The Ruler of your Domain

The Ruler of your Domain

By Evie McRae | 30th November 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

These days writers, authors and creatives need to be so much more than ‘just’ a writer or creative. Publishing Houses are increasingly looking to their Authors to create their branded platform from which to promote and sell their material. For many the online world can seem a little daunting but if you get to grips with some fundamentals early on, it can open up avenues to sales and raise awareness about you and your work.

One of the first areas you may be called upon to consider if you are creating a website is your Domain Name.

The second thing you will need to consider is who ‘hosts’ your website – but I will save that joyous discussion for another post (just be aware the two things are different – and you will need both).

Let’s start with a definition so we are all on the same page.

A domain name is an ‘identification string’ of numbers – or simply the ‘address’ of your website that people type in the browser URL bar to visit your website. If your website was a physical house, then your domain name would be its door number and street name.

The internet is a huge network of computers connected to each other through a global network of cables. Each computer on this network can communicate with other computers.

To identify them, each computer is assigned an IP address -a series of numbers that identify a particular computer on the internet. A typical IP address looks like this:

172.16.09.1.

It would be a bit of a pain to have to remember all these numbers though wouldn’t it? I mean how would we remember all our favourite sites? We can’t even remember phone numbers these days so we save them under a person’s name. It’s a similar concept with website addresses.

Domain names solve this memory problem.

If you have some latent geek tendencies you may be interested in what happens when we type an address into the browser – but for those of you glazing over right now I will keep it down to a few bullet points.

Visitor: I need directions to “The Butterfly Bureau” please.
The global network of servers (Domain Name System) responds: ‘Listen up – any of you lot got The Butterfly Bureau in their database or cache?’
Host Server (say GoDaddy or other) waves their hand: Hey – yes – over here. I have their address – it’s 101.01.11.90 …I’ll send the address over right now.
The global network of servers (Domain Name System) responds: Great we’ll store it in case it is asked for again.

This is very basic of course but hopefully gives you an idea of how a Domain works. In a nutshell, your Domain name is your address on the Internet Highway so your visitors can be directed/delivered to your door.

With me so far?

Different Types of Domain Names

Domain names are available in many different extensions. The most popular one is .com. There are many other options like .org, .net, .tv, .info, .io, however, I always recommend buying a dot.com – and I will explain why in a moment. For now, here are the different types of Domains you need to be aware of.

Top Level Domain – TLD
Top-level domain or TLD – the highest level in the domain name system. There are hundreds of TLDs, but the most popular ones are .com .org, and .net.

Other TLDs are lesser-known and consequently, I advise you not to buy them. You will be amazed at the effect it has on your brand to refer to something as a dot.biz rather than a dot.com. The biz makes it seems rather ‘tabloid’ – fine if that’s what you are going for.

Country Code Top Level Domain – ccTLDCountry-code top-level domain or ccTLD are country-specific domain names which end with country code extensions like dot.au for Australia or dot.uk the United Kingdom, dot.de for Germany or dot.co for Columbia (yes dot.co is actually a ccTDL but Columbia allow it to be used globally).

So – ccTLDs are used by websites that want to target audiences in a specific country. If you want to take your work GLOBAL though, this is just one reason to stick with dot.com

Sub Domain
In the hierarchy of the Domain Name System, a subdomain is a domain that is a part of another domain. For example, domain name. shop.com

Sponsored Top-Level Domain – sTLD
Sponsored top-level domain or sTLD is a category of TLDs that has a sponsor representing a specific community served by the domain extension. For example, .edu for education-related organisations or dot.gov for a country’s government.

How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Website?

There are millions of registered domain names and thousands are registered every day.

Chances are all the really great ones are already registered to someone else – so there is a lot of pressure on you to get creative with your domain name for your website.

There are free business name generator tools available that will help you come up with something creative – if you are stumped.

As a creative or author, you may want to use your name.com and that is certainly a great way to go if all your books are going to be written under one name.

If you are going to write many different books using different pen names though, this would not be such a great idea.

Instead, think of your BRAND. What does your brand represent? If you are writing or creating spiritual content you may want to think about themes in your work. For example, The Butterfly Bureau is part of a wider Communications Consultancy – and there is a ‘transformational’ element to that work (hence the butterfly) so you can see where this would come into play in choosing the Domain name. The parent business is McRae Communications Consultancy – shortened to mcraecomms.com as the top-level domain – and then ‘butterfly’ to show the relationship and brand attributes.

Here are some quick tips to help you choose a domain name for your website.

Stick with a dot.com domain name as it is the most popular, easy to remember, and easy to promote. When you buy a dot.com you often will own the extensions too (save perhaps a handful of them).So it follows if you buy a dot.com, it could save you any ‘ownership’ issues later down the track. If someone else owns ‘transform.com‘ – don’t be tempted to buy ‘transform.net’ (i.e. using the dot.net extension). There are many reasons why this would not be a good idea, but the worst-case scenario you could be sued for trying to cash in on the traffic and success of ‘transform.com’ – so make your domain your own – and search for and buy the registration to the dot.com.
The shorter the better. Generally speaking the shorter the better (best practice says a maximum of 10-15 characters – even shorter is optimum though). If it’s borderline from that perspective – it’s fine – but if you had something related that was shorter that would be even better). You may find really short domain names are a premium though but may be worth the higher price for a memorable address.
Think about how your domain name will look on printed material (how much space it takes up etc).
Make it easy to pronounce and spell.
Do not use numbers or hyphens.
If you are really stuck, look for a Domain Name Generator.

How to Buy a Domain Name?

You can buy domain names from one of the many domain name registrars. A domain name can cost around $1800 AUD a year (you’ll need to convert that for your currency). Really great domain names can sell for much more though. If you have no idea where to start in terms of buying a domain name – these companies will point you in the right direction.

Domain.com
Bluehost
GoDaddy
Hover
Dynadot

Please note The Butterfly Bureau is not affiliated with any of those listed above.

Just remember buying a domain/name does not automatically give you hosting service. For that, you will need a website hosting account which I will go into in another day.

Well, I hope that has demystified the subject of Domains for you. At the very least, when you hear the word it won’t sound like a foreign language. The Butterfly Bureau can of course help you with all of this as a service, but I always think if you have the desire to learn it puts the power back in your hands. That said – I am here to help if this really is a step too far – believe me, I understand! © 2020 The Butterfly Bureau

You want me to what my book? Market it? But I’m a writer…Help!

By Evie McRae | 16th June 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

So your book is finally being published and you’re beside yourself with excitement. You’ve done it! You’ve achieved that lifelong dream! But guess what? That’s not the end of the hard work. Well – not unless you have secured a major publishing deal with one of the BIG FOUR.

Now you actually have to promote your book. I know it seems cruel to have to get your hands dirty in the murky world of marketing, but if you want anyone to read the fruits of your labour you’re going to have to spread the word.

Most people won’t have the budget necessary to engage a marketing or branding guru, so I’ll give you a few titbits of free advice about effective marketing tactics that may just help you boost your audience and help you create a buzz around your book.

FREE stuff you can do

My first piece of advice is what I tell all my clients, regardless of their product, business or service. If you don’t exist online – you don’t exist.

We live in a world where Google has become the background security check. If someone hears the name of a person, or a book or a company, generally the first thing they do is Google it to find out any available information. If they don’t find what they are looking for, they won’t search any further. You’ve already put your first barrier up to a possible sale and potential loyal customer.

Nowadays a simple WordPress site can provide an extremely professional shop front for your business. WordPress is a free and open-source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) and for the most part, it’s excellent. As far as I’m concerned this is a must-have nowadays. When building an audience, your readers will want to know about you and the books you write and the website or WordPress platform is the ideal place for them to go. If you are not technically minded a WordPress site can seem rather daunting, but there are many simple themes and a plethora of teenagers out there only too willing to show off their skills. I won’t scare anyone by delving too deeply into this at the moment, but suffice to say I will cover this in greater detail in a subsequent post.

Social Media

As well as a website or WordPress platform you will need to ensure you are active on social media. Again, I only mention this because it’s FREE. My good friend and new author confessed she was a complete technophobe but she managed to navigate her way through the minor challenges and she was up and running with Twitter and Facebook in a matter of hours. In the space of 24 hours, she had over 100 Likes. Who knows where she’ll be in a few weeks when her book is out.

Brilliant. She exists as an author online now. But there’s more I can sneakily share with you – little learnings from the world of global product launching and brand building. If you are merrily posting on Facebook or Twitter, take a few moments to think about the quality of your posts. In the case of a book launch, it’s great to have little teasers from your book to give a flavour of what’s in store – but not too much. Apart from keeping some of your powder dry (and there may be some restrictions from your publisher), you have to remember how people read online. People scan, generally in an F shape and only small amounts. Indeed when I began to work more online on websites and social media I had to reverse all I had been taught about writing ‘the message’.

In addition to monitoring the length of post, I would advise using Facebook and Twitter or whatever social interaction you use, to create what is affectionally known as, the ‘Call to Action’. The Call to Action is very important in terms of selling or creating awareness. Think about what it is you actually want your reader to do? Just nod and move on? At that point, you may have lost them. Perhaps you want them to buy your book? If this is the case, then add a link making it easy for the reader to find and buy your book. Normally a link to Amazon on your page will suffice. A good rule is to think about removing all possible barriers between you and the sale of your book. The more steps someone has to go to reach it, the more likely you are to lose them.

Depending on the genre of your book it may be useful to have a presence on Pinterest. Think about where your intended audience ‘meet’ online and go and pitch your stall there. For example, a community like Goodreads is a great place to get your book reviewed and exposed to potentially thousands of people. Be sure to research your target audience and then research where they discuss books such as yours.

Press Kits

I’ll write more about Press Kits in a later post but generally speaking here’s what you need to know. Press Kits are invaluable when your contacting people in the media for publicity or for sending out information in a hurry. Your press kit may be requested by retailers, book bloggers, event planners, editors or anyone else who may be interested in you or your book. Include information as follows:

Author Bio and Contact Information

You should already have an author bio to hand. If not, start working on it now – published or not. You’ll need it for your blog or website, for guest posts or stories submitted to magazines. Your author bio should be about 200 words, and it should have things that make you sound interesting and professional. You should include your name, your place of birth or where you currently live, what you do (or used to do) for a living, what you’ve written, perhaps your education (if it’s relevant), quirky hobbies, or interesting travel experiences. Basically, anything that will make you stand out. If you’ve written non-fiction, include something about what gives you the knowledge/credibility or experience to write the book.

Don’t forget to include your contact information, and your agent or other representatives if necessary.

A photograph

But not a cropped grainy shot with you in the background at your granny’s 80th birthday party. You should have hi-res (300 dpi) and lo-res (72 dpi) versions, 600 pixels wide at a minimum. Make sure that you provide horizontal options and vertical options since different magazines and media have different layout preferences. Again, I won’t scare anyone by getting too technical here, but a well-lit digital photograph will do the job.

Press Release

A press release should focus on the unveiling of your new work. It should be brief and succinct; one page should do. Include information that is newsworthy about your book or about you as an author. If you have upcoming events, it might be a good idea to omit them from your press kit press release to keep the article timely a month or two down the road. There are a few tricks to writing a newsworthy press release over and above the release of your baby into the world. Drop me a line and I’ll share a few secrets.

Sample Author Q&A

Make a list of interview questions (and responses) about you and your book. This can include questions about your background, your inspiration for writing this book, your own favourite writers, future projects, etc. This section is particularly helpful for the interviewer and bloggers who want to help you promote your work, as it’s useful and ready content for them.

Specific Information on Your Book

So many books are published every week, every month, every year so you need to talk about what makes yours different. You can describe your book in terms of its unique features. Yes, it’s special to you, but what makes it the ‘must-read’ book for everyone else? Why did you write this book? Did you feel there was a gap in the market for this type of story? Does the book shed new light on a common issue? Is it a topic that a lot of people can easily relate to? As the author, do you have a unique background different from most other authors? You need to convince the person reading your press kit that your story is interesting enough for their audience.

Tip: Sometimes, when requesting your press kit, you may be asked to send in excerpts of your book as well. Ideally, a few quotes or perhaps a sample chapter will do the trick. But remember, as I said before, to keep some of your powder dry.
You may also include things like: editorial reviews, testimonials, links to relevant media content like audio and video, any awards you’ve won, etc.

Remember, a press kit doesn’t have to be fancy

The people who are requesting it just want information that will help them. Keep it simple. If you’re putting one together for the first time, I’m sure you already have some of the materials needed. Start with the items you already have and then work on adding the others as you go along. You don’t want to create a press kit at the last minute because once something exists beyond your control it has a habit of popping up everywhere.

the above points are just a taste of what can be done to help promote your book. If you would like help in marketing your book, or would just like some further information, feel free to email me at info@mcraecomms.com or visit my other website mcraecomms.com