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Hi all,

Quick background - I published my first ebook on a whim after forgetting about it for a few years and it has done quite well (or rather, much better than the 0 sales expected).

I'm planning on putting out a follow up in the next few months and want to get all my marketing ducks in a row before I do, and part of that is my author website.

If you've got a spare moment, it would be great if you could have a click on the link at the bottom and tell me what you think - any feedback (good or bad) is very welcome.

https://miketurnerauthorblog.wordpres...


Thanks in advance!

Looks good to me.

It's straightforward, without clutter, and you have all the right elements. I'd say it's just fine!

Looks good to me (I'm no expert and have no tips!)

Challenges
I need to know within 3 seconds of landing on your page that you are an author and what genre you write in. There should be some visual element to let you know you've come to the right place.
Your name is much, much too small. There is an entire psychology behind fonts that will help you make your site building choices work well for you. Also the general text is very small. 14 and 16 are better for scannability.
More scaled visual elements with less text is a great way to keep visitors' attention.
You are asking people to sign up for your mailing with a promise as opposed to an incentive. You could offer the first chapter of your current book as a sign-up bonus or perhaps a 2000 word bit of flash fiction or a character "diary" from your story. Anything but offer something. I am guilty of this as well but am working on that lol.
Your opt-in should pop up on exit or at least 30 seconds after arrival because no one has a reason to know/trust you yet.
Your blog page should have excerpts instead of the complete article. That is a lot of excess scrolling for someone to read a post near the bottom. Unless someone is wildly curious or very dedicated they will only read the first two or three posts. A title and excerpt is a better way for people to easily scan the page and click on the ones they are most interested in and then proceed to the full article.
What I love
Your interface is clean, well organized and professional looking. It's easy to navigate and great on the eyes.
The easygoing tone and banter of the site lets your personality shine through and gives people a chance to get to know you.
Your site loads quickly and is responsive on mobile devices.
I certainly can't tell this is your first author site! Great job :)

It's nice and the basics are there, but I think you should challenge yourself to show a bit more character.

I would DEFINITELY add a link to the menu that leads to a page that contains your books, their blurbs and purchase links instead of just that one clickable picture at the sidebar.

P.S. I would make the link in the sidebar that leads to the mailing list clickable.

Erin wrote: "Challenges
I need to know within 3 seconds of landing on your page that you are an author and what genre you write in. There should be some visual element to let you know you've come to the right p..."

thank you very much for such a comprehensive response. I'll try and implement some of this this week - I find wordpress to be oddly tricky to use when it comes to fine tuning (such as changing the size of my name...can't find a place to change the font size on that part of the page anywhere, even though logic dictates that there must be a way!)

thanks again.

Actually, thanks everyone for your feedback - it's all greatly appreciated. I'll try and tweak it until it's up to scratch

Mike wrote: "I find wordpress to be oddly tricky to use when it comes to fine tuning (such as changing the size of my name...can't find a place to change the font size on that part of the page anywhere, even though logic dictates that there must be a way!"

You're not alone. I use blogger and I recently changed my theme. I spent ages failing to find how to increase the size of words in and around the page title. Still haven't figured it out.

Are you using wordpress.com or wordpress.org? I'd be more than happy ro help anyone with any wp issues if I'm able. Please message me here or email me here: (view spoiler)[[email protected] (hide spoiler)]

Erin wrote: "Are you using wordpress.com or wordpress.org? I'd be more than happy ro help anyone with any wp issues if I'm able. Please message me here or email me here: [spoilers removed]"

thanks so much Erin, that's really kind of you. I'm using wordpress.com.
I'll see if i can fix things tomorrow when i have a bit of time, but if not ill take you up on the offer :)

Hi,

I like it, Mike! It looks like your own and personal. :)

Would you all like to check out my site too? :p

I have nothing published yet and the book is still in progress... very much so. Lots of editing to do. But at least I have a website if nothing else.

Does it need something more? Is something missing? :)

I used wix.com, soooo much fun! It's super easy compared to wordpress and you'll get much more stuff with the free plan. I have to get the domain, though. Soon. I promise. (just look at that url...)

And the book cover isn't final, just something I played with.
But I would like to hear your comments. :)

https://elinavaletales.wixsite.com/au...

Elina wrote: "Hi,

I like it, Mike! It looks like your own and personal. :)

Would you all like to check out my site too? :p

I have nothing published yet and the book is still in progress... very much so. Lot..."


Hi Elina, thanks v much for looking at my site.

I've had a poke around yours - it looks really good. A couple of bits that stuck out to me - on the blog posts, maybe try and make the images smaller. They take quite a while to load.

When the book is published it'll probably be worth having somewhere really easy to be able to click through and buy it too.

Best of luck with the editing process!

Elina wrote: "Hi,

I like it, Mike! It looks like your own and personal. :)

Would you all like to check out my site too? :p

I have nothing published yet and the book is still in progress... very much so. Lot..."

Thanks for the tips, Mike! :) And thanks for the wishes, editing is hard but I hope it'll be worth it!

Thanks for joining. Hey!!!! Everybody!!! Look here, we have a reviewer!!!! I forgot how to do a gif-