Article: Salvage a Static Website

How to Salvage a Discouraging Author Website

by Lars Clausen

  • “My webmaster posted my book signing after the event was over.”

  • “I paid two-thousand dollars for my website. I love the look, but I can’t do a thing with it.”

  • “I only have three pages on my website. No one visits a second time.”

What are your options when you’re stuck with a website that cost’s too much to fix or a webmaster who works too slowly to keep up with the life of your book?

First, if you don’t yet have this problem, avoid it entirely. Start with a website that offers you unlimited pages and full content control.  Commonly known as templated websites, WYSIWYG editors, or content management websites, these sites offer authors the ability to edit their website and create new content to stay current with every career move. Wwhether it’s publication, reviews, book tours, or compiling expert information, authors control their content.  Find a company that offers custom design with their content management sites, and you’ll have the best of all worlds for marketing your book.

If you’re one of the many who suffer from high costs and low service, here are three steps to get the most out of a truculent website.

  1. Prioritize Your Needs
  2. Bundle Your Requests
  3. Build Around the Limitations.

Prioritize Your Needs.  Did you achieve your goals when your site was built; establishing credibility as a professional speaker, building a platform to sell products, or selling the books you’ve printed?  Are your goals still the same?  Are you getting the traffic you expected? Get crystal clear about your goals before you make any changes to your website. With a static website, you’ll be paying for every change.

Bundle Your Requests.  Once you know your goals, discover what online services, tools, and procedures will serve your needs. Getting the changes made all at once will save you time and money.

  1. Is the press important? If so, you need a list of press releases and one to four downloadable high-resolution photos on your website so print media can have 24-7 access to article information. 
  2. Is search engine ranking important? If so, rake through the content on your website as carefully as you write text for your book.  Use your keywords often, and write about the concepts surrounding these keywords.  Write quality content so that site visitors receive what they need.  Give other webmasters a compelling reason to link to you.  Search engines rank your site mainly by these two factors: content and the number of links pointing to your website.  Webmasters will only link to you if there’s a benefit for them.
  3. Are sales important?  If so, word your website to compel readers to purchase your books.  Research your sales options, including setup costs and profit expectations.  Will you direct traffic to your publisher, to Amazon or B&N or Independent Booksellers?  Or will you set up an online store?  How will you handle fulfillment and distribution?
  4. Have your testimonials and reviews changed since you set up your site?  If so, carefully assess which ones will best convince your readers.

Build Around Your Limitations.  Authors who pay for every change on their websites often tire of the cost and frustration of updating their websites.  These authors end up with passive sites that receive little attention, a tragedy because fresh content is such a major part of bringing traffic to your site.  By building around your website, authors can add fresh content without depending on their webmaster.  Once you’ve prioritized your needs and bundled your requests together for a website makeover, then consider what elements you can add from outside of your website. 

  1. Newsletter services can be obtained for free or a monthly charge.  Link from your site to your newsletter service. 
  2. Same with blogs.  You can create a link from your site to your blog, and suddenly all your current information can be clicked to directly from your website. 
  3. Want a store on your site?  Alternative to creating an expensive store on your site, research places you can sell books and link to these places; Independent Booksellers Association, online bookstores, or distribution and fulfillment services.  Many of these have affiliate programs to increase your profit.
  4. Event Calendars can be added to your site for free or for a monthly charge.  This allows visitors to know your tour schedule and speaking calendar.
  5. Web Site Statistics can also be added for free or for a monthly charge.  A good statistics program will tell you what kinds of visitors are finding your site, how they searched to find you, and what other websites are linking to your site.

By far the best solution is to start out with a website that you can use freely and innovate with creatively.  Books become static as soon as they’re printed, but there’s no reason for a website to suffer the same fate. 

More and more authors are realizing the value of content control and changing from multi-thousand dollar websites to cheaper but more useful website systems.  The switch can be surprisingly affordable. Still, if you’re not ready to give up your old site, following these three steps can help you get the most mileage out of your existing website.

 

About the Author: Lars Clausen creates affordable content control websites specifically for authors. (www.AmericanAuthor.com)   He received a 2005 Benjamin Franklin finalist award for Best New Voice in Non-Fiction, authoring One Wheel – Many Spokes: USA by Unicycle. (www.onewheel.org).

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