As a rule of thumb, plenty of people will visit your website if you are offering something they want to read. They will want to visit even more if it’s free. Ideally though, you want to offer your visitors something to buy. Here are some tips to help you attract visitors to your website, and how to sell them products in the future!
How to Keep Website Visitors Coming Back
Excellent content articles, and a blog aimed specifically at your target audience, will keep visitors happy while you work on adding more content (and your products) to your website.
Here’s the three-step plan to get visitors to your website, and keep them coming back.
Give your visitors…
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Freebies for promotion and to keep your website visitors happy short term.
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Products for sale in the medium term, to start earning some money.
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A Big Project for long term success.
How many writing projects do you have right now? Read on and see if you can fit some of them into this easy three-point plan.
1. Freebies – Samples of Your Wares
Freebies are samples of your wares, in this case, your writing; they are products just like any other. “Try before you buy” is an old cliché, but it works. Your articles or stories have to be informative or entertaining and be professionally presented.
Topics should relate to your specific area of expertise, and help your target market in some way. People like to learn how to do things, make things and achieve goals.
Freebies should be as generous as possible. They might be:
● Serialised stories on your website
● PDF downloads of fiction or non-fiction articles
● E-books
● Regular email newsletters
An e-book freebie might, for example, be a detailed how-to article, as well-polished as all your other writing.
Freebies are products that will boost sales of your other products, generate goodwill and attract more people to your website.
2. Add Products – More Substantial than Freebies
You need one or more ‘Products’ to sell. They need not be lengthy, but should be more substantial than the Freebies. They should be aimed at the same target audience, and their standard should be such that you would feel confident sending them to an agent or publisher.
Products might be fiction or non-fiction, but you will make sure they are of great interest to your readers, and will help them learn or achieve something – or entertain them, make them laugh and want to come back for more.
Go back through your unfinished manuscripts or ideas drawer, and see if you can’t find something to inspire you. Finish it, and make an e-book. This is a medium-term project, because it’s likely to take quite a lot of your time.
3. Create The Big Project
You are likely to be working on a novel, short story collection or something else that could take a number of years to complete. As long as your Freebies and Products are for the same target audience as your Big Project, when it’s finished you will have followers that are already interested in your work.
You might serialise a novel on your website as a Freebie, and offer the complete e-book for sale. There will always be people who want to own the whole thing, or just can’t wait for the next installment.
Promote your Website
Every writer needs a marketing hat as much as any other, so continue to promote your website with social networking, blogging and other methods.
When visitors arrive, there will be plenty to interest them. They will get something for free, something to buy and have good reason to return!
Further Information
Randy Ingermanson, at the Advanced Fiction Writing Website and Blog, is an excellent teacher, marketer and published author. Look at how he presents himself and his work at http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com
Author Tech Tips has a mountain of marketing information for authors. If you subscribe to their email list, you will get an interesting Freebie. Here is one their articles to get you started. http://www.authortechtips.com/7-secrets-for-amazing-author-websites
About the Author
Judy Winchester is a graduate of the Writing for the Web Course She is also serving a self-imposed writing “apprenticeship” made possible by Web 2.0. Current projects include a young adult science-fiction novel, fantasy flash fiction, and a blog at http://judywinchester.wordpress.com/.
Photo credit: flickr.com_Froboy
