blogging | The Creative Penn

Freedom And Long Term Business Thinking With Yaro Starak

December 10, 2018 by Joanna Penn 1 Comment

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:17:39 — 63.0MB)

What happens when you reach your goals around making a living with your writing? How do you take the next steps into freedom and long-term business thinking?

In today's show, I interview Yaro Starak, who taught me about blogging, podcasting and internet business nearly 10 years ago. We talk about how his own online business has changed, and how to move into freedom of mindset as well as freedom of time and money.

In the intro, I mention the FutureBook conference [The Bookseller], as well as How to position yourself for success in writing and publishing for 2019, a podcast episode with me and Orna Ross [ALLi podcast], plus the Weird Thriller storybundle which features my supernatural thriller, End of Days.

Today's show is sponsored by my own courses for writers, including How to Write a Novel, How to Write Non-Fiction, Creative Freedom, and Content Marketing for Fiction. Click here to find out more.

Joanna Penn with Yaro Starak, London 2017

Yaro Starak is a blogger, podcaster, entrepreneur, angel investor and digital nomad. His most recent company is Inbox Done, which manages email for busy professionals, which I know everyone will love. His Blog Profits Blueprint and course taught me how to make money online 10 years ago.

You can listen above or on iTunes or your favorite podcast app or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

Show Notes

The advantages of specificity in today’s crowded blog market

The value of a personal brand in a crowded marketplace

When and why simple is better. [If you need a WordPress website, check out my tutorial here.]

The 3 different phases of freedom. [I highly recommend listening to Yaro's freedom podcast episode.]

Making conscious choices about business growth depending on what you want

The importance of scalability and multiple streams of income

Thoughts on how we’ll consume content in the future

You can find Yaro Starak at yaro.blog and at InboxDone.com, and on Twitter @yarostarak

7 Mistakes You’re Making With Your Author Blog And How To Fix Them

January 21, 2016 by Joanna Penn 48 Comments

I've been blogging for seven years now, and this site is the engine behind my six-figure business.

Book sales account for around 50% of my income, but the other 50% comes from the products and services offered on and around TheCreativePenn.com. [Income breakdown here.]

These days, ‘blogging' is just one part of content marketing, which is essentially using free, useful, entertaining or inspirational content to attract people to your site with the intention that they may eventually buy a book or a product.

But many people jump into blogging too fast without learning what’s important and how to do it effectively.

They waste time and energy and end up complaining about lack of traffic, sales or comments. This is particularly pertinent for authors, because we only have time for a certain number of words per day!

Blogging is a completely different skill to writing a book.

It's a form of copywriting, with the intention that the reader will take action rather than be a passive consumer, as they are for a book.

I learned how to blog, podcast and grow an internet business from Yaro Starak, and he has just released the latest edition of his FREE Blog Profits Blueprint. Check it out here. You can also listen to a podcast interview I did with Yaro on successful blogging here.

Here are some of the main things that I see authors getting wrong on their blogs and how to fix them.

(Mistake 1) Using terrible headlines, which means people won't click or open or read any further

I share a lot of articles on Twitter which means that I skim a lot of content every day. Sometimes I find great articles but I have to edit the headline to make it more clickable.

Your headline should not be obscure or overly clever. It should be clear about the benefit to the customer.

Think about what a potential reader of your blog will type into Google or what might catch their eye on social media.

What are some of the words your customer will use? This is exactly the kind of keyword research that you should be doing about your book, so just take it a little further into the realm of a headline.

(Mistake 2) Not using enough images

Think about scrolling through your Facebook feed. What catches your eye?

It's not blocks of text any more, it's more likely to be images.

Made you look! Selfie in the Sedlec Bone Chapel which I shared to my fiction email list and facebook page

Most of the social sharing sites favor eye-catching images and many of the sharing tools like Bufferapp now automatically pick images from a post.

When you scan through a blog post as a reader, you use the images and sub-headings to decide whether to read certain sections.

So, it's important to use images when you blog, and there are lots of sites you can find them on.

For free images, you can search for Creative Commons options e.g. on flickr.com. All my own images on Flickr are Creative Commons. Check the type of CC license on the photo and make sure you attribute the creator in your post.

You can also buy images from royalty-free sites like bigstockphoto.com and sometimes these are easier because it's quicker to find great quality images.

Of course, you can use your own images, and perhaps that is the best option, because they are more personal and always original.

Then, you can use a tool like canva.com to edit the images and add text, as per the example at the top of this post.

If you have a WordPress blog, you can use a plug-in like Social Warfare to make sure images are shared on social media when people click your post. More on this in the interview on social media marketing with Frances Caballo.

We all know the importance of an amazing book cover in attracting a reader, so it's clear that each blog post will need a similar type of attractive image. So, do your blog posts and pages have attractive images on?

Is your website mobile optimized?

(Mistake 3) Not being mobile-friendly

Increasingly, people access the internet on their mobile devices, so your site needs to be optimized for whatever device people are using to find it.

More recent blog themes are responsive, changing size depending on the device used to access them.

But many authors are still running old themes, or even using website design that makes it very hard to upgrade and make the site mobile-friendly.

Pick up your phone (or borrow someone else's) and go to your site right now.

Is it optimized for mobile? Can someone sign up for your free ebook on their device?

If the fear of technology change is stopping you from updating your site, it's time to bite the bullet. Because Google now penalizes websites that are not mobile-optimized so this is increasingly important.

Personally, I use Studiopress for my WordPress design, but there are lots of options out there. Just make sure you choose a responsive theme. [Here's my tutorial on building your own author website.]

(Mistake 4) Not using enough white space

When was the last time you read every single word of a blog post?

In fact, I'm pretty sure that you're skimming this article! Most web browsers do, and that's fine.

We all have limited time …

We all have limited time, and the best way to consume articles like this is to skim over the highlights.

But the reader can only do this if the article is designed properly, with enough white space and segmentation of content.

This is why list posts perform so well. It's clear which aspects to pay attention to.

So make sure you use formatting to split out elements of your article.

This includes subheadings, putting aspects in bold and leaving a lot of white space, as well as using more images throughout the post to catch people's eye as they scroll down.

(Mistake 5) Thinking that it's all about you

One of the biggest issues with author blogs is that they are entirely self focused.

Yes, of course, you have to share personal information in order to connect with readers. That will build your unique voice and a personality that people will remain interested in over time.

But you also have to consider why they are there in the first place.

If you have a blog like this, which drives a non-fiction business, it's better to always focus on what the customer wants and needs.

For example, instead of writing a blog post about “the struggles I have with my latest novel,” I could turn that around and write one on “How to overcome struggles with your latest novel.”

Changing ‘I' to ‘you' shifts the focus onto the reader/customer.

An article like that would include tips for the reader and would be focused on them, even though it would include your own personal insight as well.

Many articles written by authors who haven’t studied blogging are rambling and overly personal without actionable advice or information for the reader.

It's not surprising when they don't get much traffic or traction.

(Mistake 6) Creating only ephemeral content

When I first started blogging, I was under-confident about what to share. After all, who was I to talk about publishing and writing?

So I used to do link roundups of things I found useful. Here's one example from Dec 2008. This is the type of post I still see people sharing, but there are some huge problems with this type of post.

It's obsolete really fast – so unless you are a news focused site posting new stuff several times a day e.g. The Passive Voice or InkBitsPixels, it's not a good use for your blog
It takes people away from your site because once they click, they're over at someone else's place and may never return
It doesn't represent your own opinions or ‘voice' on the topic. There is nothing memorable about you when you share links without some kind of analysis
Pretty soon, many of those will be ‘bad links' as so many sites disappear over time.

I still share what I find useful every day, but I do it on Twitter and Facebook, not on my blog.

Your blog should be full of your content, original pieces in your voice.

It should ideally be content that will last.

This can be described as ‘pillar content,' which is covered in Yaro Starak's Blog Profits Blueprint. A good example of pillar content for this site would be a post about essential grammar (these are always popular!) or how to write a non-fiction book. This type of article doesn't age.

Posts about publishing and book marketing, as I know myself, need updating over time because things change.

(7) Not deciding on WHY you are blogging

Are you writing articles and guest posts because someone said that was the thing you had to do?

What are you actually achieving with your actions?

As authors we have a certain number of words per day and we all have a limited amount of time. We have to choose very carefully how to use those words. Would they be better used to write a book?

Of course, I love blogging and I've written over 1500 articles over the last seven years, most of those on this site, but many across the blogosphere.

But I have a reason for it all.

I have a business based on my writing and I make a full-time living this way. That was always my intention and everything I write drives towards that goal.

With each piece of content you create, consider why you are doing it and how it helps you to reach your goal.

Will this article attract people to your email newsletter? Will it send people directly to your books? Will it build your authority in your niche?

Of course, writing for the sake of writing is brilliant and I'm certainly a fan of blogging for helping others, connection and self-expression. I attribute blogging with helping me relax my writing enough to write fiction after years in a corporate job.

But if your definition of success relates to income and book sales, then you have to consider how blogging (and everything else) fits into that plan.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas about what you can improve with your author blog.

And if you want to learn how to blog in order to build a business online, then check out Yaro Starak's Blog Profits Blueprint. I learned from Yaro and his influence is all over this site – from the podcast and my pillar content, to the idea behind my Author 2.0 Blueprint – so I can personally recommend him. He has updated everything for the latest tools, even though the underlying principles remain the same. Click here to check out the free Blog Profits Blueprint.

If you have any questions or lessons learned from your author blogging experience, please do leave a comment below and join the conversation.

Successful Blogging Tips, Authenticity And Longevity With Yaro Starak

November 30, 2015 by Joanna Penn 19 Comments

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:10:03 — 56.1MB)

Almost 7 years ago, in Dec 2008, I started this site with the aim of helping authors like me who were self-publishing.

But I discovered that you can put your words into the world and no one will notice unless you learn some marketing (sound familiar?!).

So I started learning about how to make my site stand out, how to blog successfully and how to podcast. I learned all that from Yaro Starak and today I'm thrilled to be interviewing him.

In the intro, I talk about Risen Gods and Co-Writing a Book, both out now, and give an update on my own writing. In publishing news, KU payout dipped again this month.

This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors.

Yaro Starak is a blogger, podcaster, speaker and entrepreneur at Entrepreneurs-Journey.com. I took Yaro’s Blog Mastermind course back in 2008 and it changed my life. You can get Yaro's Blog Profits Blueprint here.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher, watch the video here or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

Yaro's start in the blogging world and the changes his site has gone through.

On whether content blogging and writing online are still viable.

How long it takes to make money blogging, and why it's important to celebrate all our little wins, figure out what keeps you motivated and keep moving forward.

Setting goals and changing them as they are reached.

Authenticity and its effect on an audience.

Video and its advantages for those who are not writers.

Why practice with new mediums and technology and not judging ourselves matters.

On bloggers branching out into book publishing, including fiction.

On the global and local communities in blogging and internet marketing.

Yaro's tips for maintaining a long entrepreneurial career.

You can get Yaro's Blog Profits Blueprint here and find him on twitter @yarostarak

From Newbie Blogger To A Six Figure Business Built On A Blog

September 25, 2015 by Joanna Penn 9 Comments

This is a very exciting day for me! My blogging journey feels like it has come full circle, so I hope this story will encourage you whatever stage you're at.

Here's my interview on Entrepreneur's Journey with Yaro Starak. You can listen to the story and my tips for blogging and writing on YouTube here, or below. I've also summarized under the video why this is so important to me.

Me with my first book in 2008, still in the pin-stripes! It's since been rewritten as Career Change

Way back in 2007/2008, I wrote and self-published my first non-fiction book, How to Enjoy Your Job Or Find A New One (rewritten and republished in 2012 as Career Change).

This was before the Kindle and before print-on-demand was available to authors, so I printed a load of copies (big mistake, don't do that!)

Me with my print books in 2008, knowing nothing about marketing!

But people were not flocking to my door to buy the books!

I learned the hard way that authors also need to learn how to sell and market their work.

So I started learning about marketing – the old school way.

I learned about press releases and finally made it onto national TV and national radio as well as into a number of newspapers. I thought the books would fly off the shelves …

But I only sold about 100 copies – massive disappointment ensued as you can imagine! –and the rest of the books went in the landfill because in 2008/2009, the international Kindle emerged and I discovered digital publishing and print-on-demand.

I also decided that online marketing was the only option, since the traditional channels just didn't work for self-published authors.

At the time, I was living in Australia, a country of 20 million people, and I wanted to target the US market, which was about 10x the size and more mature in terms of online sales.

So I researched and discovered blogging … podcasting … and Twitter. The three pillars of my online marketing strategy. I started reading loads of books and articles and listened to everything I could find in order to master online marketing and internet business.

Then I discovered Yaro Starak at Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

I downloaded Yaro's Blog Profits Blueprint and joined his Blog Mastermind Course and used that to accelerate my learning.

I listened to all his audio interviews and I saw him speak at the first Problogger Live event in Melbourne. (I was starstruck and managed to squeak hello at him in a hallway!)

But I did exactly what he recommended in his course and I modeled my own site on his:

The Author 2.0 Blueprint is built on his Blog Profits Blueprint template – although clearly different niches and different info – and this is still my email list signup offer, although I have rewritten it 10 times in the last 6 years!

I wrote ‘pillar content' articles, evergreen content that would stand the test of time and stopped doing link and news posts which would lose value quickly. Google organic search is one of my highest traffic sources because of this long term approach

I started a podcast, modelling Yaro's interview technique as I discovered the power of audio for building a brand

I also learned how being authentic and generous and promoting others was so important. Plus I saw how an introvert who wasn't overtly salesy could still have a very good business online. Sounds familiar, right!

Modelling is one of the most important things to do when learning something new.

It's not copying.

It's not plagiarism.

It's following in the slipstream of someone who has gone before you and those of us who share online WANT you to do this. Why else would we share everything 🙂

So, pick someone who is making a living in the way that you want to and find out how they do it. Pay for their courses, which is basically paying for access to their brain.

Yaro has his Blog Profits Mastermind.

I have the Creative Freedom Course.

And you can find many other examples of people teaching about how they run their businesses online.

Find someone you resonate with and model their success.

But back to the story!

Fast forward to 2011 and I was able to quit my consulting job and become a full-time author entrepreneur because of the income I was making based on this site – most of which was directly attributable to what I learned from Yaro.

Then in 2010/2011 I started writing fiction and started to diverge from blogging as a primary mode of income. I started to define myself more as an author than a blogger.

But TheCreativePenn.com is still a business built on a blog and still accounts for 50% of my six-figure income and is a very important part of my business.

I still blog, I still podcast and I credit blogging with freeing my voice enough to even write fiction. It taught me to relax and trust that people out there were just like me. I didn't need to pretend anymore.

I also LOVE you guys and the community we have here on the site and also on the podcast.

I recently talked about the metaphor of Plato's Chariot and needing both this site and my fiction to feel like a ‘whole' person. So I'm not going anywhere!

Dec 2015 marks my 7th year of this site, so being able to appear on Yaro's show as a success story means so much. It's a validation of the journey and the hours put in over the years. It feels like it marks the beginning of a new phase.

So if you're just starting out, if you're writing your first book, or starting your first blog, and you don't know what you're doing … don't worry!

We all start that way, and we all progress over time. I hope my own journey so far encourages you!

Once again, you can watch or listen to the interview here on Entrepreneurs-Journey.com and a big Thank You to Yaro for being my mentor.

If you have any questions or comments, please do leave them below and join the conversation!

Does Your Author Website Have The Essentials To Attract Readers And Sell Your Books?

April 16, 2015 by Joanna Penn 20 Comments

Your author website is important, wherever you are on the author journey.

Your site portrays your author brand and gives a sense of your personality as well as your professionalism. It's how people judge you online.

It's the first place a journalist, publisher or agent will look if they are interested in you. They will click away if it's not what they're looking for.

You can attract your target audience with content that inspires, entertains or educates, and hopefully they will go on to purchase and join your email list.

It's your home on the internet. You can list all your books, products and services and have buy links and information in one place.

Your website can be the engine of your business online. Yes, it can actually make you a living!

Of course, everyone has different aims for their websites and your needs will also change over time.

If you have just one book, you might only need basic information about the book, author and buy links. If you are an established author, you will need at least a page per book as well as more detailed information about you as the author. If you want to run a business from your site, you'll need appropriate content to drive traffic to your site.

In this article, I go through the most important things that you need on your website, as well as what is negotiable, plus some technical setup that will help you optimize your author site online, wherever you're at in the journey.

(1) Book covers and description

Yes, readers do judge a book by its cover!

You're an author and primarily, you are selling books. So your book covers should be prominent on your website as an eye-catching way to entice readers into your work.

Of course, these should be professionally designed covers that resonate with your genre and target market.

You also need a sales description to go along with your book. Try starting with a tagline or a headline that entices the reader.

For fiction, open a hook that makes the reader want to answer the question. For non-fiction, you can include more details from your table of contents so the reader understands the benefits of purchasing. More on creating a book sales description here.

(2) About the Author

Your About page is one of the most viewed on any website. People click on it because they want to know more about you personally. They are actively interested in learning more about you. They also want to know whether this is the right place for them. Do they resonate with you as a person?

So are you giving them what they are looking for?

People connect with people so your face is one of the most important things to use on your About page, in my opinion. Of course, it should relate to your brand, so I use happy smiley on non-fiction and brooding thriller author for my fiction.

If you are using a pseudonym or protecting your identity, then you could use a cartoon avatar or a picture of something that still has meaning e.g. your cat 🙂 Anything to make a personal connection with the reader who has arrived on your site.

If you're worried about how you look, get some professional photography done. It's an investment you will need as an author as your picture will go on the back of books, on marketing material, interviews and much more.

Be personal and interesting and include things about yourself and your life as well as about your writing. Of course, you can still draw that line to protect your privacy as well as that of your family, but sharing personal anecdotes and pictures will help people connect even more.

(3) Buy links to all the places your book is sold

It should be easy to buy your book with one click if the customer is interested.

Use the icons per store so the customer recognizes where they can get your book in the easiest way for them.

Many authors complain about not making more sales at stores other than Amazon, but often, they are only putting the Amazon button on their site. Make sure you're not one of them!

(4) A way to sign up for your email list

We all need to build our own email list of readers for the long term so that we can always tell buyers when our book is available.

This enables us to function independently of the big stores and social networks if (or when!) the rules change.

Giving something of value away for free is one of the keys to building up an email list. I use the free Author 2.0 Blueprint for non-fiction and a free novella, Day of the Vikings, for my fiction list.

You also can't just email people from your own account, especially as the list grows into the thousands. You need to use a mail service that complies with anti-spam laws like Aweber or Mailchimp.

For more in depth help on growing an email list, I recommend Nick Stephenson's How to find your first 10,000 readers free video course here.

(5) Contact information

Your website might lead journalists to contact you, or agents, foreign publishers or people who want to pay for you to speak at a festival or event.

So make sure it's easy for them to contact you and have a Contact link in an obvious place on your website.

If you don't want to directly state your email address, then you can use a plugin like Gravity Forms as a way to collect the inquiry.

(6) Testimonials / Review quotes

There's a reason that Amazon uses reviews so prominently on their product pages.

Reviews are social proof, and they are critical to a reader making a decision about whether to try a book.

On your own website, you can also use reviews or testimonials to build trust. You can also use pictures and URLs so people know they can trust the reviews.

One little tip: Don't ask authors in other genres to review a book that isn't suitable for their niche. Only ask authors whose own work resonates with your own.

(7) Ways to share

Ideally, you want to harness word of mouth using social media so your book spreads.

There are some 1-click sharing tools and plugins that you can use on your website. For example, Sociable plugin will give you social sharing buttons on the bottom or side of posts and pages.

Make sure you always list your own social media accounts somewhere obvious. I will often find posts that I am happy to share on Twitter, but I won't do it unless I can attribute it to the person who wrote it. If your twitter handle isn't prominent, I will click away and share someone else's article instead.

(8) Portray your author brand

As soon as people arrive on your site, they will make a very quick judgement of whether it is the right place for them. Some people will decide it is not for them and will click away.

No worries at all.

Our aim is not to be right for everyone. Our aim is to be right for our target market.

Some people will stay and have a look at your books, hopefully sign up to your email list and maybe click through your pictures or your blog. We want to make sure the right people stick around.

The colors, words and images that you use will make a big difference to that immediate impression.

For example, my JFPenn.com site uses dark colors, a black and white, brooding photo that match my darker books. A romance reader will know that it is not for them within a millisecond. My Creative Penn site is more smiley and welcoming, with red as a dominant color. Each will attract a different type of audience.

Your site also gives an indication of professionalism.

If you are using a free Blogger site, it is assumed you are a hobbyist and not taking your author life that seriously. If you're using a free WordPress site with a standard theme that doesn't set you apart, then you are probably not taking a long term view of your author career.

Both of those options are perfectly fine, but if you want to have a long term career as an author, you need to invest in your website as the hub of your online presence.

Of course, you will change the design over time. We all do. But if you are committed to being an author for the long-term, then make sure your site portrays this impression. Yes, there is a learning curve, as with anything, but it's worth it for the long-term.

(9) Optimize for mobile and tablet browsing

I checked my website stats recently and found that 43% of my fiction audience view my site through mobile or tablets, and 30% for TheCreativePenn.com.

That's a lot higher than I expected, to be honest.

Google has also announced that from 21 April, 2015, they will include mobile friendliness as a criteria for ranking. So your site needs to be mobile friendly in order to be found in the search engines.

Mobile and tablet adoption are only going to continue growing over time as more people access the internet that way, rather than through desktops/laptops.

To cater for these browsers, your website needs responsive design.

This means the site adjusts size and design per browser, so that people can read it whatever device they are using.

There are a number of options for this, and we'll get more into the technical side later.

(10) To blog or not to blog …

Whether you blog or not will depend on what you want to achieve with your website, with this particular book and your future books as well as with your time.

If you have a business that is more around speaking, back-end products and services that result in a higher income, then blogging, podcasting and other content marketing are brilliant ways to get traffic to your site.

This site, The Creative Penn, brings me income from professional speaking, from affiliate sales and also from sponsorship and advertising. I have a business model around the blog itself, so it is definitely worth doing financially these days.

Of course, when I started the blog in Dec 2008, I had no clue it would turn into the site it is now! I started blogging and podcasting because I wanted to share what I was learning on the journey – and I still do. So I would still blog even if it made me no money at all, because I love to share lessons learned and I love the community. I am an addicted blogger, and there are certainly other rewards for blogging other than financial.

You can develop your voice as a writer, grow a community around your site, as well as attract opportunity.

My blog has brought me international speaking events, new friendships and opportunities for promotional campaigns like the one that led to the NY Times and USA Today list.

So certainly for non-fiction, it can be gold.

For fiction, I do blog occasionally, but it is more around the research for my books, or interviews with other authors in my niche.

If you have to ask what to blog about, then probably don't bother. It's only worth doing if you just can't help but share what you're passionate about.

If you want more, here's an article on 7 mistakes you're making on your author blog and how to fix them.

The Successful Author Mindset trailer. Click to go to YouTube

(11) Multimedia – video and podcasting

People connect with people, and humans have been communicating with body language, voice and facial expression for millennia. So if people can see your face or hear your voice or watch you on video, they will be able to connect with you much faster than through your written words.

Of course, if you want to do videos or podcasting, you do have a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard. And I have personally found that my podcast is one of the most brilliant things I could have done to build my own network, grow my audience and provide valuable information for people.

I have over 250 podcast episodes now, so many of the listeners have spent a lot of time with me over the years! I also get comments from podcast listeners who feel like they ‘know' me, and in many ways, they do, as I share a lot in the introduction to my interviews every couple of weeks.

I also have a YouTube channel and I find that the audience for video differs to the blog audience and differs again to the audio podcast audience. You don't have to try to reach everyone, but have a think about the people you are targeting and consider what might be most effective. Click here to check out the book trailer for The Successful Author Mindset, another option for video.

What are your options for your author website?

Of course, there are so many options for building your home on the internet and I am not going through them all. You can evaluate your own setup against the above criteria.

For now, I will give you a couple of options based on my own experience of running an online business as an author entrepreneur for 6 years.

(A) Just getting started? Try free sites

If you're just getting started, then you can, of course, use free sites – but I would still advise that you use a professional looking option that is also optimized for mobile and tablet browsing and that enables you to use all the main functionality listed above.

If you want to blog or use content marketing like podcasting or video, then you can use WordPress.com with a great looking responsive theme. If you get more serious with your journey later on, you can export the content and import into a site you own yourself, so it is an easy transition.

But if you just want a book page to send people to without the hassle of a full-blown site, you could try BookLaunch pages.

It's free to set up for as many books as you like.

You just drag and drop the elements to the screen and you'll have a professional looking, responsive book page in a few minutes. I am super excited about this tool, because it offers what authors need without too much effort and it's free for the basic setup.

(B) Taking your writing seriously?

If you are taking your writing seriously and wanting to build for the long term, then check out this tutorial on how to build your own author website in 30 minutes.

Click to go to the tutorial

So wherever you are on your author journey, consider how your author website helps people find you and your books.

And remember, we are all works in progress, so don't worry if you work on your site over time. I am still making changes after 8 years online, and I expect to continue changing into the future!

Please do let me know any questions or comments below.

Save

Blogging is a completely different skill to writing a book.

(Mistake 1) Using terrible headlines, which means people won't click or open or read any further

(Mistake 2) Not using enough images

(Mistake 3) Not being mobile-friendly

(Mistake 4) Not using enough white space

(Mistake 5) Thinking that it's all about you

Changing ‘I' to ‘you' shifts the focus onto the reader/customer.

(Mistake 6) Creating only ephemeral content

(7) Not deciding on WHY you are blogging

With each piece of content you create, consider why you are doing it and how it helps you to reach your goal.

But if your definition of success relates to income and book sales, then you have to consider how blogging (and everything else) fits into that plan.

I also decided that online marketing was the only option, since the traditional channels just didn't work for self-published authors.

Modelling is one of the most important things to do when learning something new.

Find someone you resonate with and model their success.

Your author website is important, wherever you are on the author journey.

Of course, everyone has different aims for their websites and your needs will also change over time.

(1) Book covers and description

(2) About the Author

(3) Buy links to all the places your book is sold

(4) A way to sign up for your email list

(5) Contact information

(6) Testimonials / Review quotes

(7) Ways to share

(8) Portray your author brand

The colors, words and images that you use will make a big difference to that immediate impression.

Your site also gives an indication of professionalism.

(9) Optimize for mobile and tablet browsing

(10) To blog or not to blog …

You can develop your voice as a writer, grow a community around your site, as well as attract opportunity.

(11) Multimedia – video and podcasting

What are your options for your author website?

(A) Just getting started? Try free sites

(B) Taking your writing seriously?

So wherever you are on your author journey, consider how your author website helps people find you and your books.

Connect with me on social media

Looking for something? Search this site with Google below

Inspiration and Information every Monday in The Creative Penn podcast

Thanks for visiting The Creative Penn