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A writer’s number one issue in today’s digital market is discoverability. How do people find you and your books in a sea of self-published work, small presses, all overshadowed by the big names published by the Big 5 in New York?
For a while there, Amazon exclusives and Kindle Unlimited were great, and putting your eggs all in one basket didn’t seem like that bad of an idea. But with all of the authors on Amazon, good and bad, it is much harder to stand out now.
The thing to remember is that writing is a business, and good authors are deeply involved in book marketing. It is one of the places they spend much of their time when they are not actively writing the next book.
These are the most successful writers in the industry, and if you want to follow in their footsteps, you’ll need your own website — one more sophisticated than the one you would have needed just a few years ago. So how do you build a site that helps you get discovered and even lets you sell your own stuff? Here are a few simple hints.
Your Books Are Your Product
You can build your site on one of those simple platforms like Weebly for free, but that will only get you so far. You, as a writer, need your own domain name, preferably something containing the name you write under, a professional host, and a great web design.
The most common way to do this is on a WordPress platform. It’s easy to learn and use, and it’s fairly intuitive. You can run your own blog pretty simply, and the availability of many plugins helps you with the more technical aspects of building a website.
This includes being able to set up a way people can order and pay for your products, essentially your books. The purpose of your website is to help readers get to know you as an author and make them fans of your work. It is then to offer your books for sale right then and there.
The reason? Simplicity leads to conversions, based on what we know about buyer behavior. The more clicks it takes a user to buy your book, the more complex the checkout process, the more likely they are to make a purchase elsewhere.
Your site must be designed to satisfy them immediately by offering your work for sale on the spot, with options to go elsewhere, like Amazon, if the reader so desires. Include the links of other places potential readers can purchase your work, but make sure it is available on your site as well.
Content Matters
You can’t just build a website and leave it. You need to maintain it, and you need to add more content on a regular schedule. This is in part because of the way Google works. The more often your site is updated, the more frequently Google will come back to look at it. The better content you create, the more Google will take notice.
Content is about more than just your blog though. It should include pictures, video, and other interactive content that draws the user’s attention. You are the brand, your books are your product, and your content should boost the authority of both.
One of the most common questions writers ask is what they should write about on their blog. The answer, of course, is that it depends. However, things about your life that relate to your writing (your research trip to Scotland for instance) are good topics. A bit about the writing life is fine, but too much of that and you are appealing to other writers, not your readers. Talk about your characters, your genre, and the fun things readers can imagine them doing.
What you talk about and write about will be up to you to decide, but you are a writer. You have things to say, so say them.
Analytics and Technical Stuff
How do you know if your website is working? What can you do to make it better from a technical standpoint?
First, just like you track book sales and reviews on Amazon, you should track visitors to your website and other metrics using website analytics. Google Analytics is free, WordPress offers some simple analytics, and you can also add plugins to your site for even more insights and information. What should you be looking at?
New and Returning Visitors: How many new visitors came to your site this month? How many returned? You want new visitors, but you want return ones who have become loyal fans, too.
Bounce Rates: What does this mean? Bounce rates reflect those who visit your site and leave without going to another page. You want this to be low.
Organic and Social Traffic: How do people get to your site? Analytics tells you if they came from Google, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. This helps you keep marketing simple and focus on the social media sites you are getting the most traffic from, as well as whether that traffic is coming from regular posts or boosted posts and ads.
How often should you look at these things? For writers, usually once a month is enough. You want to see upward trends in traffic and bounce rates decreasing. You can also look at conversions, which refers to those who buy your books or subscribe to your newsletter — essentially anything you ask them to do.
If things aren’t working, you need to look at the SEO of your site and other technical aspects. You can learn to do this yourself, use plugins like Yoast SEO, or hire someone to help you. Either way, your website should work for you in generating sales and fans.
Building an author’s website is vital to your success. Follow these steps for a successful one that helps you get discovered and make money. Your pocketbook and your fans will thank you for it.
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