The WMF Archives: More on Your Author Web Site

Sunday, February 14, 2010

More on Your Author Web Site

1:00 AM

By Kerrie McLoughlin

This is an excellent post written by our very own Angela Atkinson about your Writer Website. I have a few things to add since I mostly just write for Regional Parenting Magazines, although I should probably add somewhere on my author web site that I can do a sales letter or marketing manual, as well.

1. Make sure your author site has a site meter (the basic version is free). I can't tell you how many times I've caught publications using my articles without notifying or paying me all because I checked Sitemeter. Once you have it set up, install it (on Blogger, just add is as a Gadget), then check periodically the Location where your readers are coming from. I can usually catch a publication just by seeing the city, then going to their magazine web site (for Regional Parenting Magazines, anyway).

2. If you list your available or published articles, only list them in synopsis form or only the first paragraph or two so you are less likely to get ripped off by publications or other authors.

3. Add labels for each "post" (published or available article) by length of piece, subject, etc.

4. Make sure you have links to the places where you have been published, as well as testimonials (references).

Feel free to take ideas from my author site because I borrowed ideas from others' sites, as well! Oh, and please post your author site in the comment section ... I love to check out other authors!

Labels: author web site, Kerrie McLoughlin, marketing, regional parenting magazines, reprints, RPMs, sitemeter, testimonials

8 comments:

Kelli Robinson said...: Dear Kerrie and Angela,
Thank you so much for the website tips. I especially like the tip about only putting article synopsis formats.

I've yet to put together a website b/c to me it's like a vegetarian trying to come up with an awesome prime rib dinner - it seems overwhelming, impossible, and out of my league!

Two questions to you or the audience:
1. Do you pay for your website or did you set it up through a free service?

2. If you know nothing about HTML and website design, is maintaining a website easy to do?

It's on my list of things to do, it really is. I just feel like I'm leaping into the huge abyss and once I'm there, I need to learn how to swim really fast!

Thanks!
Kelli; February 14, 2010 1:54 PM
Carol Tice said...: Hi Kelli --

I'm very non-techy and have chosen to pay someone to set up my sites. Once they're up I take a training and learn to do most of the maintenance myself. It's not that hard once it's up and going.

Another option is to use a teen from your local high school's digital design class. They all need final projects to work on! The first year or so of my site I paid a teen $12 an hour to create it, and he got it pretty far before I needed to call in a pro.

If you have at least a dozen clips, but that many up...the biggest mistake I see in my mentees' sites is they have very few clips. I don't have most of my clips on the site, just links to the sites where they were published. Just having this all in one place greatly speeds up your process of applying for gigs, and it impresses prospects no end. I think my response rate about tripled once I got my site up.

The key is to start somewhere with it, and have somewhere to refer people. You'll add and build it as you go. Personally I just split my site into two -- one for my writing mentoring and blogging, and one for prospective business-writing clients. Take a look if you like for ideas.

Good luck with it!

Carol Tice
http://www.caroltice.com
http://www.makealivingwriting.com; February 14, 2010 2:07 PM
Angela Atkinson said...: Hi Kelli,
For my personal author site, I pay for hosting, but I design it and maintain it myself. If I get stuck, I'm married to a web developer/IT god, plus I've got good friends who are computer savvy. I think it's a fun challenge--but then I wouldn't even have been able to get started without my resident experts giving me guidance.

Even if you aren't a web whiz, you can easily maintain a site. I use Wordpress with my custom template--it's simple to use and easy to navigate.

Here's my site, if you'd like to take a look: http://angelaatkinson.com

Angie :); February 14, 2010 2:37 PM
Arlene Hauben said...: Angela,
I need to marry a web designer. In the meantime, I created two websites for my daughter, a psychologist, and for my publicity and PR expertise. I am using Wordpress.com. I admit my tech smart nephew has helped me along the way.
I found it difficult finding the right web designer at a reasonable price.
My daughter's website is http://drlaurahauben.com; February 14, 2010 4:50 PM
Kelli Robinson said...: Ladies,
Thank you so much for your replies.

Angela - is your website www.angelaatkinson.com, or angelaatkinson.com? The reason I ask is that when I search domain names @ GoDaddy, www.kellirobinson.com is already taken. But I'm wondering if http://kellirobinson.com is different. Yet I don't know how to find that.

See what a novice I am?

All of your websites are good looking sites...great referrals. Okay, I'm slowly working up my nerve to take this plunge...

Kelli; February 14, 2010 5:23 PM
Angela Atkinson said...: Kelli,
My website can be accessed either way--if www.kellirobinson.com is taken, there's no way around it. What you can do is use .net instead, or add a middle initial. Alternatively, you can create a unique URL--like Carol Tice, one of our bloggers, uses "ticewrites.com" and Rebecca Sebek, another WM blogger, uses "savvywriter.com."

Hope that made sense!
Angie; February 14, 2010 7:04 PM
Angela Atkinson said...: Arlene,
Your daughter's site looks great. It does help to have an expert in your back pocket--because with a little direction, anyone can design the site they want. Even so, I'd say you did a great job, especially considering you did it (mostly) on your own! :)
Angie; February 14, 2010 7:10 PM
Kerrie McLoughlin said...: kelli ... Blogger is totally free, but you have the annoying .blogspot at the end of your name. if i wanted it just to be kerriemcloughlin.com, all i'd do is pay $10 per year and they redirect and everything. so easy to run the site. maybe not as professional, yet it does the trick and you CAN pay a designer to do a neato page for pretty cheap and just pop the html code into the layout section of Blogger. not sure if blogger lets you do different endings like .net. you could also try adding your middle initial if your name is taken?????; February 17, 2010 1:18 PM

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