Seriously, coming up with things for it is a pain in the rear. But, we are in the 21st century and as romance writers a huge chunk of our target audience is 25-45 years of age. As someone with nieces close to this range, I will tell you a few things about them. They don’t remember life without cable, DVDs, cell phones or the Internet. And they want it NOW. They don’t want to wait until the stores open, if they get the urge to look up info on the author, they want it immediately. If you want to reach that target audience, especially in the coming years, you have to have a decent website.

What should you do? Well, for me it was to hire a kick butt webdesigner. Mainly because, I have major problems with anything electronic in nature. And I don’t have the time for website maintenance. It takes a lot and at this point I would rather have Leslie handle it than screw it up myself. I screwed up a Tripod site, and that is really hard to do. Here are some pointers when thinking about your site design.

*First off, even if you haven’t finished your first book, get your domain name registered. I did not do this and now I must have authormelissaschroeder, instead of Melissa Schroeder.

*When you are ready to do your site, look around at other authors in the same genre, see what they are doing. It will give you an idea of what readers might be looking for on a site, but also give you ideas for different things. You want your site to stand out, be a reflection of you.

*Remember that last sentence, a reflection of you and also, your writing. Or I guess I should say, your persona. If you want your readers to know you are a Monty Python fan, you have links to those things. If you are a cat lover, or an Anglophile, include those links. And always include things that make people go to your site. I have a blog, and it includes half naked men(did I mention I write erotic romance?) so people will go to it to see my men.

*DON’T HAVE ADS. Domain names are as cheap as $3.95 a year. There is no earthly reason to have ads. And what are those ads? I was on one author’s site and it was advertising Nora Roberts’ books! I love Nora, still upset there aren’t going to be any more MacGregors, but I do not want to advertise for her on my site. And I really don’t want to compete against her on my site either. I have a feeling I know who would win.

*If you hire someone to do your website, ask about updates before you sign on. My poor website designer, Leslie King, is always doing updates. I had 14 releases in one year, so she tends to have to update all the time. I pay a reasonable fee, and I still don’t think it is enough. She assures me it is. But, many places will charge an arm and a leg. And make sure they will do an original design. Many of the big conglomerate places that have tons of writers on them, don’t do much in the way of design. If you find someone’s site  you like, email the author and ask her opinion.

*When you are designing it, keep in mind that you want it to jump out at the reader. A site that has a bunch of junk on it, or that is done in sedate colors is probably not going to interest people. Also, music, flashing cursors and all of that are a pain for people. Especially the music. People on dial up do not have the pleasure of fast downloads. Also, think about it, if they are going to go visit the site at work, all they need is loud, romantic music blaring from their speakers. You want to entice them, not scare them off.

*UPDATE IT. Once you get it, update that sucker. Nothing like going to an author’s website and seeing things that are three years old.