Do You Need a Website?

Marketing is something every writer hates. Writers want to focus on their writing and they feel that marketing takes away from it; some writers even took up writing so that they could get away from marketing. The problem is that marketing is one of the chores a writer must do to be a successful writer; if you don't tell others about your writing then no one will ever read it. This means that you need to figure out a good marketing plan, and a website should be part of that plan.

What It Does For You

When you're setting things up, it helps to have a central location. This allows customers to go straight to that location and not only find out what you've been doing, see if you're making any physical appearances, or even buy your books. The website is your central location; it can be the hub where you post your blog, have links to your social media, and allow them to sign up for your newsletter. They can also purchase your book directly from the site or from a provided link, and you can even post reviews from happy readers.

Now, imagine being able to unlock all of this for current and potential customers just by giving them a short phrase. Sounds pretty great, right? This is why you need a website: It does a lot of heavy lifting for you and makes marketing a lot easier for you. Better yet, you can slap the URL on a lot of different merchandise, from posters to bookmarks, and even mutate it into a QR code, making it easily adaptable to a wide range of situations. Your website can be a very useful tool, provided you build it well, but let's put a pin in that.

Names Have Power

Everyone else is going to tell you why you need a website but we've already done that; let's talk about how to work it. Naming it is your first problem, and it's really simple: Use your name, be it your real name or your pen name, or your publishing company. If you use your book or series name, you're limiting the use of the site to just that book or series and any related books; if you decide to write books outside that franchise then you'll need to either build a new site and domain for the new book(s) or deal with confused readers.

If you're planning on working with other authors and/or putting all of your books (including those from other pen names) on one site, then it may not be a bad idea to create a company name and create the site with that in mind. Creating a company site from the beginning is a lot easier than adapting a site designed for a single person.

Which top-level domain you use is up to you; .com and .info are usually your best bet. However, if you don't spend a little extra, one thing you may want to debate doing is to buy up domains with similar spellings. Think about it this way: If people are spelling your name wrong constantly, then there's no reason to suspect that they won't spell the name of the website wrong as well; picking up the domains of the other spellings may not be a bad idea. This means that when they spell the name wrong they still get to your site.

How Much Should You Spend On It?

This is a simple question: The two big variables are your skill and your budget. If you can code HTML and you know WordPress, then do it yourself. If not, and you're not willing to learn or don't have the time, you're going to need to hire someone. This can run anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand, depending on what all you have the designer do. You should also agree to a maintenance schedule of some sort so that you can add things to the site as needed.

The site is going to need graphics just as much as it's going to need to look good as well as work good. While you can use stock art, the ideal should be to use original art. This means that the art should be created specifically for the site if possible. Thus, when you're looking for a web designer, how their sites look should be just as important as how they run.

When you're setting up the budget, bear in mind that you're also going to need to spend money to deal with any domains and the space. However, all of these costs count as a business deduction.

Every Recipe Should Have Good Ingredients

When you're setting up the site it should have at least five parts: SEO, an "about me" page, newsletter, links, and how to purchase the books. By combining all of these different elements you can create a really great site.

Search Engine Optimization: Your site needs to look good to search engines, and that means the coding needs to have all of the right metatags. It also needs to be linked to other sites with few links out to sites. The coder needs to go through and add alt tags to picture as well as make sure the tags agree with the text. This is arguably the most artistic part of the coding as there are a lot of issues that need to be balanced to ensure that the site will operate as desired, which is to act as a marketing tool for your books.

The "About Me" Page: Technically, there should be three of these, one each for the author, book, and company (if applicable). Each of these will give the history and applicable details of its subject, possibly with appropriate links and email information. If there are multiple books or authors, these can be put on a master page for each with author pages having appropriate social links and email and the books linked to a purchase page or location.

Newsletter: This is usually on the Contact page or the company's "about me" page. This is the submission button for the newsletter that you will be sending out periodically to keep readers and fans up on the latest news. This can include personal events, book releases, blog entries, convention appearances, and anything else you want people to know.

Links: These are all of the various links that you would like to share with other people, such as social links, websites you find useful, and even those you just want people to know about.

How To Purchase Books: These are sort of what the site is about, so make sure that you have a way for readers to purchase your books.

Putting It On Blast

Once you have the site set up, it's a matter of telling everyone. Hit all of your social media with the link, take advantage of the newsletter, and don't be afraid to pay for some advertising to get the word out. You should also edit your emails so that the site is part of your email signature. If you have sites, make sure that your site's URL is listed, such as on social media profiles and any directory you're listed in.

Be advised that it can take up to a month for your site to show up on Google or other search engines. The problem is that most search engines put new sites and sites experiencing a big jump in views in a "sandbox"; big jumps are usually the result of black hat techniques and they just want the views to normalize before they'll award you proper place in their rankings. So don't stress too much if your site doesn't appear "instantly" in the rankings

Final Thoughts

Remember that pin back in the "What it Does?" section? There is one bit of bad news: The cost. Good sites can be expensive, and then there's the rental space. All told, a website can run from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand; it all depends on how much work is done, from the graphics to the SEO. It should only take about $10-$30 per month to rent the space for it, depending on how many visitors you get. The domain itself should cost less than $20, but that can go up if you decide to purchase multiple domains (which isn't a bad idea).

When it comes down to it, having a website solves a lot of problems. Not only can it act as an additional place to sell your books and host your blog, but it can do a lot of your marketing heavy-lifting for you. Can it be expensive? Sure, even with advertising. However, it solves so many problems and makes your life so much easier. Better yet, if you hate having to deal with people, you can just let your site do the talking for you, making it well worth the issues.