build traffic to your author website

10 Ways to Build Traffic to Your Author Website or Blog

This post was first published in 2012 and is regularly updated. First things first: an author's website, whether it gets
author without social media presence

So You’re an Author Without a Social Media Presence: Now What?

Social media is just one component of your author platform, and not necessarily the most important component. It works best as part of a holistic book marketing and promotion strategy.
author platform building

Building a Platform to Land a Book Deal: Why It Often Fails

If you're preparing to pitch your nonfiction work to agents or publishers, you may have heard about the necessity of platform. What if you don't have one?
princess saves herself

A Self-Published Poet’s Path to Her First Book Deal

How a self-publishing poet achieved visibility for her book—and landed a book deal with traditional publisher Andrews McMeel.
get 10000 visits

How to Get 10,000 Visits to Your Blog in One Day with No Platform

Getting traction for your online presence—especially a new blog—can feel like an impossible task when you're an unknown writer. But it can be done.
call-to-action

What Writers Too Often Overlook: Having a Call to Action

Just about every writer would love to have more readers—more readers of their books, their blog, their articles, or whatever creative work they’re producing. But few writers have given much thought to having a call to action that's associated with their work.
Hot air balloons being filled and prepped for launch

Getting Ready to Launch a Book? Start with These 5 Questions

Social media and marketing expert Andrea Dunlop lists five questions you should ask yourself when starting to plan your book launch.
A laptop computer featuring an image of a handshake on the screen

How to Leverage the Power of Someone Else’s Platform (Without Being Smarmy)

Kirsten Oliphant explains how to reach out to others who can help you build your author platform and how to generate a great pitch for collaboration.
Various social media app icons depicted on a phone screen

How to Be Active on Social Media without Losing Your Mind

Author and social media expert Kirsten Oliphant explains how to manage your platform-building activities on social media sites.
email autoresponders

My Pop-Up Strategy, Part 2: The Autoresponder Series

How do you treat subscribers after they sign up for your email newsletter? An autoresponder can usefully and effectively welcome people to the community.
author platform

A Definition of Author Platform

Author platform is one of the most difficult concepts to explain, partly because everyone defines it a little differently. Here's what agents and editors mean by platform, plus a clear definition of what platform is NOT.
Porter Anderson Digital Book World

4 Lessons for Authors on the Current State of Publishing

What authors need to know about current marketing practices and emerging business trends in the book publishing industry.
Gigi Rosenberg

How a Website Redesign Solved an Author’s Identity Dilemma

Author Gigi Rosenberg describes how she redesigned and relaunched her author website primarily on her own, only hiring assistance at the end.
Selling services and products through your website

The Author Website: Your Central Marketing Hub

The primary function and value of an author website is marketing related.
Simon Curtis 8 Bit heart

Storytelling Across Media: Q&A with Agent Laurie McLean

Agent Laurie McLean discusses the platform and book launch strategy for author/musician Simon Curtis.
traditional publishing

Traditional Publishing: What’s It Good For?

No one used to question the value of a publisher, but now everyone's wondering: What are they good for?
Best Practices for Author Facebook Pages and Groups

Best Practices for Author Facebook Pages and Groups

Kirsten Oliphant discusses how to effectively use Facebook pages and groups.
The secret to my productivity

The Secret to My Productivity, Or: Thoughts About Luxury and Privilege

I'm often asked: How can I be so productive? Or how does one balance creative work and other life demands? Here's the most truthful answer I have.
by Pauleon Tan / Flickr

Engaging Audiences through Twitter in 15 Minutes a Day

Writer and blogger Kirsten Oliphant explains how to build your platform on Twitter in only 15 minutes a day.
Truth-Telling and Platform-Building

Truth-Telling and Platform-Building

How do you build an online platform when you don't have advice or ready-to-go insights (and don't like offering either)?
I Heart Social Media

Beware of One-Size-Fits-All Advice for Social Media

Be careful before applying someone else's social media advice to your situation.
5 On: Nathan Bransford

5 On: Nathan Bransford

Author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford discusses (among other things) the ongoing emphasis on author platform, publisher and author marketing responsibilities, and in what way being a literary agent influenced his writing.
Art of Commerce

Interview with Jane: Art of Commerce Series

Jane discusses building a digital presence, querying 15 years ago vs. now, agents vs. self-publishing, crowdfunding, and the future of publishing.
by Jeff Sheldon

3 Types of Bios That Every Online Professional Needs

Build a bio that's not only better than most you have read, but also compelling enough to attract the fans & clients you'd like to have in the first place.
Author Hangout with Jane Friedman

Platform Building for Authors [30-Minute Video Interview]

In a 30-minute video interview, I discuss the basics of author platform.
Author Biz podcast

Building Your Business As An Author [Interview]

I was delighted to be a guest on Stephen Campbell's podcast, The Author Biz.
Facebook for Authors

Facebook for Authors: Getting Started Guide

This 101 guide describes best practices for authors using Facebook for book marketing, with tips on when you should set up a fan page.
7 Reasons Twitter Isn’t Building Your Author Platform (And How to Fix It)

7 Reasons Twitter Isn’t Building Your Author Platform (And How to Fix It)

Note from Jane: Today's guest post is by Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy). Almost as soon as authors were told they should
The Art of Marketing Conference

7 Things I Learned from the World’s Best Marketers

Today's guest post is by author Tiana Warner (@tianawarner). The Art of Marketing conference in Vancouver was a full day
by Emily Barrera / Flickr

Business Is Personal: 5 Common Networking Mistakes

Business is personal. In the long-run game, anyone who treats business as though it is not personal is going to end up stepping on toes and leaving a trail of poor impressions.
blogging for writers

2 Strategic and Compelling Reasons to Keep Blogging—Plus When to Kill a Blog

Note from Jane: Today's guest post is from Dan Blank (@DanBlank) and covers a topic that was recently addressed on
Platform by Michael Hyatt

Top 10 Blog Traffic Killers

The following advice is from Michael Hyatt's newest release, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. The book is one of
Dan Blank

Your Homepage Is Not As Important As You Think

Today's guest post is from Dan Blank of We Grow Media. Author platform is about more than your homepage. Perhaps