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- Try Shepherd's new genre and age pages!
Try Shepherd's new genre and age pages!
Ben Fox
April 19, 2023
Want to beta-test genres and age pages? 🤗📚
Bookshelves improved & updated!
Traffic for March
What's next for Shepherd?
Ben's life updates and reading list
Anonymous supporter matching April signups (again!)
Want to beta-test genres and
age pages? 🤗📚
Just hit reply, and tell me your favorite genre or age group (specific age, grade, or group).
Then, I will email you back a preview link!
Bookshelves improved & updated!
We updated the bookshelf pages to improve how we show off authors and their book lists. We also added this improved format to the books-like page.
Examples here:
The goal is to show off authors and pull readers toward their list. I am thrilled with the results, as we see a significant increase in reader engagement.
Here is what the new format looks like:
And here is what we show when they click "Who is Matt?"
We aim to pull readers toward your book list and show off a bit about you.
We also added an intro to help explain what Shepherd does.
Traffic updates
For March, we had 451,000+ visitors and 577,000+ pageviews. That is flat month over month. And that is up 535% over the previous year.
Traffic from Google was flat month over month. Growth hit a plateau in February, which is an annoying but normal part of the process. It usually takes ~3 years to rank for competitive Google searches (we are almost 24 months old). I've got a lot of features and improvements coming that will help accelerate growth in the coming months.
My goal for 2023 is to reach one million monthly visitors.
What's next for Shepherd?
What formats do I aim to launch later this year?
April & May
Adding genre pages to the website.
Adding pages around ages and age groups to the website.
Adding filters and tools to help readers find books.
July
Adding the concept of book series pages to the website.
Improvements to our front page, books-like pages, and other parts of the website (UX streamlining as we add more genre and age data to the site).
August & September
Adding our 3 favorite books of the year format and getting that ready to launch on October 1st (big media push).
Adding our new book launch program.
Q4 2023
Adding a user system to the website and a personalized book recommendation email. This is a big marketing addition as we build a newsletter for readers who want unique and fun book ideas.
And some other surprises!
Check out our full 2023 roadmap.
What else is going on?
We spent my 6-year-old son's spring break vacation in Valencia, Spain (my favorite city in the world). My dear friends from Ireland visited, and it was so great to hang out with them and their 18-month-old. I miss them already :).
What am I reading?
I am reading a fantastic history book called Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919.
I finished the Rorschach Explorer Mission series (hard science fiction). This is a great series, and I emailed a few friends to recommend it.
I finished the "A Discovery of Witches" series. I love books that mix a supernatural world into our everyday reality. I can see why these are so popular.
Have a great week,
Ben
P.S. Picture of my son giving me a python hug in Valencia.
Anonymous supporter matching April signups!
An amazing supporter has offered to match again any money we raise from the Founding Member program or donations for the month of April.
This is a really amazing offer, and I am so thankful to them.
If the timing is right for you, please join Shepherd as a founding member and help build a better book website and keep us independent. Everything we raise is matched for the month of April.
Here is an example of just one perk we are offering...
In Q3 2023, we will launch a premium feature to help authors launch their new book! We will show your new book throughout the website to readers who would be most interested in it. Founding Members will get first access and one premium book launch per year.
I have no Scrooge McDuck Money Bin.
Want to build a better book site?
By becoming a founding member, you help keep us independent and building new features.
Check out our full list of perks for authors here! Here is an example of just one perk we are offering...
In Q3 2023, we will launch a premium feature to help authors launch their new book! We will show your new book throughout the website to readers who would be most interested in it. Founding Members will get first access and one premium book launch per year.
100% of your membership goes toward new features.
Currently, we work with a fantastic part-time developer named Marton. My goal is to hire a full-time developer in addition to Marton. This would allow us to speed up the development of new features.