Are you an author who relies on Facebook or Amazon for your home page?
If you do not have an online home – website or blog – that you own, you are missing out on opportunities to build your brand and community; to cultivate relationships with readers and potential partners; and to sell your books and services.
Just like your physical house, your website or blog is valuable real estate. And it’s even more valuable when you own it. Let’s examine the high price of authors “renting” space on Facebook and Amazon versus owning your own online home.
Renting vs. Owning Your Online Home
Lack of Control
Everything you post on Facebook becomes their property which they can use as they wish (read the small print and user complaints). Be mindful about what you share and how much you share.
For example, you might see your status updates, videos and images in Facebook ads – without your permission. They can promote and profit from your content because they have a legal right to do so as owners of the site. You have a little more control on Amazon, but you are limited to an author page and your book information.
When you own your online space you have authority to do what you want, how you want, when you want.
Inability to Be Found
Although Facebook has several billion users, your ideal customers and partners may not have accounts. If they do have accounts, you could still miss them because Facebook determines who sees your updates.
Amazon is a little better for visibility for authors because you may appear in search engine results. As the owner of your own site, you can be found twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Possibility of Homelessness
Since you don’t own Facebook and Amazon, you will be homeless if they shut down your accounts. You really won’t be found by customers, prospects and potential partners. They can shut you down for any reason they want without an explanation.
You never have to worry about being evicted from your online home as long as you pay the applicable fees to keep your site up and running.
No Buyer Contact Information
There’s a catch-22 to using Amazon. On the one hand, Amazon is great for authors because you are exposed to potential customers all over the world. On the other hand, you cannot get the names and email addresses of the people who purchase your books, thereby limiting your opportunity to sell and partner with them in the future.
You can add links to landing pages on your site in your book, but there’s no guarantee readers will click on them. If they do click, they may not leave their information.
Although you can set up an author page and use applications to capture information on Facebook, you are still limited to people on this site.
You can capture email addresses on your site by offering valuable freebies that visitors have to sign up to receive – chapters of your book, checklists, newsletters or reports. Keep them returning through consistent communications via newsletters and social media.
Being on Facebook and Amazon gives you access to a larger number of people you can gain on your own but the price of “renting” space on these sites is much higher than owning your online home. However, driving traffic from these sites to your online home – and then converting it to dollars – is priceless.
How About You?
Are you an author that have you been impacted by not owning your own online home? What happened? Please share your story in the comment box below.
Image credit: Pixabay