Don't Panic — How to make friends with your new website.
The author of this article — Lars Clausen — serves as an author consultant at American Author Websites, and is the first person to unicycle through all 50 of the United States (www.onewheel.org)

Unlike the book you are just now publishing, this micro-ebook is not essential to you. If you're in a tidal rush to get started with your site, open your welcome email, click the activation link, use your password to start editing — and — go for it. If you run into trouble call support — 8 to 5 Pacific Standard Time on weekdays — toll free at 877-700-2519 — and press 2. They'll invite you to go read this little book.

Given that you could survive without this book, it could still be advantageous:

1. If you've never seen the back end of a website and you're not sure it's a proper thing to do.
   
   
2. If you're stalling - you've baked all the cookies you can eat - you're on the third go-round of cleaning your house — and this book could soak a bit more of your time.
   
   
3. If you want your website to help you sell more books.

TIP #1. Don't Panic.
The all time bestselling book in the universe, according to author Douglas Adams, is the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, outselling the Galactic Encyclopedia in large part because of two words inscribed on the cover: DON'T PANIC. (By the way, Douglas Adams didn't too badly with this advice -- right here on earth he managed 14 million book sales.)

"But what if I wrote my book with a pencil, and I don't know the difference between ON and OFF for my computer?"

You might consider panicking. Better, though, would be finding a friend, someone who knows that kilobyte is not a definition for a new type of eating disorder, and hardware doesn't stand for clothes that used to fit ten years ago. American Author can be that friend. American Author friends come in two flavors —free friends, and friends for hire.

Free friends is our support team — and as long as you have the will to learn, we have the patience to teach, excluding nights, weekends, and restroom breaks. Give us a try — 877-700-2519, and then press 2. Open 8 to 5, Monday to Friday, Pacific Standard Time.

Friends for hire is our custom design department, and if you like bossing someone else around, you can tell these people what to do and they'll tell you what to pay. You'll speak with Lars and he'll hook you up with a designer to get your work done just how you want it. (877-700-2519 then press 1 for the sales group, then 3 for Lars)

Don't Panic — unless you're absolutely dead set on having a monster anxiety attack — in which case, call our support team first, and we'll make sure we turn your fixable issue into a real high voltage freak of whatever duration and intensity you choose. Otherwise, most of this Internet stuff is pretty easily handled if you have a good friend — like us.

Tell me again — why did you write this book?

Before you start formatting your website text, It's time to make or make up a really good and really short answer for why you wrote your book. "I wrote my book so I wouldn't have to go bowling with my wife on Friday nights for the last eight years." While this answer is more common than you might think, it's a bit long and only really helpful if the title of your book is also, "Seven Ways to Avoid Date Night With Your Wife."

The number of authors who actually know why they wrote their book and what difference it will make for a reader is surprisingly small, which is good, because making up a catchy answer immediately puts you into the inner circle of people with a purpose. Having a purpose, having a difference you're out to make for readers is the NUMBER ONE prerequisite for having a successful website, and the NUMBER ONE way to avoid PANIC in the universe of publishing.

It should be noted that everyone in the circle of people with purpose has made up their answer out of empty space. You get into the circle when you make believe that your catchy answer makes a difference — and then it does. Being inside the circle is no more real than being outside — but it is more fun and more productive. If you're stuck on making up a meaning for why you've been writing all through this last decade — try more coffee or other strong drink.

People With Purpose
Once you're a people with purpose, life gets simple — you do the things that make a difference so you can make the difference that matters. If right now you're still feeling like you're in an algebra course without a calculator, please recall Tip #1 and revisit "Why did you write this book?"

Tutorial Example #1: WELCOME TO MY WEBSITE. Delete NOW

Notice that your new website comes with preloaded pages that include the metadata you provided to your publisher. It's a good start, but you want to rev these words up with your new purpose-driven eye. Notice especially the particularly lame line at the top of the home page — Welcome to My Website! It's the best American Author could do with generic content — but really, it practically screams with irrelevance, which is what make it useful to you — it's really easy to improve this line and you'll go to bed tonight feeling proud of your accomplishment.

"Welcome to my website" would be useful if people felt scared or somehow in danger about coming to visit your website, but almost no one feels scared when they visit a website, in fact the whole search engine industry is built around websites that are hollering for visitors, even paying big bucks for visitors.

Instead of "Welcome to My Website," you'd be better off using the most noticed line on your home page for something that really helps people. In the case our example book, "Seven Ways to Avoid Date Night With Your Wife," you might replace "Welcome to My Website" with something like:

No time left for yourself?
Or
Find your life within your marriage.
Or
Stop Bowling — Start Writing: A guide.

Here are a couple examples of what other American Author website authors are doing:

http://www.littlewhitewhys.com/

http://www.dawnkairns.com/

http://www.blackcatmountain.com/

http://www.richardjgilchristbooks.com/

http://www.tammybleck.com/

Seems simple, right? Get this concept, and you'll have a purpose, and also a much better time with your website. Every sentence -- Every line -- Every paragraph -- Every page —share your purpose — share your benefit -- show the difference you're out to make. Do this well and you might soon discover that book marketing is as fun as mall shopping (a great place to see the master marketers at play.)

Tutorial Example #2 —
"It is better to give than to receive" — format to avoid causing panic.

The subject of the modern attention span may be a huge philosophical and neurobiological question, but if you're designing a website, consider the question answered. Website visitors don't read. Website visitors scan. And even though you're not out to cause panic in website visitors, a real quick method is forcing them to read before they know why they should read. One way visitors avoid this kind of panic is to leave the website — this is not your preferred solution.

The above paragraph — sans a header line, works in this non-essential micro-mini-ebook because you've already demonstrated that you're interested enough to read this book. DO NOT ASSUME YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS WILL READ. If I were putting the above paragraph on the web it would have at least a subheading.

Format content for a short attention span:
The subject of the modern attention span may be a huge philosophical and neurobiological question, but if you're designing a website, consider the question answered. Website visitors don't read. Website visitors scan. And even though you're not out to cause panic in website visitors, a real quick method is forcing them to read before they know why they should read. One way visitors avoid this kind of panic is to leave the website — this is not your preferred solution.

See how that subheading line GIVES something to your visitor BEFORE YOU ASK anything from them. If the visitor is me I know what I'm getting into before I invest my time. So I use my time the way I WANT TO, not because poor formatting hides the content. To do an even better job on this paragraph for the web, you could try something like this.

Format content for a short attention span:
The subject of the modern attention span may be a huge philosophical and neurobiological question, but if you're designing a website, consider the question answered.

• Website visitors don't read.
  
  
• Website visitors scan.

Even though you're not out to cause panic in website visitors, a real quick method is forcing them to read before they know why they should read. One way visitors avoid this kind of panic is to leave the website — this is not your preferred solution.

Now that's helpful formatting for a website paragraph! How do you learn this?

1. Know the difference you're out to make. (See above)
   
   
2. Study other websites and look for scannability (See the Internet)
   
   a. See what works.
   
   b. See what doesn't work.
   
   
3. Do what works. Make your difference accessible to attention deficit visitors (See above)

Give formatting your best shot and don't worry about the initial result. You can come back and edit as often as you wish, making improvements for as long as you have your website.

Top ten reason this ebook is so small.

#10 See section on website visitor attention spans.

#9 Where do you think we developed our own attention spans?

#8 This book doesn't cover using an existing domain name  or buying a new domain name.

#7 There's no mention of cleaning text before adding it to your site. Clean Your Text before you add it to your site!  Here's how.

#6 American Author has great video and printable tutorials for online help. Click on HELP AND SUPPORT in your website control panel.

#5. We've got tips videos for creating an effective home page.

#4 American Author has a great library of articles that covers keywords, search engines, and many other topics. Try some of these articles.

#3 American Author is technically very easy to use.  The help and support section of your control panel is filled with videos to show you every step.

#2 American Author has a great tech support team you can call whenever you have questions. 877-700-2519

#1 We're committed to the principle — Don't Panic.

For any questions about using your website, please consult the help and support resources in your website control panel, or call our support tech team. The number is 877-700-2519, and then press 2. Staff is available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Roberta Black | roberta@robertablack.com
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