Ryan M. Patrick

I recently got billed for another 3 years of hosting from WordPress. That means it’s been 3 years since I launched this website! Lots of lessons learned – here’s the top 5:

1 – Website as the Central Hub

I’m on a lot of different platforms. Mostly X/Twitter as my main social media outlet, but I am also on Instagram and Facebook (need to get back to posting there more!) and I occasionally show up on another author’s website for whatever reason. But I don’t own any of those pages, nor do I own my Amazon page! The only things I have full control are my website and mailing list – my KDP account could be terminated at any time for basically no reason, and I can be edgy enough on X/Twitter to run into a suspension or ban. The website is what I have control over, it’s where I can build my brand the way I want to, and as someone who went self-publishing over traditional publishing at least partially for control purposes, it’s a great thing to have. I think all authors need their own website!

2 – Consistency Drives Traffic

I’ve made it a goal this year to have at least one blog post per week, and I’ve done a decent job at it. But that consistency is incredibly important at driving traffic to my website – the more blog posts I have, the more eyes I get on my pages, and in theory more sales I get (the correlation is weak but there) on my books. It lets my readers know how I’m doing in the process, if I’m trashing a draft (more on that in a sec), and builds a personal connection – they are truly inside of my writing process! The more updates and the more consistently they come, the better.

3 – People Love Transparency

Some of my best-performing blog posts are where I go inside of my sales numbers, talk about reviews, or talk about throwing out a draft and starting over. There’s a ton of authors out there who are cagey about their raw sales numbers, or portray a purely linear process that never showcases their setbacks and failures. Writing is messy – be honest about it! Unless you’re lying about how many sales you have, who cares how many books you’ve sold or KENP page reads you have? Just put it out there – don’t have anything to hide!

4 – Leverage Your Unique Expertise to Create Evergreen Content

I occasionally write about topics that I know way too much about – types of rockets, orbits for sci-fi writers, even the dreaded Pentagon prepublication review process. These aren’t just for me – they’re to try to help any other authors who may be running into some of the same issues I have. I find they drive a ton of traffic and have led to some very interesting email discussions.

5 – Put Yourself Out There

3 years ago, I was debating whether I was going to write under my real name or not. I was still in the military, wanted to keep my identity a bit more hidden, and felt shy interacting with the general public. At the time, it was a 50/50 whether I’d write under my own name or create a pen name and fictitious identity. Now, with the proliferation of AI, I think you have to go under your real name and be as honest and transparent as you can. People want that connection with the authors they read. And no matter how much of an introvert you are, you have to interact with your readers – you can’t just throw a book over the fence and hope for the best. I do that better on X/Twitter than here but I am who I am and I think that helps me more than some other authors who are more shy about their true persona.

Here’s to another 3 years (and hopefully many more) of this website!