"Rumors of War (http://www.rumorsofwar.net) is a web site
designed simply yet it stands bold and precise in its statement.
While other authors . . . have web sites that start with 'Let me
tell you about myself,' Peggy opens with the covers of her two
books--no scrolls, no ads, and almost no copy. Click on a book
and she takes you there . . . Meeting the author is last. She
wants you to know the books before you know the author . . .
commendable web site . . . is bookmarked for return. I want to
read Rumors already." C. Hope Clark's review for Word Weaving
(http://wordweaving.com)

How did I generate such an awesome review of my web site?
Simple--online research. Online marketing and promotion is time
consuming. You can spend several hours just submitting your url
to search engines. If you're going to devote all that energy,
you'd better make sure you have a site that's user friendly.
After all once visitors have arrived, your first goal is to keep
them there.

When I decided to build a web site to promote my novel "Rumors
of War," I researched other book sites. I found three main
types--author driven, book driven and fan driven. Starting with
Yahoo.com I found "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt among the
web pages at Simon & Schuster's site. Same with the Harry Potter
series, I found J.K. Rowling's books at Scholastic's site.

The goal of my web site is to use the Internet to help build an
audience for my current and future books. Since I'm relatively
unknown, readers aren't going to come searching for me. The best
way to discover new authors is to read their books.

While searching I noticed that movies are always promoted by
title. That got me thinking, if I'm putting my book title in
front of hundreds of pairs of eyes every day, then the title
should be my domain name. I purchased rumorsofwar.net.

Coming up with content was easy--cover image, plot summary,
reviews, sample chapter, ordering information, and a page about
the author. I kept the style and graphics simple. It's a web
site about a book. Readers are accustomed to black print on a
white page, framed with an attractive cover. The banner and side
bar are colorful, but the same on every page so visitors know
they're still at my site while they're bouncing around.

Once I published the site and posted announcements via email,
discussion lists, and bulletin boards, feedback was immediate
and positive. Everyone liked the focus on the book yet gleaned
enough personal information about the author that they felt
comfortable letting me know they liked what they saw.

One week later my children's novel, "Carly's Ghost" arrived from
the publisher several months earlier than I expected. Overnight
I had two books to promote and only one web site. My focus on
the book title was practical in theory but could turn out to be
expensive in practice. I certainly couldn't afford to publish a
new web site every time I have a book released.

For help in solving this dilemma, I called Scott Forler at
Prairie Web, my web hosting service. Impressed with the amount
of traffic at my newly debuted site, he recognized I'd hit on
something positive with my design. Building on that initial
bump, we put together a plan to cover not only the release of
"Carly's Ghost" but all future releases. I purchased the domain
name for the title, carlysghost.net. Next I replaced the home
page with a splash page featuring the cover images of both
books, accessible from both urls: rumorsofwar.net and
carlysghost.net. Visitors can click on either book cover, or the
text instructions.

Each book has its own home page. The two books are together on
the splash page. The only other link between their pages is at
the "About the author" page. Each book's pages carry the banner
designed for that particular book and cover image. But I kept
the side bars the same color and used the same basic framework
for both books' pages. Again to let visitors know they're still
at my site while they're clicking about.

For future releases, instead of publishing a new web site, all I
have to do is publish the new book's cover image on the splash
page, and add a set of web pages.

An attractive web site and terrific reviews definitely keeps
visitors there. To make sales you want them to bookmark your
site so they'll return. The way I do that is by updating,
sometimes as often as once a week; adding reviews, sites that
feature my books, posting articles, and other news about my
books. Visitors quickly recognize fresh information. Put the
emphasis on the enjoyment of your visitors, and they'll keep
coming back. That's the most effective way to make sales.