shoppers like it when their questions are answered immediately because it enables them to make buying decisions just as quickly. The sooner their inquiries are satisfied, the likelier it is for them to make a purchase and come back for a second time.

4. It gives you an advantage over competitors
The value of live chat support to business has been underrated for quite some time that not many entrepreneurs are keen on having it on their website. The thing is there are customers who tend to switch to other brands when they don’t find immediate assistance at the ready. Make live chat support your leverage over your competition in the business by enjoying the perks of such channel can do bring to your enterprise. By completing your customer service arm with the addition of live chat, you’ll have a better shot at giving your customers a gratifying experience.

The installation of a live chat support system in your website may cost you a few bucks but provided that you have a great product and even better staff to begin with, you’ll reap the benefits in no time. If you have experience in using live chat to cater to your customers, you can share with your tips below.

Enid’s Homestyle Authentic Jamaican Cuisine

 

Homestyle Authentic Jamaican Cuisine

This book contains your favorite dishes as well as mine. Like most West Indian women, my stepmother who raised me from the age of five, after my dear mother passed away, was an excellent cook and always did her own cooking, regardless of the fact that we had a helper. I spent my early years in a boarding school where it was against the rules to even visit the kitchen, hence I was unable to gain even a firsthand knowledge of the art of cooking.

Enid Clarke Gaynor

I was born Enid Clarke Gaynor in Kingston, Jamaica. I attended Alpha Academy High School, where I successfully cleared the school certificate examination. After graduating, I attended a secretarial school and was later employed with the Gleaner company as a stenographer. I resigned from the Gleaner company and migrated to London, England, where I married. I worked as a stenographer in London with Western Union Telegraph (WUT) company. WUT later sponsored my family and me to the United States where I worked as a secretary and later on WWa word processing secretary for the head office in downtown Manhattan. I relocated to Florida, and I was employed as a secretary with Broward County Governmental Center until I retired in 2004.

9 Signs You Are Writing In A Wrong Way

 

There are dozens of articles on the Web with different tips on how to become a good writer, what tricks to use to attract a new audience, what words and word expressions to use for your stories to sound better, etc. But why no one tells you how NOT to be a writer? Are you sure, you write all your articles and stories in a right way? Do your readers ALWAYS like the results of your writing? Do publishers always accept your works?

It is very easy to find the information about how to become a good writer. Everyone who writes a couple of words at least is proud to call himself an author already, and he believes that he has a right to advise others how to write like a pro. Maybe it would be better to tell about some signs, that will tell you are writing your stories in a wrong way and have a wrong idea about what a good author looks like? Well, we’ve tried to gather all these signs, and we are here to share them all with you.

So, you are NOT an author, if:

1. You do not write.

No comments. A writer should write. Your Twitter or Facebook posts do not work here, neither does your personal blog, where you share your thoughts about weather and mood. Certainly, a writer writes for himself first of all, but an author writes for people.

2. You write when you are in mood only.

Certainly, it is always better to write when you have inspiration and mood for it. But you will never become a writer, if you just sit and wait for this inspiration to come (it may not come at all actually). Your task is to train your creativity, and sometimes it means just sitting in front of your computer and forcing yourself to write something at least. The more you train yourself – the better results you will see soon.

3. You write for money only.

Writing is not about money actually. We doubt, that J.K. Rowling or E.L. James thought about millions of dollars to get out of their writings. They just wrote and shared their stories with people. Certainly, some chances are that your novel will become a bestseller, and you will have a chance to quit your job and rest at the Maldives for the rest of your life. But let it happen when it happens, and do not be in a hurry to leave everything for your writing. If you start thinking of writing as a way to earn money, your best ideas will be killed, as you will try to write only about something potentially commercial. It is not good for the process of creativity, is it?

4. You want to become the next Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, or E.L. James at least.

When you focus on someone’s success and try to do everything to repeat it, this is a wrong goal to focus actually. Even the worse thing is your attempts to copy the writing style of other writers and use the same ideas with a hope to become famous in such a way. This approach will never make you a good author, and the only thing you’ll get will be a degree of a plagiarist, or a lack of energy and ideas to continue your writing at least.

5. You do not read much.

Stephen King, a guru of all writers for sure, says that he can’t spend a day without reading. It inspires you, helps you understand the writing styles of other authors better, improves your own writing, gives you new ideas, helps you learn something new… Reading is just like food for a writer, and if you do not like this process, you have probably chosen the wrong occupation.

6. You always follow the rules.

Every genre has its rules of course, and when you write your story, you always try to follow them. But it does not mean you should be stuck there! Some rules exist to break them, and if you feel that your story will sound much better without some necessary aspects of a genre, do not be afraid to change something the way you feel it.

7. You can’t bear any critique.

The biggest mistake you can make being a writer is to ignore critique and think, that you are genius enough to write a perfect story without any critics at all. Yes, critique hurts, but if your ego is too tender to bear it, you will never be a successful writer. Only the strongest authors will survive, so, learn to accept critique and analyze it in a right way.

8. You talk about your writing more than you actually write.

Certainly, it is not bad to share some your ideas with your friends or family, but talking is still not writing. One can not be called a writer for his ideas only: we all have some imagination and ideas in our mind, but not all of us write books anyway. So, it would be better to write a page per day at least, than tell everyone about how cool your future book will become one day.

9. You believe everything people say

So, your uncle Fred likes your protagonist much. Your best friend Mark can’t help admiring the end of your story, but he would change the protagonist for sure. Michelle says, you would better make your protagonist a girl and change the end of your story completely…. Do not listen to all of them! There is no story in the world, that all people would like! Just listen carefully to all their remarks, and write your story the way you see it.

Do you recognize yourself here? If two or more items are about you, maybe it is high time to change your approach to your writing, and start doing it the way it will be better for both you and your readers? Good luck, and happy writing!

How Can You Make Your Book Visible Online

Be Specific on your title

Readers today are extremely specific when they search information online. So, instead of trying to come up with a title generally accepted by everyone, try to create a more specific one. If your book is a non-fiction read about travelling; focus and examine whether you can create a title that is more specific. Make sure it can give an appeal to its possible readers.

Use keywords

Make your book visible and desirable through the use of keywords in promoting it. Any book marketing can be done through creating blogs, blurbs, and your social media websites such as Facebook, Tweeter, Pinterest, and more. Hence, you should take into consideration that your choice of these words are critical because Internet users, readers, and researchers are looking for information online that direct their needs and at all times, they use specific keyword phrases when referring to books they like.

Publish relevant content online

It is not necessarily talking about your book all the time. You can create some contents that are related to your book’s subject matter. Readers, who search for information they need tend to simply type in some keywords. Your book or the other contents you create will pop up on their search. These materials can direct readers to the right information they need and gets your book that higher chance to be seen by them during their search.

Invite reviewers to assess your work

Look up for some books that have the same genre as yours and start scrutinizing those reviewers who have left hundreds up to thousands of reviews for these books. These reviewers are probably professional assessors who are followed by a lot of readers online as they can influence readers when it comes to a good choice of books to read. Find a way to contact them and invite them to review your work as well. In such way, their followers can be your book’s next online avid fans.

Get a brand for yourself and start giving reviews to other crafts

On a website where you are trying to promote your book, you can start providing reviews to other books or other products that are advertised. In such way, other advertisers can return the favor by looking at what you have posted on the website and they can also say something about your book. Make sure you have a created a brand for yourself that says something about you being an author of a book.

Insert a catching quote on your ad online

People tend to be attracted on different quotes posted on different websites. Some do visit online to look for inspiring quotes of the day so that they can start an easy day. Grab this opportunity to inspire people to read your quote. When your quote is inspiring; they would take time to look up online and search about you as an author. This can also be a great way for them to read more about your book, research, and look forward to see all your other works.

Hit Like and Share your book ad

Connection is the game name over the Internet. Everyone in the world today can easily connect with each other through the use of the Internet and is considered the modern way of sharing all kinds of information. Most of the websites nowadays have the “Like” and “Share” buttons which give us the easy way to share what we’ve got. Make use of them– share your ads to others and start making your book visible.

Make use of the Link Building

Links help the ranking of any search online and help you determine which words that can highly rank your ad during research. Having a link to your book can help increase your rank in search engines and gets your book the chance to gain more online visibility.

Continue to get your book more notice online by promoting it continuously using the different accessible tools online. Never settle on a few results of your advertising. Take advantage of all the possible resources to make your book visible that can lead to future sales.

BookWhirl Unveils New Book Marketing Service: Book-to-Screen

Summary: BookWhirl Publishing gets more authority in self-publishing as it launches the Book-to-Screen service.

GREEN BAY WI (10/24/2013) – The year of the water snake is almost over yet this last quarter of 2013 is a busy point in time for BookWhirl Publishing. The self-publishing company continues to widen and strengthen its image as it currently launches another book marketing tool, the Book-to-Screen service.

Film adaptation has always been associated with the word “Hollywood.” Great books adapted into motion pictures have always been linked with appreciation by millions of viewers and screening in theaters across the nation, if not around the globe. Through Book-to-Screen service, authors are given the same opportunity to get that fame, profit, and that superstar label they dream.

Book-to-Screen service involves the reading of the materials of the book from character, storyline, dialogue, and premise by experienced professionals. This service is divided into three service levels: Book-to-Coverage, Book-to-Treatment, and Book-to-Screenplay.

For more information about the service, visit http://www.bookwhirl.com/Services/Book-Marketing/Specialty-Marketing/Book-to-Screen.php.

Effective Book Marketing Campaigns to Generate Book Reviews

High technology plays a big role in the effectiveness of all book marketing strategies you do for your work. In pursuing greater heights of self-publishing, an author takes advantage of almost every opportunity that arises just to ensure success in the end. A self-published author should consider the fact that the efficiency of a book marketing campaign can be weighed through book reviews by both professional book reviewers and the general reading public. It is through them that you would know whether your strategy is successful enough; or would need a revamp.

Acquiring more reviews for your work from the others, especially from the professional reviewers, is one of the many proofs that your book is starting to get a name in the industry. And, it might just be the beginning of that success you have been dreaming of. There are more things that can happen next. The more reviews your book gains; the higher possibility of book sales in the future. In order for this to be possible, each author should be deliberate about the business and should take every book marketing campaign seriously with the purpose of garnering more book reviews in the market.

So, what have been considered effective book marketing campaigns and how do they generate reviews?

Web Design: the power ground

Generally, readers become more attentive the moment they know more information about a book and its author. They acquire this information in many ways such as press releases, blogs, and articles which can all be posted on a website. Most successful authors in the world of literature triumph and have become best sellers because they have opted for effective book marketing strategies that suit their needs. Authors who have customized their own websites are directly and indirectly diverting their readers to read and know more about them and about their works.

Hugh Howey, author of “Wool” series, is one of those who have made the worth of having a website for a book. He once published his books on his website, where fans found them and went so fanatical about his works that they started creating online buzz. And following the popularity his book gained, his fans still couldn’t get enough as they flock to his website to make sure they know his latest books.

No matter what kind of book marketing campaigns you do, having your own website remains the best foundation. It is where the reading public and book reviewers can be redirected, especially when your marketing campaign is interesting and inviting. When it’s exciting to your readers, it is likely even more fascinating for book reviewers.

The website of your book is a business—so, you should make it one. These days, the number of self-publishing companies offering Web Design services, is increasing. It is solely up to your own forethought of which firm offers a professional yet affordable web design by which you benefit the most.

Email marketing

This kind of book marketing has been associated with electronic mail advertisement, where recipients are those massive audiences who have opted to receive commercial marketing messages in accordance to their specific interests. The fact that this kind of marketing reaches a vast and specific target market, it has become the favorite of authors, who have been wanting a strategy that can advertise their books through a precise demographic targeting with a massive reach, and above all, an advertisement that does not hurt their pockets.

This strategy assures that your advertisement is seen by a vast number of readers the moment they open their inboxes. As a result, the possibility to generate book reviews from them increases. In order to increase viewers of your ad through this campaign; make sure your advertisement is properly linked to your website and to an online bookstore where you prefer your book to be purchased from.

Book marketing through social media

Everyone knows that social media is the latest trend today—a safe place for numerous people to advertise and to talk about any transactions and businesses of their interests. It is reaching a wide audience without spending a huge amount of money. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and YouTube have become easier to use than ever. It is safe to say that because social media is free to use, promoting your book through any of these sites engage a huge number of readers, book reviewers, and literary agents, and authors, who often flock to discuss and talk about the world’s current events, interesting titles and different themes of stories.

Social Media is considered the newest brilliant way that readers, book reviewers, authors and their books connect. And, as they connect; it increases the chance for any book to be noticed, be talked about, and be reviewed.
Media Coverage

Whether print or broadcast media, this word has often been associated with informing people what the latest is and the hottest issues in the world. People are informed through news articles and press releases.

In a latest survey by BLS American Time Use Survey, A.C. Nielsen Co., the percentage of households that possess at least one television is 99%. With this datum, it is safe to say that 99% of the world’s population will be able to watch your book advertisement the moment you use the broadcast media in marketing your book. Therefore, book reviews can surely be generated through a high percentage of these viewers. On top of that, book promotional materials publicized on magazines and newspapers can also take the same privilege to be reviewed by the people whose daily routines include the reading and looking for news every day via print media.

Book reviewers help spread the message about your book and help you achieve the success every author dreams. They can be found online, waiting and are always ready to publish their reviews to their own network. They are among the audience watching television shows that might feature your book promotion. They are with those readers currently reading the news and the hottest issues. Acquiring more reviews for your book will help you enhance the credibility of your book.

Take the steps towards reaching it. Begin your advertising today through effective book marketing campaigns that can invite more credible reviewers and can generate more reviews for your work.

Get Your Book Self-Published [Infographic]

Getting your book a name in self-publishing industry is your smartest decision to profit from your book in short time. You’ve got to retain all that revenues while keeping the pace in book publishing’s high competition.

Benefits of self-publishing

First, you’ve got the control of everything: from the costs, to whom you are partnering with for a high level of publication, up to the kinds of marketing platforms for the marketing of your books. Second, you keep 100% of the gross profit from book sales compared to percentages acquired when you do the traditional way of publishing. Further, you’ve got that online shelf for your book forever. Yes; unlike the traditional way in publishing a book, going to self publishing means your book is published online and so long as you want it; it stays there forever rather than be taken out of the shelf after four months the way traditional publishing would go.

It does not stop there. Self-publishing would enable you to get hold of a global distribution of your e-book on day one. For instance, your book can be listed in 100 countries and that is how the business of Kindle Direct Publishing goes. In addition, you can obtain more profits when your book can get attention from international publishers, because you are not sharing any revenues with any traditional publisher. You can also go all the way and sell your books in huge organizations unlike the limited ways of traditional publishers who can only sell your book only to re-sellers.

What’s most important of them all? You’ve got no boss to follow—because you do things by yourself and grab options offered by publishing companies…by yourself.

A Beginner’s Guide to Publishing

Great writers in the world started being like any other aspiring writers. They had looked for help and used all available resources just to finish an article or a book. Not all people are gifted with writing skills and so if you have already started writing; that’s the good beginning of your writing journey. Soon, you will be praised like gods in literature.

To be great is to have your book keep going; continuously and timelessly giving interest to the readers. This is where publishing evolves. Here are some of publishing tips for you to mull on.

Eliminate your fears

Award-winning writers in the world have landed the literary grand’s peak because they choose to be there. They conquer their fears and they are proud of what they are doing. Some authors love to write but are less confident with their work; making them hesitant to let others know about what they’ve got.

Before moving further, it is necessary that your mind is set to aiming the summit of writing success fearlessly. You should not be hindered by any possible failures in the middle of the way from writing up to publishing your book. To get rid of fear is to free yourself from any worries whether your book can draw interests in the reading public or not; and whether your piece can lead you to success you have been dreaming of. What matters most is that you are on that stage and are willing to take more steps upwards.

Publish with the right tools

It is not enough that you have written a book. If your goal is to succeed; then never hesitate to take the risks, chances, and options towards making your goal possible. Do something about it because writing success can never be a destiny—it takes action.

Publish your book. Since self-publishing is the new trend today among the authors; you have all the power to make your book get heard in the market with all your effort.

Chances will be the fact that along the process of publishing your book comes a variety of options you can take advantage. Most publishers are offering effective publishing tools to give your book an edge in the market. Some of them, such as BookWhirl, are giving FREE publishing guides to authors to help them out along the way. Not all publishers are giving help for free; so if you find one, grab that opportunity without a second thought.

Keep Moving

You can start little actions by spreading good news about your book to your families and friends. Persuade them to spend some of their free time reading the book and ask for their comments or critiques after they will do so. Be willing to accept anything worse they can say because it will help you along the way—to keep you do more to perfect your work.

Most publishers have all the access of professionals who can help furnish your book with proficient layout and design. BookWhirl, for instance, has a circle of book experts who cater free consultation regarding your book publishing and marketing plans. You simply need to set off your own ideas and get help when needed. After all, you know your book better than others do.

Be more resourceful

Don’t limit yourself to two or three ways that you can get yourself a name in publishing your book. Take risks if possible just to go out beyond the standards. Using the social media is also among the many effective means you can try these days. Say something on your wall about your book. Make sure you are creative in making your own advertisement on it so that it can easily draw the readers’ attention.

Also, it is more fascinating if you can give a social implication of what you have written. When the readers find a social significance of your book by which the story can easily let everyone relate with reality, that’s already a plus. You can expect that readers themselves will spread the book’s theme to others. Don’t quit on finding ways how to make your book known to others. If one doesn’t work, try looking for something else. Welcome every help from your friends or from other authors. Communicate with the other authors in any ways—that will surely help.