A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO SELF PUBLISHING A SPIRITUAL OR INSPIRATIONAL KIDS' BOOK
STEP FOUR: SET UP A WEBSITE
If you haven’t already done this, now is the time to start setting up your website. This may seem a little premature, but it takes time to design your site, get yourself to the top of a Google search, and start attracting fans. Don’t leave this until after you’ve published your book – start NOW.
Professional web design can be costly, but there are so many free site creators these days with simple templates and user-friendly interfaces. My favorite so far is Weebly. I’ve found them simple to use, their support staff are very helpful, they have a nice range of templates to choose from and a vast array of elements that can be added to your site, from videos, to sound to downloads and blogs.
However you choose to set up your site, make sure that you are aware of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO refers to how easy it is for people to search for your site, based on keywords and meta-tags that alert the search engines as to the validity of your site.
The key to getting this right starts outside of your site with something called Google Adwords. Use Google Adwords to see what people are searching for related to your topic. For instance, you can type into Google Adwords “spiritual childrens books”. What you’ll find is that only 170 people have searched for this in the last moth, as opposed to 720 searches for “inspirational books for children”. Play around a bit with Adwords to see what the best keywords are for you to include in your site. Don’t always be tempted to go for the highest search number – it is often good to have a niche market, and to have all those people who are searching for your specific criteria be the ones you actually want on your site. You are more likely to get sales if you are coming up in searches that are exactly related to what you are producing. Later we'll look at how to use Google Adwords in a paid marketing campaign.
Once you’ve figured out a list of useful keywords, the trick then is to incorporate these into your site. Use these keywords in your descriptions of yourself and your books and anywhere else on the site that they may be relevant, and make sure that they appear in the meta-tags on each of your pages. Start a blog (more on this in a later post) that contains your main keywords wherever possible. You do still need to make sure that what you’re writing makes sense and is engaging, but you are, after all, a writer!
If you are creating your own site, don’t forget to register your site with Google. Any of the free website creators will have links to verifying your site with Google and you will need to do this in order for your site to come up in a search.
Another trick to improving your SEO is to have external links to your site. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all the other social networking sites are very useful for this. Create links from your social networks to your site and vice versa. I’ll go into more detail on Social Media Marketing in a later post. I would also suggest making friends with other people creating similar books and agreeing to link to each others’ sites, and listing your site in online directories.
Even if you just start off with a home page and a blog, that is enough to get going. Later, as your work progresses, you can include some sample illustrations and sections of your book (or even the whole book). People love to be engaged in the process of creation, and your best feedback can come from your potential customers. Be open to discussions around your work, and provide a forum for people to leave comments and suggestions.
Have fun designing your site - everything done with joy and enthusiasm is more likely to get you on the road to being a bestseller!
Professional web design can be costly, but there are so many free site creators these days with simple templates and user-friendly interfaces. My favorite so far is Weebly. I’ve found them simple to use, their support staff are very helpful, they have a nice range of templates to choose from and a vast array of elements that can be added to your site, from videos, to sound to downloads and blogs.
However you choose to set up your site, make sure that you are aware of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO refers to how easy it is for people to search for your site, based on keywords and meta-tags that alert the search engines as to the validity of your site.
The key to getting this right starts outside of your site with something called Google Adwords. Use Google Adwords to see what people are searching for related to your topic. For instance, you can type into Google Adwords “spiritual childrens books”. What you’ll find is that only 170 people have searched for this in the last moth, as opposed to 720 searches for “inspirational books for children”. Play around a bit with Adwords to see what the best keywords are for you to include in your site. Don’t always be tempted to go for the highest search number – it is often good to have a niche market, and to have all those people who are searching for your specific criteria be the ones you actually want on your site. You are more likely to get sales if you are coming up in searches that are exactly related to what you are producing. Later we'll look at how to use Google Adwords in a paid marketing campaign.
Once you’ve figured out a list of useful keywords, the trick then is to incorporate these into your site. Use these keywords in your descriptions of yourself and your books and anywhere else on the site that they may be relevant, and make sure that they appear in the meta-tags on each of your pages. Start a blog (more on this in a later post) that contains your main keywords wherever possible. You do still need to make sure that what you’re writing makes sense and is engaging, but you are, after all, a writer!
If you are creating your own site, don’t forget to register your site with Google. Any of the free website creators will have links to verifying your site with Google and you will need to do this in order for your site to come up in a search.
Another trick to improving your SEO is to have external links to your site. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all the other social networking sites are very useful for this. Create links from your social networks to your site and vice versa. I’ll go into more detail on Social Media Marketing in a later post. I would also suggest making friends with other people creating similar books and agreeing to link to each others’ sites, and listing your site in online directories.
Even if you just start off with a home page and a blog, that is enough to get going. Later, as your work progresses, you can include some sample illustrations and sections of your book (or even the whole book). People love to be engaged in the process of creation, and your best feedback can come from your potential customers. Be open to discussions around your work, and provide a forum for people to leave comments and suggestions.
Have fun designing your site - everything done with joy and enthusiasm is more likely to get you on the road to being a bestseller!