Daily Archives: May 5, 2019

REBRAND: Website Reveal

Happy May and Happy Mother’s Day to all who are mothers.

Let’s talk websites. 

I mentioned this before how labor intensive and time consuming this rebranding process has been.  I’ll let you in on a little secret, I’d do it all over again.  

When it came to redesigning my website, I knew I wanted it to be reflective of me.  My old site was nice, but after having attended RAM {Romance Author Mastermind], I knew I needed to step up my look.  I approached this sort of like a giant Pinterest Board.  I studied bestselling author sites, sites I liked and sites from some of my also boughts.  I made a list of the things I liked from each site and then went to work redesigning my site.

My new site has most of the information on the homepage.  Each book has it’s own page as well as a playlist.  I always create playlists when I write, but had kept them to myself.  Sharing my playlists was something I saw on Laurelin Paige’s site.  She shared playlist with some of her books.

I liked the giveaway Carly Phillips used for her new site launch.  I enlisted the readers help checking for typos.  She also hid a few intentional ones.  This was such a great idea.  For my site, I’ve set up a game asking the readers to “Find the Hot Guy”.  It also includes a bonus entry for noticing the new cover. [I’m keeping A Southern Gentleman’s new cover a secret in this post until I share it with my list.]  

I liked the printable book list from Brenda Novak.  At RAM we learned about text messaging.  I’ve added that feature.  It’s an additional monthly expense, but I think it will come in handy with new releases.

This time around, I used free stock images I tweaked in Photoshop to match my color theme.  I also added a new logo.    I added a direct link to my reader group and cleaned up the store products.  Basically, I added all of the information on the homepage keeping in mind, I had to grab the reader’s attention. 

I also carried the graphics over to my email template.  I wanted to establish my branding with the colors and the graphics.  

Resources I used for the new website:

Shopify

I sell print books and reader boxes, so this is an excellent platform for me.  It’s also easy to use.  They offer 24/7 Customer Service.  Another major feature is a POS app for my iPad and phone.  I love using this at signings.

Photoshop

I use Photoshop to tweak my images before adding them to my website and the new logo font.

Unsplash Stock Photos

I found a series of images I felt best represented my brand.  I could have used my covers, but they wouldn’t have given me the continuity I wanted.  And the covers wouldn’t have stood out.

For the “Find the Hot Guy” giveaway, I used Depositphotos, Pexels, and Unsplash. And Google Docs for the form.

Spotify

I used Spotify to host my playlist.  This one is a little tricky, because it’s not compatible with all web browsers.

EZ texting.com

I posted a question to one of my online groups about texting apps, and this one got rave reviews.  I’m excited to see how this is going to work.  

If you’d like to visit the site, click the image below or the link:  https://bit.ly/2DOyvV1.  I ask that you not share it yet, because I have a giveaway set up for the launch. If you have a problem with the link or have questions, email me [readtracyreed@me.com]