Summary: Debbie Drum is a best-selling author, blogger, and marketing expert. She is also the creator of Book Review Targeter a very powerful tool that helps authors get more reviews for their books.<br> Debbie’s journey got started when she googled the words “how to make money online” in 2010. She made her first money publishing books in 2011 and never looked back. She grew her audience with a simple strategy. She published a book a week in several different marketplaces and gained traction as people discovered her through her work.<br> Debbie currently has 50 products that you can buy related to Internet marketing and marketing videos.<br> During our conversation which covered online marketing, and how to get book reviews Debbie emphasized the importance of having multiple streams of income and selling products in your books when possible.<br> Here are some of the other takeaways:<br> <br> * The importance of people seeing you as a real person.<br> * The power of video marketing in today’s world.<br> * The importance of honesty and transparency in marketing.<br> * The importance of creating content to build an audience.<br> * Make a plan before you start writing.<br> * What is your intention for the book you’re writing? What does success look like?<br> * Make sure every piece of content leads the customer to where they can get more from you.<br> * Make sure every piece of content leads to a way for you to make money now or in the future.<br> * Have a marketing plan for your books.<br> * Have sources of income beyond the books you publish.<br> * Use your books to drive customers to those sources of income.<br> * Growing an e-mail list is a necessity. You need to have some way for your audience to opt in to your email list with every piece of content you publish.<br> * Practice what you want to get better at.<br> * In order to get good at something you have to be willing to do it badly at first.<br> * When you write a book or shoot a video for YouTube you’re putting yourself out there in a very raw way. It’s going to be uncomfortable at first. It’s important to do what is uncomfortable so that you can get better at what you’re doing and accomplish your goals.<br> * Ignore negative people and just do your thing.<br> * The importance of being passionate in the work you do.<br> * You should wake up excited in the morning. And if you aren’t excited to go to work you’re doing the wrong type of work.<br> * There are no real rules for self published authors.<br> * The power of individual creativity in Internet marketing.<br> * People can tell if you’re not being authentic. Just be honestly yourself and you will go far.<br> * Don’t be overly negative about yourself. You want to be humble without being a downer.<br> * The power of one-on-one communication in today’s world.<br> * Long term success in business is all about long-term relationships.<br> <br> Affiliate Marketing Tips<br> 1. It’s important to test out everything you recommend.<br> 2. If you’re going to link from your book to an affiliate product, it’s better to link to a video review on that product, then have a link from that video to the product in question. In the video you can tell your audience about your experience with the product. Tell them about your challenges and successes with the product. It comes off as more genuine and less spammy.<br> How to Get Book Reviews for Your Books<br> 1. Find a book like your book on Amazon.<br><br> 2. Right next to the star rating there will be a live link to the reviews of that product. It will have the number of reviews of that product. Click on that link.<br><br> 3. When you read the review, at the top you’ll see: “by” and then the Amazon reviewer username that this person has chosen. The Amazon reviewer username is clickable.
