Market My Novel

 Just ten years after Yahoo! purchased the free Web hosting site GeoCities for just under $5 billion, the site is schedule to close.

GeoCities was a great idea that became outdated with the introduction of social networking and low-cost hosting options for REAL Web sites minus the tacky ads (and with better SEO). They were also ugly to look at and didn't have a customized domain option.

I remember having a GeoCities account a LONG time ago. It was affordable and I wanted to just check it out for my own information. It didn't have a lot of layout options, and I hated the ads. Eventually, I took it down, because it wasn't worth the time or effort, and was simply too unprofessional for my taste. Plus, I could never remember the address.

My thought on GeoCities and similar services – then and now? You get what you pay for.

One of my pet peeves is authors who refuse to spend even a few hundred
dollars on Web site creation. They see the overall cost, get sticker
shock and move on, not realizing that they easily spend that much (or more)
in the course of a year in postage for manuscripts that may or may not
make the cut. Or on "reference" books for writing. Or on conference and hotel fees.

The GeoCities demise should be a wake up call to anyone using a free hosting site like Tripod, Angelfire and Webs. At any moment, the plug could be pulled from these sites, and you will be SOL until you pay up for a site. Trust me: You do NOT want to be caught unawares and have to scramble to pull together a great Web site. It takes a lot of time and effort to pull together a great site – even if you simply buy a template, fill in the blanks and post to a hosting service.

These free sites might be OK for a 10-year old to mess around with, but they are NOT appropriate for an author to build a fan base in today's market. If you want to be taken seriously by fans, editors and publisher, you need to treat your writing like a business. With online marketing a strategic component of any author business campaign, you must have a great Web site to compete.

Let's put this in writing terms: You would not send out a query with massive spelling errors, grammatical missteps or with "To Whom It May Concern." It is too unprofessional. So, in this 21st century uber-plugged in world, would you want a Web site with an unprofessional look and feel?

You don't have to spend big bucks to have a great Web site. Buy a template. Use a blog program like Typepad or WordPress and get someone to create a unique design just for you. These are great, low-cost options to get you started. When you have the money saved, contact a Web designer that specifically works with authors to create a dynamic site that you can build upon.

Read the full – and somewhat cheeky – PC World story about the GeoCities demise.