To say that the internet isn’t going away would be an exercise in understatement. It’s 2009, and the number of people online has surpassed the one billion mark. As a writer, that’s a mind-numbingly large potential audience. And yet, there are still plenty of writers out there without websites. Judging from my readership, you already do, so this might be preaching to the proverbial choir. But, I’m going to do it anyway.
Why should a writer have a website?
Showcase your work
A website is a great place to establish an accessible, readable, and searchable portfolio of the works which make you, the writer, shine. If you’re established, your readers want to read you. If you’re currently establishing yourself, then you can give your reader a reason to want. A writing portfolio should establish desire. How you choose to do that is wholly up to you.
Connect with others
The ability to leave comments on websites has been the standard for better than five years now. Giving readers the ability to comment is a great way to interact with your audience. However, leaving comments on others websites is also an excellent way of meeting and communicating with others in the writing industry – writers, agents, editors, publishers – as well as letting their readers discover you. After all, when you have your own website, you have someplace to link to with your comments.
Practice
The term website and blog have slowly become interchangeable. And for the sake of this post, I’m treating them as synonyms. To that end, a website is a great means to practice the art in which you thrive. It’s also a fantastic method to learn more about yourself as a writer. Why? Articulation often leads to understanding. How many times have you sat down to write about a problem, only to find a solution before you’ve put your pen down?
Brand creation and maintenance
Whether your unpublished or currently on numerous writing short lists, as a writer, you are your own brand. A website is just one tool for establishing a central location for the definitive information on your brand. Or, to put it more bluntly, your writing website is the ultimate guide to you. For more on brand management, I’m recommending this video by Gary Vaynerchuk.
The internet was created for writing
Despite the heaps of love paid to music, photos, and video online, the backbone of the internet was and always will be writing. The internet is a text-based medium. As a writer, this gives you a leg-up on those who don’t embrace the written-word. For a writer to not have a website is to squander that very advantage.
So, here we are, the new year. And what have I done so far this year? A great deal of behind the scenes work. Just like being a writer today means you spend half the time being a businessman, running a website means a great deal of behind the scenes work. It’s a life of constant tweaking.
Here’s a list of changes and some helpful hints.
I updated my Portfolio, moving my writing content onto the portfolio’s primary page, deleting the writing only page, and moving my design portfolio to the bottom. Why? Well, my focus isn’t on designing websites, that’s basically a hobby I get paid for. Rather, I’m shifting the focus to my writing.
My Links and Reads Page has undergone a much needed infusion of links to things that I actually read. I read a lot of writing industry-related websites – agents, publishers, other writers – so that I can keep on top of everything that’s going on. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and it’s not even all that I read, but it’s a start in the right direction.
Server Cleanup. As my website has progressed, a lot of information has ended up being left in scraps on my server. I went through and cleaned up all of those scraps. I also added redirects to all of the pages that Google’s Webmaster Tools tell me are currently dead links. I’ve found that this is slightly more helpful than being greeted by a simple 404 error page.
SEO functions. I cruised the net for a few hours today and located about 75 directories which accepted free submissions. One can never have too many inbound links.
It appears that, with the exception of having Thursday off for New Year’s Day, the holiday 
season has officially ended for me and mine. Though, it didn’t quite feel long enough. The trip north took up a week or so, and driving left me in need of a vacation to recover from my vacation. But it was good to get out, to relax, and to finally meet several of my friends from Twitter.
But, now that 2008 – which somehow managed to fly by and feel incredibly long in retrospect – is leaving us, it’s time to look ahead to 2009. I’ve never been one to assign a false list of ideas or resolutions to a coming year, but I am finally settling into a solid working schedule, and so I can slowly tick of items from my mythical “To Do” list.
Here’s a peek at what’s to come:
Resources – I’ve slowly started to compile a list of resources for writers here on my website, things that writer’s often find themselves needing. These run the gamut from rules of thumb, quotes on the industry, articles that I’ve found, and a few pieces of compiled works.
One such work – a list of word count page estimates – is already online in bare bones form. The second major undertaking is a Writer’s Dictionary, a compilation of words and acronyms used to describe, critique, and sell writing.
Links and Reads – Instead of offering up a blog roll, I have instead chosen to include my daily reads on a separate, static page. This helps give the links better oomph in Google, and for the SEO fans out there, allows me to link to sites I read with keywords. Recently, I’ve found about a dozen or blogs that I ported into Google Reader and need to thus include in that page. My reading list tends to stick with industry-related blogs, dealing with general and copy writing, but also the business end – that of the lit agents and editors. It’s by no means complete or authoritative, but it’s growing daily.
In black, of course
Video – For Christmas I received that which I really wanted (at Kelly’s suggestions) – a Flip Mino HD. I also secured a tripod (also at Kelly’s suggestion), and with the help of Kino (an FOSS video editing solution), I plan to start doing short video pieces on a regular basis.
I am currently leaning towards Vimeo for video hosting, but I’m also considering Seesmic and will probably play around with both. If anyone has any suggestions (other than the YouTube), or preferences, I am open to hearing them.
Bradley Robb likes TV and books, and has an intense dislike for cinnamon. Once, Bradley stopped a Soviet T-60 with his middle finger. Bradley writes speculative fiction and edits Fiction Matters, and never really got the hang of talking about himself in the third person.