To Website or Not to Website

To Website or Not to Website Received a very sweet email this week from an author who begged to know if an author really needed a website. Short and sweet, the answer is YES. These days, when someone hears your name, and might be interested in whatever it is you offer, they Google you. Yes, Google has become a verb as well as a noun, and its because weve become so accustomed to grabbing a keyboard on some device and learning more. Instant intelligence, I call it. If the public cannot find you, they instantly wonder if you are worth their time. Sounds harsh, I know, but it is the truth. The only thing that can overcome that mentality is a strong word of mouth campaign, and we all know how hard that is to create. So how do you establish a website when you dont understand squat about it? 1) Hire a webmaster. You may pay several hundred to a couple thousand, but webmasters deserve to be paid for all that knowledge. They grab the domain name for you, set you up with a site to include hosting, and update it for you on command. Or have them create it and leave it up to you to update and omit the monthly updating charge. Some webmasters specify websites for authors. Take a look at these babies. They have some gorgeous sites: http://author https://xuni.com/website-design.php http://smartauthorsites.com/author-websites/ authorsontheweb.com/ http://smartauthorsites.com/ dreamcodesign.com/ clockpunkstudios.com/ webdesignrelief.com fausga.com/ myhouseofdesign.com 2) Teach yourself how to do WordPress.org and get a domain name like www.chopeclark.com instead of www.chopeclark.wordpress.com. Set up your own hosting on Hostgator.com or GoDaddy.com. 3) Go to Blogger.com or WordPress.com and teach yourself how to do a basic blog/website. You may have Blogspot or WordPress in the domain name, but when youre starting out, thats not a detriment. People are becoming accustomed to seeing such URLs. No domain name, no hosting, no monthly or annual fee. You just have a learning curve. 4) Compromise and get someone to design item 3) above so the set up charge is much less. 5) Commit to a great Facebook fan page and make sure the graphics are superb, the updates regular. Cost = nothing. 6) Commit to a great Tumblr page. Cost = nothing. 7) Commit to a great Author Central page on Amazon. Cost = nothing.   Ive fallen into the habit of hearing a name of an author, or receiving a pitch from a writer, and instantly flipping into their website to decide whether Im interested. Its like a quick phone interview, or an instant resume. To have no online presence tells a reader several things whether you intend to or not: 1) Youre testing the waters with this writer business. 2) You dont want to invest THAT much time into your presentation. 3) You dont want to connect to readers. 4) Youre new to either the computer or writing. 5) You are older.Face it . . . younger people want that online presence. The answer is yes you need an online presence. The question is just what kind?