Authors are hammered with, "You must have a website to succeed! Not having a website equals instant failure!" Yet, they offer no advice on how to make the website successful. Well, I'm not sure I can tell people how to propel themselves to stardom with a website either, but I can tell you three major reasons they fail:
No Useful Information
If you don’t know what to say on your website, pay for guest posts, don’t say what everyone else is saying. Statistically, what frustrates consumers most is finding the same information in a dozen different articles. Virtually every author at one point or another has googled “how can I get my book to rank on Amazon?”
Image by Steven Buissinne
But if you read twelve articles–or 112–I guarantee you, you will find the same tips and strategies in each one. Maybe you’re writing about book sales strategy in general. Not a bad topic, but if all you’re going to write about is establishing a presence on social media, doing a Goodreads giveaway, and making sure your metadata on Amazon is optimized, you’d be better off not posting at all. Unless, of course, your goal is merely to have a high bounce rate.
I’m not saying those tips and strategies are invalid because some of them are good. However, once authors have discovered them and/or implemented them, they’re looking for something new. Bottom line: make sure you have something to bring to the table. You’d be better off to do a post about some unusual thing that you tried and actually got some results from than to just repeat what everyone else has already said. Come up with something truly helpful or different, or have a guest write a post.
Depending on Freebies
Whatever you do, don’t create a pseudo-world where it looks like you’re accomplishing something but you’re actually spinning your wheels. In my humble opinion, the whole freebie thing has gotten completely out of control in today’s modern age. Yes, it’s a time tested method to attract customers, starting from when the Fuller Brush man would hand out a free table crumber to get in the door and sell you something more expensive. However, he still had to go on to make the sale. If all he did was walk from door to door all day long handing out freebies, he wouldn’t have been able to pay the rent.
That’s what a lot of authors do these days. They spend so much time on giveaways, and making sure people know how to get their books for free, that they forget it’s a business. Giving your books away all the time devalues them and does not lead to extra reviews or more sales. But I will devote an entire post to that in the future. Let’s stick to websites.
Free Ice Cream to the First Ten Customers!
Getting an email address by giving something away for free is a sound strategy, but it can also work against you. If you’re so focused on “come to my site for freebies,” and you don’t have anything to hold the person on the site and make them interested in you as an author, they’re going to do just that: show up, get the freebie, and never return. Use that as a tool, don’t make it the main focus of your site. Make the focus information they can’t get on 400 other sites, even if you have to do a lot of research to come up with something.
Listing Fake Accolades
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, people who do a lot of puffing definitely shoot themselves in the foot with regard to getting followers for websites. Unfortunately, many people in the world have inordinately high opinions of themselves, and like nothing more than to hear the sound of their own voices, speaking about (drumroll) themselves. It’s amazing how a massive ego obscures, to the owner of that ego, how ridiculous he or she really sounds.
No one wants to go to a website to read paragraph after paragraph about someone’s accomplishments, awards, degrees, or achievements. Let’s face it, people don’t even like Christmas cards that sound like A-year-in-bragging-by-the-Johnsons.
The fastest way to get people to bounce off your website and not come back is to talk about how wonderful you are.
Because they don’t care.
It may also make some people suspicious. If you’re so fabulous, why don’t you simply let it show, rather than running around telling everyone all the time? I’ve found, sometimes to my own detriment, that the people who shout the loudest about their greatness, are often the most dishonest people out there. Additionally, many consumers are very leery when all they can find online about you are statements you make about yourself, rather than info that can be verified, so keep that in mind as well.
That leads me to my next point. Under no circumstances be tempted to tout paid-for praise. In other words, if you bought a great review or an “award,” don’t list it on your website and talk about how surprised you were to "discover" that you were given that particular accolade. Don’t bring up that you were voted number one by the “Independent Fill In The Blank organization” if it was a contrived move. Almost all authors, and most savvy readers, know that very often, “independent,” is a synonym for MyCousinsOrganization and means nothing as far as a true award.
If you have to do a little bragging, show a legitimate review you received from a stranger or a well-known author, or a bonafide award that you actually got from someone other than your mother. Otherwise you’re just making yourself look bad.
I don’t do a lot of puffing about how fantastic I am, or continuously speak of my integrity, or tell everyone what a terrific Christian I am, etc. etc., because anyone can see who I am by how I live my life, the way I treat others, my work ethic, and the beat goes on...
But, ultimately, whether consciously or subconsciously, most people have an aversion to a lot of puffing, so if you’re tempted to brag, have someone else brag for you. Never do it yourself. People know it’s not an unbiased opinion.
In a nutshell: post useful info, limit the freebie frenzy, and don't make decisions with your ego!
Hope these tips help!
Write on!