Photo by Kobu Agency on Unsplash

Who needs a website? Is it really worth the bother?

Debbie Hickman
Oct 6 · 4 min read

Here I sit, after the world and his dog has gone to bed, about to have yet another go at setting up a website for my work. Both Wordpress and Squarespace tell me I already have accounts set up, and I do seem to be experiencing a vague sense of déjà vu, so I click on ‘forgotten password’ for each in turn. Unfortunately, I find nothing on either site, saved from any previous, abortive, erased-from-my-memory attempts which I can use to get started this time around.

Bugger it.

photo of Groucho Marx from Google Images

I know without doubt it is very difficult — nay impossible -to operate successfully in this digital age without a website. Social media profiles are excellent places to connect with friends and family, post pics of your pets and vent your spleen, but they won’t showcase your talents in the same way that a slick, well-put-together website will. It’s your shop front, your portfolio; it presents your serious, professional side to potential clients and employers as well as giving them an easy way to get in touch

I know I need a website.

It’s just I hate doing this kind of thing myself. I am bamboozled by terms such as ‘blocks’ and ‘plugins’ and ‘hyperlinks’. But needs must, being currently too cash-poor to pay someone to do it. I tell myself that this time it will be easier, there has to be a simple template out there with my name on it. Besides, I have had my fingers burned too many times when it comes to paying for professional website construction.

Photo by Kobu Agency on Unsplash

Over the last twenty years I’ve had three, maybe four, websites for various businesses I’ve owned or part-owned. Or is it four, maybe five? It’s all a blur of false starts and promises that, in every single case, resulted in outrageous charges by smooth-talking web design shysters who promised the earth and delivered, frankly, nada in the way of user-friendly sites. Not to mention holding us to ransom when it came to the simplest of updates. I’ve been ripped off so many times I’m verging on phobic when it comes to web designers, even a flyer about one is enough to bring on a twitch.

My brilliant new site, the one I envisage but don’t know if I have the skills to build myself, will have tantalising snippets of the many books I’ve had published across several genres as well as links to purchase (at a commission) books I’ve read and reviewed. It will subtly and swiftly guide viewers to signing up for e-books, offers and newsletters, and have a ‘book club’ element to it and links to my hugely witty podcasts. It will include a blog — studies show that websites with blogs get 55% more visitors than those that don’t. (source: http://blog.reedsy.com/author-websites/)

Writer’s resource website Reedsy (see link above) lists what they consider to be some of the best websites belonging to published authors, including the site that used to be known as Pottermore.com but is now https://www.wizardingworld.com, the official online home of Hogwarts, Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts and other wizarding characters created by J.K. Rowling (to whom a lot of the written content on the site is credited). This expands the world of Harry Potter et al far beyond the books themselves. It draws you in with newletters, quizzes, competitions, making sure — while there are no new books to sell — that the characters and stories stay fresh and current. (The sorting hat quiz put me in Ravenclaw by the way).

Other tips from Reedsy for creating a good author website include

· The use of ‘negative’ space, ie background. For example author Jon Krakaeur’s home page (http://jonkrakaeur.com) has a striking blue/grey winter landscape with a hooded figure as its background, and just his latest book and a text box in the foreground.

· Keeping colour palette to a minimum

· Embedding a twitter feed which you keep up to date (NB: if your market is primarily under 25s then Tumblr may be more relevant)

· Keeping the content fresh and relevant, not just adding to it when you have a new book out. Weekly blogs, special offers, monthly newsletters will all help.

· Staying true to your brand. If you write mostly in one genre but then diversify into another, for instance you usually write sci-fi or dystopian fiction but also have some poetry or romance published under the same name, don’t be tempted to list everything together on the same page, as this will confuse your audience.

· Make sure your site is responsive — it needs to optimize itself for whatever device the reader/visitor is using.

Well, I best get back to Wordpress. That site is not going to build itself, more’s the pity. I’ve got as far as a domain and a home page at least. Wish me luck.

Clippings Autumn 2019

Writing from Creative and Professional Writing students (PP1) at CCCU, 2019

Debbie Hickman

Written by

Mature student — extra vintage - of creative and professional writing at CCCU, trying to find the plot my family and friends think I’ve lost.

Clippings Autumn 2019

Writing from Creative and Professional Writing students (PP1) at CCCU, 2019

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