Every author needs a platform where they can lead their fans and prospective readers and increase their conversions. An author platform should have all the information about the author books, their journey and a direct link where they can make a purchase. But an author platform isn’t just that, What makes an author platform stand out is the way these ideas are presented that makes it all the more attractive to the readers.
Here are a few common mistakes that authors make in their author platform that is ruining the main purpose of it.
Mistake #1: Rushing to Publish The Author Platform
We all know that it is a pretty exciting experience to have an author platform of your own. In that excitement, you may rush to publish it and promote it as soon as you can forgetting to double-check if everything is just right. There will always be some mistakes in the website but that doesn’t mean you are allowed to have major blunders staring out from the main landing page!
Before you publish the website or go ahead to promote it, take a few days to go through every inch of the website – the design and the content. Some obvious mistakes may not be recognized by us as it is our own website and therefore, it is best to get a second set of eyes. It may be your idle friend or a random coworker. Just have some impartial third-party go through your website to point out the mistakes and believe me, you will be surprised at the things they find!
Mistake #2: Not Knowing The Current Search Engine Trends
It is understandable that you cannot be a great digital marketing expert and customize your website from top to bottom. But it would be better if you know the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You do not need to spend a lot of time understanding it. Just a few days of going through some basic guides will set you on the right path. So what do you need to know about?
- The basics of picking out the important keywords
- How to create header tags and meta tags for SEO
- A few main factors that search engine considers in a website like a website load time and the designs
If you have a basic idea of these, then you will be all set.
Mistake #3: Keeping Your Author Platform Separate from Communities
It may be a readers community or a writers community, it is important to get away from your shyness and post about your author platform on these websites. These communities will be a great lead generating machine if you are actively involving yourself in its activities. These communities will not only help you connect with your readers but will also get you some good author friends which will be a great boon in your journey.
One another major mistake that authors make is not including their social media handles in their author platforms. Now social media has become the number one way for people to connect with each other. If some reader loves your books and wants to connect with you or get updates about your next book, social media is the place they start with. When you do not include your social media handles in prominent areas of the author platform, you are losing out on such great readers or probably fans who would love to hear from you.
Mistake #4: Failing to Design The Landing Page for Conversions
A landing page should have an attractive and prominent design and convincing content for conversions. It may be to get readers to buy your new book, download a free ebook copy or to subscribe to your newsletter. Whatever it may be, it should be able to give all the information the visitor wants in the same page itself and convince them to take the action. Many authors fail in this respect as they do not have the expertise in designing it the right way or placing the proper CTAs (Call to Action). This will make the interested visitors to leave the page when they are so close to clicking on that conversion button.
To avoid this issue, go through some websites of prominent authors and learn from how they place the design and the attractive words they use. This will give you an idea to implement a similar strategy in your author platform too and boost your conversions.
AllAuthor – The All-in-One Author Platform
We understand that it might be difficult for an author to create such a strong platform for oneself, maintain it and update it. That’s why as a solution to all the above mistakes, AllAuthor has options for authors to create their own author platform on our website and use it for conversions. This author platform is optimized for search engines, has a proper design for conversions with CTAs and a community of authors and readers.
All you need to do is create an account with AllAuthor and you can start building your author platform here! If you do not have the time to add all your details, we have a separate team who can do that for you too!
Sign up as an author at AllAuthor to know more details.
