Tools to Increase Your Author Blog Traffic

You’ve done the work to set up your website: bought a domain, got the design to look just-so, and posted purchase links to your books. But instead of a steady flow of passive income, you got … crickets. “Hello? Testing, testing? Is this thing on?” How can you help people find you when you’re sailing on the vast sea of the internet? Here are a few tools you can use to increase your author blog traffic:

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SEO Best Practices

If I mention SEO, I typically get one of two reactions:

 

A.) :::eyes brighten::: “Oh, let me tell you about [rattles off an itemized list of the pros and cons of using plugins versus doing it manually]…”

 

B.) “Essie what?”

 

No fears if you’re in the reaction-type B group. SEO stands for “search engine optimization”, which is a techie way of saying that it has to do with where your website shows up in internet search results. So when someone goes to a search engine and types in ‘legal thriller books with werewolves’, your website’s SEO will determine whether your book, Jury Wolf, shows up somewhere on the first page of results or buried back on page twelve.

 

SEO best practices include paying attention to keywords and using them throughout the post or page (Have you ever wondered why your favorite online soup recipe has the precise phrase “incredible dairy-free cream of broccoli soup” in nearly every other paragraph, while you’re like, “Just show me the ingredients, already!!?” It’s for SEO!), alt-text descriptions, and post snippets.

 

You can find tutorials for how to spruce up your site’s SEO, but if you’re busy or you just want someone to tell you the next step, I have good news! My friend, Andrea, just released a kind and gentle (and affordable!) workshop to help creatives and mission-driven websites get their SEO practices into ship-shape. You can find out more about it, HERE.

 

 

Ultimate Bundles

I’ve often told the story of how, years ago, I bought a StartUp Bundle from Ultimate Bundles. At the time I thought it was an extravagant purchase, but it was the best buy ever! That bundle led me to start my blog, which gave me confidence to finish and publish a book, and the rest is history.

 

If you want a ton of knowledge for a super value, and you like to create your own learning path like a picky eater at the salad bar, check out Ultimate Bundles’s Genius Blogger’s Toolkit. It’s only available for a limited window each year but you can get on the waiting list now.

 

 

Pinterest Launch Plan

When I mention Pinterest, a lot of authors think of chicken recipes and DIY budget bathroom remodels. But Pinterest is actually a visual search engine. It’s where people go to solve problems. Whether the problem is, “What’s for dinner?” or “What should I read next?”, readers flock to Pinterest to curate info and lists. Including To Be Read lists!

 

You want your book–indeed, your entire catalog–to be on lots of people’s TBR lists, right? Here are three ways you can start using Pinterest to increase your author blog traffic:

 1.  Make attractive, pinnable graphics for your book or article. (Start with at least three per book or article.) You can use the pin templates on Canva or PicMonkey, or hire a designer to make them for you on fiverr.com

2.  Join several group boards with topics that appeal your ideal reader. Start by searching for your genre. You’ll find a lot! Look for boards with big followings and a few with medium followings.

3.  Pin regularly, don’t spam your group boards, and repin from those groups in reciprocation!

 

If you’re a Pinterest newbie, you’d love The Pinterest Launch Plan by Jennifer Maker.

 

(I’m willing to bet you’re not a new-newbie, though, since most of my own site traffic comes from Pinterest. Therefore, statistically, you just came from Pinterest, haha! That’s how you know this works 😉 )

 

Jennifer drills WAY down and gets to the nitty gritty nerdy details. When you finish reading and implementing this book, you’ll be a Pinterest expert, too!

 

 

 

Remember, you’ve already done something most people find difficult…

…you wrote a book! You’ve got what it takes to learn SEO, best blogging practices, and Pinterest, and to improve your author blog traffic. 🙂

 

 

 

NOW YOU: Do you have more ideas on how to improve your author blog traffic?

 

 

 

 

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*This article may contain affiliate links. That means I earn a small commission on purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you. It’s a win-win-win 🙂

You can read more about it in my Disclosure Statement, here.