The Five Major Mistakes Self-Publishers Make When Deciding On Website Development
The Five Major Mistakes
Self-Publishers Make When Deciding
On Website Development
A website is a great way to increase your audience for your book and to generate sales. However, there are five major mistakes that e-Moxie has seen self-publishers make when deciding to have a website developed. If you have any questions or would like more information on any of these common mistakes, please visit e-Moxie at http://www.e-moxie.com.
1) The Myth of Instant Sales
Some think that once you have a website, you will sell tons of books, and will not have to advertise anymore. A website is a great extension of your marketing and advertising campaign, however it is not a replacement for marketing and advertising, and it is not magical- websites work for reasons.. A website is simply a way to reach a much broader range of customers and viewers. With a larger range of customers, comes a much larger responsibility.
When you are face to face with someone telling them about your book, you do not have to win 100% of their trust, however online you do. Online you have another obstacle to overcome becauseyour prospective customer cannot physically hold the book in their hands. So, how do you convince them to buy it without actually seeing it? The answer to that is the next mistake people make when deciding to develop a website, effective sales copy.
2) Effective Sales Copy
You wouldn’t put a couple of sloppy paragraphs together in five minutes and use that as your back cover sales copy and print 10,000 books would you? If you said no, then why would you do that on your website? Sales copy for your website is just as important if not more so than the sales copy for the back cover of your book. Again, this touches on the customer trust issue. The customer does not have a physical book in their hands to hold and flip through so you must sell them on your book in the few brief moments they are at your site.
Effective sales copy is not only used to sell the book, it is also a way to get folks to your website. This is perhaps the single most important thing with a website- to get people to your site. And how do you do that? One answer to that is the next mistake made with websites, choosing effective search engine keywords. Writing effective copy with search engine keywords placed throughout the copy while still making sense, will enhance your marketability.
3) Ideal Search Engine Keywords
Think of the Internet as one giant yellow pages phone book, except thatinstead of it only having local listings it has listings from all over the world. To find a store that sells authentic original engine parts for a 1976 Ford Maverick Grabber would you look in yellow pages under “automotive”? Well maybe, but you would find that there are hundreds of automotive shops listed in just your local phone book. So what do you do? You refine your search. You look under “automotive parts stores”. Okay so now you are down to one hundred shops. Once again refine your search. Try looking for “historic automotive engine parts stores”. Now your results are down to fifty shops. Fifty shops is still a lot to look through to find someone that sells 1976 Ford Maverick Grabber parts. So what do you do again? Refine your search. Look for “historic Ford automotive engine parts”. You now have 25 shops to look for. Refine again. Look for “historic Ford Maverick automotive engine parts”. 10 shops are listed. Now wouldn’t it have been easier if you would have narrowed your search from the beginning?
Your website is never going to come up if someone searches for “book” in Google. Your website is never going to come up if someone searches for “non-fiction book” in Google. Search engine keywords need to be more specific. The more specific keywords you have, the more likely you are to show up in Google or any search engine.
4) Understanding Search Engine Placement
You just ordered e-Moxie’s Self-Publisher Website Package, which includes free search engine submission for your site and you’re wondering why your site doesn’t show up in the search engines. Depending on the search engine it can take anywhere from 72 hours to 4 months to get your site listed in the search engines. The largest process is getting your site information on the waiting list. There are several tricks to get listed faster, and ranked higher in search engines.
e-Moxie submits your site to the waiting lists of thousands of search engines. The price is only $55.00 for this service. Most of the time e-Moxie can be sure that we will get your site listed when someone searches for the author’s name or the title of the book, but that is not a guarantee. Many companies make a living just doing search engine submission and placement, they charge anywhere from $500.00 – $10,000.00 and the submission process is all the same.
For more information on search engine placement please visit http://websitedesign.e-moxie.com/#articles
5) Excessive Domain Names
When selecting a domain name for your website a self-publisher should stick to one of these three choices.
- Title of the book
- Publishing company name
- Author’s name
When choosing a domain name you want to ensure that it will be easy for someone to remember and it should be easy to spell.
Here are some examples. I published a book called “We Don’t Need No Education: Pink Floyd’s Early Years”, my publishing company’s name is Pink Publishing. I then have three choices to choose from:
- http://www.wedontneednoeducation.com
- http://www.mattpramschufer.com
- http://www.pinkpublshing.com
Out of those three which one or one’s do you remember how to spell? My guess was the title of the book and the publishing company name. I don’t think anyone other than family can remember how to spell my last name, so the author name is not a good choice here. The title of the book domain name is a little long but isn’t too excessive. The publishing company name is the best. It is short and easy for someone to remember and it is easy to spell. You want to avoid a domain name that is longer than 25 characters. The ideal length for a domain name is between 7 and 15 characters. If you are unsure about which domain name to choose and you have a few in mind, then register all of them. e-Moxie can always make both domain names point to the same website.
If you would like more information on website design and website hosting please visit e-Moxie Data Solutions at
www.e-moxie.com or contact Matt Pramschufer at The 5 Hottest Ways To Market Your Book With A Website - August 11th, 2005
