People Don't Fall Out of Trees Without A Good Reason

Have you seen the movie "Back to the Future"? By now, I imagine a lot of you have seen it several times. It's certainly one of my favorite movies.

In the first movie of the trilogy, do you remember how Marty's dad. George McFly, fell out of a tree in front of Lorraine's house, in the middle of the road in front of her dad's car?

Lorraine's dad yells to his wife, "Another one of these damned kids jumped in front of my car!"

Clearly, Lorraine's dad is clueless that George and all the other boys who "jumped" in front of his car did so for a real reason. In this case, they were spying on his daughter who had a penchant for undressing in front of her open window. The tree in front of Lorraine's window was a good spot to "bird" watch.

If I'd been Lorraine's dad I've have been curious to find out "why" even one, much less several, boys were falling out of trees in front of my house. It's not exactly an everyday thing. To my knowledge, no boys have ever fallen out of a tree around my house.

If you want a closer look at this pic where you can see what George is seeing go to Picsearch.

Trying to sell books or bring traffic to our websites isn't as easy as figuring out why boys are falling into the street. We have to look at several more places than only our house or immediate vicinity.

Like Lorraine was doing (intentional or not - probably intentional) we have to advertise our items for consumption to let consumer know they exist. Unlike Lorraine, it's not as easy as leaving our curtains open for people to find us. We have to send out word to potential readers that our blogs and/or our books exist.

I noticed that once I started gaining followers on Twitter AND posting my url to my blog posts a few times a week, my blog traffic increased. My blog membership has also increased. Hopefully, this will also help to increase sales of my book.

I also promote other places - book review sites, other blogs that are not my own, MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo Groups, etc.

When I receive my monthly royalties, I can't pinpoint which promotion activities I did sold books.

Thanks to my blog's statistical counter, keyword analytics, and its ability to tell me which sites my visitors came from, I can better pinpoint when and what things brought visitors to my blog. That's a good start.

It's almost like people falling out of trees except a lot more high tech. Sometimes I wonder if it's as effective as Lorraine's undressing in front of an open window to lure interested customers.

If I never wrote a blog post, never tweeted, never advertised my books, it's possible very few people would know they exist - unless hopefully, word of mouth got around (like I'm sure the high school boys talked about Lorraine). Without knowing a product exists, people can't possibly read them. They won't just fall out of nowhere to miraculously become readers.


Recent posts you might also like to read:

Author Interview: Linda Kage


Sayonara Baby

Don't Bomb Your Audience With Turkeys

Are You Writing Me Into Your Book?

Dont Give Up Too Early

Welcome to the Spookiest Month of the Year (+ don't burn your Ouija Board!)

Friday Fill-ins Oct. 2 (& e-Readers)

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook,
Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch,
Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape
are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)