AMAZING AUTHOR WEBSITES – $999
Author websites designed to grow your platform and sell more books.
Our WordPress themes are fast, clean and optimized to keep Google happy, so readers can actually find your website. We use pretty, minimalist WordPress themes that don’t distract or confuse readers, so that your writing can attract and convert.
What we will and won’t do for you
The main reason author websites are so awful to look at, so confusing and jumbled, unfinished, disorienting, and basically useless, is that the authors take control of the process. Authors often admit to not being very visually-oriented. They are “idea” based (not a stereotype I support, but something many authors believe about themselves). They have lots of ideas about how to organize and layout the site, which colors and fonts to use, which pictures to add. But mostly they treat their website like a Rorschach test of their own mind and personality. The result is invariably cluttered.
Moreover, authors don���������������������������������������������������������t know much about website design and online marketing. Did you know that where you put your email list sign up form matters? That using “buy now” vs “add to cart” on buttons makes a big difference in sales? That there are simple tricks to hook attention and keep readers on your page?
I won’t make you a website that is your online playground, where you can practice digital finger-painting and scare people away from your book. I will use the decade I have of website design, online marketing, entrepreneurial research to make a simple, clean, professional WordPress website designed to give you credibility and authority, to quickly expand your author platform, and sell lots of books.
I’ve paid for thousands of dollars worth of resources to learn how to do things online, how to sell books and products, how to get viewers to like you, trust you and buy from you. That’s some pretty powerful knowledge I can use in your favor (I’ve used it to start several service websites that make over $100K/year).
We install WordPress themes and help set up content.
We do not hand-code functions and features from scratch.
Just to be clear: what I’m offering is WordPress installation/customization, not a totally unique site built from scratch (which, to be honest, is really what everybody else is offering too, they just aren’t as upfront about it).
Here are some of the things I will include in this package. I made sure to include all the things other companies offer in their multi-thousand dollar packages, plus some extras that they don’t.
- Managing/Registering/Transferring your Domain Name
- Installation of WordPress
- Premium WordPress Template
- Guidance for Online Strategy
- Social Media Integration
- Up to 6 Pages of Content
- Integrated blog (with suggestions of what to write about based on keyword research)
- Up to 5 premium images from 123rf.com
- Social Media and Contact Form Integration
- Google Analytics Code (if needed: I don’t use it, and you probably won’t either).
- Linked posts (automatic posting) to your Facebook/Twitter (if needed, this isn’t always a good strategy).
- Mailing List sign up form (with Aweber/Mailchimp)
- GoodReads Profile Widget
- FREE TypeKit or Google Fonts
- FREE custom header (graphic banner)
- FREE background texture, if you want it
- FREE submission to all major search engines
- FREE backlinking strategy to boost Page Rank
- FREE integrated “Buy Now����� buttons to sell your book on your site
- FREE custom Amazon widgets, with your own affiliate code, to make more profit off each sale.
- Blog Marketing strategy and book promotion tips
The main reason to choose me is that the most important parts of a website are graphical. You need a great banner, logo, header… you need professional fonts and colors that define your brand and protect that important first impression. Other people may be able to put a site together, but I doubt they can help you make it as elegant and stylish as I can.
But I won’t give you everything you want or waste time on ideas that won’t help sell
Most authors spend way too much time and money setting up their blog, telling their website designer exactly what to do, obsess over every little detail for months, and then… nothing. No content, no posts, nothing to write about. Your website or blog is important, but it’s worthless real estate if there’s no content, and the design won’t matter anyway if you don’t have any visitors.
Keep it simple. Make it nice and functional. Get it done quickly. Trust me and my knowledge – people spend millions of dollars researching how people use the web. Why not use the established, tried and true, best practices that convert accidental browsers into loyal fans? This isn’t the place to take creative risks.
I can’t help you write the content – that’s up to you. But I can give you an author website much more attractive than average, for less than you’d pay elsewhere.
Please note, for first time authors, I actually recommend you start with the default WordPress theme and get a cheap header from fiverr.com, or just use a Google font plugin to redo the fonts. Don’t spend a lot until you get used to using WordPress and have some content up; that’ll help you focus on what you want and don’t want. Make sure your book is selling and getting decent natural reviews. Once you’re sure that the people who find it are buying it, then you can increase traffic and visibility with a more professional website.
If you want more info about what your author website needs to do, check out these popular articles I’ve written.
- 6 things your author website needs to do that you’ve never even considered
- 6 reasons why everyone is totally wrong about author websites (and it’s killing your book sales!)
- Your book is a car, your blog is the driveway (explaining your author website)
- Everything you think you know about your author website is wrong
- How to make an author website or book sales page that doesn�����t scare away your readers
WEBSITE HOSTING AND MAINTENANCE
WordPress needs to be updated often and security is always an issue. Plus if something goes wrong or your website “breaks” – you’ll need to hire someone to troubleshoot and fix the code. We offer a managed WordPress hosting solution on a dedicated server, which is carefully maintained��by a full-time employee on our staff. That means you don’t have to worry about updates or viruses or hackers breaking your website. And if anything strange does happen, we’ll take care of it.
We don’t offer full design customization, and you will have to get used to using WordPress to update posts and pages, but if you need little changes made to the design and can’t figure out how to do it, we’ll can do those too. Keep in mind, that while you can switch hosting anytime (and we’ll help make sure it all goes smoothly) it isn’t necessarily easy. For that reason we charge for hosting per annum; so you’ll need to commit for at least a year. $25/month = $300/year.
Fast, lean author websites, designed for indie authors for maximum results.
Increase security and stability with our dedicated, managed hosting.