What Makes a Website Work - What doesn't

People, people, people. I don't know whether to be appalled or to think I'm rather narrow minded.

I'm adding massive author links to my website as part of a 'helping hand promotion' and while I understand you all are entitled to your own style and styles are dependent on genres or whether you're writing fiction or non-fiction. Even your age and life style factor into your decisions and all these are right. Still there are basic requirements that are needed.

1. Introduction -- the first page should give the reader an idea of what your site is all about. One shouldn't have to search to find out that you're an author, much less what genre you write or even your name.

2. People like to know a little about you and how it relates to what you write. Give a biography of yourself, but not your life history from birth on nor your exact location - you're inviting trouble. Stalkers are no fun.

3. Make it easy to find a little bit about your books - where to purchase them - what people are saying about them.

4. Share where you can be found. Such as where you regularly chat or blog. Are you on Twitter, Facebook, other social networds where you regularly post updates?

5. How can people contact you aside from leaving comments.

These are the very least you should have on your website. Rather, I'm finding websites that only contain one page of nothing but book blurbs -- this is nothing more than advertisement floating out of a package that I'm guessing doesn't exist as I saw no links to at least a home page. And I couldn't even begin to guess the genre of the books.

Some are blogs that as far as I could tell were personal and had nothing to do with your writing. Sorry - won't get put on my website. Your writing is a business venture so the website you share with the writing community should reflect your writing most of all.

Websites geared toward a single book sends out a messge that you don't plan on writing more. Readers tend to want more books from a writer before making a decision or especially if they should like your 'one and only'. The website base should be about you, the writer. If you want to do a special book feature on your site, wonderful, but don't send readers packing before they have a chance to like you.

This is a first for me - coming across sites which does not give the author name, some even on the book covers. How do these books get published? Even self-publishing sites require title and author on the cover.

Sites that are set up like a magazine ad section are a major turn-off. My eyes are going squiggly trying to locate the information that's supposed to be there and by the time I find it half way down the page, I'm no longer interested. This may just be me, but hey - I'm a potential customer.

I'm sure this is simply one of my pet peeves, but if you are writing under a pen name, your website address, nor email addresses should be under any other name. Yes, you may not care who knows that you write under this or that name, but it looks unprofessional. Customer perception is a major. Also, what if you were searching for an author and all you could find was a website which mentioned the name. I know I don't have the time to spend figuring out if this is really a site for this person or if this person simply likes this person enough to promote him/her.

Fonts -- some fancy fonts are hard to read. They may be pretty to you, but to someone else, they may be illegible, especially now that many are reading on ereaders, phones and netbooks. I'm guilty of this and this is why I'm mentioning it. Publishers aren't trying to limit our creativity by limiting which fonts and sizes can be used there is a legit purpose behind the demand. Use that same guide for all of your websites.

Sound effects on websites - really! A major turn-off as are videos that automatically play. Have some respect for those who might me taking a moment while kids are napping or in a classroom situation that might be finished with a test, but others aren't. All sorts of reasons not to impose these features on others.

Photos -- keep them small sized .jpg's -- believe it or not, some are still using dial-up networks. Photos and music will cost you potential customers as these take forever to load.

And believe it or not - Facebook is not considered a website. It's a social networking site.

For the most part, the hundred plus websites I've looked at today haven't been all that bad. However, one was ghastly. It appears the person responsible has no idea there are free templates and other componets to put together a professional looking website. This site reminded me of when I first built websites back in the 90's when all the background choices were solid colors and navigation links were large ugly buttons. We've come a long way baby - catch up or it will cost you in more than sales -- you have a reputation to consider. And keep in mind, the background should never distract from the content.

Have a great week!

Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net

Social Networks Can Be A Downer

I had an interesting thing happen the other day and I've been thinking about in terms of "what is the point?" Bad attitude, I know. I get in moods where I think I'll just shut down all the social networks and save myself some stress and headache. Then I talk myself out of it by reminding myself that I'm not in a good place right now to be making decisions that could be detrimental, or maybe not. I have too much time on my hands - you can read the previous post to find out more. ;)

Recently, I posted a spur of the moment blog post over at Happily Ever After about how can we make our social sites more interactive. I still don't have an answer for that. However, on my personal Facebook an issue posed a 'raised eyebrow' for me. I had posted a comment about an old, old movie I finally sat and watched though I'd been present many times while the kids watched it when they were little. A friend wrote back and said she watched it, too. I told her how funny it is when you're a mom and writer you miss so much for being split-focused. I figure having a young cutie, she'd totally understand. She came back and said she had no idea I was a writer.

Mmmm! I post comments about my writing, new covers, new releases and have gotten quite frustrated at the lack of support from family and friends. I've struck up various conversations trying to get a fix on them and what I've learned is that they don't read romance, they 'won't' read ebooks. Most are 'christians' and I put that in quotes, because, hey - that doesn't keep you having sex, proof is in the kids they have, so what's wrong with reading about it - it's in the Bible, do they skip over it? It's a part of life. Anyways, the real dilema comes back to my post on lack of social interaction on social networks. People aren't reading peoples posts.

Do people simply go in and post a quickie and leave without reading what anyone else might have posted? I know this isn't always the case since some of my other posts are liked and commented on. Are there so many game posts preventing them from seeing real posts? Possibly. I know when I log into my author account there are 300 posts waiting and those messages can be sprinkled throughout several pages. I'm not going to go back more than five or six pages, so yeah, I can see how things get missed when you have four hundred plus people doing various things. On my family site though, I keep my friend list way down to friends and family so many of the daily messages waiting are game related since we are neighbors on so many of them. Some days, I can have two hundred messages and hundred can be games and ninety messages from 'liked' pages. I have my sports, my radio stations, my stores, favorite artists. So, when I want to make sure I don't miss a message, I go to peoples actual walls or profile pages. Not a hard concept, not a task that has to be daunting in this realm. In a professional realm, yeah, I can see issues. Probably 430 out of the 449 people on my Facebook friend list doesn't have a clue who I am, they just friended me because I popped up in the right column and it said this many people on their friend list had friended me. Seriously, isn't that how it really goes? Out of those 449, I probably friended less than thirty of them myself. I prefer others to friend me so I'm not pushing myself on them. Yeah, in my mind it can be that way since I really don't know the people. I write sex and some might actually be offended by that so let it be their choice to have my posts show up on their wall.

So, how do you get on the radar of others and get them to check out your wall or profile for interesting posts? Yeah, common sense is to write news worthy and interesting posts. And if you already do, how do you get them read so people know how wonderful you are? Ok, that just made me laugh. I'm the least conceited person I know. I want to be acknowledged, but don't like being center of attention or praised [fake or otherwise]. Yeah, tell me if you like my books or not, but only if you honestly read them, but then move on. I like talking about kids, animals, gardening and so on, you know things I know about. I won't talk about politics, nor religion simply because those are too personal and arguments can ensue too easily.

I try to engage people on my fan page, but so far all topics have been a bust.

I'm a socially inept person -- no secret about that. It's the way I was raised and you can't change the training - playing catch-up does not work. Been there done that, however, when I try and I feel like I have something to say -- it's a real downer to have it ignored. I'm not referring to comments I make on blogs or comments to comments on other people's posts in Facebook -- I usually look at those as 'I said my piece, it's my opinion or thought' that's the end of it, but sometimes I find people liking my comment and it makes me smile. Or, at times a response will come and I smile - most often than not, though - the person who posted the comment never responds to comments left on their posts.

So, have you found a key to getting your posts read? Are the commenters limited to people you personally know or have earned a repoire with?

Any suggestions to me and others who haven't found the right path yet?

Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net/

Life and Life - What makes it work, what doesn't?

I was sitting here attempting to play a new card game at mindjolt via Facebook. The small screen of the netbook doesn't make some games easy to do and it's worse on a computer with a mind of its own. My husband noticed my frustration with the machines habit of scrolling up and down on its own and looked over when I smacked it. He saw I couldn't see the whole game and was moving up and down to see the cards. So, my sweetheart apologized for not being able to get me a full size laptop.

I wish he wouldn't do that. It's not because he can't afford it or doesn't just go do it. It's because I keep talking him out of spending money. If he had his way, he'd have a new truck and I'd have a new car, a new laptop, the roof would be done and the house would have new siding. It's crazy to go into debt for no real reason. I mean seriously, the roof doesn't leak, the siding still protects the wood beneath it - I just wish people would stop stealing our corner pieces, I'm tired of replacing them. Granted there are some things I have to have a larger screen for, but I have access to his laptop when he's not home or gone to bed. And even the server monitor to check bookcovers or add links to updates on my website. I manage to get things done.


We remodeled our living room last year and I told him we should pay off the flooring and furniture before we tackle another large project. Common sense. We keep each other in check. If we didn't, I'd have a new kitchen appliance set and frankly, it'd be stupid to do that right now. We need to wait until we're ready to remodel the kitchen. Gas lines, electrical and plumbing has to be moved. Patience.

I know we're creeping up on sixty and our youngest graduates from high school in a year, and that urge to get things done the way we want them before we face retirement can be overwhelming. But everything in moderation.

I'm so, so lucky he thinks to do things for me and wants to do them. So, I told him I'd been thinking about putting a laptop on layaway at one of the few stores who still allow it. He grinned from ear-to-ear and told me after property taxes are paid to let him do that for me.

My reasoning for wanting to do it is because I'm going back to school and I need larger computer compacity to use the programs I need to purchase for classes. His reasoning is love. He loves me.

[Ha! I hit enter to start a new paragraph and the dang computer posted the unfinished post.]

Sometimes I don't know why he loves me much less puts up with me.
 
The other day, I visited him at work after my doctor's appointment at his invite. He was busy and so I hung out at his desk watching him from across the room. I could hear him talking to this lady on the phone as he and this other tech were working out kinks in a program for her. You have to know him to understand his sense of humor, but I enjoyed hearing him banter with her all the while wondering if he'd get into trouble for sexual harrassment. I mean, he wasn't quiet and I know their policy. On the other hand, I loved it. My definition of sexual harrassment and what most corporations consider are way different. They take the fun out of the work place. So, while all this is going through my mind, a lady walks up to me and asked if I was waiting for him and offered to find him for me. I had a badge on, so she assumed I was a customer. I introduced myself and she became less business-like and friendlier. She told me how he sings my praises and so on. I commented on how I didn't know how he put up with me. She told me he says the same about me. Kind of cool, I thought. We have our quirks and have come a long way in thirty-four years. I remember when he'd get mad at me and go running off to his friends house.
 
I guess this is what we do when we hit a certian age and have too much time on our hands. We reflect on years gone by. We've come a long way, baby. lol
 
I have way too much time on my hands. Fortunately, that will end come mid August. Jeff will be a senior in high school and I'll be a freshman in college. I'm going into Graphic Art and Desktop Publishing. I hope to design web sites and book covers when I'm finished. Or I should say be more knowledgable in doing them. I've been dabbling with website design for years and of late, doing my own book covers. I've technically designed them all.
 
And by filling some of my extra hours, I'm hoping I find my way back to the joy of writing. There was just something about having a limited number of hours to write before I had to go to work that seems to have worked for me. Without it, I don't function right. Some habits should never be broken.
 
My ramblings - I could go on, I'm sure. I won't. I love you too much. lol
 
Bekki
http://bekkilynn.net/

New Release - Absentee Love Returns

Blurb:
Gail Green's world is turned upside down when an alleged mobster gives her an ultimatum, lose her newborn son or follow orders. When they are kidnapped, she has no idea which of the Galletti’s enemies is behind it. [Contemporary, mildly erotic]


EXCERPT:

“You’re under contract. Don’t forget it!” Vincent Galletti ordered.

“How the hell can I?” Gail swung around to face the horrid man who headed the family. “You people remind me every minute of every day.” He turned and left the room after a long, stare of superiority.

Gail refrained from throwing the glass across the room, drinking from it instead. Yes, she had to honor all parts of the contract forced on her despite the fact Rico could care less about her. Proof of that came months ago when she’d awakened to find him gone from her bed, and no word thereafter despite his professed love.

She walked to the window. The warm rays of the sun of the summer day didn’t penetrate the chill she felt. Ever since Vincent Galletti had walked into her hospital room with a court order to take her son in one hand and an ultimatum in the other, she’d lived with an abnormal since of coldness.

The click of the door caused her back to stiffen in preparation for more hurling words, demands, and threats that she had to bear if she wanted to remain in her son’s life.

Hands came down on her shoulder, and she cringed. He wouldn’t dare try anything here, not in the room next to where his mother lay and his family gathered. The fingers gripped her, but didn’t dig in as she was turned around. A hand slid down her arms while she registered it wasn’t Vicenzo. Lips touched her head, her forehead before she registered the danger and tried to push him away.

Rico’s mouth closed over hers as she opened to protest. Her need for love and comfort won out over the consequences. She gripped his biceps and moved her mouth with his, drowning in the heady scent of soap and peppermint. Tongues danced and she ached to return to the nights where passion drove them into the wee hours of the morning.

He broke the connection, but didn’t move away. “I had to know.”

“What?”

“We’ll talk.” he whispered then brushed her lips again.

“No…Rico…” She heard the music signaling the start of the service. Panic began to rise, knowing someone would come for her if she didn’t appear. “I must go as you should. I can’t be caught with you.”

“Trust grandmother, no one else,” he whispered, kissed her again and she watched him walk from the room.
Her shoulders slumped. She wanted answers, but was more afraid of them. The confirmation of his running from her bed, to another woman's would be throwing gas on simmering coals of squelched anger and sadness. He needed to keep his secrets.

Secrets, her life had become trapped in them and she couldn’t tell him hers. What his family did was backed by the court system, by money, power, and threats. Not to speak of their disownment of Rico.

“The family has sat,” Vicenzo announced from the doorway.

Gail clenched her jaw and tried to pass by him, but he grabbed her arm. “Don’t do anything foolish.”

She glared at him for several seconds, and then told him, “Don’t touch me.”

“Oh, I will. I’ll do more than touch.”

“And die prematurely?”

He dropped his hand. “Mind your mouth.”

“Go to hell.”



Available at: Smashwords, Lulu, Soon: Sony, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Diesel, Apple

Bekki

http://bekkilynn.net/