I'm totally ignorant of websites, and have no idea what conversion is. I use Godaddy, because it was easy to build. Supposedly, it only takes an hour, but it took me a month to get it looking decent. Am I happy with Godaddy? No, they keep changing stuff that makes it tougher to put my short stories up, so I use it mostly for my email list newsletter. And I show my books on it. If you saw it, you would howl with pain.
Tom, I'm laughing. Conversion is the number of people who do something as opposed to nothing. It can be measured on any action, really. The number of people who sign up for a list. The number of people who click to read something. The number of people who make a purchase (ie on an ecommerce site). The very simplest conversion is getting them to click something -- anything. Because when a new visitor arrives at a site, the most common action (over 50%) is to look and leave.
I used to do website critiques, thinking they'd help people understand what's wrong with their site. I stopped doing them because I was howling in pain too often. lol.
Ok— yes I have a website. I’ve redesigned it several times. I’m not for sure what it’s supposed to do. I get Ahfed’s (or however you spell it) monthly report. Yes, I rank in the top 30 for some key words. I get about 300 visits per month. The site introduces me, advertises my upcoming book, collects emails, and points to my social media following. The bounce rate is 87%. That’s super bad, right? I used to blog but don’t these days. I also use it as a link holder, instead of Linktree or Beacons. One page directs people to a newsletter signup, a YouTube channel, and a list of resources (with affiliate links). I use that page on IG and TikTok. Come to think of it — that traffic isn’t showing up in this stats because I’m tracking the conversions through Bit.ly and those numbers are good. — hmmm I’ll have to check into that. I’m not sure what else I should be using it for.
Ouch, Kerry. Yeah, 87% is super high. Ideally, bounce rate should be under 50% which means you keep at least half the visitors. Do you use Google analytics or what are you using for analytics? When I have this crazy handbook ready, I'm going to ask you if you have time to read it. I'd love your take on it.
I have a public page that hadn’t been listed in the website’s menu. I’m using a bit.ly to track users and hundreds have visited it the past few days but those hits aren’t being counted. I’m not sure what “event” Google uses to trigger a “count.” I just updated the site so thar page is now a part of the menu tree-hopefully that fixes the problem and gives more accurate stats.
I had one that was a huge mess because *I* designed (cough cough) it and aren't I quirky and creative? *sigh*
Someone else did my new one and it's a different kind of mess, esp. converted to phone. Mess. So how the heck do we clean up the mess? Hire it out?
A couple years ago and then more recently, I took a Reedsy-dive on good authority that it held all the dropped gems of NYC publishing--there, eagerly waiting to work with a professional writer to create magnificent works of literary magnitude....ahem.
So, that's not what's going on over there. It's a 'pay-by-gig' deal for the most part, and reading their CVs is like reading a complicated cipher that only people like you could decode, and I'm positive you'd read right through all of it and say "This person doesn't know marketing from a bag of doughnut holes."
Seriously, though. How do we clean up the mess? Have you cloned yourself yet or are you not taking new clients or...?
lol on Reedsy. You called it. There's so much hot air over there I could make popcorn. One thing that drives me nuts is when designers and developers talk above their clients heads. There's no reason for that. But they do it because when people feel dumb, they pay for someone to take over.
I used to wish I could clone myself. lol. Now I think I'd rather empower people to understand what I do. Remember way back when, you'd asked me what I actually do? lol. My answer was way too long, back then. Now it's simple. I make sites convert.
So instead of teaching marketing and html and design and all that crap, my goal is to build a prebuilt site, and package it up with "here's what you need, and why you need it" steps. Because armed with that, authors can choose to do it, or even if they hire out, they'll know what needs to be done. Not sure if that makes sense, but it's what I'm working on.
"They don’t stick around to see if what they’ve built converts. By the time the website has 30 days of stats post-launch, they’ve moved on to the next client, the next site.
They have to. It’s how they pay the bills."
---> Yes. The same applies to other online creators we see. Writing programs, coding programs, investment programs, dropshipping programs etc.
I actually think website design is really hard from the conversion point of view, perhaps even more difficult than 15 years ago?? I'm not sure, just a hunch, and from what I observed.
I have redesign my sites more times I can count, and more money I can spend now.
BTW, I am excited to see your new site and when your new service is rolled out. Just a gut feel. Hahaha.
You're so right. It is harder now than 15 years ago, for sure. Mostly because there's more competition. When I built my first site, there were less thank 10,000 websites on the entire internet. Now the numbers are crazy.
I know. I was thinking of you when I typed that. You I kind of really want to work with. Just in a different way than I've worked in the past. When I get this stuff finished, I'm going to come knocking. :)
I've had an ignored author site for years. Mostly ignored because I have no idea WTF I want to market on it. "Go read me on Medium" is about the extent of it lol.
I REALLY wish I cared more about it but I just don't. I have nothing to sell.
PS: I love building Wordpress sites. I'm kind of a nerd about it.
Yes indeed. That's a post I've got in draft format. I've found a couple of examples, but want to find a few more. It's slim pickings out there. lol. But yup, that is for sure a post I want to write.
I built my first WebSite in December of 1994. No one in my part of Florida had ever heard of the Web, so my success wasn't much of a pickup line for this recently divorced guy. Hand coding in those days was fun...almost. Then I purchased a program called Hot Dog which made things easier.
I remember the excitement as I watched the Web evolve. Netscape could see colored text...and center justifying...and gifs. I purchased Net Magazine and learned how to make animated gifs. One of my Sites even won a Magellan award. I closed my own Site down (the 60s Trading Post for the 90s) and placed an ad in Creative Loafing as a Web Designer. I knew my investment was paying off when a client paid me three hundred bucks to build a Site.
I was on a roll, but then everything changed. The Web became convoluted and design had too many new things to learn. The advent of Wordpress revitalized my ambitions, enabling me to create hundreds of Sites for myself and for clients. And now Wordpress is a bloated whale.
And Search was easy back then. Submit to Alta Vista, Lycos, Magellan, and throw Yahoo a couple of hundred bucks for a directory listing. Then this new Search engine was launched. Google was going to change the world... and unfortunately, it did.
I now own a very small SEO/WebSite Maintenance company, very small because I keep it that way - because I hate it. I hate jumping through hoops whenever Google burps. I hate living in the dark and mostly I hate the volume of tech information I'm forced to consume just to stay afloat. I've yet to create my author's Web Site and I haven't updated my company Web Site in five years. And I understand more than ever why the cobbler's kids have no shoes.
Guilty. I have a catch-all website where I used to blog. I keep the technical aspects up to date and that's about it. The rest is what makes it feel overwhelming to tackle it. Sigh.
I'm totally ignorant of websites, and have no idea what conversion is. I use Godaddy, because it was easy to build. Supposedly, it only takes an hour, but it took me a month to get it looking decent. Am I happy with Godaddy? No, they keep changing stuff that makes it tougher to put my short stories up, so I use it mostly for my email list newsletter. And I show my books on it. If you saw it, you would howl with pain.
Tom, I'm laughing. Conversion is the number of people who do something as opposed to nothing. It can be measured on any action, really. The number of people who sign up for a list. The number of people who click to read something. The number of people who make a purchase (ie on an ecommerce site). The very simplest conversion is getting them to click something -- anything. Because when a new visitor arrives at a site, the most common action (over 50%) is to look and leave.
I used to do website critiques, thinking they'd help people understand what's wrong with their site. I stopped doing them because I was howling in pain too often. lol.
Ok— yes I have a website. I’ve redesigned it several times. I’m not for sure what it’s supposed to do. I get Ahfed’s (or however you spell it) monthly report. Yes, I rank in the top 30 for some key words. I get about 300 visits per month. The site introduces me, advertises my upcoming book, collects emails, and points to my social media following. The bounce rate is 87%. That’s super bad, right? I used to blog but don’t these days. I also use it as a link holder, instead of Linktree or Beacons. One page directs people to a newsletter signup, a YouTube channel, and a list of resources (with affiliate links). I use that page on IG and TikTok. Come to think of it — that traffic isn’t showing up in this stats because I’m tracking the conversions through Bit.ly and those numbers are good. — hmmm I’ll have to check into that. I’m not sure what else I should be using it for.
Website: https://kerrymcavoyphd.com
Link page: https://kerrymcavoyphd.com/kerry-mcavoy-phd-links/
Ouch, Kerry. Yeah, 87% is super high. Ideally, bounce rate should be under 50% which means you keep at least half the visitors. Do you use Google analytics or what are you using for analytics? When I have this crazy handbook ready, I'm going to ask you if you have time to read it. I'd love your take on it.
Oh I’d love too! Yes!! I use Google analytics.
Oh good. What is it that isn't showing up in your stats? Not sure I followed that part. :)
I have a public page that hadn’t been listed in the website’s menu. I’m using a bit.ly to track users and hundreds have visited it the past few days but those hits aren’t being counted. I’m not sure what “event” Google uses to trigger a “count.” I just updated the site so thar page is now a part of the menu tree-hopefully that fixes the problem and gives more accurate stats.
I had one that was a huge mess because *I* designed (cough cough) it and aren't I quirky and creative? *sigh*
Someone else did my new one and it's a different kind of mess, esp. converted to phone. Mess. So how the heck do we clean up the mess? Hire it out?
A couple years ago and then more recently, I took a Reedsy-dive on good authority that it held all the dropped gems of NYC publishing--there, eagerly waiting to work with a professional writer to create magnificent works of literary magnitude....ahem.
So, that's not what's going on over there. It's a 'pay-by-gig' deal for the most part, and reading their CVs is like reading a complicated cipher that only people like you could decode, and I'm positive you'd read right through all of it and say "This person doesn't know marketing from a bag of doughnut holes."
Seriously, though. How do we clean up the mess? Have you cloned yourself yet or are you not taking new clients or...?
lol on Reedsy. You called it. There's so much hot air over there I could make popcorn. One thing that drives me nuts is when designers and developers talk above their clients heads. There's no reason for that. But they do it because when people feel dumb, they pay for someone to take over.
I used to wish I could clone myself. lol. Now I think I'd rather empower people to understand what I do. Remember way back when, you'd asked me what I actually do? lol. My answer was way too long, back then. Now it's simple. I make sites convert.
So instead of teaching marketing and html and design and all that crap, my goal is to build a prebuilt site, and package it up with "here's what you need, and why you need it" steps. Because armed with that, authors can choose to do it, or even if they hire out, they'll know what needs to be done. Not sure if that makes sense, but it's what I'm working on.
Makes sense, and gosh, no code words or industry jargon for me to Google? Are you fer realsies?! lol xoxo
"They don’t stick around to see if what they’ve built converts. By the time the website has 30 days of stats post-launch, they’ve moved on to the next client, the next site.
They have to. It’s how they pay the bills."
---> Yes. The same applies to other online creators we see. Writing programs, coding programs, investment programs, dropshipping programs etc.
I actually think website design is really hard from the conversion point of view, perhaps even more difficult than 15 years ago?? I'm not sure, just a hunch, and from what I observed.
I have redesign my sites more times I can count, and more money I can spend now.
BTW, I am excited to see your new site and when your new service is rolled out. Just a gut feel. Hahaha.
No pressure.
You're so right. It is harder now than 15 years ago, for sure. Mostly because there's more competition. When I built my first site, there were less thank 10,000 websites on the entire internet. Now the numbers are crazy.
You've nailed me. I want to build a volume of poetry, not a website. Sigh.
I know. I was thinking of you when I typed that. You I kind of really want to work with. Just in a different way than I've worked in the past. When I get this stuff finished, I'm going to come knocking. :)
WONDERFUL HALLELUJAH
lol. ❤️
I've had an ignored author site for years. Mostly ignored because I have no idea WTF I want to market on it. "Go read me on Medium" is about the extent of it lol.
I REALLY wish I cared more about it but I just don't. I have nothing to sell.
PS: I love building Wordpress sites. I'm kind of a nerd about it.
I'd love to see a list of author websites you *do* like. And what they did right. Perhaps a follow-up post?
Yes indeed. That's a post I've got in draft format. I've found a couple of examples, but want to find a few more. It's slim pickings out there. lol. But yup, that is for sure a post I want to write.
I built my first WebSite in December of 1994. No one in my part of Florida had ever heard of the Web, so my success wasn't much of a pickup line for this recently divorced guy. Hand coding in those days was fun...almost. Then I purchased a program called Hot Dog which made things easier.
I remember the excitement as I watched the Web evolve. Netscape could see colored text...and center justifying...and gifs. I purchased Net Magazine and learned how to make animated gifs. One of my Sites even won a Magellan award. I closed my own Site down (the 60s Trading Post for the 90s) and placed an ad in Creative Loafing as a Web Designer. I knew my investment was paying off when a client paid me three hundred bucks to build a Site.
I was on a roll, but then everything changed. The Web became convoluted and design had too many new things to learn. The advent of Wordpress revitalized my ambitions, enabling me to create hundreds of Sites for myself and for clients. And now Wordpress is a bloated whale.
And Search was easy back then. Submit to Alta Vista, Lycos, Magellan, and throw Yahoo a couple of hundred bucks for a directory listing. Then this new Search engine was launched. Google was going to change the world... and unfortunately, it did.
I now own a very small SEO/WebSite Maintenance company, very small because I keep it that way - because I hate it. I hate jumping through hoops whenever Google burps. I hate living in the dark and mostly I hate the volume of tech information I'm forced to consume just to stay afloat. I've yet to create my author's Web Site and I haven't updated my company Web Site in five years. And I understand more than ever why the cobbler's kids have no shoes.
The Web is just no fun anymore.
Guilty. I have a catch-all website where I used to blog. I keep the technical aspects up to date and that's about it. The rest is what makes it feel overwhelming to tackle it. Sigh.
Harry Bingham of Jericho Writers recommends this Wordpress theme for authors selling books: https://gocreate.me/themes/elementor-for-writers/ I wonder what your opinion is.