Gee, you could have received some good work proposals already, or have some contracts on the horizon.



The topic to address now is how important it is for a writer's website to be updated regularly.

Let's first clarify the word 'regularly' - this does not mean everyday! Unless you've been writing full time for the past ten years, you won't have enough quality material to keep your website updated with fresh content so often.

Instead, try to update your website every couple weeks, at the least every month. Why? It all comes down to the fact that the search engines love fresh, quality content, and the same applies to writing.

Even if when you first build your site you have a great deal of material, it is better to upload pages gradually - the search engines will recognize this as the addition of fresh content.

The top website building software allows you to put your content up at one time, but schedule the release date of each page! A great tool.

If a potential client goes to your website and sees that it hasn't been updated in a long time, then that client will start to wonder, "What has this person been doing? Are they still up to the work or have they become complacent?" What you want that potential client to think every time that they visit your site is that you are a hard-worker who is continually producing quality material.

In going about your site update, there a several important things to keep in mind.

First of all, if your work gets accepted for publication, make sure to mention it. Once you have confirmation from the publisher, put it up there, even if you don't have a fixed date.

Secondly, be sure to update your writing samples. If your work is based on timely events, don't have samples dealing with events that happened a year or two ago, try to keep it as up to date as possible. Of course, if that older work netted you some sort of prize or award, the time restriction doesn't apply. In fact, work of yours that has won recognition should be highlighted on the first page of the website.

One last thing, if you are devoted to keeping your site up to date, that will keep you writing material even during slow periods. This will keep your skills sharp and that is always a good thing.