How to Get Traffic to Your Author Website

A favorite phrase that Steve and I use a lot is “the writing part is the easy part!” Because it is completely true. Once you find your writer’s voice and you start the physical writing aspect, it’s by far the easiest part of being an author.

The hardest part? Finding your readers, connecting with them and then ‘convincing’ them that they should buy your books!

And a lot of this can be handled via your author website. But then the next question that often arises is “how do you get traffic to your author website?”

Do you feel like it’s a never-ending list of things to do? Me too. Which is why in this post I’m going to focus on how you can get traffic to your author website.

Most of these options will cost you nothing but your time. And that’s the biggest key element in any of these working… is the time it takes to implement.

Oh, and you actually need to take action. None of this is going to happen unless you’re doing something about it. It’s just like writing your book, butt in chair is the only way that happens and it’s the same for any of the strategies below.

Now that we’re clear that YOU are responsible for getting the traffic to your author website, let’s explore the options available to you.

5 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Author Website

#1: The Permafree book

We’ve talked about how to setup a permafree book before, so I won’t go into too much detail here.

Basically, if you’re smart (and we know you are, cause you’re here!) you will have encouraged your new reader to come and join your author list to get first dibs on your new books, discounts and giveaways! And if you’re even smarter, you would have dropped in a link to grab your next book for free, just for signing up.

The key is that once they land on your author website, you want them to check a few things out, such as your blog (if you have one), how they connect with you on social media and anything else you’d like them to do.

As part of this process, you should also have a great introduction autoresponder set up that funnels your readers through to your other books or courses etc. Once you’ve got them on your author website, make the most of their eyeballs!

Tell them what else you’d like them to do 🙂

#2: Freebie giveaways

If you’re looking to connect with new readers, a great way to do this is to run a giveaway. Make it a condition of entry that these new readers share your giveaway on social media as well.

Share your giveaway in relevant groups, and try not to share it everywhere otherwise you’re gonna end up with a bunch of freebie hunters who will unsubscribe from your list the first chance they get! These are NOT your ideal readers.

Instead, plan out your giveaways by finding relevant groups and hashtags on Twitter and Instagram where you can share your giveaway link. Contact website owners that are in your niche and ask them to share your giveaway if it’s relevant.

If you’ve got our book marketing promotion list, you’ll have a list of sites you could potentially contact immediately. You would have been given access to this when you joined up as an Author Basics Member 🙂

#3: Guest posting

This is an oldie but a goodie! I try to guest post at least one per month for my Outsourced Freelancing Success site because I know the power behind finding and connecting with new readers via this method.

And authors can do the same. Jeff Goins has a great blog post on exactly how to guest post as an author and the benefits behind it, including two great videos (that are free) that you should definitely check out.

#4: Author interviews

Author interviews are a great way to drive traffic to your author site (and your books). Book Goodies provides this service free of charge and once your author interview is live, you can share it via social media. The key is to make sure you include a link to your own author site in your author interview… otherwise all you’re doing is driving traffic to Book Goodies!

Here’s a list of some other sites that do author interviews that you should check out as well:

Note: some of these require payment to get your interview on their site, so make sure you read the fineprint before going through the process of filling out the forms!

#5: Relevant podcasts

Podcast interviews are similar to guest blog posts, they provide you with the opportunity to connect with more potential readers plus it doubles as a great way to direct traffic to your author site, particularly if you’ve been smart and offered listeners to the podcast some type of free offer (hint: your permafree book!) in exchange for their email… housed on your author website!

The best way to identify podcasts you’d like to be interviewed on is to jump on your fav podcast site and do some research. iTunes provides you with top rated podcasts and new and noteworthy at the top of their feed, check those out first.

The best way I’ve found in reaching out to a podcast to get invited onto one, is to send this message to the owner. Sometimes, they’ll actually have a form you can fill out, but for the instances where you’ve gotta send an email, feel free to use the one below:

Hi xxx

I’ve only recently started listening to your podcast and really enjoyed your interview with xxx. Her interview was very inspiring and having just self-published my first book this month, it was great to hear about another person’s journey.

I wanted to reach out to you because I have a book that I’ve just published that I thought would be a great fit for your podcast and listeners.

The books is titled “xxx” and is available in both Kindle and Paperback. I’ve attached a PDF copy for your reference.

Or

The book is scheduled to go live on 23 September 2014 and I’m looking for unique and meaningful ways to get the word out there.

After listening to your podcast, I feel we would have a lot to chat about.

If you feel we would be a good fit and that your listeners would appreciate a different perspective, then I’d love to chat more with you about how we could make this happen.

I look forward to connecting soon.

Many thanks

xxx

You can find out more about me here: your website dot com

These are just some of the ways that you can get traffic to your author website. There are so many other ways, but these five will definitely move the dial in a major way.

And it goes without saying, if you’re doing all this effort to drive people to your author website, make sure you’re capturing their email addresses! Then, make sure you’re engaging them at least once a week so that they get to know who you are.

Readers LOVE personal stories, so the more you’re prepared to share with them, the deeper your connection (and reader stickability) will be.

Let us know in the comments below if you use any of the strategies above! We’d love to know (and bask) in your results 🙂