The Art of Stickiness

So, you've decided to sell and promote your book through your website. Simple, you think, just slap on a picture of the cover and arrange a payment method, the orders will come flooding in.

Think again. Yes, people do buy things on the web, but that isn't the only reason they go to your website. If all you do is mention that your book is for sale, you're not likely to get prospective buyers to stay for long.

You need them to stay on your website for as long as possilbe, what's called stickiness. You also want them to return again.

And how can you achieve that? First of all, have your website more of a content based site rather than a product based site.

Yes, you do have a product to promote, but people are more likely to return if you have content, and it's been said that it takes people on average
five exposures before they consider buying your product.

So, what about content? Here are some ideas you can adapt for your own website.

1) Book cover graphic, people do judge a book by it's cover, so make sure it's a good one. Sometimes you can have the final say over
your cover, it will depend on the publisher.

2) An extract of your work, a sample chapter maybe, but make sure it's okay with your publisher to do this.

3) Maybe you're an artist as well as a writer, use your site as a gallery to show some of your work. That's acceptable. Your writing website is not the
place to show off your holiday snaps, keep it professional.

4) Have you written anything else? You can place articles, poetry and short stories on your site to encourage new readers. If they've not heard of you before, they will after reading your stories and are then more willing to take a chance on your book. You are no longer unknown.

5) Have a message board or guest book where visitors can leave feedback. Have one where you can delete unwanted messages, or rude
or obscene ones.

6) You can arrange for a different joke, or news headlines to change automatically each day from places like www.bravenet.com

Above all, make your site an interesting or fun place to visit that people want to return to and recommend to their friends.

Copyright 2002 Annette Gisby, author of Silent Screams.