One of the first pieces of advice new authors get is to create a website. Our websites are our homes on the internet, a space we control and can use to promote ourselves and our work (unlike social media, over which we have little control–ask anyone who spent years building a following on the Site Formerly Known as Twitter only to see engagement plummet under He Who Must Not Be Named). But what makes an author website great? One way to answer that question is to provide examples of great websites and talk about what makes them work well–and that’s exactly what I’m going to do in this post. But first: this post is part of the Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG) blog hop. On the first Wednesday of every month, we IWSG-ers share our doubts, fears, struggles, and triumphs. Our awesome co-hosts this month are SE White, Victoria Marie Lees, Cathrina Constantine–and me! I’m so excited to be co-hosting IWSG for the 4th time. If I keep co-hosting, I’m going to become as insufferable as Alec Baldwin talking about the number of times he’s hosted SNL (17 in case you’re wondering). If you’re new here, check out my first two co-host posts (here and here) for an introduction to my crazy little corner of the interwebs, affectionately (and accurately) known as Camp WTF. Each month our Fearless Leader (Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh) gives us an optional question to answer. This month’s question: What turns you off when visiting an author’s website/blog? Lack of information? A drone of negativity? Little mention of author’s books? Constant mention of books? I’m going to spend most of this post talking about what I like in author websites, because I’d rather take a positive approach, but I’ll go ahead and answer the question first. My author website turn-offs First, I want to be clear about a couple of things: Not everyone has design skills, technical skills, or a big budget (My tech skills are OK, but I have zero design skills and a limited budget). Fortunately, there are some good options for folks like that–free WordPress themes and sites like Wix that make it easy to design a simple yet attractive website. I will never criticize someone for making do with what they have. Now, about those turn-offs: What I love to see in author websites All right, that’s enough negativity. Here’s what makes an author website work for me: Examples of great author websites I’ve always found examples to be the most effective teaching tools, so let’s look at some great author websites. Some of these sites inspired me when I was redesigning my own site. Fancy, professional designs from established authors If you’re a big-name author–or just have a big-name budget– you can do some cool things. Here are a couple of sites from famous authors that work really well. Simple designs from established authors You could create sites like these using DIY templates or fairly simple WordPress themes. If you lack design or tech skills, you might have to hire someone, but you won’t need to take out a second mortgage to pay them. Sites from emerging and pre-published authors Building a new website? Get help from… the web! If you’re looking to create or overhaul your website, I recommend doing some online research. There are some great resources out there. Here are 2: What do you, dear reader, look for in an author website? Do you have any favorite sites to recommend as examples? The memery Even in my more serious posts, we must have memes. Me when I should be writing: And then when I do write, this happens (only WordPress is a much worse offender than Word): Is it any wonder we writers are a little strange? Speaking of which: Spoiler alert: the people in my small town have known I’m weird since I was in second grade. And they made sure I knew it too. And finally: My imaginary friends are jerks. I think I’ll go kill off a couple of them. Happy IWSG Day to all who celebrate!