8 Top Tips for Creating Better Converting Author Websites

An author’s website or page is ESSENTIAL if you want to drive more sales to your non-fiction book and if you want to position yourself as being “media ready”!

The prices vary when it comes to getting an author page created by a webmaster, but there are key elements that MUST be present in order to make that page work for you.

There are many ways of creating an effective author page, but the best way to do it is to use the same powerful lead attraction strategies Internet marketers have been using for years!

If you’re not up on the latest Guru-strategies, this article will walk you through all the necessary steps!

8 Top Tips for Creating Better Converting Author Websites & Author Pages

1) Include All Critical Elements Of An Effective Internet Marketing Landing Page

Landing pages, sometimes also called “lead-capture pages,” are used to convert visitors into leads by completing a transaction or by collecting contact information from them. In order to make these transactions happen, it’s critically important that your landing pages consist of the following components:

* A headline
* An (optional) sub-headline
* A blurb descripting a main benefit of your book
* Book Title
* A brief description of your book (use bullet points to keep things snappy and sweet)
* Image of your book cover
* Book reviews (this is critical to get a few people to read your book and offer their review).
* And most importantly, a form to capture visitors' information!

I know the prime reason for creating an author page is to sell your book, but the reality is that some visitors won’t be quite ready to buy your book the first time they visit your site. In order to continue the conversation and make them see the value your book has to offer, make sure to capture their name and email.

When it comes to capturing emails and names, you want to make sure it’s obvious and you should ask your graphic designer to include that in the design.

2) Keep Navigation To A Minimum

If you already have a business blog (and you SHOULD), you don’t want to overwhelm visitors to your author page. You want to keep the top navigation to a minimum because you can keep additional content on the blog.

Here are a few tabs you want to include:
* About the Author
* Book Excerpt
* More reviews (you should integrate reviews on the home page, but if you have more, don’t be shy).
* Media Inquiries (you want to make sure to let the media know you’re media ready!)

3) Include An Offer That’s Enticing

The only way to convince people to leave you their email and name is to offer them something that’s very enticing!

Here are a few ideas:
* Fist chapter of your book
* A free workshop base on lessons from the book
* A video packed with great tips
* A mp3
* A report or mini ebook
* A Google+ Hangout

4) Match The Headline Of The Free Offer To Its Corresponding Call To Action

If you’re offering a few video series, make sure to ask your readers to download just that.

A good example of the headlines would be would be: Break Your Limiting Beliefs With This Complimentary & Powerful Video Series.

Call To Action for free offer: “Get Your Free Video Series Today!”

Keeping a consistent message will help guide your visitors and encourage more of them to sign-up on your page.

5) Keep it simple & clean

You want to keep your Author’s page as clean as possible. You want to avoid clutter and confusion.

There are two things you want visitors to do 1) buy your book or 2) leave you their name and email – that’s it!!!

6) Encourage Social Sharing

Don’t forget to include social media sharing buttons that enable your potential readers to become raving fans and allow them the chance to evangelize your content and offers. To limit cluttering, just be sure to only include buttons for the social platforms your audience uses. And don't forget to add an email forwarding option, since people have different sharing preferences.

Keep in mind that even if your social media contacts never buy from you, there's always a possibility that someone in their personal network will!

7) Only Ask For The Information You Really Need

There is no magic formula to how much content to ask on your opt-in banner, but the rule is the fewer fields you have on a form, the higher the conversion rate. This is because, with each new field you add to a form, it creates more work for the visitor, and thus fewer conversions. A longer form looks like more work and will often be avoided altogether. On the other hand, the more fields you require, the better quality those leads will likely be, because they thought your offer was valuable enough to warrant a form completion.

A great way to balance this is to ask for the name and email and once they are on your list, send them another offer that you’d send via traditional mail to collect their full mailing address!

8) Banish The SUBMIT Button

If you wrote a book, it’s to establish you as an authority! If that’s the case the last thing you wan to do is to be common. When it comes to your call to action button, you MUST BANISH THE “SUBMIT” button.

You’ll want to be more creative.

One of the buttons I got design was “Krizia, I’m ready”! This stands out!

Here are a few examples you can use:

* Grab Your Free Report Now!
* Download Your Video Series!* Listen To Your First 3 Audio Lessons!
* Get Started Now With Your Lessons!

Make sure your button grabs attention by add colour! Don’t be afraid of using contrasting colours to make a statement.