Want to create a Web site for your writing? From the questions I get, I know that although many writers want a site, when it comes to planning and creating the site, they’re STUCK.
Here’s a new series on creating a writer’s Web site from go to whoa.
The first step is planning your site. When you plan, you must decide WHY -- what do you want your site to achieve? What are the site’s aims? I’ve often omitted this vital step, deciding that “oh, let’s have a blog” or “let’s have a new site” and ended up with a mess. Deciding on your site’s aims first prevents messes.
You might want your site to:
* Display your skills as a freelance writer (an online portfolio);
* Act as a shop front for your works-in-progress, where you post chapters and synopses from novels or non-fiction books you’re trying to get an agent and publisher for;
* Help other writers;
* Build your platform (agent-speak for “oh, I can’t sell your books, no one knows you -- get a platform”);
* Build your confidence in writing for an audience.
Whatever your aims are in developing the site, write them down. When you have goals that you want to achieve, they act as a guiding star as you work on all the minutiae of developing a site.
Check out other writers’ sites, and try to work out what their aims were in creating their site. Count how many pages in their sites, so you can work out how many pages you need.
That should keep you busy today. More tomorrow. :-)
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