Here are five things not to do with your author website.
This is a must read if you don’t yet have a website because these tips will save you a lot of heartache in the future.
If you already have a website read with caution.
Website Mistake #1 – Focusing on Design Over Content
If you want someone to visit your website it must be the most interesting thing on the Internet – for that person at that time.
Your website design is like the frame around a picture. Many authors spend more time on the wrapping paper than they do on the present. The design makes little difference regarding how successful your site is. You may disagree but Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson, is with me on this.
Website Mistake #2 – Focusing on the Author over the Reader
Yes yes you’re a big famous author. But people still don’t care about you. They care about themselves. Think that is selfish? Take the plank out of your own eye before you can point the finger. If you offer something of value your readers will want to come back. Photos of your kids will not bring them back.
If you focus on your readers they will love you.
If the goal of your website is to stroke your own narcissism then it will never succeed.
Website Mistake #3 – Hiring Your Brother in Law
Many authors get a friend or relative to build their website. In all of the consultations I have done at writers conferences I have yet to hear an author who is happy with this arrangement. The exception to this rule is when the web guy is also the husband. I have seen that work.
The story is usually the same. Your brother in law has some fancy website software and promises to keep it up to date. The problem is your brother in law has no idea how often you want to update the website. Since its a free project it becomes a low priority and the author spends years frustrated about her “free” website.
Updating your website becomes as important as cleaning the garage. It will get done next week. Promise.
Website Mistake #4 – Building it Yourself
Some authors spend hundreds of dollars to buy Frontpage or Dreamweaver and build their website themselves. The problem is most authors have no idea about how to build a website. They don’t know about search engine optimization or how to integrate a blog.
The result? They have a blogspot blog and an ugly site.
Building your own site does allow you to update it yourself but there is a better way.
Website Mistake #5 – Out of date
If you can’t edit your website it will always be out of date – unless you have a budget to hire someone to update it for you. But is it really worth $60 to make a minor update? Begging your brother in law to update your site for free is an exercise in frustration. If you pay someone to build you a site make sure you get a site you can easily update yourself.
My Recommendation
Hire a company to build you a WordPress website. A template driven WordPress site usually costs less than $1000 and will look professional and be easy for you to update. WordPress is also easy to search engine optimize and can look very sharp. You can also get WordPress custom designed for between $1500-$5000. You can get bids from hundreds of WordPress developers on elance.com. My company, Umstattd Media, also builds WordPress websites for authors.
If you are on a tight budget I recommend Squarespace. It costs $20 a month and is easy to design. You can hire a designer off of elance who can help you customize it for a couple hundred bucks.
What do you think?
- Do you agree?
- Are you happy with your website? Why or why not?
- What do you look for in an author website?
Related posts
- 6 Things Readers Want from Your Author Website If you build it they won’t come. The only...
- How to Track Your Author Website’s Effectiveness Just because you have a website doesn’t mean that...
- 7 Ways to Send More Traffic to Your Website During a Radio Interview Imagine you are doing a radio interview and you...
- Does Your Website Pass the Radio Test? When you say your website on the radio can...
- 8 Quick Search Engine Optimization Tips: There is an art to getting listed high in...
4 Responses
[...] Posts about Squarespace as of October 30, 2009 Posted on October 30th, 2009 in Uncategorized The Top 5 Author Website Mistakes – authortechtips.com 10/28/2009 On 10.28.09, In Websites, by Thomas Umstattd Here are five [...]
I so agree with you about WordPress. I love it–and it’s awesome knowing I can make the updates whenever I want to.
So far I have done it myself–it’s all I can afford right now. But I’ll keep you in mind when I get to the point where I need a designer to build it bigger and better.
i have also gone with wordpress. I run it myself for financial reasons. There are plenty tutorials on the internet to help you customize free templets and the wordpresss software is easy to use and make up dates with. My site has only been up for a few days but I'd love for someone to visit it and leave me feedback. I had absolute zero website building experience when i started. TheSarahAndersonIdentity.com
My recent post Welcome to my site!
I have a slight issue with #4. I know some HTML and have been making websites since eighth grade. So I designed and coded my own author website. I have been told by others that it looks really good; it just needs more content. I am willing to fix what needs work. So I wish you wouldn't dismiss such an idea so easily. While it's true that I don't know how to integrate a blog into my site and am still learning about SEO, that is why I visit sites like this to get help with those things.
I don't mean to sound unprofessional; I just have a slight issue with your view on this. Thank you for writing this article, though.
My recent post Chapter 12 continuing, readings, no more GoodReads or MySpace, site improvements