Like the Internet itself, online marketing resources such as blogs, chat rooms, and user groups are vast and puzzling. On one hand they offer that elusive ?promise land? of free and effective marketing. On the other, they embody a ?time sink? of astronomical proportions. They have addictive qualities and their effectiveness is measured only by your own self-control.



That said, let's briefly describe each opportunity and explore their potential.

?Blog? is short for ?web log? ? an online diary of sorts that is relatively user-friendly, at least by Internet standards. Through free services such as Blogger.com, an author (or ?blogger? as they have come to be known) can compose content and then, with the click of a button, become ?published? online within a matter of seconds for the world to see.

hether or not the world actually does see it, however, is a matter of distribution (just like a published book!). The topic of distributing blogs is outside the scope of this article, but may be one I tackle in an upcoming newsletter. Suffice it to say, it's a little more technical, requiring techno-babble references to jargon-esque acronyms and geek-speak like .xml, atom, and RSS.

In the meantime, let's discuss the other two Internet venues. Online chat rooms and user groups also provide a forum for the online promoter. While they share similarities with blogs they lack some of the distribution possibilities. Yahoo offers both chat rooms and use groups/bulletin boards organized by subject, and you can find similarly themed groups on Google. I briefly discuss blogs, chat rooms, and user groups in my book Publishing Gems: Insider Information for the Self-Publishing Writer when I discuss ways in which to establish yourself as an expert.

Become an expert in your field and book sales will follow. It's true that promoting a book requires a great amount of resolve, but it is also true that working smarter, rather than harder, can help reap those rewards.

By projecting yourself as an expert in the genre in which you write, you can open new doors for networking, doors that often remain shut without that expertise status.

1 Write a book

You've done this already, right? If you haven't, consider it. You may find yourself closer to a finished manuscript than you realize. Writing a publishable book from your knowledge or experience is often a matter of simply putting your expertise on paper.

2 Publish your book

A published book becomes a calling card to line-up speaking engagements, freelance writing gigs, and other opportunities. Don't become a victim of ?Catch-22 Paralysis? where you can't promote because no one knows about you, but no one knows about you since you can't promote. Instead, become a ?Catch-all front runner? where you're an expert because you have published a book, and your published book proves your expertise.

3 Promote your expertise

Two good places to begin are AOL and ABOUT.COM. Both have category-specific forums in which you can participate. By mentioning that you are the ?author of such-and-such? within the scope of your communication, you begin to label yourself as an expert. Web-logs, or ?blogs? are also a cost effective, efficient way to promote your expertise. Blogs utilize .xml and RSS feeds to provide dynamic, up-to-the minute publication across a variety of searchable platforms. The integration between blogs and contextual search engines becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy toward recognition. If you write about something, people searching for the topic will invariably find you, and that makes you an expert!

4 Overcome the fiction hurdle

Being recognized as an expert in a technical or non-fiction category is admittedly easier than the largely subjective category of a fiction expert. Even so, if you have written a work of fiction, becoming a recognized expert is not only possible, but necessary. Just look at Clancy, Rowling, and Robbins.

5 Explore the possibilities

Whether you've penned a techno-thriller, children's fantasy, or romance, there is a forum in which to voice your expertise. The Internet is full of chat rooms, writing groups, genre-sites, and more. They're all thirsty for content from published writers. You just have to know where to look. Conducting a Google search is a good place to start.

6 Join, participate, schmooze

Seek out conferences, associations, and other experts to help you. Outskirts Press is a member of PMA, SPAN, CIPA, SPAWN, and the BBB, just to name a few. This leads to professional relationships with experts (Dan Poynter), mentors (Dr. Judith Briles), and editors (Writer's Digest).