If You Build It, They Will Come

Justin Knupp, president and chief designer at Stonecreek Media, has this to say about creating a writer's professional-looking website:

1. Keep in mind your target audience. If you're unpublished, direct your content to agents and editors. Excerpts, awards, projects, professional associations should all be included. Plaster your email address everywhere. At this stage, you're selling yourself as a secondary product, so the content is geared as much toward the writer as the writing. If you're published, the focus shifts to readers and potential readers. Involve them in what you're working on now and next. Be sure to include speaking engagements, press kits, both low and high resolution photos, bio, short blurbs and extended blurbs. Marjorie M. Liu posts deleted scenes from her fantastic books on her website. Create something your readers can't get anywhere else.

2. Don't forget to protect yourself. Copyright information should be visible and updated each year. Be sure to password protect any excerpts. This also goes for blog content.

3. Rule of three. No more than three fonts, colors or random design patterns. Use clear snapshots. Make sure all pages have the same look and feel to ensure smooth web page transition for the audience and create a cohesive author brand.

4. Social and Viral Networks are great for drawing potential readers. MySpace won't sell your books, but if you play nice and make friends, the traffic to your website and links to ALL booksellers can grow exponentially. YouTube trailers, if done well, not only add a great visual to your blogs and websites, but reach visually-oriented consumers in a way that reviews and other print advertisement cannot.

5. Both pre-published and published authors should have a way to gather a database of names and contact information. Newsletters deliver your message to reader's inboxes and urge them to return to your website and blog, thereby increasing traffic and re-enforcing your author brand. Yahoogroups serve the same purpose, but some visitors won't like the extra steps necessary to sign up. Contest tie-ins, book giveaways and other freebies are all great ways to build a visitor's list, just make sure you let them know and find opt-in, opt-out software for user friendliness.

6. Want to be higher on Google? As of January, Google has again changed the way it tracks website content. Make sure your site navigation, along with interactive buttons, is in text form on every page, key words and descriptions are used in text form on your homepage and all metatags are in place.

According to Mr. Knupp, immersive media websites are the next wave of book promotion. He recommended the websites of J.K. Rowling, Alison Brennan and Sherrilyn Kenyon as great examples of this.

His position? Always go for a professional, of course. Stonecreek Media will put together a basic, 5 page, no blog website for around $525.