Everyone loves a freebie, right? Well, here’s a great freebie – a PDF copy of the book I wrote last year, The Principles of Successful Freelancing.

All you need to do is visit this website, and either follow @sitepointdotcom on Twitter, or put your email address in the box to get a download link.

I’d like to also suggest you follow me on Twitter, whilst you’re at it. :)

Judging by people’s reactions, this 10 day only giveaway will once again be HUGE.

The team at SitePoint did the same thing some time ago, with another book. The result of that twitaway was 13,000 new followers in under a week! That’s a great jump in followers for anyone over any period of time, let alone an increase like that in a week. You can read all about that campaign over at TwiTip.

I hope you enjoy the book (so much so that you’ll buy the real paper version too!), and remember, this only lasts for the next ten days.

A while ago, I wrote a post, titled Book promotion on the web, which was a collection of thoughts about how Authors best promote their book(s) online.

I’ve had a few people ask me for more details on this subject, so here are s a few steps you can take when your book is being released (these concepts work just as well for other products as well – don’t just think books).

Start a blog
Ideally, you should buy a domain name, organise some website hosting and install (my favourite) blogging software, Wordpress. Then, choose one of the pre-existing free wordpress themes you can download, or organise a web designer to create your own individual design.

If you aren’t going to go to all of that trouble (remember, you can pay someone to do all of it for you), you can always fall back on wordpress.com, which is free Wordpress hosting, however you won’t have the same control over the back end and design templates of the blog using the latter option.

See my book’s blog as an example of the former, at The Principles of Successful Freelancing Blog

In either situation, it is important that you keep up a frequency that your readers will appreciate, and add real value content (such as excerpts, book signing dates, etc), not just a sales pitch rehashed over and over. Make sure you encourage people to subscribe to your feed, and encourage comments on your posts.

Create a Facebook page
Facebook is much more than individuals – it can be a great place to promote your product or business. Facebook marketing ideas can be found all over the web, however as a start, make sure that you have your own Facebook account, and then visit their Facebook Pages for Business page, which will get you set up with your own book’s Facebook page.

Once you’ve created the page, make sure you upload an image of the cover, and completed as much of the information fields as you can. Add your blog URL, along with any publisher contact detail and the like.

Once you’ve done that, go to ‘Applications’ in Facebook, and install Simply RSS. Once you’ve entered your RSS feed address into this application, it will display your blog post headlines on your Facebook page, increasing the frequency the page is updated, without any additional work for yourself.

Once the page is all polished and ready to promote, politely invite all of your Facebook friends to ‘fan the page’ and consider adding a link from your blog to this page, and encourage people to fan the page. Share the link using the Facebook ‘Share’ button, as well as send individual messages to friends you know who would be interested in the book.

You can see an example of a book Facebook page, at my book’s page: The Principles of Successful Freelancing on Facebook.

Remember to visit the page often, and add new content where you can. There are great stats available to you, which give you a greater insight into who is visiting the page. See the ‘Ads and Pages’ link in your Facebook homepage.

Create a Twitter account
If you haven’t already got a Twitter account, go and grab one. Twitter is a micro-blogging system which allows you to interact in real time with your readers and friends. Search Twitter for existing friends, and don’t hesitate to look for other Authors to connect with.

A handy tool available for Wordpress is Twitter Tools. This Plugin will allow you to notify your twitter followers every time you publish a new post on your blog, and you can even set it up to post your tweets back as blog posts.

Then add further value by joining in the conversation with others on Twitter, however remember the golden rule is be authentic – if you barge into conversations (both online and offline) for the pure purpose of selling copies of your book, you aren’t going to be very well received.

You can see an example of how I use this at The Principles of Successful Freelancing on Twitter. I have a personal Twitter account as well, which I have been using way before the book, which is here: @milesb (feel free to start following me!).

These tips should get you started promoting your book online – there are plenty of other ways to use online social media to market your book, if you’re interested in more, comment below!

As part of the partner blog for my book, The Principles of Successful Freelancing, I’ve been publishing short posts written by others in the industry, with a (maximum) 50 word freelance tip or hint, and a short bio about who they are. You can see the previous ones here.

Now, I’m ‘passing the mic’, so to speak, over to my readers for their own freelance suggestions, and in exchange, everyone goes into the draw to win a signed copy of the book.

Find our more over at this post, and good luck!

On Wednesday night, approximately 80 web people came to the sophisticated new upstairs bar at the Flying Scotsman, Mt Lawley, to celebrate Christmas with Port80, at our official Perth Port80 Christmas Soiree, and to also celebrate the launch of The Principles of Successful Freelancing. Thanks to everyone who showed up, and I apologise that we ran out of books so quickly.

The feedback from everyone was great, both on the event and my book, and a huge thanks to everyone who bought the book!

Today, I’m pleased to announce that SitePoint have now started taking orders for the book, which will be officially launched next week on SitePoint.com. Read about the book over here, and then head to the pre-order page to grab a copy (Oh, and if you’re in Perth, bring your copy to a Port80 meeting, and I’ll happilly sign it for you as well).

When you buy the book, not only do you get a 30 day money back guarantee, but you can also get free shipping anywhere, if you buy more than just this one book. Have a look at some of the other great SitePoint titles.

Image: Photo from Wednesday, by Gary Barber.

I’ve been thinking alot recently, about the best way for an author to get attention for their book on the web. In particular, my own book, of course, but it is very interesting research about the power of the web in general.

In pre-Internet days, all you did was a book launch and then maybe some readings at book stores. I still recall being at my fathers book launches, for each of his books. Times have changed drastically for publishers and Authors now, and they are quickly grasping the web as a tool for promotion.

Luckily, my publisher SitePoint is all about the web, so we’ve got the advantage over some of the old school publishing houses that may be stuck in last century. This means, that when the book officially launches, they’ll promote it via their various online properties.

Before you read any more though, you have to watch this YouTube video by Author, Dennis Cass.

Book Launch 2.0

This is a great example of what an Author can do themselves, delivered by Dennis in a very amusing way.

So what are some of the things an Author can do to promote their book, online? There’s the obvious ones;

• Create a book-specific blog
• Create a Facebook page
• Get on Twitter
• Make a video intro for the book
• Join Amazon Connect, to control your book’s Amazon page
• Email all of your contacts
• Look for opportunities to get excerpts and interviews on other sites

Then there are other examples, such as having a ‘virtual launch’ on Second Life, creating a MySpace page, advertising the book using contextual advertising networks, sending review copies to high profile bloggers, and the like.

The trick here is be authentic – don’t just sign up to lots of social networking or social media services, looking to pimp your book – you need to be engaged with your readers and prospective readers, to get value.

Have any other online promotion ideas, yourself? I’d be keen to hear them – please post a comment below!

Image: First box of copies of my book to arrive!

There’s about four or five weeks left until the book hits our shores, however that doesn’t mean I can’t start pimping it!

As with any self-respecting new book about the business of building the web, The Principles of Successful Freelancing will have its own blog, designed by the very talented Jay Hollywood, where I’ll be sharing short interview snippets with freelance web designers and developers, as well as providing more information about the book, links to freelance resources, etc.

I’d love it if you would head over to http://www.principlesofsuccessfulfreelancing.com/ now and check it out. Feedback and comments are welcome both there and here!

To make it easier to know when a new post hits the blog, you can always follow @posf on Twitter, or indeed join the Facebook page as well…

Image: Screengrab of The Principles of Successful Freelancing blog.

I’ve been quiet here on Miles’ Blog for some six months now, partly because we’ve moved house, changed kids schools and had a third child join us, and partly because business has been booming, but also because I have been spending those hours I’d normally be posting to this blog, quietly authoring a book.

Yes, a book; one of those fancy printed things with paper and a cover and sit inside book stores (as well as online stores…).

The Principles of Successful Freelancing, published by the good folk at SitePoint, will be hitting the shelves in early December.

Without saying too much at this stage, the book is ‘Full of anecdotes and practical advice, this short, hands on guide is written for people who want to become freelancers in the technology sector.‘

I’ll post more about the book closer to the release date. If you’d like to be emailed when The Principles of Successful Freelancing is released, feel free to add a comment below…

Image: Manuscript for The Principles of Successful Freelancing.