Thanks for your support.

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I am looking forward to a year of creating more user-friendly and economical websites for local businesses and authors.

I am also looking forward to the pandemic coming to an end so business can return to normal.

I hope your business and writing prosper this year.

Graham Clements.

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It’s been a tough year for most of us, with Covid being a real drag on business. But I hope you, like me, can put it aside and have a good break and enjoy getting together with family and friends.

So merry Christmas.

I am also looking forward to a better year next year, so happy new year to you all.

My business will be closed from the 25th and reopen on the 29th of December.

Graham Clements.

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It has been a very challenging year. I launched the business on March 19 2019 and about a week later Victoria was shutdown due to COVID19. My original marketing plan of visiting businesses then had to be changed. I had to rely more on Google for business but it took a lot longer than normal to get my business registered with them due to disruptions to their workforce caused by the virus.

When I finally got my listing in Google Business, and did a bit of advertising, the work began to build up.

I have been on a very steep learning curve. I have learnt a lot, and worked some long hours.

I am looking forward to a second year that builds further on the steps I took in the first year.

Graham Clements.

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Advantages of Having an Author Website

When asked about the advantages of having an author website, they said a website:

• Is a point of contact where readers can find you (6)
• Is a place to sell books (6)
• Can be used for marketing and advertising (5)
• Is a place where readers can get to know the author (4)
• Helps authors control the information given out to the public (3)
• Can be used to inform readers of upcoming news and events (2).

What Should an Author’s Website do?

The survey then asked authors/writers to tick which functions they thought a website should have:

• Advertise their latest releases (21)
• Inform readers who the author is and what they write (19)
• Include links to where readers can buy the author’s books (18)
• Include a back catalogue of the author’s publications (18)
• List upcoming events, such as book readings and writer’s festivals, that the author will be participating in (18)
• Create a brand for the author (16)
• Direct readers to the author’s social media (15)
• Include a blog so readers can interact with the author (11)
• Include a newsletter sign-up form or subscription to a mailing list form so the author can advertise their books (11)
• Sell books directly to readers (11).

One item that should have been on that list is that a website can be a very convenient first port-of-call to which an author can direct media, an agent or a publisher.

Essential Functions of an Author Website

Based on the author’s responses,  a website should be/include:

• A place for readers to find out who an author is and what they write
• Updatable so it can advertise an author’s latest release
• Show what books an author has for sale (half the authors wanted an e-commerce site that sells directly to the customer, and most of the rest just wanted links to where a reader could buy the books)
• List upcoming events an author is involved in (for some, this could take the form of a blog)
• Links to social media.

A Basic Author Website

Based on the author’s responses, a basic author website must do/contain the following:

• Tell a reader who the author is and their writing genre (it is incredible how many author websites don’t immediately inform, through image, text or style, what genre the author writes)
• List the author’s books and have links to where they can be bought
• Be easily updated to plug the author’s latest release (probably on the homepage).
• A news section that is easily updated with the latest author news (this could take the form of a blog that details upcoming events)
• Contact details for customers, as well as the media, agents or publishers
• Links to social media.

A More Complex Author Website

• If an author wants to avoid paying Amazon and iBooks a commission, or they want to make it easier for the customer, they could choose to sell directly from their website.
• If an author enjoys blogging and interacting with readers, a blog could be included (new content like blog posts help with SEO)
• I would also suggest authors have a newsletter or a subscription form so readers can be emailed information about new releases or upcoming events.

If you can think of any other functions that should be included on an author’s website, please leave them in the comments section.

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Since starting my business, I have been surprised by the amount of spam and attempted scams I have received.

Domain Registration Rip-off

The rip-offs and scams started straight after I registered my business when I received a letter from www.registry.com.au offering me a domain name for my business at the bargain price of $99. This organisation obviously relies on a new business owner not knowing that domain name registration costs only about $15 and is usually free when you sign up with a website hosting service.

Designer Spam

When I signed up with a hosting service for my website, I immediately received several phone calls and emails from website designers wanting to design my website. They hadn’t bothered to check out my website and see I was a website designer and then conclude that I would not want a website designed by someone else. When told I was a web designer, the more alert caller would immediately go into a spiel about the possibility of me contacting work out to them.

Contact/Product Review Spammers

A few of the websites I have constructed have contact forms that spammers use if I don’t put Captcha on them. I also construct e-commerce sites that often allow customers to comment on or review individual products; again, spammers use them.

Merchant Credit Card Scam

Just recently, I received an email from a potential client who said they were hard of hearing. They wanted to discuss the project only via email rather than Zoom or over the phone.

They said they wanted an ecommerce fashion website. They told me the products they were selling and they wanted customers to be able to buy them in different sizes and colours. After prompting, they gave me the URL of a fashion website they liked. I spent a few hours creating an example website based on that website. I then sent an email asking what they thought of the example with an initial quote of the cost.

She (?) emailed me back, saying she wanted to pay me immediately in full. This surprised as I had told her I operate on a 50% deposit and then 50% on completion basis. She said she only had a credit card and wanted to pay with that. I sent back an email saying PayPal accepts credit cards, so she could use them to pay me. She replied that she didn’t want to use PayPal or Square because they had ripped her off. She wanted me to set up a merchant credit card account.

I was starting to become suspicious. I ran a search on her gmail address and found nothing on the web. She had a rather unique name, so unique that when I searched on Google and Facebook it did not come up at all.

More in interest than anything else, I rang the banks about setting up a merchant credit card account. The banks thought my client’s behaviour was very suspicious. They told me merchant credit card facilities can be defrauded with stolen credit cards.  Is this what the client was up to? One bank suggested setting up a BPay account.

Just in case the client had just set up their email account, used a pseudonym online, were hard of hearing, and genuinely did not trust PayPal, I sent them an email. I said my business’ bank did not have merchant credit card accounts (which they didn’t) and suggested we use BPay. I also asked for more details about her business. It has been a week, and I haven’t heard back from them. I am still wondering how they planned to use the merchant credit card system to rip me off.

Refund Scam

Finally, last week I received a badly written message from a contact form on one of my example e-commerce websites. A person said they had paid for an unnamed product and not received it. They wanted their money back. The product was meant to be a birthday gift for their wife. As the site was not capable of accepting payments they could not have paid for it.

I am sure my business will be subject to more spam, attempted scams and rip-offs. I wish no one would fall for these scams so the scammers would give up and stop wasting our time.  As for spammers, at least do some research before you spam to see if someone could actually need your service. And don’t use the review sections of products and contact forms on websites because it just annoys people and gives you no chance of a positive response to your spam.

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