How is your Website Working For Ya'?

A couple of weeks ago, I set up a new web site for our bookstore. At the same time, I set up Google Analytics. The tool, which is very easy to use, is also FREE. Now, I can measure how well I am doing in meeting my objectives (read Tips to Establish Your Blog). Among many other things, the tool tells me how long a user stays on a particular page and even which city most of my viewers are coming from.


**Even though we are located in Apex, most of my web visitors are in Cary! How is that for reaching a broader market!**

Using the tool, I can tell you that since republishing the site, I have had 220 visitors, of which 166 of them were unique. During these visits, there were 812 page views. Visitors stayed on the site for an average of 5 minutes and clicked through 3.6 pages per visit. Half of my visitors came through from the Google searching and various others came directly to http://www.allbookedupsalemstreet.com/ or via Facebook.

Now, these may not be great numbers (yet), but they are telling me more than what I knew a few weeks ago!

If you have a web site, sign up for Google Analytics! You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to obtain data (which is not so revealing that it would be considered “lurking” as my teenage son would called it) to market your product (books, self, cheesecake, etc.)

By the way, one of my objectives is to increase followers by 50 by September. My data is telling me that 25% of my visitors have come to my site more than once!

Tips for a Successful Book Event

•Provide the store with a brief biography, picture and target market to help them sell the book to the right customers

•Advertise the event on your web site, blog and social media sites – don’t let the message get lost – keep building up the excitement all the way up to the day of your event!

•Engage in “conversation” with the store’s customers through their social media sites and blogs – offer teasers from the book to capture interest and build a relationship (albeit electronic)

•Stop selling/giving away books at least three weeks prior to the event and refer customers to the event location for purchase

•Look for opportunities to create news and issue a press release to the media in the area (town, city, etc.)

•Register the event on www.booktour.com which will feed the information to electronic calendars in the area

•Post flyers in the general vicinity of the area a week prior to the event

•Help the store by bringing in new customers...your friends, fans and customers

•Attend another event the store is hosting to get a feel for how it will go and to support other new authors!

.Visit the store a week early to see the traffic flow during the time your event will take place

.Be EARLY!!

All Booked Up Won Best Book Store in Apex

The Apex Herald ran a contest for "the best of" and we won! We beat Borders as Best Book Store in Apex!