Build Your Own Website: Designing Your Page With Bananas

By Candy Gourlay

Continuing the Build Your Own Website discussion over at the SCBWI message board. We've already discussed WHO you're doing it for ... and we've had a look at the platforms; AND we've talked about blogging ... or not. Now you've got your blog/website, how do you design it so people do what you want them to do?

When you come upon a new website, how many seconds do you hang around before moving to another site? Why do you stay?

Web guru Seth Godin says (and I paraphrase) people on web pages are like monkeys in search of bananas. If they find no bananas, they don't hang around. They just leave.

Check out the design of one of the internet's most successful start-ups, Amazon. The biggest banana of course is the book cover (yeah, why not sneak in a plug about Tall Story, while I'm at it?). But Amazon makes sure to put a bright yellow button on the top right to make it absolutely clear what you should do about the big banana.

Build Your Own Website: Why you should / should not blog

By Candy Gourlay

Continuing the Build Your Own Website discussion over at the SCBWI message board. We've already discussed WHO you're doing it for ... and we've had a look at the platforms available for an author to build a website with as little expense as possible (this is not for the select few who have marketing budgets). Now comes the question that those of us authors and authors-in-waiting wrestle with: should I or shouldn't I blog? 

In 2007, I gave a talk at a conference entitled Who's Afraid of the World Wide Web. I said I couldn't understand why authors didn't take advantage of the wealth of free tools to promote themselves on the web. Like blogging.

In 2007, blog trackers were claiming between 50 to 112 million blogs and authors were still asking me "So .. you're a web designer, what is this thing called a web blog?" Four years later, it's no longer a question ... more of a lament. "I want to start blogging but I don't know where to start".

In 2007 I might have agreed that it was a good idea. Now, in 2011, with so many author blogs in the blogosphere ... is it still a good way to stand out?

Build Your Own Website: Which Site Platform?

By Candy Gourlay
Because of the popularity of this blog post, I will be updating this from time to time, to make sure the info is still up to date. I've closed the comments because this sort of post attracts spammers like a magnet.

Continuing the big  Build Your Own Website discussion over at the British SCBWI message board (this was on 7 Jan 2011!). In case you have come late to this discussion, we are looking at ways by which authors can build their own websites at minimal or no cost. So our big question today is:  which site platform should you use? I am listing the ones I have actually tried out. If you would like to recommend something I haven't listed, do leave a comment ... but if it sounds too much like spam, be warned that I will delete it.

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