Hey, you.
Yes, you!
You're a writer, right?
Listen here for a second. . .
If you are serious about your writing, in fact even if you aren't, you need a website. Let me repeat that -- every writer needs a web site!
If you don't believe me then here are five very good reasons why:
1. Your web site can serve as your showcase and portfolio. It can include your biography, experience, writing credits, as well as, copies of your work or better yet -- links to your published work. So many queries today are done electronically, and it is much easier to simply include an url for editors or prospective clients to visit than try to attach copies and/or a long list of urls on various locations
2. Your web site can be your creative outlet. Perhaps your bread-and-butter writing is in the financial field but you really enjoy writing poetry or about fly fishing. Then you can publish those pieces on your web site to receive exposure or simply to reward yourself for a job well done. Who knows, you might even find yourself with some new paying assignments in these fields.
3. You can demonstrate your expertise in your particular field or fields by demonstrating the number of articles you have written in that area as well as any experience and/or education you may offer in this field. Listing your articles or putting a selection on your site will get your name linked with various key words surrounding that topic in the search engine.
4. For writers, your name is your brand and you need to continually have your name out there and furthermore you need to have it connected with your areas of expertise. The more articles and essays you have published on the web, the more times your name gets out there for readers, clients, and editors. Owning your own web site (ogaines.com for example) is like owning your own billboard on the internet superhighway.
5. You can earn money with your own web site and your writing even without getting paid by publications. Place Pay-Per-Click ads on your site or sign up for some affiliate programs to advertise on your site. Depending on the size of your site and the traffic you attract this may become a major new source of income for you!
I hope I've convinced you that web site can be an asset to your writing career, but I must warn you that web mastering can be very addictive to us creative types. Don't let it overtake your writing time. Start out simple and build over time so you can work out a good balance between your writing and your webmaster chores. Now run, young Padawan, into the realm of the Internet!
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