In you’re an author / writer, you should have a website. Your website is your online home. But what if your site is fumbling and gasping for air. What if no one is actively engaging on your site and you’re not sure what to do. Don’t panic. With a little planning, patience, and the right mindset, you can revive your floundering website back to success. Here are 10 tips: #1 Do a thorough overhaul. -Do all of your internal links work? -Is everything pointing where you want it to point? -Are your marketing strategies working to drive traffic to your website? This process should be taken care of thoughtfully and carefully with attention to detail. One or two broken links may mean the difference in hundreds of visitors. Search engines don’t like broken links and you could be penalized because of it. If you don’t have the time or the inclination to go through every page of your website and make sure your links are working, you might outsource it to a virtual administrator who has careful attention to detail. A warning here: Be sure you trust the person you’re allowing to go into your website. #2 Blog on a regular basis. Blogging regularly keeps the search engines happy and it shows people that your website is active - it’s alive. While the more often you blog, the better, it needs to be consistent, so find what will work for you. At one time, I blogged three times a week to my site, but it became too much. I now try to consistently blog once a week. #3 Start participating in relevant forums. Network on relevant forums. Drive traffic to your author website or writer website and once there, engage visitors with information they’ll want to read. Be personable when you’re networking on forums. Create a profile, actively participate in discussions and be sure to create a link to your website in your signature to drive traffic. #4 Participate in social networking sites. Just like you’d participate in relevant industry forums, do the same with social networking sites. Share all your blog posts to your social networks. Be sure to have an engaging blog title and description. Also include a link to your website in all your posts. And as important, share other users’ content on a regular basis. You should also leave comments now and then. Just be sure the content you share is relevant to your website’s topic. #5 Send out virtual invitations and by word of mouth. If you want to get more activity on your website, then invite people to stop by. You can lure them with promotions, contests, or sweepstakes, just make sure you follow through once they’re at your website. #6 Blog all about it. Start creating a stir on your website through blogging. Blog about topics related to your site. If possible, incite a discussion, and post valuable content that people will want link back to and share. You might consider guest blogging too. Always include a link back to your website. #7 Increase the offerings. Sometimes all it takes is a little incentive to get people motivated again. If your website is gasping for breath, put some life in it by offering a few good freebies or a new feature that will add some energy to the website. #8 Add video. Create little videos and get them up on your site and share to your social media accounts. As an example, I’m a children’s ghostwriter and coach. I’m in the process of creating short minute clips giving reasons why hiring a professional writer or coach can be helpful. #9 Use visuals in your marketing. I create an image for every blog post I publish. That image is seen on my social networks and helps the other uses quickly determine if my article will be of interest to them. I also create visual blurbs for my books and writing services. People are attracted to visuals. #10 Be vigilant. Keep participation and the conversation going. Websites fail when people stop visiting and stopped being engaged. This happens when you become lazy in your marketing. Are you blogging? Are people sharing your posts? Are they leaving comments? Give them something to be interested in, something they want to read and share. Keep the conversation going.
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