4 Basic Website Questions Every Landing Page Must Answer and Answer Quickly

By Karen Cioffi

The internet is teeming with information on everything you can possibly think of. This includes information on your business platform. But, with all this information available, there are still many who aren’t aware of the basics, the dos and don’ts of an online platform.

I recently came across a website on ‘article submissions.’ Finding it on Twitter and being interested, I clicked on the link and it brought me to a site with articles on unrelated topics. There wasn’t an About page, or any information on what the site was about. And, there wasn’t a Contact or Services page. This marketer/business owner was leading people back to his site, apparently for the purpose of selling something, but the site was completely ineffective. It was one of the most puzzling sites I’ve ever seen.

So, the question to ask is: If someone lands on your website, by accident, through a search, or through a social link, is it effective? Is it ‘visitor optimized?’

To answer these questions, you first need to know the fundamentals of a business website. And, a business website could be an author’s site, a home business site, or a small business site. The basics are the same for all websites that are trying to sell something.

To guide you in the right direction to creating a ‘visitor optimized’ website, let’s go over the very basics.

Online marketing 101 is to create a website that works, a website that converts visitors into clients/customer or a subscriber. This is the foundation of your online empire. And, an effective website needs to answer these four basic questions:

1. Who are you?
2. What are you offering?
3. Why is what you’re offering worthy of the visitor’s time, money, or email address?
4. Is the path to what you’re offering, the path to the YES, simple? (The YES is the potential customer’s positive action, whether it’s opting into your mailing list or buying what you’re offering, or other call-to-action)

Here are the four elements:

1. Who You Are

Make sure your website has an About Me page. In addition, your landing page should make it clear who you are. Don’t let the visitor have to hunt you down – don’t let her have to search through your site, just to find some information on you.

Tip: Keep the About Me content conversational, like you’re talking to a friend.

2. What You Have to Offer

Your landing page needs to quickly convey what you have to offer. To do this, you can use an image with content or a video. Video is highly effective – it is proven to increase conversion.

Tip: Keep the ‘key’ information above the fold. This means it must be visible upon landing on the page. The visitor shouldn’t have to scroll down the page to find it.

3. Why What You’re Offering is Worthy of the Visitor’s Time/Money/Email

Let the visitor know the value of what you have to offer. And, if possible, make it seem exclusive. Figure out a way to make the visitor think he can’t get what you’re offering anywhere else.

Tip: The visitor must perceive the value of your offer as higher than its cost.

4. Is the Path to What You’re Offering (the Path to the YES) Simple?
Marketers use the acronym KISS (Keep it Simple Silly) to emphasis the importance of simplicity. Your website should be easy to navigate, focused and clear, have a simple design, and it should have an easy path to saying YES.

Tip: To keep it simple, have only one or two steps to opt-in or to take some other call-to-action.

To further cement the ‘tell it all and tell it quickly’ website strategy, MarketingExperiments.com explains that you have only seven seconds to do what’s needed. That’s the length of time you have to grab the visitor, let him know who you are and what you have to offer.

Ready, set, go!

Original article source: http://www.karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com/2013/06/4-basic-website-questions-every-landing.html 

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 Image copyright 2012 Karen Cioffi
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Plan, Prepare, Promote, Prosper

     Published or soon-to-be published authors, do you have a plan for promotion?

You must  plan, prepare, and promote to prosper.

 

     Plan Goal-setting is important for any endeavor. A writing career qualifies. Without a goal, we might, as my mother always told me, “Throw a lot of dirt on the wall, and some of it will stick.” Yes, it might, but an author will sell more books and be more efficient with a goal.

 

     Your goal should be 1)specific 2)written, and 3)forgivable.

 

Specific  Not, I want to sell a lot of books in the first few months

          But, I want to sell 500 books in three months

 

Written   No, it’s not enough to keep it in your head.

          Write down: pre-order – exact goal

                      1^st 3 months -exact goal

                      1^st year

                      In 5 years, where do you want to be?

                      In 10 years, how many books do you want to have published?

 

Forgivable Shoot for the limits of outer space

           But, forgive yourself if you only hit earth’s moon

 

 

****After setting that goal, break it down into small chunks of how to do what you planned.

 

 

If I want to sell 100 books in the first three months, what do you have to do?

 

     Schedule in-person events?

     Get up a website?

     Arrange a blog tour?

     Send out press releases?

 

Decide what you’re prepared to do to make your goal. Do you need to revise the goal? Decision time.

    

Then

 

 

Prepare Get down to the nitty-gritty

 

The dreaded to-do list

 

1.     Make a list of blogging friends that would do a promo post for you.

2.     Contact the librarian in a nearby small town.

3.     Contact the Friends of the Library group in a city.

4.     Go talk with a book store manager.

5.     Set up and schedule tweets about your book launch.

6.     Fix a promo page to send to media.

7.     Make a list of radio stations or newspapers to contact.

 

Whatever your to-do list consists of, keep in mind your goal and what you are prepared to actually do.

 

Promote

Start marking things off of your to-do list. When you think of a new avenue or you’re asked to do something such as speak for a book club, add that to your to-do list, and keep on working.

 

Remember

 

Planning and preparation mean nothing unless you put action to the goal. Take a deep breath, swallow your fear, and expose you and your book to possible rejection.

 

Maybe, just maybe, you’ll

 

Prosper

 

The first e-mail you get thanking you for a good book will make it worth all you’ve done. I guarantee it.

 

 

In honor of July 4, I wish to express my appreciation to all those who have served and fought to keep our country free.

 

America, the land of the brave and the home of the free.

 

Find me on http://www.janetkbrown.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Janet-K-Brown-Author/143915285641707?ref=br_tf
Twitter: https://twitter.com/janetkbrowntx

Twitter Refresher #marketing

by: Stephanie Burkhart

Twitter is a great resource for marketing in the social media domain. Back in October 2011, I wrote about Twitter and how to use it, so I thought I'd take another look at it – a "refresher" so to speak.

Twitter's changed its look this year. If anything, I find the new look "busy," and I'm a firm believer in the "keeping it simple" look. The good news about the changed look is that it's still easy enough to find the spaces to post a tweet, send a direct message, and find the follow button.

The pros and cons haven't changed. Pros: It's cheap and fun. Cons: It's confusing and intimidating.  In my opinion: if you're new to Twitter, the learning curve is in the middle, not too high, but you have to hunt for a couple of things.

Twitter is a great way to get the word out about a new book, or a new review if you're an author, but in order to be successful, you've got to do a couple of things. I recommend:

·      Dedicate 10-15 minutes a day to be on Twitter.

·      Friend 5 people a day, preferably those who share your interests. If you're an author you might want to target book bloggers and book reviewers. Friending people is a great way to build your Twitter base.

·      Do a half and half. Make half your daily tweets promotional, the other half, let your personality shine. Tweet the little things. I find I always get a good response when I tweet "getting 7-11 coffee."

Going Deeper - Twitter 102

When you tweet, try to use a keyword to describe you or your book. For example, the genre of the book, or the price point.

Use an icebreaker to bring in followers. Icebreakers like "How's the weather your way?" "Who saw Game of Thrones last night?" or "What's your favorite coffee?' attract people to answer and follow.

Use programs like Hoot suite to preschedule tweets so you don't have to be on Twitter frequently, especially if you have a busy day running errands.

If you have a blog, and blog fairly regularly, use Triberr to connect with others to Tweet about your blog posts. The basic Triberr account is free. There is a bit of a high learning curve with Triberr – you need to link up your blog and Twitter, but once you master it, you'll have a steady stream of tweets that will attract people to your blog.

The little things go a long way. It's important to talk about your interests – gardening, movies, music, books, traveling, coffee, wine, things that appeal to kids. Fellow Tweeters get to know you and tend to reciprocate. It's all about reaching out and finding an audience.

#hashtags: when you hashtag a tweet it allows fellow tweeters to find tweets in that topic.

@sign: lets people know you're talking about them, or they are talking about you. I love seeing an "@" sign and my name. I appreciate it and try to reciprocate.

Question: I'd love to hear your thoughts about Twitter. Do you use it? Why or why not? If you do, what do you do that makes it work for you?

Author Bio: Stephanie Burkhart is a 911 dispatcher for LAPD. She loves coffee, adores chocolate and is going to participate in the Alz.org Walk to Cure Alzheimer's on 20 SEP in Santa Clarita, CA.  Her children's book, "The Giving Meadow," is published with 4RV Publishing.

FIND ME ON THE WEB AT:

WEBSITE:

http://www.stephanieburkhart.com

TWITTER:

http://twitter.com/StephBurkhart

FACEBOOK:

https://www.facebook.com/StephanieBurkhartAuthor

GOOD READS:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031660.Stephanie_Burkhart

YOU TUBE CHANNEL:

http://www.youtube.com/user/botrina?feature=mhee

PINTEREST:

http://pinterest.com/sgburkhart/

Europe on Ten Words a Day

Europe on Ten Words a Day

During my sophomore year at the University of Michigan, now many years ago, I discovered an organization that placed students in math and science in other countries for practical work - for what would now be called co-oping. The organization's primary objective was to exchange students among the various European countries, but somehow we managed to start a branch at U of M. I eagerly joined, and successfully lobbied a couple of professors who agreed to sponsor a foreign co-op student for the summer.

When I applied myself, hoping for a placement the summer between my sophomore and junior years, I thus had a preferred status; as someone who had worked for the organization, I went to the front of the queue, so to speak. Since I speak fluent French, I asked for France, Belgium, Luxembourg, or Switzerland, countries where French is spoken.

But placements for students from the United States were limited, and I was offered a spot in the Netherlands, at the Agricultural University of Wageningen, assisting a professor of mathematics.

Dutch has several levels of gutterals, with pronounced somewhat like the German "ch" and a couple more that are deeper in the throat. Gouda, the cheese, for example, is pronounced something like "How-da." It took me a week to learn to pronounce the name of the town, and until I could, I didn't dare go anywhere. Most people my age and younger spoke English,  but many of the older folks in the towns surrounding Wageningen did not.

I still remember my excitement that first weekend when I boarded the bus for a nearby, larger, town, Ede (pronounced Ay-da).

In relatively short order, I found a ballet class in town - I was passionately fond of ballet at the time - and signed up for lessons. It was there that I had my first lesson in cultural insularity.

"I'm an American," I responded when asked where I was from.

"Oh, so am I," a diminutive student replied. "I'm from Nicaragua. How about you?"

"I'm from the United States." And that is how, to this day, I respond when asked what country I'm from.

But soon, being then as now, a voracious reader, I faced the knotty problem of finding reading material in a town without any large bookstores. Hurrying down to the local library, I asked what I needed to do to join: pay a small fee and fill out a form.

The library's supply of books in English was quite small, but fortunately they had a couple of bookcases full of books in French, including a lot of Georges Simenon. So I spent my summer reading through the library's entire supply of Simenon's Maigret novels, some of his others, various memoirs about the war, a memoir by a French doctor, and several French science fiction novel, as well as a French translation of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.As my father was an attorney, I was familiar with the difference between the French legal system and ours: under French law, the accused is guilty until proven innocent, making Maigret's investigations, the ones leading up to his arresting the guilty party, all the more important.

I very much enjoyed my summer reading. You simply never know when being fluent in  a foreign language well will come in handy.

Create Pre-Book Buzz

How to Create Pre-Book Buzz

By Suzanne Cordatos

www.suzannecordatos.blogspot.com

Your long-awaited book is FINALLY hitting the shelves in the foreseeable future. How do you build buzz that drives book sales? Be pro-active! Here's how to get started and FIND YOUR AUDIENCE!

Write non-fiction articles and use social media to find folks that relate to your fiction topic

At first glance, there isn't much non-fiction I can squeeze from my upcoming 4RV picture book about a dragon, Willard the Dragon: Sneeze-Fire. But look again! Willard loves pepper jelly. How about putting a recipe for pepper jelly on my blog with a link to it from Facebook? Willard loves to play in the snow. I started a Pinterest page showcasing snow-dragon photos.  The dragon catches a bad cold, so an article geared for pre-schoolers on how to avoid catching a cold would be appropriate for a school newsletter, or perhaps an online magazine can pick it up. With the third Hobbit movie coming out this year, dragons are everywhere. I can hop on the bandwagon with an article about books and their famous dragon characters.

Focus on finding the niche where your readers hang out

In the case of my upcoming novel, The Lost Crown of Apollo, the problem isn’t so much coming up with non-fiction topics as how to narrow the field of too many. Anyone who has dipped their toes in the pool of Greek history knows it is a deep ocean rich with material. Archaeology, thousands of years of history and wars, religion, islands, tourism, boating, Greek mythology . . . the list goes on and on. How do I find new angles on such well-trodden paths? The main characters discover spear fishing, snorkeling, jellyfish that light up like Christmas and explore cave formations. I can write articles about these topics, along with kid-friendly history about the Greek islands. Did you know that the Greek island homes were built with a maze of alleys on purpose to confuse pirates? Narrow the focus to find your potential readers.

Publishing takes forever—how can I get articles out there before my book?

Seek out newsletters for special interest groups (print and online) and discover local groups for special interests that may have their own publications/flyers. Does your main character ride a bike or dig for dinosaur bones? There are often city clubs and local groups who gather for shared interests from kite-flying to hiking to archaeological digs. These venues may have a website, blog, flyer, meetings and festivals in which to volunteer as a guest contributor. In a timely manner, you'll build a readership of kids and parents most likely care for your store before it becomes available. What author doesn't want a long line of people anxious for their special signed copy?

Think global, act local

Community bulletin boards, local library and independent bookstore newsletters may be a good source. Develop a grassroots base of fans for your book that can spill out into social media and cyberspace. Discover local clubs in interest areas similar to your main characters. With further digging and a few phone calls, you may find that these groups have newsletters of their own that could print a timely article—and could welcome you as a guest speaker expert on a topic of direct interest to future readers. The local preschools may like to have a guest speaker talk about how to not let your dragon catch a cold!

My fictional family spends their summer vacation on a boat. While there may not be much interest for ancient Greek mythology in my local area, there is a lot of interest for boating of all kinds. I live near the beautiful Connecticut shoreline with an old whaling tradition and diehard boaters in places like Mystic, Guilford, Stonington, and the Thimble Islands. Bank Street Books and RJ Julia are a fantastic independent bookstores along the shoreline and they constantly host events with authors. With some pre-book effort on your part, you'll have a ready made audience anxious to click "buy" when your book comes out!

What ideas have worked to generate your book buzz? Please share in comments!

How Do You Make a Good Story Worthy of Getting Past the Gatekeeper?

By Karen Cioffi

Just about every author knows about the "gatekeeper." The dreaded acquisitions editor who decides if your manuscript is worthy of her attention and the publishing house's backing. In other words, the editor who decides if your manuscript is worthy of a publishing contract.

To make sure your ‘good’ story becomes a 'worthy' story, the Writer's Digest article, "7 Simple Ways to Make a Good Story Great" gives excellent tips on just what it takes to create a 'worthy' story.

The author of the article, Elizabeth Sims, explains that "there are subtle differences between fiction that’s passable and fiction that pops—fiction that shows that you know what you’re doing."

So what are those 7 strategies or tips?

1. Well, the first tip mentioned is the five senses. Sims says writers have to go beyond what is expected. Editors and agents want more. "They want physical business that deepens not just your setting, but your characterizations."

2. Next on the list is the use of idiosyncrasies. Each of us has some idiosyncrasy, some weirdness, some form of irrational behavior that makes us unique and interesting. Using those characteristics deepens and broadens your characters.

3. Third up is realism. Sims says, "Forget about being pretty." Write it as it is. Don't worry about it being raw or dark or unpopular. Don’t go for the popular or expected, make it real.

4. The fourth on the list is to write without 'dumbing' down. Readers are savvy and most are educated. They don't want to be written down to, to be told what to think and when. Let them fill in the empty spaces.

5. Fifth on the list is to keep it focused and moving forward. I've read a number of manuscripts that had 'pausing' information - content that wasn't needed in the story and that would make the reader pause, wondering why it was in there. Causing a reader to pause while reading is never a good thing. Pausing causes distraction, which may keep the reader from turning the next page.

6. Next up is the use of laughter. Wit and understated humor goes a long way in increasing engagement in a story. And, even if your novel is on the serious side, there will be moments in it that you can lighten it up a bit of subtle humor.

7. The final tip is to "make them cry." Sims aptly notes that, "Lots of books make readers laugh and lots make readers cry, but when readers laugh and cry while reading the same book, they remember it."

The gatekeepers have keen eyes, looking for weaknesses in your manuscript. Use these seven tips to help get pass those gatekeepers.

Reference:
7 Simple Ways to Make a Good Story Great
http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/7-simple-ways-to-make-a-good-story-great

Original article source: http://www.karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com/2014/05/how-do-you-make-good-story-worthy-of.html

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Deep POV (Limited Third Person)

One of the first things to decide when writing your novel is who tells the story. The two most popular choices are third person and first person. We hear much about both, but a reminder is always in order.

In first person narration, one character tells the whole story. The reader views and understands everything through one person’s eyes. Note this method used by debut author, Ladonna Cole, in a fantasy YA, The Torn:

 

          “No, Greg, You did not create them, but you can

    control them. Tell them to go away.”

          He grimaced at me and his face cracked with

    grief. I knew he didn’t believe me, yet, I was

    determined to convince him.

 

Notice the use of the letter “I”, and the word, “we.” The protagonist, Kate, tells the story. Readers know nothing away from what she sees, feels, hears, experiences.

 

I tell the story in my debut YA novel, Victoria and the Ghost, in third person. Notice the difference from this quote:

 

          Victoria moved to a cluster of graves at the southern

     back fence and began her work. Squatting hurt her legs.

     When she plopped her hips on the hard ground and stretched

     the kinks from her legs, she heard rattling. Movement

     caught her peripheral vision.

 

Notice in that excerpt, there’s no “I” or “we.” Instead, it’s “Victoria” and “she” that tells the events.

 

Several years ago, an agent described my third person novel as being in omniscient point-of-view.” I didn’t understand the criticism until I recently read an article by Mark Canter in my copy of the RWR magazine (put out by Romance Writers of America).

 

Canter says third person can be told in two forms, limited and omniscient. He describes omniscient as the narrator being a “disembodied witness who hovers over the characters and their actions, telling the reader exactly what’s going on externally and also inside each character’s heads.” His definition of limited third person is picking one character at a time and experiencing the story as if the reader is that character.

 

Years ago, I took a course called Deep Point-of-View. The teacher used this phrase as a method to put the reader into the character’s skin, not just hearing about it from the character.

 

Two examples:

 

     Calvin watched the man lift a gun and point it with shaky fingers at Calvin. Fear swept over him. He halted wondering if he could overpower his enemy in time to live.

 

     Calvin’s heart bounced with each bob of the gun. He took one step, two …. Sweat trickled down his temple. Click. The next sound would be a bang, but by then, he would be dead. His legs froze.

 

 

Which example puts you better into the character’s skin?

 

That’s deep POV.

 

Try writing your own examples, both hearing it through the POV character and then living it with the POV character. Feel the difference. Write like you’re experiencing it in real time.

 

Two more examples to help you get started:

 

     Renee awoke and looked around her. A bright light was shining in her face. The wall was a stark white, but she saw colors moving around her bed. Her arm was restrained by an IV. She wondered if she was still in Hawaii.

 

     Renee awoke and squinted against the bright light. A kaleidoscope of colors swirled against a stark white wall. An IV restrained one arm.

     Was she still in Hawaii?

Both examples give the same information. The first gives the story through Renee’s eyes. In comparison, though the second one gives it through Renee’s point of view, too, the reader lives it with her.

 

Notice the differences:

 

Deep POV uses more active verbs, less passive.

Deep POV doesn’t use filtering words such as she saw or she looked.

Deep POV shows, doesn’t just tell.

Deep POV makes you feel it along with the character.

 

In Deep POV, the writing is tighter.

 

What about you?

 

Do you write omniscient third person or limited third person, better known as deep POV?

 

Other helpful sites on this topic are:

 

http://www.hbarwa.com/MemberArticles/DeepPointofView.htm

  

http://margaretdaley.com/2011/04/point-of-view/

 

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/deep-pov/