You may hear the term “Web 2.0” and think “well that’s fine for techies, but what does that have to do with me, an author?” It has everything to do with giving you and your book the best chance of success.

Web 2.0 currently rules online, and it basically refers to the fact that internet users are no longer happy with the ability to check out a web site. They want interactivity, and they want to be able to check out your content how, when and where they wish to do so.

This might sound complicated, but the good news is that if you’re willing to meet people on their terms, it creates a great opportunity for you to maximize your audience and revenue, and leave competing authors in the dust.

Here are five Web 2.0 techniques you can use to successfully market your book. And I promise you that you don’t have to be a techie or break the bank to be able to use them!

1. Author Interview Teleseminars

This is a teleconference, usually 60-75 minutes in length, in Q&A format where you, the author are being interviewed about your book by an interviewer of your choosing who has experience facilitating such author interview teleseminars. Imagine how much more your audience (and potential customers) would bond with you, if instead of just getting a few minutes of exposure to you via a traditional media segment, they heard the inside scoop on your book in-depth?

An author interview teleseminar can be recorded live with a telephone and/or web cast audience in attendance or it may be pre-recorded. In either case, the resulting recording lives on for people worldwide to listen to when, where and how they like. Instead of the time, expense and disappointment of talking to five people at a time (if you’re lucky) with a traditional author road tour, you could simply do one of these as a virtual book tour.

2. Bookinars

Take an author interview teleseminar and add 3 more 75-minute or so sessions that actually walk the participant through your material as a guided overview, and you have what one of my mentors, Alex Mandossian, calls a “bookinar.” Most authors require a one book minimum purchase to participate (while encouraging extra copy purchases), and then the resulting recordings from this teleseminar series can either be sold or used as a bonus for another, higher-ticket offering you may have.

The extra bonding, and helping your audience consume your work, creates a far more intimate experience than even a one-night author interview teleseminar can. Thus, you help create raving fans who will encourage additional sales, buzz and a core group of people who are most likely to buy more from youóeither now or in the future.

3. Webinars

If you’re used to doing formal PowerPoint presentations, or you’re good at patting your head and rubbing your tummy, having a webinar could be right for you. The content for your webinar could be exactly the same as the author interview teleseminar or bookinar previously referenced, or you could take one or more topics from your book and create webinar content which eternally markets your book.

An advantage of a webinar is that you now have a visual component which appeals to a different audience, and it can be leveraged in ways post-webinar that a teleseminar’s audio-only content cannot.

4. Podcasts

A podcast is an ongoing internet radio or TV show on a particular topic delivered either by streaming audio or video, on a web page that can handle it, or made downloadable so that your listeners can take it with them on their portable media player of choice.

The very nature of podcasting – having an ongoing message delivered to your audience on a regular basis – is very powerful. While with a teleseminar or webinar, you do have ample bonding time, with a podcast you have frequency working for you. Think of it as the difference between watching a movie, and watching your favorite television show week after week, season after season.

5. Video

As an author, you may at times be a bit perturbed at all the emphasis on watching videos that’s taken over the internet, primarily because of YouTube. However, when it comes to using video for online marketing, this is one case where the old saying “if you can’t beat them, join them” is absolutely true. You are missing out on a huge chunk of your potential audience if you don’t have at least some videos to offer as part of your marketing efforts.

Just make sure that in your rush to become a part of the video world, that you’ve carefully determined how you’re going to incorporate video into your book marketing efforts in a way that has a positive image on you and your work. If you get a video that goes viral, you want it to enhance your image and bring you book sales, not become known as “the author who has the cat with three heads!”

Melanie Jordan, Everybody’s Infopreneur Coach, is the author of What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know (her sixth self-published book), producer/host of the hit show What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know, The Podcast and heads up SunLover Publishing LLC, her publishing, media properties and coaching company.

Melanie offers her Think Beyond The Book – training for authors who want to learn how to successfully maximize their audience and revenue, as well as a complete array of author services including: infopreneur, marketing and social media coaching, affordable author interview teleseminars, virtual book tours, bookinars and podcast consulting.