Do you keep your author’s website up-to-date? It’s easy to just let it ride—assume that it is doing its job of showcasing your book, introducing you and your qualifications/attributes, offering ordering options, etc. But wait—is what you posted three years ago or even last year still accurate? Is there anything new there to attract visitors and more search engine activity?
Here are some tips for maintaining a viable author’s website:
• Use dates in your bio instead of years/time spent, etc. Then you won’t have to change the text every year. Say, for example, “I published this book in 2001 in order to…etc.” rather than, “It was 10 years ago when I produced this book…”
• Keep your appearances page up-to-date. Continually add book festivals where you will be exhibiting your books, book signings, conferences and other venues where you’ll be speaking.
• Add to your media page regularly. Include published press releases, announcements and book reviews.
• Post testimonials at your site as they come in—or once a month or so.
• Create and maintain a resources page listing other materials on this topic or in this genre, organizations, news, trends, etc.
• If you don’t have a blog, establish one and post to it often.
• Establish an articles/stories page and add to it every three months or so. Not only are you providing something of value to visitors, you have links where you can send people to view specific articles that might be particularly useful to them.
• Offer something FREE to site visitors—an e-booklet, for example. Ask them to sign up for the free download. This will give you some concrete idea of how many people are visiting and who are interested in your offerings. Change your offering from time to time.
• You might even change your home page message every few years. Or change the design of your website. I just established a second website a year or so ago. My Matilija Press website now is a showcase for my books and my Patricia Fry website focuses on me and my services.
Check my sites out at http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com (Order your copy of 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book here.)
Order your copy of Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author at http://amzn.to/oe56Ia
Or you can order it at http://www.matilijapress.com or http://www.BN.com or http://www.IndieBound.org
Hello,
Thank you for this information. I am in the process of writing my book and developing my website. God Bless You!