Introduction

But you might be thinking ‘website’ means a blog, a store, a calendar of all the events you’re attending… It can be all of those things, and more - but it absolutely does not have to be.

If you’re just starting out, it’s a billboard. A place to say ‘Here I am, and here’s what I do’.

Yes, you can do all of that with a Linktree page, or a Twitter/X profile, or Facebook… But a website is yours. Whatever your views on social media (or the people who own the platforms), there will come a day when you’re no longer using one or more of them any more. Remember all those bands saying ‘check out our MySpace page’? No? Then you’re probably a lot younger than me.

But imagine this - your books come out with links in the back to follow you on some wonderful new social media platform… which dies within the year. Now you’ve got people either looking for you on a dead site or unable to find you at all. Or you point people to Amazon to buy the next book in the series, but eventually prefer people to buy the books elsewhere.

Your website is yours. That address (assuming you keep renewing it) will always work, always be up to date, and can send people off to whatever other platform you frequent.

But we need to start small. Stake that claim, reserve your little corner, and make it start working for you.