3 Important Lessons about Website Design

On Sunday February 16, 2014, I launched my new website. The site took about 6 months to create: 3 months of thinking and research and 3 months of writing content, installing plug-ins, and formatting all of my old blog posts to fit my new theme. As I already had a fairly decent web presence, I built my new site on nights and weekends.

I chose to redesign my website because my old site suffered from 3 design flaws.

In this post you will learn 3 important lessons about website design.

Lesson 1: Design a Website, Not a Blog

As much as I loved my old website, it looked and felt like a blog, not a website.

It looked and felt like a blog because of the haphazard way I designed it.

I created my old website in late 2011/early 2012 as a blog. I had a separate personal website on elizabethcovart.com, which I created with Sandvox.

Having two websites proved problematic.

First, I had to maintain two websites on two different platforms.

Second, I had two online hubs, when I should have had one.

Neither site served me well on its own.

I learned rather quickly that I did not want to maintain two websites. I also learned that if I wanted to make it as an independent historian and writer, I needed to have a real online hub that showcased all of my writing in one place.

As I loved the clean look of my blog and the functionality of WordPress, I copied the “About Me” information from elizabethcovart.com and added it to my blog, uncommonplacebook.com.

By choosing to merge my personal site into my blog, I had designed my website as a blog first and website second.

The emphasis of my old website always remained on my blog.

Lesson 2: The Power of URLs

About a year after I merged my websites, I recognized that my decision to fold my personal website (elizabethcovart.com) into my blog website (uncommonplacebook.com) had a major flaw: I had unintentionally made Uncommonplace Book my lead brand.

All websites have one main URL.

You can use different URLs to direct people to different pages on your website, but your website resides on one URL and that URL is the one that indexes with search engines.

The main URL for my old website was uncommonplacebook.com, not elizabethcovart.com.

As a writer, your lead brand should be the name you publish under. Your name makes it easy for potential readers and media outlets to find you.

By making uncommonplacebook.com my main URL, I likely confused people.

Anyone who used a search engine to find me by name found uncommonplacebook.com. Potential readers and media outlets had to navigate my website to find out who I was, what I write about, and whether they had found my website.

In our fast-paced, mobile world, you want to make it as easy and as fast as possible for people to find and recognize you and your content.

My new website uses elizabethcovart.com as its main URL and uncommonplacebook.com to point to my blog.

It also looks like a website.

My new website emphasizes Elizabeth M. Covart, Historian & Writer. Uncommonplace Book, Missing Advisor Consulting, and all of the other content on my site is secondary to me and my writing.

Reason 3: Responsive Design

Speaking of the fast-paced, mobile world we live in, did you know that 55% of American adults use a smartphone? Or that 42% of American adults surf the internet with a tablet device?*

My old website did not play nice with mobile devices.

I want my blog and published writing to succeed in our crowded, noisy social world. Therefore, I redesigned my blog with a "responsive design" WordPress theme.

Responsive design means my website will adapt to whatever device people use to browse the internet. My website will look great on a smartphone, tablet, laptop screen, monitor, or TV screen.

Conclusion

When you design your website make sure you design it as a website (not a blog), that you use your writer website URL as your main URL, and that you use a WordPress theme or website design platform that allows you to create a site that will adapt to any screen size.

Questions?

If you have a question about my website design or how I created any of the elements on my website, leave a comment, send an e-mail, or tweet me.

Did You Know?

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*Pew Research Internet Project, “Mobile Technology Fact Sheet,” December 27, 2013. http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/

3 Reasons Why You Need a Website & The Information You Should Include In It

If you work as a writer, you need a website. You need a website even if you are affiliated with a college or university.

Your website serves as the keystone of your writer platform: your personal ability to sell books, magazines, and newspapers through who you are, who you know, and your personal media outlets.

In this post, you will discover 3 reasons why you need a website & what information you should include in it.

3 Reasons Why You Need A Website

1. Google Search. We live in a search-engine filled world. Whenever we want to find information about a person, place, news, event, or task, we use a search engine to find it.

2. Your Online Hub. Your website serves as the keystone of your writer platform because it allows you to control your narrative and provides Google Search with a natural place to send people.

A website will allow you to share your full narrative with anyone who visits your site. You can broadcast only snippets of your story with social media.

Academic writers should develop an online hub that is separate from their department website.

Your page on the department website contributes to the narrative of the department, more than it showcases information about you and your work. Most importantly, most department websites make their faculty members look like institutional dullards.

Why not give your readers something more exciting to look at and read?

Create a website that expresses your expertise, publications, and personality. If you need inspiration see MarcusRediker.com and MeganMarshallAuthor.com.

3. A Place that Points to You. A website gives readers and fans a way to link to you whenever they write about you or cite your work.

Website Must Haves

1. Bio or About Me Page. This page should contain a picture of you and a couple of paragraphs that describe you and your work in a way that will resonate with your readers. Your photo should be professional looking, but it doesn’t have to be too formal.

2. Contact Information. Many writers opt to put this information on their about page, some include it on as many pages as possible.

Your contact information should include your e-mail address and social media handles. You can add your phone number and mailing address if you want to.

3. Writer Resume/CV. An easy way to keep this information up to date is to create a resume or CV through Google Drive and embed the link of your document in the appropriate page on your website. This trick will allow you to automagically update your web copy when you edit your electronic copy. For an example, see my CV page.

4. Writing Samples. If you are a freelance writer, you should include scanned examples of your printed work and links to your online publications.

5. Press Page/Media Kit. This page should list all of your upcoming and several of your past speaking engagements. You should also include information about your book, a brief bio, a professional-looking photo, testimonials, and the press release for your book. You might also bundle all of this information into a PDF file that people can download.

6. E-mail List Sign-Up. An e-mail list is one of the most important resources you can build.

Having 5,000 Twitter followers or Facebook fans is great, but Twitter and Facebook own your followers and fans, not you. Facebook has begun to charge fan-page owners to broadcast their message to their fans. Twitter may not be far behind.

If you build an e-mail list on your website, you will own the contact information for your subscribers. Ownership will allow you to interact with your fans and followers via e-mail any time you have important, helpful, or interesting news to convey to them.

7. Bonus Information. Bonus information should draw fans and readers to your website. It might include additional research or stories you couldn’t include in your book, cut scenes, illustrations of your characters, sneak peeks of your forthcoming book(s), videos about you, contests or giveaways that promote your work, or a blog that provides valuable content.

Bonus Tips: URLs

Ideally, your URL should be the name you (will) publish under.

If you have a common name like Robert Smith, add "writer," "author," or a middle initial to your name. You might also try an obvious nickname with "writer," "author," or a middle initial, i.e. www.bobsmithwriter.com.

Some authors buy URLs for their book titles.

You can use different URLs to point to different pages on your website. For example: elizabethcovart.com or lizcovart.com will take you to my "About" page, uncommonplacebook.com will take you to my blog.

You can search for and buy URLs from sites like NameCheap or GoDaddy. After you find, but before you purchase, your URL be sure to use Google Search to locate a coupon. Both sites regularly offer coupons that will save you money.

Concluding Remarks

I hope I have convinced you to create a website. If I haven’t, send me an e-mail, leave a comment, or tweet me and tell me why you are reluctant.

If I have convinced you, send me an e-mail, tweet, or leave a comment if you need help with content or ideas for how to build your website.

Good Luck!

Share Your Site

Do you have a writer website?

Share your link in the comments section so we can build a database of examples for our fellow writers and historians.

5 Steps for Marketing Your Academic Book, Guest Post by Michelle Marchetti Coughlin

Michelle Marchetti Coughlin is an independent scholar and the author of One Colonial Woman’s World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit (University of Massachusetts Press, 2012). Completing a book manuscript, and then gaining support for that manuscript from a university press editor, peer reviewers, and a faculty editorial board represents an enormous amount of work.

But having your manuscript accepted for publication by an academic press does not mean your efforts to make your work available to a wider audience are over.

In order to make your investment of time and energy truly pay off, you need to participate in the promotion of your book.

Many university presses have small publicity departments tasked with publicizing not only multiple new titles each year, but also backlists numbering in the hundreds.

As a result, the time, attention, and funds these departments are able to bestow on the promotion of a single book are often limited.

The good news is that there are 5 steps authors can take that may dramatically increase the reach of their work.

5 Steps for Marketing Your Academic Book

 1. Establish a Web Presence

An attractive, easily navigable website is an invaluable tool for the promotion of a book.

A website will not only expose your work to a much wider audience, but will provide potential readers with information on how to contact you and where to hear you speak.

Setting up a website can be expensive, but it is a highly worthwhile investment (and a service you might obtain at a discount from a talented college or graduate student).

 Tip: Be sure the pages on your site are encoded for Google Analytics so you can monitor your traffic, and take care to keep your information up to date.

2. Utilize Social Media

If possible, publicize news about your work and speaking engagements through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or a blog as an additional measure to help colleagues, friends, and others interested in your writing keep current with your activities.

3. Contact Print and Other Media

Although your publisher’s publicity department will notify appropriate media outlets about the release of your book (be sure to thoroughly fill out that marketing questionnaire!), you may want to personally contact your hometown media or alumni publications.

Try to arrange an interview with your local radio station or with “Fieldstone Common,” a weekly podcast that reaches an international group of history enthusiasts. These types of non-specialists are an important but sometimes overlooked audience for scholarly books.

4. Set Up Readings and Appearances

Arranging speaking engagements for authors is often outside the purview of university press publicity departments, but these events are necessary for promoting your work.

You should plan to contact libraries, museums, and other institutions offering programming in your field as well as historical, genealogical, and lineage societies to ask if you might present a lecture on the topic of your book.

Create a simple Power Point and make your presentation as interesting and approachable as possible to a general audience.

Try to avoid reading from your notes.

Make sure you have business cards on hand as well as books for sale, if this is appropriate.

Talks that are well received often lead to other opportunities and invitations to give additional lectures, not to mention productive relationships with host institutions.

Be sure to keep your press’s publicity department informed of your appearances (and any other professional developments) so they can broadcast this information on their own social media pages.

5. Maintain a List of Contacts

Create a file of contact information for individuals you’ve met through your speaking engagements and who’ve reached out to you through your website or social media pages.

Whenever possible, thank those who write favorably about your book in blogs or online reviews, such as Amazon or Good Reads.

The connections you make in the process of promoting your book can be wonderful resources that may also provide an audience for your next book.

Conclusion

The above are just a few suggestions for new authors (and do not include opportunities to network with colleagues or publicize one’s work in the academic arena, such as through conferences, panels, and journals).

For further information, you may want to consult William Germano’s chapter “Promoting Your Work” in [amazon_link id="0226288536" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books[/amazon_link] or any of the many other online and print resources available on this topic.

Best of luck!

What Do You Think?

Do you have any additional tips for marketing your academic book? 

For non-academic writers, do Michelle's tips differ for trade publishing?

4 Reasons Why Google+ is a Great Tool for Historians and Writers

Are you feeling overwhelmed by all of the different social media networks? Although you may belong to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pintrest, Four Square, and/or Instagram, I will give you 4 reasons why you should sign-up for one more: Google+.

Spoiler: Read to the end to learn about 2 new Google+ Communities for history, writing, and entrepreneurship.

What is Google+?

Google+ is more than just a social networking site. It is a communications platform and a forum for "passions."

4 Reasons Why Google+ is a Great Tool for Historians & Writers

Reason 1: Networking: Expand Your Connections & Your Reach

Facebook connects you with existing friends.

Google+ fosters the formation of new connections through shared interests and communications in the form of text-based chat, Hangouts, and Communities.

(More on these features below)

Reason 2: Circles: Every Communication and Person Has Their Place

Circles allow you to manage your relationships just as you would in real life, by placing people into different categories or circles.

With circles you have the ability to communicate with specific groups of people rather than everyone you follow; you can post an article about "Revolutionary News: 10 Breaking Stories" to your "history" & "writing" circles without communicating it to the people in your "friends" & "family" circles.

Reason 3: Hangouts: Face-to-Face Interaction

Hangouts allow you to interact face-to-face with other Google+ users. You can use hangouts for both personal and professional reasons.

Whether you want to host a virtual meeting with your writing coach, attend a web chat about how to apply for fellowships, catch up with friends and family, or discuss your passion for Elizabethan dress, hangouts will allow you to see and speak to people as long as your computer/smartphone/tablet has a webcam and a microphone. (The service is free.)

Reason 4: Communities: Places for Passion

Communities connect you with other people who share your passions. In a community, you can share useful articles, post interesting questions, give advice, and interact with other community members.

Communities are places for conversation.

Extending the Conversation with 2 New Google+ Communities

I am excited to announce the creation of "The Historian's Craft," a new Google+ community dedicated to the discussion of history, research, writing, and teaching.

"The Historian's Craft" community will allow us to supplement our discussions on Uncommonplace Book with extended conversations about how we work as historians. This Google+ forum will also enable us to vary our methods of communication: Community members can post helpful articles and videos, host discussions with traditional text-based comments, or participate in video chats via "Hangouts."

Additionally, my friend Jennifer Polk and I cofounded "PhD Business Owners, Entrepreneurs & Freelancers," a Google+ Community for PhD-holders who thought of "Plan B" as "Plan Business."

The "PhD Business Owners, Entrepreneurs & Freelancers" community is a forum to share resources and advice about starting, running, and growing our businesses. (I plan to launch Missing Advisor Consulting next month.)

Easy to Join

You can join these communities in 2 mouse clicks: First click on "The Historian's Craft" or "PhD Business Owners, Entrepreneurs & Freelancers." Second click on the "Join Community" button at the top of the Google+ Community page.

What Do You Think?

What is your preferred social network? What do you like about it & How do you use it?

Click to connect with me on Google+.

How to Twitter: History Hashtags

Twitter is a powerful social networking tool that allows users to spread information quickly and widely in succinct, 140 character conversations. I began using Twitter in late March after I took a "How to Twitter" course. That course inspired my 3-post series about how to use Twitter: Part 1: 4 Myths and Realities about Twitter, Part 2: 5 Reasons Why You Should Use Twitter, & Part 3: 5 Points to Consider Before Creating Your Twitter Identity.  

Hashtags: Use & History

When I first started tweeting, I found hashtags to be a bit overwhelming because of their sheer number. Hashtags denote the group or topic of a tweet. They came about in August 2007, when Chris Messina, aka @FactoryJoe, asked other Twitter users what they thought about using # (pound) to classify groups. (Interesting historical fact, Chris Messina and I were high school classmates.) Thus Twitter users started to use #hashtags at the end of their tweets to tell other users what the content is and who it is directed at.

Historians use hashtags to direct information to all historians via #Twitterstorians or #history or to historians who study a specific field, such as #AmRev for American Revolution or #EarlyAmHist for Early American History. Twitter users also use hashtags to follow specific conversations. For example, I follow the hashtags #Twitterstorians, #EarlyAmHist, #writers, #writing, #postac (post-academic), and #altac (alternative academic) in separate lists as far more people than I follow participate in these conversations.

History Hashtags

I started keeping a list of different history-related hashtags before tweeting and hashtags became second nature. This is by no means a complete list. Hashtags possess an organic-like nature in that people create new hashtags every day. Regardless, I feel that it is a good list and that it will help any historian or history enthusiast grasp the plethora of history-related conversations occurring on Twitter and locate conversations of interest to them.

I have created a new page on my site to host the History Hashtags list. You can access it anytime you like via this post or by clicking the page link located near the top of the right sidebar on my website. I included a Google form on the History Hashtags page with the hope that you will help me keep this list up-to-date. Through this form you can submit any new history-related hashtag that you come across or create for inclusion on the list.

What Do You Think?

What are your favorite history and non-history hashtags?

Are you on Twitter? Please send me a tweet and introduce yourself.