Websites: The 21st Century Author's Best Friend

This would seem like an obvious statement--that a website would be essential to an author's campaign to get their work noticed and ultimately purchased. But you would be surprised at the percent of authors who maintain almost no online presence at all. The truth of the matter is that in the 21st century--even brick and mortar retail businesses need to have a website in order to stay competitive. For entrepreneurs--which is essentially what start-up authors aiming to sell their writing are, websites are essential to their success.

The most common responses I get to this statement from authors who have yet to have a major web presence in the form of a website is something akin to this:

"Isn't it enough to have my book on the lulu marketplace store, or amazon.com?"

"I post about my writing on facebook, isn't that enough?"

"I'm active on a forum and have a link to buy my book in my signature when I post, wouldn't that work?"

While all of these practices might help to increase awareness, a blurb, mention or article promoting something--even something of extreme value and worth, is rarely enough to hold attention these days if there isn't somewhere else to refer the readers to. Part of the procedure of building up a relationship with the readers like I discussed in the previous post:


http://makemoneywriting21.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-some-authors-sell-2-copies-of-their.html

is to have enough content for your readers to get an idea of what your project, book, blog, newsletter, posts and writing in general is all about. A website of some kind is the best and most efficient way to do this for several reasons. First and foremost, when people consider the idea of making any kind of purchase--and we are assuming here that you are aiming to make a little money off of your writing, they often want to find out more about it and it is very hard to sell anything to anyone if they can't do further research about it online.

Something that keeps a lot of authors away from putting up websites is the illusion of the complexity required for web building. The truth of the matter is it is easier than ever to put up a a website. Blogs that function almost as well as websites are literally a dime a dozen and can usually be gotten for free. A fully functioning website can be put up for free as well--and going one step further to buy a domain name is very cheap. And with the ease of building that most of the leading websites now allow--you don't need to be fluent in any kind of coding or HTML for what you really need to put up the website. (If you need bits of HTML most things you need for widgets and buttons come pre-made and there are forums where you can post what you need in HTML and people online will provide it for you for free.)

Remember this simple motto for the 21st century: you can find a way to do ANYTHING on the internet. Don't let fear of the unknown hold you back from researching and pushing forward because a website is absolutley essential to author success in 99% of cases in the times we live in.

One you have a website up that has your writing on it, driving traffic to your writing becomes increasingly easy. The website serves as your online headquarters and you want to get as many people there as you possibly can. The more traffic you get, the more readers you aquire, the more readers you aquire, the better the chance of you selling your products, newsletters, subscriptions, and other products that have to do with your writing.

You can use the common approach of business cards to get people to your website as you meet them in person. (For a way to get your hands on some free business cards see my post on it here: http://makemoneywriting21.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-sneaky-way-to-sell-few-more-of-your.html ) And once the website is up, post it in your email signature, in your signature on forums you to go, on any social networks you are a part of and in your bios for any publications you achieve at magazines or anywhere with a readership. As long as your content is genuine, catchy and consistent, you should start to see the traffic flow, your readership growing and the beginnings of a steady place for you to begin to kick off your projects and products from.

Some resources below for websites or blogs:


www.weebly.com


www.wordpress.com


www.godaddy.com


www.inmotionhosting.com


www.blogger.com