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Help! Marketing ideas needed

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Comments

  • Good work Mutley. I hope it all helps by showing results on downloads soon. Good luck.
  • Wow, you are going great guns, Mutley! Enjoy your day off - you deserve it.
  • Some great comments here - I especially like Silent Tony's.

    I agree about the name. At the very least, it would make sense to change the website name to Alfie Dog Fiction. [It doesn't matter that your trading name is different, ie. Alfie Dog Limited.]

    You might also include a descriptor in the title of the meta content, so it looks like this:

    <title>Alfie Dog Fiction - Short Story Downloads</title>

    The descriptor then automatically comes up in the title of the google search result. You might also get more hits for searches including 'short story' and similar.

    [quote=Mutley]but it is amazing how many authors seem to think someone else will do it all for them[/quote]

    Re Tweeting etc, this comment might come across as a little unfair, Mutley. Not everyone uses social media networking. I never have because I know once I do, I am likely to get 'addicted' to it and will lose precious time I need for writing, reading and (shock!) earning a crust in the day job. I limit time spent on this forum - so I've only recently seen this thread - for the same reason.

    I'm also not sure how much it's fair to expect authors to contribute to the marketing. One reason for placing stories with Alfie Dog is so the company can take on the marketing role - for which it gets a financial return. Otherwise, authors might as well use the traditional route of offering stories to publishers, or indeed sell directly themselves.

    I realise that publishers generally are increasingly expecting authors to get involved with promoting their material - I'm just not sure it's a good thing.
  • Do all the authors have a link to your site from theirs - either a website or a blog?
  • I think writers are more tuned in to promoting books than their short story downloads. Some may expect that their name will be enough to get sales.
    But Mutley can only do so much advertising.
    I would have thought it would be to the authors advantage to promote the fact their work is there to buy as a download.
  • I noticed on the author info that Mutley has included their links - the one I looked at didn't return the favour.
  • [quote=Carol]I would have thought it would be to the authors advantage to promote the fact their work is there to buy as a download.
    [/quote]

    Yes, I would have thought in this day and age you have to cover every possibility you can. If you sit back relying on your name to carry you forth, waiting for someone else to make things happen for you, it doesn't always work in your favour.
  • Good point BB- will email them shortly.

    I have changed the site header to match the hashtag and updated meta data (most of that was in place - the meta data that is - before)
  • How's it coming along, Mutley? The selection of stories is growing nicely. I shall add a link from my blog, but like you, I have had so much else to do, it is taking a while to get round to it.
  • thanks pbw - things are going well. I've just come back from 2 weeks holiday so loads to do, but it's all good and the sales are going the right way too. We will be taking part in National Short Story Week in conjunction with the organisers, so that will definitely help.
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