Advertising takes work. Now I know that some people hate posting their covers or don’t know how, but at least do more than just spam everyone’s thread with your link(s). I know this also has nothing to do with actual writing (except where the summary comes into play), but I figured that since this is something widely done on Wattpad, I thought I’d give my two cents. If you don’t want to mess around with Photobucket and the 4 different link choices, then at least put some nice thought into your summary. Generally, even if people don’t ask, they want to know the title, rating, genre and summary, so listing each is always a good idea. Don’t go spazzing all over the place with the slang and irritating smiley faces. Advertise in a nice manner, such as saying “I’d greatly appreciate some reads,” instead of “PLEASE READ MY STORY!!!!!1!!”.
Now, if you internet-savvy people who would like to do all the fancy covers and banners and have them show up on your advertisement thread, but don’t know how, here’s a short tutorial. (if you want to have a cover/banner that is a direct link to your story (the “click to read” ones) see below this ‘tutorial’)
1. Firstly, as much as this might suck, you have to make a Photobucket account. For those of you like me who have 23432489567278436 accounts on 23432489567278436 websites and don’t want another one . . . I feel your pain; but it goes for great advertising opportunities.
2. Well after you’ve gotten your account nicely set up, (and customized if you care to) upload some photos! Now, you can create your own book covers and banners on your computer with another offline program (like I do sometimes) and upload those just for having a link provided to it, or you can just upload photos and edit them any way you’d like on the website itself.
3. So select the photo/picture you’d like to use as your cover/banner. If it’s already edited, skip this step. If it’s not, well, look for the edit button somewhere on the photo as you hover over it and play around until you have it the way you like it. You can mess with the coloring (but not like photoshop, mind you), text, moving text, faded pictures on other pictures . . . whatever. You can even add pretty, sparkly text that moves and glitters you want in a neon color; go for it (just don’t be obnoxious). Save it (I normally save it as a copy, just in case I want to redo something later).
4. So now that everything is the way you want it, hover over your cover/banner. Four little white boxes should pop up underneath. You’re going to want to copy the second one (just click it, it copies automatically) that should say html link. Then post it on a thread, and make sure it works and shows up.
So, once that’s out of the way with (or not if you didn’t want to do that), give a good summary (in reference back to the previous chapter) and a professional approach for getting reads.
Alright, so how about those covers with the links already in them? The “click to read” ones? Well guess what, I’m going to tell you how to do that too!
Yes, you need your Photobucket account (or just a link to whatever picture it is), and it needs to be already done as you want it. Here’s the trick, a little html string that looks like this:
<a><img></a>
Now, what you’ll do with that is post it onto your advertisement; obviously not like how it is, but with two links. The first link will be of your story (surely you know how to obtain your story link) and you’ll copy+paste in between the two quotation marks where it says “URL of your story”. You’ll do the same with the picture’s link where it says “URL of image”. If you’re using a photobucket link, click the DIRECT LINK, which is the first white box under the photo, I believe.
Now, all you’ll need to do is post your new little code here onto a thread and see if it shows up. Click on it and make sure the cover/picture takes you to your story. If not, recheck the code and make sure you put the right link in the right spot—and if that still doesn’t work, you can come ask me and I’ll try to figure things out for you. (But it should work).
Ok, so back to the essential ad. As I mentioned earlier, a little bit of everything is worth the work you want to put into this. I know, there are lots of you lazy folk like me that just don’t want to have to do all that jazz. But hey, copy+paste is a really good friend to have. If you’ve got Word or AppleWorks or whatever document program you use, save your ad and when you’re ready to advertise, just open it, copy and paste on all those lovely threads. I know you’re probably thinking, “well duh”, but writing it once proficiently will totally be worth it. After all, it’ll be eye-catching and to the point considering you’ve provided a nice banner/cover, some generic info and an awesome summary. Make it look spectacular, even if you’re doubtful that your story is good enough.
I’ve seen some ads that are a bit too ostentatious, so try to avoid all the glitzy, glamorous fonts and moving gifs, and keep it clean and simple. There are even some banners that I’ve seen that have terrible misspellings and grammar right in the photo. DOUBLE CHECK, people, it pays off! But I’ve already ranted on that, so let’s move on. You want to look professional without having to be a business man/woman or someone who is an interwebz genius. “Professional” here means “No bullshit” and being serious about getting your story out there. I mean, if you have terrible writing in your ad, how do you expect it to go far?
One last word, don’t go over the top with the “thank you’s”, especially when you’re thanking someone who hasn’t even read yet. A simple “Thanks for reading!” or “Thanks for your consideration!” is nice and all, but “THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!” is . . . well, unnecessary. Don’t make it sound like your life depends on someone reading your story.
