If you are reading this blog post, I am willing to guess these two things are true about you:
- You love writing and…
- You need a website to display your services and portfolio.
Does that sound about right? Well, in this post we will go over the step-by-step process of how you, a writer, can build your own website (Or hire a professional to do so for you).
Decide What Writing Services You are Selling
A clear offer suite is the most important piece of the puzzle when crafting a successful website. There is no point in building out your website if you aren’t sure about what you will be selling. Think about it. If you aren’t sure, the people visiting your website really won’t be sure. Narrow down what services you will be promoting as a writer and who you will be selling them to. If you try selling everything to everyone, your offer won’t resonate with anyone. I typically recommend having 2-4 offers available to visitors on your website. If you start including more offers, your visitor will become confused with the options available to them. It is best to keep it simple on your site, and you can always provide add-on options once you already have them sold.
Write Your Website Copy
Now that you have your services mapped out, you can start typing up the copy for your website. This is where your copywriting skills are going to come into play, so I won’t give you too much guidance in this area. You already know what to do. I recommend creating the copy for all of your website pages before you get started with the design. This will ensure that you include all of the big selling points in your copy and you can structure the design around it to highlight the most important parts. It will also help speed up the design process when you start building out your writer’s website.
Collect Pictures for Your Website
After your copy is written, start gathering the pictures for your website. The pictures you use on your website play a major role when it comes to the overall look and feel of your site. You want to make sure they are high-quality, branded photos. Gather a variety of picture types, some including you smiling at the camera and others being close-ups of hands and computers at work. The more options you give yourself, the easier it will be once you start designing. (Pro-tip: Including videos in your design is a quick and simple way to make your website look more professional)
Solidify Your Brand Colors
Now that you have your copy and pictures, it’s time to solidify your brand colors. If you already have your brand colors, you can skip this step. If not, try selecting two main colors along with 3-4 accent colors to create some visual interest. One easy way to develop a color palette is to visit Pinterest and create a board with color combinations you like. Then, you can take these pins into Canva or Adobe to make a mood board. From your mood board, you can start pulling out the more prevalent colors to create your brand color palette. Click here if you want to see our Color Palette inspiration board on Pinterest.
Decide if You Want to Hire a Professional Website Designer or DIY your Website
With prep work out of the way, it’s time to get started on your actual website. Do you want to build it out yourself? Or would you prefer hiring a designer to take your ideas and build them out for you?
DIY Website Route
If you are wanting to build your own website, there are two options. A great option to look into is purchasing a website template. When you purchase a template, it allows you to create a professional-looking website in a quarter of the time it would take you to sit and learn how to use the website-building platform all by yourself.
With website templates, you can take your content and add it to the template to create a completely custom-looking website for your business that highlights your unique selling points.
Below I have linked a few of our favorite website templates made specifically for writer’s website
Hire a Professional Website Designer
If you don’t want to build your own website, you can hire a professional website designer to make it for you. You can hand off the content you have already prepared and let them do the work from there. If you are interested in working with a website design agency to bring your writer’s website to life, we would love to work with you on your project! Send us an email at honey@honeywavecreative.com to tell us more about your project and get started!
Now it’s time to make the Website magic happen!
Creating a writer’s website for your business can be an intimidating task when you are getting started, but it is extremely manageable when you break it down into the smaller pieces mentioned above. Whether you decide to go the DIY template route or hire someone to take the task off your plate completely, the result will be a beautiful website that you can start using to boost revenue and attract more of your ideal clients. There truly isn’t anything like the boosted confidence that comes from knowing you have a professional online home where you can start sending potential clients.
If you have any more questions about building out your writer’s website, we would love to hear them! Drop your questions below in the comment area.
Upwards and Onwards,
Bailey Thibodeaux
Founder of Honeywave Creative
