Your Author Website with Michelle Barraclough
Michelle: [00:00:00] When you land on a really good-looking, but also functional website, you get such a sense of that author or that business - about their personality, their professionalism, but also a sense of ease as you navigate through it, which shows that they've really thought about you as a visitor and making it as pleasurable an experience as possible.
Pamela: [00:00:21] Welcome to Writes4Women, a podcast all about celebrating women's voices and supporting women writers. I'm Pamela Cook women's fiction author, writing teacher, mentor, and podcaster. Each week on the Convo Couch, I'll be chatting to a wide range of women writers, focusing on the heart, craft and business of writing, along with a new release feature author each month. You can listen to the episodes on any of the major podcasting platforms or directly from the Writes4Women website, where you'll also find the transcript of each chat and the extensive Writes4Women backlist.
On a personal writing note, my current release is All We Dream. If you'd like to know more about it or any of my books, you can check out my website at pamelacook.com.au for more information.
Before beginning today's chat, I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the Dharawal people, the traditional custodians of the land on which this podcast is being recorded along with the traditional owners of the land throughout Australia and pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging.
And a quick reminder that there could be strong language and adult concepts discussed in this podcast. So please be aware of this. If you have children around.
Now let's relax on the Convo Couch and chat to this week's guest…
My guest today on Writes4Women is Michelle Barraclough. Michelle is a woman who wears many hats. She's an accomplished writer whose first novel As I Am, a contemporary drama, was highly commended in the 2017 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers and earnt her a 12-month mentorship with Hachette. Michelle is currently working on her second novel, The Tangled Green, while juggling quite a few other writing-related projects.
Michelle's double degree in business and arts, majoring in literature and marketing, led her not only down the writing path, but she has also run her own business, written a long-running blog on parenting and is now the marketing manager for Storyfest, a fabulous writers festival on the New South Wales South Coast.
Michelle also designs websites, specializing in authors at Fresh Web Design. And because that's not quite enough, she has started a brand new podcast called the Writer's Book Club where she does a deep dive along with the author into a specially selected novel each month.
I first met Michelle when we worked on Storyfest together a couple of years back. We discovered we had a shared love of quite a few authors and books, drinking champagne in hot tubs and vintage caravans.
Not long after we met Michelle joined our writer’s group, The Inkwell, and we've been chewing the writing, book and now podcasting fat on frequent occasions ever since. Michelle also designed the Writes4Women website, which Kel and I were so happy with and which has been an absolute joy and ease to maintain.
So it's great to have Michelle here today to do a deep dive into websites for authors.
Michelle, welcome to the Writes4Women Convo Couch.
Michelle: [00:03:32] Thank you for having me, Pam. I'm so happy to be here.
Pamela: [00:03:35] We've got lots of things to talk about and we've had some questions thrown in from the Writes4Women community out there. There'll be plenty in this episode for writers, whether you're an aspiring author or an already established author to think about to do with the website. You are someone who wears many hats in your writing and your normal life. But what prompted you to set up Fresh Web Design?
Michelle: [00:03:59] That's a great first question. I've been building websites for years, both for my own business and for friends. And then those friends told other friends and before I knew it, I was building all sorts of websites, but in a fairly ad hoc way. And then last year during COVID, I thought it might be an ideal time to formalize the business, so set a proper pricing structure so that people could tailor a package that suited them. For example, not everyone needs an online store or blog. And I just love designing websites because it's both creative and technical. So I just find it very satisfying. When you land on a really good-looking, but also functional website, you get such a sense of that author or that business - about their personality, their professionalism, but also a sense of ease as you navigate through it, which shows that they've really thought about you as a visitor and making it as pleasurable an experience as possible.
That sounds a bit weird, but you know what I mean, right? Getting that balance right is just a wonderful challenge. I love it.
Pamela: [00:05:02] Yeah. That's really interesting that you talk about it being an experience because I remember with my own website and that obviously is an ongoing thing, so you're always having to update, no matter what business you're in, I guess. But I remember reading something about making your website an experience, and I thought that was a really good way to think about it. You know, that you want the people who come there to actually enjoy being there.
Michelle: [00:05:26] Yeah, absolutely. I'm on a mission, I think, to rid the world of those awful jarring websites with the clashing colours and too much going on. So I like a really fresh, clean approach to website design.
Pamela: [00:05:40] Yeah. Which is really evident in the work that I've seen you do. And you are an author yourself, so you have really great insight into what an author should have or could have on their website. But what would you say are the things that authors really need to consider and to, definitely have – their must haves on their website?
Michelle: [00:05:59] Yes. Well, I think website design has changed a little bit over the years because we often are looking at websites on our mobile devices. And so having a home page and putting everything up above the fold as they call it, so everything above where somebody would normally scroll down, it's not as important these days because people are very, very used to scrolling. So your home page needs to be laid out in sections, as well as having a navigation menu up at the top, because that's what people are used to. If they're on a desktop, they're used to having navigation at the top. But if they want a mobile device, they're happy to just scroll. I like to have websites laid out, or the homepage laid out, in sections. I'm going to direct people if you're interested in having a look at an example of what I'm talking about to a website that I built recently for an author, amandahampson.com because it's a really good example of how a homepage I think for an author could be laid out.
So right up top and center you've got her latest novel with a kick-ass quote or review. So that's front and center. And then you've got about her, like a short little section on her bio, a section on each of her books, a section on her events that she's got coming up, all of those things just laid out very briefly in sections.
That way, if someone's just scrolling on a device, they can just get a little taste of everything that she's got going on. But if then they are on a desktop or they want to know more about her bio, you know, they might be a magazine or something who wants to get her bio off her website and a headshot they can click on the menu and go to her about page, and that will have her bio and her head shots and they can grab those off there. So it just gives people a different way of navigating the site when they're on a mobile device or on a desktop. So that's your home page. And then generally the other must-haves, I would say are an About page. You've got to have a bio. I recommend having a short and a long version a short version for things like podcasts, where the podcast or just wants to quickly grab that bio as an intro. And a long version might be more for, you know, a long-form magazine article or something, or just for a reader who wants to have a sticky beak and learn a bit more about you.
You've got to have a books section of course, because that's why you're in the business to sell books. In your book section, you'd have great images of your books. You'd include a blurb for each book, reviews, an extract if you have it, that's a really great sales tool. Book club notes, if you have those and of course, links of where to buy both digitally or online. Or point people to your favorite bookstore, if you want to. All that sort of stuff needs to go into that books section.
If you like writing a blog, I would put a blog in there. And if you've got events coming up, particularly around book launch time you can put all your events into a separate page as well. I like having an Events page and that is also great for people who do things like school visits or workshops or writing classes or, things like that. They can have a section in there as well.
You want a Contact page of course, whether you have your direct contact details or it's your agent details or your publisher details. I think it's also a good idea to have your social media feed. Particularly if you're on Instagram, it's lovely to have a feed in there with maybe just four of your latest images from your Instagram feed.
It's just a nice way for people to see a little bit more of your personality and it's constantly updating, it's an automatic feed. I think Google likes having websites that are constantly being updated. So that's a good thing to have. And the last thing I would recommend for a website is a call to action.
We are in the business of selling books and one of the best ways to sell books is via word of mouth. But of course we can't sell books via word of mouth. I'm doing air quotes here, people. We have to literally rely on word of mouth. And so it's great to be able to get into people's inboxes if you can.
I think we're going to talk about pop-ups later, but having a little pop-up somewhere, or one of those sections on your homepage, which is a place where people can sign up to your newsletter is also a good thing to have because we don't own Facebook. We don't own Instagram. We don't own Pinterest.
That is not our real estate. We are renting that real estate, but our website is our real estate. And if Facebook and Instagram and all of those other social media platforms were to blow up tomorrow, how are you going to connect with your readers? You'll be able to email them because you'll have the database of your readers from your website. So that's your real estate. And that's really, really important to have.
Pamela: [00:10:52] Yeah. Which we saw recently, didn't we with Facebook putting a hold on so many things and a lot of authors being affected by that. I know myself, the Writes4Women page was stopped on Facebook. And you know, it really brought home to me, that whole message about your website, really being, like you say, your real estate online.
Michelle: [00:11:10] Yeah. And you know, it doesn't have to be salesy at all. I think people worry about that, but you know, people might be genuinely interested in your novels and what you have to say and what you have to offer. So give them an opportunity to connect with you.
Pamela: [00:11:24] Okay, so there's a whole lot of things there Michelle you've talked about. And I know you're going to have a checklist for authors later that we'll talk about as well. But what about if you're an aspiring author? You know, if you haven't actually been published yet, you may be working on your first manuscript or working towards publication.
At what stage do you think it's worth actually setting up an author website. And when you do do that, if you're at that stage, what should you have on it, do you think?
Michelle: [00:11:52] Well if you're writing for yourself and you don't want or need anyone else to read your work, then there's absolutely no need for a website. But if at some stage in the future, you want to be published or find an audience for your work, then I'd say, get your website going as soon as possible. But you have to feel comfortable with having an online presence and understand that one day publishers, agents and readers will be visiting your site. And media.
So it's important that it represents who you are and the sort of image that you want to put out there. The question of what an aspiring author can put on their website is a really good one because, you know, I need, "I know I need an author platform, but what do I put on it? I don't have a book. I don't have anything relevant to put in my bio!"
So what do you put in? Well, pretty much everything that I mentioned before in the previous question. But instead of a books page, you could have a section that talks about your work in progress. And on that you could have a blurb or if you're feeling really brave, a whole synopsis, just to really flesh out what you're working on, if you're brave enough and a bit about your ongoing path to publication. And then in terms of your bio you could include any writing experiences or courses that you've done. You might've just done something at the Australian Writer's Centre or Writing New South Wales. You might have a degree, like I do, I have an Arts degree in literature. I don't think that taught me anything about how to write a novel, but, you know, it's kind of bookish and it's relevant, so that's in there. And it's also nice to add something personal, just like a published author would whether they're into horses or like Natasha Lester she's very into her fashion and people love stalking her on Instagram because she has the most beautiful photographs of Christian Dior dresses. So, put something a little bit personal in there, I think that's a really good thing to do.
You could also write a blog on subjects that interest you. I'm really interested in writing process, so that's on my blog, but you might like to write book reviews or your blog could be like a diary of your writing journey. So that could be something else to put on there if you're an aspiring author.
And it doesn't have to be a huge website. It doesn't have to have dozens of pages or anything like that, you know, keep it really simple, I think. But there are just a few ideas that people can use.
Pamela: [00:14:10] There's some great tips there, Michelle. And what about what you shouldn't have on there? Like, is there anything that you would say to authors definitely don't put this sort of image or that sort of post on there?
Michelle: [00:14:21] Yeah, not so much in terms of content, because I think most people are pretty sensible aren't they? They're not putting photos of themselves, drunk at parties or anything like that. I think it's more to do with the look of a website. You know, you don't want a website that's too cluttered with sidebars and automatically scrolling images that just assault the eyes as soon as you get on there. You don't want too much colour or conflicting colour. You want consistency, so you don't want conflicting fonts and just really anything that kind of jars the aesthetic of the website.
The other thing I'd be really wary of, and I've seen this quite a few times with published authors too. , they have a free WordPress site and there's advertising on it. And one author I spoke to, I actually just was helping her out recently and she didn't realize that she had advertising on her WordPress site. So that's a bit of a trap for newbies I think.
Pamela: [00:15:21] So does that happen because it is a free site and WordPress just automatically put the advertising on there?
Michelle: [00:15:26] Yes. So it will be for WordPress sites that have WordPress in the domain name. So that's kind of the indication that you haven't got a paid site. It really is worth just kicking in the 150 or 200 bucks or whatever it is just to make sure you've got a paid site. I don't know how much it is for WordPress because I work in Squarespace, but for a basic Squarespace site, you're looking at $196 I think it is for the year. And I just think it's really worth it.
Also, the other little pitfall I see is that people try to get a bit clever with their navigation. So you don't want to be too clever with the menu. Keeping it simple with really recognizable labels, you know, have an About page, not a very weird and wonderful alternative. Even a Contact page, don't call it a Get in Touch, call it a Contact page. That's what people are used to. The other thing about that is that it takes up valuable space on your navigation menu. So just keep the labels, pretty simple and recognizable.
The other thing is good imagery is really important. There's no excuse, really for poor images these days. We have brilliant smart phones with a gazillion filters that you can put on to lighten and brighten and, and make things look pretty. But you also have access to free imagery on the internet with sites like Unsplash and Pexels and they have beautiful images that you can use on your website for free.
So there's really no excuse to have poor images on there.
Pamela: [00:16:59] I totally agree. And you found some fabulous images for us for the Writes4Women website, that were really appropriate to the brand. And that's the next thing I wanted to ask you about actually. I mean, author branding is a whole topic in itself, but in terms of your website, what should you be thinking about for your branding on your website?
Michelle: [00:17:17] Well, I think your whole website should reflect your brand and it's probably worth just talking a little bit about what a brand is for an author. I mean, it's easy to know what a brand is for Nike, but what about for a person? When you're talking about an author, it's your personality, it's your genre.
It's a promise to your reader really about what they're going to get from you. So, who is your ideal reader? What do they want? It's your voice. Are you funny? Are you an expert in something? Are you whimsical? Do you write rural fiction? If so, your readers are going to expect a particular type of website. They will expect horses, I reckon. They're going to expect a few sunsets and they're going to expect, you know, just a bit of feel good. I think don't you think Pam?
Pamela: [00:18:09] I agree. And I think a really classic example is if you go to a thriller author's website, who's been branded or really worked on their branding, straight away, you can recognize the style of writing that that author has by the colours, the font, the images and all that sort of thing. So I guess then it's just taking that idea and applying it to whatever genre you write. Isn't it?
Michelle: [00:18:31] That's exactly right. And that's what I was going to say. You've got to take that, that brand, that genre, that voice, that promise to the reader about what they're going to get, and then you need to translate that for your website into colours, logo, fonts.
Some good examples are Rachel Johns. Now she has a tagline, which is Feel-good Fiction. And when you go onto her website, Oh my God, it's gorgeous. It's hot pink. There's a beautiful quirky picture of Rachael sort of lying down with her legs, kind of crossed at the back and smiling at the camera. So you immediately know what you're going to get with a Rachael Johns novel, right? Another author that comes to mind is Tara Moss. She writes crime and thrillers, you know her website is just what you'd expect. It's dark, it's glamorous, it's white on black and splashes of red.
And then at the other end of the spectrum, you've got somebody like Tamsin Janu, the children's author. It's interesting with children's authors because often it's not children that are on websites it's parents, right? So you don't want it to be too childish, but it's gotta be navigation-friendly and mum needs to be able to go on there and buy a book, let's face it. She needs to read the bio, she needs to know that you're a decent person or her child's asking, "Oh, I want to know more about the author, where do I find that?" It's going to be easily navigable, but you don't want to be using comic sans font, for example.
So she wanted maybe some fresh, fun colours and a fresh font but not too childish and not too sort of immature remembering who your audience is. So she's got her books on there and it's fresh and light and white, and I think it would appeal to both children and their mums or dads, whoever is buying the books.
In terms of creating it, we talked about a resource that I'm going to provide for the listeners later. And there are some resources that people can use to find out what the best color combinations are, for example, and some links to websites where you can find beautiful free images and logos as well, a good place to get logos made up that are in the style and that reflect the brand that you want to put across on your website.
The other thing that you might also want to consider as part of your branding is the aesthetic side of your latest release. If you have a book coming out, like for example, I was talking about Amanda Hampson before, but another example is Meredith Jaffe.
So those two authors both have books coming out in May, and we've created the website look based on their book covers. Amanda's is in beautiful, burnt oranges and like a pistachio green. And we've created the whole website around that. And Meredith's is in these kind of, again, a sort of a gold color and a beautiful forget me not blue.
So we've created headers and footers and the color palette around the book covers and , in a platform like Squarespace that's relatively easy to do and to chop and change with every book that comes out, it's actually not a big thing to do at all. So that can be really effective as well. And it's just nice to mix it up.
And with your brand, don't forget to apply it across all your platforms. So your website, your socials, your email, footer, bookmarks – consistency is the key. And that's the only other thing I would say about branding.
Pamela: [00:22:09] That's a great idea with the current book and keeping it consistent with what you've got out now. And as you say, you can change that up. But what if that is in conflict with your overall brand or it shouldn't be in conflict? Is that sort of what you're saying? It should all be part of that package.
Michelle: [00:22:25] Good question. Pam, look, it really is very much dependent on what the author wants to do. You'll notice though that with a lot of authors, like I was talking about Rachel Johns before. Her books, even though her website is sort of pink, a lot of her books are different colors.
They're orange or green, but they're all bright. And all of her book covers are quite consistent, especially in that sort of women's fiction side of things. But then she also has her rural romance brand as well. And she just makes that work. You can have different pages. So, your homepage is sort of like your landing page and that is your brand at that point in time. Isn't it?
Tara Moss is probably not going to release a rural romance anytime soon. So even if she did, she might decide, well, I'm going to mix that up and put that on my homepage. And then when you click on her past novels or her crime, or she might have a section in there that is her crime novels, you'll go into that page, and then that will be back to her dark, glamorous sort of side of things.
But I do feel like there is a way that you can blend those two things. I just don't think it would happen that often for that many authors. Look at your own website Pam, I've noticed you've done a beautiful job with yours.
Pamela: [00:23:46] I can't take the credit for that. My husband slash webmaster has been on the job there.
Michelle: [00:23:51] John, you've done a wonderful job. You've also, you know, changed up your website to match the color aesthetic of your last two releases. So, slowly over time, that's now reflecting more your brand, and that might change again in the future, but it's not gonna change every five minutes.
A website should evolve with you. And I think it can, it's easy to do so why not do it?
Pamela: [00:24:19] Great advice, Michelle. Can we talk a little bit about domain names? What name should an author choose if they're looking to set up a website and things like, when should they register it, and what are some of the pitfalls that you would have seen in relation to domain names?
Michelle: [00:24:35] I do get this question a lot. Now, just so you know, I build websites in Squarespace because after many years of using other platforms, I've just found them to be the most gorgeous modern templates. With Squarespace, they connect automatically to quite a few domain providers so that just makes my job really easy. But other website platforms like Wix and WordPress, I don't know how easily they connect. But one of the things I have found is that there are a couple of domain registrars that are better than others for quickly getting your website linked and live.
I use GoDaddy for all my domains, because after many years of linking both mine and my client's domains to their website, GoDaddy are the easiest to deal with. As I said, I can link it up automatically through Squarespace, but even if I need to get into GoDaddy's DNS settings, which is kind of the backend where you tell it what website to point to it at, their interface is really user-friendly and their support chat staff are fantastic. You can just jump on there and chat to them and they'll just help you, they're just brilliant. And if there are any complications, that's a really nice thing to have. You don't want to be dealing with someone in some far-flung country who doesn't speak much English and it's very difficult to communicate with. I've had those experiences.
I would strongly avoid going with a registrar based on price. There's just so many two-bit operators out there which make it almost impossible to link your website to your domain. And that's the last thing you want when you're ready to go live. You've spent all this time building up your website and then very difficult to make it go live. It's so frustrating and disappointing! Even some of the larger registrars can be a bit difficult to deal with. The most important thing I think is to go with someone that's reputable that has a name that you've heard of. So Go Daddy, even Crazy Domains is okay. I know a lot of WordPress people go with Bluehost. I think Bluehost is the most sort of reputable one when it comes to WordPress. But there is potential for a nightmare if you just go on and say, 'I want to just register my name as a domain name' and you see some place that's offering it for $5 when it's $20 with GoDaddy. Don't go with the $5 one.
You really do get what you pay for. And hey, we're talking about a difference of $15. The pain at the end of the day, it's just not worth it. And if you do decide to go with Squarespace and I think it's the same with Wix, you do get a free.com domain name with your annual subscription. There's no point paying twice. Although if you do want a .com.au, you can't get that with Wix or Squarespace. You have to go with someone like GoDaddy because you'll need an ABN.
So that's just a little tip there. In terms of choosing a domain, use your name, get your name. Now. Go on and get it! And if your name happens to be Jane Smith, that's probably going to be a little bit tricky. That domain name is probably already taken, but you can add Jane Smith Author, Jane Smith Writer, Writer Jane Smith, Author Jane Smith. And if all of those are taken, you might need to get a little bit creative. But if you can, and this is something that you really want to do, and you do want to have an author website someday, get your domain name now, go onto GoDaddy today and just grab it.
Pamela: [00:28:04] That's great advice, Michelle. And, I speak to a lot of aspiring authors and people who are sort of at that pre-publication stage, and some of them do say to me, "Oh, yeah, I know I need to get an author website. But that's down the track. I'll worry about all that later." But then the problem being, as you say, if you go on and the name that you had in your head has already been taken, then, you do have to get very creative sometimes. So it's worth investing in that, I think for the future if it's not very much money and you can put that name aside, it's definitely worth it. Isn't it?
Michelle: [00:28:36] I agree a hundred percent and grab this three-year deal or five-year deal or whatever it is. It's your name? You might as well grab it!
Pamela: [00:28:44] And keep it up to date. Keep your payments up to date because you don't want to lose it either.
We have had a few questions, Michelle, as well, or things that people want to know about through the Writes4Women community. And one of those things was what about managing a website if you write in different genres? So some writers do write, you know, for example, rural romance and women's fiction, or they might write crime and then something completely different. But they may be writing under the same name or they might be writing under a pseudonym.
What would you say to those authors?
Michelle: [00:29:18] I would say one website is enough. Put your time and your money into one site centered around your author brand. So as we discussed before with Rachael Johns, she's a great example. She has her rural romance brand. and her women's fiction brand, and they're just slightly different. But she has one website. She doesn't need two websites. She's a really good one to jump on and have a look at. It's one core message: feel good fiction. That's her one core message. And her website encompasses both. That catches the whole of who she is. People don't spend that long on websites. You're not going to send them to two websites; you've got enough trouble keeping them on one! So you might as well just have everything on there.
And as I say, it can be managed. We talked before about the homepage having sections Look at people like Kate Forsyth she writes in different genres. Jacqueline Moriarty writes YA, middle grade and adult – one website. So jump on those and have a look at what they do, but you really only need the one, I think.
Pamela: [00:30:25] And we talked before Michelle, you mentioned the possibility of having a blog. Blogs, perhaps aren't as popular as they once were, but what do you think are the advantages or the pros and cons of having a blog on your website?
Michelle: [00:30:38] I think there are more pros than cons, to be honest. I think having a blog is a great idea. First of all, make sure it's not taking away time from your writing. If you really want to write a novel, maybe don't spend time writing a blog. But having said that a blog is a great way to get your hand in and keep your hand in for your writing, and also have a break from your novel writing and just doing a little bit of fun writing. A blog post does not have to be a great big long essay. An example of someone who does it really well is Alison Tait. Her blog posts are short and punchy and full of value. She just gets across her point. She has a gorgeous, conversational writing style and, you feel like she's just kind of sidled up to you and said, "Hey, you know how you were asking me about book covers? Well, this is what I've just done, and here it is."
She's in, she's out. And it's just a really manageable chunk. And so I think it's definitely worth doing it from the point of view of also keeping your website fresh because you've always got fresh content.
If you're blogging on a regular basis, even if it's just once a week or once a fortnight or once a month, you've always got something coming through and Google likes fresh websites. It really likes having a website that's continually being updated with new information. So a blog is a great way to do that.
And we talked again about the sections on a homepage and one of those sections could be your blog and it could have a summary of your blog posts on there. So that's always constantly scrolling through as well with your latest four blog posts or whatever it might be. And then people can click on it and go into the actual post and read it, and then they can go more and read more, and there's categories in there. And they think, "well, I really like what Alison had to say about book covers. I wonder what she has to say about writing for middle graders." And so off they go, and they're fully engaged with your website and who you are, and while they're doing that, they're becoming fans and they becoming an advocate for you in your writing and who you are as an author.
Definitely more pros than cons to blogging.
Pamela: [00:32:51] Yeah, I like that. And I liked that you mentioned it's part of that whole experience of being on the website, isn't it? It's not interactive so much, but it just gives people more to grab onto on the website. And while we're on that topic, you mentioned about Google liking frequent updates, that dreaded term that we keep hearing. SEO. Could you talk a little bit about that and how that's related to that type of thing of keeping your website up to date?
Michelle: [00:33:18] We are always hearing about SEO aren't we?! It's a bit of a science and I don't know if anyone's a real expert in it. Although there are plenty of companies out there that tell you they are. And I think if somebody is promising to get you to the top of Google they're probably telling a bit of a fib. Nobody really knows how to get there, all they can do is really just put in best practices.
So SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it basically means that you have optimized or fully kitted-out your website with everything that Google needs or the other search engines to find you and deliver to the visitor what they've searched for. If you have a website about horses, but you talk a lot about hay and farms and other things, and you forget to mention about the horses, someone that's interested in horses is probably not going to find you.
So part of SEO is having enough keywords in your text, so that when Google trolls through your site, which it does on a regular basis, it finds the relevant keywords. And when somebody's searching for that keyword, yours is one of the websites it brings up. So that's kind of a simplified version of it. SEO is probably more important if you're self-published and there are experts in that Joanna Penn and all sorts of other people who can point you in the right direction for SEO, for self-published authors.
But if you are self publish, you're most likely dealing with Kobo or Amazon, and they have an enormous number of resources to help you with your rankings. But for just us regular people look, there's lots you can do in your actual website. I mentioned keywords. Keyword stacking is not a thing that we should be doing though, just a word of warning.
So if you do have romance, or you're a romance author, I wouldn't be saying, " hello, I'm a romance author. I write romance. I love romance. I live eat and breathe romance. I hope you like romance." You know, Google's going to say enough with the romance. That's far too many uses of the word romance, we're going to put you to the bottom of the pile. So keyword stacking, there's other words for it, just, you know, don't do that.
But in the backend of your website, there'll be in a place where you can choose your page titles. There'll be a place for you to put an alternative title onto your images for blind people who are on there, because they need to hear it, or for the audio-impaired, to be able to read the title.
There's a whole lot of different things you can do in the backend. For example, with images, we might have an image, our author bio headshot might be called IMG0025. Well, Google doesn't know what that is. Google wants you to rename that "Pamela Cook Headshot" or "Pamela Cook author on a horse" or whatever it might be.
Rename your images as well and make sure that your images are relevant. I know Squarespace definitely does and probably Wix and some of the others, they do have a place in the backend where you can put all that information in. It's pretty easy. You could pay people to do it, but you know, let's face it. Most people buy books on word of mouth as we were saying, readers will find you.
Pamela: [00:36:51] Yeah, no, that's great advice. I love that tip about changing the image title. Cause so often, you know, when I upload things, sometimes it's just got the number and if I'm in a bit of a rush, I'm like, "Oh, that'll be fine." But but yeah, no, I really should be renaming them.
Michelle: [00:37:04] Yeah. You just want to give Google every opportunity to help visitors find your website.
Pamela: [00:37:12] That makes sense.
Michelle: [00:37:13] Google doesn't serve us. It serves the people who are searching, you know? They want to help you as a searcher, find the website that you're looking for. So we have to make it as easy as possible. On a very simple level, that's what I would say is all you need to know about SEO, but there loads and loads of articles about it.
Pamela: [00:37:32] Yeah, for sure. Michelle, what about the sales funnel on your website, do you think that's a good idea?
Michelle: [00:37:38] Well, we talked a little bit before about having a call to action. A sales funnel for people who don't know is basically directing people to your website, whether it's from social media or wherever, however, you get them onto your website and then having a newsletter signup or something like that to get people to sign up and they might get a freebie or a checklist or something like that.
And then basically they're in your email list and they're they're in your funnel. So you can then sell to them on an ongoing basis. I don't think authors are interested in doing that. And there is a bit of an unwritten code in the publishing industry. To not do the, buy my book, buy my book, buy my book thing.
A sales funnel is not really ideal. That's more for people who have, you know, selling products. We've all seen those ads where they try and get you in, I think what we just want to have is a very simple call to action so that when people land on our website, we can sign up to their newsletter and we're offering them a monthly giveaway or we're offering them an ebook or something that's of value to them.
Then they're in your list so that when you do have a book coming out, you're not going to bang them over the head with like 10 emails a day, asking them to buy it. It's more of a soft funnel, "Just to let you know my book's coming out next week! Here's some of the events that you might be interested in. I'm doing a giveaway and my publisher is also doing this other giveaway." Even though you're sort of selling in some ways, you're also giving value and readers love that they want to buy your book. And we've gotta remember that. Don't be scared to sell your book, but let's not do it in a bang people over the head way.
So sales funnel is probably not the right term. It's probably more of a just a gentle call to action to get people into your email list so that when you do have something to communicate to them, they're ready, willing, and able to accept your very soft, gentle sales message.
Pamela: [00:39:50] There's two things that strike me that come out of that, Michelle. One is something we mentioned earlier, which is the pop-up. There's always lots of debates, should you have pop-up boxes? People will be looking at your website and then within, it could be five, 10, 20 seconds or whatever a pop-up box will come up, " Sign up to my mailing list" or, you know, "Buy my book" or whatever it is.
And the other thing after that I wanted to ask you about is the idea of having a shop on your website to sell your book.
Michelle: [00:40:18] Yeah. I think a pop-up is fine. If you're a sort of person that hates pop-ups, don't put a pop up on there because why would you? But I think most people are used to pop-ups now and as long as you keeping the message really short and sharp, yours is a really good one, Pam I've noticed. It's basic, it's very simple. It's not a big, long thing to read. So, you know, you're offering some value. People can sign up. I just don't think you need to have a lot on there because people will just click out straight away.
You just want to kind of prominent headline, a little bit of a blurb and then just an email and a first name. That's all you need to opt in. And of course, in Australia, we have rules where you have to get a double opt in. MailChimp and all of those offer that as an option, so you have to do that. So people subscribe and then they get an email that says, did you mean to subscribe? Yes, I did *click* – that's a double opt-in.
In terms of timing, there are a few options I don't like it when a pop-up comes up straight away, because I haven't even had a chance to get to know you. It's like going up to someone at a party and before you've even been introduced or you know nothing about them, you're telling them do you want to come home with me?
Like, no I don't sorry.
You want people to have a little browse around your website. The pop-ups these days are quite sophisticated, so you can now time your pop-up to come up when you're ready for it to come up. So, yes, you can make it come up as soon as people come on the page – I wouldn't be doing that.
The better option I think is to have just as they're about to leave your website. You can have it on a timer, so maybe they've been on there for a minute or two minutes. That's fine. The pop-up comes up. They've probably had enough chance to get to know you they've at least bought you a drink.
But just as they're leaving the browser or their mouse goes up and away from your website, that's a really good time for a pop-up to come up as well. And it's non-invasive so that would really suit somebody that is kind of a little bit on the border about do I really want to get in people's faces and offer a pop-up?
Well, if you're offering it right at the end they're about to leave anyway, and they've got to know you a little bit first, they might go, "Oh God, hang on a sec. Yeah I really do want to sign up and hear more from this person." There's a myriad of ways and there's no perfect way. It's just really what works for you.
The beauty of pop-up technology as well is you can change it. One method is not working for you, try another method, have it come on after one minute, have it come on after two minutes, have it come on when they're just about to leave. Just try a few different things and see what works best for you.
Pamela: [00:42:55] And so, you know, we were talking about the whole idea of the sales funnel is maybe not that great an idea for an author, but what about actually having a shop on your website? I know more and more authors are doing that. And I think Joanna Penn now even is selling her books directly and starting to pull her books off Amazon and sell them directly through her website.
Do you think that's something that authors should consider?
Michelle: [00:43:15] I do. I think there's absolutely no harm in doing that whatsoever. It's a big market out there and I don't think Amazon or Booktopia or any of the big online stores are going to worry if you're selling a few copies off your website. I don't think they'd begrudge that. Selling books is hard enough. You don't make a lot of money out of the book sale! But if you're selling it direct, you probably are making a little bit more. And I just don't think anyone would begrudge an author that additional income.
Website online stores are really easy to set up, you've just got to watch your pricing though. It's great now with print on demand because somebody could order it, you could go off and get the printed copy and have that sent direct to the customer. Is that right Pam?
Pamela: [00:44:05] Yeah, you can do it that way or I just have a stock of my own that I just send out, but if you don't want to invest in that, you can actually have it sent directly from whoever is the printer.
Michelle: [00:44:16] Yeah. Iif you do have a stack at home, you've just got to remember that you're going to have your shipping costs as well. I think in Australia now, it's about $8.95?
Pamela: [00:44:25] Yeah around $9. If you buy envelopes in bulk and things like that, you can do it for around $9 Australia wide but be really careful. I have had people come through and order books on my website from overseas, not realizing that I only ship in Australia. And then you have to go through that process. So just make that really clear, I would say.
Michelle: [00:44:43] Yeah. Although you can get international shipping bags as well and offer that. Anyone who was really badly wanting your book, they would probably pay the extra shipping, I think! But yeah, I think there's absolutely no harm in having an online store and it's not that hard to set up. All you need is a Stripe account, really. I know with Squarespace, if you want to set up an online store, you basically just set up a Stripe account that just needs your name and address.
And an ABN if you want to operate it through your business and you pop your bank account in there and then that's all hooked up automatically to Squarespace. And then when you make a sale the money goes straight into your bank account with a little bit of a percentage taken out for Stripe fees but it's not that much.
So it's a good thing to do. I know our mutual friend, Rae Cairns has done an excellent job with her online store. She has just gone gangbusters with it so it can really work.
Pamela: [00:45:40] Yeah, for sure. And it's definitely something indie authors, I think need to be all on top of because you're the publisher as well, of course.
And what about… we've talked a bit before about what you should have on a website and what you shouldn't have. Do you think that it's possible to have too much on a website?
Michelle: [00:45:59] Yes.
Pamela: [00:46:01] Can it be confusing? Do you think for readers or just, just too much of a sort of assault on your senses, why would you say that it is possible to have too much?
Michelle: [00:46:10] Well, are you talking about having too much on a home page or?
Pamela: [00:46:14] Well more like if you go on and you see like there's 20 tabs or something, or it could be maybe a lot on the homepage . Is it about really directing things that are only writing and book related, you know, maybe some people have, have things about other aspects of their life or other hobbies or passions or things. Do you think that can be a problem?
Michelle: [00:46:33] Yeah. I wouldn't put things like hobbies and passions in there. There's plenty of room on Instagram for that. And you've got your Instagram feed constantly on your website scrolling through, so there's no need to have another whole menu item. I think it's definitely possible to overload a home page or any page with too much going on. As we talked about before and, you know, too much color, too much movement, too many sidebars, conflicting fonts, too many headings sections – bleh! Just too much. I really liked to have just a clean flow going down. So it's really obvious what you're in books and bio and, you know, just a smooth, clean look.
In terms of menu items, don't forget that you can have sub menu items. For example, you don't need to have one menu item per book. You just have books and then you'd have each one under there. A couple of my author clients run writing workshops, or they teach writing or they run retreats or they work as a facilitator, or I've got one author who works as an editor.
She's just got a separate tab. And then under that, it she's got facilitation, editing, and so on. It's her services. I think she's called her services or my services. And under that, she's got the other things that she does. And then on the home page, in another section, so for people that are scrolling, they can see, "Oh, she does editing. Oh my gosh, I'm going to click on that." And then they go to the editing page and then they have all the information. You don't need it all in one place.
Pamela: [00:48:10] Yeah. It's thinking about what you're going to have on those tabs and putting things into categories, isn't it?
Michelle: [00:48:15] That's right, categorizing and just tidying it up. It's Marie Kondo-ing your website.
Pamela: [00:48:21] That's fine. As long as we can have more than 30 books, I'm okay with it!
So as far as setting a website up, Michelle, what should authors think about when they're trying to decide whether to set up their own website or whether to get someone like yourself to give them a hand with that and to maybe do that for them?
Michelle: [00:48:37] Yeah. A few different things. I guess a lot of it comes down to how confident you are with technology, because you do have to register your domain name and be confident dealing with that side of things when it comes to connecting it to your website and making it go live.
It depends how confident you are with things like colour and images and the technology itself, you know, moving things around how things look. In the guide that your listeners will be able to download there'll be a lot of really good tips in there that people can take onboard.
And if they are so inclined, they will be able to do it by themselves. And a lot of people do and do a beautiful job of it. John, for example, not a web designer but has done a beautiful job of the design. And we both know other authors who've have done gorgeous websites.
So yeah, I think a lot of it just comes down to confidence. If you decide it is all too hard though, and you are briefing a designer it's good to be prepared. So the domain name that you have in mind, a list of maybe three websites that you really like the look of and what it is about them that you particularly like; whether it's colours or layout. And what you don't like about them as well. There might be some websites that you think, I definitely don't want that, you know. So it's really good to be able to brief a web designer on those things.
Tell them what your favorite colour is – you want to be happy with your website. If your favorite color is aqua and a web designer comes back with a design that's in a dark aubergine or something like a dark purple well, you're not gonna really like it are you? That's going to be a big waste of their time and your time, and you'll be really disappointed as well.
And I think you also really want to know what you're up for in terms of pricing. Make sure that that is really set out for you because you don't want to get into a situation, which I have many moons ago where every time I wanted to change the phone number or a name, or just one little bit of text, the web designer would charge me $150.
You don't want that. You want to be able to get into the backend and do all of that sort of stuff yourself. You do want to have a really user-friendly backend, like Squarespace and you just don't want to have any nasty surprises with program or platform. In Squarespace, they do all your backups for you. You don't need security plugins or anything like that. It's all done. So you don't want those hidden extra costs where you might get a website designed. And then the designer says, "Oh, by the way, if you want to get all your backups done and all your security plugins regularly checked, it's going to be this much a month."
And then they want a retainer for that. If you love their work and that's who you want to work with, and you've got a great rapport and they've built your beautiful website, you're happy to pay that retainer. That's great. But if you just want them to be upfront about that, so just make sure you ask about all that kind of thing, because you don't want any nasty surprises.
Pamela: [00:51:44] Yeah know your cost up front. And the other thing Michelle, that I loved about when you did the Writes4Women website, was that you actually sat down and walked me through how to do all that stuff at the backend. And I think that's really important too, because I know years and years ago I had a website done in a previous incarnation of my writing life. And it was like, "Oh, here's your website." And then it was like, *argh* you know, I can't change anything or I don't know how to do it! Even if there's no cost having to go back to someone all the time, it can be really frustrating.
So it's great to have that facility to be able to have a little tutorial on how it all runs.
Michelle: [00:52:22] Things are easy to do when you know how, right? It's always a bit tricky start with. What I tend to do is make videos. I have a series of videos for my clients.
You actually do update the Writes4Women website on a weekly basis, because you have to put all the new episodes up every week. But a lot of authors, they might not really touch their website apart from doing blog posts between book launches.
So they might only go in there once every six months or something. They'll forget, Oh God, how do I add an image? Or how do I change the text or whatever. They've always got a little video tutorial they can go back to with me showing them how to do that. So I think again, with a web designer, it's good to get that aftercare service as well, if you can, and just make sure that they're there to continue working with you, if you need them in some capacity.
Pamela: [00:53:13] Well, we've covered a lot of different things, Michelle, but overall, what would you think would be the top three tips for any author setting up or maintaining a website?
Michelle: [00:53:26] Well, first thing I'd do is download the free guide that Pam is going to put a link to cause I have got a lot of resources in there. Everything we've talked about today is in there. Basically it's just going to walk you through how to get started with your website – what to put in there really. And a few of the tips and tricks that we've talked about today. Also I've got in there some resources for logos, colour combinations and images and things like that. So download that and have a look at that.
Number two, I would say is to make sure that your website is mobile responsive. This will surprise you Pam – or maybe it won't! –, but it surprised me. In Australia, 54% of people only look at websites on their phones. Over half – it's quite a lot!
Pamela: [00:54:15] That is a lot! It does surprise me, you're right.
Michelle: [00:54:19] I mean, I'm on my computer every day so I often look up things on my desktop. And also I think as you get older, it's easier to look at things as the eyesight goes. Yeah. These statistics come out every year and they do separate out mobile from tablets. So tablets are 6% people look at things, which actually I thought it would be higher. Globally, that's only 3%. So in Australia we prefer a tablet to the global population, and then desktop in Australia is only 40%.
You've got to have a mobile responsive website. Platforms like Squarespace, probably Wix probably WordPress, you'd want them to be automatically mobile unresponsive, but definitely Squarespace is automatically mobile responsive.
And there is a tab you can go to, to have a look at it and just make sure that you're happy with it. Because sometimes, if you've used a certain image or a certain font Google might come back to you and say, look, that's not really mobile responsive because it's too small. So, that's easy to go in there and fix.
And then the third tip I would say is to get your branding right. Don't be scared to just get your branding done upfront, really think about who you are and the sort of message you want to get across.
And then just even get a pen and a paper and some colored pens and just. Draw some squares on a paper about how each page you want that page to look, look around at the websites of authors that you know, and love, or that are similar to you and have a look at what they're doing. And, you know, without copying, you can definitely get inspiration.
That's what I've done. I've looked around over the years at many, many websites and there are just certain ones that I just think, Oh, that's just so well done, you know, and I'll save it and I'll bookmark it. And I'll think when I want to do X, Y, Z on my website I'm going to go on know when I eventually publish a book, for example, there's some websites where they've just done a really beautiful job, or they've done a gorgeous promotion or something like that that you can not copy, but get inspiration from.
So that, that would be my other tip, just thinking about your branding and draw inspiration from lots of other websites that you've just seen and loved.
Pamela: [00:56:41] Okay, fantastic. And that resource you mentioned Michelle is going to be fabulous for people listening and that'll all be in the show notes and on the website.
Michelle: [00:56:50] Yeah. Well, I want authors to be able to go and build their own websites. So if I can share as much knowledge as I can then that's a good job done, I think, cause I don't have any time up until probably into July or August to, to take on any new clients but in the second half of the year I definitely will.
But in the meantime, I just want it to be able to offer people something that they could do that it could be a bit of a go-to if they want to have a go at building their own website.
Well, it's not that far off Michelle. But since you mentioned Storyfest, I do want to ask you about that. In the introduction, I said, what a busy woman you are with all the hats you're currently wearing. So apart from your own writing, of course, which I know is continuing, you do have your author website business. You also have Storyfest.
Could you tell us a little bit about Storyfest?
So Storyfest is a storytelling festival that's held on the South coast of New South Wales in the Milton, Mollymook and Ulladulla area. And we call it a storytelling festival rather than a writer's festival, because we want to acknowledge that storytelling comes in many forms such as film and song and poetry and not just kind of novels and non-fiction which a lot of festivals focus on.
To that end, we have Rosalie Ham coming down who wrote The Dressmaker and her best friend from her hometown in Gerilderie ,Sue Maslen who made the film. They are going to be doing a showing of The Dressmaker at the Ulladulla Cinema. We've got Markus Zusak for opening night, so it'll be great to see Markus give the opening address.
We've got Craig Silvey from WA talking about his beautiful novel Honeybee, which I just adored. That was fabulous. You loved it too, didn't you? Nikki Gemmell she's got a new novel coming out this year and , I read her column in the Australian every weekend. She's going to be there.
We're going to have some poetry. Oh, all sorts of things. It's going to be fabulous. It's happening on the weekend of the 18th to the 20th of June.
So as soon as that's over, I'll be back to normal programming.
Pamela: [00:59:00] Yet another project of yours, Michelle, because you really obviously don't have enough to do and probably don't appreciate sleep too much or maybe do appreciate it now is The Writers' Bookclub podcast, which has had a couple of episodes out already, both have been fabulous, but definitely tell us about that.
Michelle: [00:59:19] Thank you, Pam. Well, I have you to thank for getting me inspired on the podcasting training, because it's something I've been thinking about for approximately four years, and I remember telling you about it and you said, you know, just go for it, just do it.
And then I thought, you know what, I'm just going to do it because I thought somebody else will come along and do it as if there aren't enough writing podcasts out there
So I talk to an author every month about one of their novels and we take a really deep dive into that novel from a writing craft perspective. We talk about things like dialogue and pacing and structure and voice and plotting and all the craft aspects of writing about that novel. Basically listeners are not only getting the theory of writing craft, they're getting it applied to a real life novel, and hopefully they can take some of those lessons, see how it's done in an actual novel and then apply it to their own writing. It's meant to be a useful resource for writers.
Pamela: [01:00:29] It definitely is. And the two that you've done so far, Natasha Lester, who, I had read the book (and obviously it helps if you've read the book) but Kylie Ladd, I haven't had a chance yet to read the book, but I did listen to the podcast and I picked up so much from it, even though I hadn't read the book.
It's of value both ways. I know you've got Candice Fox coming up. Can you reveal anybody else that you might have on your list?
Michelle: [01:00:55] I have got Candice coming up. So that'll be coming out on the 1st of May. I'm really excited to talk to Candice. She's just such a hoot. Did you see her latest campaign for The Chain? On the socials so everyone can have a look. It's just hilarious. That was her idea to get out there and get in an orange prison uniform and get readers to come and arrest her in exchange for a free novel. Awesome. Such great content.
I've got Jaclyn Moriarty coming up. And our mutual friend Meredith Jaffe, she's going to be coming on and talking about her brand new novel that's coming out in May, The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison.
And a few others in the works. I've got YA too so yeah, we'll mix it up a little bit too, across genres later in the year. So yes, very exciting.
Pamela: [01:01:45] It is exciting. It's been really fabulous chatting with you, Michelle, can you tell us where authors, who might be interested in looking at your services or just checking out your website can find you.
Michelle: [01:01:57] Sure. So for the website side of things, you can find me at freshwebdesign.com.au and there's a few resources and things on there as well, but I've just done something specifically for authors which you can find on the homepage. So grab that because I won't have time to help you until July, but after July I'll have plenty of time if anybody wants somebody to do their website.
Pamela: [01:02:24] People can just drop you an email. Michelle, if they've got any inquiries?
Michelle: [01:02:30] If you have a particular question or anything, just find me on socials or message me. I'm more than happy to answer any questions at all.
Pamela: [01:02:38] Okay, well, thank you so much for your wealth of information. I'm going to let you get back to your Story-festing and all your other things.
Michelle: [01:02:53] Thank you for having me on and I'll see you very soon.
Pamela: [01:02:57] I will. Bye.
Thanks for listening to Writes4Women. I hope you've enjoyed my chat with this week's guest. If you did, I'd love it if you could add a quick rating or review wherever you get your podcasts, so others can more easily find the episodes. Don't forget to check out the back list on the rights for women website so much great writing advice in the library there. And you can also find the transcript of today's chat on the website, too.
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Or find me in my writing at pamelacook.com.au
Thanks for listening. Have a great week.
And remember every word you write your one word closer to typing The End.