Electric Guava Designs

Web Designer

Lori Kats

Several months ago on a walk with a friend I said was dreading the next step in seeking representation for my memoir—the author website. I could imagine hours of frustration trying to become tech-savvy and yet there it was needing to be done.

“Would you try to fix your car given your skillset?” she asked, as comforting as this no-nonsense person can be. I got the message and set out to find such a person with “make a website” on her resume.

When Lori Kats was recommended and I sent her an email her reply was what I needed. She suggested a phone call of about forty-five minutes, time to even talk about colors, fonts, look and feel—music to my ears! She followed our agreement to work together with the suggestion to search the web for author websites and see what I liked.

I am guessing that over the next week I looked at 50 and sent Lori a few samples that “sort of felt like me.” I still didn’t know what that was exactly but did not want my site to be too serious or too frivolous—Me! I wanted to welcome visitors while making my Google search rankings soar. Can you tell by that last bit that I still don’t have the jargon down?

Over the next two months—we were both thinking 30 days but we both have lives off the web—we had a few Zoom meetings to work out the kinks and details. I learned so much from Lori in the process. She was kind, remained non-geeky, and by the time we wrapped our partnership up, we were friends. Just like I hoped it would turn out.

Here are some key things to think about when designing your website:

• This will be your brand so make sure it’s transportable – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
• Keep it updated – a dead website is well, dead
• Give visitors something to come back to – new postings, features, events
• Thank subscribers with a download “gift” that reflects your website’s ideas and interests

All of this to say—wonderful can happen when you join forces with the right person. I wish any of you stewing over a website to just do it—but with someone who will work with you long enough to help you define and realize who you are. Here’s Lori’s information in case you’re at that stage in your writing or any other life.