Society of Authors talk notes

Thank you for attending my talk 'Promoting yourself as a writer online'. I hope you found it useful. Here are links to the sites I spoke about in my talk, together with some of the notes from the slides.

Free book chapters and links to buy

• Free chapter from 'Small Business Websites That Work' - all about planning your website
• Buy 'Small Business Websites That Work' at Amazon
• Free chapter from 'The Customer Service Pocketbook'
• Buy 'The Customer Service Pocketbook' at Amazon

Statistics

• National Statistics: internet use (January 2006)

Example author websites

• Commodore Book
• Digital Retro
• Scott Adams' Dilbert Blog
• List of author blogs

A good example that wasn't mentioned in the talk, which belongs to an author who emailed me about the talk:

• Carole Matthews

Ten reasons to get your own author website

1. Reach out to new readers
2. Raise awareness of your book
3. Get the retail margin
4. Make money off adverts (see below)
5. Merchandising and extras: ebooks, podcasts, mousemats, mugs etc
6. Attract writing commissions
7. Let readers try before they buy
8. Get reader feedback
9. Build a mailing list
10. Keep control

Shopping list

Site design

• 37 Signals - an example of current minimalist trendy design

Promotion links

• Google Toolbar - will tell you the PageRank of your website (ie, how important Google thinks it is)
• My list of search engine submission pages
• Yahoo Groups - free newsletter management system

Making money from your website

• Google Adsense places relevant text adverts on your website by looking at the keywords in your content:

• Amazon Associates - get commission for referring sales to Amazon
• Commission Junction - clearing house for lots of affiliate programmes
• Paypal - a website enabling individuals and businesses to exchange money through a proxy account they charge with their credit cards. Also supports donations and a website shopping cart. Simple and effective.
• WorldPay - accept credit cards.
• Clickbank - a service for selling electronic products which also manages an affiliate programme for you to help you market your products.
• Selling music on Ebay - similar principles apply to selling books

Website recipe

• Domain name - point it at your blog
• Blog - keep site updated
• Amazon Associates - make money referring sales
• Google Adsense - targeted advertising
• Paypal Shopping cart - accept credit cards
• Yahoo Groups - to run your newsletter
• Google Analytics - understand traffic
• Linkalarm - check your links all work (free trial)

Further reading

• Read how I designed this website
• Website placeholder content for your first website
• Look after your domain name
• Effective email newsletters
• Getting press coverage for your website

Fun and games

Here are some fun online experiences I've created

• Play Hangman
• Interactive travel photography map
• Wild Mood Swings
• Chatback

Thanks and credits

• Society of Authors
• Janine Norn - Made the South Park Studio used to make the Virtual Sean cartoon