Consistently provide updated content; tell your viewers what it is. Even television networks provide "coming attractions" - you can do the same thing, with blurbs, a "news" page, or a letter to readers on your home page.
Make it a resource for more than your book. Some of my favorite author websites are bookmarked because they provide information related to their books. Got a heroine who loves to cook baguettes? How about linking to a site where they teach you how to cook them?
Make sure your links haven't gone on to greener pastures. There is nothing more annoying than finding a great site that has nothing but dead links. Usually after the first few dead links the viewer will give up.
If you scratch my website, I'll scratch yours. Exchange links to your website with other authors! For the price of one hyperlink, you'll be able to share traffic with another author - promoting both your books and hers. Good Book Karma!
If you're going to show pictures of your cat, please don't put it on your home page. First, we want to know about your books...your cat is a little lower on the totem pole. Not that she isn't lovely - because she is!
Beauty is only screen deep. Your website is a sales tool and it needs to fulfill a certain job description. Requirements? Easy to read, easy to navigate, looks great on multiple browsers, has all the pertinent information, and a way to contact the webmaster and the author. As we cannot be all things to all people, sometimes even us perfect people need to ask for help (a professional webmaster, and not Aunt Martha's kid Joey).
Does it eat lettuce? Hop Around? Have a fuzzy tail? It's a bunny! Most people make snap judgments - although we like to consider them "formulating a conclusion based on context clues," which is why publishers spend so much time and money on book covers - People should be able to tell by the 'context clues' exactly what type of book you write. Write psycho-thrillers? The pink, fuzzy website (full with picture of the cat) has gotta go! No offense, again, cat.
- Marco? Polo! Make your site easy to find. By multiple domains: your last name, your full name, the title of your first book (or your most popular), and have them all direct to your one website. Plus, your full name with .net, .org, etc - because if (Gah! I mean When!!!) you become really famous - there will be people out there happy to redirect traffic to less savory sites using your name.
- Bribe me. I like prizes as much as the next girl - who doesn't like winning something? Pick your winner out of the people who are signed up for your newsletter (and then announce your winner in another newsletter). Announce your contest on different sites!
Blog off... Write about your obnoxious room mate. Write down all the horrible, nasty, inconsiderate things your husband did today when he should have been thanking god that he ever won you to begin with... and if only you knew then what you knew now, you would've married Thomas Martin instead, and he ended up becoming a corporate lawyer!!!... oh, erm... Yes. Blogs. Well, the short and long of it is - people like the idea of sneaking a peak at other people's diaries. Don't feel comfortable writing about yourself (or Thomas Martin)? Try keeping a blog in the voice of your characters - this works especially well if you are writing a series. But pick your character really well - it doesn't have to be a main protag - try the villain. Try a secondary character who just happens to show up all the time (and will probably make an appearance as a main character of his/her own book at a later date). Write historicals? Have it be the butler's log - where he can note all the odd goings on that have been happening lately...
Top 10 Ways to Draw Readers to Your Site (again and again)
By Nadia Cornier
Copyright © Nadia Cornier 2005.
Nadia Cornier is the president of Cornier & Associates, Public Relations - she also acquires on behalf of the Creative Media Agency, where she is always happy to speak with clients about their publicity (and their cats).
