Keith D. Holler - The Official Website

by Keith D. Holler

After spending twenty years as a Network Engineer and freelance Web Designer, I decided to make a life change and pursue my first love... writing. No matter how hard I try though, I just can't seem to leave the geek behind.

I have seen thousands upon thousands of author web sites. Most are quite excellent and informative. However, some of them are either too simple or too complex. Some offer little or no quality content and seem to feed nothing but the author's ego. Some have so much content and lack organization that it overwhelms the visitor. Some have fancy graphics and Flash animations to the point of driving AOL and other dial-up internet account users to suicide; waiting up to 3 minutes for the site to load.

In this article, I hope to shed some light on some little known facts that your web designer doesn't want you to hear. After all, the more time s/he spends on those Flash animations and that cutsey little graphic menu, the more money s/he can soak from your wallet.

Should you register your name as a domain?

If you are going to have a web site, it is more professional to use a top level domain; and what better name than your own (e.g. KeithHoller.com or KeithDHoller.com). It helps build name recognition for your writing and is another way to get your name out there.

It also prevents unscrupulous people from registering your name and using it for other purposes that you may not approve of. The first thing you should do is register your name as a domain before anything else; even if you aren't going to have a web site. You might become quite upset when you become a bestselling author and people find a pornography site attached to your name while researching you on the Internet.

Should you have a web site?

The answer to this question is a resounding YES! Never before has there been a medium like the Internet. The opportunities it has created are unending. It has brought the world closer together and created ways for people to share information like never before. You can create relationships with people in all walks of life and in any country that would never have been possible before. This includes your readers, agents, publishers, and fellow writers.

Do you design your own web site or hire a web designer?

Designing a web site is not as difficult as it once was. Elaborate and expensive programs that are hard to master (e.g. Dreamweaver or FrontPage) are no longer required. Some people actually design their web sites using Notepad or Wordpad built into Windows. Although not recommended, you could even design your entire site in Microsoft Word or Publisher and export it into a web page that is ready to upload to your web host. Or you could use a content management system that most web hosts provide free with your account. For example, KeithHoller.com uses phpWebSite (http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu). It gives you a basic full feature site that you add or modify your content from any computer with a web browser. You install it with one click and you're ready to go. Changing your site's appearance can be as simple as choosing a theme from a list; just like when you change your theme in Windows.

Let's look at some Pros of designing your own web site:

Economics - Having a decent web site commercially designed can run anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 depending on the complexity. Designing it yourself will save you the expense.
Control - By designing your own web site, you maintain absolute total control over it and the content. You are not at the whim of another person's creative muse or their vision of what your site should be.

Now for some Cons:

Takes Time - Designing your site will take time away from your writing. However, as in any business, you have to delegate your time to several activities such as marketing, bookkeeping, submissions, etc. Your web site is just another facet of your writing business.
Requires Some New Skills - You will need to know at least some HTML. Although not difficult to learn, this too will take some time. I recommend the tutorial available at http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp.

I highly recommend that you design the site yourself. However, if you have decided to hire a web designer, please take these thoughts into consideration:

Most web designers are honest but there are some hacks out there that will require the money upfront and not deliver on the goods. They are also notorious for dragging out the design over months and years. You want your site within a reasonable time frame, not a year from now.
People that do web design as their core business tend to pad the price. I know from experience that web design contracts tend to be feast or famine. I could have 8 projects in the works in February and then nothing for up to 6 months. I relied on network engineering and network installation to carry me through. If web design is all they do, they may pad the price of contracts to feed them during the lean periods. Find a designer that does not limit his work to only web design.
Read the fine print of the contract and definitely consult an attorney before signing. You don't want the web designer retaining ownership rights to your content; especially your writing!

What should be on your web site?

You can literally put anything you want on your web site. Here is a list of things that definitely should appear:

Clips of previously published works. It is so much easier for an agent or publisher to visit your site and view samples of your work.
Although it increases the time you spend maintaining your site, a Bulletin Board (Forums) is a wonderful addition. It gives visitors a place to comment or sing your praises. However, it also gives them a place to bash and criticize you.
A means for them to contact you (preferrably without disclosing your e-mail address).
Teasers for upcoming releases.
A bio page giving all of the cool little details about you.
A calendar showing personal appearances you will be making at writer's conferences, book fairs, book store signings, writer's workshops, etc.

What should NOT be on your web site?

Advertising

Although you can put just about anything you can imagine on your web site, there are things that just don't belong. A general rule of thumb is not to include anything that is not related to you and writing. An example is affiliate programs. Sure they can bring you a small income, but advertising diet pills or viagra on your site would be out of place. Another example is banner ads. Face it, they are extremely annoying, take up space, and draw visitors away from your site. It is your site representing your writing. It should showcase you; not a pottery shop in Brazil or a goat cheese maker in Moscow. Again, if it doesn't directly relate to you or writing, it doesn't belong on your site.

Eye & Ear Candy

Having a site that looks more like a new video game on an XBOX is a wonder to behold. However, all of the Flash animations, extensive buttons and graphics, and rowdy music from the latest headbanger band will do nothing but increase the amount of time it takes for your site to load. You must keep in mind that even though high speed Internet connections have become cheap and widely available, there are millions of people out there that still use dial-up. The average attention span of a web visitor is 7 seconds. Look at your own browsing habits and you will find this to be true. If they haven't found what they are looking for, or something that catches their eye within that time frame, they are gone. They will not wait for a massive page to load no matter how pretty it is. Keep the graphics to a minimum and keep the dial-up visitors in mind through out every aspect of your web design.

Also keep display proportions in mind. If your page is designed for 1024x800 resolution only, a lot of your site will not be viewed by visitors still using 640x480 or 800x600 without scrolling sideways.

A Word On Hosting

Once you have your web site ready to go, you need a place for it to live out on the Internet. These are called web servers and the companies that run them are called web hosts. When searching for a web host, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Are the servers in a data center with enough connection speed to display your site to visitors quickly or are they run by a 12 year old out of his parent's basement over a DSL or cable connection?
Does the web host have a long track record? Are they going to go out of business a week after you bring your site online?
What about uptime? Does the servers spend more time offline for repairs or maintenance than they do online serving pages?

Researching web hosts is as important as researching web designers. The extra time you spend being thorough will prevent trouble down the road.

A Word On Search Engines

So you have your web site ready to go. All of the design work is done and it is a masterpiece to behold. What now? You need people to visit your site. Onto the scene comes search engines like Google.com and Yahoo.com.

The major search engines monitor for new domain registrations and start visiting them using programs called crawlers almost immediately. The crawlers catalogue every word and link on every page. You are then added to their database by keywords and phrases. Usually you end up at the bottom of page 2,500 during a search by a user where they will most likely never see your listing. Placement is based on ranking and there are only 2 ways to move up in the search results.

You can pay companies like Overture.com and bid on the 5 (or 6 depending on the search engine) sponsored spots that appear at the top of every search result page for your keywords or phrases. Although you can pay the individual search engines for premium listing directly, I mention Overture because it has contracts with all of the big search engines. Using their service puts you on all of them rather than just the individual one you paid directly. However, it can get costly. You bid on the amount you pay per click for positions against other people and companies. It can spawn bidding wars that drives the cost up drastically. But if you want premium placement and maximum exposure quickly, this is the way to go.

The other option is free and is based on link popularity. When a search engine visits and catalogues sites, it records links to other sites. The more sites that link back to you, the higher your popularity. The higher your popularity, the further up in the result pages you move. It can take months or even years to move up in the search results. But if you don't mind waiting and going through the work of tracking down and contacting other webmasters to get your link on their page, this is the way to go. After all, you can't beat free. Be advised though, the other webmasters will most likely want a reciprocal link to their site on yours. You will need a links page on your site.

In Closing

I hope this article has shed some light on the ins and outs of having your own web site. Experience is the best teacher and hopefully I have prevented you from making some of the same mistakes I made so many years ago. If you have questions not covered in this article, feel free to visit my site at KeithHoller.com and shoot me an e-mail using the "Contact Keith" menu option. I am more than happy to help in any way I can.