Looking feedback on Author Website

manego90

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It's a nice site. I would say the main thing your missing is a Call-to-Action
 

Cindyt

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Looks good. I especially love it when authors include their animals, as you did in the opening of WELCOME. Love the header. The only thing that bugs me is the change of font when a nav link is clicked, but I can see why it's done that way.
 

muse

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The home page, under Published Works. All four of your books go to an image on my browser. I think they should go to Amazon. The cover is one of the best I've seen lately.

Thanks, a really talented lady called Sheri McGathy made the cover!

Do you mean the book images go to an image or the links in the name go to a picture?

I never thought to make the book covers a link - D'oh! I added the link to the book titles.

Nice catch.

It's a nice site. I would say the main thing your missing is a Call-to-Action

I'm not sure what you mean by a Call-to-Action, manego90? Can you explain?

Thanks for taking the time to look and comment.

Looks good. I especially love it when authors include their animals, as you did in the opening of WELCOME. Love the header. The only thing that bugs me is the change of font when a nav link is clicked, but I can see why it's done that way.

Do you mean when you click from page to page, that little...shudder, before the font settles down? I've no idea why that happens.

So glad you like the site and the new header.

If I had my way I'd only write and have pics about my dog, Dexter. I'd much rather talk about him than myself. :greenie
 

RJDrake

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Hi Muse, first of all, congrats on your first website.

I'm not an expert of Wordpress as I normally use Wix.com to make my websites so I can't give you any "tactical" advice on how to use it but I hope my comments prove to be useful.

As content, I would say it's great. I really love your message on your welcoming page. It's fun and witty and the the pics of your dog are just adorable. (Dog lover over here)

The website per se is nice. Clean and simple but I think it's just too white. White is good but you write mystery and suspense! Make it mysterious and suspenseful!
Use darker colours. Use that nice creepy banner on top as a starting point and work your way down the page.

But that's just my opinion...
 

Cindyt

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Thanks, Cindyt. I appreciate you taking a look.

Do you mean when you click from page to page, that little...shudder, before the font settles down? I've no idea why that happens.
You're welcome. I don't know anything about wordpress. In wix, text like that is called "animated text." It's an option. You might be able to go into admin and change it--if you want to. Nothing wrong with it.
 

muse

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Hi Muse, first of all, congrats on your first website.

I'm not an expert of Wordpress as I normally use Wix.com to make my websites so I can't give you any "tactical" advice on how to use it but I hope my comments prove to be useful.

As content, I would say it's great. I really love your message on your welcoming page. It's fun and witty and the the pics of your dog are just adorable. (Dog lover over here)

The website per se is nice. Clean and simple but I think it's just too white. White is good but you write mystery and suspense! Make it mysterious and suspenseful!
Use darker colours. Use that nice creepy banner on top as a starting point and work your way down the page.

But that's just my opinion...

Thanks so much, RJDrake. I'm glad you like the Welcome page. I hate talking about myself so that wasn't easy to write. I much prefer talking about my dog. :greenie

I like your idea of dulling down the background, although I do like the crispness of the white. Hmmmm, decisions, decisions

You're welcome. I don't know anything about wordpress. In wix, text like that is called "animated text." It's an option. You might be able to go into admin and change it--if you want to. Nothing wrong with it.

Thanks for the tip, Cindyt.

I've now made the book covers clickable links - that stay on the page. I had to delete them - I had them in a thumbnail grid and that made them work as one entity - and add them individually. That, of course, screwed up the layout and formatting so I had to redo that. This website business is a huge time suck.:Hammer:
 
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muse

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OK, I've dulled the background on the site so it's more in keeping with the genre. I've also delete 'Author' from the site title and 'Romance' from the tagline.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions, everyone. They're much appreciated.:ty:
 

manego90

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Hi Muse,

When I say Call-to-Action, I meant by getting the viewer to do something. What is it you want your viewer to do on your site? How are you going to get them to commit to that action? If you can answer those two questions then you have your Call-to-Action.
 

muse

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Hi Muse,

When I say Call-to-Action, I meant by getting the viewer to do something. What is it you want your viewer to do on your site? How are you going to get them to commit to that action? If you can answer those two questions then you have your Call-to-Action.

D'oh! self-explanatory when you put it that way.

I want the viewer to buy my work. I've made all links clickable. Is there something else I should be doing?
 

Sara Raynott

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Use a contact form, if you have the option. But, REMOVE your email address from your website!

Having an email address on your website (especially a clickable one) is the #1 way to get SPAM. The spammer robots (bots) search websites for email addresses. Once you're on their list, you can never get off.
 

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Reviewers don't usually buy the books they review, they get sent review copies.
 

muse

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Use a contact form, if you have the option. But, REMOVE your email address from your website!

Having an email address on your website (especially a clickable one) is the #1 way to get SPAM. The spammer robots (bots) search websites for email addresses. Once you're on their list, you can never get off.

I did try the contact form, but for some reason it was putting in my email address - the one I used to sign up to WordPress - and there was no way to delete it. The email I have on the site now is my author email and so far I haven't received even one message - spam or otherwise. Even the bots don't love me :greenie.

Reviewers don't usually buy the books they review, they get sent review copies.

Wasn't expecting reviewers to buy the book. I want the viewers of my website to buy my book.;)
 

CathleenT

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I like your site, Cathy! Well done, especially for an initial foray. (Bet you studied up on it.)

I agree that a link to your books would be a good idea on your landing page. :)
 

muse

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I like your site, Cathy! Well done, especially for an initial foray. (Bet you studied up on it.)

Thanks so much for taking a look at it, Cathleen. I watched a lot of youtube videos, but it has all be trial and error - lots of errors. :greenie.

I agree that a link to your books would be a good idea on your landing page. :)

I do have a link to my book on the landing page, which is the Welcome page. Both the book title and cover are clickable. Should I be doing something different?
 

CathleenT

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Consider changing the links to blue, perhaps. I didn't know they were links. Might just be me. :)

My browser is Chrome. Maybe in a different browser the links are already blue?
 

muse

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Consider changing the links to blue, perhaps. I didn't know they were links. Might just be me. :)

My browser is Chrome. Maybe in a different browser the links are already blue?


Ah, right. That makes sense. I use Chrome, too and they're showing as black but underlined. Will change them to blue. Thanks, Cathleen.

ETA: Ok, this is weird. I went into WP and tried to change the colour of my book links and it's not showing up.:Shrug:

Don't have time to faff around with it this evening, but anyone any ideas as to why the colour isn't changing?
 
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CathleenT

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Eek--I an sooo not a WordPress expert. But you can email them, and they'll get back to you on how to do stuff. Sorry I don't have the link saved--I always have to go through several help screens to find it--but I promise it's there, and the person on the other end will help you. :)
 

muse

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Eek--I an sooo not a WordPress expert. But you can email them, and they'll get back to you on how to do stuff. Sorry I don't have the link saved--I always have to go through several help screens to find it--but I promise it's there, and the person on the other end will help you. :)

Thanks, Cathleen, will have a look for it. When I had a previous problem I asked for help on their forum - still waiting on an answer. Hopefully, email will be faster.
 

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I think adding a description to your published works would be helpful. Like, having the title, then including the back-of-the-book blurb, or maybe a few sentences that sum up the hook, would entice people to click the buy link. :3
 

muse

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I think adding a description to your published works would be helpful. Like, having the title, then including the back-of-the-book blurb, or maybe a few sentences that sum up the hook, would entice people to click the buy link. :3

I describe my book and short stories in another page on the website, but I like the idea of a hook for them on the Welcome Page. Thanks, Adelle.


ETA: Had a peek at your website - very nice! :greenie.
 
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writeonleanne

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Hey! Not sure if you're still looking for feedback, but your site looks nice! One thing that did jump out at me right away was at the bottom of the landing page where you have thumbnails of your novels (under the Short Stories section), the first two thumbnails are the same size, but the second two are different sizes and don't appear to be on the same row. It's a little jarring.

Also, I'm not sure if this is my browser, but I see a couple of broken image icons: One next to CRIME AFTER CRIME and the other next to WHERE THERE'S SMOKE.

Is it possible to shrink down the font (or make it gray?) in the Goodreads right rail? My attention is drawn more to the right side of the page, because of the black font on white background that's bigger than the rest of the font on the page.

Let me know if you want me to email you screenshots of what I see.
 

muse

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Hey! Not sure if you're still looking for feedback, but your site looks nice! One thing that did jump out at me right away was at the bottom of the landing page where you have thumbnails of your novels (under the Short Stories section), the first two thumbnails are the same size, but the second two are different sizes and don't appear to be on the same row. It's a little jarring.

(I'm definitely still looking for feedback. :greenie)

Yeah, I can only get a small thumbnail of one of the short stories, and it does look odd. *sigh* I also have no idea why the last two look like they're on a different line. I shall investigate.

Also, I'm not sure if this is my browser, but I see a couple of broken image icons: One next to CRIME AFTER CRIME and the other next to WHERE THERE'S SMOKE.

Odd. They all look fine when I view the page.

Is it possible to shrink down the font (or make it gray?) in the Goodreads right rail? My attention is drawn more to the right side of the page, because of the black font on white background that's bigger than the rest of the font on the page.

That's a good point. I shall check out whether I can change that.

Let me know if you want me to email you screenshots of what I see.

That would be great. Thanks, writeonleanne.
 

pattmayne

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I like it. It's simple and easy to look at. It lists your published works and tells a bit about yourself.

My only criticisms are that maybe the dog-pics make it look more like a blog than an author's website, and somehow the color scheme looks kind of dated, like an old 90's web1.0 website.