Web Site Design Tips for Writers by Lisa Maliga

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Web Site Design Tips for Writers
by Lisa Maliga

There are thousands of writers, paid and unpaid, online and offline, who are in the process of putting their works up for the audience of the World Wide Web to witness. This is a marvelous opportunity for undiscovered talent to be given a chance for literary acceptance, and it’s also a way for established authors to share their stories, make their works readily available, and encourage others to develop their writing skills.

Before you build your web site, here are a few tips that will help you launch your words online.

Domain Name
Domain names run less than ten dollars a year, so they are quite affordable. What will you tell your online friends about your web site? The obvious choices would be your own name or the title of your book, magazine, newspaper, subject/area of expertise, or some combination of words that accurately represent what you do writing-wise. Make it memorable, and not just a series of numbers and letters. I spoke with a representative of a web hosting company and learned that one of their clients had a complex series of letters and numbers that, when decoded, revolved around the birthdays and anniversaries of his family and pets! If you have a common name and it’s not available, think of what you would like your site to represent. Do you specialize in articles? Books? Short stories? Scholarly works? Screenplays? Children’s books? This is where you will need to conjure up a dynamic and descriptive name that will be online for a long time.

Free Web Sites
Being on a tight budget might limit your ability to buy a web hosting company’s services. Be warned that you might end up with a site that sends out pop up ads and displays lots of uncontrolled banner advertising, generally other free sites and possibly even porn sites. Another alarming feature is the preponderance of cookies and/or spyware that can result from these types of sites. You will be limited in what you may add, and in how many photos or graphics will be allowed, as the bandwidth is quite limited. This option is acceptable if you plan to maintain a small site or are doing it as a way to get your online start. Remember, you can always upgrade.

Fee-Based Web Sites
Whether you’re adding one page to the web or thousands, you need to decide which web design program to use. Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, and Adobe are three of the most popular web design software programs. However, there are many others and some of them are free when you sign up with a web host. Make sure you’re comfortable using the software. While web design software programs come with books, it’s advisable to purchase additional reference books, or check them out of the library. For yet more information, look for various online articles about your chosen web design software.

Hosting It
If you currently have a reliable ISP such as AOL, MSN, Earthlink, Adelphia, Yahoo, etc., your next step is to find a place where you can launch your site. These ISP’s provide web hosting for various prices, but you should compare hosts. Read reviews at: http://www.webhostingratings.com

Here are eight items you should consider.

1. Monthly cost – Be aware of the number of limitations and restrictions you’ll encounter. If a web host advertises free space, it might actually mean that such an offer is only for a short period or time, or it’s hidden in the fine print [if at all] on the hosting company’s site.
2. Setup fee – Sometimes a hosting company will charge a small one-time fee, other times they will have a hefty charge. The more services you require such as: multiple e-mail addresses, a shopping cart, forums, streaming audio/video, extra disk space, etc., the higher the amount.
3. Disk space – How many MB [millions of bytes] will you need? You can get as few as 5 MB and as many as 1000 for less than $20 per month.
4. Transfer rate – GB [billions of bytes] of pictures, text, etc. you are allowed to upload onto your site per month. It also applies to what a visitor on your site will be viewing and if you have an exceptionally high rate of traffic you will have to pay for it. Note: please don’t expect a lot of visitors just after your site goes online unless you are appearing on a TV show or your movie is in theatres.
5. Technical support availability – Whether by e-mail, online chat or toll-free number, this is a service that many consider vital, especially if they have no experience with web sites.
6. Reliable uptime – If your host is on downtime that means your site will be unavailable to anyone. Look for a host with no less than 99% uptime.
7. Will any promotional packages be included or is there a fee?
8. If using a program such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage, will the web hosting company charge extra for this service?

Navigating Around Your Web Site
Consider how to get from your home page [or index page] to other areas of your site via providing text or pictorial links. Many sites utilize a row of well-labeled navigation buttons and/or text links along the top or side. Some utilize both top and bottom for additional ease of use.

Since you are creating a showcase for your work[s], remember that having a “long” page where the viewer has to scroll down a lot is annoying. Create your home page in such a way as to have a link to each section of your site. Be careful about adding images, as they can slow things down. Keep pictures in the JPG, JPEG, or GIF formats and as small as possible megabyte-wise, ideally under 50K. I once visited a writer’s site with a huge BMP photo. It dramatically slowed the page’s loading time, even with a high-speed connection, and after waiting for several minutes, I left. You want to invite viewers to stay around and discover your site, not put them to sleep as they await a single item to be unfurled.

Perhaps you have written many articles, whether on one topic or several. Instead of slapping them up on your home/index page, treat them with deference, allowing each one its own page. The more pages you maintain, the more likely it is both search engines and potential readers will discover you. In the online world, more is indeed merrier, but it’s also excellence that will bring the guests to your site. You’re a writer; you should be able to breezily inform the online public that your site is worth visiting – and coming back to again and again.

Proper Grammar and Spelling
Nothing cries out rank amateur louder than poor grammar and spelling on a writer’s web site. Yet I’ve consistently seen such things as this wondrous excerpt: “Heres the deal buy a copy of ‘Title’ by me and give it an honest reveiw of your opion and you could be the lucky winner/owner to a signed copy of six extra poems which were originally cut from the book and will be featured in my next collection ‘Title #2.’

Author's Biography:

Posted on: February 14,2006

Email: Lisa_Maliga@msn.com
Website: http://www.lisamaliga.com