Ideas for Updating (or Creating) Your Author Website
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If you have an author website, make sure that you’re keeping the content fresh and current. Visitors don’t often return to a site with outdated information. Here are some ways authors can spark some ideas to jazz up their site or apply some techniques to improve what you have.
Do some research. Look at other authors’ sites in your genres. Look at publishers’ sites to see what colors, fonts, and graphic designs they use. Pictures draw more attention than long columns of text.
Find colors that match your brand. If your writing is dark, choose the spooky colors. If your writing has a lighter tone, pick pastels or brighter colors. If you’re not sure, Google “emotions colors evoke” to get some ideas.
Make sure your website has several different versions of your biography. You should have a very short one, one with several paragraphs, and a longer one. All should be written in the third person.
Match your colors, fonts and style of your website to the graphics on your newsletter and your social media banners. You want readers to recognize your style (brand) and know it’s you.
Make sure you have a place for readers to sign up for your newsletter on your website.
Always test your website after you publish it. Make sure that all forms and links work correctly.
Most website builders today automatically adjust your page for the devices your readers might be using (wide for laptops and tablets and tall for phones). Look at your website on different devices to make sure the pictures and layouts look like you want them to.
If your events don’t change often and your books come out yearly, you’ll need to think of other types of content for your readers. Consider adding a blog. Mine gives me content to share weekly on my social media sites, and it keeps readers coming back to my site.
