How To Get Readers To Your Author Website Using Digital Advertising

Promoting your books as an author is no simple matter.

As a self-published author, you will likely need to do all your marketing yourself, especially early on.

Often via an author website you make.

Not to worry – if you do the right things, you can direct a lot of traffic to your website over time.

Here are several digital advertising tactics you should use to get readers to your website.

Publish Books On Amazon & Other Ebook Stores, & Link Back To Your Website

Many authors today find most of their book sales come from Amazon. But that’s not the only reason to publish and promote your books on the world’s largest eCommerce platform.

As you may already know, Amazon (and other Ebook stores) offer readers a look inside your book. If you include a link to your website towards the beginning of the sample, potential readers will be able to click on that link and go to your website to learn more about you.

Naturally, when people buy your Ebook, they’ll also find that same link to your website and may be inclined to click on it. This can generate considerable traffic over the long haul, as your readership grows.

It works the same way on other popular Ebook stores like Kobo and Barnes & Noble, which offer readers the same courtesies. They can view samples from your book and click on the link to your website if they feel so inclined.

Getting links from well-known brands is a big deal and can help your SEO in addition to generating traffic to your site. Search engines will begin to give your site more weight in search results when they crawl these links.

There are several book distribution services out there that will get your books into major stores for a fee, such as BookBaby, but if you’re already using CreateSpace, your book sample should be available on the most popular online bookstores.

Do Audiobook Samples On YouTube And Direct Them To Your Site To Buy The Full Thing

In addition to reading, today’s consumers also love listening to books.

Audiobooks have become increasingly popular and turning your book into an audiobook is a good strategy for sharing your message with a bigger audience and increasing your revenue.

Audio snippets can also prove worthwhile tools for driving traffic to your website and promoting your books.

People can get a better sense of who you are and your intent by listening to your voice. There are subtleties they can pick up from the tone and inflection of your voice they simply cannot detect from just reading your works. A voice is a deeply personal and powerful tool – this is also evidenced by the popularity of podcasts.

Additionally, when you give something away for free, you’re activating the law of reciprocity. When people feel like they’ve been given something of value, they feel they should reciprocate and give something back.

When you upload audiobook samples to YouTube, remember to:

• Add a call to action at the end of the sample. Tell viewers to go to your website to learn more.
• Include a link to your website in the first line of the description of your video.
• Add a proper description for the video, preferably more than just two or three sentences. The more relevant content and keywords the description contains, the more SEO friendly it will be. You can use a transcription if you wish.
• Add video highlights to your video. This step is optional but adding timecodes (i.e. 00:01) in the description allows people to skip around to the parts of the video they want to listen to/watch.

Do Author Interview On Other Websites Or Podcasts

When you publish a book, you become an authority in your industry. It boosts your credibility and can lead to speaking engagements, new clients, and other opportunities.

Publishing a book is no small matter, and no one understands this better than other authors, experts, and marketers who may have a blog or podcast of their own.

Today, many people find out about new books on podcasts. Being featured on a relevant industry podcast can drive a lot of traffic to your website and lead to more sales.

“Relevant” is the keyword here. When looking for podcasts to be featured on:

• Look for podcasts that have interview content. It can be embarrassing requesting an interview when the podcast you’re targeting doesn’t even have interview content.
• Find podcasts that are on-topic. Although getting featured on an off-topic podcast won’t necessarily hurt you, it won’t drive as much traffic to your website as getting on a relevant podcast will.
• Look for podcasts that have featured people like you. There’s a good chance you can get on these shows, especially if you can bring a new perspective to a topic that’s been talked about before.

Don’t turn down opportunities to be featured on blogs and websites too, because this can help you build more links to your website, and can generate a lot of traffic, especially if the content is seen on a major site.

Here are a few places you can go to get your book reviewed:

• BigAl’s Books & Pals: a frequently updated blog with plenty of book reviews.
• Underground Book Reviews: the perfect place to get your fiction novel or novella reviewed.
• Self-Professed Book Hoarders: a good place to request a review for your paranormal book.

Advertise You Website On Bookbub And Other Paid Ebook Services

It has often been said that if you want to make money you need to spend some money.

This isn’t always the case, but if you believe in your works as an author, you should be prepared to invest in yourself.

These days, advertising is generally more affordable than ever. Usually, you can set your own budget and target a very specific audience. If you have a good idea of who your readers are, then you should be able to get a good return on investment with your advertising dollars.

Bookbub is just one example of a tool you can use to promote your book. But what about getting people to your website?

Good news – Bookbub and several other platforms (BN.com, Amazon, etc.) allow you to advertise your website within their system if it’s not a squeeze page (or landing page).

The important thing to keep in mind with advertising is it can take a while to get the messaging right. This means your first or second ad probably won’t be perfect. But if you’re willing to go through the process of testing and optimizing you should eventually land on an ad that resonates with your audience.

Also, ads may drive a lot of traffic to your website, but it won’t necessarily be high quality traffic if your messaging isn’t right. When it comes to traffic, quality always beats quantity. An engaged visitor base is much better than an apathetic one, as apathetic traffic won’t lead to sales and conversions.

How To Get Readers To Your Author Website Conclusion

Getting traffic to your website isn’t that hard. There are so many ways to generate traffic, whether it’s through advertising or content marketing.

The challenge is often attracting the right kind of person to your website. After all, you want to build your social following, email list, and book sales. You want to attract the kind of people that will take a profitable action on your site. This is what you should focus on.