How to Build an Author Website That Sells: A Step-by-Step Guide | Ep. 35

Are you ready to finally create a website that reflects your unique value as an author and helps you sell more books? Allison Lane breaks down the exact steps you need to take to design a website that doesn’t just look great but actually works for your goals.

From understanding what content to bring over from an old site to choosing the perfect inspiration sites, Allison provides practical strategies to help you avoid costly mistakes and streamline your process. Whether you’re a psychotherapist-turned-author or a first-time writer, this episode is packed with tools and advice to make your website work for YOU.

➡️ Ready to stop guessing and start building a website that sells your book? Listen now!

What You’ll Learn:

• Why starting with your content (not a designed web template) is the key to a successful author website.
• Free and affordable tools to source stock images for your site without breaking the bank.
• Practical tips for working with website designers (even if you’re on a budget).

Resources Mentioned:

• Connect with Allison: Website: https://www.lanelit.com/ | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonlanelit/  | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allisonlanelit 
• Free image resources: https://unsplash.com/ 
• WordPress template provider: https://www.elegantthemes.com/ 
• Website hosting platform: https://app.kajabi.com/r/XHNMfLXC 

Timestamps

• [00:01:00] The biggest mistake authors make when designing their websites.
• [00:03:00] Why your website is NOT a digital business card.
• [00:05:30] How to choose templates that actually fit your content.
• [00:09:52] Tools and tricks for sourcing affordable images for your site
• [00:13:07] Final tips to save time and frustration when working with a designer.

Tune in now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvferwak62I 

Your book launch is your chance to build your visibility and grow your audience. In the Bestseller Launch School guided program, I'll show you how to get buzz before your book hits the shelves, master pre-orders and early sales to get attention and keep sales going long after launch day. Live trainings start April 30th - June 11. Grab your seat now: https://lanelit.com/bestseller 

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Transcript

Allison: 1:34

You shouldn't have to become an expert in digital marketing and publicity and promotion in order to get your book in the world. Welcome to this episode of the Author's Edge. This is one of our Thursday episodes where I answer your questions and get you to where you want to go faster, easier, having more fun and with more excitement because you shouldn't have to become an expert in digital marketing and publicity and promotion in order to get your book in the world. This should be easier and it can be because I'm helping you. Thursday episodes is when I answer your questions, and these questions come to me far and wide in DMs, in emails, in conversations. Every time someone books one of their free consult calls with me, which you can do. You can go to my website at lainelit.com like literature dot com, and book a free consult call. It's available to you, so you're welcome to do it and I'll put that link in the show notes. But here's the deal. Everybody has the same questions. I'm sharing with you, I'm not revealing who asked these questions, but I'm just saying, these questions are universal. And here's one that I got twice yesterday, and from two different people, and I get all the time. What is a good design for my new website? I need to pick a new website design. The designer I have is waiting in the wings and they want me to pick a template. And at that point, I say, okay, well, do you already have a website? Usually, yes. But it's old and it's been built onto like a shantytown and it's not functioning like it should be, or it's two or three different sites that are all married like different rope swings and it's just a digital nightmare and a spider's web. So, before you burn down your existing site, you want to know, what content is coming with you? And what just doesn't need to be there anymore? Maybe you have an old blog that you had on WordPress. You don't need to move all of that content. Maybe it needs to be judged and refreshed and published as new blog posts. So, before you decide on a template, I urge you to take a look at what content is coming with you. And then, before I decide on templates and website designs for my clients, I like to write the content first because you don't want to create a new website. And then, have to shoehorn your content into sections of a website that aren't that pliable and are laid out in a way that your images or your tips don't really fit into. So, it'd be like buying a pair of shoes saying like, I like those shoes. And now, I'm going to try and grease up my foot to get it in there. No, you have to know what's going to fit. And you have to know that you as an author or a psychotherapist who now has a book, let's address that. You are not just an author and authorship is one of the ways that you're sharing what you do and what you know with the world. So, your website should reflect that. And your website is not a digital business card to say,'I'm a writer.' Unless, you are a freelance writer and that is your business, that is not what your website is about. Your website needs to represent the value you bring to the world. So, that's one. When you're culling your content, I want you to think about what needs to be there in order to represent what you provide and how other people benefit from your work? If you want an example, you can go to my website at the top. It does not say, author coach or book marketer. Because who cares what my job title is. Word nerd, it does not matter at all to you. And I know that because my, dance card is full. And yet, I still don't have a name tag that says, assistant manager at lanelit.Com because it does not matter. What does matter is what do I get when I work with you? And you get your book into the world. You get to launch your book as a bestseller. You get to pitch an agent and get a quick, when can we meet? So, what we want is to smooth your journey or your path to authorship and integrate that into your life so that it's easy, right? So, that's what you get from my website and it's super pretty clear. That's what I want for your website. So, before you decide the template you're going to choose because the person you have asked to help you is really a designer. And all they want is the words so they can copy and paste those into the template That's not what you start with. It sounds like it could be easy to start like that, but it's actually harder in the long run because that person's going to come back to you and say, you wrote 200 words and this section has room for 70 words. And then, you're going to be editing in order to fit the template. And that blows chunks. So, instead you want to make what you want to do is start with your content, minimize it because we don't need all the words. We don't even need full sentences most of the time. Get your images all together, and then pick a design that's based on a website you already like. I like to have two inspiration sites to look at and one site that represents everything I hate. Everything I do not want my site to be. And that is it. You get two inspirations and one absolutely, not. That's enough for your designer to go on. And with that, they should be able to look at the templates that are available inside of Kajabi. Which is the platform I use. And I will, yes, provide a link in the show notes, or a link to the template provider that they choose. I know in WordPress, WordPress has templates that they provide as just an entry level. Or you can pay for a template from a provider that provides WordPress templates. One of the providers is called Elegant Themes, and I used that a while back when I was on WordPress. And I just scrolled through and looked for templates that I knew my content would fit into. And that templates that looked like existing sites that I already was using as inspiration. But here's the problem with not having an inspiration site is that you're not a designer. So, you're not used to looking at templates and not caring how pretty they are or what the color palette is. You have to look at templates and judge them based on the architecture. And imagine them just in black and white. It doesn't matter what the vibe is from these templates. It's what are the sections structured like, you're going to use your website. Is there a blog page or a media page? Because you're going to need one of those. And is it laid out in a way that's easy on the eyes and that's easy for you to manage? The best way for you to do that, if you're not already a designer, and if you don't already work in the digital space is to have your two inspiration sites. That you can just look at and say, I want a couple of options that look like this. Then you can assign that to your designer or your 16 year old who's helping you. And you don't have to put that on yourself because you're probably not in a position to spend two hours looking at all the options. But also you don't do that for a living. So, why would you want to make a decision based on your own gut feeling when your gut feeling has never been proven? So, trust someone else to take your two inspiration sites and your one, absolutely not makes you gag site. And offer some options to you. All you need are two or three options. And then, choose from those, make it somebody else's assignment to cull through the 200 options out there. But don't do what most people do is they choose the template, and then they realize that they have to take the content that's already on their site and kind of fit it in. And that's really not what you want to do. You want to take your existing content and probably reduce the amount of text by two thirds. Because in the olden days, there was a lot more text on websites, but people don't need that anymore because we are digital natives. Even those of us who are over 50, feel like digital natives now. So, we're good. We don't need all that text. We need images. And if you don't have images, I could ask my 14 year old and she would do it for you. And for 35, she would do it all probably. She would probably negotiate up because she is my daughter and she is smart. But still, she'd be like, give me three minutes and I'll have all stock images in there for you because you don't need a ton of images and for sure you don't need a photo shoot. All you need are background images and you can get these on unsplash.com. You could get free downloadable images on unsplash.com, and I'll put that in the show notes as well because you need to know these resources. There are easier ways to do everything as an author, and that's what I'm here to help you do. Repeating the question again, let me just explain. The question is always, what website template should I go with? Or I need to choose a website design, which one should I choose? Don't start with that. Start with, what do I want to bring with me from my existing content, whether you have a website right now or not. And then, edit that down. Keep in mind, nobody wants to read your entire bio, and they don't want to read it in chronological order. If you need some inspiration, you can go to my website. What website design or template should you use? I don't know, and you probably don't know either. Because you haven't started with what content is going to be on your site. Is it going to be image heavy? That's going to direct a lot of your choices. Once you decide what's going to be on your site, choose two inspiration sites. And they don't have to be other writers, or other psychotherapists, or other podcasters. It could literally be like a makeup site. But try and look at sites that function like you want yours to function. It's not about the look and feel. That's separate. In fact, I have a Pinterest board I used for my website inspiration, and I will share that Pinterest board with you in the show notes. You can go and just take a look. You don't need 25 inspirations, you need two or three. So, start with that and then assign it to someone who knows what they're doing, so that they can whittle down from the world of possibilities and give you two or three best options. This is the easiest way to get what you need without making it your job to become an expert in website design. Because that is a one boulder you do not have to carry around. It is easy to find someone to help you. And all you need to do is give them a few resources to say, I like this. I absolutely hate this. Great. Then they can present some options to you right there on a silver platter. And you'll be all set. Okay. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I will see you next week, answering more of your questions. If you want me to answer your question, please send me a note at allison@lainelit.com, lit like literature. I know, it's so easy, right? Or you can DM me on LinkedIn. My handle is allisonlainelit. Or Instagram, or Facebook, whatever. You'll know how to get in touch with me. I'm everywhere. And my tag everywhere is allisonlanelit. Also, if this is helpful to you, or if you know somebody who's going through these questions and they're asking you, what website design should I use? Just take a moment and forward this episode to them. They need help, and they're about to hire somebody for$3500 who's going to end up telling them what I just told you here for free. This information is free and it is available and it is coming to you from an expert marketer. So, I know my poo and I'm telling you, this is the way I built websites for big, big brands. This is the way I've worked with designers. When I had 200 people reporting to me, which those were the days, I'm telling you, where I could just have a thought and say, it'd be great as if we had a website that looked like this, but functioned like that. But didn't look like this and it would just magically appear. Those were the days. But you do have to direct people and you have to give them just enough to give you back what you're looking for. So, trust me, I know what I'm talking about. And I'm giving it to you because publishing should be easy, and it should be fun, and it should be exciting. And it shouldn't require that you feel like you have a second or third job or a fourth job becoming a digital diva. You don't have to be. I'm already here for you. Okay, I will see you next week.