This article may be reprinted/redistibuted freely, as long as the entire article and bio are included. Shhhhh. I''ve
got a secret to share with you that you may not even know about. In fact, if you have ever written a book or thought about writing a book, I''m gonna let you in on something that won''t cost you a dime of money, but could produce an incredible opportunity to effectively market your work. What is this dream plan for building an
audience of enthusiastic buyers for your book? Simply put, it''s a blog. What''s that?! A blog, short for weblog, is a web site journal where you can post just about anything you want about whatever subject matter interests you the most. For me, after losing 180 pounds on a low-carb plan in 2004, I knew I had found a topic that I was very passionate about sharing with others and that there would be an audience who would be willing to listen. In April 2005, I started my "Livin'' La Vida Low-Carb" blog located on the Internet at http://livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.com. When I first started my blog, I had just begun work writing on my book, also called "Livin'' La Vida Low-Carb." The early days of a blog are kinda like being on a 100-watt radio station out in the middle of nowhere. You talk and talk and feel like nobody''s listening. And if you expect to find instant success with your blog, then just don''t bother. But if you write freely about what is in your heart, share openly and honestly about what''s on your mind, and provide relevant content that people will want to read, then you will begin to build an audience who will follow you and want to come back for more. To let others know about my blog, I went to other similar kinds of blogs and web sites to introduce myself and to let them know about what I was doing. I probably posted my URL on about 50 different low-carb message boards to get the word out about it. In my first month online, I had about 5,000
pageviews. By the third month I was online, the pageviews at my blog grew to 10,000 that month. In the meantime, I continued to post articles on a daily basis to keep the web site looking fresh and new all the time and I bought the domain name for my book, LivinLaVidaLowCarb.com. I had the domain forward all of the traffic to my blog. This is an excellent way to build those repeat readers by making it easy for them to find you, and the faithful will come back to you often. Whatever you do, don''t just suddenly stop posting to your blog. Nothing frustrates a reader more than to come to your blog for three or four days in a row with zero updates. Some people may wonder if you''ve gone away forever and may never come back. Don''t leave ''em hanging. If you can''t post for a few days, then let your readers know it. When my book debuted six months after I began my blog, I was getting about 15,000 pageviews per month. This built-in audience for my book gave me an instant