Web Wonder

Author: C. Hope Clark

You want people to read your work. You want readers to enjoy your words. You think that bookstores are the way to a reader’s soul. Beep…you lose. Go back to start, do not collect $200.

Savvy readers are crawling all over the Internet, not in brick and mortar stores. Been in a bookstore lately? The big names sit up front on tables and displays. The rest are crammed in the back, in rows and aisles of books with only the spines showing. How the heck is a newbie supposed to make a sale like that?

Booksignings are expensive…and they don’t sell books. The days of bookstores making you rich are over. Big sales are made in the media, with the Internet being the big dog out there in the pack. Where is your online presence?

These days, a web site can be equal to a blog and vice versa. Blogs and websites are kissing cousins. The biggest difference between the two is blogs are considered more social and informative and less commercial. If you want to sell online, you need a website. However, your blog can be informative and drive business to another site, the local bookstore, your publisher or even Amazon.com where your material can be purchased.

The simplest online presence is the social blog. On these sites, you fill in sections about yourself like what you’re doing, what you like and who you pal around with. Facebook.com and MySpace.com are such sites. You can sign up friends and friends can add you to their site. Many writers use MySpace.com to connect with people as “friends” and create a following. They also join communities of other writers who can serve as a support group, or genre readers and hobbyists who rank high as potential customers.

Blogs allow journaling, lists, pictures and more. Blogger.com and WordPress.com are excellent examples. Many writers, agents and editors have blogs at these two sites.

Then you move up to single topic websites, a new revelation. These include sites like Squidoo.com and HubPages.com that call themselves “lens” sites. They are simple to create and capitalize on connections to other similar sites on the same topic. Without bothering with search engines and rankings or regular web sites, you are interlaced with others immediately. For instance, Martha Stewart has a cookie site - http://www.squidoo.com/cookies/. From this site you can jump to similar sites, Amazon and other informative aids. You can earn money on these sites since they connect to eBay and Amazon. Great for the beginner wanting to specialize in a lone subject.

So far you haven’t paid for anything. All these services are free–even the following free websites. The catch to websites with no charge is that you compromise. You accept advertising, limit the number of pages you can design and often have to accept their name in your website title. Geocities.com, Freeweb.com, Tripod.Lycos.com, AOL.com, MSN.com and a zillion others are out there. Note they do have tight parameters if you want anything other than a very basic online presence. For a higher standard of professionalism, strongly consider a blog in lieu of this option.

Paid for websites are the most flexible and most polished option. You can pay as little as $4 per month with some serious shopping around. You’ll need a domain name and a hosting service. You can get both at the same place. Some even come with templates to make your web design simple. Search for “web hosting” and you’ll have more reading that you ever care to digest in deciding where to park your site. The best advantage of a paid for website is the fact you have practically no restrictions on the design. You can use ecommerce and sell easily. You may have a learning curve in web mastering or you can hire someone to maintain it for you.

You have no excuse not to make and keep an online appearance. It’s just too darn simple anymore. Besides, what are you going to put on your business card? Nobody calls or writes postal anymore. And wouldn’t you love an email address that includes the name of your book, or your own pen name?