In my last blog post, we looked at whether to have your own author website and what the benefits of this are. This time, we will be considering how to use your website to the best effect to build your fanbase and increase sales. You can sell your books directly on your website or link to a number of other sellers, but either way, you should be making it easier for people to buy them.
We will start by reminding ourselves of some of the many advantages of having your own website, then move on to look at some of the ways you can capitalise on this. As before, remember that having a Facebook page or similar is no substitute for having your own website, which allows you complete control over the design and features. There is also the risk that you will lose your readership if people move away from Facebook to another site.
What are the Benefits of Having Your Own Website?
For a more in-depth look at this, you can read my last blog post here; however, this will sum up some of the main points. Firstly, you can establish and build your own author brand, rather than relying on an author page on Amazon and other sellers. You can sell your books directly or keep all the links together so that your readers can easily find and buy all your books from the same place.
Your website will also help you to engage with your audience. You can provide links to your social media and run promotions. You may also decide to have a blog if this goes well with your intended audience. We will now look at how to effectively use all of these benefits to make your books a success.
Creative Control
One of the biggest advantages of having your own website is that you retain complete creative control over it. So, how can you use this to boost sales and gain readers? Start by doing some research. What sort of website features would you typically expect to see from an author in your genre? At the very least, you would expect to have an about or author bio page and a list of all your books, including the option to buy them directly from you or links to a number of other retailers.
Layout
In addition, you can choose what layout you will have. Take a look at other author websites. What works well for them? If you only have a few books published, you may decide to list each of these individually in the main menu. However, once you have a few more to your name, it is probably better to have one page that lists all of your books. You can then have individual pages for each book as a subcategory from this if you wish.
Essentially, your website needs to be easy to navigate. Readers coming to your website will be much more likely to stay on your website if they can find what they are looking for without having to spend ages hunting through menus. They will also be more likely to buy your books if you have made them easy to find. Make sure you include links to buy or pre-order your book from multiple sites, if possible, so that readers can choose the most convenient option for them.
User Interface
Closely related to this is the need for a simple user interface. Again, make sure that everything is easy to find and use. In addition, if you have a comment section or buttons to like your content, these should be clear and simple to use. Do your readers need to make an account to comment? Can they do this using their social media accounts?
Also, check that you do not have broken links, as these often make visitors leave the site if they can’t find the content they want. If you think that there is a possibility you have broken links, leave a way to report this to you if a visitor discovers one as well as a search bar so that they can try to find the content they were looking for. Finally, if you have links on your webpages, consider whether they should open in a new tab. For example, you might want to do this if the links are to a different site. This way, your readers can still come back to your website after visiting the other one.
Adverts
Another advantage that you have if you are on the right plan with your website host is the ability to remove adverts. Whether you want to do this is up to you, but you might want to at least restrict the type of adverts your readers will be seeing.
Blog
Finally, you can create your own blog on your website. This gives you loads of new opportunities – you can use it to tease upcoming books, or world-build, giving insights into your book’s universe. Alternatively, you might use it to collaborate with other authors and bloggers, having guest posts and writing your own for other blogs.
Wrapping Up
I hope that this helps you decide to build your own website. It can seem like an overwhelming task, but it’s quite straightforward once you get into it. There are also plenty of places you can go to for help if you want it. Next time, we will be considering author objectives, so come back in two weeks for that!
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