In The Demon's Head: Promo Techniques- Websites

In The Demon's Head #45: Promotional Techniques- Websites

July 28, 2012

Hola everyone, today's the final and second biggest piece to the promotional puzzle, building yourself a website. If you missed the post on Blogging, Advertising, and Social Media, then be sure to check them out. For so many building a website is a daunting task, especially If you've never done it before and that is completely understandable. I've been building websites since I was 15 so I”m used to them but for someone whose never decided to build one setting one up can be almost impossible. For those of you all I can say is hire someone, hey I'm available if your looking for someone super affordable and quick. Take a look at my website and if you like what you see drop me a line here. But if you want to know then why building a website is an investment that is important then I've got some news for you.

For those of you who do know how to build a website and can do it pretty simple then I don't have to explain to you why it's important to have a website. But you may be wondering where to start and what's the most cost effective route and in fact I've found a very good hosting site that allows for you to develop a professional website and give it a professional looking url for free so you could essentially develop a website for free. I look to answer those and a couple more that you may have here in today's post so lets not waste any more time.

Why Do I need a Website?

A website is more or less your home on the internet. It can house everything that is vital for your fan base and your readers to know in one specific location. You can give your fans a schedule of events that you'll be attending, you can sell e-books of your for full profit, You are in control of your home. You can build it from the ground up.

Websites are also something that gives you a space to showcase your work, your thoughts, all the news about a coming release, Interviews, Book Reviews and other things. Your website is your calling card and in today's world you never want to be stuck without your calling card and in terms of websites it's the best type of calling card available.

Where Would I start?

This question truly depends on you and your ability at building your own site. If you can build your own website then by all means get to work, it's better to have the bare bones of a website then not have a website at all. That was my biggest holding back was that I didn't think I'd be able to keep a website fresh enough for people to want to look at but I've managed to do pretty well so far and for that I'm very proud of myself.

If your on the other hand and don't know how to go about it then save up some money or if you already have the money available then hire someone to set up a website for yourself. You can host them through Weebly, everything you need for a writing website you can pretty much get for free so everything in that regard is perfectly fine. You also have an unlimited number of pages and storage space which makes Weebly a great web hoster compared to some of the others out there (Trust me on this one, I've used most of the free ones that are available and so far hands down Weebly is the best bet)

I think the two most important things to have on a website is your bio and a bit about yourself or the site on the home page as well as links to your works, be them free like some of the poems that I have up and available, or to the works that you sell. These are the bread and butter of any writing site and having the bare bones of one without having these is almost pointless.

Update Regularly

This doesn't mean update daily as so many people seem to believe, I was one of those at first but I've learned that it's not necessary however, updating regularly in necessary. You want to freshen up your website with news, videos, podcast, or something so be sure to update the website on a regular basis.

Now these don't have to be on a schedule so much like your blogging traits. If you touch a fan they will bookmark a website and check it every so often. It's that way with a lot of writers, they're website might not change for a couple weeks on end but you never know when someone might stumble across what you have set up and check out the content and that is a great thing. Once you've reached a fan, if you've done it right they'll stay a fan for a long time.

In Conclusion...

Websites are the future, In fact I'm going so far as to believe that Websites will eventually replace almost every form of media that we have currently including TV and Radio. You need to get yours set up and ready to go as soon as possible because the sooner that you have everything set up and ready then the better off you'll be should a Traditional Publisher feel the urge to want to come looking for your calling card.

As with every technique that we've covered in this series if you've built a website or have a story about a website experience with a company or someone that wasn't so great then please share it in the comments section below.

You can check out my website for some ideas of a way to set yours up and what you may want to include. Keep in mind my website is far from the best one out there but considering the funding budget I had and what I worked with I think it turned out spectacular.

We'll be back tomorrow to wrap everything together and close up our first blogging series together. Until the next time you go through the gates of hell into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.