When I coach authors on what their web site needs to look like, I spend a lot of time talking about the words on their web site, i.e. their copywriting. But even more important than the collection of words are a few individual phrases no site can be without.
Sign-up: getting your visitor to sign up for *something* is important. Why? Because studies have shown that surfers don’t often buy the first time they land on your site. Often they want to browse, shop, maybe bookmark you for later. If they bookmark you, you’ve lost a sale. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when someone bookmarks the Author Marketing Experts site but when they do, the likelihood of my being able to sell to them is minimal.
Instead, I get them into the AME funnel by encouraging prospective customers to sign up for something they want, i.e. our Book Marketing Expert Newsletter. And then to encourage them even further, we actually give them something for signing up: our Top 50 Media contact list. So if you’re not asking for a sign-up, you might want to reconsider this. Then, give them an ethical bribe in return: give them something they want. Don’t just throw a...