18. All About the School Visit Page On Your Author Website Author Visit Podcast

Children's authors, critique partners, and friends (Bonnie Clark and Shanda McCloskey) talk about how to structure and organize the school visit section of your author website in order to book more visits! 
 
A note from Ben (web developer and producer of this podcast) on websites:
You don’t have to hire anyone to build you a website nowadays, but if do it yourself, you need to think about the structure of the site. It’s pretty easy to get a WordPress or SquareSpace or other site up and running quickly, but you really need to think through the structure of pages in general. Don’t make people think too hard about what information is where. Don’t try to be avant-garde or unique with regard to menus, navigation, and layout. Make sure the wording is clear and succinct throughout the site, especially on the author visit page. Like, put all your information out there, but try not to repeat yourself, and don’t ramble. As for SEO, make sure to title the pages with what you want to come up as in a Google search (example, mention your town or area somewhere if you want to appear in searches for author visits in that area). Most modern systems like WordPress come with themes that are already mobile friendly, but be sure to test it out and try a few different themes to get the look you’re going for. Worst case-scenario, if you break something, WordPress developers are pretty easy to come by on sites like Upwork, and there’s probably one in your area if you search for it specifically.
 
Now, let's talk about the school visit section of your site...
 
Bonnie, what’s your philosophy on this subject?
Easy to read/ follow
Everything you need to know about me/ my presentations 
Author visits in action (me & students)
Should get a good “vibe”and snapshot of my personality
Testimonials (new this year!) 
Accessible contact information for further questions
 
Shanda: ​​I believe that a good author-visit web page does 3 jobs:
Gains trust
Informs
Calls to action
My author visit page is first a place to show that I welcome visit opportunities AND I have experience speaking to kids. I show this through my words, photos, and testimonials. This is the gaining trust part. 
Once the school sees evidence that I can provide an engaging program, then they will start looking for more detailed information. This is the inform part. There are links to my IN-PERSON visit packet pdf and my VIRTUAL visit packet pdf. These pdfs list my presentation menu, pricing, book sale info, and tips for a great visit. 
I update these pdfs every summer before the new school year begins. Sometimes I might remove a presentation that I’m not crazy about anymore, add a new presentation to the menu, or adjust my pricing. 
*Notes on pricing: I choose to have a price that I show plainly. It’s the same for all schools and it’s all-inclusive with travel expenses as well. I do this because I got burned before. A school had a per night hotel price cap that was outdated. So I lost hundreds of dollars by letting them “pay for my travel”. I just did a little research and built that into my price. It’s served me well so far. And schools like it because they know exactly how much my visit will cost with one simple price. I saw author Stacy MacUnulty do this on her author visit webpage. And it made so much sense to me. She actually uses a booking service now, but when she booked all her own visits like I do, she used this method. A simple, all-inclusive price for various distances- Local, Semi-local, and Beyond. I do the same.
My author visit page also has an availability calendar.  It’s a little fancy and I may have seen one other author use one, so it’s definitely NOT a must-have, but I love it.. It’s useless though if you don’t keep it up, but so awesome that schools can see immediately if a date they have in mind is clear for me or not. My husband (Ben) made this possible. I wouldn’t have