Your Creative Web Site

By: Angela | Posted: 18th June 2006

Your Creative Web Site

Copyright ® 2003 by Angela Booth

During 2003, a Web site stopped being an optional extra for all
creatives, including writers. It's now the expected thing. If I
read a book by a writer I've never heard of, I'm not only
disappointed if I find that she doesnÆt have a Web site, I feel
it also puts her credibility in question. Publishers are well
aware of this expectation. Although publishing houses haven't
been on the cutting edge of technology, they now all provide Web
space for their authors. They know that readers expect and want
to get in touch.

Setting up your own Web site can be intimidating. What do you put
on the site? How do you do it?

It's nowhere near as difficult as it appears. In fact, if you can
use your word processor and know how to cut and paste, you can
now create your own Web page --- in just an hour or two.

At Digital-e, we know writers find the process challenging, so
you can join our Creative Club, which gives you not only your own
Web presence, but also the option of selling ebooks, reports and
other electronic material through the site ---

http://www.digital-e.biz/creat_club.html

Decided you want an online presence? Great! Start by thinking
about your audiences, the people who will be coming to your site
to learn more about you and your work.

=> Your Web site is for your audiences: editors and readers

You can't go wrong if you keep your audiences in mind. In other
words, what groups of people are you targeting the information on
your site toward ---

* Readers?

* Editors?

* Agents?

* Clients?

It's useful to make a list of your audiences. Yes, I know you
feel as if this information is completely obvious, and that it's
at the front of your mind --- how could you forget it? You CAN
forget it, and what's more, once you get into the feverish
activity of constructing your site and making a million and one
decisions concerning it, you WILL forget whom you're targeting.

Here's a useful tip: If you're not sure whether or not something
belongs on your site, ask yourself -- do my readers/ editors/
clients want to know this? If it won't interest them, leave it
off the site.

Your site can be as large as you want to make it, or it can be
tiny.

Your tiny site can have a big effect, and for some writers, a
one-page site is ample. For novelists or nonfiction authors, this
could be a one-page listing of your books with links so that
readers can purchase the books from Amazon.com. If you write for
newspapers and magazines, it could be a page listing your
published work. If you're a copywriter, your page could be a bio
with a client roster. Your one-page site ensures that your
readers, editors and potential customers can find you and can
find ways to contact you.

Please take the plunge, and go ahead and create your own site.
It's a lot of fun. You'll learn a lot, and you'll also meet some
great people because all the answers to your questions can be
found online. Simply do a Google search for anything you want to
know.

You can also ask questions and get help from Digital-e's forum --
-

http://www.digital-e.biz/forum/

=> A site plan --- for a more ambitious site

If you want more than a one-page site, here's a plan for a small
site. This is the kind of site you can put up and maintain
yourself without it driving you insane with work. Many Internet
Service Providers offer free hosting, and site templates. This is
the easiest, the fastest and the cheapest way to develop your own
site. If it's your first site, and you're not technologically
minded, then this is the way to go.

Here's a list of pages you may want to include:

* Home page. Make this user-friendly. Put yourself in your
visitors' shoes. What would they want to know? Tell them up
front, right on your home page. If you write books, put the cover
of your latest release on your home page, with the blurb and
perhaps a flattering photo.

If you write articles, let editors know who's published recent
articles, and what topics you cover.

If you're a copywriter, offer some useful information, right on
your home page. (Why useful information? Because your site is an
audition. Your clients will hire you if they perceive you as
being knowledgeable, and an expert in your field. If you paste
"Hire ME! I'm the best!" on your home page, you're not going to
collect many clients.

* Excerpts. Got published work? Put some of it your site. If you
have book proposals you're trying to sell, you can put those
online too, but put them in a password-protected area of your
site, and then give editors and agents access when they request
it. You can also put articles you've written for promotional
purposes on your Articles or Excerpts page.

* News. This is the page on which you announce your latest sale,
whether it's a book or a magazine article. Use it to announce
anything writing-related: the latest issue of your newsletter, a
book-signing, a research trip, etc.

* Contact information. Put an email address, and a postal
business address. If you don't have a business address, hire a
post office box.

* A bio. Your writing bio. This should be written in the third
person, like so: "Author and journalist, Peggy Smith-Jones
started her writing career at her hometown newspaper ---"

Get started today and create your Web site. If you take it step
by step, it's easy, and it will turbo-charge your creative
career.

*** Resource Box ***

To read more articles by Angela Booth, visit the Digital-e Web
site--Information for writers and creatives. Ebooks, free ezines,
Creatives Club. Love to write? Turn your talent into a business!
Subscribers to our Creative Small Biz ezine receive a FREE
writing manual. http://www.digital-e.biz/

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Tags: web space, credibility, web presence, cutting edge, editors, word processor, decisions, expectation, own web page, publishers, million and one, audiences, publishing houses, creative web