Shepherd launches genres + turns 2 years old!

Author

Ben Fox
May 10, 2023

What's new for May?

  1. Genre & age pages + filters are live! 🥳

  2. Can you help us launch this new feature? 

  3. What is left to do on genres/ages?

  4. Traffic for April

  5. Ben's life updates and reading list...

  6. Anonymous supporter matching signups again!

Two quick notes:

  • Check out this fantastic essay about "book people" by Charlie Becker entitled A Pilgrimage for Book People.

  • Over the last 30 days, we have sold $1,200 books a day just on Amazon USA (and far more than we don't get credit for since Amazon only gives us credit if they buy in 24 hours). If you like what we are building for authors and readers, please join as a Founding Member.

Genre & age pages/filters are live!

Huge thank you to everyone who helped me test!!! 😁

What do you like to read?

Age groups: adults, children, middle school, young adults...

A mix of both...

Let me know what you think and if it helps you find cool books:)

Can you help us launch this new feature? ⛑️ 

#1 - Can you mention the new genre and age pages on your website or blog?

It will really help if you write a short post and link to a few of your favorite genre or age pages at Shepherd. Every link helps more readers find us 🥳.  

If you want me to write something, just hit reply (I am happy to do it)!

#2 - Or, can you mention the new genre and age pages on social media or a newsletter?

Sharing one of your favorite genre or age pages on social media (or a newsletter) is also a big help in getting the word out.  

#3 - Are you friends with journalists, podcast hosts, website owners, or the press?

I would love referrals to help me spread our story and show the world what we are building for readers and authors. I appreciate any referrals.

We will exit beta in 60 days, and I will start more mainstream media pushes this summer, so any connections you have would be a plus. 

 

What is left to do on genres/ages?

  • Add a shuffle button to help people bump into new books with one click. 

  • Fix bugs and add some UX tweaks.

  • Add the genres and age groups to the frontpage (coming toward July as our amazing part-time dev is off for June)

  • Better integrate genres and age data into search and the wider site (coming toward summer once our amazing dev is back)

And I have a ton of data to crunch through...

  • 1,000+ new bookshelves to create around genres and ages.

  • 792 genres to review and decide where they fit.

  • 40,149 topics to review and decide if they belong on the site. I'll start with the 3,068 topics assigned to four books or more.

  • 8,614 topics I need to review again and ensure they are good topics to help people find books. 

  • 16,609 data items from the Library of Congress to map to topics. This helps our machine learning system long term.

  • 4,000+ bookshelves to review and tweak by hand to ensure they deliver the right books now that we have that data in the system.

Traffic updates

For April, we had 393,000+ visitors and 520,000+ pageviews. That is down 10% versus last month. And that is up 402% over the previous year.

Traffic from Google was down 13% in April. That is part of the process, but I am frustrated (as traffic has been stuck since January). I am working on a round of work to improve SEO and UX. I trust that growth returns as I put in the work and more time passes. 

For a big-picture perspective...

  • In 2022 we had 1.8 million visitors.

  • In 2023 we've already had 1.7 million visitors through April. 

My goal for 2023 is to reach one million monthly visitors. 

What else is going on?

Last weekend, I took my 6-year-old son on a father/son bike adventure! He biked 22km on Saturday and 25km on Sunday. I was so impressed. I can’t wait to take him on some longer bike trips.

What am I reading?

  • A Knight and a Spy 1410 by Simon Fairfax. I think it would be considered historical fiction with a heavy dose of adventure. I am enjoying it so far; curious to see how the characters develop from here.

  • I am still reading Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919. It is a fantastic history book. I've been so busy lately I haven't had much reading time lately. 

Have a great week,
Ben

P.S. From our biking adventure in Portugal...

An anonymous supporter is matching May signups!

A fantastic supporter has offered to match any money we raise from the Founding Member program or donations for May. 

If the timing is right for you, please join Shepherd as a founding member.

How do we help authors?

In the last 12 months, Shepherd has helped 3.2 million visitors find new books and connect with authors like you. 

I want to help you reach new readers, sell more books, and build a larger fan base.

What are some of the perks?

I am launching three new formats in 2023.

The goal is to help you meet readers and sell more books. 

Click those links to learn more and signup here to take part.

What else?

  • In July, Founder Member will get featured in a special section of our front page.

  • In September, we will launch a premium feature to help authors launch their new book! We will show your new book throughout the website to get exposure from readers who would be most interested in it. Founding Members will get first access to this program and one premium book launch per year.

  • more perks coming!