Magic!
Adventure!
Mystery!
For Children, Teenagers and Adults.
Suddenly, in the space of just a few days, it has turned into a beautiful early summer.
Maya and I have just come back from a long walk. The woods are thick with bluebells and flowering wild garlic. Ferns are unrolling in the shade. All the trees have new, light-green leaves that let the sunlight speckle through.
In a field, we saw hares playing. One of them ran up to within ten feet of us before turning tail and racing off.
This kind of weather makes me happy.
Read on for my battle cry...
I started this series of blog entries on websites for writers with an introduction, then I talked about whether you needed a website. In the last entry, I looked at identifying your target audience. If you're following along, trying to plan out a website, then you should make sure you've identified that audience before you go on to this next stage.
3. What are your audience looking for when they come to your website?
In the last journal entry, I said you would need to remember that the audience for your website is not you. One of the biggest mistakes most people make when they put together a website is that they think, 'What do I want on my website?'
This is the wrong question. You should be asking what your target audience is looking for.
People go to a website with specific questions or ideas about what they want to find out. If you don't give them that, they will leave, and you'll have lost them for good. For the most part, the idea of people 'surfing' the internet--randomly travelling from site to site, without a purpose--is a myth. Your visitors, particularly your target audience, want something from you, and it's your job to give it to them.
Continue Reading "Websites for Writers: Planning your website - part 3"
In the last journal entry, I talked about whether you need a website or not. If you're still reading, I assume you think you might. Now let's really start to plan out your website. As always, feel free to ask questions, argue, comment or whatever.
2. Who is the target audience for your website?
When I ask this question, most people say 'everyone' or come up with a vast, diverse list of audiences. Your audience isn't everyone. It can't even be lots of different groups.
You can't appeal to everyone with a website. If you try, it will fail. Just as your stories can't appeal to every reader, neither can your website.
Likewise, your audience isn't you. Although few people would answer the question with 'Me', that's what a lot of people seem to think. When you're deciding, as you will later, what to include, how to write it and what your site should look like, you need to keep this in mind. Your website is for your visitors, not for you.
Continue Reading "Websites for Writers: Planning your website - part 2"
Okay, you're a writer. Writers have websites. You've probably seen them, or someone's told you should have one. You've got hold of a copy of website editing program like Dreamweaver, or you read a book about HTML, or you know someone who made a website for a friend or colleague. You're all ready to go, to build your website and be part of the web, because... Well, because...
To be honest, it's possible you don't quite know why. And even if you do know why, you may well not know what you want to do with your website when you've got it.
This is pretty normal.
It's very tempting to launch yourself into designing and building your website straight away, but if you do, it will go wrong. The time you spend planning will pay itself back later on. So, for now, no designs, no content. Let's just think about your website.
If you've already decided that, for whatever reason, you do need or want a website, you can skip the rest of this entry and move right on to the next one (coming up shortly), where we'll start to plan out your website in detail. If you're not sure, continue reading here…
Continue Reading "Websites for Writers: Planning your website - part 1"
