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If you’re a writer, you need a website, regardless of whether you’ve been published or not. There are benefits to having a website even if you don’t have a book to promote and sell. Let’s take a closer look.
Learning Curve
These days, even if you don’t attend a coding bootcamp, it’s incredibly simple to get a fully fleshed out site up and running within as little as a single day, even one that has your own personal domain name. That being said, that coding bootcamp can help you greatly. You’ll need to learn new systems and accustom yourself to the tools involved. This isn’t a process that you can just put off until the day comes when you need a website. Get the education regarding these things that you need before you need it. Begin building a sample site now so that when it’s critical for you, you can have a fantastic one.
Awareness
When it comes to things like marketing communications, it’s important to distinguish between goals that will build awareness and make sales. Much of the advertising that we see every day is with the purpose of building awareness rather than making sales. This is due to the fact that as a whole, we’re more apt to buy products we’ve been hearing more about when they’ve formed a positive impression. Having a blog or website with a trendy design will assist with building awareness of what you do and who you are. As people get positive impressions of you, it can be a sort of investment in successes in the future as a provider of services or as an author.
Opportunity
Another great reason for writers to have a website has to do with never knowing who might stumble upon it or visit it. You have no clue who might be listening or searching. When you have a site that isn’t connected in any way to your employer, it will open up new opportunities to you because it makes it easy for people to contact you. It lets them know what you offer and even who you’re offering your services to.
Now, if you’re not published, what should you put on your site?
KISS
Keep It Simple Stupid. Whether you’ve written that book or it’s still in the planning phase, you’ll only need a few pages on your site. You’ll need a summary – welcome page, as well as a page for your extended bio. Make sure that your website links to your professional social profiles such as LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
Don’t Harp On It
Even unpublished authors deserve to have their own website. It can assist with showing that you’re serious about being a writer. However, there’s no need for any sort of lengthy explanation about your path to being published or attempting to locate an agent to represent you. Simply describe what you do and move on.
Credits
You might already have a few credits or you might not. If you have them, list them on your site. They don’t even need to be major ones. Regional and local publications still count as being published. So do articles online and blogs. If you have anything online that’s available for people to read, link to it on your site.
Finally, consider letting people get to know you with a nice headshot. It can be nice to be able to put a face to a name. Also, remember to add your preferred contact information to your site so that if potential clients want to get in contact, they have the ability to do so.