Flash animations and great colors won’t keep visitors coming back to your site. Visitors return to sites for two reasons only: the products are what they want to buy or the content is of value to them.
If your Author Platform (whether a blog or website) isn’t attracting the visitors you want, it could be because you’re not providing quality content. Below are some tips that will help your content stand apart from the competition.
Make Your Content Error-Free
Whatever your topics, the content on your site should be free of grammatical and spelling errors. Nothing turns off visitors more than reading articles that contain obvious errors.
Research Your Content Well
It’s amazing how much misinformation appears on the Internet. If you’re providing biographies, for instance, make sure the birth and death dates are correct. If you’re providing information about technology, it shouldn’t be outdated. If the content on your site is about business, make sure all the quotes are correctly attributed. Whatever your topic, even a tiny error will stand out.
Write for Your Audience
The average reading level of the Internet user is 12th grade. And the reading level for 9th – 12th graders is only 5.3! (Source: Huffington Post) Yes, you read that right.
So, if you put content on your site that is filled with long sentences and words most people don’t know, it will only turn visitors off. If your site is meant to appeal to a certain group of academics, you won’t have to worry about the long words. But if you’re providing information to the general public, your articles need to be written in a manner they’ll understand.
Refresh Your Content Often
Visitors will return to your site more often if you have fresh content. There’s nothing more boring than visiting a site that has the same articles and photos that have been on the site for months.
Target Content to Your Visitors
Sure you’re interested in the Olympics and even the Mars Mission but your Author Platform needs to be about what you are interested in AND what you write. After all, the key is to garner traffic and make sales.
By targeting your visitors with content they can use, you can be sure they’ll return. Not only that, but they will recommend your site to friends (and this can be literally thousands with Social Media) and may even link to your site on their site.
Though not all visitors will return, relevant content will increase the chances that they will return.
Don’t Just Sell Products
As an author, you want to sell books. Period. So, it is natural to put all your “wares” in front of the consumer. But you can impress people with articles that pertain to the products you sell.
If, for example, your book is a Murder Mystery that happens in a Coffee Shop (Sandra Balzo) then you could include some great “latte receipes” mentioned in your book or around the net.
Or perhaps provide information on the area where your book takes place. My children’s book “Tyler Frost and the Freemont Troll” takes place in Freemont, Washington, where, oddly enough, there is a large cement troll under the bridge. I plan to include touristy maps and pictures of this sculpture along with its release in 2014.
Be bold and interesting – and your visitors will come back.
If You’re Not A Writer, Don’t Write (All) Your Own Content
Ok, this is kind of an odd statement, especially since 98% of my visitors are, indeed, writers. However, IF you are NOT a writer or do not write well, then you need to be honest with yourself. Consider getting help or at the very least a second set of professional “eyes.” (Grammarly.com is a good tool to check your grammar.)
Practice makes perfect…almost. The more you write the better you (should) become. I write every day, but not necessarily on my blog or my own novels. I do a lot of technical writing and have found over the years my structure has improved. however I am not beyond asking for editing help (thank you Kathy!)
A big mistake for many Author Platforms is the amateur writing to a professional world. Yes, I did state that the reading level is 12th grade (or lower) but you still want to be professional and professional writing takes time and skills. Without the skills, your writing will look amateurish and that won’t help you achieve your goals.
Conclusion
Writing good content isn’t difficult, nor is it hard to find quality content to add to your site. The link to the Huffington Post, for example, is a good way to garner interesting information for your readers in an easy to read article.
