Inspiration for Your Author Website: 2 New York Times Best Selling Non-Fiction Author Website Examples (James Clear and Cal Newport)
As an author, your website is your digital home base, where readers can learn more about you, your work, and your brand. A well-designed author website can be a powerful tool for building your audience, establishing your authority, and promoting your books.
But what makes a great author website? To help answer that question, we've analyzed the website of New York Times best-selling non-fiction author Jay Shetty to identify what works well and what could be improved.
A website's purpose is to get visitors to trust you and take a specific action.
Before we start analyzing author websites, let’s go over some basics about the purpose of websites.
The first purpose of a website is to build credibility.
Here are some interesting statistics about websites that should guide how you think about a website:
· 94% of people judge a brand’s credibility based on the website.
· 56% of people don’t trust a brand without a website.
· It only takes website visitors 2 seconds to judge a website and, thus, a brand.
· 94% of website visitors are not ready to purchase the first time they land on a website
This data shows that the purpose of a website is to build credibility with the website viewer. Your website viewer wants to know if they should trust you.
Websites must build the know, like, and trust factor for bands. The know, like, and trust factor is based on the theory that a potential customer must know, like, and trust you before engaging with your content or purchasing from you.
Brands can build the know, like, and trust factor in three ways. First, the brand should offer images of themselves and their products. Second, the brand should provide social proof through testimonials, reviews, and data about their impact or effectiveness. Third, the brand should make the website easy to navigate so visitors can explore the brand and its offerings, purchase products or services, or get in touch.
The second purpose of a website is to get the reader to take a specific action.
The secondary purpose of a website is to get your website visitor to do something specific. This could be asking your audience to sign up for your newsletter, download your podcast, watch a video or a demo, book a discovery call, buy your product, or request a sample of your work or product.
Good websites have a specific ask, called a call-to-action, repeated multiple times throughout the website.
The effectiveness of a website is based on the concept of a conversion rate – i.e., what percentage of people visit the website and complete the call to action that the website is designed to promote.
Conversion rates usually range from 0.5% to 10%. A conversion rate of 2-3% is considered solid!
The best call to action for author websites is to get people onto your newsletter.
For authors, the best call to action is to get your website visitors onto your newsletter. This is because 94% of website visitors are not ready to purchase the first time they land on a website. Instead, they’re most likely browsing an author's website to get to know them and browse all their work.
Once a reader is in an author’s newsletter, the author can warm up the reader and gradually get them ready to purchase. This is why email marketing is so powerful. Email is estimated to generate $36 for every $1 spent. For comparison, social media generates a return of $3 per $1.
Authors should measure the effectiveness of their websites based on how many people sign up for their newsletter.
Conversion rate = newsletter sign-ups / unique website visitors. Aim for a conversion rate of 1% to start with!
Given this background information, let’s analyze James Clear and Cal Newport’s author websites.
A few highlights about these author websites:
Each author website is focused on conversion – i.e., getting a website visitor to opt into the author’s newsletter list. Since 94% of website visitors are not ready to purchase the first time they visit a website, getting a potential customer on your newsletter list and nurturing that lead is critical to building long-term relationships and selling more books.
The homepages of the author websites feature a brief description of the author’s work to give visitors context about the author.
A clear navigation bar with 5-8 items on each author website allows the reader to navigate the author websites easily.
The authors offer social proof of their work on their author websites by listing reviews from well-respected individuals, featuring the logos of publications that have featured their work or institutions that they have worked with, listing the number of copies of books sold or students taught, listing the number of subscribers they have on their newsletter, and listing significant accomplishments such as being a New York Times best-selling author.
The authors offer multimedia content on their author websites, such as video or podcast downloads, on their website so readers can consume content in their preferred medium.
James Clear Author Website:
James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, has a simple but effective website.
James Clear Author Website Homepage
Here’s what makes the website effective:
James’ author website offers social proof immediately:
Immediately on the homepage, there’s an image of James’ book with the details that the book has sold over 10 million copies and is a #1 New York Times bestseller. These social proof details immediately establish James as a credible author.
James Clear Author Website Landing Page
James author website offers a free chapter of the book to get individuals on his email list:
James Clear author website landing page
Immediately below the image, fans can download a free chapter of Atomic Habits.
This is great for two reasons: (1) It’s a great way to engage potential fans by giving them something of value - a small sample of the book - while (2) getting these individuals on James’ email list so he can continue to promote his work and writing.
The homepage of the author website includes multiple calls and a course lead magnet to action to join James’ newsletter:
James Clear Author Website Habits Course Lead Magnet
This isn’t the only time James includes an opportunity for his audience to join his newsletter. James has two calls to action to join his newsletter.
In addition to the lead magnet to download a free chapter of James’ book, the body of the website also allows readers to opt-in for a freebie habits course, putting these readers on James’ email list. A free course is an intermediate lead magnet more likely to entice readers onto an email list than a free PDF download.
James’ author website has straightforward navigation:
James Clear Author Website Navigation
James Clear’s site has clean navigation and colors matching the book, creating a cohesive user experience.
The navigation includes:
Books
Articles
Newsletter
Speaking
About
These are the basic pages every author website should have.
James could improve his author website by including more pictures of himself:
One small suggestion for James Clear’s website is that the website could benefit from more pictures of James himself to build a personal connection with James’ audience. In addition, James could include more dynamic content like videos so his audience can experience his content in multiple formats based on his preference. Finally, James’ website could also have a clear call-to-action to join his newsletter in the top right corner of his navigation, as we are all used to seeing a CTA in this prime real estate spot.
Cal Newport Author Website
Cal Newport's author website is simple yet effective in showcasing his expertise and work as a writer and scholar.
Cal Newport Author Website
The author website begins with a photo and description of Cal’s work:
Cal Newport Author Website Photo
The website starts with a picture of Cal and a brief description of his writing. Including a photo of yourself on your website is critical. According to a study by Adobe, websites with good images receive 94% more views than those with poor images. Another study conducted by Stanford University showed that websites that included photos of individuals were rated as more trustworthy. In addition, using pictures of yourself is much more likely to lead to conversions (i.e., visitors turning into email followers or customers).
The description is beneficial because no matter who lands on the website, they immediately have context for Cal’s work. Unfortunately, authors often overlook this crucial step of providing a short description of their work on the homepage.
The website's title tags (i.e., the description on the browser tab) also clearly describe Cal’s work as “Author Deep Work, Study Hacks, and Blog - Cal Newport.”
The CTA to join Cal’s newsletter is above the fold in bold red on his author website:
Cal Newport Author Website Newsletter Sign up
When the reader lands on Cal’s newsletter, there’s an immediate option to join Cal’s newsletter (Notice a pattern here?!). Not only is this CTA above the fold, aka before the reader has to scroll, but it’s also in bright red, so it’s impossible to miss. The CTA also uses social proof to persuade readers to join his newsletter by stating that more than 70,000 subscribers are in Cal’s newsletter.
Cal has a CTA to join his newsletter because 94% of website visitors are not ready to purchase the first time they land on a website. Asking people to join your email list and warming up potential leads through email to buy from you is highly effective because email marketing is powerful and returns $44 for every $1 spent. In addition, adding a CTA makes it 80% more likely that the website visitor will take the action you want.
Cal distinguishes his general writing from his scholarship on his author website:
Cal Newport Author Website Split Navigation
Cal’s website is an excellent example for anyone looking to appeal to two audiences. First, the website's clever layout distinguishes Cal's work as a general public author and scholar. This breakdown makes clear to visitors the different aspects of Cal’s career. People who want to listen to Cal’s podcasts can do so by clicking the link for his podcast or reading his popular articles. Other scholars can read Cal’s work by clicking the link to read his academic scholarship.
Cal’s navigation bar is clear on his author website:
Cal Newport Author Website Navigation
The importance of an effective navigation bar can’t be overstated. A study by HubSpot found that 76% of website visitors say that the most crucial factor in website design is the ease of finding information. Additionally, a study by Nielsen Norman Group found that users spend an average of 5.59 seconds looking at a website's main navigation before deciding whether to stay or leave. This highlights the importance of straightforward, easy-to-use navigation to increase conversions and user engagement.
Cal Newport’s author website navigation includes the following pages:
Home
Scholarship
Writing
Essays
Press
Contact
This navigation structure is clear and straightforward to understand. However, web designers debate whether having a home link in the navigation is necessary, as we are all trained to click the website icon to go to the homepage. Other designers like to have the home button in the navigation for maximum ease and clarity.
The author website color makes the website stand out:
Cal Newport Author website colors
The bold use of red for the website's color adds a touch of personality and helps the website stand out. Cal’s photo also matches the colors of the website so the website has a cohesive feel.
One way to improve this author website:
Cal Newport has an excellent website. One small change I would make is to rename the writing tab in his navigation bar as books, as this page focuses on Cal’s books. Calling this page ‘books’ is much more specific than using the broad term ‘writing.’
Overall, Cal's website showcases his expertise and work as a public intellectual and scholar while providing valuable easy options for visitors to engage further with his content.
Conclusion about these author websites:
To summarize, these author websites are all excellent examples of non-fiction author websites. A few traits that these websites have in common:
Each author website does a great job of building the know, like, and trust factor on their website. The know, like, and trust factor is based on the theory that a potential customer must know, like, and trust you before engaging with your content or purchasing from you. The authors build the know, like, and trust factor by including images of themselves, providing personal details, showing social proof about the quality of their work, and asking website visitors to sign up for a lead magnet and their newsletter so they can stay in touch.
Each author website is focused on conversion – i.e., getting a website visitor to opt into the author’s newsletter list. Since 94% of website visitors are not ready to purchase the first time they visit a website, getting a potential customer on your newsletter list and nurturing that lead is critical to building long-term relationships and selling more books.
There’s a clear call to action on the author websites to join the authors’ newsletters and a lead magnet, such as a course, a quiz, or a free chapter of their book, to entice the reader to join.
The homepage of the author websites features a brief description of the authors’ work to give visitors context about the author.
There’s a photo of the authors above the fold, along with the tagline about their work, and a call to action to engage with their work, whether by learning more about the author, signing up to be on the author’s newsletter, downloading a free chapter of the book, or purchasing the authors’ books.
A clear navigation bar with 5-8 items allows the reader to navigate the author websites easily.
The authors offer social proof of their work by listing reviews from well-respected individuals, featuring the logos of publications that have featured their work or institutions that they have worked with, listing the number of copies of books sold or students taught, listing the number of subscribers they have on their newsletter, and listing significant accomplishments such as being a New York Times best-selling author.
The authors offer multimedia content, such as video or podcast downloads, on their website so readers can consume content in their preferred medium.
What do you think?
What do you think about these websites? Which ones do you like the best? Which features do you like the best?
Action step:
What’s one tip you can implement on your author website this week?
About Powerhouse Strategy:
Powerhouse Strategy works with authors, podcasters, and thought leaders to build their online platform through digital strategy, SEO, newsletters, custom Squarespace websites, website maintenance packages, copywriting, and Squarespace templates.
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