The TechnoDiva

A good writer website is well publicized.

Gone are the days of building a website and having gazillions of site visitors. Today’s web surfers are inundated with millions of sites to choose from. To get traffic to your site you need planning, strategy and lots of patience!

Search engines are only one way to get your site “out there”. And while search engine submission is important it is also tricky and it can take forever for your site to actually be indexed. While you are waiting, try these tips:

1. Put your website address as a signature in every email you send. This is the Internet equivelent of the old-fashioned sandwich board (you know, Eat At Joe’s).

2. When participating on e-loops put your website address as a signature. (see above)

3. Start a blog and swap links with other bloggers.

4. Join an author publicity group like Happily Ever Authors.

So…

That’s it…the 7 Things your site needs! Give your site these seven things and you’ll have a great beginning!

Recently we discussed the fact that you should put a good photo on your Bio page, but what exactly is a good photo?

Unless you have a spectacular photo that LOOKS professionally done, you probably need to just bite the bullet and go to a pro. Make it clear up front that you want publicity headshots and will be using the image on the web and possibly in print. Remember, the photographer owns the copyright on your picture so you’ll need to obtain a release to use the picture in a public forum (such as your website). If funds are tight, consider your local Sears, J.C. Penney’s or Wal-Mart photo studio.Tell your photographer that you want just your head and shoulders in the photo. No hands. While resting your chin on your hand may look sweet at regular size, it can also look weird when it is cropped to smithereens on a website or in the Romance Writers Report.

Consider color. Chances are you’ll be using your photo in color on your website or blog, but what if your new release is featured in a black and white format (like in the RWR)? How’s it going to look? Speak with your photographer about good color combinations. If in doubt, take a couple of different shirts so you can change if need be.

Be extra careful with the “glamor” type photos. While fun to do, you might end up looking like someone you’re not. Or worse… Don’t perpetuate the heaving-bosom stereotype with your publicity photo. You’re a professional writer. Look like one!

A good writer website is thoroughly tested

Once your site is designed, you need to make sure others can see it, too. Keep in mind that designing for the web is NOT the same as designing for print. Just because you design it and it looks a certain way on your monitor does not mean it will look that way on my monitor or in my browser.

Basic site testing

• Check all images
  • Do they all show up? Are they all optimized? Do they have alt tags? (make sure they do! We’ll talk about how to do this soon.)
• Is the layout correct?
• Does it look right in different browsers? (be sure to check at least Internet Explorer and Firefox on Windows and in Safari on Mac)
• Do all the links work correctly?
• Validate your HTML at: http://validator.w3.org. It’ll help you get better code!

So….

Test your site. Ask friends to test it. Get a site review from The TechnoDiva. She’ll help you make your site into a Winner!

A good writer website has good design

And I’m not only talking about graphics here either! I mean:

Clear Navigation

Make sure your navigation is easy to find and clearly labeled. Navigation needs to be where people expect it. Don’t try to find some cutesy place to put your navigation; generally a left vertical navigation, right vertical navigation or a top horizontal navigation are where people look.

It needs to be clearly labeled. Don’t put little pictures or icons in place of actual words. This type of navigation was dubbed mystery meat navigation by Vincent Flanders back in the early days of web design. It was bad then, it’s bad now. Avoid it. Seriously.

Easy To Read Text

Your font has to be easy to read. The font color needs to be a good contrast against the background color and the font size needs to be large enough for your audience to read it easily.

Fast Page Load

Your website needs to load quickly to engage your site visitors. If they have to wade through a flash intro or wait forever for pictures to load you’ll lose them. Quickly. You really only have about three seconds to

Your pictures need to be an appropriate size for the web. If you take a large photo and then shrink it down within an HTML editor you still have a large photo. In order to use a photo or any type of graphic you’ll need to optimize it for the web. (I promise, we will discuss this in an upcoming post soon!)

So…

Clear Navigation + Easy To Read Text + Fast Page Load = Good Website!

A good writer website needs great content

Since you have a great domain name, a great host, and a strong purpose for your site, it’s time to put that work into action and design your content!

Take a look at your purpose. What is it? To sell books? Your content needs to reflect that. Feature your cover art, share excerpts, link to Amazon or BN.com. Make it easy for your site visitor to see how wonderful your book is and then buy it on the spot.

Is your purpose for your fans to get to know the real you? Emphasize your bio! Start a blog! Invite your readers to interact with you via a contact form or a message board (you GOTTA keep up with those, though, or you’ll be invaded by spammers).

When a writer comes to me to build a website, we always include certain pages. I feel these pages are the bare minimum you should have on your site:

1. Books Page — if you’re published list all your books and provide links to purchase; if unpublished, list works completed or in progress, but don’t offer excerpts.
2. Bio Page — let readers know who you are. Give ‘em a little about your life outside of writing. Give ‘em a picture. A recent picture. And just make it a nice professional head shot. Stay away from the glamor type photos, they tend to look cheesy if not done well.
3. Something Special Page — give your readers a little something special, too. Give them a reason to keep coming back. Jackie Kramer offers monthly recipes, Susan Shay has her Ah-ha Moments. What do you want to have?

So….

Structure your content around your purpose and let your site shine!

A GOOD author website needs a purpose.

If you have not yet built a website stop and think about your motivation for even wanting a site. Is it because everyone else is doing it? Is it because you think you need one?

Do you already have a website? What’s its purpose? What did you want to accomplish before you built the site…how’s that working for ya?

Before you start building your site or, if have a site already, redesigning your site outline the purpose. Is it to sell books? You’ll want to feature you new releases and information about the books on your ‘front’ or index page. Wanting to build relationships with readers? Include a regularly updated blog or form an email newsletter list.

So…

Define your site’s purpose first. The layout of your site can be specifically chosen based on your needs and purpose for your site!

What’s your site’s purpose? Tell me about it…you can even post a comment to share it with the world!

The second thing a GOOD writer website needs is reliable, paid hosting.

Why to buy the cow when you can get the milk for free

1. Advertising.

Most free hosts will insert ads onto your site that you can’t control. If you’re gonna have ads on your site, make sure they’re ads you want on your site. The ads I have on my site help pay for hosting and they’re ads I’ve purposely put on the site because I believe the products offered will be of benefit to my readers. Free hosting sites…well, not so much. Their ads are random and those flashing banners and shoot the target/duck/politician ads get a little obnoxious after, oh, I don’t know, less than a second.

2. Over’selling’

Say I have 8 blocks of space to give for a free website. I give four people two blocks each. I’m sold out, right? Not if I’m an overseller. Say the first guy only uses half a block for now. The second guy uses half a block and the third and fourth folks use one block each. I have leftovers now. So…I give the leftovers to other people hoping the first folks (who think they have full use of their two blocks) don’t use any more than what they’re currently using. Soon, all the space is filled up; but what happens when the first guy decides to expand his site and suddenly takes up most of his two blocks of space? The server starts moving slo-o-o-o-o-wly and your site visitors can’t get to your site because the server is movin’ slow. Guess what? They’re not gonna wait. They’ll click over to another site and never come visit again.

3. Domain Name.

Some free hosts will let you use your own domain name, others won’t. To explore why this matters, read 7 Things #1.

To find a good host ask other writers where they host and what their experiences are. Post on writer loops that you’re looking for a host and gather lots of good data before you make a decision.

The ABSOLUTE BEST host I’ve dealt with is LiquidWeb. They totally and completely rock. The servers are reliable, they have excellent customer support and they’ve never treated me like a girl. (if you’ve been treated like a girl by tech support you KNOW what I mean!)

So…

Find the most reliable host you can afford—and pay for GOOD hosting!

The TechnoDiva uses and recommends

A good author website needs its own domain name.

What to buy

After all, which is easier to promote: www.yourname.com or www.thenameofsome-
swellfreeprovider.com -
/~yourname/apagelink.html? Buy yourname.com if possible. If someone else has that domain try variations. Try your name with the .net or .info extension. Try with a hyphen between your first and last name. While these are not first-choice ideas, they can work if you can’t get your first choice.

If you can get multiple extensions (.com, .net, .org, .info) do so. The more ways people can find you, the easier it will be when you hit the Best Seller lists!

Who buys it?

Always buy your own domain name. Even if you’re hiring a web designer, ALWAYS buy your own domain name. Don’t let your designer buy it, don’t buy it as part of a hosting package, don’t buy it through your ISP. Even if any of these entities offers it for free: BUY IT YOURSELF!

Am I a bit passionate about that? Yes. I’ve had a client who let her web designer buy her domain name only to have the domain held hostage and finally lost to a spammer when the client-designer relationship went south. I’ve had a client reduced to tears because her web designer left town with no notice, no forwarding address and left her with no passwords. Right now I’m dealing with a client whose domain name was slammed by an unethical domain registry. They now have complete control over her domain name and we are working to get it back under her control (yes, folks, follow that ongoing saga right here!). Buy your own domain name.

Buy from an ethical registrar such as GoDaddy.com (but don’t be lured in by their $1.99 domain names…that’s only if you buy a hosting package or other service. Just buy the domain name(s) at full price–around $10). I like GoDaddy because in the midst of a domain issue where we’d been batted from department to department, I did a bit of sleuthing and called Bob Parsons (the Daddy of GoDaddy) and he got it all fixed up for me.

So…

• Get a domain name that your readers will recognize
• Buy it yourself from an ethical registrar

Want more details about writer websites? Get my e-book WWW: Wonderful Writer Websites!

The TechnoDiva uses and recommends

Lately I’ve been speaking at different writer’s conferences (want me to speak at yours? Contact me!). I have a two-hour seminar where I speak about the seven things that make a good website. Over the next several days we’ll cover each of the points that I discuss in that seminar.

Don’t forget that you can ask questions as we go, too! I love educating authors on good web design!

Okay, maybe if you’re not as geeky as I am you won’t find this interesting, but I thought it was cool. You can see almost-real-time traffic patterns on Akamai.com. It’s kind of interesting to see how the Internet traffic flows at any given time!