Why Authors Should Do a Virtual Blog Tour

Today's guest post is by author and marketing expert Nikki Leigh, who shares her expertise in the area of virtual blog tours.

The simplest description for my idea of a virtual blog tour is: a cyber “tour” which includes various blogs, websites, radio shows, newsletters, etc. The more effective sites usually contain themes or content from the book that is being promoted. This “tour” gives authors the chance to reach many people as they travel the World Wide Web.

A tour includes a series of appearances with blogs, website interviews, reviews or guest posts, etc. that are posted on various sites during a specific amount of time. Various site owners host you and may ask interview questions about your book or request that you write a piece about a specific part or element of your book.

Benefits of a Virtual Blog Tour

Why would you do a virtual tour? Is it all about book sales? Selling books is only one of the reasons I encourage people to do virtual tours. The following reasons apply to fiction and non-fiction authors—however, some can be utilized more thoroughly by non-fiction and business authors.

• Build credibility
• Increase visibility
• Generate a buzz about your book
• Reach your target audience
• Get information to many people in a short period of time
• Generate additional links back to your site
• Let readers and potential readers learn more about you and your books
• Help blog readers get to know the person behind the book or other product
• Search engines love blogs and you get into search engines immediately
• Gives your target audience the opportunity to communicate with you
• Comments can give you the chance to see what people think about your topics

You can organize a tour for yourself or you can hire a professional. But, ask what the professional can do for you. There are many ways to describe a virtual tour, so be sure the other person explains what they plan to do—and more importantly, that they plan the best approach for you and your book. When a professional coordinates your tour it lets you benefit from their promotional network to generate a much larger reach for you.

Nikki Leigh is an award winning fiction and non-fiction author with over sixteen years of promotional experience. Promo 101 Promotional Services offers online promotional options. Her new book will be available in May: Book Promo 201: Harness the Power of the Internet with Web 2.0 and Social Media Marketing. The most up to date information is posted at www.twitter.com/litekepr. Visit www.nikkileigh.com to download The Insider's Guide to Virtual Book Tours. Additional promotional information can be found at http://promo101articles.blogspot.com.

Comments

[Barbara]

I will be doing a blog tour with Nikki in June. I have to just say this, Nikki has offered me so much advice already in getting me name out on the internet. She is very generous with her knowledge and loves to help authors. I'm so excited about my tour!!

~Barbara Techel
Author of the multi-award winning, Frankie, the Walk 'N Roll Dog
www.joyfulpaws.com

[Nikki Leigh]

Hi Barbara -

Its so great to hear from you and I am really looking forward to your tour. I was showing your book off yesterday to company and I showed them Frankie's video too :) You are a prime example of the ways I like to make the tour much more than visits to a set of blogs.

Just wait till June :)

Nikki Leigh

[banana_the_poet]

I am organising a blog tour at the moment. Hope Nikki won't mind me taking this opportunity to ask people to contact me via my poetry4fun blog comments section if they are interested in hosting me.

Here is a link to my short free poetry e-book to give you an idea of what I do and to see if we have any synergy.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19964910/Alternative-Poetry-Books-Yellow-edition-lite