The 5 Most Common Author Website Mistakes

I have a Blogger site which I’m very happy with. Of course, I’m no one famous, but I still think it looks like a good mix of professional and fun.

One thing I HATE about author blogs/sites: light print on a bright background (like pale blue writing on white), or tiny print in any capacity. I do not want to have to squint to read your posts.

One benefit for writers in building their own sites is that it’s a different kind of creativity that is required. Working with lines of code and moving elements around on a page feeds a need I have to do detailed, mindless stuff, over and over. I think it must do for me what knitting or quilting does for others. Sometimes I’ll spend an entire weekend doing nothing but learning how to tweak a new plug-in. I suppose pinterest could do the same thing for a person.

What I find hardest is to offer something to my reader. My readers now are mostly writers. And I’m offering things to them. I’d like to offer things to readers who don’t write, but I don’t know how. Readers of YA fiction, don’t visit nonfiction blogs, I don’t think. Or maybe they would if I vlogged about beauty and boyfriends. I can’t bring myself to go there, yet. I think I’ll do a poll of the girls and young women at church and ask them where they hang out on the web.

What I look for in an author site is content first (and that means content that is useful delivered in a voice I enjoy), then aesthetics.

FYI – Check out classes at local libraries. Twice a year our library has some wonderful, free programs on website design. I attended specifically to gage the difficulty in flipping from Blogger to WordPress. Confession – I’m hiring someone. I know my limits, but the class was a great starting point.

I would like to know in quite practical terms, what does it mean to have a website that focuses on the reader, not the writer?

I ask b/c I don’t currently have a website. But I’ve spent a lot of time looking at various author websites. And they are almost all the same. They have:

1) Home page w/a brief blurb about the writer and what they write
2) A page w/a list of their books
3) A page with some writing tips/favorite books on writing
4) Maybe a page with some favorite links
5) A contact page.

But the ‘typical’ author website described above doesn’t seem like it fits the ‘focused on the reader’ idea. So what IS?

Many thanks.

Interesting!

I’ve been blogging for a little over six months now, and have managed somehow to steer clear of most of the items on your mistake list…with the exception of #4.

I knew nothing about websites, but built it myself, anyway.

The cool part, though, is that approach forced me to learn a little about website software and maintenance. I was fortunate enough to follow someone else’s tip by using WordPress, which has proven to be a huge time saver.

I’m still tweaking the design and layout. There are lots of little things I hope to add and improve on. However, I fit the design in where I can, and focus mostly on content.

Overall, I’m very happy with the approach I’ve taken, as it has been a great learning experience, and kept me from falling into some of the other traps you listed (brother-in-law design, no maintenance plan, high cost, too much focus on design and not enough on content, etc.).

Dollars invested to date – about $200. Time invested to date – countless hours.
Value of educational experience – PRICELESS!

Thanks much for the info!

Great tips! I’m in the defining and refining content process at present with my individual blog. No need to attract readers to come with beautiful design until the content is worth sticking around for. The design is pretty common and I hope to jazz it up again soon, but that will come after I’m comfortable that my message is more unified.

I do plan to put some serious money behind it too, but that may have to wait for the book contract, so I can justify the expense to the hubby ).

What do I look for in a blog? Take-away value!!! Do I come away more informed, energized, encouraged or empowered to take on the challenges of the day? If I do, I will come back!

THANK YOU!!!!!! I just moved from Blogger to Word Press & don’t have a clue. My blog now looks like something the cat dragged home. I even paid for some upgrades and don’t even know what they are. But GREAT content!! And more comments…I’m famous. I now want to merge my author web site and my blog. I am married to the geeky guy who can do everything, but…he’s so busy, and I’m not a paying customer. Ya know? I think it’s worth it to shell out the $$. (And did I ever expect to make money from writing? Nah….)

I’m still working on the substance part of it. When I actually have some, I’ll be looking to set up a website. Thanks for the tips and the links! Great info!

YES–hire someone who knows what they’re doing. At work we had a perfectly adequate site updated by a volunteer. A lovely, sweet volunteer who also had a job and a life. Now we have a professionally designed website that I can update ANY TIME I WANT. It’s heavenly.

It was a long process, but I did build my own (I’m in advertising and marketing, so I’m not completely unqualified). I’ve been reading posts like this for many months, so hopefully I haven’t committed any of the Big Five. Thanks for the insight!

Thank you! You always have content that is exactly what I need at just the right time. I’m currently doing research on all of this, preparing to launch a WordPress site that will allow me to host my blog, market my Bible study material, and promote my fiction and inspirational writing. I’m learning that a large amount of work goes on behind the scenes before anything is ready to be made public. Great timing, once again! I will not be “hiring” a family member to do the work for free.

I agree, Thomas, that we should focus on the readers, and their needs. Right now, I have a blogger account, at at this point, while I am unpublished, I will keep it and learn from it…thanks so much for your helpful insights!

These are all great tips, especially about the part about updating the website. Often I’ll visit an author’s website but he or she hasn’t updated it in weeks or even months.
I just use Blogger because it’s free; I wouldn’t mind having a fancier blog or website, but even $250 is a lot of money for me.

I’ve used WordPress from the beginning and love it. It’s easy to update even though I have little programming knowledge. Check it out at wwww.pamelalord.com

I’m almost persuaded to join the WP band wagon, but like a few others have already stated; I don’t have much content yet. My blogspot is still in the fledgling stage, but I’m happy so far. Ignorant people are like that. (smiles)

I am unpublished…as of today…lol…and have a Blogger blog and a Facebook page.

While I understand the experts point toward WordPress, I have two concerns. I am on a fixed income with very little “wiggle room” to be able to pay someone $1000 to create a website even when I acknowledge the sense in doing so. And while I haven’t been blogging for long (began Dec 6, 2011), I blog daily and have over 100 posts that I do not want to lose in any transition from Blogger to WordPress.

So what does someone in my position do? Any advice that could apply to my particular situation would be greatly appreciated!

Donna

I’m about to take the plunge and start a website. I want to include one, and perhaps two bloggers on it, offer some book products, ebooks of my own and others, and maybe some targeted ads for related content/products in addition to my personal content.

I heard something about WebPress not allowing ads. Is that true? I really like the flexibility of all of the WebPress templates as well as customization, I just want to make sure I can get all the functionality I want. I’m thinking of hosting it on a different hosting company which offers all kinds of applications.

Many thanks for this great post, Rachelle.

Is TypePad a bad idea?

My tips, which have proven successful with more than one best selling book:

1. If you’re just starting out, don’t spent a dime and don’t listen to people who tell you that you should. Utilize what is free on the Internet…like google blogger. I disagree that it’s not possible to build a large following with GB. I have an average of 100,000 hits a month. Word Press sucks with people who use AOL and certain programs. And they stay away from it because it takes to long to load. I rarely go to word press unless I’m forced.

2. Keep the content simple so people don’t have to spend too much time figuring out who you are and what you do.

3. Don’t listen to people who tell you that you have to spend a small fortune on a web site. Times are hard. We all have mortagages. And bad advice runs rampant on the Internet. Stay away from anyone who says they know it all. There’s usually a price to pay.

4. Keep blog posts short and sweet. No one reads long posts. They skim, they don’t really care, and most are too polite to day this aloud.

5. Don’t be afriad to tackle controversial topics you believe in. No one cares about your Aunt Nancy’s homemade apple pie unless you’re Paula Deen.

6. Keep it real. Readers appreciate authenticity, and they can smell a fake a mile away.

I could list twenty more. But no one asked me to guest blog

I think it depends on how much time and effort the author has to put into it. Most of us didn’t know how to blog when we started. We wrote some really bad (in my case painful)posts and had the most basic template. We blogged. We learned. In the process of that I learned some basic html, nothing fancy. But I feel confident building my own website. If it sucks, or I don’t get the response I’m looking for, I’ll change it. You can’t do anything if you don’t try.

I used WordPress in setting up my website. Mostly DIY but I have a background in graphic design and some html wrangling experience, and a software designer husband who helps out when I get stuck. I’m happy with WP and strongly recommend it. I’d also suggest integrating your blog and website. Somewhere (wish I could remember where) I read that your goal should be to drive ALL traffic to your own website, from FB, twitter, pinterest, whatever. Makes sense to me, if for no other reason than it simplifies things.

I consider my site just barely an author’s site. It’s mostly about 19th century America, especially Civil War era. That’s what I’m writing about, what I’m interested in, and so my future readers will connect with it. I try to distinguish it from the zillions of other CW era blogs by focusing on off-battlefield tidbits. (One of the most popular posts was on 19th century men’s underwear!) At ay rate, my books aren’t about battles and generals, so overall my blog isn’t, though they do manage to creep in. I post at least 3x a week.

I don’t have as much traffic as I’d like, though, and my relative ignorance re SEO is the next thing I need to fix.

Great tips and comments, and thanks to all of you. If anyone hops over to my site from here, please feel free to offer suggestions, advice, etc. You can put them with any post, since WP notifies me of comments, so I’ll find them.

I did make a website just so there’d be one. I update it maybe twice a year. I depend on my blog for what promotion I can do.
The price of a professionally designed website is way beyond the budget in this house, I’m sorry to say. Nevertheless, the suggestions make eminent sense. Just too rich for my blood.

I usually do not drop a comment, but after browsing through a few of the comments on this page The 5 Most Common Author Website Mistakes | Rachelle Gardner. I do have 2 questions for you if it’s okay. Could it be just me or do a few of the responses look like they are coming from brain dead individuals? And, if you are posting on other online sites, I’d like to keep up with you. Could you list of all of your social networking pages like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?

Anyone tryed this site to get help with Wordfeud hjælp? Wordfeud

I think these type of mistakes should be avoided to make a website good. Because visitors always want to stay for long time only because of a best web content.

It all sounds good to me, but I can’t afford the $1000 it apparently takes to do it right on a WordPress site. This is great information for those who can afford to make the move. Thanks, Rachelle. This kind of information is why I read your posts.