CREATING A JOINT WEBSITE

The article below is written by Idaho author Carol Peterson and used with permission:

Writers are regularly assaulted with the marketing advice that we must have an online presence. It is great advice.

Many writers however, tremble when facing the technology learning curve and don’t even know how to start. Other writers don’t have the couple hundred dollars each year to maintain a website or are overwhelmed with the work involved in providing continuously new and fresh content.

Even blogsites, most of which are free, have many of the same concerns for writers—the technology, the lack of direction, the work commitment.

Consider then a joint website. A joint website is nothing more than gathering like-minded writers together and forming an online presence.

Such an endeavor is not new. Writers often join together to share the work and expense as well as to encourage each other and build up their platform base. Writers might join together based on the genre they write, the location they live in, or just because they work well together.

Even if some or all of the writers in the group are still unpublished, having an online presence can help them become established online and build up a fan base and platform for when they become published. Having an online presence also provides a place to send agents and editors when pursuing traditional publishing.

A simple way to structure a joint website would be:

• The website could have an active, changing home page. Each person could commit to writing a periodic post so there is always new and fresh content.
• Create a separate web page for each person. There each person could write a bio, what they write and for whom and what books or other work they have published or are working on.
• You might have a separate web page to list all of the books written by all of the members. The books could be listed alphabetically by title or listed by genre so it is less obvious if one person has written 50 books and the rest have only written one. Of course, make sure each book title has a link to purchase that book either online or directly from the author.
• You might have an additional page of special posts or information or FAQs about the overall theme or purpose of the website. For example, if the website is dedicated to helping other writers, you might post individual articles about various writing tools or aspects of the craft of writing. If the purpose of your website is to encourage busy mothers, you might have a page dedicated to simple, healthy recipes kids love.
• Elect a single person who will maintain the website to avoid having members add content willy-nilly. Set up guidelines folks will abide by, such as allowing new content only once a month or quarterly so as to not overload the website manager, or create a word limit per post.

Of course, encourage each member to invite their own friends, family members, and readers to visit and subscribe to the site.

You may not think you are ready for your own website either because you are just beginning your writing career, don’t yet have a book in print or can’t afford the cost. Creating a joint website might be a wonderful option for you. Not only does it provide you with a low-cost online presence, the group can create a richer website more quickly with each member providing content at the start.

Stay encouraged!

Carol Peterson

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The content for this article was part of a workshop presented at the 2018 Idaho Creative Author Network (ICAN) Author’s Fest. For more information about how writers can market together, please check out Working Together; Achieving Success: Critiquing, Marketing, Masterminds available on Amazon.