Webby Tips for Writers #20: Clean Up Your Online Presence

Posted by bridgid on | October 20, 2010 | 1 Comment |

This month we’re celebrating you, our fearless readers, by offering 30 days of reading, writing and networking tips. On October 31st we’ll conclude the festivities by giving one lucky reader a copy of the 2011 Writer’s Market book and a seriously amazing goodie bag. Learn how to enter here.

Tip#20: Clean Up Your Online Presence

Your online presence, or online identity, is the foundation for your platform. A clean online identity communicates your professionalism, style and personality to agents, editors, other writers and potential clients. It can help or hinder your success on the path to publication.

Keeping your online identity clean and professional doesn’t require an advanced degree in marketing. It does require the same care and deliberation you would take to prepare for an interview or a first day at a job.

Let’s start with the basics.

What is your online identity?

Jane Friedman is the blogger behind the Writer’s Digest There Are No Rules blog and an e-media assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati. As a social media maven and experienced editor, Jane offers a unique perspective on the changes in the publishing industry.

Here are Jane’s basic online requirements for aspiring writers:

1. Try to buy a domain name that’s a close match to your name (www.yourname.com). You don’t need to build or create a Web site right away, but reserve that real estate for when you do need it. It’s inexpensive and easy to do.
2. If you don’t yet have a use for a personal Web site (www.yourname.com), establish a modest profile or blog through a site like Facebook, WordPress, Blogger—something clean and easy to use. This profile/blog/page can serve as either a public or private place for you to get comfortable interacting in an online community if you’re new to it.
3. For unpublished writers who are already comfortable in online environments/communities, think about what your unique identity is or could be in an online environment, and how can you begin to position yourself and your work. Become known to your target audience if possible by participating in blogs, online communities, groups, etc.

Read Jane’s full post here.

How do you clean up your online identity?

Clean up your online identity by using a polished approach in all of your online efforts. Act as though your online presence is the version of you that gets dressed to leave the house (not the version that works in your pajamas).

Here are my suggestions for getting started:

• Choose an avatar that represents your online identity. Your avatar is the image associated with your online activity. It is your “bio” photo for sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogger and WordPress.
  • I do not recommend using a book cover or image. Your networking efforts will be more successful if people have a face to associate with your feeds and posts.
  • If you can, get a professional photo taken. Craigslist is a great place to look for photographers who are building their portfolios — and who usually offer discounted rates.
  • If you don’t have the budget for a professional photo, recruit a friend or family member. (If they have an SLR camera, even better!) Aim for flattering lighting, dress appropriately (for your genre/style/etc.) and keep it real — no feather boas if that’s not what you (or your readers) are used to.
  • Keep a consistent presence by making sure each site you use has the same photo or image. Gravatar makes this easy with their globally recognized avatars.
• Make sure your online shingle is easy to read and attractive.
  • Keep your site clean and minimal. It will help draw the focus of your readers to what matters most–the content. Look at your website and blog and evaluate each element. How necessary is it? Does it help or hinder your online identity?
  • Use a white or light-colored background. Black and dark backgrounds are great…for photographers and other visual artists. As a writer, your goal is to get people to read your content. Make this as easy as possible for your readers with a white background and readable fonts.
• Maintain your professionalism at all times.
  • Keep it clean…literally. Everything you send into the wilds of the Internet is searchable by future editors, agents and clients. Make sure your online shingle–everything from your Tweets to the bio on your blog–is squeaky-clean.
  • Even cranky people need to be professional. If part of your schtick is to insult the gatekeepers or to be a modern-day curmudgeon, then I encourage you to interpret “squeaky-clean” as you will. With that said, even curmudgeons need paychecks to survive. Make sure to act with deliberation, you don’t want your schtick to hurt the success of your writing efforts.

These are just a few suggestions to get you started. Do you have any clean up tips you would like to add?

If you’d like to learn more about online presence, I recommend the following resources:

• Author Websites, by agent Nathan Bransford
• What Every Website Needs, by author Annette Fix
• The Essential Elements of a Writer’s Online Presence, by Jane Freidman (source of quote in post)
• How Essential is an Online Presence to a Writer’s Career?, by author Jody Hedlund

To balance out all of this talk about online identity and networking, I’ll leave you with this quote from agent Steven Malk:

Certainly, it can be a bonus if an author has a big presence online, and I do think it’s important for writers and illustrators to have a professional looking site that’s clear, easy to navigate and gets their personality across in some way, but, ultimately, I’m most interested in a writer’s work, so their online platform isn’t really going to sway my decision one way or the other.

~Steven Malk on WriteOnCon.com

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