There are certain things that you need to know and to have in order to satisfy your readers and to get started on your author's website. Check out this article to know more about the key elements of an effective author website.
Today's topic has three points and you're going to want to stick around. Because the third point is going- to tell you exactly the most important thing about your author's website. So let's get started.
The topic we're discussing today is key elements of an effective author website. You're going to know exactly why your author's website is so important. You're going to have the information necessary to get started right away on your author's website.
And you're going to feel fantastic knowing you're making the right steps to one of the most strategic choices. You can make it when it comes to your books. So let's get into it.
Grab a copy of my Self-Publishing Secrets Checklist to make sure that you are not skipping the steps necessary to win at self-publishing. So from my own story when I first got started I had started from the very beginning.
Someone had mentioned the importance of an author's website and so that was exactly what I did. I think it was through Bluehost at the time. I've moved away from them but I set up the website and initially, it's confusing just like everything is.
But if we can break it down into simple steps then it becomes a lot easier. So I set the whole thing up, I got the initial WordPress thing. I paid somebody on Fiverr to actually do the initial design, still from Indonesia.
He still does changes and adjusts things from time to time. I set up the email list, I was using AWeber, I moved over to other email providers now email hosting services list builders. Because I learned early the importance that this list of people you have is one of the most important assets.
And that was something that many authors do not do. They don't build up their email lists early enough. And so that's a problem and that combined within your website which you also control.
So these are two areas two critical areas that you have control over. And so as we're building these up that nobody can just turn the off switch on it like amazon or other sites can do. Then I started writing blogs based upon my books.
And what happened was google started ranking my specific books in those categories which were very impressive. So I started seeing free traffic going up on these exact same topics. So somebody would type it into Google.
And then the ranking would occur and it would start to move up. I could see sales coming through my affiliate link to my Amazon books from my website which was proving the point. Which was that using this Content Marketing game where we're creating content in order to build an audience.
Allowing it to rank on google pulling that traffic through to a sales page. And then they click on a link to the book and it pulls them into the amazon area. Where suddenly I can actually see that traffic moving.
There's a whole series of things here that I cover a lot more in my Content Marketing Course. You can find my affiliate link below in the description of all of my YouTube videos. As you're moving through this process we're building up this content, we're getting free traffic.
Now you know we always go for both paid and free traffic. Free traffic is one of the best investments that you can do but it takes a bit of time. The thing was, my biggest mistake when I was doing my first book was that I didn't stick to a single topic.
I was hopping around between different topics. So in other words what would your name be associated with? And this is one thing I've talked with an awful lot of authors or aspiring writers about. Which is do not switch genres or topics.
Moving Over To WPX
We need to hold ourselves within the same genre and niche that we're doing. So for example for the harry potter books it would be really silly if the next one was on the Mediterranean diet. If JK Rowling had done that as the next book no you should stay in the same universe.
Continue putting out books same with puppy training. You can do lots and lots of books on puppy training but do not switch it so that your name itself becomes associated with those very books. Now let's get into it the key elements of an effective author website.
So the first thing is you need to find the right host. I chose to go with and I've moved recently over to WPX which I can highly recommend. You can find my affiliate link below in the description of all of my YouTube videos.
This is by far the best hosting program I've ever found. I've heard a lot of other people throw stuff around this one alone is saving me a lot of money. It pulls together all of my websites up to five on their plan that they have.
They use a content distribution network to ensure incredibly fast speeds on your website. Which I've discovered I can get to half a second load time. This is crazy fast when it comes to making sure that when your audience or people from google come to your site.
They're very quickly able to find what you're doing and you own everything. This is the biggest thing with the email with a website is that you own every aspect of it. I could go into showing you how to build it up.
I use thrive themes for the main way that I build it up. You can do basic ones in WordPress just on YouTube. You can find how do I set up a basic WordPress website and then I would go with an ActiveCampaign.
I think I have my affiliate link below in the description of all of my YouTube videos for that as well for the email side of it. And this is the big combo you can use, you pay for WPX for hosting and you get a domain name that either has your own name in it. Or something related to the topic that you're doing for me.
I chose self-publishingmadeeasynow.com is best if you can go for that. I also own chrisbaird.com and then you can build for free using WordPress which is a free platform that you can go with. And then you can hook into this WordPress thing your email list.
Check out this related article: 3 Common Self-Publishing Questions
And so I would highly recommend ActiveCampaign that's this combination is very fast and it allows google. They reward you for using such powerful pieces of software and it holds the cost at a low rate.
In fact, I'm saving so much money as a result of moving over to WPX and getting faster load site time. I had been using Cloudflare to do this contra content distribution network but just on the author's side you only just need to know.
We want maximum speed no matter where a person is on earth. That's the reason why WPX is the way to go when you're doing it and that is something you're going to have. And on your page itself, you're going to have a little bit about yourself.
You're going to have a free email thing where they're going to be able to sign up to your email in order to get a short story. Sample from your book or some tips or an outline or character backgrounds.
There are lots of things you can do from this in order to offer you want to split test try different offers and see which one works best. And then you're going to have links and those links are going to be tracked so you can see how many people are clicking and buying your books on amazon.
And it makes it very easy to use your amazon ads. You'll notice we're combining together this content marketing and paid ads on amazon as a very powerful combo. We're able to see how effective our entire strategy is doing.
The Best Starting Point
The second thing you need to do is you need to put regular content on the right keywords. You can use a free tool on moz.com in order to get started with that. You type in your genre niche or whatever it is and it will pull up keywords.
You can also use Publisher Rocket as I use it for my ads in order to find out the right keywords as well to target. This also gives you both when you're running ads on amazon or google perhaps. And then also in terms of what you're going to write your blogs on.
Pulling it into similar things where you're putting these keywords into the art the blogs that you're putting in there. Does that make sense? You can find my affiliate link to the Publisher Rocket below in the description of all of my YouTube videos as well.
It's a powerful tool that virtually all authors use. You can also use it for your blogs to find what are people searching and then you're writing on those topics and then we just keep producing the content. But the secret answer of today is to keep sticking with it.
As your rankings go on Google goes up and you will get new subscribers daily these new subscribers then will help you to build your email list. They will help you get reviews and also will buy your next books.
Because these are people who know like and trust you after reading your books getting your samples. They will sign up without any questions to your email list in order to get that. And then you will stay in touch with them on a weekly or monthly basis.
Ideally weekly but monthly at worst. I stay in touch with my list about every third day so that's how often I find works for me. But maybe you will find something that works better for you. This combination is very powerful but I don't want you to get overwhelmed by this whole process.
So my first thing would be to sign up for WPX. Just click on the link below in the description of all of my YouTube videos. I do not have a series of YouTube videos but there are thousands of YouTube videos on the subject of setting up your first website using WordPress.
This is your starting point then we want to get the email thing hooked on an ActiveCampaign. And now we have a very powerful combination and in your books, you're going to push people to your website and they're going to be able to do this.
Now you can use free hosting on other people's websites but I would not recommend that because you don't own the area. If they choose to ban you for whatever reason or kick you off which happens regularly on many of these platforms like Facebook.
Also depending upon the topics that you're writing your books on. They might find it too controversial or they may just not like you or maybe a bug where they kick you off. You don't own your audience and this is a huge challenge and problem that many authors find.
If you don't know who is buying your books you're going to have a problem. So we want to get them on our list, we want to be able to tell them "look I come up with a new book". And they will be so excited to purchase your latest books and to give you reviews.
But then the second thing does not switch around genres. So that when these people subscribe they're not going to be one day hearing about romance novels. And the next day you're telling me "hey buy my puppy training book on the next dates", "how to sleep better".
This was a mistake that I made in my early days and I'm telling you, do not make that same mistake. You will thank me later. So my question for you is have you started your author website?
If you have, write "yes" below in the comments, and if you haven't, write "no" below in the comments. Check out my other articles and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.