Some hard talk about writer websites

Jun 10, 2022

Happy Friday,

This week I’ve had several readers email to ask website related questions. I will reply personally to the emails (I promise!) but thought maybe we should talk about websites.

Websites are what I know.

I’ve been building, maintaining and marketing websites since 1999. It’s what I do and how I pay the bills. I eat, breathe and sleep websites. If the websites I work on don’t perform and convert, I wouldn’t eat. Simple as that. Writing is a side gig.

Here’s what I can tell you…

Most websites don’t work and writers’ websites are among the worst. Sorry, I hate to say that, but it’s true.

First problem I see is that they don’t look professional. You can get away with a website that looks “homemade” if you’ve won a Pulitzer. But otherwise, no. Your website is how people who don’t already know you judge your credibility. If you took your name off and put an established writer’s name on it, would it be credible?

Second problem I see is that they have no driving strategy. They don’t go out in the world and find your audience and turn them into readers. Or clients. Most writer websites are just showcases of a struggling writer that no one is Googling. Usually, that’s because you’re not a marketer and the designer wasn’t either.

God, there’s a design company that “specializes” in writer websites and they all suck. Every damn one of them. I went through their showcase, horrified.

Three questions to ask about your website…

You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know what the problem is in the first place. So here’s a few questions that every writer should probably ask about their site…

Are you clear on the purpose for your site?
Not every site has the same purpose. Maybe you want it to sell your books or writing services. Or find your readers. Maybe you want it as a place to collect all the writing you do at various external sites. Maybe you hope to make blogging pay the bills. If you don’t know what your website is supposed to do in the first place, it’s pretty hard to make it sit up and perform.
Does your website retain visitors?
Some time ago, a writer contacted me. She’d been promoting her heart out but getting zip for results. Turned out her site was bouncing 69% of visitors. There is zero point in promoting a website that doesn’t retain. Plus, poor retention can kill any Google ranking you have. If you’re curious about that, let me know in comments and I’ll write about it.
Do you have an underlying strategy?
There’s two ways to build a website. The most effective way is to build a site that implements an underlying conversion strategy. The more common way is to build a showcase of a person or product and then get on the struggle bus, which is to say trying to drive traffic. Ideally, traffic is your website’s job, but that’s not how most sites work. So if that’s you, don’t feel bad.

My schedule is utterly insane, so I’m writing a book about writer sites and I’d love your questions, preferably in comments… lol

I have to tell you, my schedule is utterly insane most of the time. So I’m doing the only sane thing I can think of. I’m putting everything I’ve learned in writing. Not sure if it’s going to be a book, tutorial or email course. I’ll figure that out.

Hope to share the outline with you very soon, too, so you can see what I’m working on. I think I finally like it and man, I’m a hard judge. Especially on myself.

If you have website related questions, I’d love to hear them. Maybe I can address some of them in the book/tutorial/course I’m working on.

Preferably in comments, because my inbox is insane.

I love email, don’t get me wrong. But my inbox a scary place and it’s only fair to tell you that. Hope to see you in the comments. :)

Hello, Writer!

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