Susan Friedmann [00:00:30]:

Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week, I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. 

 Today, my special guest is Christina Hills. She's the creator of the Website Creation Workshop. She's been passionately teaching non-techie authors, experts, small business owners, coaches, and consultants on how to easily create their websites in WordPress so that they can get their message out to the world. She puts the fun back into technology and empowers people to be in full control of their marketing and online presence. 

 Christina, what an absolute pleasure it is to welcome you to the show, and thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.

 

Christina Hills [00:01:24]:

 Thank you so much, Susan. I'm happy to be here.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:01:27]:

 I love the fact that you put fun back into technology, or you've put spun into technology, not necessarily back, because most people don't find it fun. Do you find that that many of your clients come to you because they hate technology.

 

Christina Hills [00:01:44]:

 Right. They think technology is not fun, but I try to make it fun for my students, and then that kind of frees them up to not be so afraid.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:01:54]:

 Yeah. And I think that's very important, this whole idea of, not being afraid. We can talk about more about that in a moment, but I know that One question that I always get, Christina, from authors is, should I have an author or a book website? Now if somebody comes to you with that question, how would you answer it? Ex

 

Christina Hills [00:02:19]:

 I get asked that question all the time, and, I was at an event with the publisher of Hay House, Reed Tracy. You might know him. We had lunch together and I asked him, I said, should authors have a book website or an author website? In fact, I actually wrote a blog post about this and he said absolutely authors should have an author website, not a book website because with an author website, you wanna build a relationship with your audience about you, the author, because you're not just gonna write 1 book. You're gonna write many books. So you have a lot more longevity If you build a website that it's about you, the author.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:03:07]:

 I love that response, and thank you because that's actually what I always say is, like, Yes. The book is great, but it's just the tool. People are buying you. Exactly. They want a relationship with you. They want to build a relationship with a book. 

 

Christina Hills [00:03:22]:

 So fall in love with you, and then they buy your other books. And, Susan, I don't know if you do this. Sometimes I do this when I look at an author and I haven't read them before. Sometimes I look to see what other books they have Even before I've read the 1st book.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:03:38]:

 Many of my authors are first-time authors. Yes. I love the idea of you Saying, oh, well, if I buy 1, then I'm going to want to buy more if I like what I've read. I absolutely preach that message as well because, Yeah. You're not a 1 horse pony. You know what Exactly. It's like, I want more of you.

 

Christina Hills [00:04:00]:

You wanna have a website about you, the author, But you'll also wanna have a specific page about each of your books so that you can send people to 1 specific page on your site that's about your book, a photo of your book, picture of the cover, a little blurb where to buy it And then have the domain name point to that specific page on your website. So if you are being interviewed, you can say and you can get my latest book at, you know, suchandsuchbook.com And then that redirects. I hope I'm not getting too techie. It redirects to the page on your site. That is something you can do, But you still have just 1 website.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:04:55]:

And that's really good for people to know because I know that many of my authors, when they finalize the title of their book, they go straight to buying the domain name, the URL for that book.

 

Christina Hills [00:05:09]:

 And that's a great idea to buy the domain name still.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:05:12]:

 Yes. But they think with that, that that means that they have to have a book web site, which you're saying no. It's just, you know, you can redirect names to one overarching website. Is that correct? 

 

Christina Hills [00:05:29]:

 Right. Yeah. I think that's a great idea, But you're gonna save time and energy because it's all gonna point to 1 website. So it'll be whatever your website is, you'll just have a page on your site for your book, and most authors do that on their website. They have The you know, click to find out more about my books, and then they have pages for the specific book.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:05:56]:

 Now let's talk about that. What do you find works well to put on the website page for your book? What are some of the ingredients that make that a good page, for instance?

 

Christina Hills [00:06:10]:

You want to have a description of what the book is. You want to have a picture of the cover, the book cover, and you probably can get that from your publisher, A link of where to buy it, you know, on Amazon or other places online that people might buy it. And then, also, you will have, You know, wanna know more about the author, here are my other books. For the 1st time author who's listening, A little description of the book, a link to Amazon, maybe I'm not sure if Amazon does this, But there might be a way to include a couple of reviews of your book. If you've got some good reviews, you can probably put that on that page.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:07:03]:

Yes. Exactly. Like it, or if you've got any media that you've had as a result of the book or even podcast interviews, I think all of that is good fodder for that page.

 

Christina Hills [00:07:19]:

Exactly.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:07:20]:

Yeah. How about actually you talked about people doing this. What are your thoughts about People doing it themselves versus hiring somebody like yourself to do this for them.

 

Christina Hills [00:07:32]:

I just wanna clarify. I don't build sites for people. I teach and empower people how to build sites themselves. But the general question that you're asking is should the author build their own site, or should they hire it out? Here's the thing. When you hire it out, then anytime you wanna do any kind of marketing or updates to your site or add a new book or add anything, You're now beholden to somebody else who's gonna go into your website and make those changes. I am a big believer in people doing it themselves. Now there's nothing wrong with having an assistant to help you manage it, But it happens to me where I get ideas, especially marketing ideas, and I get the idea on a Friday afternoon. And if I didn't know how to do it myself, I'd have to wait until Monday for them to sort of answer my emails or respond to me.

 

Christina Hills [00:08:33]:

 I'm a big believer in the author doing the website themselves because once you learn Some of these tools, then you are so empowered to be able to make changes yourself.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:08:47]:

And that's good because I think that helps to take the extra out of the whole technology, which we sort of touched on a little bit right at the beginning. I remember before I knew a little bit about sites, and I think I could be dangerous with what I know. But the fact is that you get scared that, oh my goodness, I'm gonna break it. But I think it would take a lot to break, you know, something like WordPress. You can't really go very wrong with it. Am I correct with that?

 

Christina Hills [00:09:17]:

You don't wanna be afraid to break it because even if you do, everything is fixable. You wanna get over that Fear, and this is one of the things, Susan, that I do with my students is I give all my students a practice website. Whether they come to my program either having a website already or not having a website, they get this practice area that they can play with, make mistakes, delete something, and then recover it from the trash. And I always show this little picture of this little kindergarten girl with finger paints and how she's got paints all over her and she's not afraid. By teaching this way, Susan, it helps people get over their fears because I get it. If you've paid a lot of money to a web designer and they built your site, you're scared to touch it, but then you have to keep shelling out money if you wanna make little changes. So I Try to take that fear out in the way that I teach my program.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:10:17]:

That's lovely. I know that you have several programs, and one of them That I found fascinating was the website marketing program. Let's Delve deeper into that and talk to us more about this whole idea of using your website for your marketing. How can you do that so that you can make money, which obviously is what people want to do or build their list or attract clients? Talk to us more about that.

 

Christina Hills [00:10:50]:

Yeah. So in my website marketing workshop, that's where in the website creation workshop, you learn how to build a website. In The website marketing workshop, then we go deeper into marketing your site because you wanna think of your website excite is your hub. It's your piece of real estate on the Internet. And I know we all go to Facebook and LinkedIn and all these other places, but we don't own those places. We're like renters, whereas our website is our hub that we have total control of that people can find out about us. From that is your starting point To, like, push out your marketing pieces. Like for you, Susan, you've got this podcast, and so you're gonna have that on your website.

 

Christina Hills [00:11:40]:

Authors can have their podcast on their website. They can have their blog. They can have their articles, and then you use your web site as the launching pad to push out your marketing. Does that make sense?

 

Susan Friedmann [00:11:54]:

Oh, it certainly does. And Something that I'd love to stress, Christina, that you said is that this is your hub that you have control over Because otherwise, as you rightly said, if you're constantly on Facebook or LinkedIn, you're building a house on rented land and, you know, If they go away tomorrow, you've lost all these thousands and thousands of followers.

 

Christina Hills [00:12:19]:

Or more than that. I'm sure everybody listening Either had it happen to themselves or know someone who got kicked out of Facebook for some reason. I know various people Who got kicked out? I know someone else who somehow lost access to their Instagram account, and they were never able to get it back, and so they lost all those followers. With your own website, that's not gonna happen to you because you have control of it.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:12:46]:

Now what do you recommend? Let's say I have these 5,000 followers on Facebook or LinkedIn or Instagram. How Do you recommend that I get those people to sign up on my website?

 

Christina Hills [00:13:04]:

You wanna do on social media is you want to push out either pictures or links to your website, Drawing them back to your site because once they come to your site, then they can opt in And you can build an email relationship. We all wanna build relationships. Email and social media are 2 different ways to build relationships, but you have a lot more control and emails where a lot of the sales get made. Whatever activity an author who's listening to us now, whatever activity you're doing on social media, Think in your brain, how can I drive them back to my site? For example, like on Instagram, Instagram doesn't allow live links. They only allow a link in your bio. And I know in some instances, you can have some links in Reels or stories, but those are somewhat temporary. You wanna think, what could I offer people that would be enticing To get them to come and opt in on my website, and that's where you're really building the deep relationship.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:14:19]:

So things like a checklist or tips, what are some of the things that you find are most attractive for people to say, Oh, yeah. I want that so that they will come and opt in to your list.

 

Christina Hills [00:14:34]:

Well, the benefit, Susan, for nonfiction authors. Right? So Nonfiction authors are not writing fiction books. They're writing books around a topic, So it becomes a lot easier. Do you have an example of an author and then I can help spitball some ideas or an author topic?

 

Susan Friedmann [00:14:53]:

 Yeah. Sales, For instance. Sales. Got lots of, yeah, sales or leadership.

 

Christina Hills [00:14:59]:

Yeah. So they're writing books on sales and being, oh, then that's perfect. Come to my site to get my 10 tips every salesperson should say on a sales call or Seven things you should never do on a sales call or something pithy like that that people would say, oh, I want that checklist or, oh, I want that tip. 

 

Susan Friedmann [00:15:21]:

 Yes. I remember that I had an article that I always put in my byline, 10 common mistakes exhibitors make. I lost count of the people who downloaded wanted that article because, yes, who doesn't want to make mistakes?

 

Christina Hills [00:15:38]:

People love top 10 this, x number of mistakes that people love lists, and that gets folks to opt in. I'm glad you brought that up because it's a really good one.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:15:50]:

It is. And talking about mistakes, let's talk about some mistakes that you find that people make with their websites or putting them together or the marketing.

 

Christina Hills [00:16:03]:

There's 2 mistakes. The first one And this is hard for people. The first one is to remember the website's about them. It's not about you. When someone comes to your website, except for your bio page, right, your bio page is all about you, But when someone comes to your website, you want to write your words and your copy that's gonna appeal to them. Your headline shouldn't be I this and I that. It should be something like, do you wanna do better in sales? It should be about them. So try to keep that in mind.

 

Christina Hills [00:16:45]:

Yes. It's your website, but the website's about them, your visitor, You're a potential reader who comes to your site.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:16:54]:

Yes. I worked with Don Miller of StoryBrand, and he talks about the fact that your customer is the hero. So you're right. It's all about them. It's ex- right. The eyes on your website into yous. Right. Because, yeah, we've got this tendency, and even the best of the best, It's all about me.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:17:17]:

I did this, and I did that. 

 

Christina Hills [00:17:19]:

 And that's a human tendency.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:17:20]:

 It is.

 

Christina Hills [00:17:21]:

 You know? It's like we're human creatures, and We have egos, and so that is a tendency, but, you know, I can always tell when I look at a site how much of a beginner or how more experience there are based on is the headline about you? Should be about you.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:17:39]:

Yes. It's all about your client or potential client And how they can benefit or get transformation from whatever it is that you're selling. I mean, your book, but it's the message that you want To get out there into the marketplace because they're not buying books. It's not about buying books.

 

Christina Hills [00:17:59]:

Right. The book is the vehicle to get to you. It's just the modality that they're experiencing you in. So we're talking about mistakes. I wanna now pivot right to the other mistake, which is, In a way, the flip side is your about us page. Right? So in general, your website's about them. When someone comes to your about us page, that now needs to be about you, you, the author. And the mistake that I see, Susan, is the headline will say about me.

 

Christina Hills [00:18:34]: 

Really, it should Say about Christina Hills or about Susan Friedman because when people Google you, You want that headline with your name in the headline on that page. That's the first thing about the about us Page is a mistake I see, and I always have to tell people, no. Don't say about us or about me. Have your name, your full name. Now some people put their first name. No. Have your full name so when somebody googles you, your about us page will show up. And the other thing about the about us page is have a photo of yourself because people want the relationship with you.

 

Christina Hills [00:19:14]:

They wanna see your picture, So put a photo of yourself on your about us page.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:19:22]:

Yeah. A photo that you're smiling, you look friendly. You look like, yes. I want to have this relationship with you. Yes. You look friendly. I looks as if I can trust exq.

 

Christina Hills [00:19:35]:

Right. And sometimes I'll go to people's sites and I'll see their photo on their website. I'm like, I don't know how I like that photo. And then I go to Facebook and I click through their profile pics, and they've got much better pictures. They're friendlier and they're smiling and they look approachable. Get someone else's opinion. Sometimes we're not always a good judge of what photo of us looks good.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:19:59]: 

Yes. That's very true. I have to always ask other people because I see the pictures much more critically than others do, and then obviously they see me differently than I see myself. Now something you hinted at that I think would be important for us to talk a little bit about, and that is the searchability. So that SEO, the search engine optimization, You talked about finding your name. What else would be relevant? How do we work this SEO? What are some of the sort of 101 tips that people need to know?

 

Christina Hills [00:20:43]:

This will make you feel better. So behind the search engines is a human is a human online at their laptop looking for something. You want to write your words keyword. So you want that keyword on your page about Susan Friedman, and then you Talk about the bio, and you might have your name on that page maybe once or twice again. Susan Friedman graduated Come loudy from blah blah blah. Now I and I'm curious how you think because there's no strict rule on this. I believe your about us page should be written in the 3rd person as if you were being introduced On the Oprah show or something. I think it should be in the 3rd person.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:21:43]:

And coming from a PR background, that's absolutely the way you would do it. You talk As a reporter, you know,

 

Susan Friedmann [00:21:51]:

in the 3rd person. Yes.

 

Christina Hills [00:21:52]:

 In the 3rd person. Now some people who have a blog and do blogging, that's a little more personal. They might write their blog in the first person. I was sitting on the subway, and I saw something, and I wanted to tell you all about it. Sometimes the blog, because that's more like a diary, That could be in the 1st person.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:22:16]: 

Yes. Because that's a whole different piece of information When you're sharing something personal in a story

 

Christina Hills [00:22:25]: 

Right. Right.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:22:25]: 

Where you are participating in that. Right. Versus, as you rightly say, the bio is a little more formal Right. Than that third person.

 

Christina Hills [00:22:35]:

Same with the page about your book. You wouldn't be first person. Someone's fine. You know, we talked about page on your site about a specific book. Sorry. Susan, I jumped in.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:22:46]: 

That's okay.

 

Christina Hills [00:22:48]:

Well, I always get so excited when I start talking about website excited.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:22:52]:

So you should. I mean, this is, like, your passion.

 

Christina Hills [00:22:56]: 

But what makes me so excited, Susan, is when I help people who've felt that they weren't good at technology and that they couldn't do stuff, and then all of a sudden, like, they get empowered like, wow. I can make these changes, and I can change the headline, and I can cut out those 2 paragraphs and fix a typo. And I can do it anytime I want, and I don't have to pay and pay and pay somebody else. And and that's really, Susan, what gets me excited is Not only seeing students get over their fears of technology, but the wide array of looks and feels that Each person who goes through my course gets when they build their website. Like, I've got 1 author, and she writes, like, mystery novels and, Like, kind of whodunits, and it has a certain look. And then I have another gal, and she does romance, and so it has another look. And it's really to help people express themselves through their website.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:24:03]:

I think that's so important, expressing themselves because, we were talking about this earlier, that often the pictures are wrong. The graphics that they use, the idea of maybe putting something that pulls at the heartstrings more Then is rather conceptual. People put something up there that's conceptual rather than emotional that's going to Build a different kind of relationship with people. What are your thoughts on that?

 

Christina Hills [00:24:34]: 

Well, pictures always add to The what you're writing about. Oh, I'm a big fan of having good pictures. I mean, just think of a magazine. Right? You flip through the magazine, The picture catches your eye, the headline catches your eye, and then the words draw you in. Right? Because And this is what's great about authors being able to be in control of their websites because authors are good at words. Right. And the words are gonna draw the person in and keep them on the website longer, keep them excited, and like, hey. I'm gonna click over and buy that book and have it shipped to me tonight.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:25:13]: 

Yes. I think we could spend hours talking about all of this because there's so much, and Each thing that you say is like, okay. We could go down that path. We'll have to bring you back to talk about this in more depth. But Before that, let's hear about how our listeners can find out more about you and your programs Because I think you definitely or I hope you definitely spark some interest, and they want to know more.

 

Christina Hills [00:25:52]:

Where I'll talk about the pages that your website needs to attract clients or attract an audience, Which pages to have first, what pages you can put off till later. And so by having this step by step checklist, it makes it easier to get started or if you've already got a website, the checklist will help you like, yeah. I've got that. Oh, wait. No. I need to add that. So folks should check that out in the show notes.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:26:21]: 

And then they can get hold of you. It's christinahills.com. Correct?

 

Christina Hills [00:26:27]:

Yes. Christinahills.com.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:26:29]:

To find out about the courses because there's some great courses on there, and you also do one on graphics 

 

Christina Hills [00:26:39]:

Exactly. You set the website creation and then the website marketing. Exactly. Exactly. And just, you know, Like an author, you're gonna have new books coming out. Right? So christinahills.com is sort of the main portal where you can learn more about me.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:26:54]: 

Perfect. Excellent. And, Christina, we always end with, guests Sharing a golden nugget with our listeners. What's your golden nugget?

 

Christina Hills [00:27:06]: 

My number one golden nugget is Don't be a perfectionist, and don't be afraid of making a mistake. People who do better and learn quicker are the ones who are not afraid to make a mistake. So click on that link or Type that in and click update and just try things. The more you try things without fear, The easier it is gonna be for you. And I just have a, like, a quick little nugget story on this. My daughter had, like, figured out something on Google that I didn't think she'd be able to do, and she was really young. And I was like, how did you figure that out? She's like, I don't know. I just kept clicking until it worked.

 

Christina Hills [00:27:55]: 

That's what the younger generation has is they're less afraid of it. Whereas me, you know, computers didn't come around till, like, college is when I first got exposed to computers and some people was after college. So if you just get over your fear of perfectionism and fear of making a mistake, you're gonna go much faster, and it's gonna be much Easier. So just be kind to yourself. The great thing is you can always edit and click update and edit and click So it doesn't have to be perfect the first time, whereas often when you work with a web designer sorry. My nugget's getting a little long. When you work with a web designer, they say, I'm not gonna start until you give me final copy, and that's just not how life works. So don't be afraid.

 

Susan Friedmann [00:28:45]:

I mean, in so many instances, that is just perfect, but especially here because, as you rightly say, we're just often so afraid that we're gonna break it, and we're not. So, Christina, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us. It's been fabulous. And listeners, you're probably gonna want listen to this again and again because there are some special little nuggets in there that Christina shared that I'm sure you didn't necessarily get everything down, so just in case.
And thank you for taking time out of your day to listen to this interview, and I sincerely hope that it sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books. Here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.

Here's how to get a copy of Christina's Website Creation Checklist