KEEP IT SIMPLE

a good website is functional

Information should be easy, easy, easy to find on your site! The site should be as uncluttered and easy to navigate as possible. That means:

• Use pictures of your book covers as links to the pages that relate to them (be sure to use alt text for pix!)
• No flash animation or music unless you have to click to get it to play (nothing should play automatically)
• No endless lists of links (if you want to have a lot of links, consider a separate page of "links of interest", but don't have them on your main page)
• No ads (which probably means you’ll have to pay for a site)
• No politics unless they are integral to your writing
• Keep website to a maximum of three levels “deep” (people will only click through so many times to find the info they want)
• Be sure any offsite links open in new windows
• Consider a "search this site" feature. You can add "Google Search" to any site.

 

At this point in the presentation, we discussed several examples that I won't list here because websites are constantly changing. What was non-functional last week could be totally revamped this week.

1. Home
2. Before the Contract
3. After The Contract
4. K.I.S.S.
5. Resources
6. Don't Forget