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How Freelance Writers Can Market Their Own Site
Of keywords, writing
credits, pictures and more
How long has it been since you looked at your website? You do have a site
that promotes you as a writer and/or editor, don’t you?
If you don’t, see Do Writers Need Websites? and get
busy.
If, however, you’re like me, you have a site and tend to ignore it. Don’t.
Oh, you don’t need to look at it every day, but you do need to check it every
few weeks just to make sure it’s still there. Normally, if you pay your bills,
it will be, but once and a while something strange happens. I know of one writer
whose ISP disappeared without notice; she didn’t discover her site was missing
for months.
Websites that market you don’t need much maintenance, but they do need some.
I go through mine (www.annewayman.com)
every quarter or so.
Here’s what I look for:
- Have I added new samples of my writing – samples that show me off well?
- Do I need to remove anything?
- Does the navigation still work well, or could it be made even more simple
and obvious?
- What about my keywords? Search engines are always changing how they do
things and that may mean my keywords need revamping. And sometimes I add a
skill and need to add a keyword or two.
- Can I make my content more keyword rich without sacrificing the quality of
the writing? It seems every time I ask myself this question I do a better job.
My ISP gives me good statistics, so I check on the search strings there that
are getting me page views. Then I do some other searches on those terms and
see what my competition is doing and see who I can improve. I find the
Alexa.com tool bar, which gives rankings, also helpful
- I take advantage of the fact search engines read from left to right and
make sure graphics are not getting in their way.
- I make sure I submit or resubmit any page that changes and any page I add.
I also use www.selfpromotion.com,
which resubmits my site on a regular basis. (This is also an example of an
affiliate link - if you decide to use selfpromotion.com and use this link,
I'll get a tiny amount of money.)
It seems like every year or 18 months, I get tired of looking at my site and
redesign it. I do this myself in FrontPage. I don’t know if that’s needed, but
it keeps me happy.
I also ask every single client who come to me in any way how they found me. I
have gotten some great gigs from my website, making it all worthwhile.
Write well, and often.
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