So you have a website, it's uploaded for all to see, and you're done, right?
Wrong. Or mostly wrong. You could, theoretically, leave the site alone and never update it. If you do that, it will likely die a slow death and/or be of little use promotionally to you or your writing career. Because honestly, once you've seen everything on a site, why return to it?
That's where website updates and maintenance comes in. Basically, these can be divided into two main categories: administrative and content.
Administrative maintenance usually covers making sure all of your links are current and working, your images are all showing up, you have the latest versions of whatever internet technology you're using. These tasks can be time consuming--more so than even writing a new article for your site or adding a book excerpt. But who wants to look at a big red X (or whatever symbol your browser replaces a broken image link with) on the screen instead of your gorgeous book cover?
Content updates can be as simple as adding your latest book (image and description), freshening up your home page text, or updating your blog. The catch is, if you don't do the updates readers/visitors will stop browsing your site and all your hard work will go down the drain.
Now, I'm not saying you should do maintenance and updates daily (though you might consider blogging daily or at least every other day to keep readers interested). But you should consider working on your site at least once or twice a month to keep it fresh.
It's also important to keep in mind that updating can be time consuming. Like Terescia said when she covered hosting, after you upload to the web it is inevitable that something will be wrong and you'll have to allot time to fix any problems that arise.
Personal note here: always remember to start troubleshooting with the simplest problem first. For instance, if your image isn't showing up check to see that you've uploaded the image. If that isn't it, check the image link to makes sure it's correct. Most mistakes of this nature are simple typing/coding errors.
At this point, if you're finding it all overwhelming and/or maybe a bit too time consuming, you might want to consider having someone else take over these tasks for you. There are a number of website companies out there who handle this type of service (though you want to be clear on the front end that they'll work with you if you already have the website functional).
Remember, like with hosting services, use good business sense and ask about costs, etc. You should find that most will offer monthly maintenance agreements that can save you money over paying someone on an hourly rate. Of course, cost is relative depending on the number of updates you're interested in. If you decide to only update once every six (6) months, paying someone hourly might be more cost effective.
Still not ready to build your own site? Want us to do it for you? Request an estimate. Or go back to the articles index.
This article was written in conjunction with a free workshop given in the WeWriteRomance.com forums.