Professional Writers have a Webpage- That's a Fact - Page 2 - Writers Forum

QuothTheRaven · 03-15-2007, 11:03 PM

Well... Seeing as I work in the webhosting and design industry, I think I have a little bit of clout on the issue.

My company charges about $250 to design an average site--which is all a writer would really need--and a very small hosting fee per month. Now, if $20 a year is ALL that you charge, then you are in fact charging quite a bit less than a webhosting and design company would charge.

However, you're promoting this as something to make a writer appear more professional, and that's where I have a problem. At just $20 a year, I'm assuming that the most you do is a assemble a simple site, probably using PHP forms or something (I'm not a designer, so I wouldn't know)--I'm guessing a client fills out a form and a page is generated. Template sites never look good and it's quite easy to tell when a site was built on a template. Furthermore, as someone already mentioned, having a subdomain--especially with a kind of silly, long and obvious domain name, doesn't look professional. You chose your domain very poorly--awriterslife4me... or is that awriterslifeforme? It would be confusing and annoying, and as I said--it's far too long. Take my advice here--your domain name is VERY important, especially when you're starting a business. We literally spend DAYS trying to come up with a good name when we start a new site as one of our company's projects.

Basically, this is a pretty poor idea, it won't serve the function that you claim it will serve.

I'm not here to advertise my company, so I'm not going to mention it, but I'd be happy to tell people if you are interested, or you don't believe that I really work in the industry.

Anarkos · 03-16-2007, 07:40 AM

So, I have to pay for a website that will get less traffic, is less easily updated and edited, looks shoddier, doesn't the have inbuilt promotional capacity of, and has a longer and more stupid URL than a free blog site, such as MySpace?

And, yeah, you have, what, three writers on your site? And you had to list them with large ugly alphabeticisation too, yeah?

Let's see:

Quote:

Robyn is a wife and mother of two young girls. Her hobbies include novel writing, genealogical research, website design and management, acting and singing.

Her hobbies include novel writing? Well, what has she written then? Is it published? No? Hmmm....website design? So why doesn't she design herself a website?

Now, if I search on Google for her name, I get three hits. Her website with you is not one of them.

And, then, looking further...Lisa Laprade. Oh, how interesting: "Co-founder of http://www.writerslife4me.com" Now, aside from the fact that she got the URL wrong and linked to a site that does not exist, we can see that one of the three customers is in fact a co-founder.

So, that's two customers and two co-founders. One each, huh? Or is your other co-founder also up on your site?

Also, http://www.retail-jewelry.com/ does not exist.

Chef Dennis...I'm not even going to comment on.

I am not a professional writer by any means. I am a student. However, my academic writing has directly earned me $400 in prizes and awards (and one glowing mousepad), and indirectly helped pull in some $13,000 in scholarships, excluding direct fee payments from scholarships. Now, I'd wager that even if I only included direct earnings, and even if I excluded the mousepad, I have earned more than any one or indeed all of your 'clients'.

I suggest you change your line of business.

QuothTheRaven · 03-16-2007, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anarkos

However, my academic writing has directly earned me $400 in prizes and awards (and one glowing mousepad), and indirectly helped pull in some $13,000 in scholarships, excluding direct fee payments from scholarships.

The mousepad impresses me!

As far as the 'customers' every company has to fudge things a bit when starting out to make it look like a real company; though a smart person would simply not provide a list of their customers if they have none (or maybe 1). Ultimately I completely agree with your last sentence.

I feel sorry for them that they've put time, effort and money into starting this business, but they should have thought about it some more and realized that their service will do nothing--no one needs that kind of thing.

God dammit, I'm REALLY hungry!

Mike C · 03-17-2007, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuothTheRaven

...every company has to fudge things a bit when starting out to make it look like a real company; though a smart person would simply not provide a list of their customers if they have none

A smart person would have given away the first 50 slots for free, for the first year.

Quote:

I feel sorry for them that they've put time, effort and money into starting this business,

No money, by the looks of it, aside from some hosting. I don't feel sorry. Badly planned and ill conceived businesses deserve to fail, particularly ones aimed at writers that cannot deliver what's being promised.

QuothTheRaven · 03-17-2007, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike C

A smart person would have given away the first 50 slots for free, for the first year. No money, by the looks of it, aside from some hosting. I don't feel sorry. Badly planned and ill conceived businesses deserve to fail, particularly ones aimed at writers that cannot deliver what's being promised.

Trust me, it always sucks to launch a project only to have it fail or realize that it's not going to work. Even if they didn't put much money into it, someone spent time planning and building the site. If they have an automated system that creates their site, someone had to code that, and they may have paid someone to do it.

Bla bla. I feel sorry for them, you don't. Let have a big fight over it. ;P

Mike C · 03-17-2007, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuothTheRaven

Let have a big fight over it. ;P

Step outside, sonny!

But seriously, I agree that it's a bummer to have a project fail (I've had my share of successes and failures; mostly the former, luckily) but it's the badly planned projects that tend to go under. My dog could've predicted this project would fail, therefore I have little sympathy.

And if they paid anything for the development of the site, they and the developer both need shooting.

QuothTheRaven · 03-17-2007, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike C

And if they paid anything for the development of the site, they and the developer both need shooting.

A developer does what he or she is paid to do. The developer isn't there to tell you if you're making a bad business decision.

Selorian · 03-17-2007, 07:43 PM

True, but the site isn't exactly stellar material in and of itself.

Anarkos · 03-18-2007, 03:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuothTheRaven

I feel sorry for them that they've put time, effort and money into starting this business, but they should have thought about it some more and realized that their service will do nothing--no one needs that kind of thing.

I would probably feel a little more sorry for them if there was evidence of time, effort or thought being put into the concept. Alas, there is not.

Mike C · 03-18-2007, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by QuothTheRaven

A developer does what he or she is paid to do. The developer isn't there to tell you if you're making a bad business decision.

Obviously depends on the developer - I would certainly tell my client if I thought they were heading for a fall - and anyway if you look at the site info, one of them IS a web designer - it's a home brew site, and their only loss is time.

L00kbackinanger · 04-02-2007, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anarkos

Now, I'd wager that even if I only included direct earnings, and even if I excluded the mousepad, I have earned more than any one or indeed all of your 'clients'.

I suggest you change your line of business.

Your coming over a bit like a dickhead here matey.

Anarkos · 04-04-2007, 02:44 AM

Yes, but I do have a glowing mousepad.

Stewart · 04-04-2007, 06:46 AM

Just coming to this thread now and it's not just the poor site design that lets the site down. Nor is it the shoddy graphics or the inconsistent page widths as you navigate through it. It's not the fact that it's an obvious template that's been fiddled about with in some WYSIWYG software and it's not that the whole thing looks like a throwback to the late 90s with its unnecessary use of shit like JavaScript clocks and weather forecast widgets. It's not even that they are doing their market research after starting their doomed project. What ultimately lets the site down is, considering it's aimed at writers, the fact that whoever has been putting copy on the site has no grasp of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. (Although it is actually all those other things I mentioned too.)

QuothTheRaven · 04-04-2007, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stewart

Just coming to this thread now and it's not just the poor site design that lets the site down. Nor is it the shoddy graphics or the inconsistent page widths as you navigate through it. It's not the fact that it's an obvious template that's been fiddled about with in some WYSIWYG software and it's not that the whole thing looks like a throwback to the late 90s with its unnecessary use of shit like JavaScript clocks and weather forecast widgets. It's not even that they are doing their market research after starting their doomed project. What ultimately lets the site down is, considering it's aimed at writers, the fact that whoever has been putting copy on the site has no grasp of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. (Although it is actually all those other things I mentioned too.)

How could you betray me? I thought it wasn't all of those other things, and then in the end you let me down. I'm so ashamed to have ever called you my brother.

Midknight · 04-06-2007, 01:02 PM

I am a software developer / web developer full time. I'm working on making writing my full-time profession.

As for the original post, avoid this shit like the plague.

You wanna website? Find a web host that suits you for a good price. Sign up and get your webpage. Don't know how to program? A good web host has an easy to use interface that will make putting your website together as easy as posting a message to a forum.

Besides, if you're a writer, and you want a webpage, just be minimalist. Use a clean, easy to read font, an all white page, and let your work be the shining example of your prowess.

That way you'll have www.AuthorName.com or whatever instead of some some crappy directory site which the original poster is trying to con you into paying for.

So again, avoid that original post like a plague and walk your own web path...