Author Website Advice: Do I Need It? How Many? What to Include? How to Grow It?

Yes, if you are an author or plan to be one, the sooner you develop your author website, the better. What to include, how to grow it, how many sites? These questions and more will be answered in this post!

Questions about an author website?

The topic of author websites came up during a recent Get Your Writing Done session:

• Do I really need an author (or writer) website if I don’t have much to put on it?
• What would I put on it?
• Should I have separate websites from my professional job and my writing?
• How do I get visitors?
• How do I grow my community of viewers/readers?
• Do I need a separate author website for my book if I already have another website?

Below are some of my answers, as well as a link to my popular post, which I review and update regularly.

When to Create an Author Website

The sooner you have a site, the more time you have to build authority with search engines like Google and also with AI Chat, which more people are using for their searches (to my chagrin). And even though I am not a fan of chatbots, they seem to like me, and I am hearing from more and more people who are finding me that way – so it is part of our current reality.

In addition, this gives you time to build your audience/community and develop a mailing list of people who will know/like/trust you, and who will read your work, buy your book(s), etc. So, start now!

Tips for Creating an Effective Author Website

Tips for optimizing your site for search engines and user experience:

• Even a very simple website is better than nothing. Just avoid pages that say, “Coming soon.” Instead, publish the ready pages. Here is my post about what to put on an author website, which I update regularly.
• If you do create a site, as mentioned above, do NOT have any pages that say “this page is coming” or “in process,” etc. This will hurt your site’s authority with search engine algorithms. Instead, just create a simple site and work on additional pages without publishing them. Then, only publish once they have content, even if that content is simple or minimal, that’s okay.
• Our discussion included whether to have one website for your writing and another for your profession, or to combine the two. We addressed this question in our discussion in detail, but the short answer is that if your writing relates to your professional field, it’s ideal to have one website because:

1. Everything you write is considered content, and the more relevant the content on a site, the more authority you have with search engines. So one site will boost your authority quicker if the two are related. And that means greater traffic (more visitors).
2. It will be much easier to focus on one site versus two–time saving, focused, etc.
3. If your professional site has been around for a while, it already has some authority and will help get traffic for your writing work if it is on the same site.

Of course, consider relevancy: if your profession is cardiologist and your writing topic is exclusively about dog care, you’d want to have two separate sites. Note: If you are taking visitors from one of your websites to another, make sure you open the new site’s URL in a separate window. Otherwise, you will take visitors off your first site, which means less time on your site, and that’s a negative for search engine algorithms.

Your Lead Magnet(s)

One very important thing for your website is a lead magnet, also called a free gift (a little redundant there), free offer, etc. I highly recommend you have one on offer (or sometimes even more than one, especially if you are writing for multiple audiences). This is how you build your community and email list, and how people opt in to receive your emails.

Your lead magnet can be an ebook, a short email course, or a tip list. You can also create an audio or video lead magnet, but because you are a writer, you want to attract people who want to read. Therefore, I suggest a written lead magnet. Note, however, that publishers do not generally like it when you offer a free chapter as your gift or lead magnet. Why? In general, that does not help with sales, apparently, although there can be exceptions.

If you are a speaker, you may want to use video in your lead magnets. If you are a coach, video can also be an effective way to connect with potential clients.

Your lead magnet, or free offer, needs to be compelling enough to prompt people to give you their email address to receive it. Over time, people have become more reluctant to sign up for email lists, so be sure to make your offer compelling.

Tips for a Compelling Lead Magnet

• Talk to people in your target market about their most pressing challenges, needs and questions.
• Use their language to describe the challenge, the value, and the results of the lead magnet in your copy that describes what they’ll get.
• Offer something people would pay money for if they needed to—it’s that valuable.
• Offer something that solves a simple, particular problem in a short period of time (such as a 5- or 7-day course) or something they can print out and refer to more than once, or even regularly, such as a tip list.
• Offer a process that is unique to you. For example, in my 7-day Inspired Author e-course, I include several unique processes: my signature “Meet Your Muse” guided meditation; a shortened, preliminary version of my process for identifying elements of the book concept; and a template for a vision statement for the book.

  

  Show a picture of your gift. Even if it’s virtual, a designer (or you) can use images to bring it to life, as I do in the image on the left.

• Give them results: help them accomplish something. A lead magnet that engages the reader in an activity that leads to a specific outcome is valuable and will earn trust.
• Don’t overdo it: Some authors try to give the reader too much in their lead magnet. You don’t want to overwhelm your reader, though. And too much free stuff, which they may not take as seriously as what they pay for, can backfire. You want them to use the gift to accomplish something and to prepare them for the next step — purchasing your product or hiring you!
• Let them know the next step: a call to action helps them apply what they learned and move to the next paid step with you.
• Get their permission to continue: include a checkbox to receive your newsletter, or updates and information about your published writing, workshops and/or other offerings. If you’re offering a newsletter, make sure the language makes clear how valuable it will be to them. What’s included? What might they learn, receive, etc.?

Multiple Lead Magnets

I suggest you begin with one lead magnet and see how well it works. You may want to tweak it if you see that many people visit the offer but don’t sign up. Or they open the Day 1 email but never get to Days 2, 3 or 4, for example. Once you get a first lead magnet working well, consider whether it’s worth developing a second lead magnet, perhaps for

Is it a good idea to have multiple lead magnets? Often, the answer is a big YES!

Different types of visitors come to my website. The visitors include people at the start of the journey of writing a book; those who have written a first draft and want an editor; those who have started, gotten stuck, and need a breakthrough; and experts who need help with a book proposal to attract an agent and a publisher. There are also people looking for ghostwriters, and I happen to offer referrals to professionals in specific genres. And then some people just want to explore writing or journaling for now.

Note: I don’t necessarily recommend starting a website with so many different audiences in mind, but this website evolved as my services expanded and I became known for a variety of services. If that happens to you, you may need to expand your free offerings.

My Many Lead Magnets

Here are examples of the different lead magnets I offer:

• On my home page, I offer my Inspired Author e-course for people who want to write a nonfiction book. This guide helps aspiring authors identify key aspects of the book concept and avoid common author mistakes.
• On my “Find an Editor” page, I offer the ebook 7 Questions to Ask an Editor Before You Hire Yours. In it, readers will learn the key questions to ask an editor to find the best fit.
• On a page I used to promote The Joy of Writing Journal, I offered a beautiful and empowering ebook titled 12 Ways Journaling Can Spark Your Creativity, Support Your Writing & Transform Your Life.
• On my How to Write a Book Proposal page, I offer the book 10 Tips to a Book Proposal Publishers Will Love.
• For those people looking to hire a ghostwriter, since I make referrals to ghostwriters, I began with the lead magnet, 20 Questions to Ask a Ghostwriter Before You Hire Yours.

Here are pages on my website with more than one lead magnet, where visitors can choose one or more:

• My Instagram bio links to a page with my latest book, most recent blog post, any upcoming writing retreats or workshops and a host of lead magnets.
• My website also has a link to a page with free writing resources, which include all of the above-mentioned resources and more.

Special Cases – Educating, Empowering and Weeding Out

Sometimes, you don’t just want to help and support potential clients. You also want to educate and empower them—both so they can be successful and so they are easy and fulfilling to work with. So, for ghostwriting referrals, in addition to the questions to ask a ghostwriter — which really help with the hiring decision —I also send a free ebook to potential ghostwriting referral clients that explains how to work optimally with a ghostwriter. This particular book informs them of what it takes — committing to appointments, reviewing the writer’s work in a timely way, and providing specific feedback so they can capture your voice and whatever else is important to you.

You may want to consider additional free offers that may or may not appear on your website, but help potential clients self-select, weeding out those who are not likely to be committed enough or to put in the work for a successful outcome, as well as those with unrealistic expectations.

Do you have any questions about author websites and lead magnets? Ask in the comments, and I will answer!