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If you have an author website or blog this may help your SEO ranking.
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Some useful info, thanks, Tara.I was thinking of establishing an author's site indeed and routing a meager traffic to there instead of Amazon. Things to know in the link
I am going to do likewise. I'm realizing I have a lot to learn about this lol.
This is interesting - thanks Tara. Some of this advice can't be deployed on the platform I use, which is Blogger. (Though it clearly can on Wordpress - I am wondering whether to switch.)
Interesting point about mobile platforms. As of now, only about 14% of my hits over the last three years have been from Android or iPhone, but the percentage is rising. They are also clearly right that as the months go by and there are more and more keywords in your blog posts, the number of hits does rise - that's been my experience.
The whole question of using ads on social media (Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter) is a vexed one - I have had very little success with this but others have, and I wonder if it turns on your genre and how easy it is to target its readers.
MikeInteresting. How did you decide between author website or author blog? I'm not sure I have the stamina to keep up a blog.
I'm not sure you need to make that decision; you could have an author website with a blog attached, and in fact I keep meaning to add some author pages that link to the blog.The blog is in fact quite a lot of work, but you can reuse the material. I used pieces from it in my book The Nine Horizons and will publish a collection of other, partly book-related, essays from it in a projected book called Reading a Century, which will come out in the next six months if I get me act together - something I'm not always good at!
Besides sometimes providing useful material, the blog keeps me writing at times when I feel unable to proceed with a book, because I'm feeling burnt-out or have a problem with its direction. That's happened a lot.
This makes sense. A blog doesn't have to be as structured, idealogically, as a book and can keep yu on your writing toes. What benefits do you get from having an author site and how did you decide which elements to include?
At the moment it's just a blog. When I do get round to a proper author page, there'll be a concise bio and summaries of the books, with links to retailers - including one for direct sales of paperbacks off the site. There are a couple of ways of doing this. In my case, my service provider, Lulu, will act as the "back end" and fulfill the orders, but one could also link to a PayPal account - in that case you would have to dispatch the books yourself.
Thanks Mike, I'll keep this in mind.
@Mr Mike: I started with Blogger (cuz that's what the fiction blog I originally contributed to uses) and switched over to Wordpress less than 2 weeks later.Gotta say you did a nice job with Blogger. Looks clean and professional, imho.
@Miss Tara: I do everything "author-y" from one place. And run an online fiction blog (for other wounded hero writers) in another place. Not sure I could keep track of more than two sites...
*crazy laugh*
EDIT: Oh! I've also sold ebooks direct from my site too!! Using Easy Digital Downloads. Piece of cake!!
Omg, Annie - Easy Digital Downloads sounds like just the thing...I'm going to be creating lots of free content in order to capture email addresses. Thank youuuu! So people can use EDD to pay for and download books? Is it connected to paypal?
Easy Digital Downloads looks extremely interesting - if it does what it says on the tin, worth looking into - thanks Annie
AnnieDdo you find that you have a lot of wounded veterans as fans/readers?
@Miss Tara: Not initially as I started off with a very "exclusive" niche readership (a.k.a. the possums). But since going "public" on Amazon...hmm, I'm not positive...One reader emailed me that her ex was a para. Another that her hubby coaches the Cdn Wheelchair Bball team. The majority say this is the first disabled hero they've read.
I do have wounded vets who've read my stuff, but I knew them before, so not sure that counts?
I'll definitely keep a tally and update you as I go, though ^_~
Hugs,
Ann
EDIT: And you're welcome, Mr Mike!
EDIT 2: Oh, geez! I need to read all the comments before replying hahaha!! Yes, EDD is used to pay for and download books. Yes, it's connected to paypal.
I'll post a link to show ya what it looks like...be right back...
Okay, I whipped up an example for ya:https://www.anniearcane.com/edd-examp...
You can put the shortcode anywhere you want. Hope that helps!!
Hugs,
Ann
Sorry to brain vomit on this thread, guys! I totally just thought of something else hahaha...haha...ha...Blogger is sufficient for blogging (thanks, Captain Obvious!) but if you have your heart set on an author site, I would highly recommend a different option. Blogger only allows you to create a maximum of 20 static pages, which isn't a heck of a lot, imho.
Okay. Bye.
Some really helpful info and sell option. Thanks!
DevorahInteresting. Why did you decide on two sites?
Tara wrote: "DevorahInteresting. Why did you decide on two sites?"
One is hosted, which allows me to have content for which I've been compensated. Which I used to have, but most of my sources have dried up because of changes in Google's algorithms, and I haven't pursued other sources. The other is not hosted and seems to attract visitors that the hosted blog doesn't. So I maintain both.
@Miss Devorah: First of all... *waves* ...hiiii!!May I ask what you did for compensation on your self-hosted blog? I've been told to look into this many-a-time but just haven't, well, looked into it yet haha!
Hugs,
Ann
Annie wrote: "@Miss Devorah: First of all... *waves* ...hiiii!!May I ask what you did for compensation on your self-hosted blog? I've been told to look into this many-a-time but just haven't, well, looked into..."
They were basically sponsored blog posts. Some I had to write and get approved before posting, others were supplied content.
I blog but the site is also my book site alongside awful poetry (Vogon - only worse) also created a fake blog for my sci-fi series
@Miss Devorah: Ah, thank you!!@Mr Philip: Fake blog, eh? Intriguing. Do tell...
I did a website with a blog attached. Without a blog, Google isnt going to rank your site very high. Fresh creative content updated regularly on niche subjects will push a lot of organic traffic. I have a lot of clients that do millions of views every day on the Internet.
I came across this in the article and it makes no sense to me..."Page Titles: Your page titles should contain the target keyword for your page (one word per page) and should be about 55-65 characters in length (spaces included)"
What Page Title are they talking about? A Page title on your website or a page title for a Blog Post? The numbers they use seem off and contradict one another.
http://bookmarketingtools.com/blog/on...