NAIWE Member Websites: How to Use Them Well

Your new NAIWE website can be a great resource for your readers and potential clients. On your site, we recommend including your professional profile, writing or editing credits and samples, testimonials, and ideally, blog posts. This information will allow readers and potential clients to get acquainted with your experience, writing style, and personality, which will help them decide whether your books and/or services are right for them.

Keep these ideas in mind as you work with your site:

• If you already have a website or blog, use your new NAIWE site to drive traffic to your site. (Read more in this blog post.)
• To attract the readers and clients that you enjoy working with, place enough information on the site so that visitors will feel as though they know, like, and can trust you.
• If you're a commercial writer or editor, write in your own professional voice, so readers can get a sense of your style.
• Write about things you care about, so that you'll attract projects that fit your expertise and interests.
• If you are a fiction writer, share snippets of works in progress and anecdotes about other books, as well as musings on the things that shape your writing.

Your site is the place where many people will first encounter you, and first impressions make a difference. Make sure that your NAIWE member site conveys the impression you want.

Practical Tips on Using NAIWE Member Sites

The business website is such an important key to success that it's our most popular benefit at NAIWE, and many of you are actively using and enjoying your sites. For those who are not technically inclined, I want to offer a brief overview of the two steps it takes to activate your site.

You can do this! Your site is now active and ready for you to use as you see fit. If you need ideas for what to write on your blog or website, you may want to browse around and see how other members are using their sites.

 

How to edit information in your website:
Log in to your blog dashboard and locate the menu at the left side of the page. Look under the "Pages" heading to find the "Edit" link. Click "Edit," and you'll see a list of pages. Each page of your website contains text that suggests how to use the page. Just select that text and replace it with your own.

To create a brand new page or post, just choose "Pages" or "Posts," and type your information directly into the space provided, using the editing tools provided. Pasting copy directly from Microsoft Word does not work well, due to hidden coding that's incompatible with the site. This usually results in text that runs together. If you want to cut and paste text, paste it first into a text editor such as TextPad, and save it as "plain text." This strips away the coding and makes it usable online.

You can learn more at this NewsWire blog post on the member sites.

 

Please ask for help if you need it!

One thing I want to emphasize is that everyone on our team is here to assist you and to answer questions. A few members have written to the webmaster with a question, and then written to me, expressing delight and appreciation for the quality of his assistance. We are very fortunate to have him, as he is not only an excellent programmer but also a superb communicator.

 

Q. Can I post photos on my site?

A. You may post as many photos as you like. Click on the small image symbol above the text area in your post, and a pop-up box will appear with a space for the photo URL. Paste in the image location and select the photo alignment that you prefer (I most often use "left" alignment, as text wraps nicely around it), and your image should show up perfectly.