| Did you know that second only to your blog, | | | | your press room with any that you've created. |
| the media room should be the most updated | | | | 6) Where you've been featured: be very |
| page on your website? When was the last time | | | | generous with this. Don't assume that if you |
| you updated your media room? For most of us, | | | | have only been featured online that you |
| it's probably been a while. We tend to put up | | | | should not list that. List everything! The |
| media rooms and then forget about them. But | | | | more you can populate this room with links |
| more and more, a good, informative media room | | | | that make you look like the busy marketing |
| should be consistently updated. We've found | | | | person you are, the more attractive you'll be |
| through research, reading, and our own | | | | to your buyer and to the media. 7) Ideas for |
| experiences that often it's not just the | | | | stories: if a reporter is perusing your site |
| media that visits this page, that's why the | | | | looking for story ideas, why not give it to |
| term "media room" is a bit misleading. It's | | | | him? Creating a pop up box that says "Here's |
| actually a great place to inform, entertain, | | | | how (insert your name) can help you with your |
| and educate your reader on you, your books, | | | | story" is a great way to generate ideas for |
| your message or product, and the things | | | | the media and get yourself a mention in an |
| you've been up to, and often it's the first | | | | upcoming story or feature. 8) Bragging |
| place a prospective buyer will go to for more | | | | rights! If you have testimonials or reviews, |
| information on you and your work. In order to | | | | place them here, too. While it's always good |
| compete in the digital age, more and more | | | | to sprinkle testimonials/reviews throughout |
| authors are turning to their media rooms to | | | | your site, this is another great place to |
| attract readers to their book. Why? Well it's | | | | list them. Regardless of whether the visitor |
| a great one-stop-shop place to get all the | | | | to your media room is the media or a reader, |
| latest data on your books, new editions, new | | | | people like what other people like! 9) No |
| products and new speaking events (should you | | | | hunting allowed! Don't make people hunt for |
| decide to list them). The old way of doing | | | | information. The other day I was on a site |
| media rooms was to have a list of your press | | | | looking for book pricing. I had to send an |
| releases, maybe a link or two to media and | | | | email to get a list of pricing, and why? |
| that was that. Now media rooms are almost the | | | | Because it was confidential? Doubtful. But |
| nerve center of your entire website. Here's a | | | | most people don't think to remove the extra |
| quick rundown of what should (and shouldn't) | | | | steps. Shorten the staircase. Meaning: remove |
| be in your media room. Keep in mind that | | | | needless steps to the close. Put pricing, |
| components of a media room will vary, | | | | information sheets, whatever you have up on |
| depending on your topic, genre and focus, so | | | | your media room so folks don't have to go on |
| if you can't include all of these, that's ok. | | | | a hunting expedition for it. 10) Events: I |
| Better to have only those components related | | | | took events off of my website a long time |
| to your book/product/topic than ones that | | | | ago. Why? Because I do so much pop up stuff |
| don't make any sense at all: 1) Downloadable | | | | that I had a hard time keeping up with it. |
| picture of your book cover or covers, your | | | | There's nothing worse than an outdated events |
| photo and other related artwork you want to | | | | page, but if you can keep yours up, great! |
| offer. 2) About You: people want to know who | | | | Keep it current, the activity will look great |
| you are, so tell them! Make sure your bio is | | | | on your media room. A few final tips: don't |
| on the media room and ready to download. It's | | | | even consider cramming all of this |
| especially helpful if a media person is | | | | information onto your site if you're not |
| trying to gather information for an article | | | | going to deliver this in pop-up form. Check |
| and wants some background on you. 3) Press | | | | out for an example of this. Also, deliver |
| releases with live links: a few issues back | | | | your text content in both PDF format as well |
| we wrote that live links in a press release | | | | as in text format so the search engines can |
| are a great way to get traffic back to your | | | | spider it. Don't limit yourself to the items |
| site, but guess what? It works well in | | | | mentioned above, experiment with other media |
| reverse, too. News posted to your site gets | | | | room ideas that might not be listed here. |
| spidered very quickly, so including links and | | | | Book videos, for example, might be another |
| keywords will greatly enhance the visibility | | | | great addition to your media room. The key |
| of both the media room and your press | | | | is, start thinking of your media room as a |
| release. In fact another quick tip is this: | | | | place to present yourself not just to the |
| instead of placing ads, issue a press | | | | media, but to the world! This will change how |
| release. No kidding. Press releases are a far | | | | you view this very important page on your |
| better alternative than an ad on the | | | | site and help turn a ho-hum page into a |
| Internet. You'll get spidered, you'll get | | | | rockin' red hot media room! |
| ranking and best of all, you'll get traffic. | | | | |
| 4) New book/product information: this is the | | | | Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of |
| perfect place for sharing past, current, and | | | | Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a book |
| future information on your book. Be boastful! | | | | marketing and media relations expert whose |
| This your chance! 5) Tip sheets: we all know | | | | company has developed some of the most |
| that the media loves tip sheets, but guess | | | | cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. |
| what? Your readers/consumers do, too. Fill | | | | |