What Should YOUR Online Presence Be?
Kind eReader,
I first found myself online in 1998, and in 1998 you didn’t have a whole lot of options. You could have a website…or, you could NOT have a website. Well, I had just opened my little publishing company and I had a couple of titles to sell, so I had to have a website.
In 2008, things are just a little bit different. You can have a website…or a blog…or a MySpace page… Well, before I launch into all the options, let’s just break it all down by what you like best to do. Who are you…and what should YOUR online presence be?
A reader: (Well, of course you’re a reader.) A good online presence might be hanging around Amazon. You can post comments on your favorite books, make book lists in Listmania, post to the forums, etc. Barnes and Noble’s website has similar features, a book club, and other similar ways to find a community of readers in the genres you enjoy.
An aspiring writer: You could sign up for www.thenextbigwriter.com, post your writing, join in the exchange of critiquing, and make friends with other writers. It’s a great way to find readers and practice your skills all at the same time.
A crafter/artist/artisan: Join www.etsy.com, the marketplace/community where you can sell your stuff, see what other artists are doing, be inspired and productive.
An expert on something: Create a mini-site on www.squidoo.com, where people turn their obsessions into information sources for others.
A lover of knowledge: Join www.wikipedia.org and add to their knowledge base…there are few things on the web more exciting than this ever-expanding, multilingual, world-wide knowledge base on steroids.
An extrovert, talker, or philosophizer: Have a blog. I recommend www.blogger.com. Think you don’t have anything important to say but feel like blogging anyway? Go for it.
A magazine publisher wannabe: Most of us who have newsletters do it out of a sense of duty or need for PR, but if you’re the kind who designed a personal newspaper and mimeographed it when you were little (I’m dating myself, geez), I recommend www.constantcontact.com for a good, inexpensive mass emailing tool.
20-something: MySpace or Facebook? Hey, I’m 50-something, I don’t really get either one. LOL
An aspiring filmmaker: www.youtube.com of course. 2007 was the year I ventured into making video clips and not just viewing them, and it was actually fun. Check out my book trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wth76OuyeFU) and/or the movie of my cat in Christmas antlers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7DKvtT_NZk).
A cook: Join the community at www.epicurious.com. Post recipes, meet other cooks that favor your speciality, chat, and try out recipes and critique them. Good and good for you.
Cripes, it seems nowadays there are as many ways to put yourself out on the internet as their were websites in 1998. But you know what? After all this time, my personal favorite manner to be online is still the same: the good, old-fashioned website. You don’t have to fit yourself to anyone’s template, do it their way, or limit yourself to their tools.
My first site, www.livingbeyondreality.com, is still alive and kicking after a decade and about six facelifts. It was created to sell a couple books, evolved into an ezine of NHL hockey humor called “Hockey Snacks,” hosted a regular feature on celebrities and Jungian psychology called “Archetypecasting,” promoted my husband’s business, Personal Slave Cleaning Service, has for ten years included a complete biography of hockey hero Guy Carbonneau (now at 300 pages and 341 photos), and now features one of the most popular sources of free spicy romance stories on the web (the LBR Press READ FREE Project).
And, believe it or not, that site STILL sells my books. So I guess it has worked for me.
As for you…well, I’m guessing you’ve already discovered a bunch of exciting ways to make your own presence known on the World Wide Web. Hope to bump into you out there in 2008!
eRead on,
Diana
Diana Laurence is the author of the Soulful Sex anthologies of erotic romance fiction, and released her latest book “Bloodchained” in September 2007 (www.bloodchained.com). Diana’s works are published by Living Beyond Reality Press (www.livingbeyondreality.com). Visit her at www.dianalaurence.com or enjoy her blog at www.eroticawithsoul.blogspot.com.
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